14. Rosa Wants to Avoid Flags (8)
“This girl, even under such circumstances, still maintained her integrity…?”
As she looked down at Rosa, her jade-colored eyes were brimming with tears.
Rosa was the first person in the royal palace who compared Dorothea to rose, saying the words she had always wanted to hear, ultimately saving her heart.
However, it turned out that the girl was carrying a burden of the past.
“She was hurt by the one who was supposed to protect her, yet still reached out to others…?”
A single droplet of tears fell.
The queen, who wore her arrogance like fur, had finally exposed her fragile heart.
Her heart, which had been encased in a thick layer of ice, began to melt and burn—all the emotions she had been suppressing rippled violently.
The queen was bedazzled by the girl sleeping peacefully in front of her, and couldn’t help but grow fond of her.
“I’m sorry… I’m truly sorry, because of me…”
She extended her arm, which was hanging limply, and pressed her hand against the girl’s forehead.
Her friendship and compassion, which the girl had risked her life for, permeated throughout Dorothea’s entire body.
“Mother…”
Leon and Chris unconsciously placed their hands on their mother’s back.
For the first time, Leon called Dorothea ‘mother,’ yet he didn’t even realize it.
“It’s not your fault that she was poisoned.”
“If Mother is going to apologize, then we are going to do the same. We misunderstood you and pushed you into such a corner. If we had gotten to know Mother’s personality sooner, things might have been different.”
They seemed to be able to accept the side of Dorothea that Rosa had uncovered rather easily.
In retrospect, even if Kamil was condemned by the queen, he had avoided capital punishment.
Even Leon was able to have a carefree childhood by being sent to the vassal country.
When Chris joined in the race for succession, she wasn’t criticized for being a woman and was able to have an accommodating educational environment.
Those around Dorothea slandered her, saying that she tried to get rid of her own son, or that she only saw her children as toys—but in reality, she was just extremely proud and clumsy.
Leon and the others naturally reached such a conclusion.
Dorothea felt the warmth of their hands and turned around in surprise.
Briefly, she grimaced, her expression contorting as she turned to look at Rosa.
“…I must repay this girl. I shall bestow upon her the friendship she so deserves. Just as you have done, I shall protect this girl… Rosa, from anything.”
It seemed that Dorothea, who shed her arrogant skin, was indeed a person with a sense of duty.
“For starts, I’ll give her the Queen’s Cup as soon as she wakes up. I may be vile, but I’m still the queen. She might benefit from my support. So, in order to educate her as the candidate for the future queen, I’ll summon her to my villa five times a week.”
As expected of the mother of Leon and Chris, Dorothea had strong attachment to people she had taken under her wing.
She spun around to look at Leon, placing her hand on his shoulders with a serious look on her face.
“If I may be honest, I don’t approve of placing the woman you love under house arrest, Leon. Instead, you should secretly make preparations and seal her exit route before she notices anything amiss.”
…What was unexpected was how obsessed Dorothea had become.
She had succumbed to the sweetness of Rosa’s friendship, which she hadn’t experienced in a long time, and was trying to adopt Rosa as soon as possible.
“W-wait a second—!”
Anton rushed to interject.
Up until that point, he was speechless, astonished at how Rosa was becoming more and more divine.
After all, in his mind, Rosa was a bold girl who was also rotten to the core.
At the same time, he was thrown for a loop.
‘Abused’??? ‘Still reached out despite that’???
As far as Anton recalled, there was no such history.
While I understand that men flock to her, I never expected that she would be so glorified.
—Also, abused? Terrified of men? Excited, sure, but terrified???
Anton had a bad feeling.
As much as he wanted to shake Rosa awake and interrogate her, Anton decided to focus on averting the crisis at hand.
Anyway, at this rate, Rosa will really be captured by the royal family.
It wouldn’t bode well for Anton in the slightest.
“Everyone, please calm down for a moment. Can you reconsider recommending her as the crown princess? Certainly, Rosa’s situation is painful, but she did what she did out of her own accord. Her reason may not be as compelling as you think.”
It was indeed the fact, but the words of Anton, the only one who knew the truth, incited backlash from his surroundings.
“Father Anthon, why would you say that? Isn’t Rosa’s devotion obvious to everyone!?”
“From my perspective, she’s definitely the right candidate to be crown princess.”
“If we keep her out of sight, we won’t know what kind of crisis she will attract next. We must give her a title and backing as soon as possible, and guard her tightly.”
Chris, Dorothea, and Leon showed off their harmonious cooperation as a family.
Anton continued to persuade them calmly, his face twitching the entire time.
“But is it truly wise to drink tea that you know is poisoned? While self-sacrifice is a virtue in the Bible, if she were to become a member of the royal family, she ought to develop critical thinking. Or would you praise her every time she encounters a problem and almost dies when she becomes the crown princess?”
“That’s…”
“As a healer, I feel like scolding her. ‘Don’t be silly, you fool.’”
Ladu muttered to himself while the three royals were at a loss for words.
Of course, Ladu didn’t find it amusing that Rosa ended up becoming Leon’s fiancée candidate.
There was a division there.
Anton quickly figured out that ‘Rosa’s safety’ was the keyword, and skillfully involved Ladu in an attempt to avoid the engagement flag.
“I agree with you, Healer. Trying to make Rosa a fiancée candidate at this moment is really dangerous in regards to her safety. Even if the pages were revealed to be the culprits, their motives have not yet been revealed. If there was someone pulling the strings behind them, they might consider Rosa’s Eye of Truth as a threat and target her next.”
Anton knew that Rosa’s purple eyes were just corrupt and that she couldn’t see into anything.
However, at this point, he instinctively thought that he should at least lift Rosa up and separate her from the royal gang.
If Rosa, clueless as she was, continued to stay in the royal palace, she would soon be forced to drink from the Queen’s Cup and be placed under house arrest in the queen’s palace.
Then, in a few months, she’d become the prince’s fiancée.
Afterwards, while men were vying for Rosa’s affection, Anton’s identity would be discovered, and he’d be banished to that squalid monastery.
I want to avoid that at all costs…!
Therefore, Anton took full advantage of his priestly face, and declared firmly.
“Rather than someone who willingly drinks poison, someone who can see through the ruse and bring the villain to justice is more suited to become the crown princess. Furthermore, if you truly care about Rosa, you should evacuate her to a safe place rather than leave her alone. Therefore—”
Giving priority to escaping from this place, Anton went on.
“—what you need to do right now isn’t make Rosa drink the Queen’s Cup, but get her away from the dangerous royal palace as soon as possible.”
Little did he know, it would ignite a spark, which would eventually blow up his ass.
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