(Just what was my life all about...?)
"Hah..."
Inside the intermittently swaying carriage, the one who let out a short sigh was a woman approaching her forties.
Dressed in a black gown, she kept her face hidden behind a veil despite being the only person in the carriage.
Her name was Emerald Aiwood.
No—since she had already been divorced, perhaps she should call herself Emerald Gaiselle?
(Or perhaps Emerald Schurack? Not even knowing who I am anymore—what a joke.)
Emerald mocked herself, a faint smirk rising behind her veil.
Emerald had come to the Kingdom of Aiwood as a princess of the Gaiselle Empire. However, she was no true-born princess—originally, she had been nothing more than a young lady of minor nobility who happened to carry imperial blood.
Twenty years ago, to mark the passing of the previous King of Aiwood, known as a tyrant, and to ease the resulting tensions in the international situation... she had been adopted by the Emperor before marrying into the kingdom.
The circumstances may have been complex, but in essence, it was a political marriage.
Emerald became a secondary consort—but she had a son.
She had one.
The reason this had to be phrased in the past tense was that her son had, by now, likely already drunk from the poisoned cup.
Emerald's son's name was Rodele Aiwood.
He was the Third Prince of the Kingdom of Aiwood, and was officially regarded as the mastermind behind the recent rebellion.
Rodele had been sentenced to the poisoned cup for his crime of treason, but Emerald, who had married in from a neighboring kingdom, had gotten off with merely a divorce out of consideration for her homeland.
Even so, she was not permitted to remain in the Kingdom of Aiwood and was about to be sent back to her homeland of the Gaiselle Empire.
(I married into this kingdom for the Empire's sake, gave birth to a son... was barely even allowed to act as a mother to him, and now I'm being exiled from my homeland because of my own child's crimes... truly, what meaning did my twenty years have?)
Emerald had come to the kingdom as an imperial princess, marrying into the royal family for the sake of friendly relations between the two nations. It was a straightforward political marriage.
Perhaps it had borne some fruit, in its own way.
After all, it had brought twenty years of stability to both countries following the death of the previous king, who had been known as a tyrant.
But... that era of peace was about to come to an end.
It would be the death of the prince who was supposed to be the bridge between nations—the prince, Rodele, who carried the blood of both countries.
The signs had been there for several years. Within the Empire, factions advocating for an invasion of the kingdom had been growing in strength.
The hawks had existed even before Emerald's marriage, but the moderate emperor had aged, the flame of his life beginning to flicker, and their influence had grown far, far greater than before.
(I failed to become a bridge between the two nations. And... I failed to become a mother, too.)
Though Emerald had given birth to Rodele, she had not been involved in his upbringing in the slightest.
Rodele had been taken from her almost the moment he was born, and raised by the queen dowager.
It was not that she had felt no love for the child she had borne in pain.
But... Emerald had lacked the power, the courage, and the audacity.
She could not very well have defied the wishes of the queen dowager, who had been the highest authority in the kingdom at the time.
She had played no part in Rodele's care or his education, and had never once treated him as a mother.
(And yet... to think I would end up crying...)
Before departing the royal palace, Emerald had been given time to meet with Rodele.
Their interactions had been anything like those of a proper parent and child, and yet—upon seeing her son's face for the first time in so long, and for the last time—Emerald had been unable to hold back her tears.
She herself was surprised to discover that a mother's feelings still lingered within her.
(If only I had been involved in his upbringing... might something have changed?)
Rocked gently by the carriage, she turned such thoughts over in her mind... but they were nothing more than impossible hypotheticals.
When Rodele was born, the queen dowager's influence was immense—so much so that she even overshadowed the king himself.
Though Emerald was an imperial princess of a neighboring country, she had virtually no allies in this kingdom and stood no chance of opposing the queen dowager.
If anything, had she become entangled halfway, Emerald herself might have lost her life as a principal conspirator in the rebellion.
(This outcome was surely unavoidable… but what would be the point of returning to my homeland now? As if I had any place left to go…)
Even if she returned to the empire, Emerald would receive no welcome.
To the moderates who desired peace between the two nations, she was a failure who had not fulfilled her mission.
To the war hawks who sought conflict with the kingdom, she was hardly an intriguing figure either.
At her age, she was no longer useful as a pawn for a political marriage.
Even if she returned to her birth family, she would doubtless be treated as nothing more than a burden.
"What exactly… was my life even for?"
The words slipped from Emerald's lips as an unwitting soliloquy—only for the carriage to lurch violently a moment later, followed by the sound of furious shouts and scuffling from outside.