I Won't Accept Your Regrets

Chapter 151

"Your Majesty, have you managed to achieve anything? Everything is fine?"

As soon as we descended the mountain, Helen hurried to me with questions.

"I'm fine, Helen."

She breathed a sigh of relief.

"Looks like the sun will set soon. The mountain road is dangerous at night, it would be good for us to hurry."

"Yeah. Oh, I need to tell you something before this. I have been informed that His Majesty and the Crown Prince have left the Imperial Palace to go to the night market."

"Night market?"

Why is it suddenly such a suddenness?

The answer came from Jeremy.

"The summer holiday is approaching. The night market will only be open for three days."

I had completely forgotten that it was soon summer.

The empire thundered festivals and fairs were held whenever the seasons changed.

Summer was just around the corner.

I lived day after harvest, not noticing how time flies past me.

"Your Majesty the Empress, shall we return to the palace?"

"Let's go to the night market."

Throwing that to Helen, I looked around, but I couldn't see Duke's carriage anywhere.

"I somehow did not notice the carriage of the House of Drua, or at least the horse... Are you going on foot?

"I'm going to spend the night at Raker's hut."

"Everything will be good?"

Raker's venomous stare crossed my mind at that moment.

Raker was uncomfortable with my appearance.

Besides, he must have been very angry with Jeremy because he brought me in.

Jeremy smiled as usual, pretending that he was okay.

"Do not worry. If it doesn't work out, I'll sleep in his stable. And although he is a hermit, he will not leave his friend to sleep in the open."

"Well, if so... I'd better go."

"Yeah. The night is approaching. Be careful, your majesty."

I smiled and got into the carriage with Helen.

When I left the mountains and arrived at the gates of the capital, the sky was already dark.

Night fell, and the colorful lights of the night market lit up the square. Since it is a night market held as a festival, there were many street vendors as well as all kinds of troupes and magicians.

The carriage stopped aside, I changed my appearance, and went out to the square with Helen.

"His Majesty must have taken action as well."

Since this is a place where many people gather, black hair and black eyes, symbols of the royal family, could not be revealed.

"There are more people here than I thought. So it won't be easy to find them."

Helen was confused by the crowd.

"Oh yeah?"

I immediately saw a man who stood out from afar.

A man with brown hair was common. But his graceful appearance is not.

Of course it was Raymond.

"His Majesty is over there."

Helen also pointed in the direction of Raymond, as if she had found him right away.

He was there among the street vendors.

We hurried through the crowd of musicians in the square.

However, as I got closer, I gradually slowed down as the picture ahead became clearer.

"Is this His Majesty?"

Helen, too, found what she saw strange and turned to me.

I glanced at Raymond and Carlisle, who were twenty feet away from me.

The two laugh as they look at the dolls in the kiosk.

Carlisle told Raymond his preferences, and Raymond gently stroked Carlisle on the head.

The doll moved into the hands of Carlisle, and his face showed excitement.

Raymond hugged Carlisle and showed a happy and carefree smile.

Is this all in reality?

Carlisle occasionally resembled Raymond in detail, but I had never seen such an identity between them before.

These two, even smiling, looked like befitting father and son, as if they had stepped out of the picture.

Just like what I dreamed of a long time ago.

"His Majesty and the Crown Prince are very close," Helen said, noticing the same thing as me.

"How is it in general..."

"Your Majesty, are you all right?"

I couldn't say that everything was all right.

Even though I wanted Carlisle and Raymond to be close. I even specifically set aside time for this in the schedule.

But why do I feel this way?

I had nothing to complain about. But still I am in turmoil.

I was uncomfortable, because Raymond's friendly appearance kept catching my eye every now and then.

Like a small crack on perfectly flat ice.

Memories of the past and emotions came back to my mind again.

"Your Majesty..."

Helen called out to me in concern.

Raymond's gaze went to me just as I was stuck inside my weary head.

He looked me over and recognized.

His smile vanished, and I noticed how his eyes widened in surprise.

I walked towards them, still hesitating.

"Your led... this, Ellie."

Raymond called me by name, thinking of the crowd around us.

"How did you get here?"

"I warned the servants. If Carlisle goes somewhere, that it was reported to me."

"Mom! They gave me a teddy bear!"

Carlisle, still in Raymond's arms, triumphantly showed me the teddy bear.

The material was not very good, like other things on the market.

However, Carlisle was in seventh heaven.

"Yes, beautiful. You said thank you for such a cute teddy bear, right?"

"Aha! I said thank you to my dad!"

The word is daddy "so naturally flies from the lips of Carlisle. My forced smile twitched slightly.

What's so strange about Raymond being his father? That was the fact.

Raymond is a father, I am a mother.

It is natural.

But why...

Carlisle always called Raymond 'His Majesty'.

It seemed that I had advised him to draw such a line, without noticing it myself.

Now everything was very strange.

Raymond spoke up, wondering what was wrong with my reaction.

"Before coming to the night market, I told him to call me dad. If you name me here as befits... It will attract attention to us. However, besides 'father', there was no other title that I would wear."

It seems that he misinterpreted my embarrassment.

"No explanation needed. Dad should be called dad."

"Good," he replied, embarrassed. Then he looked at me for a while in silence.

"May I ask where you have been?"

"Oh, today I met someone who could be Carlisle's mentor."

"This is the mentor... The one you mentioned last time?"

"Yeah."

Two days ago, I started talking about Raker over dinner.

"I heard such a person is difficult to meet. It's interesting how you got to him. Is he in the empire?"

"Duke Drua helped me."

"Duke Drua?"

"Duke was a friend... With Duke's help, I was able to meet with Raker."

I knew Raymond hated Jeremy, so I even considered dodging the answer. But it is better to honestly give him everything, otherwise it will become even worse if the emperor finds out about the meeting through someone else's lips.

"It gets on my nerves..."

"What?"

I saw Raymond wince and wince, but I didn't hear what was said.

"No matter. I am glad that you were able to meet the sage. So what is the outcome?"

"He has not yet given a definite answer... Although it looks like there is a possibility."

"It's great that we managed to convince him."

He was very surprised.

This is clear, since Raymond knew how much Raker hated the Egrit Empire.

After all, he did not even give a reaction to the handwritten letter of the emperor.

"There hasn't been a definite answer yet. He could have refused."

"Already success, that he will think about it. No one in the empire could convince him before."

Raymond was delighted.

"It would be great if Raker agreed. It's not even just Carlisle. This will be of great help to the whole empire."

It was very gratifying to watch his voice rise slightly with anticipation.

I didn't know you were so worried about it.

"I hope that everything will be so. But don't you think Carlisle shouldn't be kept like that? It's not the same age. He himself is taught to walk."

"But... my ankle hurts."

"You're okay."

"No. I can't go now!"

Carlisle doesn't really have a leg pain.

Just by looking at my child's face, I could tell if he was lying or telling the truth. Now Carlisle's job was to cover up for Raymond.

This is harmless stupidity, since he is still small, but if he gets into the habit, this will affect the image of the prince.

"Carlisle, come down."

"Ah..."

But then Carlisle's face lit up with light, and he stared somewhere to the side.

Then he put his index finger into the void.

"Mom, dad, do the same!"

I turned in that direction and saw a certain couple, a man and a woman, who were playing with a child.

Mom and Dad held the child by the hands between themselves and played, as if they were rolling him on a swing.

The child laughed happily as his feet lifted off the ground.

It doesn't look very complicated.

The problem here is I have to do this with Raymond.

Mom and Dad had to stand close to lift the child by the hands together.

And their well-coordinated movements looked very cute.

Such a phrase as "well-coordinated movements." They don't suit Raymond and me very well, do they?

"Mom! Come here, please!"

"Um?"

After watching a happy family of three people, I felt that someone was grabbing my hand. Contrary to my reluctance, Carlisle was already at the ready.

Carlisle grabbed Raymond's arm and laughed at me. Looking up, I saw the confusion on Raymond's face.

He also seemed embarrassed by such a surprise.

"Oh, this is..."

"It's not a difficult request, so why don't we do it," I said to Raymond as he was about to take his hand away.

"Yes?"

"When can I still play with him, if not in childhood? It will be a pleasant memory for Carlisle."

At that moment I was thinking only of Carlisle.

Only about Carlisle...

"Well, so be it."

I decided not to think about anything else and held Carlisle's hand tightly. The three of us got up and got down to business.

"On the count of three?"

"Good."

One two three.

He counted quietly, and Carlisle's body flew into the air.

"So funny!"

As Carlisle chuckled happily, a smile spread across my lips.

Raymond also smiled softly at Carlisle.

It's been a long time since I saw his smile.

At that moment, I felt a surge of strange emotions.

Carlisle... At this point, I'm just smiling because of Carlisle's jokes, yeah.

Now I have nowhere to go, and I do my best to put aside difficult emotions.

And then I realized that my gaze did not leave the happy face of Raymond, whom I had not seen for so long.