CHAPTER 332: SOMEWHAT SIMILAR SITUATIONS

"You seem to care a lot about your maids," Chester commented.

"Yes, of course. They take good care of me after all," Arabella managed to fake a smile.

"I see. No worries, I was merely wondering why she hadn’t greeted us along with the others. Perhaps, she’s new," King Chester managed to smile as well. It was clear he did not want to let Renee’s behavior slide.

"As I have said earlier, my maid is sick. As you can see, her whole body is trembling. She could barely even move. I will punish her myself once she’s feeling better."

[Oh, does she let out her frustrations on her maids? I guess she didn’t become the Dark Emperor’s Empress for nothing. This maid’s behavior - she seems like someone who had experienced getting beat up. She reminds me of Evelyn. She used to brace herself this way before I even hit her.]

"I see. I’ll leave the punishment to you then," King Chester smirked.

’Bastard! Don’t lump me in with the likes of you,’ Arabella barely managed to stop herself from glaring at King Chester. Even when she became a villainess in her past life, she never abused her maids.

"Please excuse us then," Arabella faked another smile and the King and Queen of Zygos did the same.

"Carry her," she instructed while looking at Alwin. It was for show.

Likewise, it had to be Alwin so Renee wouldn’t put up a fight. She was clearly too emotional right now to care about anything else. But maybe, being in Alwin’s arms could distract her.

Alwin quickly obeyed and scooped up Renee. He used a spell to immobilize Renee at the same time to make Arabella’s claim true that Renee couldn’t move.

Renee was wide-eyed and indeed got distracted from her angry and hateful thoughts when she realized Alwin was carrying her lover’s style.

He made it look so easy too that even Arabella wondered if he had been hiding his strength. She recalled that Ferdinand did train Alwin in fighting and swordsmanship too when he was younger. Alwin was simply focused on honing his magic skills.

Carla and the other maids were envious but were more relieved that things didn’t escalate. Renee could have been punished severely for her behavior after all.

After reaching a blind spot in the garden, Alwin teleported them back to the mansion. Arabella asked Renee to go with her to her study. They needed to speak alone.

[It’s dangerous to leave that woman with her right now. What if she’s able to use her skills? She oozed off such a dark aura earlier. She may be able to activate it unconsciously.] Alwin frowned.

’What abilities is he talking about? Renee has abilities?’ Arabella was puzzled. She wondered if Renee was a magician or something.

Alwin pretended to stay on guard outside the door with Rendell. But once Renee went into Arabella’s study, Alwin used a spell to make himself invisible, then teleported inside her study.

’I see. No wonder even though I can hear his thoughts, I cannot find where he was at times,’ Arabella did her best not to look around the room for signs of Alwin.

"Renee, not greeting royalty is among the highest forms of disrespect. It’s akin to not recognizing their sovereignty. You could have been punished severely. Why did you do that?" Arabella focused on the matter at hand.

"I-I’m sorry, Your Majesty. It’s just, I-"

Renee was still shaken from the realization that her best friend and husband set her up and killed her so they could be together.

[I thought I would do my best to forget everything and live a better life here. I tried forgetting about my previous life even when I get constantly reminded of it. I didn’t even gather news about them. Why did they have to appear in front of me like this? I would have been better off not knowing they worked together to eliminate me.]

Renee felt so betrayed and hurt since she fully believed Fatima was her friend. She did not expect such betrayal from Fatima.

Arabella could relate. She understood the feeling. She had experienced betrayal before, and Renee’s was the one she did not expect the most.

She formerly thought Renee was merely obsessed with beauty. But it seemed there was a deeper reason behind it.

Ferdinand said that Chester had married the most beautiful woman in Zygos just a month after his first wife, Evelyn, died of an accident.

Meaning, if Renee had been Evelyn in the past, she must have been constantly compared with ladies more beautiful than she was. Chester and the people around her must have compared her to Fatima and others for her to be so obsessed with beauty in this life.

[I know our marriage was merely arranged by my parents, so he didn’t love me even for a bit. But he benefitted a lot from marrying me. He gained my family’s support, so he was crowned as the king of Zygos instead of his brothers. But he abused me and forced me to abort my baby saying it was someone else’s. And it was all so he could marry Fatima?! I hate them. I hate them all!] Renee began crying due to her raging emotions.

’What?! He even forced her to abort their child?!’ Arabella was horrified.

It must have felt so terrible. Renee did not even get the chance to hold her child in her arms.

Arabella embraced her. She wouldn’t have been able to do this months ago. She had always been creeped out by Renee’s obsession with beauty. But who would have thought Renee was going through something this heavy? And all on her own.

She held Renee tightly and the latter sobbed her heart out.

Renee was a victim of her circumstances. She turned out the way she was because of what happened to her. And she was haunted by her painful past because she could remember it even after she passed on to her next life.

"I’m so sorry, Your Majesty. I just- I just," Renee said between sobs.

[I can’t stop my tears. My chest feels so heavy. It’s so hard to breathe.]

"Shh. It’s alright. You can let it all out first. You can cry as much as you want," Arabella gently stroked Renee’s hair.

. . .

[There she goes hugging her enemies.] Alwin internally grumbled.

’Have some heart,’ Arabella wanted to say. Renee hadn’t betrayed Arabella yet in this life. She hadn’t done anything against her either.

[I guess, this woman doesn’t count as one since she hasn’t done anything yet. But this is where she starts. After learning about her husband and friend’s plot, she sought for revenge. And Her Majesty’s appearance and title were just the perfect things she needed.] Alwin thought and Arabella gulped.

’What does he mean?!’

Alwin stopped thinking about it though, so Arabella didn’t get to know what he meant by it. He decided to just watch over things in the meantime and see how things would progress so he could decide what to do next.

After a while, Renee finally stopped sobbing.

"My deepest apologies, Your Majesty. I ended up ruining your clothes and wasting your time," Renee gasped when she realized she just cried as she pleased.

"It’s alright. I can just get changed later. I didn’t have anything important to do anyway. And I did tell you to just let it all out first. More importantly, what’s troubling you this much? Why won’t you tell me, so you’ll feel lighter?" Arabella encouraged Renee to talk about it.

"Uhm, it’s sort of unbelievable."

[Why is she always so kind? She will die early at this rate. Does she want to be like me?]

’I don’t. And I’m not being kind. I just want to know what happened to you.’

Arabella did feel bad for Renee and was genuinely curious. After all, they were in somewhat similar situations. She also knew what it was like to not have someone to speak with about one’s darkest secrets.

Renee probably had no one to talk with about this either.

It was better for Arabella to be that person than to let it be someone else who could make Renee feel more hopeless when no one believes her.

"It’s alright. It’s better to open up to someone than carry the burden all by yourself. I can at least listen to what you have to say," Arabella encouraged.

[Right. Even if I tell her, she probably won’t believe me. No one will. I once told people about it and they thought I was making up things or going crazy. But I did indeed feel better when I was able to tell other people about it even if they didn’t believe me.] Renee was sure Arabella wouldn’t believe it.

’I will though, because I, myself was reborn.’

And Arabella already heard about some of it from their thoughts. Though if she wasn’t reborn and couldn’t read minds, she probably would not believe it as well.