BXBX NOVEL Chapter 117 No Consolation Prize!
"Uhhh.." Empress Carolina weakly groaned in pain as her temples throbbed in extreme pain.
She blinked a few times as she tried to see something with her blurry vision. But she could only see a silhouette of a person looking at her downward.
"Mother! Mother!" Kazimir\'s worried voice rang through her ears.
"Medic! My mother is awake." He called out as she heard him in a desperate and cracking tone.
"K-kazimir... Where am I? What happened?" She said as she massaged her forehead trying to ease her splitting headache.
"Mother! Oh thank goodness you woke up!"
Finally seeing his mother opening her eyes after staying unconscious for about a few minutes, Kazimir\'s blue eyes glistened with relief as he exclaimed.
"We are in the temple\'s infirmary. You suddenly collapsed in the middle of the cleansing rites. Father had you sent here and I accompanied you to check your condition!"
"Mother, tell me, is your health all right? Have you been feeling unwell lately? How do you feel right now? " A barrage of questions were directed at her by Kazimir.
This son of hers, he was already in his thirties, a full grown man and a father of one, yet he was still acting dependently upon her like this.
A part of herself felt helpless as she wondered if Kazimir could carry himself by the time he ascended on the throne. A part of her was touched that he puts her in his heart first more than anyone.
"No, I always maintained a good diet and healthy lifestyle. I am sure that my body is not suffering any problems. I have no clue why this happened either."
She replied with her weak and quivering voice, as she struggled to force out these words while realizing that her throat had been parched like the driest desert in the entire Prasinos.
"Empress.." The medic on duty immediately attended to Kazimir\'s call and greeted her. "May I ask your permission to check your condition?"
"Yes.." She replied with great pain.
Although she could identify that she was with Kazimir, her vision was still blurry and she resorted to closing her eyes in deep frown because she felt that the more she tried to use her eyes, the more painful her headache would be.
Kazimir immediately made way to the medic and watched as his mother was being checked. He saw that the medic had a deep frown on her head as she continued to examine the pulse of his Mother Empress.
"What\'s the matter?" Kazimir asked in worry.
"Your Highness, Her Majesty… her condition is not good. I am afraid that no one in the temple could fully examine her condition, especially considering her distinguished status. With my authority and ability, I couldn\'t perform a more extensive examination, much less know what was the cause of her sudden collapse. I plead pardon for my incompetence!"
The medic dared not to diagnose the Empress just by merely checking her pulse.
If she was actually inspecting a person with a status other than being a member of the Imperial Family she could have the liberty to perform other examinations to fully assess what\'s wrong with her body.
However, Carolina was the Empress of the Empire, and her medical condition was deemed a national secret, only the emperor could give the permission for the officials to announce them in a formal way.
"There\'s no need. I understand. Arrange us a closed carriage for Her Majesty, My Empress Mother, to be sent back to the palace. Also, inform my Father Emperor that we need to go back for her to be thoroughly checked by the Imperial Doctors."
Kazimir did not let his Mother Empress speak anymore.
He didn\'t care about creating chaos for the wretched mother and son either. What was more important in his heart was her mother\'s condition.
So even though he could see the trace of unwillingness in the beautiful amethyst eyes of his mother, he decisively gave up those schemes and prioritized the situation at hand.
"Your Highness, First Prince, permission to speak." The knight assigned by Emperor Valentin to assist them respectfully interjected with great caution.
"Speak!" Kazimir replied.
He felt bitter in his heart that the Emperor could only send a knight in behalf of himself even after witnessing his mother collapse in front of everyone.
His Mother Empress is his spouse, does he have to be so cold hearted not to set his duties aside to be by her side?
"His Majesty Emperor has already mandated me to contact the Imperial medical department earlier. In a few minutes an appropriate carriage would arrive to fetch Her majesty straight to the palace for check up. I also had them assign the best medical team to wait on Her Majesty\'s place to attend to you as soon as you arrive." The knight calmly relayed everything with a neutral expression, he seemed to be void of emotions as he stood dignifiedly.
When Kazimir heard his Father Emperor\'s arrangement, the resentment in his heart softened a little. At least his father still took the matters ahead to give his Mother Empress the best and most deserved arrangement for her venerable status.
"Then will do it as His Majesty, Father Emperor arranged." He said in a less tense way.
Empress Carolina heard everything and couldn\'t help but clench her fist in unwillingness. She initially went here because of two reasons.
First was to advance in the war of the throne by getting more information about the subject of the oracle and get him or her under their force.
Second was to bring down her most hated enemies, Tehila and Leon, once and for all.
But because of this sudden situation, she had lost the chance to do these things! Since she collapsed, it was deemed that this trip was all in vain.
When she heard Kazimir asking the temple medic to inform the Emperor, she hoped that Valentin could at least show some concern and affection for her as a consolation prize.
However, who could have known that the moment she collapsed, Emperor Valentin had already moved so fast, so as to arrange everything without him needing to directly take action!
She felt bitter in her heart, she didn\'t even get the consolation prize from all these mishaps!
As she grieved inwardly of this unfortunate outcome, she felt another overbearing wave of pain creeping on her entire body.
"Urggg!" She cursed Tehila in her heart.
Why was she the one suffering today when clearly she had laid everything for Tehila, including her grave?
Can\'t she just deliver herself straight to the pit she painstakingly dug for her?
Why is she the one laying in the bed suffering from this unbearable torture?
Why?
The more she cursed in her heart, the more intense was the pain she was feeling all over her body. She didn\'t know how long she was holding on until she once again lost her consciousness from being unable to tolerate such level of pain.
Hence, on the festive day of the Imperial Family\'s temple visitation, the citizens never knew that not long after the Imperial family stepped inside the temple, the Empress of the Seirende Empire was forced to go home unconscious and extremely weak.
Meanwhile on the inner courts, the Emperor was already in a meeting with the high priest and the rest of the members of the Imperial Family took the liberty to look around with their assigned temple servants.
Queen Lucia and Queen Tehila visited the convent where the female temple servants stayed to observe and check if there were any donations or needs that could be provided for the temple.
Since they were the reigning queens in the Empire, it was their task to inspect and gather the needs of the inhabitants of the Empire, including the temple. Thus they were not actually restricted to visit the temple servant\'s living quarters.
With Queen Lucia\'s quite detached expression, Queen Tehila was the one who interacted more with the people. In turn, she let Queen Lucia decide for the best arrangement in front of the people around. One was a people person, the other was silent but wise.
They complemented each other, although not to the point of being friendly, but to an extent where their subjects couldn\'t help but be amazed at how remarkable their characters as the Emperor\'s spouses were.
Antoine, on the other hand, was more interested in the temple\'s museum. He personally loved arts and culture, that was why most of the properties he preferred as presents were wineries, art pieces and historical artifacts.
When he finally heard his father allowing them to freely explore, he immediately asked his assigned temple servant if he could be allowed to visit the museum. Fortunately, the temple servant informed him that he could, and he happily followed the servant without a care.
Leon was also roaming around the garden with a temple servant obediently following behind him at a comfortable distance.
He roamed around in the garden aimlessly until he reached a secluded place.
After ensuring that there was not even one person roaming around, he turned towards the temple servant following close behind him.
"Report." He calmly uttered.
"Julian, reports to the wielder of the blade." Surprisingly, the \'temple servant\' replied with a tone of extreme respect.