NOBLEMAN ADVENTURER

Lady Bromwell's Fall (5)

The following day, after I returned from the royal court, I heard that Lady Bromwell had committed suicide. She had taken poison. Her chief lady-in-waiting said Lady Bromwell could not take the blow from her child's death, and the disappointment she caused His Majesty, thus she took her own life.

I heard His Majesty was grief-stricken and had fallen ill. A sense of helplessness rose in my heart. Although I wanted to take revenge on her for her evil deeds, but hearing of a person's death clearly made me sad.

On further thought, everyone eventually had to die one day. I pushed away the sadness and focused on selecting goods from the Sand Kingdom to send to Princess Raine and the ladies-in-waiting.

I carefully inspected each item and then, choosing the prettiest and best crafted items for Princess Raine. Next, the items had to be sent to the ladies-in-waiting based upon their status. When I had everything sorted, I asked Lord Crohn's secretary to send it into the palace.

The following day, I received thank you letters from Princes Raine and several ladies-in-waiting. In some of the letters, the ladies-in-waiting requested a trade. They wanted to purchase some of my exquisite wares to gift to others. This was very agreeable to me.

Once word spread about my wares, I wouldn't have to find buyers. The buyers would come to me.

Despite her rocky status in the royal palace, the king still ordered a national three-day mourning period for Lady Bromwell. She was to be interred in the Bromwell family cemetery, as she had done enough wrong to the princess. And it would not be wise to bury Lady Bromwell in the same place Lady Klein had been interred.

Some people argued she should have been buried next to her son, but the king did not wish to do this for the monastery would not agree to have a sinner rest eternally among the good souls.

Raine and I exchanged letters on a daily basis. She was unaffected by the Lady Bromwell's death. Besides being required to wear black during the mourning period, she had no other restrictions.

The letters we exchanged were centered on Raine's daily life and what she needed to survive the royal palace. Through Raine's confidence, I learned Raine did not like any of her ladies-in-waiting, as they outwardly were nice to her, but inwardly sneered at her upbringing outside of the royal palace.

Among them, they even spread rumors about Raine's mother, Lady Klein. It was said Lady Klein had only used her friends. And only someone equally villainous like Lady Bromwell could continue to be friends with Lady Klein. As for me, although I couldn't believe all the rumors, but I also felt any woman able to climb into the king's bed could not be ignorant at scheming. The words may sound harsh, but when all women were competing for the king's favor, only those who did not know how to carve their own path would fail.

In my letters to Raine, I only advised her not to take the rumors to heart and to wait for the day when she ascended the throne. By then, no one would dare to speak irresponsibly about her and Lady Klein. Heartened by my words, Raine continued to feign ignorance, but she kept a record of those women's chatter.