His Highness's Second Wife
His Highness’s Second Wife Chapter 45

“Happy birthday, Your Highness. May you have a long and joyful life!”

“Thank you,” Kassian replied with a reserved smile as yet another noble gave his greeting and moved inside the residence to join the festivities.

He had been receiving those well-wishes for the past half an hour and his face was stiff from smiling. He kept looking at Sarea, who was standing by his side, but she seemed perfectly composed, as always. Almost like she wasn’t dying.

He still couldn’t believe it was happening, that she had hidden it from him. There wasn’t love between them and it could hardly be called friendship, but they had been married for almost eight years and she was one of his people. Her life was important to him, even if she didn’t believe it.

To hear she was dying and there was nothing he could do about it- that wasn’t something he could easily accept.

After their fight, she had gone back to her chambers to recuperate and when she showed up a few hours before the beginning of the banquet, she looked just as unshakable as always. She took control of the preparations and the servants with just a few words and as the guests started arriving, she stepped next to him and held his arm, just like she always did. Kassian wanted to say something, to apologize, but the words remained stuck in his throat as she smiled and conversed with everyone, laughing in all the right places and dabbling into topics even he wasn’t that familiar with. He wasn’t sure there was anything he could say that could fix their relationship or give her comfort.

His mind kept playing scenarios in his head, of him standing in this place for yet another social gathering, but without her unwavering presence by his side. Who was going to keep the conversation going when he had nothing to say? Who was going to remind him of the name of this or that noble, and which faction they were part of? It dawned on him that he had been taking all those things for granted, the way she took care of things, so he didn’t have to bother.

Sarea let out a quiet sigh, shifting from one leg to another as if to replace a more comfortable position.

Her dark blue, almost black dress rustled as she adjusted her skirts.

“Do you need to rest?” Kassian asked and she finally looked up at him.

“I’m fine,” she said coldly. “Stop staring at me like that. Look forward, the Prime Minister and his Son are coming. Smile.”

Kassian turned around immediately, plastering a smile on his face as he shook the Prime Minister’s hand. It always struck Kassian how different the Prime Minister was from his children while both Raena and Ramor were blonde, with blue eyes and a fair complexion like their mother, their father was dark-haired, dark-eyed and with skin dotted with wrinkles and age even though he wasn’t that old. His wife didn’t accompany him, as Sarea had predicted, due to an illness that kept her bedridden for months due to her weak disposition.

“Happy birthday, Your Highness,” the Prime Minister said, bowing his head in respect and showing him his receding hairline. “May you live long and bring honor and prosperity to our great Empire. We’ve always had great expectations from you.”

“You praise me too much, Prime Minister,” Kassian replied, reaching out to shake his son’s hand. Ramor returned the gesture but didn’t smile and his greeting was mumbled under his nose. His eyes kept looking around as if searching for, something.

“Is my sister coming? We heard concerning news,” Ramor said, throwing another look around.”

Is it true somebody got poisoned with the tea intended for her?”

“Ramor!” the Prime Minister said in a voice full of warning, his mustache twitching angrily. “That’s enough.”

His son closed his mouth, but looked at Kassian expectantly, his blue eyes – just like his sister’s – glaring with all their might.

“Raena is fine,” Kassian said, trying to control his voice at the sight of the obvious provocation.

Ramor was a few inches shorter than him and much leaner, so if they were on the battlefield, Kassian could have made him eat his teeth by now. But he was Raena’s brother and the Prime Minister’s only son, not to mention a name already known in the trading circles so Kassian had to be careful with him unless he wanted to put himself in an awkward position. “She wasn’t harmed in any way and I have personally taken all precautions to prevent anything like this from happening again. She should be here any moment.”

“I’m glad to see you’re caring for my daughter, your Highness,” the Prime Minister said with a fixed smile, glancing at his son. “I’m sure situations such as these cannot be avoided, but as a father, I’ll sleep better now that I know you personally took action to protect her.”

Kassian nodded awkwardly while Sarea let out a quiet scoff, masking it as a cough. She took a sip out of her wine, looking away as Kassian glared at her.

“Ah, here she is,” Sarea murmured, nodding in the direction she was staring. Kassian turned to follow her gaze, not seeing anything at first apart from several guests whispering and turning around.

Then he caught a glimpse of shiny blonde hair and something blue before he finally saw her. Her hair was pulled back from her face, held up by a sparkling blue ornament matching her dress. The rest of her hair was falling in waves down her back, a few strands bouncing off her exposed shoulders.

The dress had no sleeves instead, it was held on by the straps crisscrossing over her long, pale neck.

The gown hugged her upper body, then fell loosely to the ground. The tiny sparkling stones all over the dark blue fabric made her look almost as if she was wearing the night sky.

His mind recalled that Raena’s maid had said they had received a gown and instructions from Sarea, so this meant the way she was dressed was all Sarea’s doing. He glanced at his first wife only to replace her finishing her glass with a sour expression.

Sarea sensed his eyes and finally looked at him, raising an eyebrow.

“What? She is here for you to show her off, the least we can do is make her presentable” she murmured low enough for the Prime Minister and his son not to hear. Kassian looked back at his second wife just as a bright smile blossomed on her face. Kassian swallowed the lump in his throat as he watched her pick her skirts and rush to their side, but her eyes didn’t go to him even for a, second. Instead, he noticed how Ramor circled his father and moved to intercept her, opening his arms invitingly.

“Brother!” Raena giggled, throwing herself into his embrace and letting him pick her up before settling her back down. She continued to stare ather brother with a huge grin while he fought to keep his composed expression, but ended up grinning just as widely. Both siblings seemed to have forgotten there were people around them, even members of the Imperial family.

Annoyance slipped into Kassian’s mind and he fought hard to keep it out of his face. The Prime Minister was the first to get out of his stupor, clearing his throat. Raena graced him with a beautiful smile, although not as happy as the one she gave her brother, and moved to hug him as well.

Her father stiffened as if he didn’t know what to do, then patted her on the head before she pulled away.

“Where are your manners, Raena? Aren’t you going to greet His Highness?” the Prime Minister said awkwardly, glancing toward Kassian. Raena froze fora second as if just remembering something she had forgotten, then turned to face him and Sarea.

“Happy birthday, Your Highness,” she said in even tone and just as he thought she’d finally look at him, her eyes stopped on Sarea and the genuine smile returned to her face. “Your Highness, thank you so much for the dress! I love it!”

“Um, yes, I’m glad,” Sarea said with surprise, giving the blonde girl a stiff smile. “It looks good on you.”

Raena nodded excitedly, then turned back to her brother and locked hands with him.

“Brother, how is mother? How is everyone? Tell me everything! I miss you all so much!” she said in one breath, pulling her brother away. The Prime Minister stared after them for a second, then turned toward Kassian and bowed before walking after his children.

Kassian stood completely baffled, his mind trying to figure out what he had done to earn such disregard. Was she still mad about being confined to the North Palace? Or was she mad because of the assassination attempt? He couldn’t remember what else he could have done to make her dismiss him in such an obvious way.

“Ha! Who would have thought you could make this kind of face?” Sarea scoffed suddenly and Kassian looked at her with confusion. He didn’t think he was making any kind of face, but by the way she smirked, he might have been wrong.

“What kind of face” he asked with annoyance, as she chuckled under her breath.

“A jealous one.” Sarea replied, and fora second, there was no hostility in that smile. Then, as if remembering she was still angry at him, her smile dropped. “Instead of pining after her like an idiot, just visit your wife’s bedchambers. Nobody is going to say a word to you for sleeping with your wife.”

“I don’t care what other people say,” Kassiansaid in a dark tone. “I’m doing this for her. Look at her.” He nodded to where Raena and her family had stopped, talking excitedly while she stared at her brother with wide, innocent eyes and a huge smile.

He said something and she laughed loudly, quickly covering her mouth like a child that had done something they shouldn’t have.

“Then cast your eyes elsewhere,” Sarea said harshly, her gaze stopping on the guests where he had noticed Lara earlier. Sarea had requested that none of his concubines were to be invited to major social events, but after that night before he left for Craidal, he felt like a jerk, so he allowed Lara to attend after she hinted she wanted to several times.

She looked elegant as always in her black dress, but she seemed a bit tense as she spoke to the group that kept looking at the Prime Minister and his daughter. None of them had seen Raena since the wedding and even then she was wearing the wedding veil, so some of them probably didn’t even know who the blonde girl was.

“Ah, some respite!” Sarea murmured, and Kassian focused his attention back on her. He was just going to ask what she was talking about when he heard a familiar voice behind him.

“Good evening, brother, sister-in-law. You look lovely as always, Sarea.” Kassian turned his head to look at his brother, who smiled happily in his official attire with the crown prince’s satchel running over his chest.

Kassian was sure that Arina, his first wife, had forced him to wear it, but he didn’t want to ruin his brother’s fun with mockery from the start.

“Always a charmer, Yulien.” Sarea smiled genuinely at him. “‘m leaving him to you. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.’

“That’s very limiting, my dear Sarea.” Yulien laughed after her, but she just waved with her hand and disappeared. As Yulien looked at Kassian, his smile faltered a little. “You don’t look like you’re having a lot of fun, brother.”

“And you just came here and you’re already glowing.” Kassian pointed out.

“Well, no escorts inside your palace. I’m free!” he grinned, looking around. His eyes stopped on Raena and her brother, who were now dancing while she kept stepping over her skirts and his feet.

Yulien looked back at Kassian, who found himself staring at them with an annoyed smile. “So, is it true? What Blaine told me?”

Kassian glanced around before nodding curtly. “That’s the only explanation,” he said, “but have no idea who they might be. When we took the capital, we executed the king and his entire family as per the Emperor’s orders. I don’t think anyone managed to escape.”

“So it must have been someone who wasn’t currently at the castle” Yulien nodded. “I will request a copy of their family tree and we can go over the names to see who was killed that night.

And whoever is left.. we will search for them, before they can stir some real trouble. With the Emperor’s health as it is, this would be the perfect time for them to start a massive rebellion and if the spark spreads to other regions as well, we may have a full-out war on our hands.”

“If that happens, a certain someone is sure to take advantage of that,” Kassian murmured. His brother just smiled, but there was no joy or amusement in his expression.

“Anyway, that’s enough of that for tonight!” Yulien laughed, patting him on the back. “Let’s get something to drink. My little brother has a birthday and he deserves to have some fun.”