“If I had to choose between right and wrong, I would say wrong,” Westalia said, conviction behind every word.
As she voiced her answer, Leonardo looked at her like he couldn’t believe what she was saying, and he pinched the bridge of his nose. Empress Canela’s mouth hung open with shock.
The emperor didn’t react; he merely made a noncommittal noise and set the scroll down. “I would like to ask you personally. Why do you want to be empress? I have heard of the treatment you received in the Kingdom of Lhumzia. Even so, why do you still want to take the position of empress? Even in a different country, there are still evils that you may want to run away from.”
Westalia looked the emperor straight in the eye as she answered. “The empress is intrinsically supposed to serve the prosperity and peace of the nation, but in some countries, wicked people have sought the position only for their own desires and convenience.”
By wicked people she meant, of course, Lily and Delphine. Westalia thought back on everything from her execution to the final selection. She thought of how Felix blamed himself for pandering to the former queen and how Tonio wept for his wife, whose life had been taken from her. Westalia was well aware that many people had suffered at the mercy of power.
“I understand. I know the folly of those in power. I know the vileness of those who are willing to harm others to satisfy their own greed. That is why I came here. I hit rock bottom once, but I am now convinced that it was a necessary experience for me to be empress. I want to save people like me from tyranny because I, myself, have known that unspeakable pain.” The dream Westalia had been chasing had been within her grasp, then escaped it, then again been within her grasp, and then been lost again. Still, she kept reaching for it. Westalia believed in it as if she were looking up at a small light in the distance. It didn’t matter if it was pathetic. It didn’t matter if she took it slow, rested, or sometimes fell and got covered in mud. If she kept moving forward in any way, a tailwind would start blowing, and it might push her all the way to the place she wanted to reach.
And now, all the experiences had become her blood, her body, and her driving force. In truth, there might have been nothing that was wasted in order to become a great empress. If she had lacked any of them, she wouldn’t be where she was today. No, she would grab the position of empress and prove that it was not all in vain.
If Westalia was needed by someone, if she could be of use to someone, then surely it would feel as though she had been rewarded for having fallen, sunk, and lived through those dark days. Even if she wasn’t rewarded though, it would be much better than lying around doing nothing.
“By nature, the rights of nobles and commoners should be equally protected. When I become empress, I will wipe out all the wickedness in the aristocratic society. It would be better to have no nobles who interfered with the rights of the people,” Westalia said. She glanced at Elizabeth briefly and saw that her expression was hard. Her family, the Reyns, had a lot of wrongs to be judged.
I have been involved in royal politics my whole life but I’ve been of no use to anyone. It frustrates me to no end. Choose me. Take my hand, Westalia thought.
Westalia looked up at the emperor, seated high above her, and said forcefully, “I will expose the crimes of those nobles and remove their titles. No one will be left behind; no one will be left to the will of a villain. I shall do so for as long as I am able.” The Westalia who’d sat quietly in the royal villa, listening to others, was no more. No matter who betrayed her, she wouldn’t be defeated, and no matter how many times she was trampled, she would rise up and live how she wanted to.
Even the emperor gasped at Westalia’s bold statement. Her words had weight, as she had confronted and successfully defeated the former queen of her home country, who had been a powerful figure. The emperor looked amused and stroked his long beard, then turned his attention back to Elizabeth.
“Is there anything you want to say in response?” he asked.
“No, there isn’t...” Elizabeth replied. She’d completely lost her swagger after hearing Westalia’s answer and her shoulders had slumped.
With that, the final selection examination was over. Westalia performed her beautiful curtsy, then left the audience chamber.
The moment they left the chamber, Elizabeth fell to her knees and started crying. Her maids gathered around her.
“I’m no good at this! There’s no way I’ll be chosen!”
“That’s not true! It will surely turn out okay. After all, my lady, you’re the most promising candidate!” one of her maids said.
“I don’t need your pity! Let go of me!” Elizabeth said, shaking the woman off her. The woman fell backward with a small scream.
Westalia was about to make her way back to the waiting room when Elizabeth called out from behind her.
“It serves me right, doesn’t it? That you beat me just based on merit when I cheated again and again,” Elizabeth said.
“We don’t know the results yet,” Westalia replied.
“No, His Imperial Majesty showed interest in you. It’s all over. You cleared your name all on your own, and you achieved a lot coming from a foreign country and overcoming everything. I was just a candidate boosted to the top by my family name,” Elizabeth said.
Westalia turned around and walked back to Elizabeth. “We did the best we could, that was all,” she said.
Elizabeth had tried to win the title of empress by cheating and tearing others down, but that just showed how serious she’d been about it. Even Westalia wasn’t completely innocent. She’d entered the country illegally and done everything in her power to climb up the ladder, just like Elizabeth.
“Did I really do the best I could? No matter how hard you try, it’s all in vain if you don’t get rewarded.”
“Crying like that won’t make anyone give you what you want,” Westalia replied.
“I-I didn’t cheat because I wanted to! I was told that I was the best candidate in the entire country, but if I didn’t live up to expectations, I would be a disgrace to my family! My father’s going to scold me so badly...” Elizabeth’s face paled at the thought of her father. Then she said, in a voice that sounded as if she had given up on everything, “Why won’t you blame me? Taunt me. Mock me! You hate me, don’t you? Why don’t you tell Leonardo what I did to you?!”
Elizabeth was clearly venting now. Westalia sighed and placed a hand gently on the woman’s shoulder.
“I understand what you’re going through. It’s your guilt that’s tormenting you,” Westalia said. Elizabeth had done bad things because she hadn’t had confidence that she could live up to the expectations of those around her and because she wanted to be close to Leonardo. But there was still the possibility of redemption for her, since she was aware of what she’d done wrong and felt guilt over it.
“I’m...”
“If you still feel bad, you can change how you act from now on,” Westalia said. The former queen Delphine had died as a result of her unrepentant evil ways. But Elizabeth was young and had plenty of chances to start over.
Westalia put aside her anger at Elizabeth for the moment and smiled at the woman, as if to calm her down. “I don’t blame you.”
“But I... Your dress...”
Westalia put a finger up to cut her off. She shook her head, telling Elizabeth to let bygones be bygones.
“I haven’t told anyone what you did,” Westalia said. “I swear to you that I will never speak of it again. Let’s not have any more hate between us. No hard feelings, no matter which one of us gets chosen.”
Elizabeth remained silent. Westalia handed her a handkerchief and told her to wipe his tears with it, then turned away again.
Why is she so generous? Elizabeth wondered. “I’m no match for you,” she said out loud.