“You’re totally over the moon,” Leonardo said with a laugh.
“Well, I’ve been dreaming about this day for forever!”
“Yeah, I know. Congratulations,” he replied, nodding.
“And that means you’re mine now,” Westalia added.
“I’m not some possession to be had. But...my heart has been yours and yours alone from the very beginning.”
Westalia smiled with satisfaction, put her arms around the back of Leonardo’s neck, and hugged him tightly.
“I love you, Leo. I’m never going to let you go. So you better be prepared.”
“I’m ready for anything.”
Paige and Dion watched the couple from a distance. Paige was in the same buoyant mood as Westalia, although she didn’t show it.
“I’d expect nothing else from your lady. When she does something, she does it with determination. I always believed she’d win!” Dion said.
“Huh. How can you say that? Your heart was racing just now.”
“Shut up,” Dion said with a grimace. Paige had hit the nail on the head.
“I’ve never seen my lady look so excited,” Paige said as she looked at Leonardo with a disapproving expression. “I hate to say it, but that man does bring out the cutest expressions on her face.”
“She really is cute. Just like a normal girl her age,” Dion said warmly. Westalia looked totally different than she did when she was laughing maniacally and waving poisoned needles around.
Paige looked sharply at the man and clicked her tongue. “Don’t look at her like that. You’ll infect her.”
“What am I, a germ?!”
Westalia, completely unaware of the knights’ private conversation, smiled innocently as Leonardo held her in his arms.
✦ ✦ ✦
A few days later, Westalia was painting by herself in the imperial garden. The artificial flowers that she had collected so desperately would soon all be destroyed because of the toxin they contained. But before that happened, she had decided to record them on canvas. Westalia had set an easel, chair, and table on the lawn and was absorbed in her work. Unfortunately, there was no paint to reproduce Elizabeth Pink, so she had no choice but to paint the artificial flowers in a less vivid color.
“You’re quite skilled.”
Westalia was intently focused on her painting, but the voice poured directly into her ears and she saw a shadow form on the canvas. Standing behind Westalia was her fiancé, Leonardo Orencia.
“Leo...” To be honest, the realization that he was really her fiancé had yet to sink in. The days since their strange encounter on the border of the Archaites Empire had passed in a blur. While she’d been struggling during the empress selection, he had always been helping her out as if it were nothing, and now Westalia would be supporting him as his fiancée.
Leonardo grabbed another chair and sat down next to Westalia. He sighed, the act full of emotion, as he looked at the mountain of Elizabeth Pink artificial flowers in the storeroom.
“They really are beautiful. To gather up all the discarded Elizabeth Pink flowers was almost against both the law and the rules of the selection,” he said.
Westalia was silent, her eyes half closed. During the announcement of the final challenge, strict restrictions had been placed on the two candidates. They’d been forbidden from using any funds outside of their budgets and from receiving things from others.
“There was no rule against collecting garbage,” Westalia said.
“But there was against the transfer of items without payment.”
“No, it can’t be called a transfer, because they gave up ownership when they threw it away.”
“I don’t know about that. In any case, you’re right on the line of something that needs to be deliberated. You were, after all, the one who made the emperor issue the edict to destroy all items made with Elizabeth Pink. It’s a gray area.”
“It may be a gray area, but nobody ever accused me of anything, so it’s fine.” With a sniff, she dipped the tip of her brush in red paint and placed it on the canvas, layering light to dark colors to create the delicate shading of the petals. Westalia had just done what she could within the rules. A win was a win, even if she was accused of being on the edge of cheating.
“What, you don’t like that I won?” she asked, with a pout. Leonardo shook his head.
“No. I just thought you were better than Tiberio. He, too, was very good at playing fast and loose with the rules.” Leonardo went on to explain that Tiberio had been mass-producing artificial flowers on a low budget, but it was because he’d been blackmailing his suppliers to purchase materials at low prices and forcing factory workers to work for exorbitantly low wages. It seemed that this had only just been discovered, but behind the low-budget mass production lurked a number of dark secrets. Westalia wrinkled her brow at what Leonardo had told her.
“He was a horrible man! Everything he did was dirty. If you’re going to fight, fight fair. Fair and square,” Westalia said.
“You’re one to talk. Sheesh...”
Seeing him chuckle happily, Westalia found herself laughing as well. His facial expressions were quite subtle, but when he smiled, he had a certain innocence about him that didn’t suit his age. After a short laugh, a yawn escaped his thin lips.
“Not enough sleep?”
“I was up until late last night dealing with governmental affairs.”
“Then you should stay here and get some sleep,” Westalia said, patting her shoulder.
“I think I’ll do that,” Leonardo replied, moving in closer to her and resting his cheek against her proffered shoulder. “I feel at home when I’m around you.”
“Me too.”
Before long, calm and regular sleeping breaths begin to leak out from between his lips. Feeling a lovely weight on her shoulder, Westalia put her brush on the canvas again.
Then she glanced up at the sky above the storeroom. It was clear and cloudless. She squinted against the dazzling sunlight. A fresh breeze traced the outline of the pair and rustled the trees in the garden. No matter how wicked she was, no matter how low she had to go, if she wanted to be pure, she would always be able to catch the light someday. It was not that Westalia was special but that everyone had such underlying strength. The rain of happiness fell fairly on everyone.
Even if things don’t always go the way you want them to, sometimes, just sometimes, there are extraordinary rewards. Maybe the world isn’t so hopeless after all, Westalia thought. She was sure that she would continue to hope and dream of many things in the future.
And so, at last, the executed villainess had taken her place as the next empress of a great country.