Forget My Husband, I’ll Go Make Money

tal, after all.”

“Still, it must have been a long journey from the manastone mine to the portal.
It has been a while since they said you were coming but you hadn’t come so I was getting worried.”

Hamill didn’t reply but smiled and pulled out the Queen’s chair.

The queen smiled at the caring gesture and sat down.
Once Hamill sat down too, the court ladies came out with tea.

“Aren’t you tired? After going through so much trouble, you should get some rest.”

“I’m fine, Mother,” Hamill smiled softly, “It was no trouble at all.
The distance from the mine to the nearby portal might be long but it is nothing compared to the distance from Silvanus to here.”

The queen’s hand, which was lifting the teacup, froze slightly.

Hamill paid no attention to that and continued talking freely, “I heard that the Princess of Silvanus used an old-fashioned carriage instead of a portal.”

Clack, the Queen placed the teacup down loudly on the saucer.
She was no longer in the mood for tea so the glass didn’t even touch her mouth.

“Ha, that’s true.
So unfavored by the emperor that she couldn’t even use a portal…”

Yet she dared to act arrogant.

The queen’s eyes flashed sharply.

“The Emperor of Silvanus was against it? The rumors say a different thing,” Hamill replied.

At those words, the queen scoffed in ridicule, “What, do they say the princess purposefully chose such a difficult path to see the people affected by the war with her own eyes?”

“I’ve also heard that the toll on her body was nothing compared to the suffering of the people.”

There were even more aside from that.

The queen’s fingernails scratched the rose-stone table, “That rumor has spread so far?”

It was humiliating.
Because the queen herself was the reason those rumors began.

She deliberately pointed out the old-fashioned carriage and asked if it was difficult in order to attack Aristine.

—You might be called a princess, but without any recognition by the Emperor so you’re just an empty husk.

With that meaning in mind.

But then, Aristine calmly replied to her without blinking an eye:

《It was a journey to stop the spill of blood in the war, how can one possibly call it hard? 》
《The war has devastated the lives of citizens in both countries.
It breaks my heart, and my exhaustion is simply nothing in comparison.》
《As you say, the portal is comfortable.
But even if it took a little toll on my body, I believed it was worth traveling to Irugo from Silvanus to see things with my own eyes.》

It wasn’t enough that she fended off the queen’s attack, she even took advantage of it.

Claiming that traveling in an old-fashioned carriage was not because the emperor wanted to torment Aristine but a path that Aristine chose herself to look after her people despite the inconvenience.

Thanks to that, Aristine became someone who thought of peace more than anyone else and a beacon for the people.

Even Nephther took Aristine’s side, and it was solidified as an established fact.

The queen picked a fight with Aristine and ended up with nothing but benefits for her opponent.
Of course, she knew that rumors would spread but finding out this way made her feel foul.