By her request, we had followed the Queen and her entourage of maids and guards to a nearby coffee shop, to “catch up”. Most of the store’s patrons left after paying their respects to the queen, probably intimidated by her Highness’ presence. I felt a bit bad for the owner, but they could probably presume their store was visited by the queen afterwards. By the way we were attended, it seemed like the Queen was a regular client, though.

She was very close to her deliver date, so she had apparently decided to go out and “stretch out” by visiting the city before she had to enter quarantine and remain in her room. I wished I had thought of that.

—How long has it been since we meet up like this, four or five years? —Erzebeth said in a slightly accusatory tone, smelling the coffee in her cup—, and how long has it been since you replied any of my letters with anything more than “I’m healthy, thank you for your concerns”, huh?

She was progressively sounding more aggravated.

—I-I’m sorry, your Highness —I said, looking down.

I had met her when I was six or seven years old. Mother went out to meet some “friends” of her, as she had done before several times. But that time, instead of leaving me at the care of Adrian, and the five maids that still worked for us, she took me along with her. It was probably one of the first times I had gone out of our house. Our own house was big, but that mansion was in a completely different level. There were more rooms that I could count, and that was only those we went through to get to the meeting hall. Soldiers and maids came and go in every direction, and some of them just stood in place with a solemn expression. When we finally met with Mother’s “friends”, everyone but her kneeled and lowered their heads. I tried to mimic them, but Mother stopped me.

—We don’t kneel to anyone, just a bow is enough —she said sternly, but with a sly smile.

I nodded, and did just that. One of the attendants of that mansion told me Mother and her “friends” would have to talk adult business.

—The young Princess is playing on the garden, would you like to play with her? —she said.

She extended her hand towards me, and I recoiled a bit. I wasn’t accustomed to talking to strangers, at all. I looked up to Mother, who nodded without really looking at me. I timidly grabbed that person’s hand, and followed by the maid that was accompanying us, she lead me to the garden. I was amazed with how big it was, it was probably bigger than our entire property.

—Eva! —a young girl with red hair yelled as she spotted us.

She came running towards us and jumped into the maid’s arms.

—Careful there, young princess —the attendant said, but the girl was ignoring her already.

—Hello, who are you?! —she yelled again as she laid her eyes on me.

—I-I’m… my n-name is… —I was scared. I was a sheltered kid, and I had always had a coward streak. I closed my eyes and looked down, while I continue to stutter.

I felt a warm embrace.

—There, there, don’t be scared —the other kid said, hugging me.

I started to slowly breathe deeply, and my heart and anxiety calmed down.

—Do you feel better?

—Y-yeah. I’m Rossane —I managed to say.

—I’m Erzi! Nice to meet you! Do you want to meet my pets?

I nodded timidly, and she practically dragged me to a corner of the garden, where a mini-zoo had been built. There was a pony, a few dogs, birds of all sorts, and Erzi’s favorites, a family of bunnies. Apparently, when I was about to cry earlier, it reminded her of how she had calmed her pets after a storm had scared them. We played all afternoon, and I was so tired I felt asleep on the way home. It was not until several days later that I heard some of the maids gossiping, that I found out Mother’s “friends” were the King and the Queen, and Erzi was the princess Erzebeth. I was scared of going back to a place of such prestige again, for some reason.

—What if I make a mistake and they cut my head! —I said to one of the attendants.

—They wouldn’t never do anything like that, at least not to a Dragonroot. Where did you ever heard about that?

I didn’t know, but in retrospective, it was probably some faintly memory from my past life, where royals and aristocracy were usually cruel and arrogant people. Even in "Promises of an Enchanted Heart", most of the possible love targets with a noble background had a dark side to them, specially the prince Julius, the fiancé of the villainess of the game.

But even then, when I received an invitation from Erzi to a tea party, I really wanted to go. Mother approved of it, and so, I started going to her mansion somewhat regularly during our childhood. Even after we grew up, we kept exchanging letters, and meeting up every so often. We also talked whenever we crossed paths in socialite events. That’s it, until she married and became the Queen officially.

It is a bit embarrassing to admit it, but I had been purposely trying to put distance between us. There had always been many rumors circling around me, something that I only became aware as I grew older, and I didn’t want to tarnish her Highness’ reputation.

—Don’t give me that “your Highness” trash —she said, grabbing me by the cheeks and forcing me to see her face—, we are friends, aren’t we?

Her eyes were sincere, and I could see she was hurt because I had abandoned her.

—Y-yes. Yes, we are, Erzi.

Her mood changed completely, a smile appeared on her face.

—I was really worried when I heard what happened to your husband, more because you were pregnant and all of your letters were so pragmatic. I feared you would turn into your mother.

—That could never happen!

Right?

—I see that now. I could never imagine her carrying her own baby like you do.

—Ah, well… I want to appreciate every moment I have with her.

—I’m envious; I didn’t get to carry Gaius when he was a baby.

Gaius was the first son of Erzebeth, who was around three years old at that time.

—Why not?

—Well, you know, her Wet Nurse would have more experience about it. I might have hurt him if I did it wrong.

—Really? I don’t think it is that complicated —I said.

Carrying Violett has been as natural for me as breathing. Granted, I had carried my cousin’s babies in my previous life, and they had to teach me how. An idea sprouted on my mind.

—Do you want to carry her?

—N-no, I couldn’t —she said, but I felt she really wanted to do it.

—Come on, I’ll help you —I said, and got up of my chair to get closer to Erzi.

She was surprised, but she followed my indications, and held Violett perfectly once she was on her arms.

—Awww, she is such a cutie —she said, as Violett pouted.

—She is, right?

We were so engrossed on my daughter’s cuteness, that we didn’t hear the sound of high heels approaching us.

—Your Majersty, what might you be doing with that baby? —The newcomer said, sounding a lot like Carmila, but there was a bit too much poison on her last two words.

Before any of us could reply, she took Violett out of her arms and shoved her on mine, and proceeded to use a purification spell on Erzi’s hand.

—Touching a commoner’s baby is totally unacceptable, your Highness.

—Agatha, you are fired.

—Eh? —the woman was paralyzed for a few seconds—, Your Highness, what did you said?

—I said that you are fired, be glad I’m not throwing you into a dungeon.

—B-but, your Highness, why?

—Why, you ask? You insulted the head of the Dragonroot clan, and my best friend, right in front of me.

—W-what, that’s… a noble would never dress as simple as that! Much less a Dragonroot! There is no way that-

She looked at the direction where I was, surrounded by my attendants, and shut up suddenly. Either she finally recognized that my dress, while simple, was made with high quality cloth, or she looked at how pissed I was. If there was something I was proud of, even in my previous life, was my angry glare.

—Guards, take her away —the Queen said, and the soldiers obeyed.

Erzi explained me that Agatha had been appointed as a child raising consultant, recommended by her own mother, and had “helped” her raise her firstborn. She was apparently very famous among other noble families, as every kid she was put in charge ended up as a proper noble. I could see she was a bit too much into the strictness, though. Still, I would feel pity for her losing her job, if she hadn’t handled Violett so rudely.

—I had been misguided all this time, apparently —Erzi said, sulking a bit.

—I’ll help you out —I impulsively said, trying to comfort my friend.

Objectively, that should have sounded like an empty promise. I was a lot less qualified than the consultant she had just fired, and since the Queen didn’t know about my previous life, I must looked even less than that. But even so, she smiled.

—I’ll be in your care.

We keep chatting after that, eating a few pastries while I tried to pass onto her my limited child raising knowledge. After a while, another person arrived, carrying a three year old with her. This attendant, however, didn’t immediately attack me.

—Rossane, this is my son Gaius, and her wet nurse, Miranda.

—It is a pleasure —she replied, bowing towards me, after leaving the kid on the floor.

Gaius seemed really interested in Violett, so I showed her to him by kneeling next to him.

—She is very young and delicate, so you need to be very careful, but you can touch her —I said.

The Queen and the wet nurse were a bit worried; Gaius was a bit energetic, just like her mother was when she was a kid. But he actually listened to me, and very carefully touched her cheeks and her hair, all while giggling and saying how she was really small. After that, the Queen had to return to the palace.

—I’ll take your recommendations seriously, but please come to visit and help me out, will you? —she said while leaving —Julius will be born in a month or so, I’ll send you a letter to meet up afterwards.

—Be careful, I’ll be praying for a safe delivery —I said, also getting ready to leave the coffee shop.

It was already past noon, so I had to speed up and finish what I had come to the city for. However, as the Queen disappeared on the distance, holding the hand of her firstborn, a realization crossed my mind.

—Did she say her baby was going to be called Julius?

—That’s right, Madame.

—O-oh. I see…

How could I have not realized it earlier, the shock of meeting my old friend had been enough to distract me that much? The baby she was carrying was no other than Prince Julius, the future fiancé of my Violett, and the one who would betray her to marry the protagonist. Granted, my daughter was a villainess and had bullied the protagonist. But I have decided to scrap that future entirely, so this was actually a good thing, right? Prince Julius and Violett will love each other and live happily ever after, and Erzi and I will be co-mothers-in-law! I just needed to fix some attitude problems that the Prince will have had, but since Erzi was open to receive my suggestions, that shouldn’t be any problem now!

The only thing that kept bothering me was that, in the game, Julius didn’t have an older brother…