“Possibly. But I can get that title back once we have a capable emperor. Surely, His Majesty will see it in his generous heart to return what is rightfully mind in the future.” Camille was truly convinced that Cedar would return her title.


    The prince worried about his mother acting like he was on her side, but his thought process was interrupted.


    For some reason, Theodore fought against his anger now. He pretended to be calm and maybe even happy. Even his voice was dripping with mockery. “Now that you mention it. Even if anyone here wished to give you back your title, that would be impossible. After all, someone else already has that position, and she won''t lose it any time soon. We have a dowager empress, so you would never have a claim on that title.” It seemed like he wanted to attack Camille''s greatest weakness. This would work much better than they needed it to.


    Camille had merely heard a few words, and she was already on edge. Her smile faded, and she couldn''t hide her shock for a moment. “What?” When she noticed that she was losing her composure, she stopped and forced herself to smile again. “There isn''t one. I, and only I, am the dowager empress. Just because you took my title from me, you bastard, that doesn''t mean that someone else has it. Who would have it instead of me? Your whore of a wife?” Such words would only lead to Theodore punishing her more. Why didn''t she understand that?


    Cedar could already see the catastrophe approaching, so he chimed in. “Please refrain from insulting the emperor and the empress of our nation. You need to show respect to the rulers of our country. In the future, we will inform you of a change you might not expect as well. However, at the moment-”


    Theodore interrupted him. “No. I want her to know it. She can hear it at this very moment.” He put on a blinding smile while turning to Camille and explained it to her in a voice that didn''t sound very cheerful at all. “The dowager empress of Artias is always the woman who raised the emperor and was a mother to him. I ensured that the woman who took on that role for me was granted that title.”


    Recognition flashed in Camille''s eyes. She could guess what this was about, and yet, she would never understand it fully. “There is no way that you did that.”


    Theodore smirked back at her. “Why wouldn''t I? I love my mother, so I will gladly hand her everything she deserves. Althea Estien is now known as Her Majesty, the dowager empress of Artias. My true mother deserves that title, does she not?”


    Silence followed.


    Camille had frozen in place. She could only stare at her son with pure terror on her face. Most likely, it would only take a few seconds until she realized it, and then she would yell and cry until she had used up her energy for the day.


    But it seemed like Theodore had no desire to see that. He gestured to the guards. “Bring her back to her mansion. Carry her if needed and don''t hold back if she struggles. In the name of the emperor, I will excuse whatever you may do. Go now.” With that, he spun around and walked toward the graveyard.


    Cedar could see how the puzzle pieces in his mother''s mind came together and hurried to turn away as well. He followed his brother while desperately hoping that Camille would take another few minutes to understand this fully. He didn''t need to hear her yelling now. Cedar noticed that he was walking much faster than he had originally planned on going, but even that wasn''t fast enough. He only relaxed a little when he entered the graveyard and the gate was closed behind him.


    Theodore had stopped after taking a few steps inside as well. When he lifted his head, he met his brother''s gaze. “I''m sorry for suddenly doing that. I couldn''t help it. It was tempting to hurt her after she tried to hurt us.” He was trying to see calm, but underneath his facade, he was more than upset.


    Cedar couldn''t know how his brother felt. He had never lost someone he had truly loved after all. Lucille had almost died in front of him, and his fight with her had wrecked him, but he hadn''t been forced to get over her death while facing her murderer. He wouldn''t have blamed Theodore for anything he could have done. “It''s fine. She...deserves it. I just hope that she will be in paralysis before beginning her tantrum. We don''t need her to hurt the guards.”


    “If she does, maybe they will finally hit her back. She deserves everything she gets.” Theodore slowly began moving forward again. He waited to let Cedar catch up with him and spoke a moment later. “Did you say something she could misunderstand?”


    Cedar tried to read his brother''s expression, but that was rather hard at the moment. He had no idea what the emperor was thinking. “What do you mean?”


    “I think she convinced herself of the fact that you are on her side again. She has been calm ever since you saw her a week ago. So, I would assume that you said something that made her reconsider then. Do you remember what you told her?”


    Cedar could only remember one thing that could have made her misinterpret his words. “I told her to pull herself together. I pointed out that her usual pride seems to have disappeared when she is kneeling on the floor and keeps yelling at those around her. She suddenly calmed down after that.”


    Theodore let out a little snort, but he didn''t sound very amused. “Maybe she saw that as you worrying about her.”


    “I do worry about her. How could I not when I have to expect her to try to kill everyone around me?” Cedar had sounded a bit more bitter than he would have liked to.


    Theodore slowed his steps as he glanced at his brother. “You worry about what she will do and not necessarily about her well-being. She may have misunderstood that last time, but that doesn''t mean anything bad. If she believes that you are on her side, she might not try to hurt you too much. And in the end, it doesn''t matter what she thinks of you when we both know that you are on our side.”


    Cedar saw that differently. He worried a bit more than his brother did. “I would be more careful here. If she thinks that I can pardon her for all of her crimes, she may be less careful. And I''m almost sure that she already planned something. We don''t need another assassination attempt.”


    Theodore was definitely not in a good mood, but he was calmer than his brother in this regard. “We''ll manage. I won''t let that woman hurt our family ever again. We will end the curse she brought upon us within a few months. As soon as she moves, it''s over. I don''t mind dragging down the remaining people I don''t trust after her death.” He was rather direct in his word choice now, so it seemed like he truly believed that Cedar would support him despite them planning Camille''s death. To some extent, that was good.


    And to some extent, it just proved that Cedar was cold-hearted enough to stand by while the noose around his mother''s neck tightened. Surely, she had been the one to tie that noose, but that didn''t make it much better.


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    A few seconds passed in silence, but before the prince could speak up, Theodore abruptly stopped and made his brother come to a halt as well. He looked down, and a faint smile formed on his lips while pure sadness was visible in his eyes.


    Cedar knew what it was before looking, and still, he lowered his gaze. They were standing in front of two graves that were covered with blue and yellow flowers. It was obvious that someone skillful had taken care of the plants here, and the carefully carved gravestones were gorgeous as well. The names of the former emperor and his mistress were written there. That confirmed the greatest worry Cedar had felt before coming here.


    Theodore didn''t seem to ponder that. He just reached for his bouquet. He pulled out two flowers and handed them to his brother before placing the rest of the bouquet onto his mother''s grave.


    Cedar blamed his uncertainty on the meeting from before, but he still couldn''t help it. He stared down at the flowers in his hands. He was supposed to put them down on the graves, wasn''t he? This might not be a good idea. “I''m not sure if Althea would have liked me to come here. Father wouldn''t be thrilled either.” He hadn''t actually meant to say that out loud, but now it was too late.


    Theodore already turned to him. He had a strange expression on his face. “Don''t say that. Mother cared about you a lot. She was constantly worried after she met you were covered in bruises. She wouldn''t have mentioned you so often if she hadn''t cared. You may worry about what she thought, but she has not disliked you once. Even now, that wouldn''t be different. And Father never hated you. You don''t owe him anything, but he did talk about your accomplishments with great praise and-”


    What a huge lie that was. Cedar was well aware of the truth. He had never known it differently, so he wouldn''t take it to heart. But being lied to was a bit annoying. “You don''t have to tell me things to make me feel better. Father saw me as a pacifier to keep his hysteric wife from bothering him. I am aware of that, and I don''t mind it. I only saw him as the emperor, whom Mother was obsessed with, in return. Father ignored me, and after I understood that, I left him alone. There isn''t much more to our relationship. You don''t need to interpret anything into his feelings or try to read into emotions that weren''t there. Since he never cared much, he might not be upset about me coming here. But...” Cedar turned to his brother. He showed him a fake smile that revealed much more than it should have. “You shouldn''t forget that I''m at fault for your mother''s death. Don''t act like that didn''t happen. I-”


    Theodore cut him off. “What are you talking about? You didn''t do anything. You only held still to not pull that woman''s hatred toward you. You were fourteen then. Don''t blame yourself. I saw how you tried to find a way to keep my mother alive. You forgot to smile for a moment when you found her, remember? You weren''t happy about Mother''s death, and you weren''t to blame. In fact, you were never to blame for anything. Everything was planned by Camille. You were the person who suffered most because of her. Don''t make yourself out to be the villain.” He could only say that because he wasn''t aware of the full truth.


    Cedar still had nightmares about Althea. He knew that he should have said something while noticing that his mother was hiring assassins. He had known that back then too. In hindsight, he wasn''t even sure why he hadn''t gotten help. Had he tried to suppress all of his feelings back then already too? Or had he just never thought about disobeying his mother? He couldn''t tell anymore. The only thing he knew was that he had let an innocent and incredibly kind woman die because of his mother''s jealousy.


    Theodore could have died too, and his mother had been murdered right in front of him. It made no sense for him to make Cedar feel better. He should hate his brother. Not only for that incident but also for so much more. Acting like this only made things much worse.


    Cedar didn''t know what to say. There was so much he should tell his brother, but he couldn''t possibly put all of that into a few words. So, he just bowed down and put the two flowers onto the graves. One onto the grave of his father, who had never even seen his second son, and one onto the grave of Althea, who had had the patience of an angel and showed kindness to a boy she should have hated.


    At least five minutes passed in silence as the brothers just stood there next to each other. No one spoke, and for a while, that hadn''t been necessary at all. The only small noise that filled the air around them was the soft rustling of the wind in the trees and bushes around them and the little sounds that came from Theodore as he wiped over his eyes.


    Cedar didn''t have any intention of breaking the silence. He wasn''t the one with the closest relationship to the buried people here, so he wouldn''t speak first. He would wait here without saying a word until his brother was ready to leave.


    A while passed like this before Theodore began to speak in a barely audible whisper. “Do you want to sign the adoption contract?” That had been unexpected.


    Cedar turned to his brother and was surprised to see a completely serious expression on Theodore''s face. “What? Do you mean...”


    “I told you that we could make an adoption contract that would officially state Althea as your mother. I can assure you that she wouldn''t have minded. We can sign that as soon as you give your permission, and after that, you could even...address Mother more closely if you want to. Or you can do that now already. I know that this is your choice, but...” He hesitated for a second. Then he continued in an even lower volume. “Hearing how you address a woman who did nothing but harm you as your mother pains me.”


    Maybe it did.


    But Cedar didn''t want to answer the question. He couldn''t just stop seeing Camille as his mother. She had raised him, even if there had been countless bad moments. He did care for her to some extent, even if this affection had only been created because he had desperately wished for his mother to look at him with love for decades. Even if most of his positive feelings for her had been overshadowed by dislike and some bits of hatred.


    Cedar already wasn''t able to come to a conclusion here, but this whole matter was even more complicated than that.


    Even if Theodore didn''t blame his brother, the prince knew that Althea would never have forgiven him if she was asked. Using her kindness and her angelic patience as an excuse to make her adopt the person who had tried to kill her beloved son multiple times was horrible.


    Cedar wouldn''t be able to bring himself to do that. So, his answer remained the same. “I thank you for your consideration, but I doubt that making such a decision for a deceased person is a good idea. Let''s just leave it at that.”


    Unfortunately, Theodore didn''t seem to be fine with it. He just continued. “Mother wouldn''t be mad. She would be glad to know that you aren''t forced to interact with Camille anymore. She really did worry about you in the past.” He averted his eyes and stared at the grave in front of him. “She probably noticed that you were going through much more than we could imagine even while I was just a jealous idiot who worried about losing my position as the crown prince.” Why did he sound so bitter now? “She probably wanted to help, but even she had no idea what really had happened. If she or I had known about how bad it truly was, we wouldn''t...” He didn''t finish this sentence. He just narrowed his eyes and stared at the grave. Theodore didn''t even really seem angry right now. He was both a little mad and frustrated, but regret was definitely the more prominent emotion on his face.


    Cedar felt strange upon seeing that. He scanned his brother for a while and almost expected another word to follow, but nothing came. He had planned on staying quiet, but the longer this went on, the more he wanted to break the silence. “You are awfully emotional today. Maybe it would be better if...we return when you are ready.” Was proposing that when they had just arrived fine? Cedar didn''t know. Reading people''s emotions off their faces was one thing, using someone''s weak spots was easy too. But comforting someone was rather difficult. If he ever consoled someone, it was Lucille, and he just hugged her then. He couldn''t do that with Theodore. He was unsure of what to say and what to act like. That was rare.


    A few seconds passed before Theodore replied. “I''m fine. I was just...thinking about the past. There are a lot of things I would like to change in hindsight, starting with our childhood. I won''t have that chance again, so I shouldn''t even think about this, but it''s still in the back of my mind. There was so much pain that we could have prevented if we just...if I had just known. But I didn''t know. So, I just saw the world in black and white and never considered how others...how you felt.” He glanced at his brother with an expression the prince didn''t like at all.


    Cedar was pretty sure that he wouldn''t even get used to seeing so much regret on the perfect emperor''s face. He still had no idea what to say, so he chose to just be honest. “But you never did anything wrong. The problems started with Mother and no one else.”


    Theodore remained silent for a moment and then continued at the exact moment that his brother had wanted to resume. “That''s right. So, keep that in mind. That woman was the one hurting everyone around her. You aren''t to blame nor is anyone else. And even if it''s regretful, we can''t turn back time. This has to be enough. We won''t be able to change the past, but at least we can shape the future into something we like.” Theodore hesitated for a short moment again before he directed his gaze at the graves again. “From now on, you won''t ever be alone anymore. Don''t forget that.”


    Cedar was a bit confused by that statement. He turned to his brother, but the emperor didn''t look at him.


    Instead, Theodore just put his hand on Cedar''s back.


    The prince had no idea how to act after that. He just froze in place and waited for more words that could explain this, but his brother didn''t speak. Neither did Cedar. None of them said anything and just continued to stand there in silence.


    The mood was still a bit grim due to the location, but at the same time, it was different from before. It was a very odd feeling. Maybe that was also because it was the first time that Cedar''s smile had completely disappeared in front of his brother. It wasn''t like Theodore was looking, but still, this was extremely unusual. Cedar''s smile would come back in just a few seconds, but that didn''t make the moment less special.