Quick Transmigration: Saving The Crazy Villainess

Chapter 358: Agatha (56) <2-in-1>

Since the day the Grey couple disappeared from the city together with the duke's trusted subordinates, Agatha felt like the air of the place had become much fresher. As for Jiang Li and Margarette's disappearance, it caused the skies to look more beautiful and brighter than ever.

The royal consort could be seen in a better mood than ever since then. Francis IV even pointed it out one time to her.

"What made my lovely consort so happy these past few days?" he asked dotingly one afternoon when he visited her palatial residence.  

"Because I realized there are just things a person better be without?" she laughingly said, to the puzzlement of the other.

Francis IV looked at her for a long time, but the woman only kept that tantalizing smile on her face, so the king could only reply helplessly, "I don't think I understand. But, as long as you are happy."

A month passed since the failed trial for Marian. Agatha discovered something atop her dressing table. It just magically appeared. There was not even the slightest magical fluctuation or any sign.

It was a letter.

The woman freaked out for some time, wondering which witch or magician blackmailer sent it to her. On top of the list inside her name was naturally that name that had left a bad impression on her.

'Did he return?'

'Is he back in terrorizing the witches and nobles of the capital?' 

Her heart was initially pounding from nervousness. But it almost stopped when she confirmed Jiang Li was really the sender after flipping the envelope. Only the initial JL was there and even though she didn't know what L means, based on the handwriting, she was sure it was 'James'.

Before checking out the letter inside it, she had first instinctively thrown the whole thing away. Buried deep within her heart was the fear that the person had something bad stored for her again. What if it was really a blackmail? She told herself, if that person bothered her in the future, she would deny seeing the letter. Of course, the best scenario was for him to not show up ever.

'... I really hope he dies somewhere or simply never return.' While sipping on her calming tea, her eyes were darting everywhere. Thankfully, the tea took effect a few minutes later and the matter was forgotten. 

However before the nave villainess could truly breathe freely, she saw the letter appear inside her room again the following morning. It was her most favorite lady-in-waiting who discovered it in her bed. 

"Milady, is this something you made?" Sonia asked in confusion seeing it was underneath the consort's pillow.

The lady-in-waiting probably never thought there would be someone who could place an item like that in Agatha's bed without alerting the maids or the guards. It could only be the royal consort herself.

Because of jumping into conclusion, Sonia failed to notice that her lady's face immediately turned extremely pale. Thinking the consort was speechless because she took out the envelope without permission, she hurriedly said, "I beg your pardon, Your Highness. If it's something very confidential and important, I'm more than willing to vow to not divulge about its existence to anyone."

Watching the woman respectfully place it atop the dressing table before withdrawing from there, Agatha murmured while panting for breath. "... I don't believe these are all not arranged by that malevolent spirit!"

Agatha took some time freaking out, wanting to throw it away again. But when she realized if the letter could come back today, of course, it could come back tomorrow and the following day. That James was really not giving her any option other than to open the white envelope.  

Agatha closed her eyes and made an aggrieved expression before finally summoning the courage to check what the guy wrote. " I don't believe I can't deal with something from somebody half my age!"

Upon opening her eyes, she was left dumbfounded by what she saw. A whole wall of undecipherable text written in beautiful scripts and she had no idea which country's alphabet they were from. 

What was the meaning of this? Even blackmails now had to be in a language that one would need to decode? Her expression turned blank. 

At the bottom was the only line that she understood. 'Bring this to the king.' Nothing else.

Should she show the letter to Francis IV? What if it was, from the beginning, some sort of scheme targeting the king? Like a vicious spell that only activates in the presence of a man? There was no way she could follow the instruction then!

'Forget it. Back to the real plan. Treat like I never saw anything.'

Days passed. In the end, she treated like the letter had become non-existent.

Yet as if it was a work of fate, Francis IV discovered it when he visited her place without warning. It was too late when she learned about it as there was no way she could take back what the king fancied. All Agatha could do was to pull her hair and resent Jiang Li. Why did the damn letter appear in the most conspicuous place when the king visited?

Since then, the king's way of looking at her changed. His treatment of her become better and there were many doctors and herbalists summoned into the palace ordered to concoct something the king refused to tell her.

Agatha was very concerned and inquired about the content of the letter. 

His reply? Silence and an ashamed expression.

For some unknown reason, this king was not aware, and in turn, not bothered by Agatha's infertility. Since he was mysteriously kept in the dark, for years, there was no action done from his side to comfort the woman who was actually secretly drowning in her insecurities and fears.

It stemmed from the fact that as a person who already experienced the joys and pains of being a parent, he was okay with or without children. Or rather, he thought an additional offspring would only complicate the matter of succession.

Before bringing back Agatha to the palace, which was before he awakened his memories, he already had several kids from the queens of the other lower concubines, hence the lack of desire to have another kid.

He really never imagined that his beloved wife of several lifetimes had become very desperate and evil just to cure this particular defect.

Francis IV thought to himself, perhaps, outside kingdom management and wars, he was truly an idiot.

It was only through his mysteriously hostile but sometimes friendly fellow transmigrator that he came to know about Agatha's problem. But even though he immediately made a move to check the validity of the cure, he was still depressed and felt like a useless husband.

Months later, it was proven that the Great Deity's concoction was an effective all-cure. It naturally made the whole palace noisy, but while some people were happy, there was some losing sleep over the issue. 

"Your Majesty, this is bad! The royal consort... She..."

News about Agatha's so-awaited pregnancy reached the Queen's ears through the mouth of an anxious retainer. Her family members visited her one after another to sound out her reaction and check whether things were going bad for her.

However, while everyone else was wearing a bleak atmosphere around them, the woman whose appearance was not that inferior from Agatha despite being older than the latter only smiled.

Her father, Duke Legrand couldn't endure the impatience and mixed feelings in his heart and spoke, "Your Majesty, the royal consort is currently the talk of the town for being pregnant with the king's child. The royal physician confirmed it's a male. Are we just letting this go on?"

Worry showed on the aged man's face.

In the court, this the duke was one of the most feared individuals, the devil nobody wanted to cross in fear of their everything getting taken away from them. But now, he was simply an old father worrying over a daughter.

But how could he not worry? From the moment the Queen married Francis IV, all she got was a polite relationship with him. This politeness was limited to letting her keep all the benefits of being a queen. The whole nation knew that Agatha was the apple of his eyes.

No matter which angle one looked at it, the Queen's life was not satisfactory, and she was even living under the shadow of a woman who had already been a concubine of the previous king. Obnoxious!

Now that malevolent star was even pregnant. Wouldn't the vile spawn birthed by this person threaten the Queen's son?

Duke Legrand felt so much sadness the more he thought about it. Anger was also present, and he sometimes wanted to go back to the past to slap the old him who let his precious daughter enter the palace. 

'It's the price of my ambition...'

The Queen seemingly read the thoughts in the duke's brain but she shook her head, a bit amused. "Father, it's okay. From the beginning, all I want is to be the most distinguished woman in this kingdom. I don't desire affection from His Majesty. I'm already content for I have already accomplished this wish. His Majesty will never abolish me nor my son from our positions."

What backed her confidence? The old duke fell silent as he wondered. He knitted his forehead, "My daughter, you seemed to be underestimating the gravity of the situation."

Seeing the confusion of the old man, the regal lady smiled, "No. Father. I'm clear about what's happening, and I know what will happen in the future. Believe me or not, father, I already feel lucky. The king is stupid because he missed a fine woman like me. But at least he's not as stupid as the other kings who did everything to kick out their first wife to enthrone another."

The duke was a witness of how many women failed to climb up and push the Queen out of the pedestal. But a father's indignance was hard to ease.

"Still, aren't you feeling wronged?"

"No." The Queen shook her head. "The affection between a man and a woman seems to be a very beautiful thing. But it's not something everybody can obtain. We don't love each other. It's better to let them be. I assure you His Majesty won't change anything even if the Royal Consort gave birth to a son." 

A playful grin formed on the woman's luscious lips. "Anyways, don't I have you as my backing?"

The stern Duke Legrand didn't know whether to feel flattered by her obviously joking remark, so he chose silence again, with his lips occasionally twitching.

The beautiful woman whose elegance was even a level above Margarette gave a thin smile and then began to steer the conversation away from Agatha's pregnancy. She was not affected.

In royal families, it was not unusual to find women who had long given up on finding true love. Princesses, queens, and consorts were tools for marriage to strengthen a ruler's power. As the majority of them were educated from a very young age to be devoted to the country and their clans, they were aware that while they could have anything, love and freedom would be some of the exceptions.

The queen, from childhood, had received the same kind of education and had prepared herself to be wedded to one of the princes. She knew she was excellent so there was no escaping from this fate. For such an excellent woman, finding a royal member willing to give her everything apart from love was already good enough.

The dignified smile of the woman remained on her face.

She thought, 'Why be sad over a man who has chosen to love another? Affection between strangers from opposite sexes is not the only type of love in this world... A woman might find a good lover, but has bad parents, or offsprings. Or has good father and son, but no lover. I happen to fall into the second type. We lose as we gain.'

Years later, her claims would be proven right.

Despite the attempts of the ambitious woman to steal her seat, Agatha never succeeded. The king had honored his words from their teenage days when the Queen accepted the arranged marriage. 'If I couldn't learn to love you, I will make sure to give you the best quality of life possible. I will shelter you from all the storms and difficulties. Miss Fiona Legrand, you will be my only Queen in this lifetime.'