Reborn as a Mind-Reading Empress
Chapter 495: Destress with A Meal

Chapter 495: Destress with A Meal

’How excited was Ferdinand to teach him?’

Arabella hoped to see it with her own eyes someday.

But it could wait.

For now, she’s simply glad that she’s assured Fermin would be born as their son no matter what.

That was more than enough of an assurance for her, so she no longer gets sad when she recalls him.

She could look forward to the future and think that she doesn’t have to worry since they would surely meet someday and be able to hold him in her arms too.

. . .

"Oh, we have already reached the meet-up point," Ferdinand said when the carriage stopped moving.

"That was quick," Arabella glanced at the window, and they were indeed already where they met up with the Duke earlier.

It felt so short since they were busy talking.

"I’ll speak with Duke Olivier," Ferdinand volunteered since Arabella could not go out with Dimo still sound asleep.

"Thank you."

Ferdinand opened the door before Rendell could, hopped out, and closed it quickly. He did not want the Duke to see that Dimo was using her chest as a pillow.

[Where is Dimo and Her Majesty?]

Duke Olivier glanced at the carriage when only Ferdinand was out.

[Dimo was crying so much earlier. Is he alright now? I hope His Majesty did not get annoyed by it if he kept crying inside.]

"The child had fallen asleep, and My Empress is taking care of him," Ferdinand answered the Duke’s unvoiced question.

"I see. I am ever grateful to Her Majesty for her kindness."

[He must have been exhausted. I wanted to see him and give him a hug. But I guess I’ll do it later once I have resolved things here. Her Majesty must have already explained the situation to him as well.]

The Duke once again thanked them for taking care of Dimo and helping him with this issue. He talked with Ferdinand for a bit before they said goodbyes and Ferdinand returned into the carriage.

With their business done in Olivier, it was time to head to Riva.

"Are you ready?" Ferdinand asked.

"Yes," Arabella laughed lightly. It’s not like she’s going to battle or anything once they are back at the Imperial Palace.

"Teleport us to the Magic Tower," Ferdinand ordered.

’Right. We are heading there first.’

"Yes, Your Majesty."

In a matter of seconds, they were in the Magic Tower and Dimo was brought to his room.

"Shall we have lunch first?" Ferdinand invited.

"Oh, yes. Of course. Time went by quickly."

It would indeed be better to destress with food first before proceeding to the next issues they need to take care of.

"Alfredo, bring the food to the Magic Tower once it’s ready," Ferdinand contacted their Head Chef which was in Estrella.

While waiting, Ferdinand toured her around the Magic Tower.

It looked so different compared to how it was in her past life when it was already abandoned.

Alwin had maintained the aesthetics even in the Magic Tower and he also had an indoor flower garden that he was experimenting on. He was trying to grow flowers from Estrella here in Riva.

"I have seen these flowers in Estrella. But these ones have a faded hue compared to their counterparts in Estella," Arabella noticed.

"Ah, it’s because Estrella is rich with mana, so the color of the flowers differed a bit," Ferdinand explained. "Alwin usually releases some of his mana here to maintain these. But since he was not around, the colors began to fade. Even if the others also release some mana here, Alwin’s mana is much stronger."

Riley and the others had been very busy without Alwin so they could not afford to use their mana for these flowers when they had a lot more important matters to use it on.

Alwin had a lot of mana to spare even with all his limiters, after all.

’Even his flowers miss him. I hope he returns soon. Safe and sound,’ Arabella internally prayed for the nth time.

Simply mentioning Alwin had turned their conversation somewhat depressing, so they moved to Riley’s floor.

Just in time, Riley was watching over a magic orb showing Arabella’s assistants.

"Is that happening right now?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

It showed Arabella’s assistants leaving the office. They headed to the dining hall.

However, Nadia and Odette did not enter the same dining hall as the others.

’They indeed eat separately. Is the food the same? Or is she also making their food much less compared to them?’

Arabella got worried that they may be getting the same treatment as Narcissa had done to Ivan.

Thankfully, when the food was served, it was the same. They were simply eating separately.

’Is she holding back on treating them badly because I summoned Ivan?’

"Your Majesty, the food is ready," Alfredo arrived so her thoughts were cut.

"Let’s go and eat first. You must have been exhausted from earlier. Eat up first to replenish your energy," Ferdinand helped her up.

[Just listening to them converse was already a headache to me. Yet, she did all the talking and managed to manipulate the Duchess into signing the agreement. That’s rather quite a fit. Maybe I should bring her to troublesome negotiations sometimes. Ah, but it may be dangerous.]

’Oh my. Did I talk a bit too much earlier? If Alwin was here, he’d tell me I’m falling into old habits and would give that, I-am-watching-you look.’

"Yes, after seeing food, I felt my hunger," Arabella focused on the food so the manipulative part would be left alone.

Alfredo prepared quite a scrumptious meal for them. A mix of Valerian and Lobelian dishes.

Thus, both Arabella and Ferdinand had their fill, destressing from all the heaviness from earlier back in Olivier Castle.

They both only drank the tea there and did not dare touch the food since it meant it would have to be checked for poison. Likewise, they were not even in the mood to eat back there.

But with food prepared by Alfredo, they knew it was delectable before they even began eating.

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A/N:

I was not able to meet the 5 Chapters challenge. I’ll try again next time. Haha.