After breakfast, Arabella summoned Aletha to ask about her brother's condition. And she discovered what she read in Ferdinand's thoughts was the truth.
Aletha and everyone else in the palace were ordered by her parents not to tell Arabella the truth about her brother's condition. The maids were told to say Benjamin has already recovered so Arabella wouldn't have to worry about anything and just focus on her marriage.
"Milady, how did you know about the truth?" Aletha inquired nervously.
[I avoided mentioning Prince Benjamin at all costs. How did Milady still learn about it? Did someone disobey the King and Queen and wrote it in the letters?]
"My husband told me. He sent his mage to Lobelius so my Brother Benjamin is fine now. Ferdinand told me this morning that Brother could go back to his normal daily activities," Arabella explained and Aletha gasped in awe.
"P-Prince Benjamin is already cured?!" Aletha was obviously relieved and happy.
"Yes, Ferdinand's mage headed to Lobelius yesterday and returned this morning."
[His Majesty's mage is amazing! We were all worried and scared that Prince Benjamin might die. But he was cured so quickly by His Majesty's mage?! The King and Queen, and everyone else in Lobelius wouldn't have to worry anymore. Milady won't be distracted here either.]
Arabella understood it was a big issue if Benjamin dies or remain crippled due to injury. The heir would have to change to their younger brother who was still fifteen and was not yet suited for the position.
If Benjamin dies or remains unconscious for long, Lobelius would have been attacked by neighboring kingdoms upon seeing the opportunity if not for Arabella's marriage to Ferdinand. Their kingdom was now under the protection of the mighty Valerian Empire.
It meant her marriage prevented Lobelius from bloodshed so it had to continue no matter what was happening back home or else the situation would be even worse.
But it doesn't mean everyone should leave her out of the loop.
In her previous life, she had been feeling bitter for long mistakenly thinking her parents had abandoned her here in Valeria just because Benjamin got in a bit of an accident. Who would have thought it was something so serious?
Because she was not informed, she was bitter about the wrong things since she went to her own conclusions with her limited perspective.
"Aletha, I summoned you here to have an ally. But if even you, lie to me, who would I rely on in this foreign land?" Arabella glared, pretending to be angry.
"I'm so sorry, Milady. I couldn't disobey His and Her Majesty. I also didn't want you to be sad when you have just gotten married," Aletha kneeled down.
"You are my personal maid once again. Your punishment is mine to decide. My parents won't able to punish you anyway as long as they don't know you have disobeyed. And you are here in the empire, not Lobelius. From now on, you have to tell me everything," Arabella sternly said.
"Yes, Milady. I will report everything I know from now on," Aletha kept kneeling and apologizing until Arabella told her she could stand.
. . .
The following day, Arabella had breakfast with Ferdinand again. After the meal, they walked together in the garden and had tea at one of the gazebos.
Even the garden itself was only beautified after their engagement was made official.
Arabella read from Ferdinand's Head Butler's mind, it was the ministers who insisted the garden and the palace itself be beautified to a ladies taste for it to be an appropriate place to welcome an Empress.
She formerly thought the palace and the garden were both beautiful because it was the empire. They had a lot of resources. Who would have thought it wasn't this pretty before?
The palace looked grand even before the improvements but it looked more scary than beautiful. They made the changes because of Ferdinand's marriage with her.
It was their pride to have the most beautiful lady in the continent be their Empress so they ensured to make things top-notch so other Kingdoms who vied for her hand wouldn't have a say.
It was Prime Minister Raymond's idea to copy some features of the Lobelius palace and garden to make Arabella feel at home.
The other ministers contributed other ideas as well.
They worked hard compared to Ferdinand who didn't care about such things and was bored even at his own wedding.
Ferdinand's subjects were loyal to a fault because they loved his strength. Their empire earned new territories in Ferdinand's term. And of course, it meant more resources for the empire.
"A pleasant morning, Your Majesty. . ."
Arabella was surprised when Raymond and Alwin suddenly arrived and greeted them.
[The empress is truly the most beautiful lady. No wonder even His Majesty fell in love.] Raymond smiled with such a thought.
'Huh?! What the hell is he thinking about? Ferdinand is not in love with me,' Arabella almost grimaced upon hearing such thoughts from the Prime Minister.
But then, something caught her attention.
She was not picking up anything from Alwin. The mage was clearly thinking about something but Arabella could not hear or see his thoughts at all.
And was it just her imagination or did Alwin glare at her for a second?
"Ah, this is Alwin. He is my mage. You haven't met him before since he was always at the magic tower even on the day of our wedding," Ferdinand introduced.
Arabella could read Ferdinand and Raymond's thoughts just fine but she could not get a glimpse of Alwin's.
Arabella learned that if she gazed into a person's eyes, she could hear their thoughts and also get a glimpse of what they were thinking about at the moment. Once she looks elsewhere, she could still hear their thoughts if they were close enough, but could no longer see what the person was thinking about.
So even if she could not get a glimpse of Alwin's thoughts, she should be able to hear what he was thinking about. But there was nothing at all. It was so strange since Alwin's mind was clearly not blank.
'What's going on? Does this ability also have its limits or specifications on whom I could use it on? Or mages could protect themselves from something like this?'
She realized she needed to be more careful since there may be more people whose thoughts she could not hear or see.
As far as she knew, Alwin is very much loyal to Ferdinand. If she did anything suspicious in front of Alwin, she might be in danger.