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Chapter 11
A Fragile Imperial Princess (2)
“May I ask what exactly is happening here?”
At the familiar voice, Elia wanted to turn her head and look at him, but her body had long since stopped obeying her control, so she could not move at all.
“The Knight Commander of the Kingdom of Veronica?”
If it was the Knight Commander of the Kingdom of Veronica, then it had to be Aaron. The voice had sounded familiar, and now she recognized it as his.
Perhaps because he believed Elia was already trapped in his grasp, Livius spoke in a relaxed voice as though this were his own room. Hidden beneath it was obvious irritation.
Move. Move.
Elia desperately shouted inside her head, and at the same time she heard the words, “Excuse me.”
In the next instant, the scene before her eyes changed.
Livius had both arms twisted behind his back by Aaron before being thrown harshly onto the floor. Standing extremely close before her was Aaron himself.
“It seemed Her Highness was being disrespected, so I acted rudely myself.”
He was not particularly gentle, but Aaron—the man she liked so much—was standing right in front of her.
The moment she realized he had freed her from Livius, tears unconsciously streamed down her face.
She wanted to say something, but for an entirely different reason than before, the words would not come out easily.
“First, you should calm—”
Before Aaron could even finish speaking, Elia’s vision suddenly went dark.
Aaron found it strange that no letter had arrived from Elia even after half a month.
Whether the letters came or not was none of his business, but she had clearly called for him because she wanted something from him, and she had also been the one to begin exchanging letters with him.
So for all contact to suddenly stop without a single word felt strange.
“It seems letters from Imperial Princess Elia haven’t been arriving lately?”
Lotte must have also found it strange, because once they were alone together, she casually asked the question.
It was not something Aaron personally needed to concern himself with, but because it could be related to diplomacy, he decided to answer sincerely.
“Yes.”
“Did something happen?”
“No. I do not know the reason either.”
“From what I heard about Imperial Princess Elia’s personality, she doesn’t seem like the type to suddenly stop writing without saying anything.”
Aaron, who had suspected Elia might have some hidden motive, turned his gaze toward Lotte at her words.
“What exactly did Your Highness hear?”
“Why? Are you interested?”
“Yes.”
The question carried several meanings, but Aaron answered plainly without hesitation.
Lotte, who knew his personality well, recalled the stories she had heard long ago and still found uninteresting even now.
“I heard that, for an Imperial Princess, she is an incredibly innocent person. They said she believes every word people say to her is sincere.”
“I see.”
“They also said she doesn’t know how to refuse people, so even His Majesty the Emperor struggled because of it. They said it was actually fortunate that she became sick and now stays inside the palace.”
Aaron slowly nodded as he remembered meeting Elia.
He still believed she probably had some hidden intentions, yet he had never felt any dishonesty in her words.
“So there must be some reason. Why don’t you go check on her once?”
“There is no need to go that far—”
“Aaron, I know you don’t trust others easily, but from another perspective, you could become the connection between the Empire and us. You know that I was only able to visit the Empire because Her Highness reached out to you first, right?”
Aaron tightly shut his mouth at Lotte’s words and gaze.
He knew very well how badly she wished to meet the Emperor of the Rier Empire.
Although he had felt uneasy about receiving an invitation for unknown reasons, it had been an imperial order, and Lotte herself wanted to go, so he had no choice.
And now, once again, he had no choice but to travel to the Empire to find out why Elia had stopped sending letters.
And so he headed toward the Rier Empire.
Following the maid’s explanation that Elia’s room had been moved, Aaron arrived at the location, only to find that another guest seemed to already be inside.
It appeared the maids had failed to communicate properly with each other and had guided Aaron there anyway.
As he stood there wondering what to do, he heard a man’s voice from inside.
“Will you not regret this?”
A maid who appeared to be Elia’s personal attendant stood outside the open door with her eyes closed, as though silently ignoring everything happening inside the room.
“If you simply stay still and listen to me, things will be easier for you. Hmm?”
As Aaron approached closer to the door, the threatening voice reached his ears clearly.
Sensing something was wrong, he walked past the maids who were exchanging glances and entered the room.
Inside stood a man and woman pressed closely together, along with a guard awkwardly standing nearby.
“May I ask what exactly is happening here?”
Once he calmly looked over the situation, Aaron saw that the woman—Elia—was stiffly trembling while trapped in the man’s arms.
“The Knight Commander of the Kingdom of Veronica?”
Aaron confirmed that the man holding Elia—Livius—was the same person whose voice he had heard from outside.
Without hesitation, he twisted both of Livius’s arms behind his back and threw him away.
Because he had pulled Livius away so roughly, Elia’s body staggered, and Aaron quickly supported her before speaking to the confused-looking Elia.
“It seemed Her Highness was being disrespected, so I acted rudely myself.”
Normally, Aaron would never have acted this way.
But Elia’s condition was clearly terrible, no matter how anyone looked at it.
Elia’s shocked gaze moved between Livius and Aaron, and the moment Aaron saw tears running down her face, he understood that this was not a situation where he should start asking questions.
“I think you should rest first.”
Before he could even finish speaking, Elia lost consciousness.
Aaron let out a deep sigh internally.
He had only intended to confirm why she had stopped sending letters before returning home, but now returning quickly had become nearly impossible.
The maids had already told him that Elia had been bedridden for days before.
This would probably happen again.
“Ugh, you!”
Aaron lifted Elia into his arms bridal-style and faced the now-standing Livius.
Seeing the irritation covering Livius’s face, Aaron released a short breath before slightly lowering and raising his head.
“Please excuse me.”
Only now did Aaron realize that the man with Elia was Marquis Livius, the noble infamous for cruelly exploiting farmers and merchants.
Even if Aaron knew little about palace affairs, news from throughout the Empire quickly reached both Lotte and himself as her escort knight.
Especially stories involving nobles.
And among the many stories he remembered was one about a young marquis named Livius, who had become wealthy by mercilessly exploiting peasants.
“How dare you! Do you even know who I am?!”
Ignoring the shouting Livius, who still seemed unable to stand properly, Aaron calmly carried Elia away while following the guidance of the maids toward the physician’s room.
Since the physician’s room was right next door, Livius’s furious shouting could still be heard clearly, but Aaron paid little attention to it.
He merely thought:
So the rumors about Livius were true after all.
“It would be best to return Her Highness to her room after the Marquis leaves.”
“Yes.”
Once the maids finally calmed Livius down and sent him away, the outside became quiet again.
Aaron carefully carried Elia back into her room.
After confirming that Elia had fallen asleep peacefully on the bed, the maid following behind said she would fetch the physician and left the room.
‘They are leaving an outsider alone with the Imperial Princess?’
Aaron looked down at Elia while wondering if the Empire’s standards were simply different from his own.
He wanted to properly confirm the truth before returning, but leaving his post for too long was something Aaron personally found difficult to tolerate.
He was the escort knight of Lotte, the ruler of the Kingdom of Veronica.
Leaving her side for an extended period of time was unacceptable.
No matter how many other knights existed, if he himself was not protecting her, then he could trust no one else.
Yet it was also a problem to return from such a distant Empire empty-handed after coming all this way.
‘What should I do?’
After thinking deeply for a while, Aaron decided to wait just one day.
If he returned immediately, he would never hear the end of Lotte’s scolding.
Elia opened her eyes feeling as though her entire body had been beaten.
Seeing the bluish sky outside, she realized it was dawn.
Her last memory was Aaron rescuing her from Livius.
“Right… Aaron.”
Though startled by how cracked and hoarse her voice sounded, Elia quickly rang the bell beside her bed.
The nanny hurried over and repeatedly insisted that it was too early for her to be awake and that she needed more rest.
But to Elia, that was only the second problem.
The nanny came rushing over so quickly after hearing the bell now.
Then where had she been back then, when such loud noises had filled the room, yet she never appeared once?
