TRFDTV ~ 23

Chapter – 23

“Please write an official letter. One that clearly states His Majesty has ordered the selection of the Crown Princess.”
“What?”

The Emperor doubted his ears, but Ludwig repeated it very clearly.

“Please issue an official letter stating that this matter pertains to the selection of the Crown Princess, not the Grand Duchess.”

“Grand Duke.”

At the Emperor’s call, laden with bewilderment, Ludwig closed and opened his eyes deeply once.

And at his following words, the Emperor forgot all decorum and could only gape.

“I wish for it. I wish for the young lady of Bolschevik, Asilli, to harbor not a single doubt about her position. I wish for her to feel not a speck of anxiety. Therefore.”

Ludwig bared his teeth at the Emperor for the first time.

For no one else, not even for himself, but for just one person.
For Asilli.

He genuinely wished for it.
For her not to feel anxious over such trivial matters.

Several days had passed since she suddenly found herself in this world, and on the surface, she seemed fine, unlike at first.

But Ludwig, who hadn’t taken his eyes off Asilli, knew.
She was still in an extremely unstable state, as if everything she had been standing on had been turned upside down in an instant, plummeting into a precarious void.

Even if nothing happened, she might freeze up at any moment, unable to even breathe.

If the position he had prepared for her were to shake, or even if she merely felt that it was…

For her, the only thing he could do was to firmly hold onto her, always, in any situation.

“Please write the official letter.”

At that voice, hard as steel, an indescribable expression briefly flitted across the Emperor’s face before disappearing.

And in its place, a cunningness seeped in.

There should have been no ‘person’ who could move the Grand Duke.
No, for someone who initially seemed to have no weaknesses at all, his first weakness turning out to be a person.

How convenient this was.

The evaluation of Asilli, which had been focused on ‘Bolschevik,’ began to tilt towards ‘the one the Grand Duke has taken a liking to.’

The Emperor did not beat around the bush.

“Is the young lady of Bolschevik that important?”

“Yes.”

Ludwig did not deny it either.

There are many ways to protect someone precious.

One is to truly let the whole neighborhood know they are precious and clearly indicate that you will not stand idly by if they are touched.

Another is to treat them as if they are not precious, or even unnecessary, so that no one pays them any mind.

Ludwig chose the former.

Because in no circumstance could he ever call Asilli useless or unnecessary.

And since he could protect Asilli from anyone except the Emperor, there was no need to hide it anyway.

There was only one person against whom he could not protect her.
Herself.

He had barely, truly barely, managed to pull up those blue pupils that were losing their light, turning gray and fading away.

But still.
That was only possible because she was looking only at him, not at what lay below.

At any moment. No, every time she realized this world was not her world.
She would fall.

He dared not even try to fathom it.
How could he possibly fathom all that she must have felt, when in the blink of an eye her world was turned upside down and she was left alone in a completely unfamiliar place?

The way she would huddle and fall asleep by his side, inevitably, rather than going to the room with the bed.
She always closed her eyes as if fainting, rather than simply falling asleep, curled up small on the large sofa.
The skin that brushed against his fingertips was soft and warm, but he would rather feel nothing, as in his dreams…

“Why?”

It was the Emperor’s question that brought Ludwig, who had been heading towards Asilli, back to reality.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, why? What is so special about her? That you, Grand Duke, value so highly someone you’ve known for only a few days?”

The Emperor’s question was, on the surface, a natural one.
Even the Emperor, who had seen Ludwig all his life, never thought he would ever consider someone ‘special.’
He was someone who, upon seeing or encountering anything in the world, always had eyes that said nothing seemed new or interesting.
For such a man to effectively publicly declare someone precious…

“Don’t tell me it’s love at first…”

Before the Emperor could even finish his sentence, Ludwig continued.

“It was love at first sight.”

It was such a firm answer that it seemed to shut the other person up, as if there was no better explanation.

“I… see. Love at first sight.”

The Emperor nodded, though still skeptical, but he had no choice but to believe it if Ludwig himself said it was love at first sight.

“Yes.”

In truth, it was far from love at first sight.
His first meeting with her started with her biting his arm, so how could it have been love at first sight?
A faint smile, unbeknownst even to himself, spread on Ludwig’s lips as he recalled his first meeting with her, which was not just unconventional but downright destructive.

He drove the point home, adding.
“I never thought I would experience the saying ‘love is blind’ firsthand, but it truly is so.”

Saying this should make it a bit easier for her to move around in the future.

“Huh… Hoo.”

As more and more words, which he never thought would come out of Ludwig’s mouth, poured forth, the Emperor decided to retreat for now.

The moon wanes after it is full, and love is not eternal.
For now, it was time to watch what this woman, backed by the Grand Duke’s blind love and the Bolschevik family, would do.
Judging by the incident at the Grand Duchess’s party and the events that followed, she didn’t seem to be completely thoughtless.
In fact, it would be better if her head were completely empty, so she might wield these privileges recklessly and bring about her own downfall.
No, could he perhaps guide it that way?
If handled well, perhaps he could use her to shake the Grand Duke and firmly solidify the Crown Prince’s position.

As the Emperor’s interest in Asilli deepened, Ludwig stood up without even asking for permission.

“If you have finished what you wished to say, I shall take my leave. Asilli is not feeling well.”

To words he would never have uttered under normal circumstances, a reason he would never have given was attached.

The Emperor nodded with a broad smile.

“Indeed. I shall see her soon. This time, together.”

“She is of delicate health.”

“I shall not force it. And regarding the official letter, I shall issue it immediately.”

“I shall prepare for the selection of the Grand Duchess.”

“I already have something in mind, so I will send a messenger soon.”

Ludwig bowed his head deeply, then turned without hesitation.

“Ah, wait, Grand Duke.”

Ludwig, who was about to leave through the door, paused. Before he could even turn around, the Emperor asked.

“I hear the Crown Prince is showing interest?”

He didn’t specify the object, but there was only one person who had recently caught the Crown Prince’s eye, or rather, only one person.

“She is the Grand Duchess.”

With that curt reply, Ludwig disappeared. Left alone, the Emperor pressed his temples.

“Grand Duchess… She must be the Grand Duchess.”

She must be the Grand Duchess.
Is she not the woman with whom Ludwig fell in love at first sight?
He would never allow the Crown Prince to approach her.

But the Emperor couldn’t shake off a sense of unease.
No matter how much he anticipated what mischief the Crown Prince might get up to and laid various plans, the result always seemed to go in the direction the Crown Prince wanted.
He didn’t know what kind of strange harmony it was, but even Ludwig seemed to be dragged around by the Crown Prince, didn’t he?
Well, it was possible precisely because the Grand Duke allowed it.

“Looked at from that angle, it’s perfect, but…”

The fatal problem with that ‘perfect’ aspect was the fact that the Crown Prince never wished for anything that would benefit the future throne.

“Tch, tsk tsk.”

The Emperor’s clicking tongue merely dissipated without reaching the Crown Prince.

Around the time Ludwig was having his audience with the Emperor.

Whether it was planned or a coincidence, the Crown Prince visited the Grand Ducal residence.

There had been no invitation or prior arrangement, but the Crown Prince was confident.
This kind of visit wasn’t a one or two-time occurrence, and Ludwig wasn’t one to get angry and scold him for his rudeness every single time.

“We greet His Highness the Crown Prince.”
“Greetings.”

“Ah, that’s enough, go about your work. No need to bow and scrape like that every time.”

No matter what he said, what servant would dare not bow when the Crown Prince passed by?
Though completely unrealistic, having tossed out words that only sounded good, the Crown Prince, not hiding his delighted expression, unhesitatingly moved his steps to find Asilli.

After their short but intense first meeting, he had thought she was unusual, but…

“I had no idea she would be this interesting.”

A jewel hidden inside a leftover pie? And the murder weapon was ice, so it melted and disappeared?
He had been itching to hear the detailed story.

The fact that the Crown Prince had only managed to show his face here now was likely thanks to his aide desperately holding onto his coattails and persuading him.

‘Your Highness, please, at least after the matter is concluded…’

Of course, the aide had added that they should formally announce their visit after the series of events were fully over, but the words never entered the Crown Prince’s ears, simply bouncing off.

The aide should consider himself lucky he wasn’t here to see the Crown Prince patting himself on the back for having restrained himself this long.

The Crown Prince lightly stepped into the Grand Ducal residence as if floating.

It wasn’t that the security of the Grand Ducal residence was lax. A hundred out of a hundred people asked would say they wouldn’t even dare to try to enter.

The reason the Crown Prince could come and go so freely here was that he knew the secret passages of the Grand Ducal residence, and Ludwig had tacitly allowed it.

‘It’s my brother’s house, after all!’

Even to the Crown Prince’s unreasonable demand to be shown the secret routes of the Grand Duke’s residence, Ludwig had nodded without much thought.

And it was understandable. For….