TPHBK 06

Chapter 6

“Even if you knew Her Highness before her coming-of-age ceremony, Sir Elias currently knows you as ‘Chloe Evergreen.’ My situation is different.”

“What…?”

That meant I would receive a penalty if Elias found out.

In other words, my hopes of being treated as a princess by Elias were completely dashed.

‘No! There goes my sleeping in and resting!’

My eyes stung at the loss of my hopes.

Even Elias couldn’t help me with my coming-of-age ceremony.

“You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”

The subject was omitted from my question, and Camilla couldn’t bring herself to answer.

The omitted subject was my older brother, the Crown Prince of the Empire.

I didn’t really need Camilla’s answer anyway.

I stomped my foot against the floor for no reason and complained.

“If it’s my brother, he did it one hundred percent on purpose, right? There’s no way he didn’t know that he could have told me beforehand, before sending Camilla to Elias.”

I clenched my teeth.

I wanted to take back the thanks I had given my brother for sending Camilla.

“Actually, His Highness the Crown Prince also left a message for you.”

“What is it?”

It was probably another teasing remark from him.

Still, I asked because I figured I might as well hear it.

Camilla lowered her voice more than usual, imitating my brother’s voice.

“‘Sir Elias is a man of principles, so he wouldn’t make things easier for you during your coming-of-age ceremony. It would be better for her if he simply didn’t know, since that would reduce the penalty.’ That is what His Highness said.”

Surprisingly, it was a perfectly reasonable and sensible message.

As soon as Camilla finished speaking, I imagined Elias saying, ‘Even if it is an assignment for your coming-of-age ceremony, you are currently a knight, so you should participate in the training.’

I had only seen him a few times, yet even his cold, indifferent expression in my imagination was disturbingly convincing, which put me in a bad mood.

“He does have a point.”

I felt my anger toward my brother quickly deflate.

“It’s a good thing I have you.”

I acted spoiled with Camilla.

“I’m also happy that I can be by Your Highness’s side, even if only like this.”

Camilla gently patted my shoulder.

I desperately held back the urge to whine to Camilla.

‘I’m an adult now, too.’

Instead, I lowered my voice and asked Camilla,

“Elias will be back soon, right?”

Camilla lowered her voice as well.

“He will probably take about ten more minutes.”

Ten minutes.

It was short, but depending on how I used it, it was enough time to make good use of.

I decided to use those ten minutes to get some information from Camilla.

“By the way, how did my brother find out about something like this?”

What I was most curious about was whether I was the only one who had been unaware of this.

There was quite a large age gap between the three siblings. My brother was six years older than me, while my sister was five years older.

‘What was my sister’s coming-of-age ceremony like again? What about my brother’s?’

Even when I thought back, I couldn’t remember anything particularly significant.

Twelve was an age when you quickly forgot things you weren’t interested in.

‘I do remember being really sad when my sister left, though. Maybe because I was a year older at the time, I understood that I wouldn’t be able to see her for a while.’

But I couldn’t remember anything about my brother’s coming-of-age ceremony, which had happened only a year earlier.

Now that I thought about it, that was strange.

As I stared at Camilla as though urging her to answer, she smiled awkwardly and gave me a brief explanation.

“I heard that His Highness the Crown Prince drew the ‘Imperial Prince Card’ during his coming-of-age ceremony.”

The role one would take during the coming-of-age ceremony was decided by drawing cards.

“What is that? So did my brother not have a coming-of-age ceremony?”

I asked indignantly, feeling unfairly treated by the thought that I was the only one suffering through this. Camilla carefully answered, apparently trying to comfort me.

“Because he drew the Imperial Prince Card instead of the Crown Prince Card. For one year, he was apparently unable to perform his duties as the Crown Prince.”

“What difference does that make?!”

My brother, the eldest of the three siblings, was the legitimate firstborn son of the Emperor.

The Empire absolutely followed a system of succession in which the eldest inherited the throne.

In other words, even if he wasn’t the Crown Prince, the eldest Imperial Prince was still first in line for the throne.

Of course, since he wasn’t the Crown Prince, he would have had to give up some of the duties he normally performed because he lacked the authority.

‘So didn’t he basically just get to enjoy a year off?’

It was my eighth day as a trainee knight.

I still hadn’t escaped the agony of full-body muscle soreness, so I was incredibly jealous of my brother.

‘I—I should have drawn the Imperial Princess Card.’

There were supposedly sixty-four role cards for the coming-of-age ceremony. Had I happened to draw the absolute worst card?

Camilla looked at my increasingly miserable expression and didn’t know what to do.

“I-I’ll do my very best to assist Your Highness, so…”

Camilla, who had a soft heart, anxiously tried to comfort me.

‘Relying on an adjutant instead of the captain isn’t such a bad way to go.’

I maintained my sorrowful expression while secretly smiling to myself.

It wasn’t Camilla’s fault that my brother had drawn the Imperial Prince Card while I had drawn the trainee knight card.

The easy path my brother had enjoyed was already out of reach, but if there was even a slightly easier path available to me, naturally I should take it.

I readily accepted Camilla’s offer.

“Really?”

Seeing how my expression changed in an instant, like the sky immediately after a sudden shower, Camilla looked at me with a hollow expression as though she had been tricked.

I gave her a bright smile.

Camilla winked with her left eye and smiled back helplessly.

Just then, the sound of the captain’s office door opening could be heard.

Camilla, whose hearing was sharp, noticed it first and gestured to me.

I immediately put on an expressionless face, as though Camilla and I had never been fooling around.

Camilla subtly moved away from me.

Elias entered the captain’s office and stopped for a moment.

A brief silence filled the room, and only afterward did Camilla silently mouth to me,

‘Stand up?’

Only then did I realize what position I had been sitting in.

‘It wasn’t enough to simply pretend not to know Camilla.’

I had been sitting comfortably on the captain’s office sofa even though I was merely a trainee knight and Elias, the captain, had just entered.

I hurriedly jumped to my feet as though I had only just noticed Elias’s presence.

“Welcome, Captain Elias!”

Fortunately, Elias didn’t seem bothered by the trainee knight’s insolent posture.

In the first place, he barely looked at me.

“Sir Camilla, it has been a while.”

Apparently, since she had just met with my brother, he had something to discuss with Camilla.

‘He really is surprisingly oblivious.’

That was fortunate for me.

I quietly moved toward a corner of the captain’s office.

Camilla subtly shifted to the side, positioning herself so that she would block me from view.

Only then did Camilla speak with Elias without paying attention to me.

“I heard from His Highness the Crown Prince. I was told that I would be serving as your adjutant while Princess Violetta is away.”

“That is correct. I look forward to working with you for the next year, Captain.”

It was common knowledge throughout the Empire that newly adult members of the imperial family were given some kind of task for one year.

Only Camilla and I stiffened slightly when Elias mentioned my name.

Elias offered Camilla a seat, and they began discussing work in earnest.

It seemed that Elias had already familiarized himself with all those thick handover documents.

‘Although he seems to need a little help deciding how to handle everything.’

Camilla listened to Elias’s explanations and offered various pieces of advice.

Because Camilla had studied under the same master as I had, her opinions were almost identical to the ones I had come up with.

I pretended not to listen while secretly eavesdropping on everything Camilla and Elias were discussing.

Once the urgent matters had been dealt with, they took a brief break.

Camilla glanced in my direction and asked,

“What about that one over there?”

She was asking why a trainee knight was here at this hour, even though she knew I was a trainee knight.

It was a perfectly natural question, but since I already knew how Elias would answer, I felt a brief sense of despair.

‘Elias, don’t tell her. It’s embarrassing.’

But my desperate prayer went unanswered.

In a matter-of-fact tone, Elias briefly explained what had happened between me and the Three Idiots.

“So, for one month, she will be assigned miscellaneous tasks after training.”

“I see…”

Camilla’s voice immediately became much lower.

Her gaze, which had been deliberately focused on Elias, briefly fell on me.

Then she repeatedly looked me up and down, as though checking my entire body for injuries.

I smiled brightly to show her that I wasn’t injured anywhere and was perfectly fine.

However, the concern didn’t disappear from Camilla’s eyes.

Camilla raised the corners of her lips, forming a picture-perfect smile.

“Captain, would it be all right if I also attended training starting tomorrow?”

Elias, apparently unaware of the ominous atmosphere, casually told her that she could.

‘W-What is she planning?’

I knew that fake smile of Camilla’s all too well.

It was extremely ominous.