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Chapter 6
“Do I really look like someone who came here to harm Your Highness?”
“You discovered my identity, so you must have come expecting something in return.”
You need to actually have something before someone can take it from you. What exactly was I supposed to gain from him?
I swallowed those words before they could leave my mouth.
At this rate, our meeting would end before we accomplished anything.
When I sighed and looked toward my sister, she immediately sent me a warning glance.
A very clear: I don’t know what you’re planning, but don’t do it. Absolutely don’t.
But if we dragged this out any longer, his suspicion would only deepen.
When I sent her another signal urging her on, she let out a long sigh.
“…Understood. But Your Highness must swear that you will not harm my lady.”
Instead of letting me speak, my sister chose to negotiate with Lucian directly.
“This isn’t really a situation where you’re in a position to make demands.”
“There is no way I could defeat Your Highness with a sword. But even so, I am not entirely inexperienced in battle, and I have no desire to recreate the way I handled Your Highness in my previous life.”
Her tone remained gentle, but the content was a clear threat.
Please stop fighting for dominance right now.
Lucian’s red eyes stared directly at my sister.
After a moment of thought, he finally spoke.
“I swear upon my name.”
“Good.”
Only after receiving a vow nearly equivalent to a supreme oath did my sister place a hand on my shoulder.
In an instant, my pink hair returned to its original silver color.
No matter how violently my emotions churned inside, my face remained cold and calm.
Thankfully, that worked in my favor when dealing with difficult people.
“Flotie of House Rosena greets the Star of the Empire. Please forgive the disrespect of deceiving Your Highness’s eyes.”
“……”
For some reason, Lucian seemed momentarily speechless.
Good. While I still had the chance to speak, I needed to finish this quickly.
“What I desire is simply peace for myself and prosperity for the empire. Knowing the divine punishment that will fall if the prophecy is ignored, I cannot stand by and do nothing.”
Honestly, peace for myself was the only thing I truly wanted.
The prosperity of the empire was secondary.
I just wanted to live quietly. And if necessary, I was willing to do anything for that.
“So you’re a daughter of Rosena.”
“Your Highness, allow me to correct one thing. This is not the will of House Rosena, but the will of me alone, Flotie. The title of heir has long since been passed to Rosena’s eldest daughter.”
I lowered myself into a deep bow and continued.
“But if Your Highness decides to rise to the highest position…”
“If I decide to rise?”
He repeated my words slowly while staring blankly at my face.
“Then not Flotie Rosena alone, but House Rosena itself, one of the empire’s founding families and known as the Gold of the Empire, will become Your Highness’s shield and supporter.”
Of course, I had already received my sister’s permission for this.
My dependable sister, who promised she would support me completely no matter what path I chose.
Even now, while I was offering the greatest proposal of my life, Lucian still only stared at my face instead of answering.
I coughed lightly, and only then did he seem to snap back to reality.
“As I’m sure you know, my older brother also has red eyes.”
Of course that topic would come up.
Two imperial princes born with red eyes in the same generation was unprecedented.
In situations like that, there was a high chance one of them was disguising their eye color.
History was full of people who believed all they needed to do was sit on the throne first.
But if we focused on that issue right away, Lucian would never accept our proposal so easily.
“It is certainly an unusual situation. But even if the two of you are forced to compete for the throne, I will make sure victory belongs to Your Highness.”
Hearing my confident answer, he suddenly offered me his hand.
“To be honest, I can’t immediately accept someone telling me to chase after the throne. You understand that your proposal is incredibly shocking, and that I can’t fully trust your identity yet.”
“I understand.”
If he had hidden his existence despite being born with red eyes, then there was surely a reason for it.
To someone like him, a stranger suddenly appearing and saying you were born with red eyes, so fulfill your destiny now might sound ridiculous.
Anyone would react awkwardly if someone suddenly showed up and told them to become emperor because they accidentally saw their hidden eye color.
“And I’m selfish. If I think this will threaten me, I’ll withdraw immediately.”
“I’m the same way.”
“What happened to the lady who claimed she would definitely secure victory for me?”
His tone had become noticeably more playful, so I smiled back.
“For me, victory simply means surviving together with the people I love.”
When I took his hand, I felt the rough calluses covering his palm.
They were not the hands of a lazy drunk who wandered around taverns all day.
With this many clues, weren’t the people failing to notice the truth the real fools?
“Since selfish people who are good at calculating profits have joined hands, I believe the results will also be favorable.”
Again, he stared at my face for a long while.
The way his gaze traced over every part of my face felt strangely ticklish.
“Yes. I’m someone who values results more than the process.”
“I’ll remember that.”
I thought I had answered quite firmly, but he was still holding my hand tightly.
When I cautiously stepped half a pace back, he finally let out a short sigh.
“My apologies.”
“It’s alright.”
Only after barely pulling my hand free did I lower the veil over my face again.
“I’ll leave first. It wouldn’t look strange for someone like me to wander around alone.”
As Lucian prepared to leave, his eyes slowly turned blue once more.
“Your Highness seems very skilled at maintaining the magic that changes your eye color.”
“Why? Do I seem talented at magic too? There are plenty of methods that let the spell continue even if I’m not casting it directly.”
“I heard it can damage your eyesight if you’re not careful.”
“And if I lose my eyesight like that, you won’t help me take the throne?”
His teasing tone made me laugh without realizing it.
If he had learned this from childhood, then someone must have been teaching him to hide his eye color since he was very young.
Maybe there was someone besides us who had been trying to keep Lucian alive all along.
After all, it would have been impossible for a young boy to survive alone in an imperial palace full of people trying to kill him.
“Then travel safely.”
“We’ll meet again soon.”
“Ah, but before I go.”
Just as he was about to leave calmly through the door, he suddenly stopped as though something had occurred to him.
“My lady, are you married? Or engaged to someone?”
“…No. Neither.”
Did my marriage status somehow affect his decision to become emperor?
If marrying someone was necessary to help place Lucian on the throne, then I could manage a political marriage with a suitable person.
Once Lucian became emperor, we could simply divorce afterward.
“I see.”
But the moment I answered that I wasn’t married, relief flashed across Lucian’s face.
Why was that the expression appearing here?
Confused, I glanced toward my sister and Minabel.
Even my sister seemed caught off guard by the question, repeatedly clearing her throat awkwardly.
Only Minabel was staring back and forth between me and Lucian with the eyes of some kind of professional inspector going ohhh internally.
Meanwhile, Lucian acted as though he noticed none of it and casually left the mansion following the ghost maid.
Once only the three of us remained, my sister immediately scolded me in a worried voice.
“Tie, why did you act so recklessly?”
“I wanted to stop the terrible future you saw.”
“I already stopped my terrible future. You’re alive right here, Tie. What worries me more is seeing you wear yourself down like this.”
Her cold expression completely vanished as she pulled me tightly into her arms like she might cry at any second.
I was just tired, yet she was making such a fuss.
Unni really does worry too much.
“If you’re doing your best to protect us, then we’ll do the same. That’s what love is.”
Of course, I wanted to protect my family.
And I also wanted to stop the empire from collapsing.
Not because of some great patriotism.
I simply wanted to live quietly and peacefully.
A carefree life as the beloved youngest daughter, enjoying everything I wanted without regret.
And nobody could just give up on a life like that without even trying first.
