🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter : 11
Sitting on a Cockscomb Flower (1)
Though it was meant to be a gathering for just the two of them, this evening was practically a welcome banquet for the princess.
Officials from both inside and outside the fortress had come to greet her, but they were all sent back today with the promise that they would be formally invited on another day.
The reason given was that Her Highness had traveled a long distance and was not in good condition, so she needed time to recover from her fatigue.
Everyone expressed regret at the news, but surely someone harbored suspicion.
After all, there must have been those who knew that the Empress had sent an assassin to kill the princess.
In any case, this occasion was meant to show sincere hospitality in place of an official welcome banquet for the princess.
Yet here she was, lost in gloomy thought before a table prepared as lavishly and carefully as any palace feast. Wasn’t that discourteous?
She must be thinking about that ill-omened bastard.
Yeonho felt annoyed, but since his counterpart was the princess—and since he had already decided to win her over—he spoke in an especially gentle voice.
“We will choose a proper date and hold a grand banquet to officially welcome Your Highness. The marriage will take place afterward, whenever Your Highness feels ready. We will select an auspicious day, but it would be even better if it were a day you desire. Please convey your preferred date through the vice minister.”
“!”
Lost in her thoughts, Jo-yeong snapped back to attention at the mention of setting a wedding date.
“Are you saying the marriage will be postponed?”
From the beginning, no exact date had been set for the wedding since the princess was to marry at Bisan Fortress.
However, because Yeonho frequently had to leave the fortress due to repeated border conflicts, they had agreed to set the date and marry as soon as possible after the princess’s arrival.
But to Yeonho, it seemed likely that trouble would arise if the wedding were held while the princess still could not let go of her lingering feelings.
And now, hearing that there would be some leeway before the wedding, she looked positively delighted.
“You have endured a great ordeal, so I intend to give you time to steady your heart.”
Jo-yeong hesitated before replying. Surveillance would surely be tighter before the marriage.
Perhaps it would be better to run away after the marriage instead.
Where could there be a better place to hide than this?
The time it would take for the groom who never arrived to go question Hajin Mountain.
And then the time it would take for Hajin Mountain to begin searching for her.
Altogether, that would be a fairly long stretch.
No one would ever imagine that she was living beside the lord of Bisan Fortress while posing as the princess. She could stay here, wait for an opportunity, and then leave for Biryong Mountain.
“I’m fine now. Please just don’t rush it too much.”
“So you can run away?”
“Yes. You’re giving me time to escape.”
That was sincere. It was advice offered earnestly for the lord who would be marrying her in place of the real princess.
He gave a short, amused snort.
Yeonho laughed.
Jo-yeong could tell at once—it was a mocking laugh.
“If you regard me as the princess, shouldn’t you be more careful about laughing like that in front of me?”
“I’m not sure what kind of laugh you mean. I simply laughed because I found it amusing.”
“It seems that I, the princess, amuse you. Well, I suppose a rational lord like yourself might indeed find my appearance—clinging so desperately to love—rather ridiculous.”
Even as she said this, Jo-yeong surprised herself.
To think she would brazenly say such things when she wasn’t even truly a princess.
Still, speaking out in anger on behalf of the insulted princess made her feel strangely relieved.
“It made me laugh because it seems you’ve changed tactics. Have you stopped trying to run away and instead plan to make me give up on you? Interesting. I look forward to seeing how you intend to make me give you up.”
“……”
Looking at him now, it was clear—he did not simply believe she was the princess. She had to be the princess.
That was why he wouldn’t believe her no matter how much she denied it.
“Still, you look better now. Much better than before.”
“Pardon?”
“You finally look like a princess. I mean that your confidence suits you.”
The cold mockery in his eyes softened.
Thump.
As he lowered his gaze with a faint smile, his expression stirred a sudden turmoil in Jo-yeong’s heart.
“If the love between the two of you is so deep that you can’t live apart, then surely I can’t go on clinging to nothing more than the shell of the princess.”
“What do you mean by that…? Are you saying you’ll let me go?”
Startled by the sudden shift in his attitude, Jo-yeong’s loosened guard immediately went up again.
“I mean exactly what I said. How about living together with me for just three months? During those three months, if I still fail to win your heart and you continue to long for Jeong Ja-in, I will let you go. Of course, we will not marry during that time.”
It was an unbelievably favorable offer for Jo-yeong.
Three months or three years—it was impossible that she would ever come to like him.
All I have to do is pretend to be the princess for three months.
The princess had fled, and the court didn’t know about it yet.
For now, there’s no way I’ll be exposed. Everyone thinks I’m the princess. And above all, since we won’t marry, I won’t be committing a grave wrong against the lord.
As long as she didn’t inflict major harm through a false marriage, it seemed worth trying.
“I promise you this. For three months, I will host Your Highness as a guest of Bisan Fortress. If your heart remains unchanged even then, I will personally take responsibility for persuading His Highness the Crown Prince and the court. What do you say?”
It was a sweet proposal.
And Jo-yeong was in no position to refuse it.
Even if I run, I’ll just be caught. It’s better to stay here and leave when the lord himself tells me to go.
Nor could she reveal that she wasn’t really the princess.
Just three months.
Eventually, he would discover that she wasn’t the princess.
When that happened, even if there had been no other choice, she might be beheaded for impersonating royalty. More than anything, she was afraid of having to face the lord’s fury.
Still, at this moment, marrying Ji Man-il felt far more terrifying and horrific.
And if she were to die no matter what, she wanted to punish the Ha siblings first.
“May I ask for one more promise?”
Yeonho felt that the princess was being selfish, adding another condition after he had already conceded so much. Still, without showing it, he nodded with a smile.
“Whatever you wish, please say it.”
“If, within those three months, you find yourself wanting to drive me away…”
Yeonho let out an involuntary chuckle.
“How could I ever dare to cast out Your Highness? Such a thing could never happen, and I would never wish for it.”
“I said if.”
“You can’t truly be ignorant of this. I have no authority to annul a marriage to Your Highness, nor do I have any reason to refuse it.”
As he said this, Yeonho’s tone grew heated without his realizing it.
Enduring the princess’s frustrating words had pushed him to the limit of his patience.
Jo-yeong felt as though he were mocking her.
Perhaps he found it amusing that a childish princess was prattling on about love, speaking without understanding the world.
But now, that mockery felt like a thorn to Jo-yeong.
Whether it was the princess who fled because she didn’t want to marry him, or herself—their identities were different, but their situations were the same.
And Ji Man-il, who bought her with money, and this man, who desired an unwilling princess for the sake of status and power, seemed no different at all.
Stung by that thorn, Jo-yeong lashed back just as sharply.
“I know. But hearing you speak like that only confirms that you don’t truly desire the princess in your heart either.”
Yeonho was irritated that she referred to herself not as “me,” but as “the princess.”
It felt as though she were treating the princess as someone else entirely, as if she were determined to abandon her status.
“When I take Your Highness as my wife, wouldn’t my heart naturally follow?”
“So you like me… because I’m a princess? You favor the status of a princess, so it wouldn’t matter who I was—any woman would do, so long as she were a princess.”
“That’s not the case. Your Highness is the younger sister of His Highness the Crown Prince, whom I deeply respect.”
It was pressure—an implication that if the princess stood on the Crown Prince’s side rather than sharing the Empress’s blood, marrying Yeonho would naturally benefit the Crown Prince as well.
A true princess would never fail to understand that.
Jo-yeong wasn’t a princess, but she understood his words immediately.
