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Chapter 130
Life in Paital was more comfortable than I’d expected.
“From today on I will be serving the princess,” they said.
They even assigned a maid who spoke the continent’s common tongue, and best of all, no one nagged me for staying up late, no one scolded me, and if I woke up late in the morning nobody said a word.
‘What is this freedom?’
No forced exercise, no encouraging walks, no being given potions that might be medicine or poison, three meals that weren’t cooked by Pession so they actually tasted good, and sweet, delicious snacks.
A life where nobody bullied me!
“I feel free.”
Is this what the emperor’s imprisonment looks like…?
If life were like this, maybe I could be imprisoned forever and be okay with it…
‘No, get a grip!’
I won’t be defeated yet. I won’t fall to this comfort!
Vroom vroom—
“No, I’m not playing. It’s a bother.”
Vroom—!
“What? You’re saying I’ve already given up? Etel, how could you say something so mean…”
The maids, who were single-handedly responsible for feeding and tucking me in and who had enabled this, were pleased as they watched me.
“I’m glad you’re adapting well.”
“To be honest, I was worried you wouldn’t adapt and would cry every day—like the Duchess of Halvern…”
“Shh! Don’t say that if you want to live.”
“Ah—right.”
These people really speak without restraint, assuming I don’t understand their foreign language. Thanks to them, I learned why my kidnapper was insisting I was his daughter.
‘So Sione was Duke Roke’s wife.’
My father’s older sister, and probably my birth mother.
‘Duchess Sione…’
Even here, they were hush-hush, so clearly there were some complicated backstories.
Ah, really. Why does this household have so many secrets?
“Ugh…”
I wonder if Dad is doing all right?
My body was comfortable, but Mehen and Valere kept surfacing in my mind—especially my reckless, precarious, scatterbrained father.
Pession came to mind too.
Because it was pleasant just to have them nearby, now that I couldn’t see them, even their nagging about exercise felt somewhat missed.
The caretakers who trailed me and fussed over me, the troublemaking twins, Harun who always got treated unfairly.
Come to think of it, what happened to the Mage Tower? Is that mage okay?
“Ah, really!”
What misfortune that I can’t rest as I please!
Day ten of the emperor’s imprisonment.
In the end I requested a private audience with the kidnapper.
“What is it?”
The low voice made me flinch.
Regent Duke Roke had sharp, masculine features and a strong profile—handsome in a manly way—yet the problem was his presence.
There was an air that if he said the wrong thing someone might die; when his eyes met yours you automatically straightened your posture.
I’d gotten used to it by now, though.
“I want to go back.”
My clear voice made Regent Duke Roke raise his brows.
“You can speak Delore.”
“Please send me back.”
“Why would I?”
How annoying this guy was.
“You are my daughter now. This is your home; you have no place to go back to.”
“My home is Halvern.”
“Roke is your castle now.”
Who decided to change my home like that?
When I scowled, Regent Duke Roke smiled slightly.
“Making a face runs in the family—like your mother.”
“……”
“Give it up.”
He said it arrogantly.
“I will not let you go.”
“……”
My liking for this supposed new father dropped into the negatives.
…My father in Halvern wasn’t exactly normal either, but compared to this man he seemed fine.
Bang!
Perhaps to let off steam, Arellin slammed the door hard and left, making the attendants and maids flustered.
Watching the lower-ranked servants checking her expression, Ludwig simply smiled.
She’s bold, all right.
Suddenly dropped into an unfamiliar environment, anyone would be worried and anxious, but she put on that attitude. He couldn’t tell if she was naturally bold or blowing up to hide her own unease, and that was interesting.
Whatever it was, wasn’t she terribly familiar?
That woman.
‘Sione…’
His always-sharp eyes softened for a moment.
In the dark green of his pupils, an inky emotion swirled—too big to swallow.
She was the only woman who had thrown Ludwig into the abyss and made him drift through memory: the one who taught him what love was, led him into that game of feelings, and whom he still loved with his life.
“I really hate you.”
“……”
“And I feel sorry for you.”
The only woman who had tossed Ludwig into the depths and forced him to wander the past.
The impulsive Albrecht episode.
The even more impulsive confrontation with the Duke of Halvern, and the seat he had accidentally taken as a result.
Ludwig never expected to see Arellin there.
The Mage Tower endured assuming the worst-case scenario, the Crown Prince and the Sperom clan were inside the magic barrier; Emperor Edward was being pressured to keep saving them, and it was a theatrical standoff.
It could easily have ended as one of Albrecht Empire’s great tragedies, but fortune turned it into a happy ending. The only thing that grabbed Ludwig’s attention then was one small child.
Platinum hair and rose-stone eyes.
Big eyes with long lashes, cheeks tinged peach. The cute, lovable appearance was impossible to ignore.
“Duke of Halvern, that man.”
What a charming lie to tell.
Ludwig recognized it at once.
This child was Sione’s daughter.
“Your Highness.”
“Ah.”
The trembling voice of an attendant snapped Ludwig back. He looked at his own hand.
He must have tightened his grip without realizing it; a shattered fountain pen clattered to the floor.
“Clear it away.”
The attendant silently removed the broken pen.
The regent’s aide, trying to hide his tension and play it cool, brought up the day’s urgent matter.
“A message has come from the imperial court. His Majesty has sent a recommendation that you stop opposing Albrecht immediately and return the princess of Halvern at once.”
“Hah.”
It was obvious who had exerted pressure. Ludwig’s mouth twisted.
“Has my nephew forgotten his place?”
The true ruler of the southern empire Paital wasn’t Emperor Franz III, but Regent Ludwig.
“Holding a crown makes him think he’s the real emperor, does it?”
The man who gripped all the power of Paital and holed up in Roke Castle scoffed at the ‘imperial edict’ that had been issued to him.
“Who does he think has the country in his hands?”
His nephew had grown up and seemed to want to play emperor.
Ludwig had the power to dethrone the current emperor and take the throne himself any time he liked.
He refrained for one reason only.
Because of Duchess Sione.
The very reason he had remained regent instead of ascending as emperor was to accept Sione as duchess.
“German, the nephew’s son—he’s three now, isn’t he? What do you think?”
“Who would stand against Your Highness’ will?”
The aide German suppressed his own feelings and answered his autocratic lord.
“This is a letter of protest from Halvern.”
A letter bearing the Duke of Halvern’s signature: return Princess Arellin immediately, or be prepared to go to war.
Ludwig read it with dry eyes and tore it up. Aide German thought, ‘Shouldn’t we at least reply?’ but swallowed the thought.
“Anything else?”
“Ah—this one came from the Mage Tower…”
“The Mage Tower?”
“Yes, a handwritten letter from the Archmage.”
At the mention of such a rare figure, Ludwig pricked up his interest. But the content of the Archmage’s letter was strange as well.
“It asks to have a private audience with Princess Arellin urgently, for internal reasons that cannot be disclosed publicly. Why would the Mage Tower want Arellin?”
“Shall we inquire?”
“Yes.”
“So what shall we do about this?”
Ludwig’s fingers tapped the desk.
“What’s the chance Halvern is involved?”
“Not impossible.”
“Refuse.”
A blade-sharp rejection.
Meanwhile, at the Mage Tower.
The impatient mages, who had been craning their necks waiting for every message from Paital, received the reply and erupted as if a riot had broken out.
“Ah, why!”
“We’re in a hurry!”
They were focusing on something other than the mysterious terror aimed at the tower mages.
A creature straight out of legend—one that could stop the rampage of a tower mage and even reduce contamination!
No, such a thing had never even been heard of in legends—why couldn’t they meet it? Why!
“Ah, I’m going crazy. What is this? We found out about it and yet we can’t meet it. Why!”
“Heh. Why don’t we just invade the southern empire?”
“…That might work?”
At the casual suggestion, the mages perked up.
“Yeah, let’s just go!”
