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CHAPTER 03
“…Your Highness, surely you aren’t saying that you intend to take us to the North?”
Unlike the capital, which was the center of refined culture, the North was an extremely dangerous place.
She was seriously planning to take them to a place that was attacked by monsters almost every day?
“Why would you think I’m joking? I’m serious.”
“Your Highness, do you really think that’s possible?”
“Then do you really think His Majesty the Emperor would refuse to grant his sister one last wish before she leaves the Imperial Palace?”
It was not unusual for a princess who was leaving her homeland because of marriage to take her personal maids with her.
And since the emperor would probably grant her such a small request rather than deal with the headache of her threatening suicide again, there was little reason for him to refuse.
As the three women realized this, the color drained from their faces.
Lumiere calmly looked over them.
Once she left the Imperial Palace, she would never have to see them again anyway.
She did not remember their names, nor did she have any desire to know them.
So she simply classified them in her mind as Maid Number One, Two, and Three, then pointed at the maid who had been the most insolent toward her.
“Will you come with me?”
“Excuse me…?”
“Judging by how bold you were just now, I think you’ll adapt quickly even in an unfamiliar place.”
“…Your Highness, wouldn’t it be more helpful for you to take someone you can trust when going somewhere unfamiliar?”
“Who knows? I’m going to die sooner or later anyway, so what help could you possibly be? Anyone will do as long as they can accompany me on the road to the afterlife.”
“Your Highness, what do you mean, you’re going to die? How could you say something so terrible…!”
“Didn’t you just say I was going to die anyway?”
“Th-that was…!”
She slowly looked over the three pale-faced women and asked,
“So what are you going to do? Will you come with me?”
The first to back down was Maid Number One.
“Y-Your Highness, please withdraw your order! That task is far too much for someone like me!”
“Then who will come with me?”
Surely there was no one who would volunteer to go to a frontier constantly threatened by monsters.
“……”
“……”
“……”
As expected.
All three stood there in awkward silence, avoiding her gaze.
“My maids’ loyalty amounts to nothing more than this…”
She deliberately let her voice trail off as if deeply disappointed.
The maids immediately dropped to their knees.
“Your Highness, we will serve you with even greater sincerity than we have shown until now. Please, calm your anger.”
“Please forgive us…!”
After all the years she had been persecuted, these women really thought they could get away with everything by simply saying a few words.
“Don’t try to take credit for something that should be expected of you. Show me some actual sincerity.”
“What do you mean by that…?”
“I mean you should return everything you’ve been taking from my palace until now.”
“What? How could we ever dare to take the Imperial Princess’s possessions for ourselves?”
“That’s right! Please don’t misunderstand us!”
They were lying without even the slightest hesitation.
Why else would her palace be so empty?
The budget allocated to Viola Palace was ridiculously small to begin with, but on top of that, they had stolen everything that was worth any money.
She was not about to leave quietly and let them keep everything they had taken from her.
“I’ll take two of the three of you with me. Which one of you I choose to show mercy to will depend entirely on your own efforts, so why don’t you try your best?”
She turned around firmly, making it clear that she would not accept any objections.
Despair spread across the maids’ faces.
A group of riders on large warhorses entered the city while escorting a rough-looking carriage.
Their clothing was mismatched, making them look like wandering mercenaries, but their disciplined movements were closer to those of soldiers.
Clatter.
They slowly traveled down the wide road before stopping in front of a relatively large building.
A large blond man opened the carriage door.
“Your Highness, they say there are rooms available. Shall we unpack your luggage and go straight to the tailor’s?”
Brian van Walton.
A man who stood beside Axid on the battlefield and assisted him with administrative affairs at the castle.
He was the captain of the knights and also served as the Grand Duke’s adviser, making him one of the most capable men in the North.
“…Since we’re here to bring back the Grand Duchess, I suppose we should at least make an effort to look presentable.”
Axid rubbed the cross-shaped scar on the right side of his forehead.
His appearance was already rather intimidating. If he showed up dressed carelessly, he would undoubtedly make a bad impression on the princess.
“That’s true, Your Highness. First impressions tend to last.”
At that moment, a red-haired man interrupted in a sharp, slightly mocking voice.
“Your Highness, whether we dress up or not, we’re barbarians in the eyes of the Imperial people anyway. Do you really think the princess will be any different?”
“Kaiden, what kind of way is that to speak to His Highness?”
“I’m not saying anything wrong.”
Lumiere von Wizer.
The young emperor’s half-sister and a disgrace to the Wizer Imperial Family.
She was famous for being unbelievably foolish and so ugly that it was difficult to look at her.
As if that weren’t enough, she had caused quite a stir in high society with her noisy, one-sided love.
Apparently, she had even attempted suicide over a man and become the subject of ridicule.
Arranging a marriage with such a princess was practically an insult to the Grand Duchy, which had spent generations protecting the Empire from monster invasions.
“Anyway, I can’t accept this. Of all people, why should we take a princess as the Grand Duchess? How could that possibly make sense?”
Axid, who had been listening quietly, asked,
“Why doesn’t it make sense?”
“Well, that’s because…!”
“Even the women of the Grand Duchy don’t want to become the Grand Duchess. A princess is more than I deserve.”
“……!”
For generations, the daughters of families who had received marriage proposals from the Grand Duke’s family had either fled in the middle of the night or gone so far as to arrange hasty marriages just to reject the proposal.
Every woman who gave birth to a child died within a year, almost as if they had all agreed beforehand.
What woman would willingly want to become the Grand Duchess?
As a result, marriages to the Grand Duke had traditionally only been possible when the bride came from someone seeking power or a family drowning in debt and willing to offer up their daughter.
Axid’s own mother had married under those circumstances and, as expected, died after giving birth to him.
No one wanted to become the subject of terrifying rumors, such as the heir being murdered or anyone who carried the Grand Duke’s bloodline being cursed.
“Your Highness, a woman who believes in nothing more than a superstition like that has no right to become the Grand Duchess in the first place. If we search carefully, there must surely be a woman who doesn’t believe in such nonsense…”
“Enough. I don’t want to hear any more.”
Axid cut him off in a cold voice.
The terrifying stories circulating among the people were not simply baseless rumors.
His subordinates dismissed the deaths of the Grand Duchesses throughout history as unfortunate coincidences because each woman had died from a different cause, whether illness or accident.
But the deaths that came after the Grand Duchesses gave birth…
Those were the inevitable consequences of carrying and giving birth to a cursed bloodline.
That filthy instinct that returned every year, an uncontrollable urge that made him feel like a beast, was proof that the curse truly existed.
“Then just tell the princess to make her own way here.”
“Going to receive the Grand Duchess is a tradition of the Grand Duke’s family and my duty as his lord. It’s not something you need to interfere with.”
“She isn’t even a citizen of the Grand Duchy. Why go that far for her?”
As the two began arguing again, a chilling presence seeped from Axid.
“You’re noisy.”
The entire area fell silent.
An icy chill ran down their necks.
Even knights who constantly fought close to death instinctively shrank back from the oppressive aura.
Faced with the heavy warning, Kaiden finally shut his mouth with an unhappy expression.
Axid withdrew his gaze.
The Imperial Family’s attitude, his subordinates’ opposition…
Just as he had expected, this marriage was going to be troublesome, with far too many things to worry about.
And yet, perhaps because this was the first time in his life that he was about to get married, his heart felt strangely restless.
But by now, the princess was probably trembling in fear and despair.
“……”
He gave a bitter smile and pushed down his unsettled feelings.
The position of Grand Duchess had been vacant for a long time.
The longer it remained empty, the more ominous rumors spread throughout the North, and the nobles’ pressure became more persistent with every passing year.
Even if it was only a marriage in name, he needed one to silence them.
But there was no reason for the princess to worry about anything.
He had no intention of producing an heir.
And the princess was in such a miserable position that she had to use marriage as a means of escaping the Imperial Palace.
As long as they negotiated the specific details of their married life, this marriage could become a ‘deal’ that satisfied both parties.
