Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Ellie told me that the Emperor would never call Siervian unless it was for dinner. So today’s meeting must have some purpose.

‘But why is he upset?’

Siervian carefully read her father’s mood. Thanks to the status window, she could make up for her mistakes.

‘I have to do well.’

It was surprising that her father showed some concern when she got sick, but she didn’t know when he would turn away from her again.

What happened in her previous life had yet to happen. If she continued to act like a good daughter, then maybe her fate could be changed.

“Why aren’t you eating?”

At her father’s prompting, Siervian looked at the snacks on the table.

It all looked so delicious.

She could tell even as she hadn’t taken a bite yet. She knew they’d instantly melt in her mouth.

There were several types of chocolate madeleines and cookies, and there was a snow-like cream atop several cakes. The honeyed macarons glistened, tempting her effectively.

‘Should I eat just one?’

She stared longingly at the delicious desserts, but then a status window suddenly popped up in her periphery. It was the Emperor’s thoughts once again, still suspiciously soft and warm.

[ Alderuan Erveldotte ]

Thoughts: Aren’t you a little too thin? Or is it because you’re so cute that it makes my dear Siervian smaller in my eyes?

The small child in question read her father’s thoughts, bewildered. Ellie said the same thing about her this morning, that she was too skinny.

‘Maybe it’s the clothes I’m wearing.’

Before, she would always be wrapped up in weird clothes that were more like layered fabric masquerading as a dress, as if to make her look bigger.

Today, she wore a light dress with simple frills, so it was no wonder that she looked smaller than before.

‘But I’m not allowed to eat snacks.’

The desserts all looked so delicious. It wasn’t easy to resist her young instinct’s urge to gobble them all up.

Sarah never allowed Siervian to eat snacks in her previous life.

The first time she ever ate anything sweet was at her pre-debutante celebration at the age of fourteen, and she still hadn’t forgotten the taste.

‘After that, a rumor arose that I couldn’t eat sweets at all.’

To be more precise, there were just too many eyes watching her at the banquet hall that it made her feel uncomfortable. If she acted out of line just once, even a little bit, the news would immediately reach the Empress, and she’d definitely become the center of attention, in a bad way.

“If you don’t like it, I’ll have something else brought out.”

“Ummm.”

“. . .”

[ Alderuan Erveldotte ]

Mood: Surprised by ♡ my daughter’s ♡ new look

Thoughts: I can’t believe you even answer so cutely. As expected of my daughter.

What was that just now?

As Siervian shifted her gaze towards the snacks, she thought about the past. She couldn’t understand why her father’s thoughts were like this.

The Emperor reached out to change the plate of desserts in front of Siervian. Misunderstanding that he was about to take it from her, she shouted.

“N-no!”

“No?”

“Are you going to twell Sarah?”

“Hm? What? About what you’re eating?”

“Yeah.”

[ Alderuan Erveldotte ]

Favorability: +100

Favorability: +100

While his daughter was nervously keeping her head down, one corner of the Emperor’s lips raised up ever so slightly. It was because it was so cute how his daughter was being too shy to eat in front of others. It was only after he composed his features again that he spoke.

“I’m not going to tell her, so just eat.”

She was already given permission, but she still hesitated.

Ellie told her that it was a lie that the Emperor tested her last time. But because of the education and conditioning she received that was so deeply ingrained in her, she couldn’t help but still be conscious about the intent behind her father’s words.

‘Just one. No, maybe two.’

Siervian glanced sideways at the plate of colorful macarons, pretending that she wasn’t too interested, yet couldn’t take her eyes off it. When the Emperor noticed this, he pushed the plate closer to her.

Then, her little hand moved by itself and picked one up.

The yellow macaron, which she thought would be hard, melted in her mouth as soon as she took a bite.

‘It’s sweet . . .’

It was sweet enough that the tip of her tongue almost couldn’t take it. After taking one bite, she sneaked a look towards her father.

Crunch.

[ Alderuan Erveldotte ]

Favorability: +100

This made her wonder if she was still allowed to eat more, so she carefully took another bite.

Crunch, crunch.

[ Alderuan Erveldotte ]

Favorability: +100

Favorability: +100

Read his status window, take a bite of macarons, then repeat again and again.

As she ate like that, before she knew it, she had already finished four macarons.

‘No way.’

Eyes almost overflowing with tears, she turned to her father reflexively to see his reaction. She didn’t mean to eat this much.

Meanwhile, the Emperor, who was mesmerized by the way Siervian’s cheeks moved as she chewed, pushed forward what he’d been preparing for a while.

It was the cake that Siervian was staring at earlier, the snow-covered one.

“Hum, hum.* Eat with this.”

{ tl/n: he’s coughing. }

Holding something like a short iron baton in one hand, the Emperor flicked it in the direction of the small plate.

“Huh?”

Not knowing what it was for, water that sparkled with sugar rose up in the air, glowing as it did. Little by little, the sugar water froze and soon clung to the iron bar, taking the shape of the upper part of a fork.

“I heard you have to eat this cake while it’s cold.”

His voice was still strict as usual, and normally Siervian would have flinched at his harsh tone, but this time it was different.

“Uwah . . .”

She covered her gaping mouth in amazement, not conscious of her actions.

The cake was a type of dessert that she’d only heard about before. She never saw it, let alone eat it with such a fork, because magic was needed to make it.

‘Pretty.’

As if possessed, she snatched from her father’s hand the fork that sparkled and glittered like snow.

She never imagined her father would make this for her.

“Hum, hum. Eat before it melts.”

[ Alderuan Erveldotte ]

Thoughts: Hex was right that this is going to make her happy. It’s been a long time since he did something useful, so I’ll give him a reward.

Siervian was still wary of the status window, but she didn’t have time to care. She couldn’t afford to let the fork in her hand melt, so she immediately jabbed it into the cake and took a bite.

Nyam, nyam.

[ Alderuan Erveldotte ]

Favorability: +100

Favorability: +100

Favorability: +100

The cake was very cold, exactly like the snow that it looked like. However, when the fork, which was also sweetened by sugar, entered through her lips, the snowy cream quickly melted in her mouth.

The cream lingered on her tongue and left a different kind of sweetness than what she tasted on the frozen fork. As if she couldn’t win against the whims of the little hand that held the fork, it kept going back and forth from the cake to her mouth without stopping.

When she came to her senses, she already ate the entire cake.

“Is your stomach big enough to hold that much?”

The former Siervian would have bowed her head immediately after hearing such a thing. Especially after eating so much like crazy. She would think that he was mocking her.

[ Alderuan Erveldotte ]

Thoughts: The way you eat is pretty, too. I’m convinced now. The Mana’s spirit really has become a human being. Isn’t her charm far more powerful than any spell I know?

Instead of lowering her head, Siervian looked straight at her father.

Unlike the cold cake she just ate, the words on the status window were incredibly warm.

“I guess the cake suits your tastes.”

“Yees.”

The Emperor, as usual, had his arms crossed imposingly as he looked down on her, but now it seemed as if his eyes weren’t as cold.

So I carefully spoke my mind.

“I wanna eat it everyday.”

* * *

“Which ribbon shall we wear today, Princess?”

“Eri should pick one!”

“Fufu, should I do that?”

[ Ellie ]

Favorability: +10

Ellie laughed a lot nowadays. And unlike Sarah, she always asked Siervian’s opinion first.

Thanks to this, her life at the Princess’ Palace was getting better little by little. She didn’t feel so suffocated anymore.

“Then, let’s tie your hair with this blue ribbon today.”

“I like it!”

“It will match Your Highness’ eyes.”

After Ellie said that, Siervian looked at her reflection on the window.

In her previous life, she couldn’t even look at her own eyes. Because they reminded her too much of other people.

‘Blue eyes.’

She gazed upon her own eyes for the first time in a long while. Her blue eyes were exactly like her brother’s and father’s eyes.

[ Siervian Erveldotte (5 y.o.) ]

Body and soul synchronization · · · 3%

Current actions are in line with the body.

:◈:

As she looked straight into the mirror, she could see the status window nearby.

Then, Siervian sighed heavily.

“Oh, is there something you don’t like, Princess?”

“No . . .”

It did change from one percent to three percent, but it was still just a measly three percent. The improvement was too slow. When would her actions ever follow the will of her soul?

Once again, she sighed as she looked at the status window, but the pattern under the sentence caught her eye.

‘I think I’ve seen that somewhere.’

At the bottom of the status window, a complex pattern was embedded like jewels. She could feel a faint sense of familiarity with it as she stared at it longer, but she just couldn’t put a finger on it.

‘Hmm, maybe not? I must be imagining it.’

Outwardly, it looked like both Ellie and Siervian were looking at Siervian’s reflection in the mirror in amazement.

“Now then. I think my job here is done.”

“Thank yew.”

“How is it that the way our Princess speaks is also so lovely.”

As Siervian jumped off her chair, Ellie smiled gently as she helped her down. Siervian was happy to see Ellie smile, but she still wasn’t used to it.

“What’s wrong, Princess?”

Even until her eyes, Ellie was smiling brightly. A few days after Ellie was promoted to the position of head maid, she began to express herself more honestly.

Siervian didn’t know why. But to Ellie, who continued to smile brightly, Siervian also spoke her mind more often.

“Eri also has a lov-u-ly smile.”

Ellie’s eyes widened. But soon, there was a tinge of sadness in her gaze.

[ Ellie ]

Mood: Sad

Thinking: Poor little girl. You must have been so scared all this time.

Ellie leaned down to be on the same eye level as Siervian. Her friendly brown eyes glistened with tears.

“You must have been very afraid of me, Your Highness. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fwine.”

In her previous life, Siervian also misunderstood Ellie. She didn’t realize how sweet Ellie really was deep down.

So she was really fine.

Now, she knew who it was that really smiled at her.

“I’ve wanted to be by your side all this time.”

Feeling sorry for the child who immediately attached herself to the first person who showed her kindness, Ellie quietly adjusted Siervian’s dress as her status window popped up.

[ Ellie ]

Thoughts: I want to protect the princess.

Wasn’t it enough that Ellie was honest with Siervian, and that she continued to stay beside her? Why did Ellie also want to protect her?

“Princess, remember what I told you? Everything Sarah said was a lie.”

“Yeah.”

Ellie didn’t explain what she meant by wanting to protect Siervian and said something else. Siervian couldn’t even ask because she couldn’t reveal the status window.

“Now, shall we be off?”

[ Ellie ]

Thoughts: I hope everything will be fine.

This time, Siervian only nodded. Putting it aside for later, Siervian made a mental note to ask Ellie about what she saw in her status window next time.

Today was the first time in a long while that Siervian was called to the Empress’ Palace.

* * *

Walking along the long corridor of the Empress’ Palace, Siervian couldn’t hide her anticipation. Although she wasn’t her biological mother, she was excited to meet the Empress again.

Whenever something happened, Siervian would go straight to the Empress to tell her everything. The Empress always welcomed her and listened to her kindly, believing all her words unlike the other people in the palace.

The Empress was the only member of the Imperial Family who cared about Siervian until the bitter end.

Truthfully, Siervian was still scared because she ate too much yesterday.

But her father consoled her and told her that he’d keep it a secret.

“Her Highness Princess Siervian has come to visit Her Imperial Majesty the Empress.”

“Come in.”

Unable to hide her excitement, Siervian almost skipped into the room.

But as she faced the Empress, who now looked younger than she remembered, an unexpected status window popped up.

[ Cybelle Erveldotte ]

Occupation: Empress (Lv.50)

Favorability: -8,870

Emotion: Absolutely furious

Thoughts: What an eyesore. It’s that annoying face again.

. . . Huh?