Chapter 34

Argen had already predicted that if he stood still, he would be held by the emperor, so he made his own plan and spread his arms wide open to Lloyd.

For a moment, Lloyd’s shoulders shook, then he slowly bowed down and hugged Argen without saying a word. He made eye contact with the emperor and coughed heavily.

“So you’re saying it;s pollen aller-“

“Echoo!”

There were flowers here, too. The smell of the soft baby powder coming from the emperor’s body was strange and the moment I threw my eyes at the flowerpot, my nose tickled again.

‘Come to think of it, the room smelled like baby powder these days.’

Argen seemed to dwell on what I said and answered casually.

‘That’s all the lotions and perfumes we use.’

I was convinced by what Argen said. We stayed in the room with the emperor for a long time.

The smell was because of us.

The scent of baby powder was better than the scent of the thin ice from when I first met him, so I buried my face on his shoulder without thinking.

A sneeze broke out again while I was distracted by a pretty flower resembling a yellow freesia. While lowering my sleeves and wiping my nose, the emperor changed his posture and looked down at me.

Previously, I was in a position where I could put my bottom on one arm and bury my face on his shoulders, however, the emperor suddenly changed to a position where my head and my legs were supported on each of his arms.

No matter how small we are compared to their enormous size, I felt even smaller being held like a princess.

“…….? “

“…..The doctor. ”

“I called for a new doctor just now.”

“They’re late even though the princess is sick.”

As soon as I was about to open my mouth to say that that wasn’t the case, a new doctor in a white gown ran over while out of breath.

“Hwa ……Greeting to His Majesty the Emperor! ”

“Examine the princess.”

It was awkward to make eye contact with him because of my posture, so I was glad to hear that I wouldn’t have to deal with the emperor. But, I was still embarrassed to be called a princess.

No one knew how it would feel to be hugged like a princess while trying to frantically move your eyes around to avoid the emperor’s green eyes.

No, Argen seemed to know. That’s why he was desperately holding onto Lloyd.

There was a sense of victory in Argen’s expression as he looked at me with his arms around Lloyd’s neck. It was obvious that he was ignoring me earlier, so I called him stingy and turned my head away.

‘Who’s stingy?’

‘You.’

‘I don’t think so.’

It was obvious that I would have pinched Argen’s cheeks If he was next to me.

I continued to argue with Argen even as I was left to the doctor’s hands.

Unlike the serious expressions of the emperor and Eiji, Lloyd, who is holding Argen, looked a little strange.

“Your Majesty, could you please allow me to collect the blood of the Princess for a moment….”

The doctor trembled without making eye contact with the emperor. As I sat on his lap waiting for my examination to finish, I began to worry about what was going to happen.

“’Go ahead.”

“Thank you for your permission.”

he lightly grabbed my arm and smiled as if telling me not to worry. I just blinked my eyes as he rubbed my arm with something like a disinfectant and took out a needle.

“Princess, It’ll hurt a little.”

How old do you think am I to be scared of that? I was waiting for him to quickly draw my blood, but the problem was after I was stabbed with a needle.

“……!!”

I forgot that I was five years old. When I fell and got injured, I would feel pain beyond my 18-year-old body. After being at ease for such a long time, I seemed to have forgotten.

“Ugh…….”

It hurt so much that tears formed on its own.

As I reflexively tried to pull my arm out while shaking my body, the doctor put strength into his hand.

“Princess, please put up with it a little longer and afterwards you can eat something delicious. Oh, it doesn’t hurt, does it?”

The doctor eagerly comforted me with a soothing tone for children who were frightened by shots.

I didn’t cry when I almost died by Lulahel, but I barely managed to hold back my tears while telling myself not to cry with something like this.

The moment the emperor gently grasped my shoulder, the needle was removed.

That moment felt so long.

A little cotton swab rubbed the spot where the needle was placed.

As I scrunched up my nose, Eiji came up to me as if he had been waiting and put candy in my mouth.

“That hurts a lot, doesn’t it? I did it once when I was young and I thought I was going to die.”

he tried to soothe me by pushing a peach flavored candy and another grape flavored candy into my mouth.

The mixture of peach and grape flavor tasted strange when I moved it around in my mouth.

The emperor hugged me and quietly patted my back. I didn’t even bother to rebel.

“You put up with it well.”

No, I shouldn’t be complimented just for that.

‘Did it hurt enough to cry?’

Argen asked me seriously with perfect timing, but I couldn’t nod my head, so I solved the urgency of my pain in words.

‘It felt like one arm was paralyzed.’

‘You didn’t cry when the glass was stuck in your arm.’

‘It’s different from that……. No that’s not it, I didn’t cry.’

‘You were on the verge of crying.’

‘No.’

‘I’d say yes.’

While Argen was stepping back out of courtesy when the doctor, who briefly went inside with my blood, came out again.

“…… Um, Your Majesty”

It looks like it took a thousand years just to draw my blood, but it’s merely that amount? I saw my blood in a strange container and I looked away.

“There better be results since the Princess’s blood was drawn”

“That is…… It seems that she is allergic to pollen. ”

“Are you telling me to believe that? ”

It was a pollen allergy. I was worried that he would need to draw more blood and check it, so I looked down at the band aid attached to where I was pricked.

“There was an allergic reaction, so I checked it………She’s allergic to pollen…….”

“Ha–“

The emperor looked at the paper with strange markings that the doctor brought, then he moved his gaze and looked down at me.

“Hwa, the princess also has other blood flowing in her, so it’s not strange if a disease occurs. It’s getting colder these days so both the prince and the princess should be careful not to catch a cold.”

The emperor stared at me as if he was worried for a moment. I passed the doctor belatedly and returned to the emperor’s room. In the meantime, I had to watch the inside of the greenhouse and flower garden get cleaned up.

“Small and weak. ”

The emperor lowered me down, then he looked alternately at the two of us and quietly muttered. I couldn’t hear him because it was a very small voice, but it didn’t seem like a good thing that he had a strange expression.

As I sat alongside Argen at the dessert table tailored to our height, the maid brought us croissants for today’s snack. I rubbed my eyes with my sleeves while Argen picked up the croissant and spoke.

‘Your eyes are so red that you look like a rabbit.’

‘That much?’

I was trying to rub my forearm where I was pricked, but Lloyd grabbed my wrist and blocked it. Thanks to that, the hair tie I had on my wrist came off and rolled on the floor

By chance, Eiji pulled a chair and sat next to us, beating the emperor and Lloyd. Then, he looked at my white arm and spoke, as if he had realized it belatedly.

“Hmm? Your skin is white. Come to think of it, didn’t you have a lot of strange marks on your body?”

Those words stopped Argen’s hand when he was just about to put the croissant in his mouth. It was enough to draw my attention as I bent down trying to pick up the hair tie that fell on the floor.

The chair twisted to the side when I froze in a position where I was trying to pick up the hair tie.

The chairs tilted sideways, making a clatter before everyone could even notice.

The floor was hard because the carpet was removed to make a greenhouse in the next room. I never would’ve thought that the soft carpet I hated so much would make me feel so regretful.

Thump-

While my forehead hit the marble floor and my shoulders trembled in pain, Eiji jumped up from his seat .

“Arien!!! Ah, what should I do?? Are you all right??”

“I’m all right…..”

Eiji’s uproar was more intense than anyone I’ve ever seen. He grabbed and pulled the maid’s clothes while she was putting down the snacks next to him. He grabbed her by the collar causing her waist bent down.

“You put something in the snack, otherwise she wouldn’t fall like this!”

“Get me a doctor!”

Lloyd, who turned his head belatedly, shouted around loudly in the flowerless greenhouse.

I was already in a situation where I was going to welcome another doctor for the second time today, but I was more concerned with groaning in pain because my head was throbbing.

“As I suspected, there’s something wrong…!”

“Eiji, she just fell down, so you need to calm down first and take care of Arien.”

Lloyd deterred Eiji from holding on to the poor maid for no reason. As if my name was a sign, Eiji released her collar.

While he was making a racket next to me, I grabbed my throbbing head and groaned for a while.

‘Are you okay?

‘…… It hurts.’

‘You’re hurt?

‘I have a headache…… It hurts………..’

My head was ringing, but a voice in my head rang once again, causing me to stop talking.

‘That’s weird.’

‘Why……What is?’

The emperor held me in his arms and instead of refusing, I moaned in pain while holding onto my forehead. It was so painful that I had no will power to refuse.

‘You’re hurt with this?’

‘……..’

‘Are you telling me you’re hurt?’

‘……..’

‘Is there anyone else, but you?’

As soon as I was struck by Argen’s words, there was a hand rubbing my forehead. I opened my eyes so wide that it couldn’t get any bigger than this due to the cold yet warm touch.

“Tsk. As soon as I cleared the carpet, this happened.”

The Emperor’s hand was rubbing my forehead. I didn’t need to see my forehead to know that it had turned red. He narrowed eyes as if he was measuring something and quietly hugged me like a doll. I had no choice, but to offer him my head.