Chapter 9

“Ah.”

“Oh my!”

“Your highness!”

The maids screamed loudly and quickly pulled out my exposed arm.

There were burn marks and traces of some tears on the slender wrist.

Argen grabbed me and pulled me to his side while Ishina warned the maids who became noisy looking at us.

“I didn’t even think there would be wounds.”

“…… Ah.”

“We’ll be careful with our mouths, so don’t worry.”

When Ishina said not to worry, she added a little bit of reassurance.

“However, you must not show these wounds to another person or his Majesty the Emperor.”

Ishina said as if she were telling an important story.

“His Majesty has generously provided you with shelter and sent us, but when he finds out that there is a defect in both of you, you will become a disgrace to the royal family.”

“…….. ”

“………”

“If you want to stay here, hide it. I hope you both can keep up the good work.”

She continued to speak in a businesslike tone. I couldn’t say anything because I had no sense of reality. Afterwards the maids came at a quick pace and resigned down with a farewell after passing on Argen’s measurements then Ishina dressed him with new clothes.

Valuable clothes were placed on my body to the point of becoming heavy.

That wasn’t the end of it either because she began skillfully trimming my long hair.

Ever since I got caught with a scar, a strange atmosphere had been circulating.

While we remained silent in an uncomfortable mood, an uninvited guest came.

In front of the dressing table, or to be exact, in front of the mirror, I could see who came in.

A well-dressed old man who looked the same age as Ishina gazed at us.

His gaze was short and bold, then he looked away and spoke to Isina as if it was nothing.

He greeted us and left after completing his objective with a message.

As Ishina picked up the butterfly-shaped ornaments, she delivered the old man’s message.

“You highnesses, his Majesty the Emperor is calling.”

“….. Yes?”

“He told me to tell you that both of you were having dinner together in the afternoon.”

“……..”

“And from now on, teachers will come to both of you. They served the other princes, so they’re not short in their skills.”

As if our sullen silence didn’t matter, she said one last word while putting the butterfly ornaments on my head.

“Since you have been recognized as royal children by His Majesty the Emperor’s grace, you should learn the royal laws as ‘the royal family’ in the future.”

In a moment, a dizzying energy came in my head.

I can tell Argen was clenching his fist without having to look at it.

We have never been favored by anyone.

I never wanted to be recognized as a royal child by the emperor.

After leaving us for five years, I didn’t want to say that the emperor and his family would give me a lot of love, since Lulahel was no longer in the world.

Knowing our existence, I didn’t want to be bound into a family with the princes who never reached out to us.

In order to live, they are said that we will have to shamelessly live with half of the lowly blood, but we didn’t even think of it as the emperor’s grace.

It wasn’t even better to be recognized and to be bound by the name of the royal family…..

It wasn’t.

***

My first memory of the emperor was the moment he gave us a name.

When I was just born, I was repeatedly crying and falling asleep in the cold cradle of the castle of Derolina.

Even if my vision was blurred, my ears were properly open and the space that was always quiet was noisy for one day.

Not long after I realized I was reborn again.

A man with well-toned muscles, not the usual soft touch, hugged me and named me ‘Arien’.

I knew it was my name as soon as I heard it. Only blonde hair was caught in my blurred vision.

It was also my first memory with the emperor and the first day I met my father.

“……..”

“…….”

Tick-tick-tick, the ticking repeated again and again then the clock needle turned.

I sat facing Argen with a table between us and gazed only at the dessert plate in the middle.

The sound of breathing was so quiet that it seemed like only the two of us were left in the room, but when I turned my head, there were a few maids standing here and two knights in golden armor guarding us by the door.

‘We have to meet the Emperor.’

‘Why is that?’

‘If we make a mistake today, he’ll send us back to the Derolina castle saying we’re useless.’

‘Wouldn’t he rather kill us than send us back.’

Unable to find words to refute Argen’s logical statement, I reached out and picked up the pretty cookies on the tray in the shape of flowers.

Argen looked at me with a face asking if I was sick, but I quietly avoided his gaze.

The cookies had white and black chocolate pieces.

In this place, I remembered that chocolate was an expensive and luxury item, so only Lulahel would occasionally eat it

I pushed the cookies into my mouth to eat chocolate that I haven’t had in a long time, and as expected, I picked up more because of the sweet and addictive taste.

“Delicious?”

“Delicious.”

Argen asked me as I ate one and took another. We are a little thin now, but if we eat these snacks without restrictions, it would be a matter of time before we gain weight.

Argen’s taste was no different from mine.

His mouth was watering when he heard it was delicious, so he reached out and picked up a cookie with lots of white chocolate. He glanced sideways at me and talked as if it had suddenly come to mind while taking a bite.

‘Maybe there’s no poison in it.

‘…. Poison? Do they really put poison in our food?’

‘If you look at usual novels or historical dramas, there are a lot of poisonous things like this.’

‘Can’t we just recover from this degree of poison?’

The Imperial Family was not the Imperial Family for nothing. At first, I didn’t know much about it, but the reason why I didn’t get sick even if I ate something or got a serious disease was because of this blood flowing through my body.

I knew it later, but among the fruits that we picked up and ate, there were poisonous fruits. I was fine after eating it….

‘if we care about every poison, we can’t eat anything here.’

‘…..Yes.’

‘It’s okay to eat poison, but why are you sick?’

‘…I know.’

When I saw Lulahel’s death with my eyes, I began to suffer from the pain.

It was better to believe in our good physical abilities and the food without poison than to worry about our meals, snacks, and drinking water.

And I had nothing else to say because I was sick due to internal factors.

In fact, I was more worried about the dinner with the emperor than our future where we will have to live here from now on.

If it weren’t for the eyes of the maids, I would have filled the room with a single breath.

Both Argen and I were over-dressed to meet the emperor now.

The clothes worn by 5 year old girls seemed to have more jewelry than what Lulahel used to wear.

It would be strange to just hang a lot of jewelry, but it looked pretty when it was processed and pasted with advanced technology. Besides the dress, I didn’t expect the day to come when I dressed up like this in my life, such as the jewelry pressing down heavily on my head or bracelet poking on my wrist.

Argen also wore the same uniform as the dark-haired, mysterious man we met on the tree the day before yesterday.

Both of us felt awkward in these clothes.

It was also uncomfortable to move carefully in case anything might come off.

Knock knock knock-

“Who is this?”

Argen was about to take a bite when he picked up the yellow muffin after eating a cookie.

I was nervous at the door knock and swallowed my saliva.

“It’s me, Ishina. I’m here to serve the prince and the princess.”

As soon as I heard Ishina’s voice, she opened the door without hesitation whether she knew who the other person was.

Through the open door, I saw the old man who entered the room to deliver us the news. He again put the emperor in his mouth.

“I greet your highnesses. I’ll take you to His Majesty the Emperor.”

I guess it’s finally time. The waiting time passes slowly, but the time that you wish not to come harshly passes by quickly.

If we really wronged the emperor and make him hate us, the price would be our lives.

‘Remember the story that dozens of people could die by the emperor’s mood?’

It was hard for us to walk in unfamiliar shoes. The old man walked half a step ahead of us and didn’t forget to tell us to watch the stairs.

‘Is that a situation we could be in?’

It could be us. Argen answered with a question, but it was clear that he knew.

I was grateful that I could communicate even with the overwhelming number of people following me.

‘Let’s be careful.’

‘You have to be careful.’

‘That’s right.’

‘Right.

‘Be careful not to make mistakes.’

‘You too.’

‘Of course.’

I don’t know whether or not we were trying to relax, but we were having a serious conversation. It was such a long distance and it was too far that it was hard to walk with our legs.

I just followed a man walking in front of me because I didn’t know where the dining room was, but my legs were slightly numb because the road was long.

The slow walking pace seemed to be considerate of us, but it was a little too fast that we had no choice but to follow.

I didn’t notice yesterday because I was in the arms of knights and didn’t have the will to look around, but it was the palace for the emperor, who was the pinnacle of the world.

As I walked along, everything that caught my eye seemed to captivate and fascinate me and let me know that he was a noble being.

“Are you having a hard time?”

“….It’s okay.”

“Is the Prince all right?”

“I’m fine, too.”

Ishina asked the two of us who were walking silently, but I was wondering what was going on because she said it was hard for me to call her in.

It was possible to roughly see how wide the palace was, but I was exhausted as I walked down three stories and straight forward again.

‘It’s far away.’

‘I think it’s far.

I didn’t know how much longer it would take, but walking with uncomfortable shoes was not normal.

But no matter how much it was, I can’t make the emperor wait. As soon as I thought about it, the servant stopped at the door and stepped back to the side.

“His Majesty is waiting.”