Chapter 14

I could only get up from my desk when it was lunch time.

“After the meal is finished, there is a lesson on etiquette with Madame Isella. Afterwards, there is an education on imperial language with Baron Osel. Since there is a short break after that, I will prepare the strawberry pie you mentioned before.”

What a tight schedule…..Our schedule is so tight even though it’s useless to us.

Perhaps if I study with this momentum, I could easily enter the academy, which is known as the best school on the continent.

When I spoke to Argen, mentioning the academy name I didn’t know about until recently, he turned his head and nodded in agreement Instead of stabbing the seafood with a fork.

‘I hate economics.’

‘Why do we have to learn something like this, even though we’re not even receiving any titles?’

Granting that I had studied a few days ago, I should have a little more knowledge, but it was so hard that I trembled and felt it was unfair.

Ever since I started studying for more than half of my day, I could not like it even though I wanted to.

I rolled up the bacon and put it in my mouth. We should be thankful that we can eat three full meals like this right now.

I admired the taste whenever I chewed the thin bacon in my mouth, perhaps because it was the dish made by the emperor’s chef. If I eat with enthusiasm, the first thing I do is gain weight instead of getting bigger.

“Try this.”

Just in time, Argen, who kept picking up and eating the food made from fresh seafood offered it to me to show how delicious it was.

I swallowed the meat I was chewing on and bit the fish on Argen’s fork, but Ishina stopped me again.

“Your highness the princess, it’s not polite. It’s unthinkable to eat with utensils used by others.”

Yeah, this was the Imperial Palace.

I had no choice but to use my fork to dip the dish recommended by Argen and put it in my mouth with a frown on my face. It’s delicious, but it wasn’t polite to do anything and it was frustrating to find fault with everything saying don’t do this or that.

Even during playtime, keep your posture straight, Don’t play frivolously. Don’t do this, don’t do that. I couldn’t even dream of climbing a tree even if I went out to the garden. The iron cage and its owner have changed, but we still remain trapped in the cage.

‘They’re more strict with us.’

‘We’re illegitimate children.’

‘It’s worse than the other princes.’

‘We’re illegitimate children.’

Argen repeated the same thing twice. However, I thought carefully because it was a true statement.

‘Because we are not pure blooded, we are slower than other princes.’

‘His pure blood.’

‘Even if we do the same thing, it seems that we look more vulgar.’

On the first day, she didn’t say anything even if I played with flower crowns on the grass, but now that she started training us properly, I received attention for every action.

After eating delicious food in silence, I took two more classes.

I thought for etiquette lessons she would teach me social skills in high society by telling me to do this when I talk to people or do that when I eat, but Madame Isella made a face asking if there was any need to learn something like this already.

Then, she even mumbled in dissatisfaction as if she was disappointed that we didn’t understand.

“They can’t even manifest with commoner blood flowing and because of this, I can’t even teach them anything quickly.”

We must have been lacking in her eyes as we struggled to keep our balance.

She talked to herself in a quiet voice, but we had already heard it. Unlike her dark inner thoughts, she smiled brightly when she saw us and sat down saying we would do something else this time.

I thought so too. I didn’t grow rapidly by manifesting, so I thought I could learn these kinds of manners a little later. Of course, the world of the imperial family at its peak was not as easy as we thought.

After the etiquette lessons, I received imperial language education again. The baron, who examined our homework we worked hard on early in the morning, gave us a new assignment.

It was not until the end of the imperial language education that the long-awaited free time came. When I was in school, I had a break in the middle of regular classes, but they made 5 year old children study hard all day long and threw us into the playroom to rest for an hour in the middle.

At first, I was hesitant about the playroom that the emperor made for us, but he only said a word and it was the servants who actually decorated the place, so I gave the credit to the servants.

Whenever we spent our break time here, the favorability for the servants who worked hard on our playroom increased.

Today I came out to the garden instead of the playroom. The emperor had no time to go for a walk in the garden because he was busy managing the newly assimilated country during the war last year, so there was no fear of meeting by chance.

The weather and the garden scenery was so nice but we couldn’t be comfortable as many eyes were following us.

Can’t we just take this time off..….

“….Arien.”

“Huh?”

“Ishina isn’t here.”

Argen said something unexpected when we came out to the garden and sat quietly on the mat while enjoying the cold air.

“There are no maids.”

“Why isn’t anyone there?”

I blinked in surprise because I’ve never been in this situation before.

I was wondering what was going on, but I remembered Ishina walking somewhere earlier. After making eye contact with Argen and deciding that this was a rare opportunity, I got up from my seat and crept onto the well-decorated garden trail.

I wasn’t trying to run away, I was just wandering around.

It can’t be helped that there’s only one place to go back to now. Just for a moment, away from the gazes, I wanted to play for a little while and then come back.

It’s not like I didn’t even think about the repercussions when I come back later, but this was a chance that’s like heaven.

It was when I ran hard into the maze of grass.

“Animal.”

“Oh? It’s a raccoon.”

Thanks to the sudden discovery of the animal, I opened my eyes wide and chased the raccoon like Alice in Wonderland. The fat raccoon waddled back and forth, not caring whether we followed it or not.

While looking at its back, the raccoon suddenly started running.

We ran together with the racoon thoughtlessly.

“Very….Ha…… Fast.”

“Yeah I know.”

Of course I lost it. Argen grabbed my sleeve and pointed to the tree next to me as I was breathing heavily with both arms around my waist.

Not feeling exhausted, He explained to me after I tilted my head back and looked up at the sky.

“Arien, this is a fruit tree.”

“Wow…….”

“Would you like to go up?”

I nodded my head with shining red eyes and began to climb the tree, while Argen was tying his shoelaces.

But the only problem was that there was someone’s footsteps.

When I climbed to a certain point, I heard the sound of someone’s breath and my hands became weak without me realizing it.

The unexpected situation surprised me and Argen. I was expecting the pain so I shut my eyes tightly, but no matter how long I waited, there was no pain so I slowly opened my eyes.

When I turned my head at the unfamiliar touch on the back of my neck, I saw the legs of a man who I didn’t know.

“Careful.”

I was warned by a considerably beautiful voice.

At the moment, I was surprised and reflexively opened my mouth to say thank you. Then I raised my stiff neck to the point where I could see who held me.

“Ah.”

“…….”

At the same time, something similar to a scream broke out from Argen and me. The first thing that caught my eye was bright blond hair that seemed to be gold. It was a strange man, not the emperor or the second prince.

Both of us couldn’t say anything and were literally frozen, While the man stared intently at us lost in thought.

“It’s dangerous.”

“Yes….. Alright.”

“Be careful.”

“……. S……Sorry.”

“………”

The man who finished talking blinked a couple of times and passed by us.

“…… eh?”

“Is he gone?”

It was a quick appearance and exit.

“Just now…..blonde hair.”

I was faced by an unexpected turn of events after chasing a raccoon and was told to be more careful no matter how wide the imperial palace was.

Blonde hair……blond hair that is a symbol of the imperial family.

The thought of him as our half-brother just gave me goosebumps and stared at the place the man left.

We thought about going around some more to clear our minds, but we were alarmed and decided to go back.

No matter how much we deny that we are the imperial family, it won’t look like that to anyone else.

It was when I went back to the lawn cover with a mat. The knights with golden armor and maids shouted when they saw us.

“Your highness! Where have you been?”

“I’m surprised you suddenly disappeared!!”

“What happened, I thought something had happened…….”

Of course, it was clear that they were not worried about us, but that they were afraid of the punishment they would receive if anything happened to us. They’ve never shown their feelings to us before, but it was obvious seeing them trembling.

The knights returned after looking for us and left a message to the emperor that they would report by today.

“Well, there’s no one around.”

“You were nowhere. Your highness, we’ve been with you all the time, but you’ve suddenly disappeared.”

“What?”

Ishina, who had seen off the knights from a distance, said angrily. I blinked my eyes as I heard that.

“It was you two who suddenly disappeared, I thought it was a mistake by the sorcerer…Well, I’m glad you’re alright anyway.”

We couldn’t choose what to say. We’ve been there the whole time, but the maids were gone.

Before I could even solve the question, I had to go back to the palace because the break had already ended a long time ago.

*******

The next day a present came for us.

It was a raccoon. A plump raccoon. It even wore a polka dotted ribbon on its head and was held in the hands of a maid.