“Ugh, this is exhausting… Why is that guy making me do this kind of thing?”
Early evening, just after sunset. I was climbing the small hill behind the temple.
After finishing the volunteer work with the noble lady, one of the temple staff approached me and asked if I could help out for a bit.
The reason was that the nearby plaza that was adjacent to the temple had drawn a huge crowd, and most of the manpower had been redirected there, leaving too few people to patrol the surrounding outer areas.
Apparently, around this time of day, there were usually a few kids who came out holding their mothers’ hands and then wandered up the hill out of curiosity. So they asked me to patrol in their place just in case.
I was worried about the noble lady going alone, so I tried to assign her to Pollo and the princess’s team but for some reason, I couldn’t find the princess anywhere. So I quickly left the noble lady with Pollo for the time being.
She didn’t seem particularly thrilled about it, but maybe she was just nervous.
Anyway, that’s how I ended up grumbling while climbing the hill and that’s when I heard a soft sob.
“Hic… hic… huuuh…”
Huh? That really does sound like a girl crying. I guess that person was right.
For a moment, hearing a girl’s sobs coming from not far away made me wonder if it was a ghost, but I quickly composed myself and walked toward the sound.
“Sounds like someone’s crying… Could it be a lost kid?”
Logically, if there’s a girl crying here, she’s probably a child who got lost.
Most likely, she wandered up the hill out of curiosity and couldn’t find her way back down.
Worried that a frightened child might be startled by my approach and end up hurt, I walked over slowly, trying to sound as gentle and reassuring as possible.
“Hey, kid~ Did you lose your mom or something… huh? Princess?”
But instead of a small child greeting me, I found the Second Princess of the Empire, Asteria von Caelum with tears streaming down her cheeks through her now-revealed golden hair. The disguise spell must have worn off.
“Mars… Noctus…”
“Y-Your Highness? What are you doing here…? Wait, more importantly, are you hurt?”
I rushed over to check if she was alright.
I didn’t know why she was sitting there crying, but if she’d gotten hurt somehow, I couldn’t even imagine the kind of scolding I’d get later.
Sure, it was her decision to come out here on her own, but I’d still be the one getting blamed for not guarding her properly.
I mean, shouldn’t a princess at least have a secret escort with her by default?
Why was she here all alone with no one watching her back?
“Looks like you’re not hurt anywhere.”
Thankfully, she wasn’t injured.
Relieved, I reached into my back pocket, pulled out a handkerchief, and handed it to her.
In my past life, I never even carried one around, but after learning noble etiquette here, it had become a habit to always keep one with me.
“Uh… I haven’t used it at all today. It’s clean, so you don’t need to worry—”
“…Thank you.”
She took the handkerchief from me and wiped away her tears.
She must’ve cried quite a bit because she took longer than I expected using it. By the time she was done, the handkerchief was soaked through.
She looked like she was debating whether or not to return it, but I gave her a small look that said it was fine to keep it, and we let the awkwardness pass.
“Aren’t you going to ask what happened?”
“No, well… I mean, seeing you cry, it clearly wasn’t something good. And you might not want to talk about it… and it didn’t feel right for me to pry, you know…?”
“I see… that makes sense…”
Was she upset that I didn’t ask? If there were a test for reading women’s emotions, I’d probably fail it for life. Trying to understand the princess’s feelings felt as impossible as reading the mind of a three-year-old.
I wasn’t particularly curious, but seeing that empty look in her eyes, I figured maybe I should at least offer to listen.
“Well, if it’s not some huge secret, you can talk to me. It might feel a little less painful if someone hears you out instead of keeping it all locked up inside, right?”
“…Yeah… maybe you’re right…”
When I offered to listen to her story, our princess finally opened her mouth with a noticeably brighter face.
“You probably know I’ve been cast aside in the imperial palace, right?”
“Hmm…”
To be honest, this wasn’t really a secret or anything.
The second princess, daughter of the concubine, had been born without receiving any love from the Emperor after her mother died from illness.
In fact, the current Emperor had two wives. His first wife, the empress, and his second wife, the concubine.
The concubine, unlike the empress, wasn’t of noble birth but came from a common background. She was a woman the Emperor had met when he once ran away from the stifling imperial palace out of frustration.
Being young and unfamiliar with the ways of the world, the Emperor had traveled here and there until he ran out of money. He collapsed near the edge of a remote countryside village, and that was where the concubine had found and saved him.
At first, he only planned to stick around for a while to repay her by doing various chores, but as they lived together, he came to truly love her. The concubine too fell for the Emperor, and they eventually became lovers.
However, by the former Emperor’s command, the current Emperor had been forcibly dragged back to the palace and wasn’t able to see her again until much later. Only after he became Emperor did he finally bring her to the palace and make her his concubine.
While his marriage with the empress had been a political one, his relationship with the concubine had been rooted in mutual love. That’s why the palace staff assumed the Emperor couldn’t forgive the daughter who had taken the life of the woman he truly loved.
I had even heard my father mention once that the concubine’s health had declined after giving birth to the princess, so perhaps her weakened condition had been due to complications from childbirth.
Countless rumors had circulated among the public. Some said the empress had poisoned her out of jealousy, others claimed the princess had stolen her mother’s life force and was a cursed child. But the imperial family never gave an explanation or statement. They simply let it pass quietly, and over time, it faded from people’s memory.
“I… had always wanted my father’s love. I know very well how arrogant that sounds. A girl who stole her mother’s life just by being born…how dare she hope for anything more.”
“…….”
“Still, just… one word. Even a brief pat on the head. It didn’t have to be praise. I just wanted him to look at me… to meet my eyes at least once.”
It seemed that ever since then, she had lived her life treated as if she didn’t exist in her father’s eyes.
The Emperor, who had lost the woman he loved so tragically, had shifted the blame onto his own daughter.
And the princess, in her desperate longing for her father’s love, had become a genius.
The reason she insisted on using such an uncharacteristically authoritative tone was likely part of a performance. That was to appeal to her father, to show him she was fit to be emperor.
“Besides… I’m about to be married.”
“Uh… congratulations?”
Zap—!
Ah, that probably wasn’t the right reaction.
“To the first prince of the Kingdom of Cretia. I’m to marry him, apparently. A man I’ve never even met, and it was all arranged solely by my father’s decision. Truly laughable, isn’t it…”
“Well… from what I’ve heard, he doesn’t exactly have the best reputation.”
Even someone like me, who barely paid attention to politics, had heard of that man.
He was born with a robust physique and had achieved impressive accomplishments, but his nature was said to be violent and foul-tempered, to the point that even the king of Cretia constantly had headaches because of him.
He also had quite a reputation for being a womanizer, so if our princess were to marry into that household, her future was all too easy to predict.
“Sorry. Complaining to someone with no connection to the matter… how pathetic of me.”
“Um… what about trying to sway public opinion?”
“Out of nowhere? And public opinion?”
“Yes. I understand this is a marriage between nations, but wasn’t it decided entirely by His Majesty? Without a shred of input from you?”
“Th-That’s true.”
“In that case, rather than trying to change His Majesty’s mind, why not try changing the hearts of the people instead? You’re well-regarded among the common folk, so if word got out that you were being forced into this marriage, there would surely be those who’d oppose it.”
In fact, Asteria’s reputation was so high that it was hard to understand why the emperor hadn’t already named her as his successor.
The first prince and princess, born of the empress and from high-ranking noble blood, certainly had status. But their personalities, intelligence, and general demeanor didn’t even come close to matching the second princess.
One was a lecher who seemed to think with his lower half, and the other was a compulsive spender. Neither had the slightest qualification to be the next emperor.
“Is… that so? Wait a moment. Are you trying to help me?”
“Yes.”
“What—?! That was just me venting! There’s no reason for you to get involved, okay?!”
“There’s no reason not to help you, either, is there?”
At my reply, the princess looked at me with a dumbfounded expression, as if her sense of reason had just walked out the door.
Well, from her perspective, it probably did look ridiculous. A rural baron’s son was seriously trying to meddle in a major royal marriage between nations. But I was sincere about wanting to help her.
It wasn’t because Asteria was my type, or because I was trying to score something big out of this situation.
It’s just… I know all too well the feeling of wanting even the slightest bit of attention from someone you can’t bring yourself to hate.
“We exaggerate the rumors about the First Prince of Cretia a little and frame you as the victim of the misfortunes that would come from marrying him. Or, we could craft a heart-wrenching love story….one where you’re being torn away from the person you love. That kind of story would definitely pull in the public, don’t you think? Better yet, we create a fake lover and show off a sweet, romantic relationship to everyone. Then people will rally behind your love.”
“Love… story? A fake lover?”
“Yes. Like Pollo, for example.”
I decided to use this opportunity to help the princess express her feelings to Pollo.
Pollo probably wouldn’t accept her feelings right away, but if they pretended to be lovers long enough, some feelings might naturally grow.
And if they ended up becoming a real couple, I could cash in on a hefty reward from the princess.
“I mean, I do want to… but having a fake romance with someone from the House of Helios is too risky.”
“But isn’t this your chance?”
“The House of Helios maintains neutrality to avoid disrupting the balance of power within the imperial family, thanks to their military strength. If I were to end up with Pollo Helios, it might not necessarily be a bad thing from the emperor’s perspective…. but the moment that happens, there will definitely be people who latch onto our relationship and refuse to let go.”
“Hmm…”
“On top of that, if our fake relationship were to be exposed, we could be accused of deceiving the emperor. Is Pollo Helios any good at acting, by the way?”
“…No.”
That guy’s so upright and honest that he couldn’t lie to save his life.
It’d be like one of those cringe-worthy performances by an idol trying to play a pirate on an old variety show.
“A noble, but the gap between our statuses is wide. His looks aren’t bad, he doesn’t feel intimidated by me, he can act shamelessly well, and we already have a connection, so it wouldn’t seem strange if we started dating right away…”
Slide—
“……”
“……?”
Why.
Why are you looking at me like that?
Huh?
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