It was the first day of the Harim Festival.
In front of the Gaia Temple, the area was incredibly crowded with people wishing to pray and with visits from various high-ranking individuals.
The temple’s prayer room had a long line stretching out, and street vendors had set up along the road in front of the temple to cater to those waiting.
The city of Terea, where the temple was located, had decorated its streets for the Harim Festival with sculptures modeled after the goddess, along with flowers and paper decorations. The liveliness had spread widely across every corner of the city.
“No, you there! How could you cut in line like that?”
“What are you talking about! I was here first! You’re the one who took my spot while I just stepped away to use the bathroom!”
Of course, it wasn’t all just cheerful and lively.
With so many people gathered, there were bound to be a few who stepped out of line.
This time, it seemed a commotion had been caused by a line-cutter.
“Your Hig— I mean, Miss Ria. What should we do?”
“Judging by the situation, it looks like that person forcibly cut in line. Even if the wait is tedious, that doesn’t give anyone the right to infringe upon others. Let’s address it immediately.”
“Yes!”
The princess had teamed up with Pollo to serve as helpers in the city of Terea during the Harim Festival.
Though they were called helpers, what they actually did was closer to the work of a vigilante group.
They prevented and arrested pickpockets or those committing other crimes under the cover of the large-scale event. They protected children separated from their parents and helped reunite them, assisted those with limited mobility, and maintained order in queues and among pedestrian traffic. They were essentially in charge of the odd jobs.
However, if a princess went out and did this sort of work openly, it would surely cause a huge commotion.
So Asteria used a hair dye potion to turn her hair a plain brown and participated in the volunteer work in disguise.
“Haaah… This is so boring.”
It had been nice to end up on what was essentially a date under the pretense of volunteer work with Pollo, but the problem was that Pollo was far too focused on the actual work.
It was good that he was diligent about everything, but since the two of them were already spending time together like this, it would’ve been nice if he paid a little more attention to her.
“Hey, hey! Let’s go try that one next!”
“Do you even have room left after eating all that? And do you not realize we’re in the middle of volunteer work right now?”
“We’ve been working hard, so grabbing one or two snacks shouldn’t hurt!”
“Take it slow. What if you get kidnapped again or something?”
“That’s a weird thing to say. With you around, what’s there to worry about?”
“Geez…”
Just then, Asteria spotted two familiar faces at the edge of her vision.
It was Lady Selene Eos and Mars Noctus working as a team.
For some reason, ever since the noble lady’s kidnapping incident, the two of them seemed to have grown noticeably closer.
To be more accurate, it was the noble lady who kept clinging to Mars on her own, but Asteria couldn’t help but think that with one less rival in the mix, it might work in her favor. She made a mental note to investigate their relationship further when she had the time.
“Speaking of dates… those two actually look like they’re having fun.”
To Asteria’s eyes, Selene and Mars looked like they were genuinely enjoying themselves. It was something anyone could see.
Although Mars was being dragged around more or less against his will, the fact that he didn’t stop or reject her and simply stayed by her side was the very image of the ideal partner Asteria had always dreamed of.
Just being there for someone… huh.
As she blankly watched the two of them, Asteria gathered her courage and made up her mind to ask Pollo to spend a little time alone with her.
“Um, Pollo, if you don’t mind, would you like to—”
“Oh, Your Highness! I’ll be right back; I just need to go help that elderly man over there!”
Before she could finish, Pollo rushed off to assist an old man walking through the crowd with a cane.
A chance that vanished before she could even stop it.
Even after that, Asteria tried several more times to get Pollo to spend time with her alone, but he was so focused on the volunteer work that he never noticed how she felt.
Though she had been happy just the day before knowing she could be with Pollo, the time spent with him now, despite being in the same space, felt lonelier and lonelier. It began to stir up an all-too-familiar memory in a corner of her heart.
He hasn’t… looked me in the eyes even once…
From Pollo’s perspective, he had simply avoided looking at her to prevent acting awkwardly and possibly revealing her identity as the princess.
But those small actions were returning to Asteria as deep emotional wounds.
What made it worse was that he reminded her of someone else. Someone who shared her blood but had never looked at her either.
And as time passed, the ache in her chest only grew stronger.
“You’re just the same… just like my father…”
“Hmm? What was that?”
“No, it’s nothing… If it’s alright, could you join the young lady’s group first? I just have something I need to think about for a moment.”
“But I can’t leave Your Highness alone…”
“There were several times during the volunteer work when I was alone too, weren’t there? Don’t worry and go on ahead. I just need some time to think by myself.”
“Hmm… then I’ll go ahead.”
As she watched Pollo walk away, Asteria let out a quiet sigh.
Is it really that hard to look someone in the eye?
If her mother were still alive, would he have been able to look at her properly?
“Your Highness…”
Asteria turned around at the sound of someone calling her.
Thanks to the dye she used, no one should have recognized her, so she was a little startled when she looked back and saw an elderly man with a kind face standing behind her. His expression was marked with something dark.
Though his face was as ordinary as any village grandfather’s, the princess knew very well who he was….and just how much virtue and influence he carried.
“You are… the prime minister, aren’t you? What brings someone as important as yourself all the way out here?”
“Your Highness… there is something I must speak to you about in private.”
“?”
***
“……”
When Asteria came to her senses, she was standing in a forest she didn’t recognize.
A low hill behind the temple.
When she looked down, she could see people singing and dancing in celebration of the holy Harim Festival on a small hill behind the temple, where the view stretched out below.
It was the place where she suddenly came to her senses after wandering aimlessly.
“…They look happy.”
The sound of people’s laughter, loud and full of life, returned to her like needles stabbing into her chest.
At that moment, Asteria recalled the conversation she had just had with the prime minister.
– His Majesty intends to marry Your Highness to the First Prince of the Kingdom of Cretia.
– Originally, I was meant to inform you after the Harim Festival had ended… but I simply couldn’t bring myself to wait, so I’ve come to tell you now.
– …I’m sorry, Your Highness… Someone like me had no power to change His Majesty’s decision.
– Even the forces you’ve been quietly gathering in secret likely won’t be able to act. His Majesty… has already seen through all of that…
“So there’s… no way to escape.”
She had spent her entire life yearning for her father’s love.
She knew very well how pathetic that sounded.
After all, she was a sinner.
She had been born by devouring her mother’s life. And her father who hated her for it.
It was a common enough tale, wasn’t it?
“Still… I thought maybe this time would be different…”
She had no memories of any precious moments with her father.
Because, truly, he had never done anything for her.
She had lived a life where nothing was lacking.
As a member of the imperial family, she wore splendid clothes, tasted rare delicacies most people would never encounter in a lifetime, and received an elite education from some of the greatest minds on the continent.
But not once did the Emperor ever come to see her.
He would at least offer harsh words to her half-siblings, but when it came to Asteria, the Emperor remained thoroughly indifferent.
Even so, Asteria never gave up hope.
She groomed herself beautifully, mastered perfect court etiquette, and studied late into the night, often to the point of nosebleeds.
Politics, economics, humanities, magic, agriculture, languages, religion, military strategy—
She demonstrated remarkable intellect in nearly every academic field.
At first, everyone ignored her as a fallen princess without a future, but as time passed, people began to fall for her. This woman who showed the greatest potential of all to become emperor.
Everyone praised her in unison, insisting she should be the next to ascend the throne.
Eventually, she realized she lacked a power base of her own, and so she entered the academy and began recruiting talented individuals loyal to her.
All so that, one day, her father might finally turn his eyes toward her. That he might pat her head and offer her a single word of praise.
“…It was all… so meaningless…”
Drip—
Tears fell.
Even she couldn’t understand why the tears were coming.
It might have been the sense of betrayal toward her father, who had crushed her hopes.
Or perhaps the emptiness of realizing that everything she had built until now had come to nothing.
Maybe it was the anger at being ignored all her life, only to now be sold off to someone else.
“Hic… hic… huuuh…”
“Sounds like someone’s crying… Could it be a lost child?”
At that moment, a familiar voice came through the rustling bushes.
That voice which sounded both annoyed and worried was a voice Asteria knew very well.
“Hey, kid~ Did you lose your mom or someth— huh? Princess?”
“…Mars… Noctus…”
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