Chapter 30

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Chapter 30

And that someone was none other than the Emperor.

Only then did Siervian realize who it was that was sitting by her bed.

“Siervy?”

As soon as she heard her father’s voice, she cowered. Fear rose up because the dream still lingered in her mind.

When she tried to sit up reflexively, there was a gentle touch on her shoulder.

“Lay down.”

In a situation that was hard to believe, she lost strength in her body.

Ah, she came back to the past.

Then, it was something that hadn’t happened yet.

‘It’s cold.’

Even though she had realized where she was now, the coldness of the dungeon still made her tremble.

She tightly clenched the blanket tucked around her. As she curled into herself, this was the best position so that she could warm herself up.

But suddenly, there were wisps of light coming from the side.

[ Alderuan Erveldote ]

Thoughts: It must be cold.

The air suddenly became warm, as if it was never cold. Her father was using magic.

Surprised, she straightened up and lay down on her back. Then, the Emperor arranged her blanket.

A warm touch briefly hovered over her forehead, then it disappeared.

‘Why is Father here?’

It was a belated question.

Siervian felt uncomfortable that she was just lying down without greeting the Emperor first, so she looked around.

“Siervy. What happened?”

After hearing this question, she remembered that she had met the mage Antonio and fainted.

Did he come here after hearing the news that she had collapsed?

[ Alderuan Erveldote ]

Thoughts: No matter how much the palace doctor examined, he said there was no abnormality in your body.

While she was unconscious, the palace doctor seemed to have dropped by for a visit.

She recalled how, in her previous life, she would always wake up alone even when she was sick. That time was still so vivid to her.

Perhaps it was because she saw a familiar face while she was off guard.

“Are you sick? Tell me, Siervy.”

Maybe that’s the reason, but the moment she heard her father say that nickname, tears formed in her eyes.

However, her rational mind desperately tried to control her body.

Don’t be a bothersome child. You might lose this warmth.

“Sebi is fwine.”

“…Please just tell me. What happened?”

Antonio’s face came to mind again.

He was a shameless stranger who visited the dungeon where she was detained. Several times.

’Hmm. You poor thing, Princess. No, you’re not even a princess anymore. Why did you do such a terrible thing, huh?’

He knew it best in the world that she did no such thing.

She still couldn’t understand why he did that, why Antonio had to come by several times just to mock her.

He was a mage who she never had contact with before.

“Siervy, tell me now.”

Her father’s stern tone seemed to be enough to press her and confess everything right away.

[ Alderuan Erveldote ]

Thoughts: I feel like I’m going crazy. I’ll have to call the doctor again. Is it magic? It couldn’t be that the culprit is a mage who could surpass me.

But her father’s inner thoughts continued to fluctuate with concern for her. Rather than the cozy blanket around her, it was this fact that comforted her.

So the emotions that kept bothering her came out. These were words that she couldn’t stop from uttering.

“Mmh, I-I’m scawed.”

She was scared that she would be abandoned someday. And she was scared that she would be framed for something she never did.

But all of that didn’t happen yet.

To confess something like this, she’d have to explain her secret. So she could only say this much now.

“You’re scared?”

The Emperor’s face hardened as he heard the miserable voice of his daughter.

Her small body was trying to hold back her tears, and it couldn’t be any sadder than this. He carefully touched her forehead that was damp with sweat.

“Siervy.”

Siervian wanted to keep his hand over her for as long as possible, even if one day this would not happen again.

This warm hand.

“Just rest for now.”

The Emperor tried to get up and leave the room.

She forced herself to pretend to be okay.

[ Alderuan Erveldote ]

Thoughts: How dare.

However, an unusual status window came up heavily.

Without having time to wonder about her father’s thoughts as he left the room, Siervian fell asleep again.

“He still hasn’t confessed?”

There was a man tied up and bound in a dark underground cell.

With mana restraints around the bastard, the wriggling, plump body was on his knees.

And there was a small child in front of him. Still, the mage continued to shake his head.

“Yes, Father. He’s a persistent bastard.”

On behalf of the Emperor, who had left for a while, the Crown Prince was investigating this man.

The childlike appearance that he usually showed in front of Siervian had all but disappeared.

“T-T-This is unfair, Your Majesty.”

Antonio quickly groveled to the Emperor and complained.

The Emperor looked down at the man’s desperate expression, his eyes cold.

He couldn’t control the anger that had risen earlier.

“What have you done to my daughter.”

At the sound of the Emperor’s chilling tone, Antonio fell into contemplation.

Listening silently on the side, the Crown Prince asked the same question.

He couldn’t hold it in because he was worried about his younger sister.

“Just tell us what you did to Siervian.”

When he had heard the news earlier, he was shocked.

After hearing that Siervian collapsed in front of this pig-like mage, he instantly grew furious.

According to the maid who was with Siervian, she fainted shortly after encountering the mage. It couldn’t have been a mere coincidence.

“Father.”

This was an urgent situation, so Damian even called his father differently, in a way that he only did while he was younger.¹

When called by the Crown Prince, the Emperor tilted his head to the side. As if to look for Antonio’s sin on his face.

Then, he spoke again with a heavy voice.

“Siervy said she was scared.”

“This bastard…!”

It was a strange answer that didn’t make much sense, but nevertheless, the prince was furious.

How dare he frighten Siervian?!

As Antonio listened to their exchange, he felt that it was so unjust that he jumped.

‘Why should I be…!’

It was true that he had the intention to use the princess since he was a very ambitious person.

Originally, he wouldn’t even have thought to approach the princess.

‘Sh*t.’

Rumor had it that rather than her biological child, the Empress cared for the Imperial Princess, but Antonio noticed that there was something amiss.

If she truly cared so much, why was it that she never asked anything for the child from the magic tower?

Unlike when the Crown Prince was born, the Empress never requested any artifacts to enhance the Princess’ mana affinity.

It was an open secret that some mages in the tower provide such items to aristocrats while pocketing the payment given to them.

‘She’s not even her biological child.’

So Antonio didn’t care about the princess either, but then he heard another strange rumor.

It was rumored that the Emperor favored the Imperial Princess.

It was prohibited to wield magic in front of the Imperial Family. With the young princess being strangely discriminated against, he made a quick calculation and thought that the princess might have never experienced any fancy magic.

‘I was just going to build a connection to use later.’

He also intended to secretly show her some eye-catching spells so that he could get closer to her, and with a secret to tie them together, she’d surely be won over.

Children easily opened their hearts to Antonio, and they were easy to use.

But who knew that the princess would collapse right then?

‘This is driving me crazy.’

Even the Emperor misunderstood that she had collapsed because of magic.

Though he hadn’t attacked her, Antonio had thought of using magic in front of her, so it wasn’t a contrived accusation.

‘Sh*t, that useless concubine’s daughter.’

Antonio poured out his resentment inwardly. No one would know anyway, so he was going to curse her out until the end.

“I, I just, I just greeted Her Highness, Your Majesty.”

“Why did you greet my daughter?”

However, at the Emperor’s response, Antonio made an expression full of disbelief.

No, but, wasn’t it natural to greet the Imperial Family…?

“You’re someone irrelevant.”

He was even stigmatized just for greeting.

In the face of a man of insurmountable power, Antonio could say nothing in return.

Seeing this bastard’s reaction, the Emperor scowled.

It was a simple matter of taking care of Antonio right away, but he might harm Siervian again while avoiding people’s eyes. And this was what the Emperor wanted to prevent.

“I-It is unfair, sire.”

Alderuan, the strongest mage in the whole empire, found no signs of magic, and the palace doctor also said that there were no problems with his daughter’s health.

But he saw how Siervian looked so anxious.

“Did the doctor say that it’s just a mental shock, Father?”

“That’s right.”

But Siervian looked so weak and vulnerable at that moment to say it was merely mental shock.

In retrospect, there had never been a time when she didn’t look so vulnerable, but the Emperor brushed this thought away.

After dealing with this matter, he vowed to get rid of that quack palace doctor.

At that time, the Crown Prince looked down at Antonio with a cold gaze, then he spoke in a low voice.

“Isn’t his face the problem?”

“His face?”

After looking at him again, he did look very much like a pig. Suddenly displeased, the Emperor raised one eyebrow.

“Doesn’t Siervian seem to care about aesthetics? It’s obvious because she likes the animal sculptures I made for her.”

“Siervy takes after me, so she must have a high aesthetic standard. Of course.”

Their strange conversation continued.

The mage who felt that this was all too unfair stared at them, trying to understand just what the hell these two powerful individuals were talking about.

“It’s clear that it’s this bastard’s face that shocked Siervian.”

“Mm.”

“Her maid said that she was so excited to go to the library, but then it turned out this way when she ran into this bastard like that.”

“It makes sense.”

No, it didn’t make sense at all.

However, the Emperor had the power to get rid of people like Antonio just because he didn’t like them.

“It’s unpleasant. How dare you show your face to my daughter?”

Knowing that the Emperor could get rid of him easily, Antonio bowed his head while sweating profusely.

He was blinded by ambition. He regretted trying to act chummy in front of the princess.

How dare he try to use the princess to fill his greed.

“First, let’s go and check on Siervy again.”

“Yes, Father.”

The Emperor turned around unhesitatingly and the Crown Prince followed him.

As the prince said, it was clear that Siervian, who was as gentle as snow, had been traumatized by that bastard’s toad-like face.

She was a child who always seemed startled when seeing his own face, and he was her father. He thought that this was plausible enough.

‘But is that really it?’

On the other hand, there was still a lingering suspicion.

Recently, Siervian has become such a good child. There might be more to it than simply being scared by ‘a face’.

“Investigate that bastard. Even his work outside the palace.”

At the order of the cold Emperor, the Crown Prince nodded wordlessly.

——

t/n:

¹ When Damian mentioned that ‘Father’ was a title that he never called Alderuan anymore, this is different from the previous instances when he also called him ‘Father’, and that’s because he usually calls Alderuan in the honorific form now (아바마마) and this is kind of like ‘Your Majesty Father’ in line with ‘Your Majesty the Emperor’. At this moment, he called Alderuan the normal way (아버지). There’s no English equivalent, so I left both as ‘Father’ and instead explained it here in a footnote.

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