Chapter 42

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Chapter 42

At Siervian’s urgent outburst, Marco stopped in his tracks.

Going down on one knee politely, he looked at the princess and asked in reflex.

“Your Highness. Do you mean, something like money…”

“Yeah. Money!”

Marco had asked reflexively due to habit, but in fact, he wasn’t expecting much.

[ Marco William ]

Thoughts: You’re still young, so you probably don’t even understand the concept of money…

This was true, and at this, Siervian grimaced.

But to other people, she looked like she was cutely sulking.

“Ahem, um. I implore you, Your Highness, but there must be a better teacher out there for the Princess.”

[ Marco William ]

Favorability: +30

Thoughts: If it’s 5 million, then I might give some time to think about it, but… Eyy, no way. Let’s not bring it up.

Fortunately for Siervian, a hint came up in his status window.

There it was. She could raise the right number for Marco!

“No! Sebi can really give money!”

“…Is that so?”

Seeing Marco’s face crumpled again, Siervian grew impatient.

She quickly brought up her cute fingers and spread them wide.

It would be better if she gave him double, right?

“Thwis… Thwis much.”

Marco’s eyes widened as he looked at Siervian, who was holding up all ten of her fingers.

Watching his reaction, she shouted firmly.

“Ten miwwion!”

Marco stayed silent for a moment, even at Siervian’s desperate cry. This made her hesitate for a moment, wondering if it was enough.

Then.

[ Marco William ]

Favorability: 10,500 (new!)

The status window shone brilliantly. Siervian tilted her head to the side because this was something she had never seen before.

His favorability had just been 5,030 before, meaning it was only a marginal favorability for her, but then it nearly doubled in that one instant.

“I dedicate my true loyalty to you, Your Highness.”

At that moment, accompanied by a shimmering light around him, Marco knelt down more politely than he did before.

“Umm…”

Though she was a child, Siervian was part of the imperial family, so it was natural for her to be at the top of this hierarchical society.

Even so, Marco thought time and time again. The best liege was a liege who would take care of him with a lot of money.

“Then, what is Your Highness’ first command?”

Marco, who was previously determined to run away earlier, was now showing great enthusiasm.

That’s why Siervian could only nod back with a puzzled face.

In any case, much easier than she thought it would be, she found someone who’d teach her about money.

The social season was now in full swing.

Siervian hated this season of the year, but there was still one thing she was looking forward to.

The spring picnic.

“What do you have in mind, Princess?”

Jane asked her, as she carefully combed the child’s black hair.

“Nothing much.”

With the princess being deep in thought like this, her cheeks looked oh so puffier than before.

When Jane first entered the Princess’ Palace, the first thing she wanted to do was to feed the princess ten meals a day.

“What would you like to do today?”

“Umm.”

Perhaps she had an exciting plan in mind, but Siervian mumbled as she mulled over it.

As more people actively communicated with her, Siervian became more talkative.

Her pronunciation had also become clearer as the words she used to express her intentions also became more detailed.

‘I want to go to the spring picnic.’

And as she planned things with a much clearer thought process than Jane would realize, Siervian was lost in thought.

The millenary garden, which was surrounded by a magic circle, had always been the number one place that everyone would like to go to in the empire during spring. And spring picnics were customarily held there.

‘I want to see the sephinel flower…’

The sephinel flower was a legendary flower that blooms only once every millennium, but it was easy to find it at the millenary garden.

It was one of the achievements of the first emperor that the sephinel flower’s existence would become natural. Since time was stopped inside the millenary garden for the flowers, any blossom that should have withered in a week’s time could bloom forever in there.

Since then, the garden with the sephinel flowers began to be called the ‘millenary garden’.

‘I want to observe one closely.’

A sephinel flower looks like a long, purple lily, and it boasts of a mysterious appearance.

Besides that, the reason why the first emperor had stopped time inside the garden was one of the common themes of the empire’s poems and ballads.

It’s said that the millenary garden was the first emperor’s gift to his empress, who loved the sephinel flowers the most.

‘What an amazing magic spell.’

The garden had a legend for lovers, but it’s also very famous amongst mages because of the temporal stasis spell.

It’s also amazing that it’s a place where spring could be experienced, since in the first place, it had been impossible for spring to come to the north.

‘Sephinel was originally just a legendary flower, but it became a symbol for romance because of that story…’

Of course, the story wasn’t very important to Siervian because she just likes the sephinel flower by itself.

‘Will it be open this year?’

The millenary garden was under the imperial family’s ownership, and it was open to the public only during the social season.

The garden was also an effective way to show off the dignity of the imperial family while using it as a venue for high society’s gatherings.

However, in her previous life, Siervian had never ‘officially’ been to the millenary garden.

‘Now that I think about it, I think Father stopped allowing the nobles to come when I was about twelve years old.’

Recalling this strange fact, Siervian’s expression darkened.

Siervian had not asked for much in her previous life, but the one thing she had insisted on many times was to see the millenary garden.

Of course, the emperor never allowed it.

‘Won’t it be a little different this time?’

Unlike when she had been twelve years old before, the garden was not yet closed for some mysterious reason.

Besides, hadn’t Siervian solved the bad things she had encountered until now?

So, maybe she could at least try to ask her father this time.

‘Ah, but, I shouldn’t have come here as soon as I thought to do it.’

Whenever Siervian would let her guard down for even just a moment, her child-like instincts would burst out.

She had become much more comfortable with talking and moving compared to before, but this impulsiveness would still pop out from time to time.

“What’s the matter, Princess?”

“Nnh, I’m scared, His Majwesty will be angry.”

“Oh my, what made you think that would happen?”

[ Ellie ]

Thoughts: Goodness, our Princess. His Majesty would never be angry with you.

As soon as Siervian finished dressing up, she came to the Emperor’s Palace. It was completely out of her control.

It was impolite of her to come see her father without any notice.

She should have sent a letter in advance and asked for permission to visit first.

“Your Highness!”

It’s been a long time since they met, but the grand chamberlain cheerfully rushed to her side the moment he saw her.

So Siervian couldn’t even go back after she regained her senses and had to look back at him slowly.

“I’ll inform His Majesty right away. Chief lady-in-waiting, will you please guide Her Highness inside?”

“Yes, sir.”

Siervian was thinking about how to get out of this, but surprisingly, the grand chamberlain responded enthusiastically as though he’d been waiting for this chance.

It was a little unexpected, but Siervian just nodded when he offered to ask for permission on his own.

After this, Ellie brought Siervian to a splendid drawing room of the Emperor’s Palace.

‘Is this really okay?’

Though after Siervian read what Ellie had thought in her status window, she decided to believe her.

If it would be difficult for her father to meet her now, he’d at least tell her to come back later.

“Your Highness. I have received His Majesty’s permission.”

“Okay!”

A bit of time passed before the grand chamberlain had returned.

Seeing the sweat forming on his forehead, Siervian wondered if he had come from a far place.

“Please come this way.”

The grand chamberlain walked forward to guide her along the way.

The young Siervian had never been around this part of the palace before.

But the adult Siervian knew exactly where this path was leading to.

‘Huh…? This way?’

Even though she was perplexed, she knew this path well enough.

“Your Majesty, Her Highness the Imperial Princess has arrived.”

“Let her in.”

“……!”

Siervian was led right to the door of the emperor’s throne room, where her father was in the middle of leading a meeting with the officials as this morning’s agenda.

No, but why did you bring me here?

“Now then. We’re here, Your Highness.”

‘It can’t be!’

However, unlike Siervian, the grand chamberlain had no talent in reading her mind, and so he opened the door to the throne room widely.

The grand chamberlain gently pushed Siervian’s back, and this made her step forward unwillingly.

As soon as she entered, the many eyes of the nobles became focused on her.

‘I’m in big trouble.’

No matter how naïve she was, she knew better than to disturb the emperor while he was working.

“Come closer, Siervy.”

“Yees.”

Forcefully disturbing her father, Siervian waddled forward with tears forming at her eyes.

It was too late to turn around, so there was no other choice but to obey the orders given to her here.

“What’s the matter?”

“Sebi is…”

In the end, her head started spinning at the sound of her father’s voice as he asked her to speak at once.

She couldn’t possibly say she wants to go on a picnic when there were so many officials here who were in the middle of work.

More than that, the nobles working under the emperor’s command were the ones who hated her in her previous life.

“Siervy?”

“It’s just…”

She wanted to escape, but she couldn’t run out when she was in her father’s presence.

That would just be terribly rude of her even more.

[ Alderuan Erveldote ]

Thoughts: You were looking for me in such a hurry. Did something happen? If anyone had troubled my Siervian, I won’t let them go.

As she was silent for a long time, the emperor’s expression hardened because of his concern.

Gradually, as Siervian was quiet all that time, she managed to figure out what to do.

However, her panicked mind couldn’t actually make a rational decision.

“Se-Sebi will…”

“Yes, go ahead and speak.”

The emperor’s tone was blunt as usual, but Siervian already knew how warm he really was.

Her father’s large hand, which would hold her so tightly so that she wouldn’t fall, came into sight.

So, she reflexively sought out his embrace.

“Hm?”

As Alderuan also reflexively carried his child because she was reaching up to him, he became greatly flustered.

Now with Siervian carefully positioned on his lap, she nuzzled into his embrace.

As she hid into the emperor’s chest, Siervian spoke up somewhat bravely, as though it was her intention all along.

“Sebi, Sebi can wait here patientwy!”

In a way, this was perfect so that she wouldn’t disturb the meeting, and at the same time, she wouldn’t be disobeying her father’s orders.

But as she had already acted like a child without realizing it, it wasn’t until she was already sitting on her father’s lap that she regained her senses and came to a realization.

‘Argh, what have I done!’

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