Chapter 1

The Fake Princess of the Separate Palace (1)

“No way! No!”

Erita raised her voice sharply. Lenoff was just sitting aslant while feeling offended by the voice before he narrowed his forehead.

“Erita, don’t mistake me for being fond of you that I will even tolerate you crossing that line.”

“He, but brother, no—Your Highness! I really can’t marry that monster. I don’t even want to!”

Erita tried entreating her brother, Lenoff, but she soon fell on her knees and started begging instead.

As he had said, “fondness” was clearly there between them. For Lenoff—the King of Rakain—what honor would it be appealing to him by upholding his own authority rather than merely preserving his blood and flesh?

“Your Highness, please have some pity on me……”

“Becoming the Empress. Wouldn’t it be better for you this way than to just marry a Rakain aristocrat instead?”

“What will I do when I become the Empress anyway? Becoming the Empress of that savage and uncivilized country, which makes you live with such monsters? I can’t even survive a single day at all. I’d rather bite my tongue and die.”

“Erita! But still… how could you even say that? Did you forget that your mother and brother are together with you?”

As soon as Erita uttered those extreme words in delirium, her mother—the Dowager Queen Carolina, who had been silent until then—stood a stern retort.

Then, Erita retaliated with her blue eyes that were brimming with tears.

“Then, what am I supposed to do! Do you want me to become the monster’s wife forever? Why would I? Why would I even!”

“Erita, stop being so immature. You can’t really be refusing Emperor Seroif’s proposal now?”

Lenoff pressed on his temples as he felt an incoming headache. Erita chewed away her lips and soon came up with something else, making her eyes gleam.

“Ah! We can just send her away then!”

“What?”

“The fake of that Separate Palace. Why don’t you send her away—instead of me?”

“The Separate Palace…… Say something that makes actual sense, Erita.”

Lenoff shook his head and frowned. However, Erita still didn’t give up and continued.

“Why doesn’t it make any sense? We look identical anyway. So, it’s not something that they could actually recognize.”

“Erita, stop……”

“In addition, it’s not a bad idea to take this opportunity to clean up that sinister twin of mine. Isn’t that right, Mother?”

Erita turned her head and looked at Carolina instead.

“Both mother and our late father have been trying hard to hide her presence. Having a set of twins born, which never existed before, she’s been enduring such hard times once again.”

“……”

Carolina hardened her face as she listened to her daughter. She was extremely sensitive about that particular issue, which she thought of the unusual birth of twins as per her own disgrace.

Erita kept the point alive with her eyes all glistened and continued her words persuasively.

“So, if you could just take this opportunity to send her away, everyone will be ultimately happy. You’d be happy to get rid of the trouble as well.”

“……then, what about you? What are you going to do? What do you plan to do after sending that girl under the cover of your own name?”

Carolina seemed to be shaken for a moment at Erita’s words, but soon, she shook her head and began to open her mouth instead. Then, Lenoff also nodded as if he had just agreed with his mother as well.

“If you’re going to do as you’ve said, you must then live with concealing your name and even your own existence—all hidden—for the rest of your life. If it were to be discovered that you have lied to Seroif and even sent him a fake bride on top of that, I won’t be handling it then.”

“I will live like the dead—forever! Just like a person who doesn’t even exist in this world, I can live like that. I’d rather abandon my name entirely than live with that monster.”

Erita instantly answered without even thinking about the forthcoming problems that her mother and brother had just pointed out.

At the same time when Carolina began sighing at her immature and flimsy actions, Lenoff was pressing against the middle of his forehead with his hand before he opened his mouth.

“I can’t listen to such crap of yours anymore. Get out of here, Erita.”

“Your Highness!”

“The national marriage will proceed unconditionally. So, make thorough preparations for it until you finally depart to the Empire.”

“Your Highness! No, brother! You’re truly going to do this—!”

Erita jumped up from her spot in a fit of rage. However, Lenoff was just frigidly looking at her and started raising his voice instead.

“Then, what are you going to do! You want me to reject the marriage that Seroif had requested first? If you decided to marry Seroif, not only would you be able to unify our whole Rakain, but also the entire Cesan Continent as well! But still, you want to stand up against that such Seroif?”

“Therefore, the fake in that Separate Palace……”

“Again, with all that bullshit!”

Lenoff was angry at his immature sister. On the other hand, Erita just bit her lips before glaring at him and eventually went out.

“Because I’m not so mature that…”

Lenoff clicked his tongue and openly showed his disapproval. Then, the uneasy Carolina soon opened her mouth with a sigh.

“If possible, I’d like to do just as Erita says. That will actually solve all these problems.”

“It’s utterly impossible, Mother. Erita—can that child really abandon our name and live like she’s completely dead?”

Lenoff shook his head once again. Erica’s words were tempting yet he just stood up in the end.

*   *   *