Chapter 6

Monster Emperor, Kergel (3)

“……Rakain’s royal daughter seems to have some unexpected plans. But you should have paid much more attention to your own subordinate.”

A man who came up to Roelin’s face had twisted a corner of his mouth before opening it gently. His golden pair of eyes glistened coldly in between the black locks that were covering his forehead. She immediately felt as if she had encountered a fierce beast.

Roelin’s tired face from all that pressure had eventually turned white. She could hardly take her eyes off that man since she had a hunch that he would instantly bite down her neck if she were to let down her guard.

How long had it already been?

The man who was looking straight at Roelin smiled as he held her hand. Roelin’s fingertips quivered unknowingly. He looked down at her hand for a moment to see if the tremor had passed on before he bowed slowly right after.

“……!”

And his lips grazed upon the back of her hand. The man’s lips were absolutely cold.

“Welcome to the Seroif, Princess.”

The man’s golden eyes were even colder. She couldn’t find any hint of warmth at all.

It was just too cold to see him as a suitor for Erita.

But that very coldness had helped Roelin. She was able to eventually regain her senses thanks to it. She collected her breaths while ignoring her pounding heart and slowly withdrew her hand that had been caught by him. Then, she bent her knees slightly to show her courtesy.

“It is a great honor to have the Lord of the Empire welcoming me like this.”

Then, the man, no—the Emperor—looked at her with wide opened eyes as if it was utterly unexpected. But at the same time, Roelin was also looking straight at him without avoiding his gaze.

At that moment, she heard someone’s groan from behind. Only then did the Emperor shoot a glance at Roelin’s back before twisting his mouth.

“The owner actually knows the subject, but the dog that follows the owner dare to bark fearlessly—that’s why this happens.”

Instead of looking back, Roelin gazed directly at the Emperor before averting her eyes . Then, she saw the bow in his hand.

Perhaps it was an arrow that passed by her a little while ago. And the arrow seemed to have hit the one who made a slip of the tongue earlier.

The Emperor’s cruelty of shooting arrows at people without any qualms, as if he was just hunting a beast, had been feared belatedly. No one could protest or refute properly, perhaps due to the fear within the delegation of Rakain itself.

“You shouldn’t forget that this is no longer Rakain, but Seroif instead. Isn’t that right, Princess?”

The Emperor spoke to her again. Roelin looked up at the bow in his hand and lifted her gaze.

In contrast to his laughter, his golden eyes were simply indifferent. It was absolutely clear that he had no feelings for her.

Then, why did he propose to her in the first place?

Suddenly, a question arose. But Roelin immediately cleared the very same question out of her head.

It had nothing to do with her. It wasn’t even something that she should be aware of. Rather, if the man in front of her right now had no feelings for ‘Erita’ at all, Roelin should have welcomed him with open arms.

Even if she were to become a ‘fake’ bride, it would still be too difficult for her to imitate such ‘fake’ affection.

How could a person who had never been loved before pretend to actually love someone?

Just then, a silver-haired man gradually approached. It was a man with a nervous appearance who seemed to be about the same age as the Emperor himself.

“My name is Heinez Bashel, the Chancellor of Seroif. I greet the Princess.”

“……ah, nice to meet you.”

She forced that thought out of her head and greeted the man named Heinez in return. But Heinez didn’t even look at Roelin before he immediately opened his mouth at the Emperor.

“Please enter the Main Palace, Your Majesty. It doesn’t look very good to face the Rakain delegation like this—even before the official event.”

“I was just on my way back from hunting and I merely ran into something ‘unexpected’.”

The Emperor retorted to Heinez. But not a single one had believed it even with a grain of salt. There was still a painful groan shrieking from behind as well.

“It would be better if you were to leave now. There will be some separate instructions for the Princess as well as the envoys, so please follow along compliantly.”

Heinez glanced at the noise that was still taking place behind them and soon spoke in a calm tone.

“And since we seem to have a patient, we’ll take care of him so that he can receive some medical treatment from the Foreign Palace Clinic.”

“It seems like there’s a patient? Don’t you even know what happened right now!”

At that moment, the previously silent Count McGree stepped in helplessly.

‘Oh, my God.’

Roelin clicked her tongue while holding back her desire to touch her forehead.

‘Don’t you even know ‘who’ actually caused all this?’

What kind of answer did she expect to hear anyway? It was simply unbelievable. And it was all the same with Heinez as well, who couldn’t really speak for a moment before he chuckled in vain.

“Well, I’m not so sure what to say…”

“Count McGree.”

The moment Heinez was about to pull out his words in a rather troubled tone, Roelin had first opened her own mouth.

“Let’s have the ‘patient’ sent to the clinic. It seems to be hurting a lot compared to before.”

“……Princess.”

“I understand that you have become rather sensitive since the responsibility to lead this delegation is on your shoulders. But why don’t you relax a little? We are already in Seroif Empire right now. We’re not that far away from a remote place where we can’t even get a single help at all.”

Roelin’s voice was really soft, but the Count’s face became unpleasant when he heard it. He scrunched up his face and just bowed his head as if he couldn’t help it. Then, he expressed his simple courtesy and turned his body around.

“Hmm…… this is quite interesting.”

The Emperor, who was watching the whole scene, mumbled under his breath. However, Roelin was already so tired of the Count’s foolish behavior until she couldn’t hear him at all.

The Emperor, who was watching the scene, mumbled a very small murmur to himself. But Roelin couldn’t hear his voice because he was throbbing at the Count’s foolish behavior.

So, it was natural in a way to not have noticed that the Emperor was looking at her with such childlike eyes.

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