Chapter 53

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Ellea was so surprised by the completely unimaginable identity and only stared at Chaylen that she forgot that Terban was by her side. The question was …

Why does Chaylen look so unfamiliar? Is there such a person in the court?

Chaylen was just as surprised. He had thought that she was a noblewoman, but she was a much more important person than that.

It was a completely unexpected range, so he just stood there frozen, without any reaction.

While they looked at each other in such shock, Terban, who had no idea what had happened between them, wondered.

“Do you know each other?”

He said, but from the reaction they had just shown, they didn’t seem to know anything about each other.

“Oh, that’s….”

Finally regaining a sense of normalcy, Ellea tried to answer Terban’s question, but she wondered what she should say.

They had met a few times, so it’s not like they didn’t know each other, but they only knew about each other’s identities just now.

As if he had noticed Ellea’s thoughts, Chaylen came out first and said,

“We were just about to exchange greetings. I would like to formally greet you. I’m Chaylen Kaicher.”

‘Kaicher? That’s not the Kaicher know.’

Chaylen quickly took stock of the situation and greeted the Imperial Princess.

Ellea also greeted him as if they only met for the first time today.

“Yes, it is a pleasure to meet you. I am Ellea Zevenica.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Princess.”

The atmosphere and the way Chaylen spoke was so different from before that Ellea almost started laughing at the funny situation.

They had spoken comfortably and informally earlier, and it felt like a play to speak politely to each other like this.

He wanted to talk more with Ellea, but since Terban was there, Chaylen decided to leave.

When he looked at her, she didn’t seem to want Terban to see how close she was to him.

Most importantly, he learned about Ellea’s identity, so the harvest was quite good. I had also fulfilled his original purpose coming to at the Imperial Palace.

“I’ll be leaving now. I will visit you officially later, Your Majesty.”

“Very well.”

Chaylen was about to leave with a greeting when he heard some unexpected words behind him as he moved away.

“Thank you.”

As Chaylen hastily turned around at the sound of her voice, he saw Ellea smile at him.

He understood the meaning of what Ellea was trying to say in her appearance, and answered instead with a slight bow of his head, and quickly moved away.

Ellea noticed, too, that Chaylen had deliberately pretended not to know about what had happened with her in front of Terban.

‘I’m in debt again.’

After the sword and the handkerchief, she received another help from Chaylen. She was worried about how he would come back later.

‘I don’t think he’s someone who would let things go easily.’

Terban watched the figure silently at his side, but unlike what the two had said, it didn’t seem like they just knew each other.

“What happened with the Duke?”

Ellea made an excuse earlier and showed Terban the book in her hands.

“He helped me in the library earlier. And we were talking about it.”

“You looked surprised by the word ‘Duke’.”

“Of course. Wouldn’t everyone be surprised if the person in front of them was a Duke?”

That was what Ellea’s sentiment was right now. On one hand, she was actually surprised that the person she had casually exchanged words with was actually a Duke, but, she was also disappointed.

‘I can’t treat him like I did now. It was comfortable to talk informally to each other.’

Naturally, she understood, but she was suddenly saddened by the look on Chaylen’s face when he was surprised to find out who she was.

No one had ever treated that friendly and casually like that since she became Princess. So she was disappointed that was gone now.

Terban looked at Ellea, who was looking pensive at Chaylen’s disappearance, but he didn’t know what she was thinking.

“Then I’ll get going now.”

Meanwhile, she finally felt awkward at the fact that she was with Terban and wanted to leave right away.

After Shanil’s tea party, they met for the first time today since all this had happened. So she was about to leave when Terban spotted something asked.

“That hand.”

“What?”

Realizing that it was the handkerchief wrapped around her wrist that Terban’s gaze turned to, Ellea quickly hid her hand behind her back that was holding the book. But only after he had already realized the reason.

“Is it because I caught it before?”

“That’s …….”

She couldn’t say it was right and hesitated, but Terban immediately knew it was because of him.

At that moment, he was so worked up that he grabbed her hand, not caring that she was an Imperial Princess, and it must have left a dark bruise.

Ellea hastily said, misinterpreting it as another meaning while Terban was too sorry to find the words.

“It’s no big deal. It doesn’t hurt anymore, and I don’t want to cause you any unnecessary worry either. And I’m not even going to let Zevenica know.” (Ellea)

“That’s not it.” (Terban)

“Then what…..” (Ellea)

She naturally expected Terban to be worried that he had mistreated the Princess of another country, but when he said no, Ellea now waited to hear a different answer.

However, there was no reply from Terban.

“If you have nothing more to say, I will leave now. Your Majesty.”

Ellea greeted him and left, without any regrets. Terban didn’t catch her this time.

In the end, he couldn’t even tell her what had happened with Shanil.

The moment he saw Ellea hurt because of him, he hesitated, not knowing what to say.

“Your Majesty?”

The aide at Terban’s side called out to him, who stood still in the same position. Eventually, he averted his gaze from Ellea, who was finally moving away.

“Let’s end here today.”

***

Arun hurried out as the carriage with Chaylen arrived at the mansion. As soon as he got out of the carriage, Arun urgently asked,

“Welcome back. How did it go? What did he say?”

“Arun, one at a time. I can’t breathe.”

As soon as Chaylen entered the room, he immediately loosened the buttons on his collar, perhaps the uniform bothered him.

“Now I can live.”

Arun waited, anxious by Chaylen’s carefree reaction, he couldn’t wait to hear about what happened at the Imperial Palace.

“So did it go well as planned?”

“Yes. As soon as he saw my face, his expression hardened. He seems to know what he has done.”

“What about His Majesty?”

“He didn’t show much reaction, but he seemed to believe me to some extent.”

“That’s a relief.”

Arun was relieved once Chaylen told him what had happened in the conference hall. Things had gone according to plan. However, It was only the beginning.

“But we’ve crossed a big mountain, so you can relax a little.”

“Well, you’re right. And I have to meet His Majesty formally soon, so be aware of that.”

Arun’s will burned more at Chaylen’s instruction. He felt a sense of joy at the thought that his efforts so far would bear fruit.

“Yes. That’s what I was expecting.”

“Are you still moving?”

“Yes. I plan to come to the capital once the work there is done.”

Satisfied that his work was progressing smoothly, Chaylen came up with his next plan. This was for the opportunity to gradually tighten their enemy’s breathing.

Arun was about to leave the room, but Chaylen hurriedly caught him.

“Arun.”

“Is there anything you want me to do?”

“Not exactly. Do you know anything about the Princess of the Zevenica Empire?”

“Yes, well. I know that she recently came to Rubain. But why are you suddenly asking about the Princess?”

“It’s nothing. You can leave.”

Arun tilted his head and walked out of the room.

As he sat leaning back on the couch, Chaylen remembered what he had seen of Ellea earlier.

‘Zevenica. Why couldn’t I have guessed she was the Princess?’

Muttering Ellea’s name, Chaylen blamed himself for not realizing her identity earlier.

If she wasn’t a noblewoman here, he should have thought of Zevenica, but he missed that.

‘But how can I think she’s an imperial Princess?’

Chaylen recalled what Ellea had shown so far, she didn’t fit the image of a Princess at all.

She was good with swords, subdued a big man herself, and drank with him in the middle of the night.

Several questions came to his mind, but there was one conclusion he reached.

It didn’t matter who she was.

Chaylen had to admit at that moment. It didn’t matter what kind of person Ellea was from the beginning.

“Princess.”

More than anything, he was most worried that she would push him away like last time just because she found out who he was.

‘I finally know your name…’

Chaylen closed his eyes and thought of Ellea saying “thank you” to him earlier, and quickly decided to do as his heart desired.

He was not going to stop meeting her, even if she was an Imperial Princess.

‘But, if she’s an imperial Princess, isn’t it easier to meet her now?’

When Chaylen opened his eyes with this thought, he was thinking about how he could meet Princess Ellea, when he remembered Arun’s words earlier.

‘Yes. There’s a way.’

Anticipation filled his eyes before he knew it as he came up with a way to meet Ellea again.

****

“What’s going on all of a sudden, father?”

Shanil asked curiously when she saw Raymir, who had come to visit her without any notice.

But when she saw the stiff expression on his face, she realized that something unusual had happened.

She sat down across from him and asked.

“Did something happen at the meeting today?”

“Oh, yes. It was amazing, too.”

“What happened?”

“Duke Kaicher showed up.”

Raymir began to speak seriously, but Shanil didn’t react much. Was that supposed to be a big deal?

“If it’s Duke Kaicher….”

Shanil said it was not a big deal, since she also knew him.

“Yes. Of course he came to the meeting. He’s close to father.”

“No, not Peisen, but a new Duke came.”

“What? A new Duke? The previous Duke and his family are all dead, aren’t they?”

Shanil couldn’t help but wonder why her father, who knew this fact better than anyone else, would say such a thing.

She was well aware of what happened between the Kaicher family and her father.

“His son has come back alive. He said he was the new Duke.”

“How could that be…?”

Shanil was naturally startled when Raymir told her what had happened in the meeting hall. The person she thought was dead had come back alive and well, and he had regained the position he had lost.

Raymir’s anger at what happened in the conference hall was not easily quelled. At his appearance, Shanil hastened to ask him the most important question.

“So, how much does he know…?”

“Well, I’m not sure how much he knows. He’s young and he knows what he’s doing, so we shouldn’t just sit and watch. Shanil, you know what you have to do, right?”

“Of course. I will examine Terban more closely. We don’t know what he’s going to talk about.”

Satisfied with her answer, Raymir nodded quickly. The more he thought about Chaylen, the sooner he wanted to get rid of him right away.

He especially wanted to cruelly rip off the face that bore such a striking resemblance to his father, Heindel Kaicher.

He wanted to make sure that those blue-green eyes would never look at him again.

‘Even in death you still block my path.’