Chapter 9

***

“Oh, my God. Princess. Your face… Are you okay?”

The next morning, Sophie came into the room to wake me up and looked at me in surprise. I woke up and her face was swollen.

Sophie said with a look of concern.

“You must have had a hard time. Come to think of it, you lost too much weight.”

“I’m fine, Sophie.”

After answering in a calm voice, I turned my head towards the window.

Fresh morning air was coming into the room.

Sophie tilted her head at my serious face.

“….. When is the succession meeting held?”

“Now that the funeral is over, it will be held soon. It will probably be held within a week. In the meantime, for urgent work, the butler has decided to take it temporarily.”

One week. It was faster than expected.

After all, it was the Duke’s work so it piled up like a mountain if he took a day off from work. A week was also a late period.

Anyway, I didn’t have much time.

“I’m going to start rehab today. And I think I’ll need a cane too.”

Sophie looked at me as if realizing that she had forgotten what I said.

She looked at my swollen face, a sorrowful feeling spread in her eyes.

“I’m okay. Sophie. You don’t have to look like that. It’s my part that I have to accept.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t want to keep making this face. I didn’t know that the tragedy would be like this… I feel bad.” 

“…”

“It would have been nice if Master Sebastian was by your side…”

Sophie unwittingly brought out Sebastian’s name and noticed me belatedly.

He eventually did not come to visit me during the funeral.

Even though Sophie sent an obituary. No, even if she didn’t send it, the whole Duchy knew what happened, so he must know what happened to me.

Still, the reason he didn’t come was very clear without even asking.

I turned around, pulled the wheelchair and approached her. I grabbed Sophie’s hand gently.

“I want you to keep everything about my legs in complete secrecy, Sophie. Do you know what I mean?” 

“Yes… Of course, Princess.”

“And in the future…don’t contact Sebastian without my permission. Do you understand?”

“Yes. Okay. I’m sorry for the sudden action.”

Sophie answered with tears in her eyes. I smiled softly and held Sophie’s hand.

What I had to do right now was to protect this duchy.

For my parents, I never intended to hand over the dukedom to anyone.

Now I had to stand alone. It was time to go on my way.

****

A week later. The vassals were gathered in the Duke’s conference room.

Today was a very important day. It was the day to elect the next ruler of the duchy by taking over Duke’s title after Duke Lowell and his wife died in an accident.

Some vassals waiting for Aileen to appear had a sad expression on their faces.

In the meantime, some people whispered.

“Who will be the next leader?”

“If it was originally planned, it would be the princess’s husband, but I don’t know what will happen now.”

“That’s it. Wasn’t he absent from the funeral? Did he run away?”

“There were even rumors of a divorce going around.”

When the story about Sebastian came out, the vassals looked at each other. One said as if he was sad.

“Honestly, I feel sorry for him too. Everyone knows what the late Duke and Duchess Lowell had done to the Hughes family.”

“The management of the estate was quite good, but…… , honestly, running the duchy like a bully doesn’t mean that you’ve been eating and living well. Isn’t the victim the princess’s husband? Even if the princess says she wants to become the head of the duchy, we have to stop her from the position of being a vassal.”

“It’s okay. First of all, the princess doesn’t have perfect legs. Taking care of the duchy is difficult. Can she really visit the duchy with that body?”

The vassals were predicting. As long as Aileen’s legs were not strong, there was no chance that she would inherit the Duchy.

Aileen’s legs were a good excuse to prevent her succession to the dukedom without showing greed.

In the end, it was a matter of saying that the princess’ legs were the problem, and that it was unavoidable.

As the general atmosphere changed like that, the atmosphere of the vassals, who had tense expressions on their faces, relaxed further. They breathed a sigh of relief and started discussing who might be the next head of duchy other than Aileen. No one thought that Aileen would take over the title.

It was then. The knight’s voice resounded.

“The princess is entering.”

The door to the conference room opened. The gazes of the vassals who were about to get up from their seats without thinking and greet the princess, saw something and stopped.

People’s eyes were blurry.

Soon their eyes widened as if they were about to pop at any moment. The laughter that lingered in the conference room had long since disappeared.

Beyond the door, the hem of the dress was revealed as the cane tapped the floor. With each simple step, the tips of the shoes were revealed under the long dress.

An unfamiliar look. People slowly looked at the owner of the shoes.

“It’s been a long time, everyone.”

Aileen stood tall with her back straight, with a cane in one hand.

She looked around the room. The faces of the vassals she had not seen in a long time came into her eyes one after another.

They all looked at her legs, their mouths wide open. It was strange. She hadn’t met the vassals for several years of not being able to walk. She could feel their gaze on her and thought her heart would beat like it was going to explode but it wasn’t like that. 

She was imprinting her legs on them with a casual expression.

Was it because it was right after her parents died?

Somehow she felt determined. She had nowhere else to go. She had to make the duchy her own today. It was an important position to influence her life in the future.

“No, how can you walk…… .”

As she turned her head to follow the sound of the flowing words, one of the vassals looked at her and pointed at her without realizing it. He couldn’t even speak properly. He looked really surprised. Aileen smiled leisurely.

“Why are you surprised that I can walk?”

“Oh, no. That is… ”

She walked over to the top seat.

The vassals just stared blankly at her like that. As if everyone still couldn’t believe it, they blinked their eyes several times, looking at Aileen’s moving legs and looking at each other again.

As Aileen approached the front seat, the knight pulled out the chair for her. After sitting on the chair, she put the cane on the side of the desk.

Looking ahead, the faces were spectacled.

“It’s a little burdensome. Can’t you stop staring?”

“Princess, what happened? How did you fix your legs?”

One of the vassals asked. Aileen said, shrugging her shoulders.

“This is an important meeting for selecting the next duke. Is that really such an important question right now?”

“But…… ”

“I will be the one who takes over.”

“!”

“As the Duke’s daughter, it is natural for me to take over the position of my parents who died suddenly.”

The people’s mouths opened blankly once more.

Silence passed. As if bewildered by the unexpected development, no one spoke.

Well, it was understandable. Her life changed so suddenly. 

“But, Princess. What about Master Sebastian? Originally, he was going to take over the Duchy….”

“I and Sebastian are divorced. His Majesty the Emperor also approved it this morning.”

“What…?!”

Shortly after the funeral, divorce papers signed by Sebastian arrived at the duke’s house. No other message was included other than the divorce signature. Not even a single message about my parents’ passing.

He didn’t have a good relationship with my parents, so I wasn’t expecting Sebastian to show interest in the death of my parents. 

My parents didn’t like everything about Sebastian. Considering that Sebastian was a fallen nobleman, and that he still maintained a high pride. They didn’t like Sebastian’s being a knight. They said knights are ignorant.

Perhaps it was a feeling of revenge towards Sebastian for rejecting their noble daughter.

Sebastian, who had been living with a lot of scolding from my parents for 5 years, couldn’t be bothered by the death of my parents.

Sebastian’s parents went bankrupt because of Duke Lowell’s atrocities and even took their own lives. Rather, he may be thinking that dying from a carriage accident was a light punishment.

I sent his divorce papers, which arrived without any particular message, to Sophie to send them to the Imperial Palace. And this morning the document of approval with the seal of His Majesty had arrived.