Chapter 23

As she kept thinking of him, she felt like she could feel his breath next to her.

His eyes that looked at her and Mary’s name kept calling her. Why is Arthur’s gaze, which was sticking tightly until she got on the wagon, bothering him?

I’m going crazy.

Shaking her head, she jumped up and looked out the window. Only one moon shining brightly in the dark night sky caught her eye.

At the same time as the silence, she can’t feel anything at this moment. She got goosebumps without knowing why.

She felt bad and returned to bed and buried her face in the blanket. She fell asleep with a cozy blanket.

***

Knock, knock.

“Umm, Princess.”

“I don’t want to wake up now, so don’t think about coming in.”

“But…”

Even with her cold voice, the maid didn’t know how to give up.

She jerked up intending to throw a pillow and soon held back her groan by holding the tip of the pillow tightly.

The pain she had forgotten again suppressed her. Her trembling hands soon fell helplessly to the floor.

She lied down and buried her face in a blanket, and hid the sound of leaking out of her mouth.

“Ugh…”

Again, along with nausea, she came up with tears.

“Struggling.”

She quickly escaped the bed with a staggering body and stuck her head in the toilet. She grabbed the surrounding walls and held things and struggled to control herself. Along with the pain of tightening her heart, her white hands caught her eyes.

“Princess!”

Perhaps she heard a commotion, or a maid comes in and supported her. She didn’t even have the strength to shake it off.

Is this really living? Even if she can’t do it until the day she dies, about a year. No, honestly, she doesn’t know. Even in the novel, Mary’s death day was never implied.

‘It means there’s nothing strange about dying tomorrow right away.’

The original is already wrong. The story here will have changed since she came here and when she reached out to Arthur. Then she couldn’t guarantee when she would die either.

“Princess, you’d better go to His Majesty later.”

“Why? Is my father looking for me?”

“Yes, he told me to bring you when you wake up.”

As soon as she came yesterday, she looked for Elliot and didn’t leave the room. Meeting her father was the first thing, but she was worried that if she did, she would have no chance of finding Elliot.

In the end, she decided to respond to her father’s call, half arbitrary and half involuntary.

She didn’t want to, but she thought she should stay calm today because she had done something.

‘Already 2 days. I have to go back in 2 days.’

One of the three days he said has already passed. She didn’t lose the day because she found Elliott and breathed her words into her, but that didn’t mean she didn’t regret it.

While walking through the long hallway, the people in the imperial palace glanced curiously at her.

Since she was a Princess, they did not openly whisper or glance, but she could feel everything.

She felt like everyone in the imperial palace was looking only at her.

She’s felt suffocated. Their eyes seemed to tell her what they were saying inside.

‘I’m telling you to swear as much as you want. I’m sure it’s been like that anyway.’

Breaking away from the gaze that was holding her breath, she soon faced her father. He looked a little angry, different from usual.

It was not enough to threaten his position and come from Arthur’s territory like a thorn in the eye, but to ride his wagon, so he deserves to be angry.

“Did you call me, father?”

“…Mary.”

She looked at her father still. She felt a little pitiful for her father who can’t even get angry at her properly. This was definitely her fault.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t think much about this.”

“I’m glad you said it first.”

“But father.”

At the same time as her father exhaled relief, she immediately brought up the subject.

Two days, it was a long time if it was long, but a short time if it was short. Every minute and second was precious to her now.

“I must have what I want.”

“……Mary, are you really interested in Archduke Arthur?”

“Father.”

She said with a smile.

It could be of interest. But he had what she needed in his hand. What she wished for so much, maybe Mary, too.

“I have to go to the side of Archduke to live.”

“What does that mean? Mary, did you forget crying and asking me to allow you to engage to Lord Gray?”

“Is it possible? I have no intention of breaking my engagement with Gray.”

“Do you mean that you will stay in the territory of the Archduke without breaking your engagement?”

Her father’s deep wrinkles became clearer. Her father’s fist was full of strength to the extent that his efforts to calmly continue his conversation with her were overshadowed.

“Father, don’t worry. Nothing will happen that will make Archduke Arthur threaten the empire.”

“Do you say that even after hearing rumors circulating? As the Princess of this country, are the people and the safety of the country not in your care?”

“What good is it if I die?”

Isn’t it possible to take care of the people as a Princess and to act beneficial for the country only when they are alive? What she went to Arthur was to live.

“So father, please don’t stop me. If you want to stop me, just kill me.”

“Mary!”

Her father yelled at her.

For the first time, a fit of huge anger fluttered in her father’s eyes. But she had no place to step back or move forward.

If she could live, she would beg for forgiveness for today until the day her father leaves her.