CH 1

Two years ago, the long war that happened between Hainzel Empire and Roware Kingdom finally met it's end. This war raged for about half a century for generations and was started because both of the countries were disputing over their territory, but then this war ended in complete victory for the Hainzel Empire.

Or rather, it ended with the ascent of Wolfgang Hainzel to the Emperor's seat. It's better to describe it like that. The young Emperor he was, Wolfgang was a prodigy in the field of war.  Other than Roware Kingdom, his Empire also waged war with three other countries, but he used a quick pace closing the flags of war with those three countries and focusing all of his war power into fighting with Roware Kingdom.

The territory of the Hainzel Kingdom, which was called the Continent's ruler, was to be the extent of 1/4 of the continent. Compared to that, Roware kingdom, which had a size that was just about 1/3 of the empire, had a rich abundance of resources and a high level of technology, which made in fact, even Wolfgang have trouble when fighting with Roware Kingdom.

However, the fact that he gained a complete victory was the proof that he was a prodigy in the field of war. He, so that the war wouldn't happen again for the second time, demanded the Roware Kingdom to give him their Princess as a hostage. At that time, Wolfgang didn't have an Empress and so he thought the timing was perfect.

However, no matter how long he waited, the Princess never came. From the time he gave his demand, two years had already passed and as expected he couldn't wait any longer. Thus, he gave them a threat.

"If the princess doesn't come, I'll behead all of the Roware's royalty”

The Emperor of the Hainzel Empire named Wolfgang was called the Cruel Emperor. While he may have a beautiful appearance that made one astonished, he was an Emperor that could kill people without batting an eye. Due to that rumour, this threat had it's effect. Two years after, the war ended. After so long, the Princess came for marriage. And thus today was their wedding.

“Your Majesty”

The door of his office was knocked on and his close aide, Count Alberto Fown Hertzberg informed him of his guest. Wolfgang raised from his chair and went out of the room. Out of the room, he asked Alberto who was waiting in front of the door.

“The Princess is?”

“She is already waiting. However....”

“What? Is she perhaps saying something selfish?”

As he asked that, Alberto gave him a perplexed atmosphere while his eyes were swimming, but Alberto answered with “It's not like that.”

“Then what?”

“.....Well. I think it's better if his Majesty looks with your own eyes.”

“.....”

What did Alberto mean? Perhaps, she had a frightful face. It's different if she was male, but for girl to have a scary face is a bit dreadful.

However, the one who came for marriage, was the third princess of the Roware Kingdom and she was famous for her beauty. If that is so then there was no need for Alberto to be worried about it.

Well, he would understand it if he looked with his own eyes. Thus, Wolfgang who thought of that line which Alberto said to him.

Inside the palace chapel, which became the place of their wedding, Wolfgang for the first time, saw the Princess, who was to become his bride. She was wearing a white wedding dress with a veil covering her face. However, he can at least see that she has blonde hair. When standing side by side with Wolfgang, there was a height difference of about one head tall. However, thinking that Wolfgang was a huge man, then this was a simple matter of course.

Wolfgang has quite a good physique. Deep navy eyes with silver hair and long slit style eyes. But because of those eyes that is also the reason why he is feared. They gave him a thorough impression that he is truly the Cruel Emperor, or so he recognizes about himself.

The wedding of someone of high peerage, if he wanted too he could make it as extravagant as possible, but he can also make it as simple as possible. For Wolfgang, since his partner will just become a mere decoration, he prepared a simple wedding. In front of the archbishop, they only needed to sign the marriage form.

The first thing Wolfgang did was write his signature. Though his real name is quite long, but since it's an official document he wrote his full name. Following this, the bride slide the pen on the paper and the words that she wrote was,

'Nicolette Do Roware'

Who was it. The words the archbishop said, “With this, your marriage is complete.”, didn't enter Wolfgang's ears who became surprised.

“Who is she!? Who is that woman!"

“It said that she is a fully-fledged princess of the Roware Kingdom. She is the Second Princess, Nicolette Do Roware. Since her age was Nineteen years old, she is perfectly Ten years old younger than his Highness."

Alberto answered him easily. The one that Wolfgang wished was to have a ‘Marriage with Roware's princess’, it was also partially his fault for not confirming his bride. If she was really the Second Princess, then Roware didn't break their promise.

“I thought that the Third Princess is the one who came.”

“Ah, me too. If I remember it correctly, her name was, Alexandrine.”

Since Alberto also had the same opinion as him, it seemed that it wasn't only Wolfgang's assumption.

The Third Princess of Roware, Alexandrine, was someone that is selfish but beautiful. Since the First Princess of Roware was already married, then both Wolfgang and Alberto thought that the Third Princess was the one who came for marriage.

Now that he thought about it, he never heard anything about the Second Princess. Even though he knew that Alexandrine is the Third Princess, never once had he thought of the fact about the Second Princess crossing his mind.

“Then, why is the Second Princess called Nicolette the one who came to become my marriage partner?”

"I too, don't know. But well, Nicolette-sama is beautiful though.”

Since Alberto said that while shrugging his shoulders he could only ask the person directly, or so Wolfgang thought. After dinner, he immediately went straight to the bedroom.

Inside the pair's bedroom, she, who already became the Empress, was there. Using a lamp that was placed near her, she lied down in the huge bed reading a book. Looking at Wolfgang that suddenly entered the room, 'gasp' was the expression she made.

Without minding that, Wolfgang pointed a dagger at her. Stranded on the bed, holding down her hand, he pushed the dagger toward her neck.

“...... His Majesty?”

Just like what Alberto said, Nicolette was a indeed a beautiful person. She had wavy blonde hair, her surprised eyes that looked back at Wolfgang were coloured with violet. Her eyes looked a bit like long slits. A beautiful girl that give an aura of wisdom.

However, rather than that beautiful appearance, Wolfgang was surprised because of the hand that he grasped was really skinny. When he saw carefully, overall she was too skinny. It's not like she had a slender figure, she really was too skinny. Since her skin was also white, it looked liked she had a weak constitution.

He can't object that he hesitated to point a blade toward such a person. However, there was a thing that he needed to confirm no matter what happens.

“Why are you the one who came to marry me? Though, certainly I didn't especially mention the name, but wasn't the Third Princess the one who was supposed to come?”

She, who got pushed down onto the bed, a blade pointed toward her neck, hearing Wolfgang's question, made an understanding expression. Thus she easily opened her mouth to speak.

“Well, you know, my little sister is pregnant. In a hurry they made me her substitute."

“......Hah?”

Though he leaked out some stupid sound, he continued to question her.

“But, in these two years, they kept ignoring my demand. There's no way for her to keep being pregnant for two years right?”

“It seems that my sister kept saying selfish things, you know. She said she didn't want to become your bride. And then while she was disputing with our parents, she told them she was pregnant.”

[ ......... ]

Though it was a story that didn't reach his ears, she didn't look like she was lying. Wolfgang put away his dagger and sat cross legged beside her. As she raised her body, she sat on the opposite of Wolfgang.

“And then, Who are you?”

“Like I said, it's Nicolette Do Roware. If it's hard to say, just call me Nicole or Nicola.”

Just as he thought, it was a name that he had never heard before. Since the name ‘Nicolette’ is rare for Hainzel Empire, he thought that he would remember something when he heard it directly. After all, the ‘Nicola’ or ‘Nicole’ for the nickname to call her is not common for the name ‘Nicolette’ in the empire.

But, the problem wasn't there.

“My bad, but I have never heard of such a name.”

This was the problem. If it was the Second Princess, it was not weird for him to have heard about her name somewhere, but Wolfgang never heard the Nicolette name anywhere.

He heard a lot about the First and Third princess. Especially since their beauty is so well known. However, Nicolette also had a beauty that didn't fall behind those two. If that is so, then the reason that her name never came up because of an ugly appearance is out of the question.

Nicolette said “I bet ~”, while laughing.

“After all, you know, I grew up in a monastery.”

“Monastery! So, you're a nun, is that it?”

“No, it's not like that!”

While she lived in the monastery she wasn't nun, what kind of condition is that? Wolfgang wasn’t able to follow up on her story because of the shock.

“If I had to say, then I am closer to a researcher. I was just imprisoned by my dear father after all, so I am quite different from a nun.”

Nicolette made a smile. This girl smiled quite often while also acting overly familiar.

“Imprisoned you say? What do you mean by that?”

“Just like I said. I am told, when I was born some kind of prophecy was told. Well, my dear mother was the one who told me though, ‘this kid will bring down the father’ she said.”

It was a prophecy of parricide and magic. Such a concept was already small in the present time and this prophecy that was said to be nonexist was proved to be true with the previously believed extinct fortune tellers while they actually still existed. The one who gave Nicolette's prophecy was an astrologer, but if classified, astrologer was also one kind of fortune teller.

Basically, it's assumed that the prophecy will never miss. Perhaps, the Princess that received a prophecy about parricide ended up in a condition where she got imprisoned. It was better than getting killed. It seems that Nicolette got locked away along with her mother.

Nicolette's mother was the first queen of the Roware Kingdom. Nicolette's mother which was the Princess of Darimoa Kingdom, officially, due to her devoutness, she decided to enter the monastery for praying to their god.

"......And then, Your mother?”

"Five years ago, she died.”

Wolfgang sighed as she spoke with an amazingly nonchalant tone that made one never think that she was talking about her dead mother. This was getting on his nerves.

You, don't you resent your father that pushed you aside to this place?”

Nicolette who became the substitute of her sister didn't want to do this. She became the bride of an Emperor that was rumoured to be cruel only because her little sister didn't wanted to. However,

"Well, it's no problem. It didn't catch my interest after all.”

Just as he thought, she answered with a frank tone. Wolfgang felt a bit lonely.

After all, her words had the same meaning that she didn't have any interest in Wolfgang.

“Aren’t you scared of me?”

“Why? We can still communicate right, why do I have to be scared of you?”

He tried to poke a little bit into it, but in the end he only stared in wonder at her. He felt slight admiration due to her unusual theory.

“So, if we can communicate, you're not scared?”

“After all, me and you, we can normally converse with each other, right? If it's someone that didn't understand a word then it's quite scary, but if my opponent can still normally communicate with me it's not necessarily scary, you know?”

“I understand. What an interesting thought.”

Wolfgang made a slight smile. As if lured by that, Nicole also smiled and just like that, she fell to the bed.

“Also, his majesty is quite cool too.”

Wolfgang burst into laughter due to her frankness. This girl, each of her words are interesting.

It seems that because he laughed too much, Nicolette got offended, ‘It's not that funny.’ and she started pouting. Wolfgang started petting Nicolette's head while she was still laying down on the bed.

“You're interesting, you know?”

“His majesty is also kinder than what the stories tell.”

So, it really entered her ear. Wolfgang who was smiling felt bad, *cough*, while making a fake cough he also lied down on the bed.

“You must be tired. Go to sleep.....pointing my knife at you, my bad.”

Though with an arrogance, he apologized with his utmost power. Nicolette laughed seemingly and seemed liked she didn't mind it.

“I also understand why you got suspicious of me. Good night, your Majesty.”

“.....Good night.”

Like this, while he thought that it has been awhile since someone said ‘Goodnight’ to him, Wolfgang put out the light near his pillow.

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