Chapter 266

Chapter 266

Charlotte’s bedroom wasn’t large enough to play football inside or anything like that. There was no reason for it to be excessively spacious. It was furnished with a grand canopy bed that had elegant silk curtains, a table for meetings, armchairs, and a sofa.

The furniture, including several bookshelves, was neatly arranged. There was also a walk-in wardrobe with a dressing area inside the bedroom, and it seemed to have a large bathroom attached to it. The rooms in the Royal Class dormitory were quite impressive, but they couldn’t compare to the princess’s bedroom.

I suddenly became curious. Did Charlotte dress herself, or did her maids help her? She would have to manage everything on her own in the dormitory.

Well, perhaps there were some items of clothing that she could not wear on her own. In such cases, did she borrow someone else’s hands? Of course, I didn’t ask that.

As I looked around the bedroom, I finally voiced out what I was thinking. “The bed... it’s way too big.”

“... Honestly, the more I listen to you, I want to commend your perspective.”

Charlotte pointed to the enormous bed, far exceeding the size of a king-size bed, as if she had expected me to say something strange again. It was not just wide, but also very long.

“Shockingly enough, though, you’re right. This bed is way too massive. But I only realized that it was uncomfortable after using the bed in the dormitory,” she continued.

The dormitory bed was large as well, but not to such an extent. It was a small exaggeration to say that one could probably have a small party on that bed. I’d seen people living in a smaller space than what that single bed took up. It seemed just slightly smaller than a decent studio apartment.

The princess’s bedroom wasn’t big enough to play soccer in, but the bed was almost larger than a small apartment.

“I used to think I had to crawl just to get off the bed. But with the dormitory bed, I only need to roll over once to get off.”

It was amusing to hear Charlotte describing how she’d finally realized she had been sleeping in an uncomfortable bed her whole life only after having to sleep in a smaller one.

She had such a cute expression, and hearing that she was happy that she could get off the bed by rolling over once was just great. Imagining Charlotte doing that made me want to laugh, despite the seriousness of the situation we were in.

“Do you want to lie down?”

“... I know you think I’m crazy, but I’m not that crazy, okay?”

‘I do have boundaries, you know! It’s just that others don’t agree with them. I’m not the kind of lunatic who would roll around on a princess’s bed, laughing maniacally!’

Charlotte covered her mouth and laughed at my reaction.

“Why? Honestly, if we sleep on either end of that bed, no matter how bad your sleeping habits are, we wouldn’t touch each other all night.”

“Why are you like this?”

It seemed my stubbornness and my nonsense had finally gotten to Charlotte. She didn’t show me around the rest of the vast bedroom, perhaps because there were sensitive items there.

There were a few portraits hung on the walls, but I didn’t ask who the people in them were. An adult woman who resembled Charlotte... There was no need to ask, since it would be a painful name for Charlotte.

At that moment, something that was hard to describe as human... That something made me stop thinking.

“Do you want to see something interesting?”

“What is it?”

Charlotte, with a meaningful smile, grabbed my arm and led me towards the wall where the bookshelves were.

“Things like this often appear in novels. Royals or nobles living in places like this... When chaos erupts, they always escape through secret passages.”

“No way!”

“Yes.”

Charlotte took off her necklace and fitted it into a groove on a part of the wall between the bookshelves, which looked like a pillar.

Click.

With that, the wall rotated, and Charlotte and I found ourselves on the other side. As soon as the rotation stopped, I was left speechless.

“What is this?” I finally managed to croak out.

“Amazing, right?”

In front of us was a staircase leading down. The bedroom was on the second floor, but this staircase seemed to descend all the way into the basement.

“This is the secret passage of the Spring Palace.”

“Isn’t this... an important secret?”

Charlotte nodded nonchalantly.

“Yes. Aside from me, probably only His Majesty the emperor knows about this. Not even Dyrus or Dame Tana know.”

Charlotte touched her necklace, the item she’d used to operate the secret door. “This is the key.”

It had to be an item that had been passed down from one owner of the Spring Palace to another for generations.

“... Should you even be showing me this?”

“Why?” Charlotte asked as she tilted her head. “We’re friends.”

Caught off guard, I had nothing to say.

‘But still, telling me something like this... It’s starting to get a bit scary...’

“So, where does this lead?” I asked.

“... What?”

“If I ultimately lost the fight for the throne, if this is what happened to me, if that’s why I’m quitting the Temple...” Charlotte looked at me. “If that’s the case, then what would you do? What happens then?”

I already knew the answer.

“The fate of a royal who loses the battle of succession for the throne is obvious. It’s a matter of facing death immediately, or a little later,” I replied.

Charlotte gazed at the scenery outside the palace.

“I could be killed immediately, or, to avoid any commotion, I could be exiled far away and placed under guard. Eventually, the ministers’ pleas for the elimination of any loose ends would grow, and I would die a quiet death in exile. Or, I could be attacked by bandits or ambushed on my way into exile... Either way, I wouldn’t survive,” Charlotte explained.

Charlotte looked straight at me. “If that happens to me, what will you do?”

I didn’t have to think for long.

Rather, there was no thinking to be done.

“I’ll save you.”

“How?”

“Somehow.”

“Anyone can say that.”

“No.” Ignoring Charlotte’s words, I took a step closer to her. “Have you forgotten about my supernatural power?”

“...”

“If I believe it, it happens.”

Charlotte silently watched me.

“I’ll save you. I believe it, so it will happen.”

“That’s absurd.”

‘It is absurd.’

“Yes, I know it’s absurd,” I said, looking at Charlotte.

‘Yes, this is just absurd, I know.’

“But this absurdity was what helped me become a superhuman, succeed in activating Mana Reinforcement, and enter the Spring Palace despite being a street urchin,” I continued.

‘Everything in my life has been achieved through absurdity, so I will once again use absurdity to my advantage. This absurdity has always become reality, and it will be the same this time.’

That was what I believed in.

“I will save you no matter what, and if I fail to save you, I will kill Vertus.”

Charlotte was startled by that.

Anyone could say that they’d try to save someone else no matter what. But declaring that I would kill the next emperor if I failed to save her was not something to be said lightly.

Charlotte was too shocked by the insanity in my words to speak. But I meant it. For the moment, I saw Vertus as a friend, but if he killed Charlotte, he would no longer be my friend.

Charlotte tried to wrap her head around my words, but eventually let out a hollow laugh.

“Why... Why would you go to such lengths for me? No matter how much I think about it... I can’t understand why you would say something like that for my sake...”

“Because we’re friends.”

My reply surprised her.

“Because we’re friends.” It was a phrase I had repeated several times that day...

Charlotte was left speechless by the finality with which those words resonated. After a long silence, she swallowed hard and looked at me with a forced smile.

“That’s a shame,” Charlotte said.

‘What’s a shame?’

“I know you’ve been worried about me all day. But this is enough.”

Charlotte obviously knew the reason behind my strange behavior.

“It’s not because of Vertus. So...”

Charlotte lightly pinched my cheek. “This time, you won’t have the chance to cause trouble.”

She looked as if she had received a death sentence, a sentence that was unchangeable, not even by the absurdity within me.

Tears welled up in Charlotte’s eyes. “Thank you, Reinhart. In the end, I still wanted to hear you say you’d cause trouble for me.”

It seemed that just hearing the words was enough for her, even if she believed I wouldn’t have the opportunity to carry it out.

Charlotte stood there, laughing and crying at the same time.