Chapter 9

Ch: 9: The Real Deal

The holy mage straightened from his bow, sounding like a cat that had caught the canary.

“So your majesty, you must serve capital punishment on this royal imposter!” he whirled around and pointed a gnarled finger at me. This man was no spring chicken, my little game must have really pissed him off for him to that eager to give me a death sentence. After all, claiming or pretending to be royalty was punishable by death.

But how to prove my identity? This was a new advancement I did not foresee. In the story, this section had gone by smoothly in a few words, with the author simply writing in passing that Winter had passed the inspection and was moved to a distant corner of the palace. Yet in this version, I am being called a fraud. I can’t help but wonder if this is Peppermint’s revenge for enjoying two extra years outside the castle or an unexpected development that arose from showing up two years late.

Either way, I’ve got to dig myself out of this hole the holy mage has tossed me into. I took a deep breath, then another. It appears that I will have to play the role of the stupid, erm naive kid once more. The throne room was dead silent, you could have heard a pin drop to the floor. The holy mage was all but engaging in a victory dance where he stood when an idea occurred to me.

That mage had been testing for godly essence and claimed not to feel it despite me well and truly possessing it. There were no perks that accompanied these strange gold eyes except for one, easily forgettable one. My dad’s aura. You see, the reason, according to the book, it felt so dangerous was because being so close to the physical representation of the god Helio on earth was too much for the average person to bear.

In short, being too close to the emperor could actually kill you if he didn’t dim the energy around him while you were there. Your heart would fill with blood and you would die a painful end choking on your own blood and bile. It made my father deadly on the battlefield during his conquests as he could carve a killing path through the opposing army without so much as raising a finger. Only the strongest of warriors, those who could wield spiritual power, and of course, his children could withstand it.

So I began to walk. I walked past the holy mage, who was confused by my actions, and by Wolfgang, who looked like he was about to murder the mage. It took a while because the short legs of mine only drew out the arrival to my inevitable destination: right beside my father.

I had reached the stairs by now, when the brunette maid had developed enough courage to speak out.

.....

“Miss, come back please!” she cried from where she stood. She did not dare take a step forward, but her voice was loud and clear in the room. I turned back to look at her and gave her the first smile I’d ever issued out within the palace. Then I turned around and kept going, serenaded by the sound of her sobbing.

There were 3 steps left between us, then one. I reached the top, huffing for air as I bent down over my knees, then I looked up at my father. Wow. The man looked even better up close.

I put a cute, little finger to my mouth and opened my eyes wide so I’d appear even more adorable. With my other hand, I fearlessly placed it on his knee as my heart hit a thousand beats per minute. His knee was just below my shoulder and as he tensed slightly at my touch, I feared he would kick me back down the stairs.

“Are you... are you my daddy?” I asked quietly. In my head, I just kept repeating please work, please work, please work. There was no way a little 5-year-old kid from the slums was supposed to know anything about the king’s deadly aura so I needed one of the open-mouthed viewers to point this out. A couple of long seconds ticked by and I tugged at the end of my father’s jacket.

The emperor glowered at me like I was a bug he could smash under his shiny boots, the gold of his crown intensifying the effect of the glare. It was too scary for a kid like me to endure, someone needed to start talking fast or I would be a goner!

“Well, well, well...” Wolfgang drawled, a wolfish expression on his face as he peered down at the holy mage.

“This kid is still breathing, yet both you and I can feel that the king has not dimmed his aura in the slightest. What do you have to say about that?” There was a crazy glint in his eye that the mage must have noticed for he fell to his knees immediately, the black cloak of the church pooling on the floor around him.

“F-Forgive me, your majesty! It seems I was mistaken. On second thought, this little girl does appear to be of imperial lineage,” he cried as he prostrated himself on the ground. Oh, how the tables have turned. And to think I would have a first-class view from right beside the throne. If only I had some popcorn to accompany this moment.

“Little girl?” Wolfgang said mockingly. “Is that how you address an esteemed member of the royal Erudian family? It seems the Church shall be short one less parishioner today.”

He had a hand on his sword, the flash of silver growing larger as he began to draw his weapon. I did not look away once. Violence did not sway me the way it had in my past life. Living in the slums had taught me a lot about that from my little window into the real world, But my father’s words stopped him in his tracks.

“Don’t bother, Wolfgang. I’m not in the mood to stain this carpet of mine today,” the emperor calmly said.

I looked at him in surprise from where I stood but Helio just ignored me, his choppy black hair obscuring his eyes from me. It was impossible to read the man but I think I was just a bit overwhelmed. After all, this is the first time I am looking at Winter’s biological father, the first family of mine I have met in this cruel world.

And he doesn’t spare me another glance. Whatever brief fascination he had in me before the inspection has been blown out like a candle and the emperor quickly stands to his feet, his long, red coat tugging out of my hands. He strides so swiftly from his throne that the force of the tug pulls my weak self off my feet and onto the floor. I look down at my now empty hands and I feel slightly hurt, even though I remember that this is how Helio was in the webnovel.

The idiotic holy mage who tried to frame me as a criminal is still quaking on the floor. He knows he is a dead man and it scares him so much he doesn’t move from the carpet, forcing my father to step over his quivering body. It is finally now that I recall that the empress has long had the holy church under her thumb. She had probably ordered him to lie about my lineage, since I was a girl too close in age with her precious daughter. Even his cloak shivers where he lay on the carpet. I don’t have the smallest ounce of sympathy for him.

Helio storms down the carpet runway, the maids who escorted me stumbling out of the warpath so they don’t perish under his aura. I can do little more than watch the man who had fathered me all those years ago leave me behind in the dust. Just like Bianca. Just like Jonathan.

Tch. A stinging sensation filled my eyes, but I refused to allow a single drop to fall. I didn’t mean to get caught up in my feelings, but 5 years is a long time to live in someone else’s shoes. I don’t know where Maria ends and where Winter begins. A poor, pitiful side character, this kind of life is to be expected. When I arrived in Clara’s world, I had thought this was a dream. But with every new advancement, I see it for what it is, a nightmare.

A world where my fate is a path that has been set before me just like the runway before the throne. I stand from where I had fallen, brushing at my reddening knees. They would be bruised by tomorrow morning, my pale skin got hurt too easily. Did Peppermint do this on purpose? Deliberately make Winter this weak and pitiful?

“Your highness, are you alright?” Wolfgang leaped up the stairs to my side where I was already standing, his hand held out in offering to me. I looked at the oversized hands uncertainly. The kind gesture held some weight behind it. If I took it, in my heart that meant accepting Wolfgang as someone I can trust and rely on.

But the webnovel offered me good insight about the man and I remember how the Mad Dog had silently judged with the rest of the crowd during Winter’s trial scene in the novel, one of the opening, decisive moments in the story. A loyal dog who barks at his master’s enemies and bites at his master’s command. With his unparalleled devotion to my father and the Empire, I would never be his master. I will have to find better allies within the palace, allies who can place me before anything else.

I turn my head away from his hand and go down the stairs myself, a difficult affair. These steps are designed for adults, not children, and it is difficult for me to circumnavigate holding my poofy skirt and going down the tall steps. Nonetheless, I make it to ground level in one piece, but with my heart in two for the second time in this bitter week.