Chapter – 03
The officials began murmuring among themselves. Some clicked their tongues in annoyance, trying to shift the Emperor’s wrath onto a nameless guard.
“Are they doing this for me? Protecting me even though they just met me today?”
Etern was genuinely surprised.
This new recruit, who barely knew who he was, had made a split-second decision to protect Etern.
A decision that could cost his life.
‘This person… I thought he was just a hot-blooded rookie, but maybe he’s actually a good person.’
People who choose others over themselves in moments of life or death were rare.
Even more so in the Imperial Palace, where everyone only looked out for themselves.
‘I can’t let him die. I’ll definitely need this person someday.’
Watching Lance close his eyes as if he were ready to die, Etern took a deep breath.
“No!”
Her clear, high-pitched voice rang through the silent audience hall.
The murmuring officials immediately shut their mouths, and the Emperor’s frown darkened like a gathering storm.
“No?”
“This person didn’t do anything wrong. I just…!”
The moment had come. Etern pressed her dry lips together and spoke words she never thought she would.
“I came because I wanted to see… my father!”
She said it!
‘Ah! Creepy! I never thought the day would come when I say something like this in front of my father!’
She had steeled herself, but it was completely different from when she spoke to Dora.
It was awkward to the point of coldness, but Etern did her best to hide it.
No one could dislike a cute daughter saying “Daddy,” could they?
Probably?
‘Surely, even a little daughter being affectionate wouldn’t be cruelly rejected… Well, with Father’s character, I guess he wouldn’t.’
Taking a solemn breath, Etern suddenly smiled.
When Winter flinched at her expression, Etern sent a grateful glance to Lance, then spread her arms wide and ran toward her father.
“Your Highness… the Princess!”
Lance gulped in shock.
But Etern had already wrapped her arms around the Emperor’s knees and looked up at him with an innocent face, as if nothing had happened.
‘Too beautiful to be remembered in history only as a madman. Even if Mother married him for his face, I’d understand.’
Jet-black hair and eyes, a sleek and sharp eye shape, and neat lips.
An air that combined perpetual melancholy with contained anger and frustration.
In terms of appearance alone, there was probably no one in the continent who could rival Emperor Winter.
“…What is the meaning of this?”
The Emperor’s deep voice made the officials immediately hunch their shoulders and bow their heads.
But Etern, who had caused the commotion, tilted her head in innocent curiosity and blinked her large eyes.
“I came because I wanted to see you.”
Then she quickly formed a circle with her fingers and held it over her left eye.
— Winter Sergel Lisruman
Emperor, 31 years old
- These stupid pay thieves… I’ll eventually have all their heads.
- [Swear] Forget it all and just go for a walk.
- …….
‘How harsh must the words have been that they don’t even show them? And I can’t read minds!’
As Etern removed her fingers, Winter said with a cold, stiff expression:
“Leave. I’m in the middle of important state affairs. And you…”
His finger pointed at Lance, whose shoulders twitched even from a distance.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“I want to hear slowly what you were trying to do, using my daughter. Immediately…”
“Papa! I want to go for a walk with you!”
Etern shouted again. Winter stared at his daughter, utterly stunned.
Her gaze looked more like that of a con artist than an eight-year-old girl, but Etern met it head-on.
“The weather is amazing outside. I want to walk with you. Can’t I? Huh?”
“Glich!”
The frustrated Emperor shouted.
Then Glich, the flustered secretary, rushed forward.
“Y-Your Highness! The Emperor is in the middle of extremely important affairs! Please don’t do this! We can do this later…”
Etern, still holding onto the Emperor’s sleeve, pouted her lips.
“Papa’s always busy, and Mother doesn’t come to see me….”
Suddenly, the air in the audience hall turned icy, as if cast into hell.
In this palace, casually mentioning Empress Meikelan’s name was equivalent to saying, “Please remove a few of my heads.”
Everyone expected the Emperor might slap his daughter—even though she was the Princess. But then—
“If Mother were awake, she would have gone for a walk with me too! So let’s go for a walk! Huh? Papa… no, Father! Your Majesty!”
“Your Highness, please…!”
Just as Glich, sweating coldly, tried to forcibly pull Etern away, the Emperor raised a hand.
“Enough. Leave her be.”
Glich swallowed hard and released Etern, taking a few steps back.
Winter looked down at his sparkling-eyed daughter in disbelief.
“Who taught you to behave so insolently?”
Etern tilted her round head and cheerfully answered:
“You did, Papa!”
Without a hint of hesitation, her answer made one official hiccup in surprise.
Winter’s piercing gaze cut toward the official, and he quickly regained his cold composure:
“I did not teach you to be so rude.”
“Eh, but I got my stubbornness from you, right?”
This time, three officials covered their mouths. One even shoved his fist inside.
“Papa always works so hard, right? Mother would have liked going for walks with you too, you know?”
At the unreserved mention of “Mother,” Winter’s eyebrows twitched.
After a moment of silence that gripped everyone’s hearts, the Emperor finally let out a heavy sigh.
“Fine. But not right now.”
“Then I’ll wait here!”
What a headache. The Emperor stifled his groan and turned away.
“Bring a chair for the Princess to sit on—”
“I want to sit on Papa’s lap!”
Etern’s shout made Winter’s eyes widen. His expression became even more severe, but Etern didn’t care.
‘Creepy!’
…She at least tried.
“It’s comfy on Papa’s lap.”
The Emperor, having accidentally seated his daughter on his lap, tensed up but eventually gave up on putting her down and glared straight ahead.
“How long do you intend to linger in front of me? Get lost.”
Those words were meant for Lance. For him, who had expected to die at any moment, it was an unexpected turn.
“I’ll leave, Your Majesty! Thank you for your mercy!”
The officials, who hadn’t expected Lance to leave alive, were wide-eyed in shock.
Etern spoke up in her innocent voice:
“Papa, why is that thing over there on the ground?”
It was the report from the Finance Department that the Emperor had thrown in anger just before Etern had entered.
‘Hmm, the taxes don’t match. Someone must have embezzled.’
Scanning through it quickly with her eyes, Etern looked up at the Emperor.
“Oh! I understand! Someone secretly took the palace treasury! That’s why you were angry, Papa?”
The precise words from the young Princess made both Emperor Winter and the Finance Minister flinch.
Winter’s gaze sharpened like a blade toward the Finance Minister.
“You heard that just now, didn’t you?”
The Minister’s face turned pale.
“Find out who did this. If not…”
“Ah! Papa! Look! If we do it like this, it becomes a big dog!”
Under the chandelier’s light, Etern cast a shadow and cut off the Emperor’s words.
“If someone does something bad, a big dog could bite them, right?”
