Chapter 9
Oh, but wait… come to think of it, didn’t Claude like someone like Zenit?
Beautiful Zenit, who kept an innocence untainted by even a single speck of dust, who painted everything around her in spring colors with just that one radiant smile.
And unlike Athanasia, who always craved love and could only watch Claude from one step behind, she was a lovely girl who didn’t hesitate to reach out to him first.
So… then… even though I can’t become like Zenit, and I can’t melt his heart the way she did… but if it’s just about piquing his interest… Since I’ve already started talking crazy, I decided to act a little crazier.
“……Papa?”
An eerie silence settled around us. As I held my breath, Claude slowly tilted his head. I could see his thick golden hair gently tousle with the movement. My heart was already pounding as if it would burst.
Why, why isn’t he reacting? Ughhh! Oh, whatever. With a “what will be, will be” attitude, I smiled as brightly as I possibly could and shouted.
“Papa!”
…Someone please tell me I didn’t just plant a new death flag!
Chapter 2: All that talk about princesses being born with silver spoons is total bullshit
To sum it up, I survived.
To be more specific, I endured Claude’s gaze, scraped up every last bit of cake, and was then safely cradled in the knight-oppa’s arms and delivered back to my palace.
Quite some time must have passed while I was fighting for my life, because Ruby Palace was in an uproar. Since I had supposedly been quietly taking a nap in my room and then suddenly vanished without a trace, everyone’s shock was understandable.
Lily saw me being carried in by the emperor’s personal guard knight and looked like she was about to faint. Her face was so pale that I genuinely worried she might collapse right there.
She immediately snatched me from the knight-oppa Felix’s hands and then backed away from him as if he carried the plague.
With my face buried in Lily’s chest, I couldn’t see her expression, but I could guess from the trembling that reached me through her body. Lily wrapped her shaking arms around me so tightly I could barely breathe.
I glanced over to see Felix looking embarrassed at being treated like a kidnapper by Lily and the maids. But I didn’t feel like taking the knight-oppa’s side either, because that jerk had left me all alone, just as Claude had said – he went out of the room!
Thinking back on the time I’d spent alone with that bastard Claude afterwards made me want to cry bloody tears. I was so out of it that I’d been completely limp and dazed like a dead person the entire time the knight-oppa carried me back.
Ughhh, you horrible people. Picking on a helpless little kid like me. May you be struck by divine punishment. Ughhh.
“His Majesty said he will come to see Princess Athanasia again soon.”
Gasp. Are you kidding me? What did you just say? Not just me, but even the older maids looked shocked at the knight’s words.
Huh? Wait, what’s this? Why is everyone half-scared and half-pleased? Oh, come on. Are they saying that I, who was stuck in the back room, now have the emperor’s attention? It’s not like I was some concubine cooped up in Ruby Palace, yearning day and night for the emperor! And why the hell does that bastard Claude want to see me again? No, no! Waaaah.
But has the world ever gone the way I wanted, even once? If the emperor says come, I come; if he says go, I go; if he says crawl, I crawl – that’s my fate.
After Felix dropped that bombshell and left, Ruby Palace was turned upside down again, in a different way than when I’d disappeared. I was so mentally exhausted that I wanted to just pass out.
“Blegh!”
“Princess!”
But first, I had to empty my stomach.
That night, I lay in my bed and re-established my plans for the future.
Plan A failed.
A crumpled sheet of white paper was being stained with black ink by my hand. Since it would be disastrous if anyone saw the contents, I naturally wrote in Korean. I wrote “Plan C” beneath the lines I’d just written, then drew thick lines through the sentence I’d written at the very top of the paper.
The first plan I’d made, Plan A, was: “Live hidden away in Ruby Palace without being discovered by Claude until I die.” In that case, I thought I’d only need to be especially careful around the 9th birthday, when Athanasia originally met Claude.
But that was naive. The moment I met Claude at the Imperial Palace last time, this plan went right out the window. I mean, who knew that simple little palace was actually Claude’s residence?
And why is the concubine’s palace, which isn’t even the Empress’s palace and is basically a harem, so close to the Imperial Palace anyway? The previous emperors of Obelia must have all been lecherous womanizers.
After grumbling to myself for a bit, I stared at the next sentence below the part I’d just scribbled over in black ink.
Plan B: Save up enough money to run away and escape the palace before turning 18.
This one still had a chance. In the original story, Claude kills Athanasia when she’s 18. Of course, since I’d already met Claude a full four years early, I couldn’t be sure the future wouldn’t change, but at least it seemed like the bastard wasn’t going to kill me right now.
So, should I continue with my plan to gather my pretties? When I escape the palace, I’ll probably have to disguise myself as a maid or find a secret tunnel that leads outside in advance. I’ll put that on hold for now.
And then, the much-anticipated Plan C. With a more solemn face than ever, I began to write character by character, neatly and deliberately, on the paper.
Fawn over Claude like crazy and pick up his heart ♡.
Sigh. But now that I’ve actually written it down, the secondhand embarrassment is hitting me. I stared at the sentence I’d just written for a long moment, then scrubbed my face with my hands.
Ugh, I desperately need to escape reality. Seducing Claude, of all people? If anything, I’ll just end up planting a ton of death flags, not picking up his heart. I’m going crazy.
For a moment I thought about scratching out what I’d just written with more thick lines and erasing it entirely, but in the end I left the paper as it was and crossed my arms. There was probably a deep furrow in my brow right now.
…But it’s not entirely impossible, is it? No, well, it might sound like baseless confidence, but still.
I already know the story’s contents, and even if I can’t make Claude into a doting father like Zenit did, maybe I can at least get close enough that he won’t want to kill me? I mean, just now, I audaciously called him “Papa” and he still let me go alive!
“Gaah!”
But thinking back on that moment made the shame flood in, and I ended up kicking my blanket in frustration.
Oh my god, “Papa”! My hands and feet are curling up so hard they might just disappear. But what’s even more embarrassing is that I’ll probably keep adding to this collection of cringey dark history!
“Ughhh.”
After thrashing around for a while longer, I finally lifted my face from the pillow and made a difficult decision.
Alright. Let’s run Plan B and Plan C concurrently. Better to have more insurance. So that’s decided – now I need to hide the paper before Lily comes.
And as for the dark history and embarrassment I’ll accumulate while carrying out the plan… huff. Let’s think of it as capital and a stepping stone for my future.
“Princess, it’s time to go to sleep.”
“Lily, sing me a lullaby!”
I snuggled up to Lily, acting spoiled to the hilt, and barely managed to swallow my bloody tears.
“Lilian York. It’s been a while.”
Time always flies so fast when you’re dreading something. It felt like just the other day that I’d had that survival-based tea time alone with Claude in a locked room, but now, ten days later, I was standing before him again.
“Glory and blessings to the Sun of Obelia.”
The one small comfort was that this time I wasn’t alone – Lily was with me.
Huff. I’m sorry, Lily. But I’m so scared of Claude. I feel like I’m going to have a heart attack right now. Hoo-ha. Hoo-ha. Maybe because I’m a five-year-old kid, my liver has shrunk to the size of a bean. Judging by how intimidated I am just looking at Claude.
In the audience chamber, as vast as a parade ground, there was no one but me, Claude, Lily, and the Felix I’d seen before. I’d noticed it last time too – for an emperor, this guy has remarkably few people around him.
“I have been busy with state affairs and thus could not spare enough attention for my only princess. Nevertheless, Athanasia has grown up so healthy. Your contributions are not small.”
“You flatter me, Your Majesty.”
Don’t be ridiculous. You didn’t just fail to spare enough attention – you didn’t spare any at all! Not only that, you completely forgot I even existed!
“From now on, I shall personally look after the princess’s well-being, so do not worry.”
CRASH, BANG, BOOM.
I heard a thunderbolt strike right above my head. Claude was still lounging lazily on his throne, looking down at me with narrowed, smiling eyes.
He… he smiled? That bastard just smiled at me? But it wasn’t a warm smile like he thought I was cute. It was a creepy smile, like he was asking, “So, what are you going to do now?” It sent shivers down my spine.
I take back what I just said. I take back my insults! Thank you for having ignored me until now! Thank you for not even knowing if I was alive! Please, just keep doing that! If you want, you can even strike me from the family register – I’ll thank you with tears in my eyes. Huu-huh.
But what can a powerless commoner like me do? I could see that even Lily’s pupils were shaking violently at the emperor’s words.
“From today onward, Athanasia will enjoy the blessings befitting a princess.”
But you haven’t acknowledged me as your daughter. You never once considered Athanasia your daughter – Claude in the book said so explicitly, didn’t he? Even now, you’re not truly accepting me as a princess, so I don’t know what kind of wordplay this is.
What on earth are you thinking? And it seemed Lily felt the same way as me. Even after we left the audience chamber, there was no sign of color returning to Lily’s face.
“It’s alright, Princess.”
As I listened to her whisper while holding my body, I thought: I really hope so
