Mobi Grande couldn’t believe the sight in front of him.
The worst and most merciless human to ever exist- Iron-blooded Emperor Benedict had put a kid on his lap and had not killed her?
For a moment, Duke Grande felt a sense of disagreement with the emperor’s personality that was so different from the rumors.
Mobi Grande’s body quickly tensed, as if the emperor’s fearsome eyes were penetrating his entire body.
“I… I greet your Majesty the Emperor. I am Mobi Grande working as the prime minister of the Astor Kingdom.”
“You’ve finally come to find me. It was about time.”
“Ah, yes. Then I will come to see you earlier than the scheduled time from now on.”
“Why do you come here so early if you are this tired? Albeit I didn’t even set an appointment time.”
“H-huh. Oh, yes… I made a mistake.”
Mobi Grande bit his lip as if he did not want the emperor to hear it.
For him, this place was right in the middle of enemy territory. Unlike being in the front yard of his own house, even though the land was technically not his anymore, he shouldn’t reveal his feelings here so carelessly.
Wasn’t that the procedure he constantly recited since his decision to visit the Benedict Empire?
‘By the way, wasn’t that child sitting on the emperor’s lap from the Astor Kingdom? Apparently, didn’t you say that you were taken as a hostage in place of those four missing girls?”
Mobi Grande was confused.
The person who was captured as a hostage was currently sitting on the emperor’s lap. It is a quaint sight that one will not believe even if the emperor personally informed the Astor Kingdom.
Because of this, Duke Grande watched Elaine cautiously. Elaine, who had been eyeing the emperor the whole time, swallowed dry saliva.
‘No matter how many times I had informed you of Duke Grande’s weaknesses, I didn’t think you would invite him to the imperial palace directly!’
This was an unexpected situation.
Up until now, Elaine had never met Mobi Grande face to face before.
In other words, this was their first meeting. The problem was that when she revealed Grande’s weaknesses, she talked about him as if they were pretty close.
‘But if I didn’t do that, the emperor wouldn’t have believed me. That was a necessary action.’
Elaine looked at the Duke of Grande with anxious eyes.
Then the Duke, who saw Elaine staring at him, smiled awkwardly and said, “Oh, Princess. Have you been well?”
“Pardon? Oh, I have…”
The two pretend to know each other.
Mobi Grande acknowledged that Elaine, who was usually not interested in such things, had captured the emperor’s heart. He had greeted her to buy a little time, and Elaine had surprisingly accepted his favor.
Luckily, Duke Grande, who tried to converse more after seeing Elaine’s positive reaction, suddenly closed his mouth after feeling a stinging gaze.
And following that gaze, the Duke raised his head to find the Emperor staring at him with an uncomfortable face.
‘Hick! What did I do wrong?’
He had only said hello to Elaine.
The emperor’s reaction was shocking, no matter how much he thought about it.
There was a reason why Duke Grande visited this place despite having an urge to cry.
He decided to get to the point.
To be exact, it wasn’t about the princess sitting on his lap, it was about his weaknesses.
“Your Majesty, I apologize if I’m being impudent, but may I know how many people know of that?”
“Not many. That is all you shall know.”
“Phew, that’s good.”
The emperor scratched his chin as he looked at Mobi Grande exhaling a sigh of relief.
In fact, everyone in the intelligence department and Elaine, who was currently sitting on his lap, had known about this matter. However, the emperor didn’t tell that to the Duke.
Since then, the emperor’s face has been changing constantly. Now, his mouth was curled upwards as he looked at Duke Grande, when he wasn’t paying attention.
“Don’t worry. Hopefully, I won’t speak to anyone about this.”
“A-ah, I am grateful for this Your Majesty.”
“Please do better in the future.”
After seeing the emperor’s smile, the Duke lowered his gaze onto the polished marble floor, sweating.
‘That’s the smile of the devil!’ Mobi Grande trembled.
If he says reassuring words with such a smile, it would not feel reliable at all.
Besides…
“Hmm? Do you want to eat candy?”
“Uh huh? You have candy?”
“Yea, I do. Here.”
“Thank you.”
Mobi Grande quietly took a candy from his pocket, clenching his fists as he watched Elaine’s smug look when she took it.
‘Just because she knows my weakness means that I have to give her candy?’
Kids these days have really good memory.
If you tell your secrets just like that, people can remember them enough to tell others.
‘In other words, why give a child so much power? It makes people uneasy!’
Mobi Grande bit his lip.
When the contents of the secret become known, not only the people who worked together but also the people who took a lot of gold, will be buried alive.
Sweat poured from his forehead like rain as he kept thinking of trying to turn away.
He unwittingly took off his hat and wiped off his sweat. His body trembled.
“Uh…”
Looking ahead, Elaine was staring at him instead of eating the candy.
Swipe. Mobi Grande, who put the hat back onto his head, pulled out a damp handkerchief and said vulgarly.
“Well, Your Majesty. This is a secret…”
“Is there a need to keep it a secret?”
“It is about a man’s pride!” Mobi Grande yelled, a vein bulging from his neck.
At the words full of determination, the emperor nodded with a shaky figure.
“Yes it is.”
“A-and the Princess too.”
The emperor sighed. “… Astor’s blood.”
“I can’t even write down the word ‘secret’,” Elaine exclaimed.
“Phew.”
It felt safe now that they had said so.
Elain made a ridiculous face upon seeing the Grand Duke exhaling visibly.
‘Where the hell did that man’s pride go?’
The previous tension had long passed.
After meeting with the emperor, Elaine, who spent time with the maids, had just started the most happiest course of the day.
Dinners they had.
The warmth which she had never felt when she lived in the Astor Kingdom.
Her back felt warm and her stomach was full. It was not addictive as it had only happened once in a daily routine that most people have.
She was worried about what to do when the time came to leave the empire later.
“No, no. This isn’t my real home,” Elaine quickly denied.
No matter how much attention she got from the emperor, her position was still as a pawn.
For the empire, her existence was like an information-digger from the Astor Kingdom.
‘I didn’t want to be treated by insects just because I gave them useful information. Let’s not be proud.
It was Elaine who knew how easily the happiness she gained could be lost.
Of course, there wasn’t a single thing that was easy in her life, but that’s why she couldn’t even predict how easy it was to break the happiness she obtained.
For her, who was grateful for just being born and was only envious of an ordinary life, her life now belongs to something too unstable.
Even at this moment, it’s like you’re walking on a breathtaking tightrope, but you don’t know that and try to covet it.
Elaine’s accident was just absolutely unacceptable.
She had just begun to open her heart again.
Alice, who had just finished cleaning the bedding, slowly laid the child’s body down.
Pat, pat.
Alice, who had only a faint mana light in her body, smiled kindly and said, “Shall I sing a lullaby today?”
“Yeah! Alice sing!”
“Woohoo. I don’t know what to do with all the praises. Now, then. I’ll begin.”
Alice, who cleared her throat for a while, started singing lullabies that were most common in this empire.
A soft and classical voice.
Normally, Elaine would fall asleep immediately with that warm voice.
Shit.
“…Oh? Why can’t our princess fall asleep today?”
“I don’t know.”
Elaine shook her head.
As she made a face, Alice looked out the window anxiously.
A brighter night sky without a single cloud tonight.
Determining something, she asked, clenching her fist.
“Princess. How about going out for an evening walk?”
“Walk in the garden?”
“Yes! It’s late spring, so the weather is nice and warm. And look how pretty the garden you see in the evening is. Maybe you’ll like it, princess?”
“Yeah! I want to go!”
At Alice’s words, Elaine, who had been cold, nodded.
She didn’t think she could sleep even if she kept lying down anyway. Elaine thought that it would be better to make up the time by taking a walk.
The night walk has started!
Indeed, the garden seen at night had a completely different view from the daytime.
“Wow! The moon is shining! Alice unni! The lake over there!”
“Do you like it so much?”
“Yes yes!”
Elaine couldn’t hide her excitement as she passed by a fountain and a garden full of colorful flowers, turning to face an artificial lake.
In the first placem she had not known that such beautiful landscaping was provided on one side of the Imperial Palace.
In addition, if you take your eyes away from the enchanting, silvery lake for a while, you can see the elaborate stone bridge next to it.
If you walk a little past that bridge, there is a palace to rest for a while under a pointed roof in the center of the artificial lake, which is perfect for taking a break.
Elaine soothed the excitement and looked around here and there for a long time.
Alice, who thought the time had passed by quite quickly, said, sweeping Elaine’s scattered hair.
“Okay, Shall we go back now? The princess seems to be pretty tired too.”
“Now I don’t wanna sleep.”
Flailing her arms in the air, Elaine desperately tried to fight off Alice’s grip. But it was difficult to underestimate the strength of a child.
As the time passed when her eyes opened, all the fatigue that had been present today came at once, and Elaine tried hard to catch her head that kept falling.
And at that moment, she was about to pass by the fountain.
“Huh?”
“Oh.”
At the same time as Alice stopped walking, both their heads were fixed in one direction.
Elaine walked under the bright moonlight. When she found the emperor sitting on a bench in front of the fountain, she opened her mouth.
‘It wasn’t obvious when we passed by before.’
It seems that he came after two had begun to walk back.
By the way.
‘Strange. Something is different from usual.’
Elaine corrected her posture, feeling the drowsiness flowing out of her body.
It looked like the emperor was lonely, but he seemed to also be deep in thought.
Elaine raised her hand without knowing.
“Benetti!”
“…It’s the child with Astor’s blood.”
Suddenly, he returned to his normal appearance, narrowing his eyes.
Elaine stretched out her lips with a big grin as she pushed away the worry.
‘So it’s not time to say it now.’
“Come here.”
“…”
Elaine had thought that he returned to his usual face, but it wasn’t.
She hesitated and pulled Alice’s sleeves at his cold gaze. There seemed to be something about him that was off, although Elaine couldn’t pinpoint it.
Alice, who seemed to be tired of the child, tried to tell her to meet him tomorrow but soon shut her mouth and seated Elaine next to the emperor.
And she quietly walked away.
Elaien sweated as she saw the emperor saying nothing for some reason even in the situation where only the two of them were alone.
‘Why are you like this? Did something bad happen with Duke Mobi Grande?’
Even though she was usually that expressionless, was it because of the cold moonlight? It feels even more cold today.
As she began feeling awkward with him, the emperor lifted his head and turned to Elaine, sitting her on his lap.
“Oh, uh!”
“Wasn’t it about time to get used to this?”
‘No. What kind of crazy person gets used to being seated on the emperor’s lap?’
Immediately, Elaine’s lips became sweet, but nothing came out of her mouth.
The consequences of that are absolutely something she wanted to avoid.
Instead, Elaine fluttered her fingers as she heard the sound of water pouring out of the fountain.
When the emperor saw Elaine, he said.
“Do you want to see your dad?”
She startled.
It was a question that came in without an end and bottomlessness, but it was enough to make Elaine’s body stiffen.
Elaine gazed at the emperor’s face with a tense expression and swallowed her saliva. But even looking into the emperor’s eyes, she could not easily grasp his intentions.
However, Elaine could notice one.
The emperor was very serious.
‘What the hell are you hoping for…?’
There was no way to know, but she couldn’t lightly answer the question he had asked sincerely.
Finally, Elaine shook her head after hard work.
“Father.”
Of course, what Elaine didn’t know here was that her ‘father’ was not Astor’s King, but her real father, who died early in an accident.
Elaine, who lost her parents, was too young at the time. She doesn’t even think of it because she doesn’t even have any of her common family photos.
She hasn’t seen her parents for as long as 26 years, including the regression time.
So thinking about them was awkward.
It was quite natural that the answer ‘I don’t know’ came out.
Did the emperor read the truth in Elaine’s eyes?
With an unknown expression on what he was thinking, he made explosive remarks this time as if he was tossing them at her.
“What if your parents weren’t your real ones?”
“?!”
This time, Elaine froze like ice.
‘Did he give it away? Did Mobi Grande give you the information? How in the world did you know about this?’
Elaine began having all sorts of thoughts in a short period of time.
But the emperor couldn’t wait long.
In the end, Elaine spoke of the answer that the emperor had wanted Elaine to say, and the feelings that a child would naturally feel.
“It’s so sad.”
“Okay. That would be natural.”
At Elaine’s remarks that it might be sad, the emperor smiled as if he had asked something for granted.
At his appearance, Elaine took a step forward and pulled the emperor’s sleeve.
“What?”
“Are you not the father of Erey?”
“… I don’t know. Why are you asking me that?”
“…”
“No, what were you thinking?”
An ambiguous answer that seems to evade the answer.
Elaine was stunned by the emperor’s expression, who floated on this side and consistent with myself.
‘What question can a kid like me ask if not that?’
Elaine was very curious about the emperor’s mind, but it was good to avoid further questions.
There’s nothing good coming out of the situation by making him feel bad.
But still, the emperor suddenly started rummaging his chest as if he felt a little sorry for saying that to Elaine.
And what appeared in his hand was a five-colored macaron that shined brighter in the moonlight.
“Eat. You like this.”
“Thank you.”
Elaine was given the macaron.
But a question arose at the same time.
‘But how did it magically appear out of nowhere?’
Are you hiding pockets in your clothes?
It was confusing, but the smell was exquisite, so Elaine took a huge bite of the colorful macaron.
“Wow…”
Sticky.
Munch, munch.
Gulp.
There were many questions today, but Elaine could confidently say this.
‘Macarons are truly delicious.’
To be continued…