Chapter 23 – Parent Consultation, But Now With a Side of Imperial Family (2)
Her heart sank as she asked,
“Is there something… unfit about my qualifications…?”
“No, that’s not what I meant.”
After pausing as if choosing his words, Illios pointed at the tapestry Lucien had been looking at.
It was a luxurious piece of red silk, woven with gold and silver thread to depict a scene from the founding myth—
the final chapter of the holy war among the goddess, humans, and demons, and the prelude to the birth of the Empire.
“When multiple currents collide and make great waves, the surroundings naturally become turbulent as well.”
“……”
Right.
If the Aten dean had even one-quarter of the Crown Prince’s ability to think,
he wouldn’t have assigned her class the way he did.
It felt like getting seasick while standing on solid ground.
Illios gave a knowing, wry smile.
“You make that kind of face, but you don’t seem like someone who could actually run away.”
Not true.
“You were the same back in Noctua, weren’t you? You never knew how to take things easy.
Thanks to that, group projects were solid, though.”
Misunderstanding.
Who can afford to slack off when doing group projects with the Crown Prince?
You push through it even with a nosebleed, fueled by sheer grit.
If things went bad, she was confident she’d be the first to run.
“Thank you for your valuable words, Your Highness.”
He was still a senior, after all, giving some kind of advice to a junior.
“Then, if it pleases Your Highness, may I ask one more thing?”
She seized the opportunity, and the Crown Prince smiled pleasantly.
“It’s been a while since someone called me that. Go ahead.”
“Her Highness the Princess is so exceptional in every way that I’m unsure what advice to give her.”
“His Majesty seems very interested in precisely how much better Estelle is compared to her peers.”
She had already completed the basic curriculum early and entered the advanced division as top scorer—
what more proof did anyone need?
Illios, understanding her confusion, nodded.
“They say His Majesty has heard about twenty times that the Archduke Ignis’s eldest son
graduated top of the advanced division, which is ‘unlike the basic division,’ very difficult to complete.”
“Oh dear.”
The very person who contributed to turning Archduke Ignis from a daughter-obsessed father
into a son-obsessed one sighed deeply.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Are these truly the Princess’s exam rankings?”
1st in Management.
1st in Economics.
1st in History.
As the parade of 1s continued, the Emperor’s cold, frostbitten expression slowly relaxed.
His lips were visibly starting to twitch upward.
Long live school ties.
Thanks to Illios’s tip, Lucien had quickly revised the report to show rankings instead of grades.
The meeting was off to a smooth start.
For today at least, she decided not to pray for Noctua’s downfall.
“Her Highness excels remarkably in every field.
At this rate, she might even aim for graduating as valedictorian.”
At the mention—heard about twenty times—of graduating top of her class, the Emperor’s eyes flashed.
“Attend me!”
“……?”
Holding the record sheet, the Emperor solemnly commanded,
“Cast a preservation spell and display it in the museum I gifted the Princess.”
Insane…
Lucien hurriedly drank hot tea to stop her true thoughts from slipping out.
Her esophagus burned, but the exclamation was safely suppressed.
The consultation—no, the “Report on Her Highness the Princess’s Exceptionally Excellent Academic, Moral, and Physical Life”—
continued in the same fashion.
“In composition class, Her Highness’s essay was selected as—”
“Attend me!”
“In painting class, her artwork—”
“Build a museum immediately!”
“……”
Stop it, you crazy man…
With no tea left to chug, Lucien bit her tongue.
Are all royals like this?
Just then, the chamberlain left with the Princess’s “thirteenth artwork of great historical and cultural value,”
and a girl peeked in.
The star of this chaos—Estelle.
“Estelle, what brings you here?”
The Emperor tried to appear pleasantly surprised.
After giving a polite greeting, Estelle replied,
“Your Majesty, I heard my teacher would be visiting today, so I came to see you.”
“Your Majesty…?”
The Emperor’s eyes wavered.
Estelle glanced between Lucien and the Emperor, squeezed her eyes shut,
approached him, and muttered softly,
“Ah… Fa… Father.”
“Ahem. The Princess is unusually fond of her father for a child these days.
Sometimes I worry her temperament might be too gentle.”
Anyone could see he wasn’t worried—he was bragging.
Lucien smiled gracefully.
“You must be very pleased to have such a lovely daughter, Your Majesty.”
“You think so?”
“Yes. The bond between Your Majesty and the Princess is truly beautiful.
An example for all citizens of the Empire.”
“If a learned Noctua instructor says so, it must be true.”
While spewing flattery with an empty mind, Lucien accidentally met Estelle’s eyes—
eyes raised in deep injustice.
I know that look.
—It’s hard to make a living.
It was the face teachers made when they had to listen to the dean’s endless nonsense.
Estelle let out a heavy sigh under the wave of existential fatigue.
Why do I have to act like a cute kid who calls Daddy in this age…
And in front of my academy teacher, no less.
Pandering to the tyrant father’s ego was exhausting.
“The Princess told me recently that she wishes not to marry and instead live in the palace with me forever.
As Emperor, it troubles me greatly.”
With a face showing absolutely zero trouble, he spoke.
Estelle pouted.
You really believed that?
She only said it to stop him from grinding his teeth every time she got along with Klein.
It was purely to protect Klein’s life.
“Doesn’t that simply mean Your Majesty is an exceptional father?
Children always sense their parents’ love first.”
“You are young, yet thoughtful.
The Crown Prince has told me much about your academy days—very impressive.”
“I’m honored.
His Highness the Crown Prince was a role model to all his juniors.
I’m sure Her Highness the Princess will be the same.”
From Lucien’s face—naturally speaking hollow pleasantries as easily as breathing—
Estelle saw her own face back from her past life working in a company.
Social life… truly miserable.
Their lifeless eyes met.
You suffer a lot.
You too, teacher.
Now that she thought about it, her new homeroom teacher had been like this from the start.
Soft but indifferent face.
People who looked at Estelle—
the adorable child, the beloved treasure of the Empire the Emperor cherished above all—
always showed the same expressions: admiration, awe, jealousy, scheming.
But the teacher’s gaze—neither warm nor cold—was the first of its kind.
Neutral. Mild. Calm.
Not bad.
That steady, unwavering attitude gave her a strange sense of comfort.
Because I don’t have to read their mood.
Being a princess meant living a life that started with reading the room and ended with reading the room.
She was exhausted.
Though her life as the Princess had started with a kidnapping and was turbulent from the beginning,
she had actually been thrilled at first to transmigrate into royalty.
I thought it would be the sweet life…
But reality was brutally cold.
The world was the setting of the novel she had read—
〈I Refuse the Crown Prince’s Obsession〉,
yet many things were different from the original.
Most of all—
Princess Estelle did not even exist in the story.
What a persistent life I have.
Those were the first words she heard when she first met the Emperor.
Distrust, disdain, cynicism—only negative emotions filled the cold gaze.
The Emperor did not welcome the Princess—the daughter who had been kidnapped and returned.
The Empress had died giving birth, and the only one who cared for her was the Crown Prince,
but he was far too busy.
The original male lead, in the absence of the heroine,
had simply started living a diligent growth narrative instead of a sweet romance.
Her plan to connect the heroine and her brother and enjoy the benefits collapsed before it began.
Forget the original. I need to survive first.
So Estelle worked to prove her usefulness to the Emperor.
Expose traitors.
Discover diamond mines.
Try summoning spirits or divine beasts.
…All failed.
In the end, Estelle sought another path.
She smiled brightly, acted cute, appealed with harmlessness and affection—
desperately.
Somewhere along the way, the Emperor snapped and became a doting father,
but at least Estelle managed to secure something:
Conditional affection.
Conditional safety.
Even now, as he acted like a madman ready to do anything for his daughter,
she remembered his face the first time they met.
It was fickle.
Affection that could be withdrawn at any time unless she constantly wagged her tail and fawned.
A capricious affection.
