Chapter 21
The horse that carried the two of us kept running for a long time.
Only after we completely left the forest did it slowly begin to slow down.
The thick trees disappeared,
and an open plain appeared.
“…What just happened?”
Damian asked.
His voice still sounded stunned, as if he couldn’t understand the situation.
I imagined the expression he must be making behind me
and deliberately shrugged in a relaxed way.
“It was nothing.”
“It definitely wasn’t nothing.”
“Well… I expected Vincent to come.”
The Emperor was quick to notice things.
If it was his intuition,
he must have already realized
that this incident wasn’t just a simple runaway caused by mood.
“Then of course he would send Vincent.”
“The imperial palace is a world where the strong eat the weak.
Did you know that?”
As I said that,
I glanced back slightly.
Damian’s face was strangely twisted—
not unpleasant,
but completely confused.
“Do you actually worry about things like that, Your Highness?
You usually act like everyone except the Emperor
is beneath your feet.”
“That’s true,
but it’s unpleasant hearing it from someone else.”
“I call that being objective.”
Is there any way to shut this man’s mouth?
“Whether you agree or not,
taking control of the imperial palace
was the result of my desperate effort.”
“Should I be impressed?”
I glared at him,
then looked forward again.
But it was true.
My position in the imperial family
had not been strong from the beginning.
The imperial family valued bloodlines.
Just because I had the Emperor’s backing
didn’t mean everyone would bow to me.
When I had just been adopted,
supporters of the First Prince were overwhelming.
The maid assigned to the princess
would even pinch and make a two-year-old child cry
to release her anger.
Because Loreia was only a princess in name.
“I was seven when I realized
that to survive in the imperial palace,
I had to plant fear in others.”
Five years old—
a very early realization.
I rolled my eyes slightly before answering.
“Vincent has a pollen allergy.
Birch pollen.”
“So you purposely made that strange sword
to prepare for this?”
“What else could I do?
You hate the imperial family enough to want them dead,
but you’re not reckless enough
to cut off a prince’s head without consequences, right?”
At my blunt question,
Damian let out a disbelieving breath.
“Why that reaction?”
“Shall I answer honestly?”
“…I feel like your face already answered,
but go ahead.”
“I’m surprised
that Your Highness is capable of thinking at all.”
“Ah, I shouldn’t have asked.”
A sigh escaped me.
This Grand Duke’s son was so annoying
that if I could,
I would knock him on the head.
Though I doubted it would hurt much.
When I narrowed my eyes at him,
Damian only shrugged shamelessly,
as if to say he had only spoken the truth.
“Anyway, this is troublesome.
Since we dropped all our luggage,
it’ll be hard to reach the West like this.”
“I never thought we’d go straight there anyway.”
I answered calmly.
There were several small cities
on the way to the West.
I pretended to think for a moment
with Damian behind me.
“Let’s go to Jeda.”
I spoke the destination
I had already decided before departure.
But Damian looked puzzled.
“You’d skip a large city like Akene
and go to Jeda instead?”
I expected that reaction.
Jeda was extremely small—
too small to even be properly called a city.
More like a village.
It could be used as a stopover,
but there was no real reason to choose it.
I smiled softly at him.
“Yes. I have a plan.”
“You actually have a plan…”
I told him I could hear everything.
“This time I won’t accept objections.
You are my escort,
and this is a rightful request
from someone with a purpose.”
“Yes, yes.”
Damian answered carelessly,
but he didn’t seem to intend to argue.
He willingly turned the horse’s direction.
“Let’s hurry.
We must arrive before sunset.”
The horse ran quickly
and we reached Jeda just before the sun set.
After what happened this afternoon,
we should have unpacked quickly
and rested for tomorrow, but…
“…Are you really sure about this?
Honestly?”
Sadly, instead of unpacking,
we were standing in front of an inn.
More precisely,
I couldn’t even enter
because Damian was blocking my way.
I stretched up on my toes
to look past his shoulder,
but my legs soon began to hurt,
so I spoke in irritation.
“I said it’s fine.
This is already the tenth time you asked.”
“Did something happen to your head?
Are you so bored of your luxurious life as a princess
that you’re looking for hardship?”
I lightly ignored him
and tilted my head back to examine the inn.
Because it was a small city far from the capital,
the building looked old and worn.
Still, it seemed to have everything necessary.
“This is clean enough.”
“This is driving me crazy.”
Damian roughly ran his hand through his hair.
The situation was simple.
I naturally planned to sleep at the inn,
but Damian stopped me.
The reason was that Carlos had given him an artifact before departure—
something that could create a simple lodging with magic.
“Simple lodging,” he said,
but it would clearly be more luxurious than this inn.
“An artifact… seriously.”
Why would someone already exhausted
just from his overwhelming magic power
go through such trouble?
“He wouldn’t even accept my greeting…”
I truly couldn’t tell
whether Carlos found me annoying
or was actually worried about me.
“I can just create a place to stay with magic.
Father gave this artifact for times like this—
because of you.”
Damian shook the red necklace on his neck
as if to show it off.
“No.”
I glanced at the necklace
and turned my head away.
“No chance.
I’ll save the magic inside the artifact
and return it later.”
For Carlos,
this amount of magic might be trivial—
less than dirt under his nails.
But for me,
it was different.
“I still have my pride.”
I had a responsibility toward him.
Using his magic for a luxurious journey
was unacceptable.
“I’ll go in first,
so pay and come upstairs.”
“…What?”
“The best room.”
Taking advantage of Damian’s brief distraction,
I slipped under his arm
and opened the door.
“Being short is useful at times like this.”
Damian stared back at me in shock
as I passed him instantly.
“Hey— Princess!
You there, miss!”
Ignoring his shout behind me,
I quickly climbed the stairs.
“You troublesome baggage!”
Talking like that to a princess.
And he’s supposed to be my real brother.
I stuck out my tongue
where Damian couldn’t see
and headed to the top floor.
