“Why did you follow me here?”
I chided Count Queensguard, who had followed me all the way to the Lumantis Empire and was now attending a tea party in the Imperial Palace garden.
Of course, I maintained a smiling face, conscious of the gazes around us.
Masera had said he was going to do something with the Lumantis military commanders, but I was too distracted by his luscious chest—a staple of angst-filled tragedy male leads—to listen closely.
Count Queensguard, looking like a tycoon in a mink-trimmed coat, tapped his crossed leg.
“To get my watch fixed.”
He opened a pocket watch with a shattered glass face. On the watch’s lid was a picture of Princess Margarita smiling.
“That’s a royal item. Did you steal it?”
I gave him a dubious look, but he haughtily raised his chin.
“My wife gave it to me as a coming-of-age gift.”
A treasured piece of merch he had to go overseas to repair, huh.
I watched the Count carefully tuck the pocket watch inside his coat.
I wasn’t particularly interested in the man, but I was curious.
Why did he raise the daughter of the woman he loved so much as a maid?
It wasn’t resentment, but curiosity.
Was it a love-hate relationship due to adult circumstances, or a misunderstanding caused by a buried truth?
I should have a serious interview with him later.
“Achoo!”
A sudden gust of north wind tickled my nose, causing me to sneeze.
Soon, a heavy coat was draped over my shoulders.
Count Queensguard, who had put his coat on me, said in an indifferent tone, “It’s cold. Dress warmly.”
…Seriously, what’s with him?
I wanted to call him ‘Mr. What’s-With-Him’.
“Ah, yes.”
Still, I expressed my gratitude, seeing as he made the effort.
He readjusted his posture with his characteristic arrogant and aristocratic face.
“I own a decent building in the Rutemia capital. It’s in a commercial district with a lot of foot traffic, and it’s a prime location with plenty of sunlight.”
“Oh.”
Why is he suddenly bragging about a building…?
“I’ll give it to you, so have a meal with me. I know a good place.”
“Um…?”
If I have a meal with him, I get a building for free?
But why is he making this wealth-flaunting move on me?
The Count confidently added, “I’ll buy you as much meat as you want.”
Now he’s trying to win me over with food?
Having only responded with “Um, oh, ah, yes,” I fell into deep contemplation about what on earth he was thinking, making such a crazy deal.
Is it because I’m the last Princess and have value? That’s too much for that.
‘Could it be that I’m being treated as a limited edition Margarita Princess 2.0?’
“I don’t need the building. I have plenty of money.”
Still, I didn’t say I didn’t want the meat.
The Count stroked his chin and raised an eyebrow.
“Well, you wouldn’t be short of material things. I can’t exactly make you a beggar.”
I feel like that man really could do it! So scary!
“Sounds like you want to pre-enroll in a nursing home.”
“Oh dear, thinking of abandoning me when I’m still useful.”
The Count put his hand on his cheek and made a wounded expression.
Unfazed, I was concocting threats that middle-aged men would fear when the Crown Princess approached and smiled beautifully.
“It’s nice to see such a good father-daughter relationship. Coming to the Empire together and attending the tea party. I’ve become an outsider since marrying into the Imperial Family and haven’t seen my father in a long time… I’m envious.”
The Crown Princess looked genuinely envious.
Count Queensguard, holding an uncharacteristically dainty floral teacup, smiled.
“The term ‘outsider’ is, from a father’s perspective, no different from running away from home. He will always miss and worry about his daughter.”
The man who treats everyone in the world as an outsider is saying such things?
Watching him spout famous lines with a fake smile, I frowned subtly.
The Princesses who had become my close friends had also come over and started talking to me.
“Princess Cindy, you found the records, right?”
“They said it’s still a secret which country it is, but tell me secretly.”
“I heard the records were in a music box? I heard it was ancient writing that only the Imperial Family can interpret.”
Three people were talking at once, so I didn’t know what to answer…
The First Princess looked back and forth between Count Queensguard and me, then her eyes sparkled.
“I didn’t notice from afar, but you look a lot like your father?”
What?
Unlike me, who failed to manage my expression and was shocked, Count Queensguard’s lips curled up.
“Where do we look so alike?”
“The atmosphere, and somehow…”
The First Princess stared intently at the Count’s deep, soulful eyes, and her eyes widened.
“Your eyes look alike… By the way, how do you take care of your skin usually?”
“I quit cigars.”
That darned bragging about quitting smoking…
“Wow, Princess Cindy is so lucky. A handsome husband, a handsome father… Both the Princess and Brigadier General Vicente have porcelain skin, is the water in Rutemia that good?”
And so, the conversation strayed quite far from the original topic.
After the tea party, Cynthia asked Count Queensguard for a conversation.
“With me? Why?”
The Count tried to hide his excited feelings and maintained a haughty expression as he sat facing Cynthia on the sofa.
She showed him the royal music box.
“Do you know what this is?”
“The music box Princess Margarita received as a gift for her fourteenth birthday. It should have broken a long time ago.”
The Count, who had been rattling off explanations, chuckled.
To think that the records to obtain the right to inherit the throne were inside.
Laying out all sorts of strange stories, riddles, and challenges to test the qualifications of descendants was a nasty hobby of the Bariesa Royal Family.
They were closer to clowns enjoying games than royalty.
“They say that when the 100th performance of this music box begins, the owner’s wish will be granted. It doesn’t work now, but I will definitely become the 100th performer and make the Princess and the soldier dance together.”
The Count sighed, recalling Princess Margarita, who had lived bound by a predetermined fate and smiled brightly as if she had found hope.
The ancestors passed on the music box to the young Princess along with a red necklace, without hearing the song of the broken music box.
The ownership continued to change, and after Princess Margarita, it came to her daughter, Cynthia.
‘Is there really such a thing as fate?’
The Count, who had been lost in thought and pressing his forehead, looked at Cynthia.
“…You are the 100th performer.”
“I don’t know how many performances there have been, but I guess the person who hears the 100th song becomes the heir?”
She shrugged and fiddled with the music box.
“It seems the Princess tried to fix it somehow. She even went to a woodworking family in Diem.”
Cynthia, who felt awkward calling her ‘mother’, still referred to her as ‘Princess’.
When Cynthia opened the lid of the music box, the soldier and Princess, with their arms outstretched to each other, stood up side by side.
The fallen soldier was not broken, but designed to spring out with the spring after the 100th performance was over, and was now properly reattached.
“The Princess didn’t fix the music box or find the royal records inside, but I think she knew the principle of the dolls popping out after the performance.”
Cynthia pulled the Princess doll, showing the connected spring stretching.
“Was the Princess a bit eccentric?”
“It was fun to be around her. Once, she put honey in a beehive and got stung. I was watching and got stung too.”
She got stung by a bee and it was fun?
Dumbfounded, she soon handed the music box to the Count.
“I think the Princess had similar thoughts to the ancestors who hid riddles. I don’t know who the target to solve the answer is, though.”
Did Princess Margarita also hide a riddle in this music box?
Cynthia asked the Count, who was lost in thought looking at the music box.
“Do you know who my father is?”
The Count, who noticeably hardened his expression, stared at her silently before slowly shaking his head.
“I don’t know. If I did, I would have killed him long ago.”
‘So that’s why he kept me as a maid. Because he thought I was a child born with another man.’
Cynthia gestured to the music box with a calm face.
“I’ll give that to ‘Mr. Surrogate Insult Driver’ for now.”
“You come up with such creative titles. This is an item only passed down to Princesses, why are you giving it to me?”
Seeing his puzzled expression, Cynthia smiled and stood up.
“I think the shy and timid Princess wanted to give the song of the music box as a gift to the person she liked.”
The Count’s blue eyes turned to the Princess in the music box.
Cynthia passed him and left the room, adding, “The 100th song might actually be for the surrogate driver, right? If you don’t like the title, should I call you ‘The Knight Who Might Be My Mom’s First Love’?”
The Count’s blue eyes widened and then narrowed as he watched her leave. He seemed to be swept away by all sorts of emotions in a short moment.
Left alone, the Count rubbed his face as if washing it and looked at the music box.
He put his hand on the winding key, but he couldn’t bring himself to turn it.
He was the kind of person who thought it was better to leave it as an eternal lie than to know the harsh truth.
Staring blankly at the air, he repeated the past question as if repeating it to himself.
So, what is your wish?
“To be happy.”
I don’t know what happiness you desire.
After the Princess left, I have spent my whole life fulfilling what she said, but I still haven’t found the answer.
He covered his face with both hands and leaned back on the sofa as if sinking underwater.
Stop teasing me. That was such a mean scene cut!