En Travesti - I Became a Fake Prince - Chapter 2

***

Leticia thought that the Herta Imperial family didn’t make much effort to make a commoner orphan look like a prince. She came to this conclusion while directly experiencing the imperial education.

Even the teacher in front of her was half-hearted about Leticia’s education.

“You’ve memorized everything we learned yesterday, right? Let’s move on to the next lesson.”

It was perhaps natural that the older woman who had come to the prison with the Emperor took charge of Leticia’s education, as few people needed to know of her existence.

Moreover, this middle-aged thin woman controlled not only Leticia’s education but everything else under the pretext of being the real Prince Sion’s nanny.

Leticia thought that the Herta Imperial family didn’t make much effort to make a commoner orphan look like a prince. She came to this conclusion while directly experiencing the imperial education.

Even the teacher in front of her was half-hearted about Leticia’s education.

“You’ve memorized everything we learned yesterday, right? Let’s move on to the next lesson.”

It was perhaps natural that the older woman who had come to the prison with the Emperor took charge of Leticia’s education, as few people needed to know of her existence.

Moreover, this middle-aged thin woman controlled not only Leticia’s education but everything else under the pretext of being the real Prince Sion’s nanny.

Everything from eating, dressing, to sleeping.

Thanks to this, Leticia was half-imprisoned in Prince Sion’s palace. She couldn’t go outside, and the only visitor was Emma, this woman who educated Leticia.

Due to Emma, who didn’t even allow cleaning servants to enter, dust was piling up in the room that used to be clean.

“Memorize this by tomorrow.”

Emma turned away after placing a thick book and a few pieces of fruit on the dusty table.

Leticia just nodded. She was too hungry to even speak.

“……”

Despite being in charge of education, Emma didn’t stay long with Leticia. She would come once every day or two, throw some food and books, and leave.

Even that food consisted of things like fruits or cookies, seemingly bringing whatever was placed in the outer drawing room.

From what she said, it seemed she spent most of her time with the real Prince Sion.

‘I guess she wants to spend more time with Prince Sion before going to the Grand Duchy of Basilinte.’

Emma was scheduled to go to the Basilinte territory with Leticia as her nanny.

Leticia would die soon anyway, so they wouldn’t be apart for long, but Emma was making such a fuss.

‘Is it because he’s a precious prince?’

Looking at the fruits that would probably be her only food for today, or at most until tomorrow, Leticia vaguely realized.

Perhaps it wasn’t the imperial family starving her, but Emma.

The contemptuous look from the first day, saying how could this thing imitate our prince, had gotten worse over time.

‘It’s not like a person will shrink from starving. They’ll just look more like a beggar.’

As someone with experience living as a beggar, Leticia thought that plump cheeks were more characteristic of a prince, but Emma wouldn’t listen to her.

‘And I’m too hungry to even speak….’

Leticia reached for the water bottle to at least fill her stomach with water.

Of course, if they weren’t given proper food, they wouldn’t give proper water either. The rainwater she had collected in the bottle three days ago was dirty.

Leticia glanced around the empty room, then slipped her hand into the water bottle.

The moment her index finger touched the water’s surface the dirty water began to clear from her fingertip. Like magic.

Leticia looked at her face reflected in the purified water.

Short blonde hair, purple eyes, gaunt cheeks.

Except for being thin, it was the same face as before. No different from before the big fire that devoured the theater that was Leticia’s home.

During the great fire of the Borba theater troupe, Leticia thought she would die too.

No matter how much water her brothers and sisters poured on Leticia, she was right behind the stage where the fire broke out.

“Get out, Leti!”

“Run!”

“Go quickly, hurry……”

The fire took over the theater in an instant, and despite her siblings’ efforts, she fainted without even leaving the stage.

And when she woke up, she had become a death row inmate in prison.

“I’m not the culprit.”

The reason she could survive at the center of that fire wasn’t because she was the culprit. It was because of the water droplets her siblings had desperately poured on her.

Even in prison, the water that kept her body damp dried up and disappeared as soon as she felt cold.

That’s when Leticia realized she had developed a strange talent related to water.

Though its only use was to make dirty water clean.

“If it’s not me, who could be the culprit?”

Was it just an accident where coincidences overlapped, or was there really an arsonist?

Even though she would soon leave the empire to die, she was very curious about it.

Why did her brothers and sisters die? Why did such good people have to die in the fire? Why did her brothers and sisters have to die instead of her?

Having thought that far, Leticia sneered at her reflection in the water bottle.

“What are you curious about when you can’t do anything, you fool. Just die quietly.”

After all, all that was left for Leticia was her final performance which would end with her death.

The setting was a far-off barren land. Her co-star was the Grand Duke of Basilinte, called a demon by the people of the empire. Her role was that of a hostage prince who would die as soon as he appeared.

‘Still, I should do my best.’

Even if it’s a minor role appearing only once on stage, an actor should do their best.

That was the truth Leticia had learned in the Borba theater troupe.

***

The Grand Duke of Basilinte arrived at the imperial palace to receive the promised hostage.

It was later than expected, but no one expressed displeasure to the Grand Duke about it.

That was because the reason the imperial family was giving up a hostage was due to a major defeat in the border dispute with the Grand Duchy.

What could the losers say to the victor who had come to collect what was essentially a spoil of war?

Trying to act stiffly to maintain pride would only make the imperial family look foolish.

Meanwhile, Ferik, the Grand Duke, merely nodded at the Emperor’s response that he wouldn’t show his face, using the excuse of the late hour.

Since there was no need to meet the Emperor anyway, the Grand Duke announced that he would leave immediately with the hostage prince.

Then Yen Laudi, Ferik’s aide, stopped him with an uneasy face.

“Couldn’t we take him tomorrow? The prince is only 8 years old, surely we could give him one more day……”

“It will disrupt the schedule.”

Yen shook his head at the Grand Duke’s indifferent reply.

“Isn’t it partly our fault for being late?”

“The empire blocked the main road first.”

“They say there was a big fire at a theater troupe on the main road, so it couldn’t be helped. It wasn’t intentionally blocked, and what could we do about an accident? So, just one day……”

“Yen.”

The Grand Duke cut off Yen’s words. At the warning-laced call, Yen quickly responded.

“Yes, Your Grace.”

“I don’t care if you sympathize with the prince or not, but don’t show it.”

In front of the prince’s palace they had arrived at, he quietly added.

“If you pity him so much, it’s no different from letting him know we have no intention of keeping him alive.”

“……Yes, Your Grace. I’ll keep that in mind.”

It wasn’t as if Ferik enjoyed discussing the death of a child.

Well. In fact, it had been quite a while since he had felt the emotion of ‘enjoyment.’

While everyone on the continent talked about the cursed land of Basilinte as if it were barren, the truth was that it wasn’t just the land of Basilinte that was cursed.

Like the land of Basilinte that was increasingly turning into ruins, the children of the Basilinte family grew more emotionally barren as they grew older.

Not only intense emotions like affection or anger, but even normal empathy didn’t function properly.

That’s why Ferik needed the prince. The bloodline of the first Emperor of the empire who had cursed Basilinte.

“You’ve arrived, Your Grace. I am Emma Rowan, the prince’s nanny.”

An older woman bowed her head with a stiff face to them as they entered the prince’s palace.

“I will accompany the prince to the Basilinte territory……”

Ferik interrupted Emma’s words and asked directly.

“Where is the prince?”