En Travesti - I Became a Fake Prince - Chapter 3

“Where is the prince?”

“He’s not feeling well and is resting for a moment.”

“We’re planning to leave immediately due to a tight schedule, so bring him out.”

Emma’s tense eyes glanced up at the Grand Duke of Basilinte.

They say he’s called a demon on the battlefield, but seeing the Grand Duke in person was, well… He was more like a statue or a portrait than a person.

Especially in the sense that while he had a breathtakingly beautiful appearance, he lacked the vitality of a living person.

These days, they say it’s fashionable to make dolls that look exactly like people and make them move with springs. The Grand Duke of Basilinte looked just like an intricately made clockwork doll.

A doll with hair made of silver thread, skin made glossy with glaze, and a pair of eyes made of gold.

Perhaps that’s why it felt unsettling every time the Grand Duke moved and spoke. Like watching the eerie phenomenon of a doll coming to life.

‘No matter how impressive they look on the outside, they’re still barbarians at heart.’

Emma dismissed this unsettling feeling as contempt for barbarians and returned with the fake prince.

However, there was one problem.

Even wearing the clothes of 8-year-old Prince Sion, the 10-year-old fake prince had plenty of loose fabric.

‘I was so busy with the news of the Grand Duke’s arrival that I couldn’t visit for days……’

It seemed she had been starving all along because Emma had made sure no one else could enter the room.

Still, after feeding her a bowl of porridge hastily in the early morning, she could move somewhat.

Though she staggered from being skin and bones, lacking any dignity, she could make excuses that he was ill.

After all, the Grand Duke of Basilinte wouldn’t care whether a prince they were going to kill soon was sick or not, and even if he was a bit thin, the fake prince’s purple eyes were intact.

‘A prince with purple eyes.’

That was the condition the Grand Duke of Basilinte had demanded.

That’s why the Emperor had planned to disguise his youngest son, whose face had never been shown in public, as a fake.

There was no condition that the prince had to be healthy.

“Even if you’re nervous, you remember your greeting, don’t you, Your Highness?”

Emma asked the fake prince standing next to her, pretending to be kind.

The fake prince nodded and looked up at Emma. Only his distinct purple eyes were clear on his pale, thin face.

“I remember, Emma.”

Soon, the fake prince placed his hand on his chest and bowed to the Grand Duke.

“It’s an honor to meet you, Your Grace.”

The Grand Duke’s expressionless face frowned slightly.

As he silently looked down at the fake prince, Emma nervously opened her mouth.

“If our prince has done something wrong……”

“You’re saying this is Prince Sion?”

Leticia flinched at the cold tone. She swallowed and raised her head.

Blonde hair and purple eyes. She had to rely on having the same colors as the real Prince Sion.

“Yes, Your Grace. I am Sion Herta.”

The Grand Duke’s transparent golden eyes narrowed as if they could see through Leticia’s identity.

“……”

Amidst the continuing silence, the Grand Duke opened his mouth.

“Where is the real Prince Sion?”

Emma answered with a trembling voice.

“Wh-what are you saying? This is Prince Sion right here.”

“The colors seem to have been applied plausibly… But doesn’t the age seem off? You’re saying this baby is 8 years old?”

In the heavy atmosphere under the Grand Duke’s pressure, Leticia struggled to reply.

“Eight, y-yes……”

Leticia didn’t perform any amateurish acting like glancing at Emma or looking around nervously. Instead, without turning her eyes away from the Grand Duke, she stammered.

“I’ll grow more in the future. Father is tall, and Mother was tall-“

“Your Highness!”

Leticia covered her mouth with both hands as if she had made a mistake. Emma’s call was also well-timed.

‘Now I hope he’ll misunderstand on his own.’

The Empress was short. So much so that even commoners knew about it.

So if Sion were really the youngest son born to the Empress, he would never have been able to say his mother was tall.

‘But I did……’

If he could just misunderstand that I’m probably the Emperor’s illegitimate child, wouldn’t the Grand Duke accept my current thin appearance?

‘A child abused by a stepmother or stepfather is such a common role on stage!’

Of course, if Emma hadn’t starved her in the first place, there wouldn’t have been a need to suddenly perform such a difficult act.

***

The Grand Duke of Basilinte, Ferik, looked down at the small, thin skeleton before him.

The child was so emaciated that calling it a skeleton seemed appropriate, as if only skin had been stretched over bones.

‘Could it be 6 years old?’

It was a sight that anyone would find pitiful, but the man whose emotions, including compassion, were mostly barren, only thought this much.

Small.

Therefore, it must be a baby.

The youngest prince, Sion Herta, is 8 years old, so the baby in front of him is not Sion Herta.

This was the conclusion Ferik reached while observing the baby before him.

At least the 8-year-olds Ferik knew were bigger than the baby in front of him.

“Bring the real Sion Herta.”

In response to Ferik’s order, the woman who claimed to be the nanny spoke.

“…Wasn’t Your Grace’s condition for the hostage ‘a prince with purple eyes’?”

The baby’s cheeks were gripped in one of the woman’s hands.

The tightly pressed cheeks could be seen turning red, but instead of frowning, the baby’s eyes opened wider.

Vivid purple eyes.

“Aren’t the hair color and eye color exactly the same as in the portrait we sent in advance? Your Grace. This is the real Prince Sion that Your Grace will take as a hostage.”

Ferik easily grasped the meaning of the woman’s words.

Whether the baby in front of him was the real Sion Herta or not, this baby met the conditions he had demanded.

What he had asked for was a ‘prince with purple eyes’, not necessarily the Emperor’s youngest son, Sion Herta.

And this baby, while not Sion Herta, was clearly a member of the Herta royal family.

The purple eyes were a characteristic inherited only by the Herta imperial family.

“…I see.”

There was no reason to press further about the identity of the baby in front of him.

‘It’s not like my long-lost conscience has suddenly revived.’

Ferik checked the baby’s purple eyes once more, then immediately turned away.

Yen hurriedly followed and asked.

“Your Grace, should we investigate further? Where the real prince is……”

“No need. Just load that baby into the carriage.”

“Pardon?”

“A prince with purple eyes. As that woman said, it meets the conditions we set.”

Yen, flustered, muttered unconsciously.

“But that child is too young to die……”

“Is there a good age to die?”

Ferik, recalling ‘Sion Herta’ who was far too small and thin compared to his own 10-year-old son, and who seemed more like a baby than a child, added emotionlessly.

“If necessary, I would have killed my own son.”

He truly was prepared to sacrifice anyone’s life. Even if it was his own.

It’s just that what was needed to break the curse on the Grand Duchy of Basilinte was neither Ferik himself nor his son, but the life of a Herta.

The life of that small baby.

A ‘Herta with purple eyes’ was needed.

That’s why Ferik, as agreed with the Emperor, loaded the hostage ‘Sion Herta’ into the carriage and headed towards the Basilinte territory.