Just as the bewilderment she couldn’t hide was about to appear on her face, Genoa kindly explained.

“Because the emperor is dead.”

“……!”

Mel’s eyes widened. Those purple eyes of unfathomable depth quietly observed her face. Hoping for even the slightest hint of hope to pass by.

“Your Highness’s treatment is now under my jurisdiction. So, shall we guess? What do you think I’ll do with you?”

Genoa’s voice was soft and gentle. It was like the whisper of a demon tempting with a sweet candy. With such a cruel gaze that would push one into the abyss if they carelessly reached out their hand.

“Your Highness has many uses. There’s a line of people waiting, hoping that the princess the dead emperor never got his hands on will fall into their hands.”

With the emperor’s death, the princess’s value had increased. Nobles who want to obtain and show off what the empire’s emperor couldn’t have would probably be willing to pay astronomical sums of money. But Genoa wasn’t particularly interested in those things.

“However, I’ve judged that killing you here would be cleaner for settling matters with Reibritton.”

Genoa’s finger poked the princess’s delicate neck.

“So, Your Highness, if you want to live, you’ll have to prove your own usefulness. I might be able to enjoy watching you struggle to survive a little.”

Now that the emperor was dead, for Genoa, who is the Duke of Ivanstein, the princess of Reibritton was nothing more than a nuisance, no more, no less. It would be simpler and better to behead the princess and hang her head on the fallen Reibritton royal palace to solidify the empire’s victory.

On the other hand, looking at Duke Ivanstein with his cruel smile, Mel clenched her fists. She was a slave who had lived a life where she couldn’t survive unless she proved her own usefulness. She had done anything to survive.

“I’ll try.”

A thread-like hope passed through Mel’s mind. The hope that she might be able to survive. She had never let go of such hope. Having decided to live, Mel’s eyes changed. She recalled all the experiences she had accumulated during her days of living for survival.

Seeing Mel biting her lip hard and racking her brains, Genoa spoke without hiding his satisfaction.

“That’s right. Pride and such won’t help extend Your Highness’s life at all.”

Genoa’s gaze was looking somewhere beyond her face. Mel instinctively knew that he was searching for traces of her younger self as a slave in her face.

Was Genoa perhaps regretting that he couldn’t personally punish Mel who had betrayed him?

Mel thought it would be better if Genoa could vent his feelings on her in this way. If it was a feeling that could be resolved by venting, she might finally find freedom after being tormented until he was satisfied.

‘But how much could the hurt caused by a mere slave affect him, who now became Duke Ivanstein? It would probably be just a small scratch on his noble pride at best.’

How could she not know that Genoa intended to use her when she was a slave? Even the young Mel at that time was clearly aware of at least that much.

The Genoa she knew didn’t waste time and effort on unnecessary things. Mel coldly evaluated him as a boy who would hand over even a simple kindness only after thorough calculation, despite the fondness she held in her heart.

Although he was destined to die if he couldn’t become the heir of Ivanstein, Genoa was still a noble. That’s why he treated Mel, who was a slave in the past, well from the beginning.

The past Mel had value in being able to help Genoa with the Ivanstein ducal family’s test. Genoa was someone who could reach out and be kind to a slave just for the fact that they held a value he wanted. It would probably be the same this time.

‘This isn’t simply because of a bad personality. Rather, he’s thorough.’

She tried her best to view her situation objectively. She couldn’t be fooled by that cruel pressure Genoa was exerting. She needed to keep her wits about her and face the situation.

‘So, it’s definitely not that he’s giving me this chance to laugh at the sight of a defeated country’s princess struggling to survive.’

Whether Mel was real or fake, right now she was a princess. The very existence of a royal family member symbolized many things. Even if it was a princess left alone in a palace abandoned by the king.

“Surely you’re proposing this because there’s a use for me? Then you should give me some information so I can act according to that use.”

“Oh.”

To Genoa, it was probably just a fleeting moment. After seeming to think for a short time, the face of the princess who had learned to make demands was not the stuffy princess he had been bored with until now.

Genoa spoke with genuine admiration.

“Now you’re starting to look more like the rumored princess of Reibritton.”

Had she come somewhat close to his intentions? Genoa slightly raised one eyebrow as if waiting for her next words. Mel tried to think about even these simple, fleeting words of his without missing anything. A thought crossed her mind for a moment.

“Do I still need to be the princess of Reibritton?”

A princess of a crumbling kingdom, taken as a prisoner. Though she avoided becoming the Emperor’s plaything, she was destined to fall into someone else’s hands. The dignity and majesty of royalty come from their position, and a princess without support could not exist as a princess.

However, if what Genoa wants is not just a simple prisoner but the princess known as Reibritton’s treasure, if he still wishes for her to be called a princess, then it could truly become so.

“Wouldn’t that be better for Your Highness as well?”

“……”

“For a princess to exist as a princess.”

Mel tried not to reveal the goosebumps that rose as she watched Genoa answer with a calm face. If Mel were the real princess, she might be tempted by those words, but now she was merely an imposter wearing the shell of a princess. She didn’t know how Amelia, the real princess, would react if she heard that the captured princess was not dead while the real one was still alive.

Moreover, she didn’t know what Genoa was trying to gain by treating a mere captive princess with royal treatment.

“You don’t seem pleased. Perhaps you don’t have much attachment to the kingdom that abandoned you?”

Mel answered Genoa’s words, feeling as if she could breathe a little easier.

“…Yes, that’s right. I’m no different from being abandoned.”

Mel lowered her gaze slightly, hoping her expression would appear bitter. She needed to be careful with her actions until Reibritton completely disappeared. However, the need for that caution could disappear with Genoa’s next words.

“Then let me ask you this. If you have no attachment to the country that abandoned you, wouldn’t you like to take a bit of revenge?”

“Revenge?”

“I mean I can let Your Highness abandon the country instead.”

It meant to abandon rather than be abandoned. Mel couldn’t answer for a moment, her lips parted.

Is what I just heard correct? There was no royalty in any history book who sold out their own country. There was no hero in any epic who urged royalty to sell out their country.

“What do you think?”

Genoa was looking at her with an incredibly sweet smile. Like how dangerous flowers bloom more beautifully, Genoa smiled like that. Mel felt like she might suffocate from the scent emanating from him.

To avoid dying from having her breath choked off by that man, she had no other choice.

“I’ll abandon it.”

She hoped it would sound like, ‘A country that abandoned me, of all things.’ It was partly meant that way. If Reibritton were to fall, if she could hasten that predetermined end even by a day. And if she could contribute to that even a little.

“Gladly.”

She wouldn’t fear the real living princess. After all, a princess without support couldn’t exist as a princess. If it came to that, the situation of the real princess Amelia would be no different from Mel’s.

No, Mel’s circumstances were even better. Mel had a status guaranteed by the Duke of the Empire, while the real princess would lose the country that could prove her identity.

‘If I do well, I might even be able to get Mother out of the princess’s hands.’

She would act before the real princess could find the escaped King of Reibritton. Mel made this resolution as her eyes shone.

“The fall of Reibritton is the result the Emperor desired. Of course, what he desired most was you.”

Who wouldn’t know that the Emperor started the war coveting the princess of Reibritton? Even a goat living in a small territory in the countryside would know.