Chapter 24 – Again, D-Day

Cadis was the most influential Empire on the continent.

But the history it took to seize such dominance was long, and compared to neighboring countries, the Imperial lineage was not deep. Power shifted countless times, and only recently was it stabilized. So, to show their strength, the Empire often played the cat to the mouse.

For this reason, the Empire made allies and bullied weaker states. It was a preemptive policy to keep others from rising up. Perhaps thanks to these efforts, the Empire was thriving. The Emperor’s hobby was to drink and study the continental map.

Everything seemed perfect. Or so it seemed.

But rotten trouble exists everywhere, and the Cadis Imperial Family was no exception. After arranging things on the outside, chaos erupted within. Specifically, the Empire’s only Imperial Princess was the problem.

There were three rumors about the Princess. One, she hated men. Two, she was interested in the research team from the Kingdom. Three, she was especially interested in one member of that team.

The first rumor was nothing special. Since childhood, the Princess would cry, “Gross! Ugly!” whenever she saw a man, so her palace had been staffed only by women for ages.

The Emperor figured that would be fixed once she started her own family.

The second rumor was also nothing special. The Princess had always been academically driven, enjoying supporting various research projects. So it was natural she’d take an interest in the visiting research team from the Kingdom.

The Emperor thought a true leader should know many things.

The third rumor was the real issue. The joint research between the Imperial and Hesington teams was publicly known to be a success. If it had ended there, it would have just been a great achievement.

But the experiment had hit a snag, and it was a research student from the Kingdom who saved it. After that, the Princess showed great interest in the project and summoned that student several times.

Once could be explained as honoring her achievement, but repeated private meetings were another matter.

‘The Princess, who never keeps people close, is regularly meeting a female research student from the Kingdom—alone.’

‘There’s a rumor that the Imperial Princess likes women’—that’s how the gossip began to spread. And the fact that this rumor was only circulating quietly behind the scenes was, from the Emperor’s perspective, a small relief, as it was quite a headache.

“No one will want to marry the Imperial Princess at this rate.”

Members of the Imperial Family had a duty to marry for the sake of the Empire. But if a rumor spread that she was a womanizer… Just imagining it made the Emperor’s vision blur.

The Emperor had to both silence those around him and find a clever solution to the situation. That’s when a letter from the Kingdom, stating ‘the Prince wishes to visit for a royal marriage,’ caught his eye. The match wasn’t satisfactory, so he’d been putting off a reply, but perhaps this could put out the immediate fire.

That’s why the Empire agreed to the Prince’s request.

And so, not long after the third rumor died down, another rumor began to heat up the Empire.

It was said that a handsome and melancholic Prince was waiting for the Imperial Princess in her private palace.

* * *

It had already been a week since he arrived in the Empire. Dieldo was staying in the Imperial Princess’s private palace as her ‘fiancé’. More precisely, as her prospective fiancé. By now, one would expect the prospective fiancée to have come to see him at least once, but he hadn’t even glimpsed the shadow of the Imperial Princess.

But to go looking for her first, when she hadn’t summoned him, would be rude… No, correction. He had never even tried to make such an effort. From the start until now, Dieldo’s goal had been only one thing.

At that moment, as Petricks handed him tea stirred with a silver spoon, he spoke.

“You’ll be able to meet Her Highness the Imperial Princess soon. It’s already been a week, so the permission should come any day now.”

“Yeah, right.”

Dieldo, who had been looking out the window, turned back to the table. Petricks, who had been habitually tidying the table, withdrew his hands.

“Judging by how you’ve been tucked away like this, it’ll be a while.”

Well, if that assumption was true, it was actually good news. He’d been stuck in his quarters all this time, with the excuse that permission from the palace hadn’t been granted. The only place he was allowed was the garden in front of the private palace. And to the imperial servants assigned to him, this situation appeared to be a plausible, even poignant, picture.

In fact, it had been that way since the Prince arrived in the Empire. After all, a Prince with such a handsome face seemed like someone who could do anything with just his looks. Even though no one knew what was troubling him, there was a shadow of sorrow on his face. Melancholy, and somehow dry. The people of the Imperial Palace looked at his face and thought, ‘Her Highness the Imperial Princess is so heartless, leaving such a man alone…’ Perhaps it was at this moment that the Prince was inwardly muttering, ‘The Empire is no better than a corner store.’

“By the way, about the royal marriage. If, just if, it actually goes through like this, what will you do?”

“You sure worry a lot.”

“But still, you never know, as they say.”

“Isn’t it tiring to worry about things ahead of time?”

“…It’s said that the Imperial Princess is meeting that woman again.”

At Dieldo’s indifferent response, Petricks brought up another topic. This one also fell flat.

“That’s good. Let them get caught together. Then they’ll break off the engagement from their side, right?”

Dieldo stretched his legs out as he sat. The attendants were careful to keep the delegation from the Kingdom away from outside rumors, but they couldn’t stop the gossip that the Imperial Princess often met alone with ‘a certain woman’. And when the rumor reached him, they even looked at him with concern.

But Dieldo, contrary to their worries, truly didn’t care, and he really meant it.

The one who showed any interest was Petricks. Petricks even tried to find out who the woman was, but since they were both stuck in the private palace, it was pointless. Yet, he acted as if he was a rival, referring to her as ‘that woman’… Anyone would think Petricks was the fiancé.

After thinking this far, Dieldo took a sip of tea and asked,

“More importantly, what about Amber?”

He tried to keep his composure, but his fingers twitched anxiously. This was a symptom Dieldo himself couldn’t control.

“The research team, or whatever.”

Yes, what mattered to him right now was Amber. While he’d heard bits and pieces about the research team from the Kingdom, he hadn’t seen a trace of her. He’d come all the way to the Empire. It had already been a week—this was impossible. Petricks shook his head.

“I haven’t heard anything from the research team either…”

“You should find out about things like that. Not useless gossip.”

Dieldo gave a self-deprecating laugh after saying that.

“Well, I’m stuck here too, so what could I possibly know?”

Prince. The chain that bound him, and yet the only thing he possessed. The funny thing was, that title of Prince was utterly worthless. He held no power, neither in his homeland nor in this vast Empire.

A Prince without a foundation was just a name, nothing more. And this was proof of just how pathetically he’d lived. So he was in no position to blame Petricks for not being able to find out more.

“But if they were going to treat you like this, why even invite you, Your Highness?”

“Do you think they invited me with this in mind? They just forgot.”

“If they’re going to neglect you enough to forget, then…”

Petricks looked genuinely puzzled.

“It doesn’t make sense for permission to be delayed this long. This is basically abandonment.”

No matter how poorly the Prince had behaved, abandoning him seemed excessive.

“And it’s not for any other reason, but for a marriage alliance, which is a friendly gesture.”

“It’s not friendly at all.”

“I mean objectively, not in your opinion.”

“Maybe they weren’t friendly either.”

Dieldo picked up his teacup and set it down again, unmoved.

“Or maybe…”

Dieldo trailed off. Petricks’s puzzled gaze fell on his annoyingly perfect face.

Or maybe? Or maybe what?

“I wasn’t thinking clearly.”

The always short-sighted Prince suddenly had a moment of self-reflection, straightening up from his slouched position with a frown. Was it the next words? For once, the Prince even seemed clever.