Chapter 2 – Part 4

‘The emperor is worth less than a blade of grass?’

He had already lost to a single flower—a marigold—and there was no reason to believe he’d fare any better compared to anything else. For the first time since he had matured, Rohayden found it oddly refreshing to be left out. Or rather, being inferior to a plant felt like a novel experience.

“How could a mere flower compare to Your Majesty’s esteemed countenance? It’s an utterly absurd idea,” Mail said, unaware that the emperor saw through her every lie.

She performed her act as if it were genuine, thinking it would appear sincere. And indeed, to anyone who didn’t know better, her deception was convincing. Apparently, her self-assessment of being a good actress wasn’t entirely wrong. Rohayden pretended to fall for it, despite knowing everything.

“So you’re saying I’m far more exceptional?” he asked.

“Yes, indeed,” she replied.

“Well, it’s true that even in a field of fully bloomed flowers, my face would stand out more.”

“…Absolutely, Your Majesty,” Mail said, her eyes briefly twitching, her eyelashes trembling slightly.

Rohayden barely held back his laughter. Watching her expressions was far more entertaining than he had anticipated.

If Mail had realized this, she would have momentarily forgotten he was the emperor and raised her fist in frustration, wondering how he could find this amusing when she was fighting for her life.

Though they were sharing the same moment, one was struggling to survive, while the other was merely having fun. And as Rohayden enjoyed his time, he suddenly realized:

‘The time has passed.’

He had originally agreed to delay lunch only briefly. After all, he couldn’t keep Marquis Sozoba waiting, who had begged for this meeting for the past two weeks. The marquis was a useful person, and there was no need to create resentment by keeping him anxious.

Regretfully, Rohayden prepared to bid farewell.

“Although this conversation has been insufficient, we’ll have to end it here.”

“Ah, are you leaving already?” Mail asked.

“I have another engagement,” he said, looking down at her. The green eyes that met his gaze briefly sparkled like water in a bowl.

Eyes as clear as hers were never burdened by vain desires. The emperor suddenly felt a sense of regret.

If only this woman had been a candidate in the empress selection.

Regret gave rise to curiosity. Deciding to extend the conversation, he opened his mouth.

“I had some time before coming here, so I did a little digging.”

“…Excuse me?” Mail looked confused.

“Your name wasn’t on the list of candidates. You didn’t come here to become empress, so may I ask why you came to the Empire?”

The Empire was quite far from the kingdom. It wasn’t a journey one would take lightly, as if on a casual outing. Moreover, this was a foreign land where she had no known connections.

Mail was momentarily flustered by the question.

‘He asks the strangest things.’

She hadn’t expected the emperor to be curious about such matters. He seemed more interested in other people’s affairs than she had thought. After a brief moment of contemplation, she selected her response.

“I came to serve the Princess of Belthier, Your Majesty.”

To be precise, she had come to monitor the princess—to prevent her from leading the kingdom down a path of ruin. Of course, she couldn’t say that outright, so Mail sweetened her words a little.

“The princess?”

“Yes. Given that she must stay in a foreign land, she insisted that someone like me, who has been by her side since childhood, accompany her.”

They hadn’t grown up together, but the two weeks they had spent together in the carriage felt like years, so she decided to consider it close enough. Mail managed to maintain a straight face, her expression as bold as her lie.

“You must have a close relationship with the princess.”

“Her Highness is such a wonderful person…”

At this point, Mail’s mind was racing. Riela had clearly failed to lose interest in the emperor.

That meant they were bound to cross paths again in the future. In that case, wouldn’t it be better to leave a good impression now? Should she throw in some compliments? It wouldn’t do to go overboard with lies, but something reasonable and grounded in reality might work.

‘Yes, this was an opportunity.’ Mail made up her mind and opened her mouth.

“It’s not to brag, but there is no one on this continent more…”

Compliments, after all, should be based in truth. Mail decided to speak sincerely.

“…pure of heart.”

In her mind.

“…innocent.”

In her mind.

“…and radiant like a beacon of light.”

In her mind.

“She’s purer than anyone, I can assure you.”

Especially her brain.

“How could I not stay by her side and serve her?”

Mail finished her words with a bright smile. Everything she said was technically true. Not a single lie, she had merely omitted a word or two.

The smile she wore, radiating pure innocence, was more genuine than anything else that had come before. The truth was far away, but she stayed close to the facts.

“Hmm… Yes, having a close relationship with the one you serve is a good thing,” Rohayden said.

Even with his exceptional eyesight, he wasn’t capable of reading minds, and so he was fooled. Although to say he was fooled might be an exaggeration—after all, he hadn’t cared about the princess either before or after the conversation. He just briefly thought, “Even with all that praise, she’d still lose to the marigold.”

“Well, I’ll be on my way now. If you wish, you may stay and continue exploring the garden,” he said.

“I am most grateful.”

“May Hemera’s blessing be with you.”

Hemera, the goddess of the day, was a fitting farewell for a parting in the middle of the afternoon. Mail bowed in response to the emperor’s words.

“May the goddess’s protection be with you as well, Your Majesty.”

By the time she straightened her posture again, the emperor was already far off in the distance. Mail silently watched his figure grow smaller and smaller until he disappeared completely, then let out a long breath. Whew!

“My heart nearly exploded.”

Mail was still in a daze. She had just met the emperor—an audience no less! And it had only been a day since her arrival in the Empire. How had she ended up having a private conversation with the emperor after simply stumbling upon him in the garden?

It was a story so unbelievable that not even a gossipmonger would believe it. In fact, Mail herself could hardly process the reality of it.

“This isn’t a dream, is it? Hmm, I can smell the scent of the velvet tree, so it’s real.”

She sniffed the air and reassured herself. After all, smells didn’t exist in dreams. In the past, she had sometimes dreamt of gardens, and their lack of scent had been disappointing. These days, though, she was relieved and grateful for that. If the bloody nightmares that plagued her had smelled real too, she might have ended up with a mental illness.

“Well, in any case, it looks like I’ll be continuing this warrior life for a while longer…”

The dream of a swift return home was sadly crushed. Mail massaged her temples, trying to soothe her headache as she left the garden. She considered staying longer to admire the scenery, but her mind was too tangled for her plant friends’ beauty to bring her any joy. Besides, she needed to eat lunch.

‘And to think he wasn’t a liar after all?’

As she walked down the corridor, she thought about the man in the mask. It annoyed her that he had teased her about the marigold, but in the end, he had kept his word and made her meet the emperor. She wasn’t sure how he had done it, but he had fulfilled his promise. Now it was her turn to retract her judgment and apologize for calling him a fraud.

‘And it seems the story about the emperor frequenting the garden is true, too.’

She hadn’t had the chance to verify that directly, but she remembered the first words the emperor had said to her.

‘It took a lot of effort to raise this.’

He had said it while she was still lost in admiration of the velvet tree. Though his sentence lacked a subject and object, it wasn’t hard to fill in the blanks based on the situation.

Most likely, the subject was “I,” and the object was “the velvet tree you’re looking at,” followed by the predicate “it took a lot of effort to raise.”

Mail thought to herself again: what an extraordinary ruler!

‘There really are leaders like him in this world.’

She had already forgotten how she had been teased. Mail now found herself wondering if the Empire’s prosperity was due to the emperor’s sacred love for his garden. With this wild thought in her mind, she opened the door to her quarters, only to be greeted by the sight of Riela lying on the bed.

Riela wasn’t just lying down, though—her tiny face was covered with something. Wait… were those cucumber slices?

“…Princess? What is that on your face?”

“Cucumbers.”

TL NOTE: More advanced chapter of this story is already up to the site. Visit dusk blossoms for more advanced chapters and stories