Chapter 2

Two full years had passed since Owen left for the Academy. Kaya had now reached the age he was then.

The baby fat that had melted away over those two years left her jawline delicately defined, and her figure had grown into graceful, feminine curves.

Now every bit a young woman, Kaya took in the faces of her parents and servants who had come out to see her off, one by one.

She had convinced her father that three years was nothing, but her eyes stung despite herself, and she quietly dabbed at the corners of them.

Meanwhile, a subtle crack had formed in the otherwise neat row of attendants. The culprit was Ron, a newly hired gardener fresh to the grand ducal household. He stood in the middle of the orderly line, furiously rubbing his eyes over and over.

That, that’s Kaya Rikart, the ugliest woman in the Empire, like everyone says……?

He simply could not believe it. The ugliest woman. To his eyes, Kaya wrapped in the spring sunlight looked like a goddess in white robes made flesh.

Just then, someone beside him delivered a solid thwack to Ron’s back.

“Ah!”

The senior gardener standing next to him leaned in and whispered low in his ear.

“Believe it now? You foolish little pup.”

Having never seen Kaya’s face before, Ron had privately scoffed every time the other servants sang her praises. He couldn’t quite understand why they were so eager to heap compliments on their mistress behind her back, and had written them all off as shameless flatterers.

Not without reason, either. According to the rumors going around, Kaya Rikart was the most hideous creature alive, pockmarked and covered in scars.

He wasn’t blind, so he couldn’t fathom how a face like that could possibly be called beautiful……

Realizing far too late who the true fool was, Ron stood with his jaw hanging open, unable to tear his eyes from Kaya.

The fact that breaking Rule No. 1 meant immediate dismissal had long since vanished from his mind.

His senior gardener gave him a sharp pinch in the side on behalf of this dense junior. Ron turned his head in irritation, but quickly understood why and snapped his gaze to the ground.

The Grand Duke, who had been glaring daggers at Ron, let out a deep, involuntary sigh.

There were always those who couldn’t keep their eyes off Kaya no matter how strictly the rules were enforced, but knowing she was leaving the duchy somehow made his nerves even sharper than usual.

The Grand Duke clicked his tongue, unsettled despite himself.

She was a daughter he had raised with the utmost care, sheltered and precious, never once shown to the world. He had never had any intention of enrolling her in the Academy.

But then, no parent can truly win against their child.

When Kaya, who had never once defied him, left behind a single letter and ran away from home, his heart had dropped straight to the floor.

In the end, he had no choice but to give his permission.

“……Do you really have to go?”

“Why are you doing this again. My bags are all packed, should I try running away one more time?”

Kaya made a show of looking ready to bolt at any moment, her expression full of mischief.

But the Grand Duke seemed genuinely alarmed by his daughter’s pointed joke, and his face went rigid.

“You little……I was just saying. Of course you should go, you passed the entrance exam.”

The Grand Duke forced a smile.

“Kaya, what did I say was most important?”

“……Dedicating myself to my studies?”

“No. What matters is, first and foremost, second and foremost, being ordinary. Just stay safe and ordinary and come home like that……”

Kaya looked into her father’s worried eyes. She couldn’t quite grasp what it was he was actually afraid of.

When Owen snuck off to the Academy on his own, he was thrilled that the grand ducal household had produced a genius. Why is he only like this with me……

Of course, she didn’t fail to understand her father’s feelings entirely.

With an artifact, I’m basically living on borrowed time. Of course he’d worry about a daughter like that going out into the world.

From the time she was small, the Grand Duke had impressed upon Kaya again and again: removing the artifact would worsen the rare illness she carried, so she must never, ever take it off.

But even at the fully grown age of fifteen, she couldn’t keep rotting away in one place. Kaya was a child overflowing with curiosity about the world.

“The altros, a migratory bird that visits the south this time of year, leaves its parents and becomes independent within one week of being born. If the chick is sickly, it begins living on its own even earlier. I need to start preparing to stand on my own two feet.”

Her prepared little speech seemed to amuse the Grand Duke, and a faint smile crossed his face.

“Ahem, then let’s test you. If someone asks about the story of your grandmother founding the nation, what do you do?”

“I’ll look away and pretend not to know. I’m the youngest daughter of a baron’s family that distributes potions in the countryside, after all.”

The Grand Duke furrowed his brow.

Hmm, what did she get wrong.

“No, Kaya. The founding story is something every citizen of the Empire knows, so you need to answer at least a little to seem ordinary.”

“Ah right, I made a mistake. I can be properly ordinary now. Ask me again!”

Kaya smiled brightly and clapped her hands.

Any other time, the Grand Duke would have smiled at his daughter’s endearing behavior, but his expression hardened again. He was debating whether he should reverse this decision even now.

Noticing the change in his face, Kaya took both of his hands in hers.

“Dad! Don’t worry. I will absolutely never mention the unofficial stories, like Grandmother working as a mercenary or trying to run away after founding the nation.”

“……Right. Good.”

The attendants had finished loading Kaya’s luggage and were waiting for the farewell to end.

The Grand Duke cupped his daughter’s cheek with one hand.

The features of his daughter, who had grown up so fast, struck him fresh with wonder. A gracefully sculpted nose, large sapphire eyes framed by long lashes, skin as clear as glass, and lustrous pink hair.

She really is the spitting image of her mother in her youth……

Kaya seemed cast from the same mold as the first female emperor, the Grand Duke’s mother, who had been famous for her long string of romantic conquests.

“Dear, it’s about time Kaya got going.”

His wife beside him nudged him along.

“Mom, Dad, I’ll come back having learned a lot.”

“My darling, remember above all else not to take off your artifact while you’re at the Academy.”

“Of course. Mom, really, you’ve said it so many times.”

Kaya smiled broadly, slipped the artifact ring from her pocket onto her finger, then turned and walked toward the carriage.

The couple’s worried eyes followed their daughter’s retreating figure.

“Oh, right!”

Kaya spun back around and wrapped both arms around her parents.

“I’ll miss you both, so much. I’ll be perfectly ordinary! I’ll be back safe.”

Left behind, the couple stood rooted to the spot, as though the reality of their daughter’s departure hadn’t quite sunk in.

The Grand Duchess placed one hand over her chest, perhaps to soothe the ache there.

“Dear.”

“Yes, dear.”

“Was that face really the best option? It was……frightening……”

The Grand Duchess had apparently placed her hand over her chest to calm her pounding heart.

And she was not alone. Every single attendant who had seen Kaya’s changed face after putting on the artifact stood frozen stiff. It was a jarring appearance in an entirely different way from Kaya’s natural beauty.

“Ha ha……she could have warned us before running out like that.”

“I saw you flinch too, just now.”

“……I’ve seen it multiple times for the tests and I still can’t get used to it.”

The Grand Duke cleared his throat and smiled with a sheepish look.

“I actually feel guilty, if I’m honest. If she ever finds out the illness was a lie, I don’t know how she’ll react……”

The Grand Duchess leaned against her husband’s shoulder, her face creased with worry.

The Grand Duke declared with unwavering conviction, as though trying to convince himself.

“……This is all for our daughter’s sake.”

“She’ll be all right, won’t she? Our girl?”

“Of course. She’ll do just fine, ordinarily.”

The Grand Duke forced the corners of his mouth up to reassure his wife. Then he looked at the gate that had already closed and thought back to when Kaya had run away.

The duchy had never been so chaotic. Wherever Kaya’s footsteps fell, a commotion followed.

The people of the northern duchy were known to be quiet and undemonstrative.

“There are reports of an unidentified fairy passing through the Ritmil region!”

“Reports keep coming in about an artifact impersonating Her Majesty the Emperor!”

When he had gone out to the market square to assess the situation, an old woman was even muttering to herself.

“Old man, I think my time has come. My dying wish was to see His Majesty’s face one more time……he looked exactly as he did in his youth. That face that bewitched men and women alike……”

In the end, this unprecedented war could only end in Kaya’s victory.

The Grand Duke had put forward one condition, however, and Kaya accepted it without a word of protest. She would change her appearance to a fearsome face that seemed to combine the visages of every conqueror who had ever dominated the world.

Having worn a specially crafted artifact since childhood, Kaya thought of it as a trivial condition.

She had not predicted, then, what that face she had accepted without a second thought would make of her at the Academy. That she would become the mad dog who would take the Academy by storm.