Chapter 34 · At the Betrothal Ceremony (4)

The chaotic banquet hall fell silent the moment I cursed in my ringing voice. I was gasping for breath as if I had run hundreds of laps around the training grounds. The words I had heard earlier were still buzzing in my head, refusing to fade.

‘I’m crazy, I’m crazy.’

As I calmed down a little, I felt dizzy at what I had done. I had never exploded like this no matter what insults were thrown at me before—so why now? Even Paeon was staring at me blankly, red droplets dripping from his face.

“Where did a child learn such vulgar words…!”

The frozen Marchioness Alter came to her senses and pointed at me, veins bulging in her neck.

“You used vulgaw wowds fiwst! Who awe you cawwing a swave ow a wom!”

I shouted back without backing down. Things had come to this, so it was all or nothing.

“Edwin, I would like you to reconsider. I absolutely will not let you take in a bastard like that—”

“Anastasia! What is the meaning of this!”

Just as the king appeared in a fluster, the marchioness couldn’t finish her sentence. People parted like the Red Sea to make way for the king.

“Are you hurt somewhere? Are you all right?”

“Your Majesty the King.”

As the king approached to examine me, Marquis Hildebert Alter, who had followed behind him, spat out coldly.

“Even a recipient of the Medal of Military Merit has no right to use violence against my son. I must hear an explanation for this.”

“Exactly.”

“He must have lost his mind… I’ve never seen such rudeness in all my life.”

The nobles murmured in agreement with him.

“Father, this man was simply overly agitated. He cherishes the princess deeply, and she suddenly vomited blood.”

Alter abruptly defended Paeon with a regretful expression. You vile, shameless bastard! I ended up like this because of you!

“Sir Parsiel, what exactly is the princess’s illness?! I have never seen anyone vomit blood from a panic attack!”

“If you have been concealing the princess’s illness, you are unfit to serve as her escort! You must take responsibility.”

As the marquis pressed him, Alter merely watched with amused eyes.

“…”

Paeon gritted his teeth, pale as death, and could not answer. His swirling inner turmoil reached even me.

“Everyone, please calm down. Sir Parsiel must have his reasons. For now, how about we send the princess to her room so she can stabilize?”

When Alter gently soothed them, the king and the marquis hesitated with displeased expressions. But since Paeon had his mouth firmly shut, they seemed to think pressing further would be useless and nodded with stiff faces.

Carried in the arms of Paeon, whose face was terribly contorted, I hurriedly left the hall, and far off I saw Marquis Laselles looking at me with a worried face, his lips moving.

I drew a small letter shape in the air with my hand, and he nodded as if he understood. Sigh, at least I needed to clear up the misunderstanding about an incurable disease with Marquis Laselles first.

◇ ◆ ◇

“Sir Parsiel? Why are you back so early? Kyaa! Why do both of you look like that?!”

Sierra screamed the moment she saw us. We both truly looked a sight.

“Papa needs to wash fiwst. Papa’s haiw is sticky.”

I felt sorry for Paeon, who was out of his mind, but I pushed him into the bathroom. Only then did he blankly remove his ceremonial clothes, covered in blood and wine.

‘I need to pull myself together too.’

I let myself be led by Sierra to the next room, where I washed my whole body and changed clothes. When Sierra heard the rough summary of what had happened, she was furiously indignant.

“To insult Sir Parsiel like that! We must inform the temple and make a formal protest. No matter how great a noble she is, she cannot say such things to a first-class priest!”

“…Sierra, was Papa weally a swave?”

When I asked with a gloomy face, Sierra’s hands, which had been drying my hair, paused, and she looked flustered.

“Princess, that is…”

So it was true. To think Paeon was of slave origin—honestly, I was shocked. I had thought he was a commoner… Now I understood why so many nobles held him in contempt. A former slave rising to commander of the knight order! For them, that must have been unbearable.

“As long as he belongs to the Great Temple, his former status doesn’t matter at all. The people who ignore him for that reason are the vulgar ones! No matter what anyone says, the one most beloved by Lord Lux on this continent is Sir Parsiel.”

The nobles wouldn’t care about that. They believed they themselves were the ones most beloved by God.

“Will Papa be punished? Because of Asha…”

“…”

This time Sierra couldn’t answer easily and hesitated.

“Um… What you did to Count Alter was a bit rash. Sir Parsiel is not the kind of person to do such a thing carelessly… Even during the war, no matter how suddenly something big happened, he was always rational.”

Haa… That’s what I’m saying. I couldn’t understand at all why he had gone that far. But I too had exploded because of that marchioness insulting him and throwing wine. Did Paeon feel the same thing I did?

‘…There’s no way that cold-blooded man cherishes me.’

Somehow my heart felt uneasy. My chest ached too.

‘It must be a side effect of what happened earlier.’

I supposed I should ask Paeon to take another look at me. What on earth had this damned lunatic done to my heart?

But when I went to his room, he still hadn’t come out—perhaps he had fainted in the bathroom. There was no sound of water either… As I hesitated outside the door, wondering whether to call him, a white envelope caught my eye among the ceremonial clothes he had taken off.

‘Come to think of it, what was that, that he was so desperate to hide?’

I crept over, picked up the envelope, and quietly opened it. I had been very curious, since he didn’t seem like someone who would have anyone to write a letter to.

‘…A resignation letter?’

It was a letter of resignation from the position of commander. I was so startled that I read it with trembling eyes. In it… was written, in neat handwriting, that he wished to leave the capital and spend his time dealing with the monsters and bandit groups that harmed Santra, protecting God’s mission.

Just then, he came out of the bathroom.

“…Princess?”

He flinched when he saw me sitting there blankly, holding the resignation letter.

“Papa… awe you going to weave?”

My heart clenched with a pain incomparable to before.

‘Of course.’

In my past lives too, he had always left the capital around the time I turned eight. When I heard he would be stationed near the Dark Forest to subdue monsters, I had thought, what a noble person he was. Noble, my foot. He must have simply fled far, far away because he couldn’t bear even the sight of my face.

This man was ultimately planning to abandon me again. What? He lost his reason because of me?

‘That’s what people who truly cherish their own children do.’

Tears burst out before I knew it.

There was no way this man would do that. It must have just been a sudden fit of rage or something. This heartless, irresponsible man with not even a speck of paternal love could never cherish me.

“Princess, that is…”

When he tried to approach, I threw the resignation letter at him and backed away.

“Awe you going to abandon Asha… again!”

“Princess!”

“Don’t come cwosew!”

He stopped with a pained face. I’m the one suffering, so why is he making that expression? It was loathsome. I turned my back on him and ran to the next room. I didn’t want to see his face for even one more second.

“Princess, what’s wrong?”

Sierra asked, flustered, but I slammed the door without answering and threw myself onto the bed. And burying my face in the pillow, I cried and cried. Tears came until it was hard to breathe.

“Princess.”

Hearing his voice beyond the door, I shouted at Sierra.

“I don’t want to see him! Don’t wet him in! Nevew!”

Sierra, at a loss, poked her head outside and exchanged a few words with him quietly. I heard his slow, heavy footsteps receding.

“P-Princess. You have to receive training from Sir Parsiel. If you miss even a day, you’ll be in pain again…”

“Hngh… I don’t need it. If you wet him in, I’ll hate you too, Siewwa!”

She withdrew, deflated. I soaked the pillow endlessly with tears, resenting him and resenting him again. It was so painful that I even thought it would be better if my body hurt instead.

◇ ◆ ◇

Lake Rubor, located in the northwest of Santra.

Below the snow-capped mountains, a lake of melted glacier spread out beautifully, but because it bordered the ‘Dark Forest,’ where all manner of monsters appeared, it was a land owned by no one. In that lonely land, uninvited people had gathered, breaking the silence.

Bang! Boom!

They drove pipes deep into the lake and repeatedly set off explosions using mana. Massive columns of water shot up ceaselessly.

“I still think His Excellency the Marquis’s decision was too hasty.”

Baron Victor plopped down beside Marquis Laselles and grumbled.

“We need to dig down another 2,500 cubits! Using an enormous amount of mana on something that isn’t even certain!”

“It’s worth trying. In our current situation, there isn’t much else we can do.”

“Even so, trusting the words of a five-year-old child and coming all the way here to do this—if word gets out, the whole continent will laugh at us!”

“That’s why we moved in secret. And does that child look like an ordinary child to you?”

“She might just be a child who talks a bit like an adult.”

“Talks a bit like an adult? Ha! Do you think just any precocious child could boldly strike a deal with an adult like me?”

“Ah yes, your love for your future granddaughter-in-law is already so touching. But perhaps Your Excellency has lost your reason because you hate the Alter family so much. Please listen to the sincere advice of a loyal vassal. And…”

Baron Victor hesitated, then spoke.

“Perhaps that cute little child is possessed by a demon.”

“Whether she’s possessed by a demon or an angel has descended, we need only secure our own gain.”

The marquis glared with blazing eyes at the family mages at work. Seeing his determination, the baron sighed and stopped nitpicking.

After a long while, as the sun hung low in the sky, a man came running toward them.

“Your Excellency! It’s been mined. A mineral that looks similar to what you described.”

What the man held out was a brilliant, vividly colored crimson crystal. Marquis Laselles hurriedly took out the mana measuring tool he had brought in his bag with excited hands.

“Test it at once!”

Everyone watched with bated breath, eyes full of anticipation.

“I-it works! The mana absorption enhancement effect is one-tenth… no, more than two-tenths!”

When the man shouted in an overwhelmed voice, a great cheer erupted. The marquis too sprang to his feet and burst into loud laughter.

“It worked! It worked! What did I tell you, Baron Victor!”

“Good heavens… How could such a thing…”

The baron murmured, staring blankly at the shining magic stone.

“Send letters to the Demare, Cameron, and Fidelia families at once. And request the convocation of an emergency state council from the royal family!”

Marquis Laselles declared sternly.

“From this moment on, we stand on Princess Anastasia’s side.”