MFTR 100

Chapter 100

 My Princess, I’ll Make You Happier Every Day

Anette froze in place, her smile still fixed.

It hadn’t been long since she had been flustered after being caught by Zeon. What if the quick-witted Cardin had already sensed something? Anxiety prickled inside her.

When her troubled expression revealed her hesitation, Cardin took a step back.

“If the princess doesn’t want to say it, then you don’t have to.”

But the disappointment on his face was all too clear.

Seeing him force a smile with lips that trembled with hurt, Anette’s own lips moved before she could stop them.

“It’s not such a big story.”

Just a little. She would just say a very little.

She swallowed hard, then avoided Cardin’s gaze that quietly sought hers as if to listen with all his heart.

She didn’t know how he would take this story.

What if he thinks I’m irresponsible?

That thought scared her.

But the hesitation lasted only a moment.

She had already shown Cardin sides of herself she never wanted anyone to see.

And she wanted to keep showing him only her honest self.

Of course, he may not find this part of me lovable.

Raising her eyes again, Anette asked cautiously to confirm:

“Your Highness knows I stepped down from being a captain because I was injured during a subjugation, right?”

Cardin’s face stiffened slightly, then he nodded.

Clenching her hand lightly into a fist, Anette forced her lips apart.

“The truth is… I could have avoided that monster’s attack.”

“…What?”

“I didn’t dodge it on purpose. I mean… I was just so tired and fed up. I wanted to quit.”

“What do you mean…?”

She tried to sound casual and unbothered, but Cardin’s baffled reaction made her palms sweat and her heart pound.

A silence passed.

“So what you’re saying is…”

At last understanding all her words, Cardin ran a hand down his face.

Still wearing a bewildered look, he asked:

“You did it on purpose? Knowing you’d be hurt? Knowing that if you were injured, you’d be forced to leave the knights?”

His voice trembled, even though he tried to keep it calm.

With a bitter smile, Anette nodded. Then, in a deliberately bright tone, she said:

“Yes. So foolish, right? Sir Millard seemed to notice it. He scolded me—asked if I wanted to run away so badly that I’d harm my own body. Anyway, that’s all there is to it…”

“Is that really all?”

“…What?”

Cardin suddenly stepped forward.

His sharp intensity, unlike usual, made her unconsciously back away, but he caught her arm and pressed.

“What were you trying to run from? Were you… thinking of dying?”

“…!”

Anette’s pupils quaked violently, as if struck by an earthquake.

That alone was enough for Cardin to know the answer. His face hardened.

Anette bit her lip in dismay.

She had never imagined anyone could discover her true feelings.

Not even Zeon, who claimed to have watched her for ten years, had realized that she sometimes thought she wouldn’t mind dying.

She had let her guard down.

I shouldn’t have given it away…

No, she shouldn’t have brought it up at all.

I knew he was perceptive, but how…

When she looked at Cardin in despair, his face twisted in anguish, and his breathing came rough.

“Your Highness…”

“I’m sorry.”

“…What?”

Anette, about to excuse herself by saying it had only been a fleeting impulse, nothing she thought of now—suddenly froze when he apologized first.

She blinked in confusion, not understanding what he could possibly be sorry for.

Then, with reddened eyes, Cardin’s voice broke as if his throat was constricted.

“I’m sorry I didn’t realize how much you were suffering… that I was too late… that I left you so lonely, so alone… I’m so sorry.”

He had nearly lost her before even confessing his heart, before even letting his presence be known.

The very thought made his chest seize with cold terror, and his vision blur.

Every moment with her had always felt like a miracle, something to treasure. And now he realized how true that thought had been.

But he couldn’t feel grateful or moved—only despair.

He hated himself for missing her signals, for rejoicing at her injury instead of recognizing her desperate struggle.

Looking at Cardin’s grief-stricken face, Anette unconsciously asked:

“You’re not going to blame me?”

Cardin’s expression crumpled as if he couldn’t believe she would even say that.

“If anyone’s to blame, it’s me. I should have come sooner.”

“….”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know you were that exhausted. Truly, I’m sorry.”

But what fault did he have?

Seeing him apologize over and over, Anette’s eyes also grew hot.

How could she not be grateful for his presence in her life, even now?

She hurried to reassure him, so he would stop blaming himself.

“It wasn’t Your Highness’s fault. I was impulsive. I just wanted to rest… and I thought if I died, then the endless cycle of killing monsters, and the way people looked at me, it would all finally end…”

Cardin drew in a sharp breath. He could almost see the weariness and pain she had carried, and it crushed his heart.

As his face twisted again, Anette quickly added:

“But I don’t feel that way anymore. Even then, I think part of me wanted to live. That’s why it was only my wrist that got hurt.”

And when she lived alone in the detached palace afterward, her mind gradually cleared.

She was still tired, still unable to imagine a new future—but she never again felt that same urge.

Cardin finally spoke.

“Do you remember what I once said? That it hurt me to see you treat your body carelessly?”

He remembered how she used to injure herself without thought in the palace, and his face grew pained.

Back then, he had felt she wasn’t merely desensitized from danger—she truly lacked attachment to life.

“You really did seem like someone who didn’t value your own body. Like you had no attachment to living.”

“Ah…”

Perhaps she hadn’t realized it, but maybe it was true.

Nodding as if in agreement, Anette looked at Cardin with a strange gaze.

Was that why he had seen through her so quickly?

Her regret for speaking faded. She realized that with someone who watched her so closely, he would have figured it out eventually anyway.

Her heavy heart eased a little, and she breathed.

Then Cardin asked:

“Can I believe you now when you say you don’t feel that way anymore?”

Anette nodded at once.

Accepting the political marriage, leaving Heyworth, and coming to Alcan—her new life had begun.

The Empress Dowager who welcomed her as a daughter, the imperial family who poured affection on her, the retainers of the ducal house who cared for her—all of them had become precious.

And of course, Cardin, whom she had come to love, was beyond compare.

How could she think of death, when she so eagerly looked forward to marriage, to life as his wife, his family?

Her thoughts must have shown on her face, because Cardin let out a soft sigh and covered his eyes with his hand.

When he lowered it, his expression was still mixed, but calmer.

Forcing a faint smile, he said:

“Then that’s a relief. Because I want you… by my side for a very, very long time. I’ll make sure you never have those thoughts again… I’ll take care of you.”

But as he spoke, his emotions overwhelmed him.

With reddened eyes, Cardin promised:

“My princess, I’ll make you happier every single day.”

Though it had ended in failure, the fact that she had once resolved to die and even acted on it was a terrible shock to him.

Trying to act composed, he had said words as moving as a confession of love, but then, unable to contain the surge of emotion, he buried his face against Anette’s shoulder.

As if terrified she might vanish from his arms.

Feeling sorry for him, Anette gently patted his back.

Then, before she knew it…

She realized she was sitting in the single armchair by the window—on Cardin’s lap.

With his arms tightly wrapped around her waist and his chin resting on her shoulder, he said nothing. But she could feel he had calmed down somewhat.

His heartbeat against her back was still fast—faster than normal—but slower than before.

Still quicker than average, though…

“Can you show me that?”

A low voice murmured close to her ear, making her shiver.

Realizing he meant the necklace she had been absentmindedly fiddling with, Anette nodded.

It was an unexpected gift from Zeon before he left—she had thought he only brought a sword, but no.

Inside a small, neatly wrapped box had been a necklace.

‘This is a present from Prince Franz to Princess Anette.’

She had recognized it at once.

How could she not? It was the last remaining portrait of the late queen in Heyworth.

Carefully, as if afraid to break it, Anette opened the locket with delicate precision.

With a soft click, the tiny portrait inside was revealed.

A beautiful woman’s face appeared.

Anette couldn’t take her eyes off it.

Her mother’s face—known only through a portrait.

Even that had barely survived, since the Heyworth king had ordered all of the late queen’s portraits burned. Only this tiny locket remained.

The late queen had brown hair, pale skin, and green eyes like a summer forest. She was stunningly beautiful.

When she gave birth to Anette, she had been only twenty-six. The portrait had been painted a few years before, so she looked even younger.

Even through the painting, her freshness shone. And Anette felt guilty that her mother had been taken from the world so soon.

She stared for a long time at the tiny portrait, silently.

Then Cardin said quietly:

“Princess, you look like your mother.”