PRKE 21

CHAPTER 21………………………………

The confidant lowered his gaze briefly, then shook his head.

“From the start, it’s hard to believe that a simple miscommunication occurred within House Lorenst. This confusion arose because the Lorenst daughter didn’t act according to plan—and if that’s the case…”

The confidant’s eyes sharpened.

“Either Hubert Lorenst failed to give proper notice, or the Lorenst daughter understood perfectly well and pretended not to.”

The king recalled Igraine’s meek face.

There was nothing particularly strange about her.

Calm, quiet, unassuming—in short, a woman who looked obedient.

That was the king’s impression of Igraine Lorenst.

She was somewhat pretty, but in a social circle full of beauties, she wasn’t outstanding.

“No matter how clever or loyal she may be, isn’t she still just a young woman who hasn’t even married yet? She may have used her head simply because she didn’t want her body sullied by a barbarian.”

“That’s possible.”

“Whatever her scheme, she did well enough. She managed to draw a reaction from that taciturn barbarian—this can be used.”

The king smiled in satisfaction.

“Send generous gifts to Igraine Lorenst—no, to my new daughter. Our blood may not be mingled, but as her father I should show sincerity.”

“I will see to it.”

“I’m granting her a title and personally looking after her—how could a mere girl not be moved?”

The king was relaxed. In his mind, he already saw Igraine moving exactly as he wished.

Knock, knock.

A servant waiting outside entered and bowed politely.

“The princess has arrived in response to your summons.”

At those words, the king’s face brightened.

“Let her in.”

The door soon opened, and a beautiful woman in an elegant dress walked inside.

With each light step she took, a lovable grace seemed to spill forth.

“I have come at your summons, Father.”

She was not some fake princess kept for convenience, but the true jewel of this royal family—Laratou Raxio Luyosana.

“Then I shall take my leave and return later.”

The confidant withdrew discreetly.

The princess sat in the seat he had vacated.

Her carefully styled long golden hair, sparkling blue eyes, and baby-soft cheeks were all exceedingly lovely.

She looked at Hermannon with eyes full of curiosity about why she had been called.

“I summoned you because it will be difficult to see you for a while starting tomorrow. There are things I must impress upon you.”

The king’s voice was unusually gentle and warm.

Though he was normally irritable, he was different with his daughter—whom he cherished above all else.

“Please instruct me.”

Princess Laratou replied in a voice as clear and melodious as rolling jade, lowering her gaze.

Though she had grown up as the king’s only child and was often described as somewhat headstrong, with age she had learned to behave with greater composure.

Still, the king looked displeased.

“Why are you speaking like that?”

“Hehe.”

A flippant laugh escaped at once.

“Oh!” Startled, Laratou covered her mouth with her palm. She looked at the king, then slowly lowered her hand, fidgeting.

The king clicked his tongue.

“You’ve been reading those vulgar novels again, haven’t you?”

“Oh, don’t say that. Don’t I look gentle and dignified? I thought you’d like it!”

The princess said cheerfully, already back to her usual way of speaking.

She was addicted to popular novels—especially passionate romances full of dramatic love.

“Didn’t I tell you not to read such trash? There are theological novels as well. You used to read them just fine.”

“Of course I’ve read all of Dupin’s books! I just had some spare time, so I read other things too.”

“Ahem.”

“…Still, I’ve cut back a bit lately.”

The princess slumped her shoulders. She looked just like a puppy with drooping ears.

Hermannon was about to click his tongue again, but instead the corners of his mouth twitched.

I did well, at least, in having a daughter.

He nearly smiled in satisfaction, but his face hardened.

The thought of a political marriage with the Empire came to mind.

Sending such a beloved, beautiful daughter to an imperial barbarian—what nonsense.

When he remembered that very barbarian from the Empire was currently staying in a corner of the royal palace, it felt as though a stone settled on his chest.

The king stiffened his expression and spoke sternly.

“You haven’t forgotten, have you? You are to stay in your room for the entire duration of the banquet. You are not to come down to the hall.”

The princess hesitated briefly, then replied somewhat dejectedly.

“Yes.”

“Just in case, refrain from going out as well. Make sure you do not leave your room.”

“But Father, is it really necessary to go that far—”

The king’s gaze turned fierce.

“Is. It. Necessary?”

Bang!

When the king slammed the table, the startled princess shrank her shoulders.

“Enough! How could you take your father’s words so lightly!”

“…….”

“I understand your frustration. I’ve told the maids to prepare plenty of diversions for you. You won’t be bored.”

“…….”

“The same applies even after the banquet. Avoid going out as much as possible, and in particular, do not go anywhere near the annex where the prince is staying.”

The princess’s pink lips jutted forward in a pout. It was an expression she had often made since childhood whenever something displeased her. The mature demeanor she had shown moments ago vanished completely.

“Princess, why aren’t you answering?”

She stared straight at the king and asked,

“Is that man really so cruel?”

“What?”

“Father, aren’t we judging him too much based on prejudice? Even in novels, people often suffer because they judge others by prejudice.”

By “novels,” she surely meant those popular romances.

The kind where a ragged beggar turns out to be a nobleman, falls in love with the heroine who treated him without prejudice—those sorts of foolish stories.

“And besides, one of my maids said he looked more refined than expected when she saw him from afar!”

The king’s face darkened further.

So focused on speaking that she failed to notice the warning signs, the princess let out a long sigh.

“I know. They say the desert barbarians chew poisonous scorpions raw and slit camels’ throats to drink their blood.”

She shuddered as if disgusted, then shook her head.

And then, with utmost seriousness, she continued,

“But still, he’s the emperor’s son. Just like me.”

She pointed at herself with her index finger, her chest jutting forward ever so slightly.

“Even if he’s from the Empire, wouldn’t he be different from ordinary barbarians?”

Seeing her innocently blinking eyes, a thick vein bulged on the king’s forehead.

Barely restraining his anger, the king asked quietly,

“What is it you’re trying to say?”

It was her last chance. But oblivious Laratou, absorbed in persuading her father, only brightened.

“Rather than refusing to meet him just because he’s a barbarian, I think I should at least see his face once and decide for myself—”

Crash!

“Kyaa!”

Startled by the loud noise, Princess Laratou shrank back.

The king sprang to his feet.

“I listen quietly, and you truly spare no words! So now you’re saying you want to get close to that man?!”

“F-Father…”

“Do you even understand who you’re taking an interest in? What—see his face? Hah! Are you trying to catch the prince’s eye? Do you want to leave your father’s side and live in the desert?”

“That’s not it!”

The princess shook her head frantically in horror. At her vehement denial, the king’s face softened slightly—only to harden again.

“Even if you dislike it, if the prince takes a liking to you, we cannot refuse. And even if we did, they are barbarians. Civilized conversation is impossible with them.”

“But even so, what could they possibly do?”

“That’s exactly what shows you know nothing.”

The king sighed in frustration.

“What if, in the dead of night, that barbarian abducts you and flees back to the Empire? Which knight of the kingdom could infiltrate the Empire and rescue you? Sir Reynold? Sir Hezard? Who, exactly?”

At the word abduct, the princess’s face went pale.

Pitying his innocent, naive daughter, the king softened his tone.

“Laratou, your father is deeply worried about you. You only need to listen to me. Your husband will be a promising young noble of the kingdom—kind and with a bright future. I promise you.”

At those words, Princess Laratou’s face darkened rapidly.

A promising young man with a good heart.
They sounded like nice words.

How boring!

Just as the princess had spoken only her own thoughts without checking her father’s expression, the king did the same.

Regardless of how she reacted, he was lost in his own thoughts, wearing a satisfied expression—

As though he liked the future he had just described.

At the same time, he did not hesitate to show his disgust toward the Empire.

“It’s unacceptable. Of all people, a barbarian.”

Barbarian!

He spat the word out.

No matter how far back one searched through their long history, the Empire and the Kingdom had never been on good terms.

Considering how much the Empire had tormented the Kingdom over the years, it was obvious.

“A shameless people.”

The king declared firmly.

“The blood of the Riorsa royal family must never mix with desert blood. That would be an unthinkable calamity.”

“…….”

“So never say such things again.”

“Y-yes……”

Princess Laratou replied softly, pouting when her father wasn’t looking.

“Tch.”

Thinking she must have understood by now after all that, the king missed it—

The curiosity glimmering in his daughter’s dainty eyes.

When you’re told not to do something, it only makes you want to do it more.

It might have been simple stubbornness. But the princess, raised like a hothouse flower under her father’s protection her entire life, was curious.

About the cruel, frightening prince said to come from the dry, scorching desert.

As if opposites attracted, it even felt like fate.

What kind of person is he?

The princess, who firmly believed that the romantic love she had read about in novels would one day come to her as well, felt a light flutter of excitement.

The carriage racing toward the royal palace was filled with an uncomfortable silence.

Rustle.

In the quiet, a page turned.

I was staring only at the densely printed text.

It really is a Dupin novel.

Dupin, both a theologian and a novelist, wrote in the erudite style favored by many nobles.

What truly made him famous, however, was the intriguing worldview revealed in his novels.

All of Dupin’s works shared a single cosmology, whose broad outline was as follows:

In the beginning, the world was one.

Water and fire lived together with humanity. A world that seemed destined for eternal peace was divided after fire killed water.

In the world split in two, war began as each side sought to seize what belonged to the other.

This book depicted people running themselves ragged in an attempt to set right that ruined world.

There were rumors that because of its subject matter, Dupin’s novel was modeled after the relationship between the Kingdom and the Empire.

If that were true, then the water god in the story was likely created with Marta in mind.

Just as I was about to turn the page eagerly—

“Is it interesting?”

When I lifted my head, Aris was looking at me.

Her crooked lips were full of dissatisfaction.