Chapter 4
Knock, knock.
The door opened, and Cedric entered.
“Your Highness. An unidentified person has entered the—”
He stopped when he saw the unfamiliar woman standing face-to-face with Carion.
His eyes instinctively turned toward Orbin.
Orbin was desperately gesturing for him to shut up and come over.
Cedric quietly walked over and stood beside Orbin.
Carion thought the woman staring directly into his eyes had an intense presence.
There was no fear in her green eyes.
It did not feel like she was merely putting on a brave front. It seemed to be an innate part of her character.
It was interesting, yet irritating.
Whether she was truly a princess or not, how had she managed to get all the way into the residence at the center of a heavily guarded military camp?
“Discipline has grown lax. I need to overhaul the security system and conduct a full inspection.”
Carion tilted his head slightly and spoke.
“I thought this was our first meeting.”
“If you’re asking whether we’ve met before, then no.”
“Let us assume you are a princess. Zephyros is unquestionably an enemy of the Empire.”
The difference in scale was far too overwhelming to truly call them an “enemy,” but officially, that was what they were.
“Do you understand how much risk I would be taking if His Majesty were to learn of this meeting?”
“Yes.”
“And that I could arrest the princess here and have her escorted to the capital?”
“But you won’t.”
Leah replied with a faint smile.
Carion’s expression, however, remained unchanged.
“What makes you trust me?”
“I trust the proposal I have to make to His Highness the Prince. It will benefit you far more than capturing me and sending me to the Imperial capital.”
“Is that proposal marriage?”
Leah cleared her throat before answering.
“Ahem. I left out a more important preface.”
“Then let us hear this preface.”
When Leah glanced toward the others, Carion spoke.
“There is nothing you can say that they cannot hear.”
Orbin and Cedric stood rigidly, holding their breath.
Their desperate body language seemed to say, Please pretend we don’t exist.
The two of them tended to clash over everything because of their personalities, but right now, they were thinking exactly the same thing.
Since entering the service of Prince Carion, they had never experienced a moment as thrilling as this.
Leah took a deep breath before speaking.
“The Kingdom of Zephyros wishes to bow before the Empire’s glorious majesty and choose honorable submission. Your Highness, I ask that you present the flag of Zephyros to His Majesty the Emperor and claim the merit of bringing our kingdom under the Empire.”
A suffocating silence descended, so complete that not even a breath could be heard.
The southern desert kingdom of Zephyros.
To the Empire, the Kingdom of Zephyros had been like a thorn stuck in its fingertip.
For more than twenty years, the Emperor had waged wars of conquest and continued winning battle after battle. Yet when he attempted to invade Zephyros, he lost a vast number of troops.
The Emperor’s only painful failure was still a forbidden subject of discussion within the Empire.
And yet now, the Kingdom of Zephyros was voluntarily kneeling and offering to become a vassal state?
It was an event capable of shaking the Empire to its foundations, and there was no doubt that the standing of Fourth Prince Carion, who would be leading this endeavor, would change overnight.
Orbin and Cedric had unconsciously wiped the expressions from their faces and were now staring at their lord.
But even with such an enormous opportunity right before him, the dryness in Carion’s eyes remained unchanged.
Instead, he asked indifferently,
“There must be conditions.”
“Take me to the Imperial capital. As your future princess consort.”
Leah was inwardly perplexed as she looked at his cold, subdued gaze.
She couldn’t read him at all because he showed no reaction.
“The center of the world has already become the Empire. Zephyros has maintained an isolationist policy for a long time, and the kingdom has no foundation whatsoever within the Empire. I want to see and hear what is happening at the heart of the Empire. A princess who is merely a hostage of a vassal state cannot do that, but a prince’s consort can.”
“I refuse.”
“…What?”
Leah thought that answering someone with “What?” made her look stupid, but she had no choice but to ask again.
“If what the princess needs is the position of a prince’s consort, there are other princes besides me. I can gladly arrange a marriage for you.”
“I want to make a deal with Your Highness.”
“Make that deal with another prince. I have no intention of seeking achievements, and I have no intention of getting married. Cedric. Escort our guest.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Leah bit her lip as she watched him turn away without hesitation.
She had the feeling that she needed to retreat for now.
She obediently followed Cedric out.
Cedric escorted her to a guest room inside the residence.
In a tone as level and precise as his neat, strict appearance, he said,
“Please refrain from leaving the room until the princess’s identity has been verified. I will have attendants sent in shortly.”
“Understood. People from the kingdom will be visiting within a few days.”
“Yes. I will inform you as soon as we receive word.”
Once she entered the room, Leah collapsed onto the sofa.
It felt as though all the tension suddenly drained from her body.
She stared at the closed door.
There were undoubtedly soldiers standing guard outside.
She had been prepared for much harsher treatment, so she had no complaints.
Leah leaned back against the sofa and went over the conversation she’d had with him.
She had only ever heard about him through rumors.
The wandering commander.
The hound with its leash removed.
The lawless man of the northeast.
She didn’t know whether people still called him those things, but ten years from now, he had acquired quite a few unpleasant nicknames.
Because of that, the image of Prince Carion she had created in her mind before meeting him was of an eccentric, fierce, and much more emotional man.
Besides, he was only in his early twenties now. Wasn’t that the age when emotions tended to run wild?
Yet the man she had met in person barely gave off the rough aura of a soldier.
If anything, he seemed remarkably skilled at controlling his expressions for someone his age.
…He looks like her.
She had been startled the moment she first saw him.
If he hadn’t been wearing a hood, she probably would have stared at his face as if entranced.
I never realized Prince Carion was that handsome.
At times, his face seemed to overlap with that of his mother, Nella, the Queen of Nortia.
Who could possibly say he wasn’t her son?
He had inherited Nella’s cold yet captivating eyes and her sculpted nose almost perfectly.
Nella had a strong jawline for a woman, but on a man’s face, it suited him perfectly.
It was astonishing that a son could resemble his mother so much.
Good grief.
Leah covered her face with both hands.
The embarrassment of having her first marriage proposal across both her lives rejected outright finally came crashing down on her.
⌜It’s a deal where both sides have something to gain. He won’t refuse unless he’s an idiot.⌟
This marriage was a plan that Nella and Leah had devised together, and it was their best possible strategy.
What am I supposed to do, Your Majesty?
Your son was an idiot!
She had never considered the possibility that he might reject the marriage.
Does he not like me? …Of course, that could happen.
Leah cupped her flushed cheeks with her hands.
What had she been so confident about?
Why had she simply assumed that the other party would agree if she asked him to marry her?
At dawn, Carion, who had been tossing and turning in bed, suddenly sat upright.
His forehead was drenched in cold sweat.
Suppressing a groan, he grimaced and clutched at his chest.
It felt as though he had swallowed a ball of fire, and that ball of fire was rampaging freely through his body.
“Haa…”
His insides seemed to be burning away, and hot energy rose up through his throat, making it feel as though his throat would be scorched every time he breathed.
The pain was barely tolerable, yet at the same time, an urge to plunge himself into ice-cold water surged through him.
But he already knew.
Even if he submerged himself in icy water until his jaw trembled, no matter how much cold water he drank, it would do no good.
These intermittent, cursed attacks had no known cause and no known cure.
All he could do was grit his teeth, endure the pain, and wait for it to reach its peak.
If he relaxed his clenched jaw, he felt as though a scream would escape.
Once the moment when the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end passed, the pain slowly began to subside.
Sweat dripped down along his clenched jaw.
Soon, the bulging veins on his forehead gradually disappeared.
“Phew…”
He let out a long breath and collapsed back onto the bed.
Staring at the dark ceiling, he struggled to catch his breath.
At least he could take comfort in the fact that there were no aftereffects.
It was also fortunate that the attacks occurred mostly at night, meaning there was little chance of anyone witnessing them.
After lying there blankly for a long while, dawn eventually broke.
He slowly rose from the bed.
He wouldn’t be able to sleep anymore anyway, so he went out into the inner courtyard to breathe in the early morning air.
Wind?
Carion thought the breeze brushing against his face was surprisingly warm for this early in the morning.
With a strange sense of disappointment, he turned his head in the direction of the wind.
Then he stopped short when he saw Leah, who flinched in surprise.
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