Chapter 15

Of course, Tarkan was not a leisurely person.

He certainly did not have the hobby of admiring sleeping people.

He had come to Aristine's room with a clear purpose.

"Wouldn't it be better to know some background information before the envoy meets the king?"

"Oh my, how kind of you. You came all the way here to tell me that? You must have been quite impressed by the abilities I showed you yesterday, right?"

"…I think I came to the wrong place. I'll be going now."

Seeing Tarkan about to get up, Aristine narrowed her eyes.

"To think you'd leave so easily. Your purpose was just an excuse, and you were here to look at me sleeping like an angel…"

Tarkan drank his tea in large gulps at the sound of her muttering.

His stomach felt as hot as if he had drunk cold water.

Aristine smiled and got out of bed, standing in front of Tarkan.

"Which one is it? Were you impressed by my abilities, or by my angelic sleep…?"

"I was impressed by your abilities."

Tarkan said it as if he were chewing on the words.

Aristine's eyes drooped slightly.

"Of course, that's only natural. I think I'm pretty amazing too."

Her face, devoid of any playfulness, was filled with sincerity.

Tarkan had never seen a woman like this, or rather, a person like this.

Swallowing a sigh, he nodded.

"Let's get out of this damn bedroom where an angel sleeps. We need to eat too."

Aristine's eyes sparkled at his words.

She was looking forward to it, as the dinner last night had been delicious.

It was the most genuine emotion she had shown since waking up.

Tarkan, who had been looking at her sparkling, star-filled purple eyes, turned his head.

'Strange woman.'

It was hard to believe that this was the same person who had made other royals squirm in front of the king.

Somehow, he felt she would show the same side at the envoy's welcome party tonight.

'…Why would I think that?'

Tarkan was a bit surprised by his own thoughts.

He whispered to himself,

'I just had that thought, that's all.'

It's not expectation. It can't be expectation.

"Let's go to the audience at the exact time. Don't go early."

As they moved to the dining room, Aristine chattered away.

"Yeah, that's a good idea. If we go early, we'll just run into trouble."

"Sure, but there's another reason too."

When Tarkan looked at Aristine, she smiled.

"We agreed to work well together, right? As partners."

Her sparkling purple eyes gleamed mischievously.

"I'll tell you the details over dinner. Oh, and there's something I want you to prepare before that…"

Chapter 6. Shy Pervert

"What is it, Lady Rosaline?"

"Now you're clinging to the princess…"

"You're the one who bullied her the most, so it's funny to see you act like this."

The maids pouted as they watched Rosaline help Aristine get dressed.

Seeing her wag her tail like the princess's dog made them seethe with anger.

Though this anger stemmed from a sense of crisis, they refused to acknowledge it.

They approached Aristine with a composed expression.

"Princess, isn't this a bit much?"

Though they spoke boldly, Aristine showed no reaction.

The maids let out a sigh of exasperation at her indifference.

Rosaline stepped forward.

"How dare you speak such nonsense to Her Highness the Princess!"

"What are you doing, Lady Rosaline?!"

"As maids, you can't even help Her Highness prepare for her audience with the king, yet you have the nerve to argue!"

Rosaline glared at the maids, her emerald eyes flashing.

The other maids flinched at her intensity.

Rosaline, who had been the most aggressive in bullying Aristine, was also the most assertive among the maids.

However, there was one who was not intimidated.

"It's funny to hear you say that, Lady Rosaline."

"Lady Brodie!"

Brodie found it more ridiculous that Rosaline, who had bowed and barked to that trashy princess, was afraid of her.

Especially since she had even suffered burns on her face because of that princess!

Though she was receiving treatment, the healing process was slow because she couldn't show the wound to priests or mages.

Every time she looked in the mirror, she gritted her teeth at the grotesque blisters.

Though the burns were her own fault for trying to pour hot water on Aristine's face, that fact had long been erased from her mind.

"You seem to misunderstand. We're not arguing with the princess, but offering advice, which is also part of our duty as maids, isn't it?"

Brodie said this and roughly turned Aristine's shoulder.

"You are representing the Great Silvanus Empire and going to meet the king of Ailugo. Yet you're wearing Ailugo's clothes."

Indeed, Aristine was wearing a dress in the Ailugo style.

Since they hadn't brought proper clothes from the empire, she had no choice but to wear the ones provided by Ailugo.

"You should wear Silvanus clothes if you're representing Silvanus!"

At Brodie's gesture, the other maids brought Aristine's clothes.

They were travel-worn, faded, and crumpled from being worn for a month.

"Here, this is the dress the Emperor himself gifted to the princess to celebrate her marriage. As his subject and daughter, you should wear this!"

Aristine showed no reaction to this.

She just looked at Rosaline with a calm, water-like gaze.

Rosaline flinched under that gaze.

This can't go on.

Crack!

A sharp tearing sound echoed in the room.

Brodie blinked, disbelieving.

Her left cheek felt hot and burning.

She raised her trembling hand to touch her cheek.

'Y-You… You just slapped me…?'

She couldn't believe it.

"To offer such dirty clothes to Her Highness is a grave insult! You should reflect on your actions!"

"Ha! I was wondering how far you'd go. Are you crazy? What makes you think you're so great? Most of the reason these clothes are dirty is because of you!"

Brodie, seething with anger, jabbed at Rosaline and shouted.

'Fistfight.'

Aristine watched the maids, feeling like she was watching a fight from the other side of the river.

Through this incident, the maids' arrows would likely be directed at each other rather than at Aristine.

'This will reduce the hassle a bit.'

Aristine checked the time and got up from her seat.

* * *

"Isn't it the first princess, not the second, who came?"

They say she came in a bizarre and deranged state…

The queen's eyebrows twitched at the nobles' chatter.

The story of Aristine arriving at Tarkan's palace in a dirty state had spread like wildfire yesterday.

In contrast, the incident with Nefter and the tea was surprisingly quiet.

This was because it was beneficial to Tarkan.

Most nobles supported Hamir, but a significant number remained neutral as long as the king's will was clear.

Tarkan's bloodline's flaw was somewhat offset by his engagement to Aristine.

No matter how much Silvanus was an enemy, the Silvanus royal family was the oldest ruling house on the continent.

A bloodline so rare that it was said to have gold instead of red blood.

The queen's eyes twitched.

'To give that wretch a Silvanus princess…!'

Though she was furious at the king's decision, she couldn't show it.

After all, this was a marriage that brought an end to the war.

Opposing it would mean she wanted her son to be king and didn't care about the country's peace.

In any case, it was not good for favorable words about Aristine or Tarkan to spread in this situation.

Jenikarina, Phaelamien, Marten, and Stalina, who had received the queen's instructions, kept silent about yesterday's incident.

'However, it won't help to increase the bias that the princess is a madwoman in this situation.'

Jenikarina had said that the princess was inferior to herself and not worth worrying about, but it bothered her.

If the princess had political skills, this bias could actually work in her favor and help her.

Just as the queen was about to speak to correct the atmosphere,

"Queen."

Nefter's call made her turn with a smile.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"It seems there are not enough seats."

"Excuse me?"

The queen looked around with a puzzled expression.

All the royal family and nobles were seated according to their protocol.

But there were no empty seats.

It was before the audience time, so Aristine and Tarkan had not arrived yet.

There were people who should come, but no empty seats. The meaning was clear.

The queen's face darkened.

"The head of the palace must have made a mistake. I will immediately…"

"How could the queen not check this?"

Of course not.

She had definitely checked.

In fact, she had ordered the removal of Aristine and Tarkan's seats.

But she put on a solemn face without batting an eye.

"…It is my fault, Your Majesty. I was so excited about the end of the war and the end of the long-standing hostility between the two countries that I failed to check."

The queen prolonged her words to buy time.

She couldn't let this effort go to waste.

'Just a little more.'

Sure enough, the servant's voice rang out.

"His Highness Tarkan and Her Highness Princess Aristine of the Great Silvanus Empire have arrived with the envoy!"

At this, the royal family and nobles prepared to mock them grandly.

Today, Tarkan would be thoroughly humiliated because of his new bride.

Soon, the door opened.

And Aristine, holding Tarkan's hand, appeared.

* * *

No one in the audience chamber dared to speak.

Their eyes widened in shock.

The more they had imagined, the more unrealistically they looked at Aristine's movements.

Aristine, with her long silver hair flowing like fallen willow petals and dressed in a red silk gown, stood out vividly as if she existed alone in this world.

"I greet the king of Ailugo."

Her clear and melodious voice echoed in the hall.

People snapped out of their trance as if from a spell.

Though no one made a sound, their thoughts were noisy and chaotic.

The king's voice cut through the chaotic silence.

"You have come a long way, Princess. Ailugo welcomes you."

"I thank Ailugo for its hospitality."

Her diction, pronunciation, and gaze and expression were perfect, neither lacking nor excessive.

For a princess who had been criticized for her long confinement, she was surprisingly composed.

'She must have practiced her greetings dozens of times to avoid looking ridiculous in Ailugo.'

'The people around her must have made her practice the first audience continuously.'

The royal family, who had only seen her in a ragged state, tried to accept this.

Though it didn't make sense that she had come to the palace in a beggar's state, they didn't think deeply about it. They had to be right.

"I heard it was a long journey. Was it difficult? I was worried because you used the old carriage road instead of the portal."

The queen spoke to Aristine in a seemingly affectionate tone.

But her words were filled with mockery.

A portal between the two hostile countries was supposed to be reopened after 270 years for this marriage.

But the Silvanus side had refused it.

The queen's intention in bringing up the portal and carriage road was clear.

She knew the emperor had deliberately made her suffer.

Even as a princess, you are a wretch who couldn't even use the portal.

'That's probably what she means.'

Aristine's lips curved into a gentle smile toward the queen.

"This journey was to stop the flow of blood from the war. How could it be difficult?"

Are you going to argue about our engagement when the country's peace is at stake?

The meaning of Aristine's words was clear.

The royal family and nobles, who had thought of her as a half-mad madwoman, could not hide their shock.

They had expected her to be a fool who couldn't understand the queen's hidden meaning and would babble like an idiot.

Or if she did understand, they expected her to lose her temper and fail to respond wisely.

'What is this? It's different from the rumors!'

'Yesterday, she definitely came in a deranged state…'

'Wasn't she said to have been confined and not properly educated?'

Tarkan looked at the stunned faces with a slightly amused expression.

Indeed, his partner was no ordinary person.

Before the people could recover from their shock, Aristine spoke again.

"As you said, the portal is convenient. But I thought it was valuable to see Silvanus and Ailugo with my own eyes, even if my body suffered a bit."

Her calm voice carried a strong resonance.

"The lives of the people in both countries have been devastated by the war. It pained my heart, not my body."

As a leader who governs and leads people, there could be no better answer than this.

The queen's lips twitched.

'It's not that, the emperor blocked it!'

She wanted to shout but couldn't.

Stalina, who would have said something stupid in the past, was being cautious because of yesterday's incident.

"Hmm, the Emperor of Silvanus has a good child. There was a deep meaning behind not using the portal."

The king of Ailugo smiled contentedly and pounded his armrest heartily.

The queen closed her eyes tightly at this praise, which was almost a declaration.

Forget about my husband, I'll just focus on making money.