Episode 31
Llewellyn puffed out his chest proudly.
“Of course! Our House Asta is a family of knights, by knights, for knights!”
“Ooh, Young Master Llewellyn, you’re so reliable. I’ll follow you anywhere.”
“Sir Ricardo!”
“What? Her Highness looked interested. Ethan, let’s switch sides together.”
“You should be loyal to His Majesty—”
“My master isn’t His Majesty, it’s Her Highness. You too, Ethan.”
“W-well, that’s…”
Ethan had just recently been knighted.
It was Artius’s order.
Originally, she was only meant to be Ricardo’s temporary watchdog, but for some reason, Artius had completely given Ethan to Elonia as her knight.
‘Maybe he felt guilty about taking away all my knights before?’
Elonia pondered. It was true that Artius had steadily eliminated knights from the Imperial Princess’s Palace since Elonia was a baby.
While Elonia was lost in thought, Ricardo and Llewellyn continued to relentlessly tease Ethan, causing her blood pressure to rise.
Seeing that Ethan was about to have a stroke from the stress, Elonia intervened.
“Stop it, you guys. You’re making Ethan uncomfortable.”
“Your Highness…!”
While Ethan was flattered by the idea of joining House Asta, she knew it was impossible.
Oblivious to Elonia’s true feelings, Ethan was touched by her concern.
Just then, a teacup shattered with a loud clink.
Turning her head towards the source of the sound, Elonia saw Sarah standing there, looking flustered.
Sarah rushed over to Elonia and clung to her arm.
“Y-Your Highness…! You can’t leave me behind!”
‘This is insane.’
Elonia thought, exasperated. “Do these people really think it’s that easy to switch families when I’m the Imperial Princess?”
Stuck between the Asta brothers urging her to join their family, Ricardo constantly inquiring about the benefits of House Asta, and Sarah clinging to her and begging her not to leave, Elonia glanced at Ethan.
“The annual salary is this much, single dorm rooms, five meals a day, five-day workweek with three shifts, and you can take a vacation whenever you need.”
Ethan, seemingly swayed by the benefits of House Asta that Llewellyn was listing, gradually turned her body towards him.
She must have been particularly drawn to the vacation part.
Artius really needed to treat his people better.
‘This is complete chaos…’
Just when Elonia was about to resign herself to the situation, a knock on the door signaled the arrival of her savior.
“Your Highness, it’s Aaron.”
Overwhelmed with gratitude for the miraculous timing, Elonia jumped up from the sofa.
Without waiting for someone to open the door, she flung it open herself and rushed out.
“Greetings, Your Highness. I’ve come to escort you a little early… Oh, Your Highness?”
“Let’s go.”
Aaron was taken aback by the chaotic scene that greeted him as he entered the room, but Elonia was already dragging him away, clinging to his sleeve.
‘Goodness, this is too much.’
Elonia thought, feeling overwhelmed.
You guys stay here.
Elonia’s going to eat.
* * *
Dinner with Artius was always a suffocatingly silent affair.
Today was no different.
Inside the grand dining hall, only the clattering of cutlery could be heard. There was no amicable conversation.
Even when Artius hesitantly attempted to strike up a conversation—
“…Elonia. Are you enjoying your meal?”
“Yes.”
—Elonia would shut it down with a single word.
Each time, Artius would visibly deflate.
He looked like a pathetic, rained-on puppy, but Elonia felt no sympathy. She wasn’t going to act like a sweet and forgiving daughter just because he had changed.
She wasn’t ready to forgive him for everything he had done.
‘Well, it doesn’t matter. That’s not what’s important today.’
The most important thing today was something else entirely.
It was killing Dolce.
“I’m done. Please excuse me.”
Elonia meticulously chewed and swallowed the last piece of meat, finished her juice, and hopped down from her high chair.
Artius watched her leave the dining hall without a backward glance, his gaze empty.
Once the door closed, he put down his fork and lowered his head.
Silence descended upon the dining hall once more.
Aaron cautiously approached Artius and spoke, his words laced with a hint of reproach.
“Perhaps it would have been better if you hadn’t acted that way from the beginning, Your Majesty.”
“…I know.”
“Then why did you act that way, knowing full well?”
“…I must have been out of my mind.”
“Divine Aaron Archer, I am deeply moved that His Majesty seems to have come to his senses.”
If this was the tyrannical Artius from before, he would have reprimanded Aaron on the spot.
However, Aaron’s words were undeniable truths, so Artius could only sigh and rub his face in frustration.
‘Is it too late now?’
After Elonia had abruptly left the table, she had requested to dine with him.
It was the first time she had ever asked anything of him.
Whether it was a good sign or a bad sign, Elonia had been the one to approach him first.
He felt ashamed of himself for only now trying to act like a father.
However, just because he was too ashamed to even look at her didn’t mean he could ignore his daughter’s attempt to reconcile.
Honestly, every time he saw her face, guilt washed over him, making him question if he deserved to be in her presence.
‘…I don’t know. I don’t know what she’s thinking.’
The truth was, he had never truly understood her.
But when he heard her call him an idiot for the first time, it struck a chord within him. He realized one thing for sure.
‘She must truly despise me to call me an idiot.’
It was the harshest insult a young child, who was just starting to speak her mind, could come up with.
Everything Artius held dear had left him.
That’s why he had kept his distance from Elonia.
He had truly been out of his mind.
But he had been content with that.
Even if it was with a frown, he had been grateful to be able to see her face.
‘No matter how much Elonia seems to have forgiven me now, it’s a fact that I hurt her.’
Therefore, no matter how she treated him, Artius had to accept it humbly and willingly.
Regardless of Philemon’s potential resentment or his failure to keep Chelon’s last will, Artius wanted to atone for his sins against his daughter.
Like father, like daughter, they said.
Just as Elonia didn’t know how to approach her father, Artius didn’t know how to approach his deeply wounded daughter.
“…Aaron. What do you think I should do now?”
“You won’t find the answer by asking me, Your Majesty. You are Her Highness’s father.”
Aaron’s firm reply resonated with Artius.
He knew it to be true.
With a bitter expression, Artius changed the subject.
“And what about Prince Dolce?”
“He’s on the verge of death. As per Your Highness’s orders, he’s alive, but he won’t last long.”
‘He can’t die yet.’
Artius recalled Elonia’s request to keep Dolce alive.
He couldn’t understand why she would want him alive.
Artius was a failure as a father in many ways.
Not only had he failed to earn his daughter’s trust, but he was also clueless about her thoughts.
‘Come to think of it, Elonia seemed strangely indifferent towards Dolce, considering what she went through.’
He worried that she might be too afraid to even mention Dolce’s name, terrified of him because of how harshly he had treated her in the past.
The thought made his heart sink.
“How has Elonia been doing at the Imperial Princess’s Palace?” Artius asked Aaron.
“She seems to be doing well, from what I could see while escorting her.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Her studies are on hold for now, and she seemed happy spending time with the Asta young masters. Sir Ricardo and Lady Ethan are very fond of her, as are the maids and the other knights at the Imperial Princess’s Palace.”
“…I see.”
Even if she didn’t trust him, Elonia seemed to trust the people at the Imperial Princess’s Palace and the Asta young masters.
If she seemed fine there, then she must be okay.
Despite that, he couldn’t shake off his worry.
Aaron, noticing his unease, added, “Instead of asking me, why don’t you go and see for yourself?”
“Wouldn’t she hate it if I set foot in the Imperial Princess’s Palace?”
“Knowing you, Your Majesty, you must have frequented the Imperial Princess’s Palace and made Her Highness’s life difficult.”
Artius fell silent, unable to refute Aaron’s pointed remark.
He had no excuse for his past actions.
“…Would she be alright with me visiting the Imperial Princess’s Palace?”
“Why don’t you ask Her Highness yourself?”
“…No, I’ll ask her later, myself.”
Artius rose from his seat.
He still had a mountain of work to do.
‘I can’t waste this opportunity she’s given me.’
He had four years’ worth of parental duties to fulfill.
* * *
“Sweet dreams, Your Highness.”
“You too, Sarah.”
As night fell, Sarah, as always, bid Elonia goodnight with a kiss and quietly left the room.
Once the footsteps of the maids patrolling outside faded away, Elonia softly called for Ricardo.
“Rica.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Ricardo appeared before Elonia immediately.
Elonia got out of bed, took her offered hand, and teleported straight to the entrance of the underground prison.
The guards stationed at the entrance didn’t react to their sudden appearance.
“I hypnotized them beforehand.”
“Good job.”
All her strict training had paid off. She was a quick learner.
Elonia patted Ricardo’s head with her small hand.
She chuckled softly, like a boy.
Elonia toddled down the dark and filthy corridor of the underground prison.
Soon, they reached a cell where a man with faded blonde hair lay sprawled on the floor.
“Dolce.”
Elonia murmured his name, her voice barely a whisper.
Just a few days ago, she had trembled at his mere presence.
Now, she wasn’t sure if it was because he was nothing more than a living corpse, or if she had finally taken a step out of Chelon’s shadow that day she first struck him.
Unlike when she had faced Vermon and Felix, she wasn’t afraid.
Elonia nudged Dolce’s head with her foot, waking him up.
“Wake up.”
“Ugh…”
Dolce groaned, his eyes fluttering open.
He looked around, his gaze unfocused, and then his eyes landed on Elonia.
His eyes widened in horror.
“Aagh!”
He screamed.
He had already endured brutal torture.
His body was covered in wounds and cuts, some still bleeding. The slightest movement sent waves of excruciating pain through him.
The pain was so intense that he couldn’t even move. He could only lay there, sobbing.
His pathetic display filled Elonia with a strange sense of disdain.
‘That’s all it takes for you to break? I’ve been through much worse.’
Chelon had lost her mother at the tender age of ten.
And it was at the hands of her own father.
She had been forced to endure, to survive the attempts on her life, only to have her abilities discovered and be thrown into the horrors of war.
Whether it was the pain of her own uncontrolled magic, the poison she was forced to ingest, the sword wounds she received when she let her guard down, or Dolce’s relentless attempts to harm her, Elonia, or rather, Chelon, had endured it all in silence.
‘I had to bear all that and fight on the battlefield, and you’re whining over a little pain?’
Elonia’s small fists clenched, trembling with suppressed rage. She took a deep breath, regaining her composure, and asked, “Dolce. Do you understand your sins?”
************
T/N: I’ll use Chelon instead of Cheron