Chapter 23

Peace with Arathos was a weighty issue she couldn’t emotionally connect with. But she still wanted to repay the trust the Emperor had shown her as a human being.

Inside the chamber, twelve portraits hung on the walls. Princess Elphenlira sat on the floor before one of them, gazing up at it in silence. Unlike the day in the hunting grounds, she wore only a light gown. Her figure, draped in the pale fabric, looked startlingly fragile.

Dianne called to her softly.

“Your Highness.”

The princess turned her head slowly, her gaze finding Dianne’s. There was no trace of the fire and fury she’d shown in the woods. Her face was pale, drained of warmth, and her eyes looked quietly, achingly hollow.

Without any polite preamble, Dianne spoke.

“I beg you. Just for a moment, hear me out.”

Elphenlira stared at her with clear, luminous eyes. Silence settled between them, heavy and appropriate for a place filled with the memory of the dead. Dianne held the princess’s gaze, doing her best to appear calm.

When the princess finally spoke, her voice was hoarse, like someone who had spent hours crying in the dark.

“What even are you?”

This wasn’t a question that could be answered with a simple “I’m your governess” or just her name. So Dianne looked straight into the princess’s eyes and answered.

“It is with great honor and with the trust of Her Highness Grand Duchess Ervinzel and His Majesty the Emperor that I’ve come to plead with Your Highness.”

A flicker of emotion stirred in the princess’s otherwise vacant gaze. Dianne guessed it was the mention of Grand Duchess Ervinzel that did it.

From the princess’s perspective, Grand Duchess Ellaris was both her closest living elder and a staunch ally of the Emperor. Though the grand duchess rarely spoke of her niece and nephew, it was clear that the bond between them was strong.

Dianne spread her skirts to either side and bowed deeply.

“His Majesty is deeply concerned about you, Your Highness.”

Even in her weariness, the princess managed a sharp snort. Dianne pressed on, unwavering.

“There isn’t anyone in this world who wouldn’t worry if they hadn’t seen their only sister in over half a year.”

A rebellious glint lit up the princess’s face, one Dianne recognized from the hunting grounds. Her words were laced with scorn.

“And what does a thing like you know, blabbering on about His Majesty?”

“I can only speak to what I’ve felt, and what I’ve felt is that he truly worries for you. Am I wrong?”

Elphenlira let out a biting laugh.

“You are. What His Majesty worries about isn’t his sister, but the woman he’s planning to sell off to Arathos as a political pawn. If there were even one more woman in the imperial line who could fulfill that purpose, he wouldn’t care whether I starved or froze to death.”

At that, Dianne thought of the Emperor, who was waiting just outside, standing guard at the entrance of the Hall of Knights.

The princess wasn’t wrong to say, What would someone like you know of the Emperor? Dianne didn’t presume to claim she knew him, certainly not enough to say so aloud, even in jest.

‘I am an emperor who cannot even persuade his own sister.’

Yet she couldn’t believe him to be heartless. A man as cold as Elphenlira described wouldn’t wear that kind of sorrow on his face.

Dianne lifted her gaze to the portrait behind the princess. Not even the greatest craftsman could’ve fully captured what he was like when alive. And so she looked, silently, into the eyes of the man the Empire’s most noble woman had once loved.

Noticing Dianne’s gaze, the princess slowly rose to her feet. It was a movement that seemed deliberately meant to block her line of sight, to shield the portrait from her.

Dianne spoke calmly.

“He must have been a great knight.”

The princess ground her teeth.

“Shut your mouth.”

“But the living must go on living. It’s the only courtesy we can offer to those who no longer can.”

She’d once offered the same words to Erin, when he sat blankly in front of his beloved cat’s grave all day, unable to let go.

Dianne didn’t expect the princess to receive her words as earnestly as Erin had. But still, this was the most sincere truth she had to offer.

Even someone as politically inexperienced as Dianne could understand one thing. The princess couldn’t keep living in denial. Even if the arranged marriage with the Crown Prince of Arathos fell through, even if the entire reconciliation effort between the empires collapsed, it wouldn’t just be a loss for the emperor or the Empire. It would be a tragedy for the princess herself.

In one way or another, she had to overcome the sorrow and the tragedy and reclaim her life.

Dianne was prepared to weather the storm if the princess lashed out. She had steeled herself to face the full brunt of her fury.

But the reaction she received wasn’t what she expected at all. The princess looked… drained.

“Courtesy?” she repeated, her voice hollow, like all the strength that had kept her standing until now had finally left her. Dianne blinked, startled.

“My brother sent my lover to his death. Because a princess meant to be used in a political marriage isn’t allowed to have something as human as a lover.”

“…”

“Out of all the knights he could have chosen, he sent Edric into certain death. And you think that wasn’t a political calculation?”

Dianne didn’t get a chance to answer, because at that moment, a hand reached from behind and gently touched her shoulder.

It was warm and large, offering quiet reassurance before withdrawing just as gently.

It was the Emperor.