20demayo Chapter 223 : Chapter 223
Chapter 223 : Chapter 223
*** The ceremony was long and complicated.
Like Arnold's succession to the dukedom.
I sat at the table and watched in silence.
‘This brings back memories.’
The order of the ceremony flowed like spring water from its source.
It wound through the mountains and soon became a river.
The river flowed fiercely like a young life, then suddenly proclaimed a wide, deep, and immeasurable sea.
“I hereby appoint Kazaks von Hamerd Imperium as the Crown Prince.”
The emperor places the crown.
The Golden Authority manifested greatly throughout Kazaks' body, illuminating the hall.
‘Kazaks' Crown Prince investiture ceremony.’
Something that should have been impossible.
The result of a twisted fate.
A new future that I created.
‘In the original work….’
The emperor is assassinated during an invasion by a Demon Lord.
The investiture ceremony had not been properly held, and Kazaks happened to be away with Gilbert's party to prevent another disaster.
Princess Adela, covered in the unquenchable flames of revenge, declared herself empress and sat on the emperor's throne.
And then the bloody purge occurred.
No one could stand against the Shadow Knights and the Sword Demon Savo.
The empire, because of that, walked the path of ruin.
‘A future that no longer exists.’
Kazaks would become emperor through legitimate procedures, supported by the respect of all people.
He would become an excellent, wise ruler.
‘Really, it’s a feeling I can't quite describe.’
A lot has changed.
The continent, which should have been played by the hands of the Demon Lords, had its fate postponed as the scales tipped, Adela, who would have become an empress steeped in madness, stood on the side of good, and Anette, who was on the verge of becoming a tyrant empress, survived as the Crow Empress.
Elidore also inherited the dukedom, and the Star Child is alive.
The Star Maiden has also been found.
‘From now on… a few more steps.’
There would surely be arduous trials waiting, like climbing a sheer cliff against a raging storm, but there really wasn't much left.
I slowly leaned back.
‘Let’s just rest a little today.’
As the Crown Prince investiture ceremony concludes, the crowd sends cheers and praise to Kazaks.
The young gold will now begin his ascent to become the greatest gold.
That future is a future that even a transmigrator does not know.
The orchestra's performance, which soothes and melts the heart, warmly envelops me.
Every time Lilac attends to me and speaks, I feel a sweet sensation.
‘It would be nice to fall asleep like this.’
Am I being uncharacteristically sentimental?
I’ve grown soft.
It was something I couldn't have imagined back when I was first possessed.
“Lilac.”
“Yes?”
“Lend me your shoulder.”
Lilac, who had tilted her head, soon said ‘Ah’ and moved her chair right next to mine.
I relaxed my body and rested my head on Lilac’s shoulder.
…Maybe because of our height difference, my neck is a bit uncomfortable.
Still… hmm…, I’m getting drowsy.
***
By the time I woke up, the banquet was almost over.
Blinking my drowsy eyes, I saw that many people had left.
The Emperor, Kazaks, and Adela were already gone, and only a few hundred people remained, enjoying the end of the banquet.
I apologized to Lilac, who must have had a hard time because I borrowed her shoulder for longer than I thought.
“No, no! It’s alright, Master! I actually enjoyed it!”
She actually enjoyed it…, what…?
“Ah, more importantly Master, this.”
What Lilac handed me was a golden letter.
Even before receiving it, I could feel the bittersweet scent on the letter.
I carefully broke the seal and read the contents.
[I have something to say, so come to my room.]
I had to blink my drowsy eyes several times to read that short sentence.
I sighed deeply.
“I’ll be back in a bit, Lilac.”
“Yes, Master. Should I wait here? Or should I have the carriage waiting outside?”
“No, you can go ahead. It might take some time.”
“Yes, I understand.”
After sending Lilac off, I left the grand banquet hall and entered the imperial palace.
The complex structure is familiar to my eyes.
I have visited it several times.
Thanks to that, I woke up a bit on the way.
Then, the first thought that came to me was regret.
‘…Shouldn't I have sent her off like that just now…?’
Let's try to put myself in her shoes.
She accompanied me to a banquet after a long time, only for me to snore and sleep, and as soon as I wake up, I say I have business because of another woman's letter and send her away alone?
‘Damn it, I shouldn't have done that.’
But it was too late.
Since it has come to this, let's finish this as quickly as possible and go back.
It was already late.
Considering I had to go to school tomorrow, I had to hurry.
I found the most remote and shabby building on the imperial palace grounds.
Which building in the imperial palace wouldn't be beautiful?
But just as there's a pecking order, it was the same here.
Compared to the other imperial palace buildings, the princess' palace was shabby and humble.
With winter here, the garden was bare and desolate like a cemetery.
Knock, knock.
When I knocked on the door, it opened.
It was the old knight, Sir Harris.
“Welcome.”
Adela was right in front of the door.
She was sitting at a golden tea table she had created with her authority.
“What is it, Princess Adela.”
“I just wanted to call you. Do I need permission to call my knight?”
“…I didn't go that far.”
Adela, who was sitting with her legs crossed and one hand propping up her chin, gestured to the seat across from her.
As I walked over and sat down, I looked around the princess' palace.
It was too shabby.
As if no one lived there.
As I sat at the tea table, I observed her.
It was neither a cadet uniform nor a dress.
She was wearing a blouse that was close to pajamas.
Of course, it was a luxurious piece of clothing woven with golden thread.
“But there must be a main point, mustn't there?”
At those words, Adela wrinkled her nose and pointed at me with her finger, waving it irritably.
“The main point, the main point, that damn main point.”
Then she snapped her fingers.
From afar, two golden sand knights approached.
One held a pot with the scent of coffee, and the other held wine.
“Wine?”
“Coffee.”
“Tsk.”
The two knights poured coffee and wine for me and Adela, respectively.
I first lifted my teacup and took a sip; it was quite good.
She couldn't have been learning for even a day, yet she seems to have a talent for being a barista.
“Every day, that damn main point. You make me out to be trash.”
“I have never done such a thing.”
“Today, I called you simply because it is my last time in the princess' palace, and I wanted you to be with me.”
Adela had taken over the house next to the café ‘Maid and Butler’ and built a mansion.
Saying it was her last night, it seemed her moving preparations were complete.
“I'm not sure if I should be saying this, but.”
I was cautious because I was not ignorant of Adela's past.
Just being in the imperial palace must be irritating for her.
But as a senior in life who had lived for 30 more years, I couldn't help but offer advice on living alone.
“Independence is not an easy thing.”
“Ha! I have even found a job.”
“…That’s our store.”
Adela looked at me with an expression that said, ‘so what?’
I sighed deeply and took a sip of coffee.
Then Adela also smirked and looked around with a captivated expression.
“Do you also get sentimental, Your Highness?”
“Am I not human? I have lived here for 17 years.”
The nanny and Harris.
There were memories with the two people who had shone a little bit of light on her childhood.
She closed her eyes and took a sip of wine, using her memories as a side dish.
The aroma was a work of art.
I wasn't a sommelier, but it seemed to be a precious wine.
“Do you have any feelings of regret?”
“It would be a lie to say I don't.”
The princess lightly swirled the wine glass she held as if supporting a round fruit, then drank again.
One shot.
With a clean swallow, she put the glass down, and the knight next to her refilled it.
Meanwhile, the princess looked me straight in the eye and said.
“I… have lived a life where nothing was ever mine. But looking back, only this princess' palace has been the one thing in my life that never left and stayed with me.”
She was unabashed in revealing her inner thoughts, like someone at the end of their life's twilight.
“But I learned a lot at the academy. That when children grow up, they leave their parents' embrace and go out into the world. Like a bird leaving its nest to fly freely high into the sky. I just felt that the time had come for me to leave my nest and fly.”
I never thought that Adela, who seemed only authoritative and lofty, had such thoughts.
“I don't think I told you. Why I yielded the throne to Kazaks. I, I… am trying to be reborn.”
She smiled, a blush blooming on her face, which was flushed from the wine.
“I've decided to cast aside all my grudges and revenge against the world and leave in search of happiness. Once I discarded the old, heavy, sticky, and clinging emotions, I felt empty. Life is short even if you only seek happiness. The throne I aimed for as a goal for revenge also lost its value. I instinctively felt that I couldn't change here. So, though it's a shame, I decided to abandon the cocoon that had nurtured me with madness and anger for a long time and leave to find a new home.”
So that was the reason for yielding the throne and her independence.
“…But Princess.”
I opened my mouth to ask a question.
In the cocoon of hatred for many years, Adela was meant to be born as the end that would swallow the world.
But what came out was… a free bird leaving to find new happiness.
However, I couldn't help but ask.
“Do you really not regret it?”
Humans don't change.
It's difficult.
Isn't there even a saying that you can't fix a black-haired beast?
That is me, Kim An-hyun….
I didn't change and always walked on the path of failure.
Despite the dissuasion of those around me.
That's why Adela's change is surprising and I think it's good, but at the same time, I'm also suspicious and envious.
However.
“Not at all.”
Adela looks at me and smiles.
“As long as you are by my side, I will always be happy. It's a groundless confidence with no reason or anything to identify it, but for some reason, I find myself saying it with conviction.”
Ah, even a stranger would be able to tell.
That in those golden eyes of madness, ‘pure love’ resides.
…But because of that, my stomach churned.
“Princess, I….”
I cannot accept your feelings.
“Shut up, you commoner.”
Before I could even say it, Adela reached out and grabbed my collar.
Then, she pulled hard on a chain that appeared from nowhere.
“…?!”
My body lurched forward and bent over.
I looked up at Adela, sprawled on the tea table.
Around my neck, a dog collar attached to a golden chain had been fastened.
“Did I not say that I love you? But you refuse? Insolent thing. You have no right to refuse. What do I care if your heart beats for a maid. Let me see, you don't know your place. If I say I love you, you should just say ‘yes, I understand’ and do your best to love me. If it doesn't work out, that's something to see then, but you dare to push me away when you should be bowing down in gratitude?”
Adela looks down at me with eyes full of anger.
“Ha! You probably don't know even a grain of sand's worth of how much patience and tolerance I usually show. Martin, every time you're busy with this and that, I feel like grabbing you, putting you on a dog leash, and throwing you into a solitary cell that only I can enter. I alone want to capture you and taste that fierce gaze. I want to enjoy that sharp tongue. I want to monopolize you. Your sharp eyes, your high nose, your captivating lips. Your firm, muscular body, your smooth skin, all of it….”
With bewildered eyes, I looked at the wine glass that Princess Adela was drinking from again.
“You are drunk, Princess.”
“What nonsense are you spouting….”
Three glasses of red wine.
I had figured out her tolerance for alcohol.
“I am, I am not drunk….”
Adela pulls the chain and leans her face in.
Her face gets closer and closer….
- Know-It-All (Master) cheers. This is a reward from the industry!
‘Shut up, will you!’
It was then.
Adela, who was pulling the chain around my neck, suddenly let go of the chain and pushed my chest.
Adela smirks, a seductive smile.
She even looks triumphant, as if she had cleared a difficult-looking game more easily than expected.
“It's easy to steal your lips.”
“….”
Honestly, if it had gone to the very end, I might have used Flash to escape.
In fact, I had prepared for it.
That's why Adela's strange behavior now is puzzling.
“…Even so, it doesn't mean you become mine.”
“….”
That's right.
“Your outer shell is interesting enough, but I am greedy. I only recently realized it, but my possessiveness is extraordinary. You see, Martin. It seems I won't be satisfied unless I take you captive, down to the very root of your noble soul. It seems I've become that way. So I will spend years of perseverance until that moment and constantly challenge myself. Therefore, do not think for a moment that today's event is the end.”
Adela turned her head and gently grasped her wine glass.
“Go back when I let you, Martin. Tonight, I will spend my last night alone in the dear home where I spent my childhood. But.”
Adela's drunken eyes stared at me fiercely.
With golden eyes filled with a love that had even conquered a hatred that could swallow the continent.
“Next time, I will truly have you.”
I'm a man too.
Loving Lilac aside, receiving such a confession makes my heart pound.
But I shook my head and came to my senses.
“…It is late, Princess. You are drunk, so please go to sleep. I will take my leave now.”
And then I escaped as if running away, using Flash.
“….”
Meanwhile, Adela, left alone in the princess' palace, closed and then opened her eyes.
Her drunken flush was gone, leaving only skin so pale it looked white.
The princess, who had drunk another glass of wine, muttered.
“…Tsk, to dump me again. The nerve of him….”
Just before they kissed, she saw Martin's expression.
In his eyes, a maid was drawn.
“There's no point in stealing him like this.”
Martin.
The man who had captivated the one called the mad Golden Princess.
This kind of low-level method wouldn't work.
…Thinking that, it was human to have regrets.
“Aah, I should have just acted crazy and kissed him.”
She sighed deeply.
“Nanny, Harris. It seems I am still clumsy in love.”
Leaning back in her chair, she looked up at the ceiling of the princess' palace.
Only then did it hit her.
Ah, today was a failure.
But that was okay.
There were many opportunities.
She was even moving in next door to him tomorrow.
Like a child with a simple heart, making a big deal out of a trivial matter.
‘This has never happened before.’
Tomorrow, the next day after I sleep, the next moment I meet Martin.
‘I'm looking forward to it.’
Like a radiant spring shining with golden light.
Nevertheless, Adela's expression did not unfold.
It was full of anxiety and worry.
The source of it was.
‘Maid Lilac. A formidable rival.’
She had a gut feeling that the process of obtaining Martin would be so difficult and arduous that even the dignified Adela could not, even with empty words, guarantee victory.