CH 5

"It's nothing. I just had a bad dream. How many hours did I sleep?"

"You slept for five hours straight. It will soon be dinner time, so I was ordered by His Highness the Grand Duke to bring the Princess, and then I heard a noise..."

I nodded slightly after hearing the maid's words.

Five hours? I managed to sleep for that long in an uncomfortable carriage.

It seemed like the accumulated fatigue was considerable because there had been so many things going on.

'But Kishian ate with me...?'

It's suspicious. It's not like we're close enough to meet face-to-face and have a meal.

It certainly seemed like it would be a brutal interrogation disguised as a peaceful dinner.

"I'll just get dressed up a bit and be on my way. Please wait a moment outside the carriage."

"Yes, Your Highness."

Left alone again, I looked in the mirror and checked my appearance.

I wasn't checking to see if my hair was messy or not. I was checking to see if I looked like Letie.

I fixed her hair with a jeweled pin like Letie, and painted my lips apricot-colored like Letie.

All of these are important. But there was one truly important thing.

To check it, I lifted the collar slightly covering my chest. Then I looked at the center of the prominent collarbone...

'My token.'

Our twins, who look exactly alike, from head to toe, had the only external difference: the 'mark' embedded between their collarbones.

Letie and I both had a gem-like mineral between our collarbones, which according to the prophecy was called a sign.

My token, unlike Letie's, was as black as obsidian.

The shape of it was so unusual that when I looked at my mark in the mirror, I felt as if all the sadness in the world was gathered inside it.

But now...

'That magic still works.'

Now, between my collarbones, there was a pure white mark, just like Letie's.

It is already widely known that Letie's badge color is pure white. That is why, as soon as my father decided to send me as Letie, he changed the color of my badge to white.

Since it was under Illusionary magic, unless something special happened, it would remain white.

I checked the sign just in case and saw that it was still white, so I felt relieved and went outside.

"Have you been waiting long?"

"No! Just wait. I just came out."

The one who answered from outside the carriage was the youngest-looking of the three maids.

The child pushed her braided brown hair over her shoulder and bowed her head politely.

"I haven't been able to introduce myself because I've been so out of it. I'm Anne. Today, I'll be serving Your Highness."

"Yes. Please take care of it, Anne."

Anne was a cheerful child. She chattered away even as he was taking me to Kishian.

"I heard the knights talking, and it seems like the return journey was surprisingly smooth."

"Yes?"

"Yes, usually around this time, monsters would appear once or twice? But today, not a single monster was seen, so everyone said it was a lucky day."

What happened between my father and Kishian is still unknown to the world.

That is, people thought that Kishian was not attacked by an assassin, but simply fell off a cliff in an accident, and that Letie thought Kishian was dead and got engaged to another man.

It was fortunate. Otherwise, Anne would have treated me as 'the daughter of the vile Emperor who attempted to assassinate the Grand Duke.'

"So the knights said that the Grand Duchess is definitely loved by God as a savior, right?"

"God's love. I am grateful that you think of me like that. Does the Grand Duke say the same thing?"

Anne, who had been chattering without any hesitation, flinched and stopped at that moment.

I immediately admitted that I had asked a very mischievous question. How could that Kishian have judged me so favorably?

Even so, it would have been difficult for Anne to answer honestly.

"No, the stories I heard from the Grand Duke were nothing but insults."

"You don't have to answer. I can ask it myself. We're already here."

I consoled Anne, who was flustered, with those words.

And then, before I knew it, I entered the Kishian barracks.

Of course, there was no romantic dining arrangement there.

As expected, he's just using the meal as an excuse to interrogate me.

Kishian who was waiting for me looked like a torturer who had come out to interrogate a prisoner. He was the infamous interrogator.

As expected, he motioned to Anne, who was following me in.

"I don't need you, so go out. I have a lot to talk about with my wife."

"Yes, Your Highness."

Anne looked at me with some concern, then eventually left the barracks.

Now all that's left is Kishian and me.

It was Kishian who started first.

"If we continue like this, we'll arrive at the Grand Palace in a few days. But before that, there are a few things I want to make clear, so I'll get straight to the point."

"Yes, go ahead."

"How involved were you?"

The first question I get asked as soon as I sit down is scary.

However, it was difficult to understand right away because the question was asked without any context.

In an unexpectedly kind way, he asked again, properly attaching the subject, etc.

"Didn't His Majesty send an assassin to me? I ask how far you were involved in that matter."

I gave Kishian permission to ask directly to me even though he had already announced that he would.

So I expected him to ask me a direct question-

'I'm embarrassed. I didn't know you would ask so openly.'

He had just asked, "Were you trying to kill me too?"

Anyway, if I didn't want to be treated as an assassin, there was a set answer I had to give...

"I had no idea that my father was planning something like that..."

"Hmm. I didn't know. I want to believe what my wife said, but I'm only human, so I can't help but have a little doubt."

"..."

"For you, who love the Duke of Herssen, it would not have been a very pleasant thing for me, your husband, to return alive. Isn't It? So maybe-"

"Are you saying that I was actively involved in ordering my father's assassination? To marry the Duke of Herssen?"

He put pressure on me by leaving a silence that felt deliberate.

And only when my thin nerve cord was about to snap did I open my mouth again.

"To put it bluntly, yes. Or, if not, you know about it and turned a blind eye to it."

"... That's not it, absolutely not."

I could answer this one thing for sure. I had absolutely no idea what my father had done to kill Kishian.

If I had known of that evil plan, I would have told Kishian as best I could.

This was a problem regardless of my feelings toward Kishian.

My father's actions were clearly despicable, and as a Princess, I had a duty to stop his despicable actions for the sake of royal honor.

However, Kishian still had a trembling face.

"Well, let's say you didn't know anything about the assassination. Even so, it's true that you had a deep relationship with the Duke of Herssen. Stop lying about it being a loveless engagement like before. I already know everything and am asking."

"... What do you want to say?"

When I couldn't hold it in any longer and asked that question, Kishian's fingers, which had been tapping the table, stopped.

He then revealed his true feelings with a cold sneer on his lips.

"Because you loved the Duke of Herssen, and because of that, His Majesty also tried to kill me to pair up his daughter with the man she loved... In the end, I would like to say that it is safe to say that you also played a role in my near death."

I bit my lips hard. Otherwise, I was afraid that harsh words would spill out, damaging the honor of the royal family and all.

I just muttered to myself. What the hell. I have to make excuses for Letie's thoughtless rumors.

Besides, the evidence of their love was so widespread that it was impossible to even come up with a plausible excuse.

In other words, I was in a situation where I had to just listen to Kishian's sharp complaints. Thanks to that, I became aware of my situation once again.

I almost forgot. I came here to be punished in her place, pretending to be Letie.

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