I heard a gasping sound in my throat. Madame Marie stood up, frightened.
"Lady, are you okay!"
"It's okay... But no... Does that mean I'm a Princess now?"
"That's not true. The lady's mother was of a low status, and the Princess had been living with your mother outside the palace for a while, so you had not yet been officially ordained as a Princess."
"Hey, what..."
Madame Marie looked embarrassed at my reaction.
Since Edita was the Emperor's only daughter, I must have had some expectations. Besides, as soon as I woke up, I should have heard that 'Lady Edita' was noble. But what? Isn't it even a Princess?
Wondering if I was surprised to see that I was openly disappointed, Madam Marie coughed a few times, just like she had done to the man before.
"However, His Majesty is trying to rebuke Lady as the official Princess. If you officially become Her Highness the Princess, it will be easier for you to receive personal protection than now. So until then, please be careful. Don't run into someone like Sir Stefano."
"Is that Sir Stefano?"
Madame Marie nodded.
"He was a bit handsome."
At my words, her forehead wrinkled thickly. I quickly shut my mouth, but it was too late. Madame Marie foamed at the mouth and pleaded passionately.
"Do you know what kind of guy Stefano Russell is? He is the one who joins hands with the beasts and lights up his eyes to keep the lady in a corner. For example, Princess Lena..."
"Princess Lena? I am His Majesty's only daughter!"
"That's not the point right now!"
I thought I should shut my mouth. However, for me, who has just fallen into another world, it is more like a fantasy world than the real danger that "Lady Edita" is in.
It was true that I was more interested in the story of the Princess.
"Her Highness Princess Lena is the daughter of His Majesty's eldest son. His Highness the Crown Prince Fabio Lutensbach."
"Oh, the Prince's daughter is also a Princess?"
"Lady, you should get some education later."
Madame Marie said anxiously. I nodded with a reflective face.
"Anyway, Sir Stefano, beware of him. Her Highness Princess Lena, please be careful."
"Why are they doing that to me?"
"They don't like the fact that the lady who was born to a lowly mother came into the palace after receiving His Majesty's approval."
"You're funny. Isn't my other half your blood?"
Madame Marie looked surprised. Did I make a mistake again? As I was about to apologize, a smile spread across Madame Marie's face.
"Lady, you did a good job! Exactly. You were always intimidated before, but after losing your memory, you became very bold. That's why you escaped from the room..."
"Hmmm! Keep talking about what you've been saying."
"Yes, and if His Majesty rebukes the Lady as a Princess, the rank of Her Highness Princess Lena and many other members of the Imperial family will change. In short, there was a tectonic shift in the Imperial power structure. Of course, according to Ludenbach's tradition that women do not have the right to succeed to the throne, the lady can inherit the throne, but the issue of power struggles within the Imperial family is not so simple. Above all, the Lady..."
At that moment, the door opened with a loud bang. Neither I nor Madame Marie was speechless, and we looked toward the door where the cold wind was blowing in.
A man stood majestically looking at us, one with the large door pushed out in each hand. His gray, gray blond hair and full blond beard fluttered in the wind, and his big, hot eyes were about to burst into tears. It looks like that...
Like a cow or calf!
At that moment, Madame Marie jumped up from her seat. Just as she was bowing down to the man, the man rushed towards me, disgusted, Madame Marie.
"Edita!"
He hugged me so tightly that I could not breathe.
"Woo...?"
I was so surprised that I couldn't say anything and hugged him in his vast embrace. Behind the man, Madame Marie pretended to cover her mouth in a hurry. Don't tell me that I've lost my memory? Then is this person also my enemy?
However, Madame Marie's voice that followed shattered my imagination.
"A lowly servant sees the glorious sun of Ludenbach. Your Majesty, the Emperor Paul."
Your Majesty? Your Majesty? This man is Your Majesty! Could it be?
The man didn't even respond to Madame Marie's greeting, but rubbed his hairy cheeks against me as I fell into a crucible of great confusion.
"Oh, Edita! My daughter! This father has come! I'm sorry I'm late!"
My daughter? Dad? Father? So is this Lady Edita's father?
By now, my pupils would have been dilated so much that I wouldn't envy cats!
"Rest assured now that your father has come!"
The Emperor kissed me on the cheek. But contrary to what he said, I was falling further into the abyss of chaos.
The Emperor kissed me on the cheek again. I couldn't help but feel uncomfortable when a middle-aged man I saw for the first time kissed me on the cheek. It wasn't because he was needy (even I have that kind of awareness), but because I was so surprised that I really lost my senses. The Emperor of a country suddenly came in and hugged me and even kissed me!
Madame Marie thought the same thing, and I heard her dry sound next to me.
"Your Majesty, you can't do this."
"What can't be done! Why can't a father kiss his daughter's cheek?"
"Still, the law and the body pain..."
"No one is watching! If you don't want to see it, you should leave. I'm going to have some quality time with my daughter. I left all the other courtiers and brought only an escort. He's waiting outside, too, so it would be nice if you could stand next to him."
At the Emperor's sarcasm, Madame Marie lowered her tail. When there was no one to stop him, Emperor Paul took me from his arms. I thought I was going to take a breather, but then the Emperor began to give me a baptism of burdensome eyes. If I were beating Iron in front of the furnace, it would be just as hot.
"Edita, look at your father."
The Emperor's voice was so mournful that I turned my head as if I were being drawn by a magnet. His big calf-like eyes were still soaked with tears of emotion, and there was a blush of joy on his cheeks.
Yes. This was the face of a father who loved his daughter dearly. It's not my dad, but I'm a little stunned.
"Edita, do you know how much your father's heart was broken when something terrible happened to you? I couldn't stop weeping, thinking I would never see you again."
"Now, I made a mistake, Your Majesty."
The Emperor's voice was so sad that I unknowingly apologized on behalf of what Lady Edita had done.
"Why do you call me Your Majesty again? Didn't I tell yoy to call me Father?"
"Yes, father."
When I called the Emperor Father, a happy smile appeared on his face.
"It's not your fault that you fell into the pond. Didn't you accidentally step on your feet? It is the fault of the technicians who built the pond in this palace."
"Yes?"
It was strange to say something. The Emperor smiled at me anxiously, as if to tell me not to worry.
"I will order them all to be beheaded right away!"
"Yes?!"
I screamed, and the Emperor tilted his head with a smile.
"Is there a problem?"
The Emperor asked with an innocent expression befitting his age. It was ridiculous.
"Of course there is! You killed the technicians."
"I heard that you are right."
The Emperor was easily convinced, as if he had said something like a psychopath.
However, I was mistaken.
"It's too wasteful to just kill them. Send them to the frozen northern lands, where they will be exiled for ten years, and then put them in a hot cauldron to fatten them to death!"
The Emperor's cheerful voice gave me goosebumps on my back.
Isn't this a tyrant? Have naive calf eyes!
"Oh, no, father! It was all my mistake, and I slipped into the pond. Save the technicians!"
"What?"
The Emperor tilted his head at an angle as if he didn't understand. With a very anxious eye, he looked at me. He couldn't seem to understand why I was doing that.
No, no way. Edita listened obediently every time the Emperor did this.
Madame Marie, standing behind the Emperor's back, hurriedly crossed me with her arms. Looking at her desperation, I felt like I had said something I shouldn't have said to the Emperor, but I couldn't bite her.
I couldn't let innocent technicians die because of me (technically because of Lady Edita's drowning in the pond). If they die, I will have to live with the guilt until I die, even if I go back to where I lived, I didn't like that.
Why do you suddenly say that? Just because you kill a few technicians doesn't mean you don't have someone to take care of your garden. If you like their landscaping skills, I'll get you a better engineer."
"No, I don't. I just want you not to kill the technicians. It's not for any other reason."
"Lady."
Madame Marie, who didn't hear me, called me low. The Emperor closed his eyes and opened them. Then the embarrassing doubts in his eyes disappeared, and the solemn glow of the Emperor faded.
"Madame Marie, don't go out."
He raised his hand and commanded Madame Marie. She bowed her head deeply, surprised. The heavy atmosphere between them made my body tense.
"Why should I not kill them?"
"That's it..."
When I asked him about the obvious facts with a serious face, I was speechless. I became desperate, and I teased my tongue as much as I could, like an Interviewer in front of an interviewer.
"Huh... I drowned and was in a life-or-death situation, but I survived in the end. So that's it. If someone's life is sacrificed because of the auspicious event that I revived, I think it is not right. The wailing of the families of technicians who lost their family members will reach the palace again... Well... The death of that one person will make the technician's parents, siblings, wife, and family grieve for the rest of their lives. I don't think it's right for this auspicious event that I was revived to remain as an unfortunate memory for someone... I think!"
"Oh!"
As soon as I finished speaking, the Emperor let out a scream of admiration. I didn't think it was because of the content, but he was impressed by the other parts. If he understood what I said, he wouldn't have looked at me like that.
The Emperor hugged me again without warning. He said in a voice full of joy.
"You speak just like your mother! I thought you looked like your mother, but now I see that you even look like her personality!"
The Emperor grabbed me by the shoulder and looked closely at Edita's face. I looked at his face in a hurry. He didn't have many wrinkles, but he was a man who could feel the passage of the eventful years in his expression. He had a warm expression, but he felt a chill in his face.
What caught my eye the most about the Emperor's face was his blue eyes, as intense as sapphires. No. It was the face in his eyes.
The Emperor's blue eyes reflected a small woman with blond hair and white skin. It was the face of 'Lady Edita' that I had never looked into properly since waking up.
Edita's face was flawless, with her blue eyes like the Emperor's. Her detailed features were so impressive that I couldn't help but admire her. Even though her bright blonde hair was matted from rolling outside, she looked rather innocent and stimulated your protective instinct.
"The Emperor deserves to like Edita."
I really thought about this.
The stories I had heard here and Edita's Image overlapped, causing a small ripple in my consciousness.
The Emperor's attitude made it clear that he loved Edita's mother very much. When the woman he loved died, his love would have been transferred to Lady Edita, who looked like her. However, poor Edita always lived in a state of intimidation because of her status limitations and the checks around her, just like Madame Marie said. Unlike my mother.
"I have always been worried about your mother's character. I was so worried about how she would endure this harsh world. But as you know, your mother, who had a kind heart and an upright spirit, was always confident."
Emperor Paul looked into my eyes and said,
"Edita. You, too, should be as dignified as your mother. No matter what anyone says, you are my daughter, Princess Edita, the daughter of Paul Lutensbach."
"Your Majesty!"
Instead of me, who was just opening her mouth in a daze, Madame Marie cried out with emotion. It was like a scene somewhere between tragedy and comedy.
After that, the Emperors stayed in Edita's room for a long time. It was getting dark, and it was time for the promised dinner, so he lifted up his heavy buttocks.
"Marie, take good care of Edita."
"I don't know if there is, Your Majesty. I will protect her even with my life."
Madame Marie's loyal words made the Emperor smile with satisfaction, and I was a little moved.
"But I'm glad Edita woke up not too late. In a few days, the expedition from Arendt will return."
"Is it already that time?"
The Emperor nodded to Madame Marie's words and turned to me. It seems that there is some connection between the return of the expedition and Lady Edita... I can't know!
It was as if I were standing in a house on fire. I felt like I had to react in some way, but I couldn't because I didn't know anything.
I was about to sweat from the embarrassment, but Madame Marie, noticing my situation, hurriedly opened her mouth.
"The Lady has eagerly awaited the return of her fiancé, His Excellency Baron Felix Orleans. Right?"
Madame Marie was kind enough to tell me the key elements that I needed to respond to. I forced my mouth up and nodded. The Emperor smiled lonely at me.
I thought it was a little strange. Even after the Emperor left the room, I couldn't get rid of my reluctance.
His daughter's long-awaited flancé is coming back in a few days, and she has a bitter smile. Isn't it strange? Is there anything wrong... Ugh! Wait, what? Fiance? This body's fiancé is coming back tomorrow?
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