Two-Faced Princess

She couldn’t help her smile. “Looking at how much it cost, we can’t be satisfied by just breaking the engagement and calling it a day, right?”

“Were you thinking that far?”

She just shrugged casually, thinking that there was nothing special about it.

Uriel looked at her smile, which seemed innocent at first glance.  Those sharp, calculating eyes sparkled.  The eyes of a natural monach where warmth and coldness always coexisted.

“Your Highness is someone who will plan on how to skin a tiger and sell it even while she is captured inside the tiger’s den.” He smiled, the words treading the line between praise and insult.

Uriel suddenly remembered the first time he met Apollonia and was locked up in a small room in a royal villa.  She had asked him to choose whether to die right then, or live and obey by her orders.

He was thankful that he chose to live.

Uriel laughed quietly. How many times would they get to see such nonsensical performances in the future?  At that moment, he leaned a little further in her direction.

Rustle-!

The sound of distinctively human footsteps moved closer.

***

“The Grand Duke Evinhart and his son are still living in seclusion, right?” the Emperor asked his sister, golden eyes shining sharply.

The two had been informed that the count of Ran Island had rejected the Dharmayu business deal. However, neither of them thought it was a big deal. Business was meant to be complicated. As long as Bjern still had the intention of proceeding with the engagement, it wouldn’t be hard to offer them something else.

They just needed to hide it from Bjern until they found another way.

The emperor and Petra quickly came to an agreement, and managed to shut the count’s mouth. At this point, they still didn’t know Eckart hadn’t fallen in love with the princess. Therefore, they decided to focus on more important matters.

“It’s been 15 days since he came to the capital, but they haven’t left their residence except for greeting you upon their arrival.”

“Their son didn’t even show up.”

“Yes. One day he had a severe cough, and one day he had a high fever. They make a lot of excuses using his weak constitution. We don’t even know what he looks like.”

Anger would be reasonable since they blatantly ignored him, but he raised the corner of his mouth instead. “What a sly fox. He must be  scared.”

The reason they called the grand duke’s family to the capital was obvious. To see if their son, Caelion, has some potential.

The grand duke’s son was only a few years younger than Paris, and it wasn’t like the grand duke was powerless either. The moment it was revealed that he possessed the qualities of a monarch, Paris would have a rival.

The fact that the grand duke himself had a dwarf-like stature was enough to relieve the emperor’s wariness, but their heir was different. It was an open fact that people who pretended to side with the emperor were already trying to line up behind the grand duke.

The grand duke was struggling to hide his son. There was no telling what was going to happen to their family when they were inside the enemy territory. Of course, the emperor had no intention of letting them go now.

“Send the message. If that sickly, useless bastard doesn’t show his face on the day of the competition, they will never see their son again. If he doesn’t come out on that day, drag his body out.”

Petra frowned for a moment at his barbaric words. Then she took her quill and refined the words so the message could be conveyed clearly.

“…If he truly was a sickly and useless son, they wouldn’t need to hide him this hard.” Petra was convinced that the grand duke’s son must have been hiding something. Perhaps gold or red eyes. If he didn’t have those characteristics, then there would be no reason for them to hide him.

“I will think of a way to get rid of him.”

* * *

Srakk-

Apollonia and Uriel jolted. It was clearly the sound of human footsteps, very close by. It was highly possible that the person would hear the conversation, but who was wandering around the back garden at this hour?  She had already confirmed that Petra’s eyes weren’t nearby.

Swish-!

Uriel’s sharp eyes keenly looked around the surroundings; a moment later, he flew to the bush behind Apollonia.

“Uhh!”

A dark haired boy let out a small shriek when he was dragged by Uriel. He was trying to pull his body back, but Uriel threw him in front of Apollonia.

“Let me go! Just now, you…”

Shing-

The boy shut his mouth and stopped struggling at Uriel’s sword.