Episode 9

“You too should get ready and try to catch something. Even some rabbits and pigeons. Ahahaha.”

The emperor teased the princes and laughed, saying, “You’re both so funny.”

The princes may have wanted to catch a deer or maybe some wild boars, but they were still too much for them.

I was worried that I might be making things hard for the princes by saying nonsense, but I could see the sudden expectations and excitement on their faces.

The maids were suddenly busy preparing clothing for us to wear at the hunting grounds.

The next day I was being held in my nanny’s arms in clothing that looked purely cute without any practical function whatsoever.

The emperor carried me around for a while and then entrusted me to the nanny as we entered the forest that was attached to the imperial palace.

There were more than a hundred knights around us joining in the activity.

Every time I saw them, I thought of my men and felt a fond sadness for them.

“Karhill will be taking care of Stiana.”

When Adelgio said so, Karhill just nodded and came next to me.

Adelgio was active and his body was moving before his brain even had a thought, and Karhill liked to think first before acting with his calm personality.

I was relieved that Karhill was staying close next to me.

“Stiana, stay close to your brother.”

“Woong, Karil, don’t worry!”

Karhill’s chubby hand clasped my closed hand.

But it didn’t last for long.

Karhill was taking good care of me, but as time went by, he seemed to be jittery as his hunting fever rose.

He looked like he wanted to see the prey up close.

It would have been a shame that all we could see where we were was just passing glimpses.

“Oh, no. I keep missing it. Like this I can only keep looking at the deer butts.”

Whenever the arrow narrowly missed its target, he would stomp the ground hard with his short legs.

With an onlooker’s unique confidence, he seemed frustrated because he believed he would catch everything in a row as soon as he stepped up.

“You guys all take care of the Princess.”

He spoke looking at the knights, then turning towards me he wrapped my cheeks in his hands.

“Tiana, I think it’s time for this brother to step up.” (Stiana abandoned for some deer…)

And then he quickly sped away.

I don’t think so.

I don’t think that him going off is going to change much.

Kahill rode off on his horse before I knew it.

His face was full of excitement.

The nanny hugged me close while Kahill ran off and abandoned me.

“Adelgio! Drive it this way!”

The emperor and Adelgio knew that Kahill had left me behind, but they didn’t ask him to go back because they didn’t expect much from Kahill anyway.

I wanted to ride a horse and run with him.

The nanny had a hard time hugging me who was wiggling.

“It’s me! I want to see it.”

“Look here. You can see it better like this, our Highness.”

“No, I can’t see well.”

But the nanny wouldn’t leave me for a moment.

“I want to drop you off, but I can’t. Your Highness, you don’t know what’s going to pop out of nowhere.”

“I want to try and see too!”

Then they stopped insisting because they thought it would be hard for them to survive if anything happened to me.

After the empress was lost, the emperor became violent.

It was not expressed to anyone, but appeared harsh and ruthless when removing static, but those who saw it had no choice but to fear the emperor and seemed that they were imprinted that they would not be tolerated if they made a mistake.

Because of that, people in the palace were always afraid of the emperor.

“When the princess is a little bigger, we can do it then.”

It was then that I felt something strange behind me.

It seemed that the other people except me didn’t feel the strange sensation.

Even the captain of the Knights failed to sense it.

He looked like he didn’t feel the liveliness I felt even though he was the most outstanding person here.

There were moments when I felt that my body remembered the achievements I had made in my past life, and it was the same as back then.

It was as if a powerful force was trying to pierce my skin, it felt so vivid.

I was in danger and the people I could trust were the Emperor and the princes, but they were far away.

There was nothing I could do to call them.

“Hueeng!!”

That was all I could do even though I felt on edge.

My thin arms, which had no strength, no power, and couldn’t lift a weapon even if I had one around.

I wanted to let them know that I was in danger, but there was a man near me who was living.

The person who should protect me was making me worried.

Cold sweat ran down my back because I thought I could make his approach easier if I did something wrong.

“Huueeenng!!”

I cried louder and huddled into the nanny.

“Your Highness, Your Grace, what’s going on? What’s wrong?”

People approached me when I suddenly started to cry.

“What’s wrong with your highness? I’ve never seen you like this.”

The knights who were far away also approached closer.

They didn’t seem to have sensed any danger until then, and they came here because I was crying strangely, but that alone worked.

The maids said it was fine and comforted me.

I glanced at the man who had set his sights on me in the arms of my nanny.

He looked very surprised when our eyes met.

Still, he would have thought it was a mere coincidence that our eyes met.

He was a member of my own Knights.

I cried louder, thinking that it wouldn’t have been difficult to disguise himself and hide in order to get rid of me.

He seemed to think that this was an opportunity, but he couldn’t make up his mind as more people continued to gather around me.

Soon even the emperor and the princes came riding hard.

The emperor rode his horse and like the wind slid off its back.

“What’s wrong with you, Stiana? What’s happened to the princess?”

He shouted at the maids and the knights with a look of genuine surprise.

“She was having a good time, but she suddenly became like this. Your Majesty.”

The Emperor held me in his arms and looked behind me.

I realized that he felt something while I was in his grasp.

It would have been natural for a person who had gone through such a desperate struggle to realize this level of targeting.

The opponent had lowered his presence considerably, but it was flowing again as the emperor came.

The intense flesh flowed uncontrolled and disappeared completely after a while.

I assumed that he was someone who lost his country and loved ones by action of the emperor.

The emperor has been doing all of that to many people so far, so he can’t be blamed for his rage.

When I was in the arms of the emperor, I thought there was nothing to worry about, so I found his trace with confidence.

The miracle disappeared wonderfully.

His existence itself has disappeared, not just his presence.

‘Where did he go? That’s actually a pretty good skill. That would be enough to kill me. If you’re not a different person, but a member of my Knights. It’s possible, you could’ve been looking for a chance. I see why I don’t appear in the story of the Estion Empire.’

The original Stiana might have been assassinated this way and left history. (TL note: Remember in the ‘original’ timeline there was no princess so it could have been that her existence was removed first being concealed due to the death of the empress and then removed after a potential death. But there is currently no way to check if in her original time if the princess actually existed or not.)

Being born as the daughter of an emperor was certainly not something to be happy about.

Even more serious being that the emperor had made many enemies all over the continent.

I was thinking about it and belatedly realized that the surroundings were too quiet around me.

The atmosphere was very strange.

‘What is it?’

Even before he looked up at the emperor, he was already feeling ominous.

I don’t think I should make eye contact with him, but I couldn’t help it.

His eyes were fixed on me when I looked up without much effort.

Only then did I realize that my expression must have been quite different from the average child.

Even if the others hadn’t, the emperor would have noticed that the assassin was after me and disappeared at his appearance.

At first, I had cried loudly, but as I was hugged by him I stopped crying and was lost in thought with him.

Af if I forgot all the reasons I cried.

‘Ah…’

He was looking at me with a look of great doubt.

To avoid the embarrassing situation, I raised the corners of my mouth, showed my teeth, and smiled showing off my gums.

Then the emperor’s expression became even more strange.

I was concerned about how much he had noticed.

At best, he would have known that I was completely lost in thought, unaffected.

But that was also bothering me.

The emperor didn’t let it go and his gaze turned towards me often.

The nanny tried to accept me from the emperor, but he shook his head.

“I’ll keep the princess with me because she looks surprised.”

So he kept hugging me.

The twins each caught one of my legs holding them firmly.

“Our Stiana is not a crying child. Why did you cry? Did you get bitten by a bug?”

“Or have you seen anything scary? I think she saw something scary. That’s how you know. Our Stiana hasn’t cried much in the meantime.”

The princes repeatedly deduced.

The Emperor kept looking at me as he listened to the princes chatter away, and usually his gaze didn’t bother me.

It was killing me as he kept his attention and gaze on me while being hugged by him. (Stiana being shy lol)

I thought I should say something, but I was more worried that I would make a mistake that would be difficult to correct.

Still, the hunt seemed to have ended successfully, and the emperor made a bonfire to roast the meat.

It seemed as if the reason I suddenly shouted ‘hunting’ at the table was because I wanted something like this.

“Are you speechless because you got so surprised?”

The princes asked me.

That wasn’t why, but rather because I thought that the emperor would become suspicious after potentially saying something I shouldn’t have done, but I decided to just pretend being surprised.

The Emperor wouldn’t separate me from his grasp for even a moment.

It seemed that it was because he was interested in me, along with the thought that I could have been in a dangerous situation.

“Wow, it looks yummy!! You should eat a lot. Babby. Is this for babby?”

After the meat was baked, I talked a lot on purpose.

“Yes, Stiana. Father caught it. So be sure to eat a lot.”

I sat on his lap and looked at the wild boar being roasted.

Looking at the meat dripping with oil, I naturally could feel my appetite rising.

“She’s still young. Can she eat this? Wouldn’t it be dangerous to just roast it like this?”

Kahill looked at my stomach and said in a worried tone.

I know you’re worried, but what you’re upset about was disappointing.

“Stiana can eat.”

The Emperor spoke out.

I couldn’t figure out what he was doing.