Chapter 14 …
Half-reclined on the bed, she had a small child sitting on her stomach.
The child looked no older than six—no, perhaps not even five.
Unable to hide her bewildered expression, Monarda froze as the child suddenly beamed at her without warning.
“Hello!”
Since Jeussia’s ascension to the throne, aside from the occasional visit by Lord Saffron, no child’s voice had ever been heard in the imperial palace.
But the moment Monarda’s eyes met those sparkling pink irises, she had no choice but to realize.
The long, waist-length curly pink hair and the harmless, angelic smile—
“That’s… Her Majesty’s daughter…”
Yes. The very child Jeussia had hidden away in Parnasso Castle six years ago.
A child whose existence had never been announced, who had never even been given a name, so much so that she couldn’t even be called a princess.
The Marquis stiffened on the spot, and Jeussia, staring back at her with an indifferent gaze, finally spoke after a brief silence.
“No wonder they call you the Brown Bear Marquis. You’re always so noisy.”
Knowing full well that Monarda hated the nickname “Brown Bear Marquis,” Jeussia deliberately used it.
“I’ve asked Your Majesty countless times not to call me that.”
“Ah, did you ask what I was doing just now?”
Ignoring his protest, Jeussia tugged at the child’s chubby cheeks.
“I was playing with my daughter’s cheeks, that’s what.”
At first, when she actually gave me a proper name—Lira—and even called me by it, I was deeply moved.
Moved that Jeussia might still have room for redemption… and touched that I might truly have a mother.
But that feeling didn’t last long. In fact, it was cut short almost immediately.
Because—
‘Stop touching my cheeks, you devil mother!’
As if what she did earlier wasn’t enough, she kept squishing and kneading my cheeks without pause.
She even pressed them flat or pulled them until they stretched.
To be fair, my cheeks are soft and squishy—I’ve secretly poked them myself.
But still! There should be limits!
‘At this rate, my cheeks are going to wear out!’
Of course, I didn’t have the guts to tell her to stop, so I resigned myself to letting her hands do as they pleased.
“Your Majesty!”
Maybe that’s why the sudden shout from outside felt like such a blessing.
The sharp voice belonged to a tall, slender young man.
His furrowed brow gave him a rather sharp, irritable look, but handsome was handsome all the same.
First the physician earlier, and now this—why were all the men around here so ridiculously good-looking? Wait, hold on.
Blue-black hair. Dark eyes.
Unlike the doctor, this stranger’s face looked strangely familiar.
‘Male Lead #2, Clove Chest!’
Clove, the loyal hound from a prestigious knightly family, who devotedly protected the heroine Sinope. He was so popular he rivaled the main male lead, Saffron.
He was also fun to tease, and in the later half of the story Jeussia teased him relentlessly… cough.
Fearing another nosebleed, I pushed away those impure thoughts and looked closely again.
‘But isn’t he too slim to be Clove?’
In the original, Clove Chest was described as a broad-shouldered, well-built man with an impressive chest.
Even if he hadn’t bulked up yet, he felt different from the original portrayal.
Wait a second—Clove was only a year older than Sinope.
Which meant right now, he’d be at most ten years old…
After a moment of thought, I realized who this lookalike must be.
‘Clove’s father—Monarda Chest!’
He was a major figure in the original story, the head of the Chest Marquisate—one of the Four Great Houses central to the plot.
It wouldn’t hurt to get on his good side. With that thought, I gave him a bright smile.
“Hello!”
I smiled so wide that my words came out a little slurred, but being polite mattered more than perfect pronunciation.
Because in the original, Monarda Chest was practically obsessed with etiquette.
Not only etiquette—he was overly strict about procedures and rules as well.
In fact, that very obsession strained his relationship with his two sons in the original.
Until the story began, his sons Citrus and Clove lived not in the capital townhouse but down south in the Chest territory—ostensibly for sword training, but really because they couldn’t get along with their father.
Looking at the stern-faced marquis, I smiled again.
After staring at me for a long moment, his lips finally parted.
“Her Majesty’s daughter…”
Yes! That’s me!
I smiled even more brightly as if to confirm his words.
“No wonder they call you the Brown Bear Marquis. You’re always so noisy.”
“I’ve asked Your Majesty countless times not to call me that.”
“Ah, you asked what I was doing, didn’t you?”
When he first entered, it felt like Monarda was controlling the atmosphere.
But after just a few exchanges, Jeussia had completely seized the upper hand.
“I was playing with my daughter’s cheeks, that’s what.”
Monarda’s face went pale, as if all color had drained away.
It seemed the word “daughter” from Jeussia’s lips shocked him—or perhaps the mere fact of my presence terrified him.
“By the way, for someone who values etiquette so highly, you barged into my chambers without permission. Strange, isn’t it?”
Jeussia’s voice broke the uncomfortable silence.
“And on top of that, you made a mistake with her title. Quite the unusual slip for someone who worships rules and protocol.”
“Her… title?”
At his puzzled question, Jeussia smirked, tucking my messy hair behind my ear and whispering:
“You should call her Princess, not ‘Her Majesty’s daughter.’”
“…Your Majesty, the child has not been officially entered into the imperial genealogy, so the title of princess is inappropriate.”
So I wasn’t a princess just by being named.
I made a mental note to ask Jeussia to grant me the official status of princess soon.
“Who said she hasn’t been entered?”
“Pardon? But since Your Majesty’s ascension, no records have been kept, so obviously… wait, don’t tell me.”
“That’s exactly what you think. Want proof?”
Before he could finish his guess, a golden book dropped at Monarda’s feet with a thud.
There was no time to marvel at how casually Jeussia handled such an ominous-looking book—because Monarda immediately picked it up and screamed.
“Your Majesty, what is the meaning of this!”
He shoved the book right under Jeussia’s nose, giving me a glimpse of its contents.
Thankfully, I had learned to read earlier than most so I could work as “Investor L.”
‘Let’s see… looks like names, not words.’
Scanning the unfamiliar list of names, I found Jeussia’s, and realized this was the imperial genealogy Monarda had mentioned.
But something was strange.
Beneath the name of the current emperor, Jeussia, was another name.
Unlike the previous entries, there was no spouse’s name—just a straight line connecting Jeussia to this other name.
A name recorded as the child of Jeussia, without a father.
That name was—
Orpherira Norn la Kishtvan.
The very name Jeussia had just given me.
‘How is this name already written in the genealogy?’
Before I could puzzle it out, Jeussia spoke again.
“What do you think it is? Proof that you’ve been disrespectful to a princess.”
“When did Your Majesty write this!”
“Does it matter? What matters is that at the moment you failed to address her properly, it was already written.”
Monarda glared at Jeussia’s languidly smiling lips, then ground out his words.
“There is no law in this world that allows the imperial genealogy to be altered without the approval of the Elder Council, Your Majesty!”
At that, Jeussia’s smile disappeared completely.
A chilling, murderous aura swept the room, sending shivers down my spine.
It didn’t take long to realize it came from Jeussia herself.
“…Ha. Even after I explained it so kindly, you just have to keep barking.”
“What did you just say…!”
“Marquis Chest.”
Her low voice called his name—and by then, Jeussia was already rising from the bed.
“Kh…! Your Maj—”
“Since when did the Eastern Empire have laws?”
