Chapter 25
That day, even though he clearly disliked it, Kayan still begrudgingly chewed and swallowed the cookies Kartia fed him one by one.
He wouldn’t eat even when she offered or put them in his hand, so she had no choice but to shove them into his mouth—only then would he reluctantly eat them.
Seeing this, Kartia grinned mischievously, stuck close to him, and continued feeding him all the cookies directly into his mouth. In the end, Kayan stormed out in a fit of rage.
She couldn’t understand why he got so angry—he was clearly fine with being fed, after all.
After he left, Pavia, looking dead serious, took Kartia’s hand and began spewing strange words.
“Your Highness, you must become Emperor. If a woman becomes Emperor, she can have many consorts and even a lover. Of course, it’s too early to talk about that for you, but when I see you now, I feel like I see the potential. When I think about Tristan’s innocent little face having to endure all this… I could cry…”
Kartia was convinced that psychology book Pavia had been reading was the real problem and secretly tossed it out the window. Unfortunately, the book ended up hitting a passing maid, sparking a ridiculous rumor in the palace that the princess enjoyed bullying maids for fun.
After hearing that rumor, Pavia turned the maids’ quarters upside down, which eventually escalated into maids grabbing each other by the hair and breaking out into fights.
Today was the day Enche was scheduled to visit.
Just as Enche stepped inside, she froze in shock at the sight of Pavia—her eye bruised and her lip split.
How could a personal maid of the imperial princess be this badly injured?
Still, Enche, being a woman of depth, assumed something must have happened and chose not to ask. She continued walking—until her steps faltered again.
On one side of Kartia’s room, several maids in similar condition sat at temporary desks, feverishly writing something across sheets of paper.
“Your Highness… what exactly is going on here…?”
Enche asked, her eyes trembling like leaves in the wind. Kartia just shrugged.
“Ah, the maids were spreading false rumors about me, so they’re being punished.”
Only after peeking at the papers did Enche realize what they were all writing:
“Her Highness the Princess is thoughtful, gentle, and beautiful.”
Just as Kartia braced herself, unsure of how Enche would react, Enche frowned sternly and said,
“Your Highness. If the palace maids dare to spread baseless lies, they should be punished more harshly. Did the head maid say nothing?”
“She said I should beat them, but I didn’t think it was necessary.”
“Goodness… These maids are lucky indeed. To be serving someone as kind-hearted as you…”
The maids visibly flinched and shrank.
“You may leave now. If this happens again, I’ll tell my father. Keep that in mind.”
Their faces pale, the maids quickly bowed and hurried out. Enche sighed deeply and pressed her forehead.
“Your Highness is too gentle for your own good. As the mistress of this place, sometimes you must be strict.”
“Hmm… I don’t think I’m that gentle.”
“I also heard about what happened at the Tristan Marquisate. After hearing that, I felt that Your Highness needs to make some friends.”
“Why do all of you—Enche, the Duke of Evia, even my dad—come to the same conclusion? My dad has no friends and he’s fine.”
…Is he though? Well, he seems to get by just fine without any.
Enche gave her a warm, understanding look and said sweetly,
“That’s why I’ve brought someone today to introduce to you. I hope they’ll become good friends with you.”
A chill ran down Kartia’s spine.
She instantly realized who Enche meant.
“Come in.”
At her call, the door opened, and two bright, tangerine-orange heads peeked in.
Their eyes widened the moment they saw Kartia, full of blatant curiosity and mischief.
As she looked at what her future now held, Kartia felt a blur come over her vision.
Nathan Sielon and Ludan Sielon—twins.
Kartia had first met them during her first life after transmigrating, while under the care of the Duke of Evia.
News had spread that the princess had escaped the emperor’s grip and found refuge at the Evia Duchy, but no one dared knock on the Duke’s door.
The Duchess rarely showed her face at social gatherings, so few knew what was happening inside the Duchy.
Then came Countess Enche Sielon, boldly knocking on that unyielding door.
She claimed she came to check whether the princess was doing well and being treated right.
Just a noble lady, and yet her presence was so formidable that the Duke permitted her to meet Kartia.
When they met, Enche merely held Kartia’s hand in silence for a long time.
Later, Kartia learned that even while she was imprisoned in the tower, Enche had begged the Emperor to let her tutor the princess.
What moved Enche so deeply, Kartia never knew.
Maybe it was the memory of a child who had once smiled innocently in the arms of the warm-hearted Empress.
So Kartia believed—Enche’s children would surely be like her.
Crash!
A porcelain rabbit crafted by a master shattered into pieces.
Who knew why a master would even make a rabbit-shaped porcelain statue? It had been one of many gifts from the Duke of Evia.
Gifts from the Duke were nothing new in every lifetime—easy enough to ignore.
“What is this? Why does the curtain look like this?”
It looks like a curtain because it is a curtain.
Before Kartia could think further—Rip!—it was torn to shreds.
“Eek! You mustn’t do that!”
“Huh? I just touched it. Why did it tear?”
A curtain tearing from just a touch—how strange.
Kartia’s eyes lost their focus.
It had been only five minutes since Enche left them alone, thinking kids should play with kids—and now this?
“Your Highness! Do something!”
Pavia was pulling her hair out chasing the twins while the other maids scrambled to fix the chaos.
The twins, who had behaved like perfect little lambs before their mother, were now treating the princess’s palace like their playground.
“Tia! Come over here!”
Nathan grabbed Kartia’s hand and started dragging her off.
“You can’t call the princess that! Eek! Your Highness!”
Nathan picked her up and jumped out the window.
As she looked back, Kartia saw Pavia stumble and collapse in shock. Probably up and chasing again in a second.
Nathan landed effortlessly in the first-floor garden and set her down.
“I just saw a puppy here. Is it yours, Tia?”
There’s no way a puppy lives in the princess’s palace.
But before she could even answer, Ludan leapt down, grabbed her other hand, and both began dragging her away.
“It went this way!”
“No, that way!”
They didn’t even wait for her answer.
“Huh? What’s this?”
“What, it’s just a flower. Hurry up! We’re gonna lose the puppy!”
A gardener collapsed to his knees in the distance, staring at the trampled flowerbed.
“Over here! For real this time!”
With both hands held, Kartia was barely touching the ground as they dragged her along.
This was one of the many problems with the twins.
As sons of a border-count’s household, their physical development was exceptional.
Stronger and bigger than their peers, they didn’t know how to control their excessive strength and now just lifted Kartia by the waist and sprinted.
“Your Highness—!”
Pavia had finally reached the first floor and bellowed like a lioness.
“Eek! It’s the witch!”
The twins laughed gleefully and ran into a hedge, diving toward a corner.
“Found the puppy!”
Wait… there really was a puppy?
Kartia looked where Ludan pointed and saw a tiny pup, trembling in fear like a hunted animal.
Its fluffy white fur and quivering black eyes screamed, “Humans are terrifying!”
“It really is a puppy…”
Kartia gently took it into her arms. The pup whimpered and snuggled close.
Compared to the animal-like twins, Kartia must have seemed safer.
“Do you like it?”
“Do you?”
“Yeah.”
Their amber-orange eyes sparkled as they asked.
“If Tia likes it, it’s yours.”
“You should call me Kartia. And you can’t just make up nicknames for royalty.”
“Okay. Tia.”
They didn’t listen at all.
“Actually, we brought it just for Tia.”
“For me?”
“Yep! We heard there was an angel in the palace, so we brought a gift.”
So they just released a puppy into the palace grounds as a gift? Normal logic could never follow this thinking.
The puppy, still trembling, burrowed into Kartia’s dress. Nathan smiled.
“It suits you. Tia’s soft and cute, and so is the puppy.”
“Haa…”
Kartia pressed her forehead with a sigh.
The twins’ biggest problem? They were unnervingly good at reading people who were soft on them.
And once they liked someone, they didn’t hold back their affection.
“I don’t like fairytales much, but if Tia were an illustration in one, I’d read it every day. I’ll bring another gift next time.”
They reached out both hands to her, clearly asking her to come.
With the puppy in one arm, Kartia sighed and stood.
Only one hand was free—how was she supposed to choose?
In the end, she reached out and took both hands. The twins’ eyes curved happily in unison.
“You’re really pretty, Tia.”
“Yeah. Super pretty.”
Ah, she remembered now.
The first ones to ever say Kartia looked prettiest when she smiled—were these twins.
