Chapter 43
On her way back to her room, Kartia suddenly remembered something and glanced back at the drawing room.
“I said I’d accept his apology… oh well.”
She felt it was too much of a bother to go back, so she just continued on to her room.
Following behind her, Fabia stole a sideways glance at her.
“If you have something to say, then say it,” Kartia said, sensing the gaze on her back.
“What’s the issue now?”
“Prince Evia’s rudeness seems to be getting worse.”
“I’m the same, aren’t I?”
“But you’re a princess.”
Even if both sides were rude, one was a direct member of the royal family, and the other the heir of a duke’s household.
In terms of power, Kartia naturally stood on higher ground.
“So what? I’m not even a properly recognized heir, nor do I wield any real authority.”
“Even so, royal law must still be respected. Honestly, the Ceylon twins are in the same boat.”
“It’s fine. We’re just kids.”
Kartia shrugged as she turned back. Fabia started to say something more, but then closed her mouth.
The class system didn’t make allowances for youth. Even noble children who had spoken ill of Kartia had been arrested for royal defamation.
The punishments might be slightly reduced, but that didn’t mean they’d be avoided altogether.
“Not just Your Highness, but Prince Evia might get into serious trouble too. The twins, at least, maintain proper manners in public, so they’re lucky. But Prince Evia is the problem. He’s supposed to become a royal knight—he’ll be judged by stricter standards.”
Fabia was trying to say that, for Kaiyan’s sake, such rude behavior needed to be kept in check. But Kartia just gave another indifferent shrug.
“That’s all in the future. Isn’t it too early to worry about that…?”
She trailed off, giving a playful smile.
She swallowed the words rising in her throat and pushed them back down.
This was her fourth life living as Kartia Vistid.
No matter how many memories she made, no matter how much time she spent with loved ones—when time turned back, none of it remained.
She was the only one who remembered.
If her life were to repeat once more, even this moment would vanish into nothing, forgotten by everyone.
So Kartia didn’t intend to cling to the little things. If she spent all her strength and attention on each one, she wouldn’t have anything left in the end.
Would she eventually crave a complete death… or go mad?
As the smile slowly faded from Kartia’s face and silence lingered, Fabia bit her lip.
It felt like her words had touched something deep within Kartia—but she didn’t know what. All she could do now was what she could.
Fabia reached out and held Kartia’s small hand, sharing her warmth.
That small warmth grounded Kartia, reminding her that this place was real and tethering her to the present.
On the way to her room, Kartia held onto Fabia’s hand like a little child and wouldn’t let go. Fabia, feeling the slight tremble in her grip, had to fight back tears.
***
As the foreign delegation drew nearer to the capital, Kartia’s imperial studies exam also approached.
After discussions among the nobles, they decided to hold the imperial studies test before evaluating her diplomatic skills.
Only two days remained until the exam.
Kartia turned the page of the newsletter she was reading, her eyes filled with resolve.
[ The Massacre of the Mad Baroness’s Family—Was There a Hidden Truth? ]
The bold headline was splashed across the top of the second page.
Kartia quickly scanned the article below.
[ The wife of Baron A, rumored to suffer from mental illness, one day reportedly went mad and slaughtered her entire family with a dagger. How such a small woman managed to kill the burly baron, his heir, and his daughter is unclear. But new truths have emerged: it turns out she wasn’t mad at all. She had been pretending for over ten years. After the massacre, she calmly turned herself in and was taken in for investigation. What really went on in this baron’s household? Our special correspondent, Muren Bolet, investigates. ]
“Your Highness…!”
Fabia, alarmed that Kartia was reading such a paper at her age, snatched it away.
“Ah, no!! That was just getting to the good part…!”
The newsletter was known as the Empire’s top gossip and scandal source—always packed with intriguing stories.
Just as Kartia was about to dive into the juicy details, Fabia snatched it away. Kartia stomped her feet in frustration.
“As your princess, I command you! Bring it back!”
Kartia gave her a stern glare, but Fabia only sighed deeply.
“You’ve been studying so well up until now—why are you acting like this all of a sudden? The exam’s in just two days!”
“Ugh…!”
Kartia knew that very well.
But just look at the state of her room.
Books piled like mountains on the desk. Shelves stuffed with volumes on every wall. Everything was for studying and studying only.
A new study room had even been set up in the Princess’s Palace just for this exam. It had been mostly neglected until now, given how young Kartia was.
Now it was finally being used properly, but the problem lay in her heart.
“When does this endless studying end!”
As soon as she woke, she had a light meal, then took all the supplements Lianus had sent.
Ever since his first gift, Lianus sent new health tonics every day.
They were made by top apothecaries with safe ingredients for children, but to Kartia they might as well have been poison.
After downing them, she had to complete the previous day’s assignments from Count Godia. Then either Godia or Ence would arrive.
At first, they kept to a schedule—but now they seemed to have coordinated in secret, and she never knew who might show up when.
Of course, this whole situation was partly Kartia’s fault.
By procrastinating on assignments and trying to escape with the twins, she’d provoked Count Godia into making random surprise visits.
“Your Highness, only two days left. Please focus.”
With teary eyes, Kartia had no choice but to open her books.
Today’s assignment? Of course, it was math.
“Why do I even have to learn these formulas?”
Just looking at the twisted geometric figures and numbers made her feel nauseous.
“Count Godia said it himself, didn’t he? That math is essential if you’re going to read public documents and reports as emperor. And some scholars say learning all fields helps develop balanced cognitive abilities.”
She knew. She knew very well.
Count Godia had repeated it so many times it was engraved in her brain.
He always said, “To understand the world deeply and from many angles, study is essential.”
But Kartia felt like crying.
She was only seven years old.
The problems in front of her weren’t something a seven-year-old could solve.
And again, it was her fault.
Back in her real life, she’d taken the college entrance exam. So when Count Godia first gave her questions, she found them too easy and solved them quickly.
That gleam in Godia’s eyes had turned into madness.
“Even His Majesty the Emperor had great talent for mathematics, but Your Highness…”
He said that even the word “genius” couldn’t describe her and began bringing her completely unreasonable problems.
Questions from college-level courses started appearing, and when Kartia flipped the desk in frustration, asking what this had to do with being a ruler, Count Godia, like a mad university professor, didn’t back down.
And so, she was now stuck suffering through impossibly hard math.
“Fabia. Be honest. Do you really think this will be on the imperial exam?”
Fabia glanced at the problem Kartia held—and staggered from dizziness.
“Ugh… e-even so, you still have to do it…”
“Everyone’s gone mad! Every single one of them!”
Kartia flung her assignment in rage, and Fabia dived to catch it.
Her reflexes had been improving lately. She neatly gathered the papers and placed them back in front of Kartia.
“Your Highness, just endure two more days. After that, I’ll block whatever comes your way.”
Given the madness in Count Godia’s eyes lately, it didn’t seem like he’d leave Kartia alone even after the exam.
But Fabia, with a determined face, hooked her pinky and made a promise.
“Just hold on for two more days.”
Seeing Fabia like that, Kartia tearfully picked up her pen again.
It felt like reliving the nightmare of college entrance exam prep.
As she worked through a problem, Kartia raised her reddened eyes.
“Th-then… can I just clean the desk first? Isn’t it kinda dirty…?”
“Your Highness… we cleaned it thirty minutes ago. And an hour before that too. Please just study.”
“Sniff…”
As Kartia sniffled and wrote with her pen, Fabia looked away, doing her best to suppress the ache in her heart.
The sheer intensity of study had long since surpassed the level of a royal exam—only madness remained now, like a third-year high school self-study room.
