♡ Chapter 9 ♡
(The Hidden Disciple Hides His Power)
The next day, after resting well, I got ready early in the morning in good condition. After finishing my meal, I went straight to the Magic Tower.
To the maids, I lightly explained that I had started a small research project, and that Kanyak had prepared a warp stone with movement magic for me.
Since it had not been long since I got out of bed, if I suddenly confessed that I could use magic, I felt like the aftermath would be impossible to handle.
‘Last time I was too busy going back and forth between life and death to look around properly, so should I take a quick look this time?’
After confirming that Kanyak was not yet in the lab where we had agreed to meet, I quickly started walking around the Tower, planning to look around before he came.
“Good morning, Princess!”
“Princess, good morning!”
As a result of walking around the Magic Tower here and there, first of all, the people passed.
Everyone greeted me brightly, and their expressions were generally good too.
Though every single one of them had long dark circles under their eyes, anyway.
‘Each department is full of people, and the materials room is also being managed well…’
Because Kanyak’s personality had changed so much, I had worried there might be weak points in management, but unlike my concerns, the Magic Tower was running quite normally.
While I was walking down the hallway, an excited mage’s voice came from one of the labs.
“At last, we created a capsule that makes you feel extreme fullness after eating just one!”
“Oh, with just that, people will no longer need to eat?”
“Yes! The food shortage problem will be solved!”
“Everyone will die of malnutrition. Is your dream to become a world-class murderer?”
“Yes! …Ah?”
“Make it again.”
…
“…Yes…”
It did seem like they were doing everything they wanted a little too much, but anyway, overall it was running just as well as when I had been here.
At this level, I did not think I needed to worry anymore.
“It’s alright.”
“What is?”
“Better than expected— ah!”
I answered without thinking when a voice suddenly cut in, and then Kanyak’s face came into view.
Wearing a black gown loosely over his shoulders, he came to stand beside me, looking very sensitive from tiredness.
“Kanyak, when did you get here?”
“Just now. If you’re done looking around, let’s go up.”
The moment he suddenly grabbed my hand, silence fell among all the mages who had been secretly glancing this way.
Even the sound of water droplets rolling between flasks stopped, and someone stammered through the quiet.
“H-hands… Lord Kanyak is holding the Princess’s hand…?”
At the faint voice, Kanyak turned his eyes with annoyance.
Then everyone immediately went back to acting busy as if nothing had happened.
“They have too much free time.”
Since we had unintentionally drawn everyone’s attention, I tried to pull my hand away, but Kanyak instead held on even tighter and headed upstairs.
Leading me with long steps into the prepared lab, Kanyak shared all the research reports and results from the past five years.
Everything was neatly organized, and the values were cleanly classified by category, so it did not take long to understand the progress.
After that, it was nice that he listened carefully to what I said throughout the meeting.
It really was nice.
But…
“Are we doing a haunted house experience right now? Why are you running experiments with this much thrill?”
“Did you buy life insurance for the researchers, by any chance? If not, say so now. I’ll get it signed.”
“Do you at least know where the fire extinguisher is? If not, memorize it. It feels like a disaster is coming soon.”
In the middle of everything, the way he kept scraping at my nerves like that really made me angry.
Back when I was in graduate school in Korea, there had been a senior who pressed me in exactly that way.
Ah. PTSD.
‘Still, I think his true nature really is kind, right?’
He spoke in the most crooked way possible, but if you listened carefully, most of it was about people’s safety.
By the time the eventful meeting ended, with me and the researchers improving the weak points together, the night had already grown deep.
“Aigoo…”
I had been trapped in the lab from morning until night, so groaning came out on its own.
It felt no different from when I had been Lusha. Even a nightmare would be less terrible than this!
On top of that, for some reason, Kanyak stayed stuck right beside me the whole time and never seemed to think of moving away.
Was it because he thought I might collapse?
Fortunately, I had felt good all day today.
It almost felt like someone had been quietly pouring power into me the whole time from beside me.
Still, that did not mean my fatigue had disappeared, so when I staggered back to the Imperial Palace, Shi was waiting for me.
“Princess, you have finally returned…!”
“Oh? Delsi. Were you waiting for me? I told you not to wait since you never know when I’ll come back.”
“But there is news I absolutely had to tell you. It is… he has finally returned!”
Shi delivered the news in a voice full of excitement, her brown eyes sparkling.
Who had returned for her to be this happy?
“Hm? Returned? Who?”
“Oh, who else would it be! Your fiancé, Young Duke Haver! It has been half a year since he left to subdue magical beasts, so you haven’t seen him at all.”
“…Ah.”
Eain Haver!
Someone I had completely forgotten about had appeared.
The Haver family was the only one among the Empire’s three great ducal houses that did not have imperial blood mixed in.
Its eldest son, Eain, was Sierra’s longtime fiancé and the second male lead in the original story.
“As soon as the Young Duke returned from the subjugation, he paid his respects to His Majesty, and then he waited for Your Highness until late, but just a little while ago he finally returned to the ducal residence.”
…
Shi stamped her feet, saying it was such a pity that the timing had not worked out.
“Eain must have been tired too. You should have just told him to come another time.”
“Well, all of us also told him that, since we did not know when Your Highness would return, but even so, he said he would wait… and then a message came from the ducal residence, so only then did he leave.”
‘Ugh. In that case, I really have no choice but to invite Eain.’
After hearing the situation, it was obvious that if I ignored his visit like this, people would start talking here and there.
It couldn’t be helped.
He wasn’t someone I could avoid forever anyway.
“Tomorrow afternoon, it would be good to serve him some tea. Delsi, send word to the Haver ducal house.”
If I stopped by the Magic Tower early in the morning to supervise production and then came straight to the palace, the timing should work out more or less.
I was about to leave it at that, when Shi added a question with a puzzled look.
“Oh? Aren’t you going to write a letter this time too?”
Only then did I remember that Sierra had always invited Eain to the palace through letters she personally wrote.
I was thinking, Do I really have to write a handwritten letter? but Delsi’s eyes looked far too serious.
That look resembled the faces the elders of the Magic Tower used to make when they poured out their piled-up complaints.
“I will. Of course I was going to…”
And just like that, I was handed writing paper by Shi and quickly wrote a simple message.
[Eain, I heard that you successfully completed the subjugation and returned safely. I would like to serve refreshments prepared with care for the one who worked so hard, so would you please come to the Princess Palace?]
After finishing the letter, I handed it to Shi, but once again, shining eyes fell on me.
As if she truly could not believe it, her pupils were trembling slightly.
No, was it really that bad?
“Princess, are you really going to send it like this? Compared to usual, it is far too stiff! Even reports are not this dry.”
…
Well, now that I thought about it, the real Sierra probably had written more sweetly than this.
Like calling him Eain♡ in a friendly way, for example.
‘But that was when they were children. We’re grown up now, so I can’t call him that casually.’
Eain would understand this much.
No, he might even like how neat and simple it was.
In the original story, the Eain I saw was an extremely rational man.
“Yes, send it like that.”
“Understood!”
Eain Haver was a man with brilliant golden hair like the sun itself, and beautiful blue eyes as clear as the sky.
His connection with Sierra went back a very long way, all the way to a marriage arrangement made before they were even born.
For the strong bond between House Haver and the Glacis Imperial Family, Eain had stayed beside Sierra—who had been sick from birth—almost like one body.
‘Eain had also been just a child, yet they said he faithfully took care of sickly Sierra. Almost like he was her real guardian.’
On the days when Sierra suffered from high fever, he would dismiss all the maids and personally change her wet cloths through the entire night.
If she collapsed, he would always be there beside her to support her himself.
People around them called that sight love, but in the original story, Eain’s feelings were described as duty.
He saw it as something he naturally had to do, as the man who would become the Imperial Princess’s husband.
‘Later, Eain grew into a splendid Sword Master, and at a party he happened to attend, he met the heroine as if by fate and fell in love at first sight.’
But because he was Sierra’s fiancé, he could not even confess once to the heroine and ended up carrying his unhappy love alone.
It was exactly the sorrowful fate of the typical second male lead in a novel.
“…Let him go.”
That child had spent his whole life looking only at me.
Now it was time to let him go.
If someone asked Eain what his wish was, he would surely answer—
Breaking off the engagement with me.
When I met Eain tomorrow, I should tell him he had worked hard all this time, and give him annulment papers as a gift.
And if there was anything else he wanted, I should grant that too.
‘Eain is a young duke, so he can’t be the first one to speak of breaking the engagement. I have no choice but to help him.’
