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The Kingdom of Nieta, the country where Liliana was born and raised as a princess, lost the war disastrously.
It was because the high-purity mana stone’s price, which was only found in the Kingdom of Nieta, was raised significantly with some confidence while trading smoothly with Carlo Empire.
Carlo Empire had said several times to lower the price, but the King of Nieta didn’t even listen.
When the war broke out, the Kingdom of Nieta felt the empire’s great power and was defeated helplessly.
The emperor of the empire, Helio Carlo, said through a messenger:
“I command King of Nieta to give the kingdom’s princess. I will return to the empire with the princess.”
King of Nieta lowered his head and wept at the end of the messenger’s words.
It was undoubtedly a good thing for the princess to be the empress of the empire. As long as it does not go in the form of a defeated nation hostage.
There was no way the princess would be treated well and live freely. Receive favors? Don’t expect that.
Carlo Empire would have thought of shackling the Kingdom of Nieta by referring to the empress whenever needed.
Thus, all five princesses of the Kingdom of Nieta gathered in the audience room.
“Which one of my precious daughters should I let go?”
The King of Nieta looked at his favorite eldest daughter, Princess Riley. She was a noble daughter who might become king in the future. It was absolutely impossible.
He then looked at the second, third… and even the fourth princess, but he couldn’t let them go. They were all his dearest daughters he loved so much that he couldn’t help it.
“Who the hell out of these four….”
The attendant whispered to the lamenting King of Nieta.
“Your Majesty, the last princess remains.”
The fifth princess was Princess Liliana. Her pink hair was like cotton candy, and her youthful cheeks were pale and shiny.
Also, her pink eyes full of concern were round and lovely. She had already had her coming of age ceremony, but she was relatively short and skinny, so she looked like a teenage girl. This lovely girl was unfortunately completely forgotten by King of Nieta.
“All right!”
King of Nieta’s tearful eyes gleamed. And everyone there looked at Liliana. Liliana gulped, feeling all gazes on her.
“You, you were there. Your name… what was your name?”
Even the princess’s name, born by King of Nieta one-night mistake, was obscured. Liliana muttered in a miserable mood.
“I’m Liliana, Your Majesty.”
“Yes, Liliana! You will be the hero who saves this country!”
As soon as Liliana heard those words, she bowed her head forward and collapsed. The other princesses’ screams erupted, and King of Nieta also shouted in a very perplexed voice.
“Wake up quickly! Call all the doctors! I will punish you all if Princess Liliana is not allowed to go as a hostage!”
***
Having become a hero to save the Kingdom of Nieta, Liliana woke up with six doctors looking at her. The doctors all looked relieved and asked Liliana to get up.
Then Sophia, the maid who was standing next to Liliana, wept and said.
“Congratulations, your highness Princess Liliana. It is said that your highness’ mother has been granted the title of countess.”
Liliana’s mother was a maid in the royal court of commoner origin. But in one night she becomes a countess. There has never been such a career advancement. She could be said to be the one who sold her daughter at the highest price.
But her mother could not be happy with the news, and Sophia also congratulated her, but she only considered the public eye. Sophia’s voice was full of despair.
“Yes, please tell the king that I’m grateful.”
Liliana said with dark, subdued eyes.
“Are you feeling well?”
One of the doctors asked impatiently, and Liliana nodded her head.
“I’m tired, so I want everyone to leave. I’ll call you again if necessary.”
The doctors repeated it several times very desperately and urged her to call them if she wasn’t feeling well. The King of Nieta would kill them if they didn’t heal Liliana properly.
After everyone left, Liliana bit her lower lip and stared into the air in the quiet room.
“I have to run away.”
When everyone, including King of Nieta, looked at her in the audience room earlier, Liliana had a sudden realization.
The story of a princess abandoned in her own country becoming a hostage to the empire and becoming an empress; where has she heard of it?
This was a world in a romance fantasy, and also in the childcare novel 「The Pink-haired Princess is not Abandoned」.
As the title says, it is a story about a female protagonist with pink hair like cotton candy, melting the heart of the emperor, who is the father, to make a daughter fool who will never exist in the world; and Liliana in her previous life enjoyed reading the book.
However, she was not the main character in the story, nor the supporting role who became happy… she reincarnated as a mother character destined to die after giving birth to the female protagonist! This was the worst.
Obviously, she would die in the future if she was just quietly taken as a hostage and became the empress. Liliana got up from the empty room and started collecting all her belongings.
Even if she was a forgotten princess, she was receiving gold, and the money she had saved as a princess with a dark future was quite a lot.
With all jewels in her pocket, Liliana waited for the night to come with all jewels in her pocket before escaping from the window by making a string with the curtain. She even managed to crawl into the stable and pull out a horse….
“In the Kingdom of Nieta, horse food is mixed with magic stones. Because of that, the horses are very healthy… oh my.”
This was the attendant’s voice. As soon as she pulled the horse out of the stable, she faced him.
“Your Highness Princess Liliana! A-are you running away?!”
The attendant shouted loudly, and Liliana rode the horse with a despairing look on her face. She was about to leave the palace, but a tall man standing behind the servant suddenly grabbed the reins and jumped onto the running horse.
“W-what!”
Liliana pulled the reins hard in surprise, and the horse raised its front paws and wept loudly. As the commotion broke out, the guards who were patrolling around the area rushed toward them.
“Your Highness Princess Liliana!”
“Your Highness Princess Liliana! Please come down!”
The guards shouted out one by one. Liliana clenched the reins in anger.
If she got caught like this, the surveillance would get worse and she wouldn’t be able to run away. She blamed herself for not making a proper plan because she was in a hurry, and most of all, she hated the man behind her.
“Hey! It’s all ruined because of you!”
Liliana shouted as she glanced at the man behind her. Then she heard the guards gasping in surprise.
“P-p-p-princess Liliana. He, he’s….”
Liliana glared at the attendant this time. But his old face was white as a blank sheet of paper, to the point that he could still be seen floating in the middle of the night. And the stuttering words were very suspicious.
Liliana parted her lips repeatedly and then turned again. The blue flame-like eyes that were never obscured by the darkness were looking at her.
The man raised one corner of his mouth with a face as if he looked at something really insignificant.
“My hostage was trying to run away.”
She could tell even without the attendant finishing the sentence.
This man… was the emperor of the Carlo Empire, Helio.
What could Liliana do against the emperor of the Carlo Empire? Liliana somehow twisted her body to get away from Helio.
Helio held Liliana’s waist tightly, thinking she was running away. Then he jumped off the horse before Liliana could do anything. She screamed in surprise.
“I-I will fall…!”
“You won’t fall.”
Helio whispered into Liliana’s ear. His low-pitched voice gave her goosebumps to the point the soles of her feet were tingling.
However, a little relief came soon after. Helio didn’t hold on to Liliana long and put her straight to the ground. Liliana stepped back as if she wanted to run away from Helio’s arms, but the huge horse was blocking her from behind.
“Hic!”
The horse rumbled nervously and exhaled a rough breath as there were a lot of people standing around, and Liliana began to spit out hiccups intermittently. She covered her mouth, but she couldn’t stay like that forever.
Helio’s gaze was very sharp but he looked strangely happy. Liliana thought it was her illusion and was courteously greeted.
“… I see Carlo Empire, hic! His Majesty the Emperor, hic!”
In the meantime, of course, the hiccups didn’t stop. Liliana covered her mouth again. Helio looked at Liliana and asked sarcastically.
“Princess Liliana?”
Liliana nodded, still covering her mouth. Helio moaned, stroking her own sleek, sharp chin, and ruffled her neck. He muttered as he looked at Liliana’s pale face.
“I’m sure you’re my hostage, but you run away late at night, how courageous.”
“I’m not running away, I’m going for a walk.”
Liliana tried her final resistance. However, it was unlikely that he would be acting like an idiot emperor and deceived by these words as she spits her words out.
A short laugh was heard above the top of her head. As Liliana lifted her head, Helio was smiling so that his white teeth were exposed. Liliana stared at the handsome face with a shiver of excitement.
Helio didn’t look at Liliana for long before turning his back straight away.
“Y-your Majesty! Where are you going?”
The attendant asked urgently and chased him. Instead of answering the attendant, Helio turned his head and looked at Liliana. He pointed at Liliana with the tip of his chin and spoke briefly.
“Hostage, come with me.”
Then he began to go his own way again. Liliana was so overwhelmed that her hiccups stopped.
‘I’m so unlucky!’
She wanted to shout like that; she couldn’t finish the runaway she started because she wanted to live and avoid her death. Liliana kept her mouth shut and was dragged along like a dog with a leash.