/
Sometimes It Has a Softer Appeal Than a Sword (2)
The king looked more confident than ever.
It seemed that his soul, which had faded under despair and failure, had finally recovered its original light.
My heart tickled, and regardless of my will, my mouth kept stinging. The sound of the king’s footsteps softly cutting through the middle of the nobles rang in my heart. It really was a strange feeling that I couldn’t express.
To define it: “That’s cool.” I think my emotion was close to one of satisfaction.
I went down from the dais and met the king.
‘Tuk.’
The king patted my shoulder lightly and climbed onto the platform. From beneath the dais, I watched the king. When I had first met him, I didn’t get along with him at all. But not so now.
I could bet that, even if his current descendants were upon the throne, the position would not fit them better than it does the king. It wasn’t just because of the effects of the elixir which the king had taken. The king’s present dignity came from the strength he had gained after realizing his true self when faced with death. In addition, it was the character that had been born in him from the beginning but was trampled cruelly by the Empire and eventually broken. Now, he had finally recovered it. The edges of my lips crawled up into a grin.
For a day or so, it wouldn’t be bad for me to sit on my throne and stay quiet. It seemed like it would be okay for me to remain seated and have my spirits raised by the king’s face.
I thought so, and I was sure that I would do so. If the king hadn’t suddenly hit me from behind with his proclamation, I would have done so.
“If there is someone who wins the heart of the prince, that woman will become the Crown Princess.”
I became fish-eyed, dumb.
“I don’t care about her lineage, her origin and background, or anything.”
I looked at the king with my mouth open.
However, the king looked down from the dais and did not even glance at me, even though he must have felt my gaze. I turned my head and found the Marquis of Bielefeld.
‘Shh.’
The old marshal had met my gaze then gently turned his head away. I looked at Siorin.
The prime minister was discouraged by seeing his fully-armored daughter, so he wasn’t even concerned about my reaction.
I felt sickened with betrayal, which soon hardened into a sense of incongruity.
Nobles were looking at me with smoldering stares. Dozens of pairs of eyes caught mine, and each gaze was sharp like a well-forged sword. No matter how painful their gazes were, I trembled without being able to stop myself. Why did I feel so hot?
That proved to be the start. The nobles near-scrambled to the front of the dais and started saying hello. Their greetings were just a formality, as the nobles immediately introduced the women who came with them to the king. The women greeted me: sometimes boldly, sometimes elegantly, and at other times, shyly.
Their attitudes were different, but everyone looked at me in the same way, as if I was prey.
“Isn’t this different from your promise?”
Just after one nobleman had finished his greetings and withdrew and before another came to stand under the dais, I protested to the king.
“You agreed.”
“But-”
“I am not forcing you to dance to the music while holding the hands of young women. What am I forcing you to do?”
It was difficult to refute the king’s words: he wasn’t forcing me to move; he was merely making others do so. I was left speechless. At the same time, I wanted to leave the banqueting hall right away, but I couldn’t because I was doing what I had promised to do. All I could do now was show my discomfort. As soon as I did, the nobles began to notice.
Naturally, the number of nobles who stood in front of the platform and introduced their daughters or nieces decreased.
“Aren’t you scaring the young girls? Soften your expression a little,” the king said gently as he saw my face.
“I’m just sitting still here,” I replied, and made my expression even worse.
The king burst into laughter. If he had been angry, I would’ve felt a little relieved, but the king just laughed as if I were a complaining child. I was kind of angry, so I gently created energy. The footsteps of the aristocrats who were trying to draw my attention slowed then stopped. Only then did I laugh with satisfaction.
I’ll do this from now on, I thought.
“Your Highness, how can you deal so with children who have not learned the sword?” the palace knight commander, who stood behind the king, chided me for my behavior with an embarrassed face, as if I was being childish. I tried to ignore him.
I just strengthened my energy and solidified the invisible wall that was created between the young women and me. The king shook his head, surprised as if both his hands and feet had been raised into the air. After seeing that face, I felt a little better.
Of course, I had no intention of lessening my energy.
“Sire.”
At that time, the Marquis of Bielefeld showed his face under the dais – with a woman next to him.
My raised energy had certainly made it impossible for the young women to stand before me, but the woman next to the marquis showed no reluctance to be in my presence, although she did have her head bowed. I frowned and wondered if I would scare her a little more.
Then I suddenly realized that the woman was familiar to me.
“Adelia?”
Adelia, so unlike her usual self, was dressed as a noble lady. She raised her head.
“Your Highness,” she greeted me with a blushing face, and when our gazes met, she closed her eyes. I was genuinely amazed by the unexpected appearance of Adelia. She wore a refreshing ivory dress that matched her light brown hair and wore no excessive makeup.
To me, who had always seen only her modest nature or her blood-covered appearance, Adelia’s elaborately decorated look was shocking. Did Adelia look this way?
I was surprised but quickly understood: Adelia’s face was not flashy but rather graceful and gentle. A perfectly balanced body carried that face after she had ascended to become a Master, and her skin was near-transparent, like a lake in midwinter, which added to her mysterious appeal. Until now, the rare beauty that existed in this realm was named Arwen, so Adelia had not received much attention. But in fact, Adelia’s beauty had always been there.
Especially among the men of Winter Castle, there were quite a few who had adored her. Her innocent and pretty appearance, which was hard to find among northern women, was what had attracted them.
Of course, their heartfelt desires could clearly go nowhere after they had seen her raging on the battlefield several times. In any case, when Adelia wasn’t mad, she was a woman who could be said to be adorable.
“It was hard work for her to dress up like this with a healing body,” the Marquis of Bielefeld said with a laugh while I stared blankly at Adelia. At that, I snapped awake and scolded the marquis.
“No. No, in the first place, why did you force a sick person to come?”
“She wasn’t forced-”
“Even if she wanted to come, you shouldn’t have allowed it. She’s a patient.”
I looked at the old man. I wanted to say more, but looking at his hurt face, I became frustrated and couldn’t.
“If you take a look at Adelia’s elegance, with her going to the trouble of dressing her healing body and coming here, you will come to know that there is something else you need to say,” the king intervened and chided me. I frowned.
“Then, what if she feels sick? Am I stupid?”
The king and the marquis sighed as I said this.
“He still has a long way to go, Sire.”
“Not only are you not interested, but you are also ignorant.”
Theirs was a conversation that I couldn’t understand, and I sighed, perplexed.
“Then, I have also given my greetings, so I’ll go back.”
The marquis looked down and stepped back from the dais. Adelia did so with him.
“Wait a while.” I stopped the marquis. “Leave Adelia.”
“What is that-”
“If she’s been dressed up like this, it’s unfair for her to be with an old marquis.”
Hearing my words, the marquis let a strange expression come to his face.
“Did you hear me or not? I don’t care if you heard me-” I smiled and grabbed Adelia’s hand, taking her other hand from the marquis.
“Are you okay?” I asked her, “If you think it’s hard, say-”
“It’s okay, your Highness. I’m really fine.”
“I’m glad.”
As I laughed, I saw that Adelia couldn’t stop herself from laughing with me.
“Then, Adelia will protect me today.”
My words made many eyes stretch wide.
“Yes? What is that-?”
Ignoring the king’s words, I turned around. Countless nobles were looking at me, and the young women were looking at Adelia with narrowed eyes. They all saw me holding Adelia’s hand, which was a common action one would do with one’s flirt, one’s partner. Moreover, Adelia was a proud champion of the kingdom. If the invisible wall I created with my energy was nothing more than a low stall barrier, then Adelia was an impregnable wall.
She would be enough to protect me until the banquet was over.
“I believe in you, Adelia.”
Without knowing the meaning of my words, Adelia nodded, her face set on her new mission.
* * *
Thanks to Adelia, the first day was able to pass safely.
However, she was still an injured patient who shouldn’t be active, and for the time being, she needed medical care. I was not so selfish as to use Adelia as a shield on the second day.
So, I found a new shield.
“You want to be my partner for today’s banquet?”
Hestia Neumann Tudor, the princess of Teuton, awakened to my sudden offer.
“Why? What? I thought you rather disliked- Why me?”
“Because the envoys will not bother me if the princess of Teuton, a country which is quite the power in the west, is with me.”
“That’s definitely correct.”
Teuton’s princess narrowed her eyes and looked at me.
“So what do I get?”
“You had many wishes. You have already gained a lot.”
“That’s true- But this is… it’s…”
I wanted Hestia to do this, so I quickly laughed at her and helped her to decide.
“If you don’t like it, don’t do it.”
As I stood up straight away, she caught me in a hurry.
“I don’t like it,” the princess said, adding, “But scheming is not the exclusive province of men.”
Her accepting my offer was thanks only to our past.
* * *
In response to the king’s sudden declaration, the envoys hurriedly invited the princesses from their countries to the banqueting hall. However, after the princesses fully decorated themselves and came to the hall, the prince’s companion for the day had already been decided.
“Did you call me to play a bridesmaid now?”
Unsurprisingly, the proud princesses were angry like a raging fire, and thanks to that, the envoys had to sweat as they tried to soothe the irate young women. It was unfair.
The envoys had their own grievances to contend with, but the princesses had grown up in precious, sheltered environments and so could not understand the envoys’ circumstances. The young women only thought about what they could do to catch the Crown Prince’s eyes from among all the numerous competitors.
If they came out too early, your chances would drop, but if they came out too late, someone else would already be at the prince’s side. They had to give off a strong first impression but at the right time.
The first day had been a resounding failure, but they believed that their opportunity would surely come on the second day. However, on the second day, there was no opportunity at all.
“The legitimate blood descendant of his Majesty King Lionel Leonberger, who is the modest ruler of the Leonberg kingdom and more precious than anyone else! Eldest son of the Leonberg royal family! Savior of the North! The Northern Lion! The kingdom’s strongest knight! His Highness Adrian Leonberger is entering! The most beautiful rose of the Tudor family! Princess Hestia Neumann Tudor is entering!”
This was because the princess of the Teuton Kingdom, who was said to be the most beautiful woman in the west, was occupying the seat next to the prince from the beginning. Indeed, the Tudor family’s rose was beautiful. From the moment she appeared, the men in the banqueting hall couldn’t even breathe properly.
If today’s banquet had not been a place to choose a future queen, the men would have quarreled with one another and courted the princess of Teuton. No one would dare make advances toward the prince’s guest today, however. And there was no woman who dared show off her appearance in the presence of Teuton’s princess.
The envoys were forced to pledge that the next day would be better. Introducing a princess from their country now meant she would look shabby and desperate in comparison. They studied Princess Hestia and Prince Adrian.
The relationship between the prince and the princess, who chatted without even allowing other people to intervene, seemed to them like that of lovers exchanging pleasantries. The truth was that Teuton’s princess constantly gossiped about the other women, and the Crown Prince idly responded to her. In any case, the second day of the banquet passed in vain for the supplicants.
The envoys started to give gold coins to the royal palace attendants to be kept up to date on matters.
“I know his Highness the Crown Prince has no plans to accompany anyone today. I was also told that the Princess of Teuton would be absent from today’s banquet, though she will be present again tomorrow.”
After hearing the words of the attendants, the envoys were delighted. There was no predetermined mate, and there was no beauty that made others look shabby. The noble young women of Leonberg still lingered around the prince, but they weren’t that threatening as competitors.
The women in the north were pure white hydrangea, while the women from the west were bright red roses.
And the envoys firmly believed that the queen of flowers was a rose, so they did not doubt the outcome. They did not doubt that the beauties of Leonberg would not compare to the beauties of the west.
It was not long before the envoys realized just how shallow their faith was.
* * *
“Tchu,” I softly clucked my tongue as I look at the women standing behind the envoys, the women who were looking provocatively at me. Their appearances were just shells, and yet, they thought that this what was amazing about them, so it was what they campaigned with. The souls in those shells were so shabby that they did not even shine.
It was very uncomfortable to me, them showing off their modest appearances and thinking that would help them. Clearly not knowing how I felt on the inside, one of the envoys began to move. The delegation was showing off a woman with red hair as if she had clotted blood woven onto her head.
However, before they could even reach the dais, there was a sudden turmoil in the banqueting hall.
“Haa!”
“Hooh!”
The sound of heavy breathing everyone were obsessed with something, they all at once looked to the side of the hall. I turned my head as I followed their gazes. Then, when my eyes settled on a certain spot-
“Uh?”
My eyes instinctively widened. Someone who I had not thought of was there in a way I had never imagined.