Chapter Eight

After paying my silent tributes to the duke, who had been adding yet another entry in his history of embarrassing moments, I had banged the carriage doors open and darted away as soon as the carriage stopped. Enraged, the duke had been seconds away from slapping me.

Why would I take that hit when I could run away? When I fled, the duke—like the fat pig he was—grew tired quickly. He couldn’t have me bound and gagged on my knees because of my constant hinting about how he wouldn’t want to mess with the emperor’s fiancée.

Those words would only be able to protect me until I got dumped. Once he does dump me, I’d better run.

“M-my lady, what is—”

“Lucy! Wait, get this for me.”

“My lady!”

Once I got back to my room, without bothering to shut the door tight, I threw off the dress and handed it to Lucy. “That’s more like it.”

“Is this… wine? Why is it so—”

“Things happened. I’ll wash up now! You can throw it away!”

“As you wish.”

After hearing Lucy’s bewildered answer, I ran to the bathroom. I quickly finished my bath, then leaped into my bed. What a fulfilling day!

***

The morning dawned. I began writing a letter cheerfully.

“To Your Majesty, supreme lord of the sun, moon, wind, flower, tree, bird and… et cetera of Kalior.”

It would be best if that one crazy act had led straight to the end of the engagement. Not that I wasn’t hoping for it, but unfortunately, it was highly unlikely that things would work out so easily.

And I don’t want to do anything too rash that’ll get him angry enough to kill me. It was important to do it continuously, without crossing the line. I had to stick to the line to keep being the harmless but you-wouldn’t-want-me-anywhere-near-you nutjob.

The tyrant was suspicious by nature, after all. The letter’s content wasn’t that pressing.

“We have to decide when to meet again.”

The emperor and his fiancée must see each other a couple of times each month. Afterward, the meeting’s details must be written down. It was a very public relationship.

“A fixed date. Then, done.”

I had written a letter full of oratories to set a date for our next mandatory meeting. I’d keep doing this from now on. I shouldn’t annoy him too much, so I said that I’d arrange my schedule to fit his. Nice. Smart.

“I wonder…”

What would he say? If he sent a schedule, it meant that yesterday’s acting only barely affected him. If he sends a schedule… I’d have to think of something more substantial. He wouldn’t really care about meeting with his fiancée, so he’d probably just see me in the palace.

“Urgh. I wish he would just send a note saying that he wants to end it.”

Then I’d run away with the little money Scarlett’s mother left her and start focusing on how to make money for a rich life. After I sent the letter, I called Lucy.

“Yes, my lady.”

“Bring me my ledger, will you?”

Now that I thought of it, I’d check on it immediately. How much did Scarlett Arman’s mother, the deceased duchess, leave for her daughter?

“Here, my lady.”

“Thank you.”

Her family had completely crumbled, so the late duchess only had a modest amount to leave her daughter. It was enough to get by, though. The original Scarlett had used some of it to harass Cheryl in secret. It meant that there were enough funds to hire men or get valuable medicine.

After she spent it all, she borrowed more from the family elders. That had led to another line in the list of crimes accused by the elders. Helping Scarlett Arman.

“Hmm.”

Lucy, whose face turned strange whenever I thanked her, put a cup of tea next to me.

“Oh, thanks.”

It was kind of fun to watch, so I said it again and turned back to the ledger. As I’d guessed, there wasn’t much money. Definitely not enough to run away and set myself free. But enough to buy information or smuggle in poisons.

Scarlett must’ve tried her best to be frugal. I really needed to earn more money. Thankfully, I had a way to make a lot of money with a small budget.

The Safe Zone.

Specifically, the no man’s land was called “the Cradle.” It was a piece of land, abandoned because magic did not work there. Without magic, it was difficult to construct buildings. It also meant that no resources were buried underground, so the land was practically useless.

It’s just known as a safe place for flora and fauna. Usually, the Safe Zones are found in places people rarely visit, like the monster forests, but the Safe Zone around the palace differed.

It was smack in the middle of the capital. Though the land was useless, it couldn’t be discarded since it was under the royal palace’s ownership for now. It was also the only land belonging to the royal palace that was available for sale. Very cheaply too. No one would buy it, though.

However, soon after the story’s beginning, the capital’s Safe Zone would turn quickly into a rich mine. That was because the fairies living in the Safe Zone got involved in the female protagonist’s affairs.

Fairies, huh? Now that I think of it, I’d be seeing fairies in real life. And on top of that…

“If the fairies approve of me, I could get access to the really good stuff.”

The most expensive gems in this world—fairy stones. I planned on selling them. That afternoon, a reply from the palace arrived right after I had visited the bank to make a withdrawal.

“Damn.”

Inside it was the royal schedule for the month.

***

It had been a long day. Charlemagne took a look around his dark room, then tossed his sword aside. Flopping onto his bed, his body felt heavy, sinking into the mattress. Heavier were his eyelids, and his head even more so.

“Happy birthday, Your Majesty.”

The face, smiling brightly, felt strangely radiant. Not beautiful, just… It felt like the shine hurt his eyes.

“Ridiculous...” he muttered coldly, his eyes still closed.

He was quite annoyed. Perhaps it was because that had been the first time anyone had smiled so brightly at him. All those ominous prophecies and rumors trailing him and the threatening air that was so thick around him had made it impossible for anyone to smile that way at him, whether it was sincere or not.

He knew it well, never imagining otherwise. That absolute fact had been shattered today. And that was just the tip of the iceberg compared to the other things he had been through today.

That wink made the Minister of Information’s eyes pop out as if he’d been doused in ice water, and he’s always half sleeping. He felt—

Bad. No, not bad. He considered his churn of emotions for a while, features set in an icy mask. Then he remembered the perfunctory report he had his Minister of Information make when she was chosen as his fiancée. He sprang up in the blink of an eye, agile as a cat.

“Scarlett Arman.”

A little while later, he was certain. This is a complete mess. This was the first time he had seen her in person. And after seeing her in person, this report was questionable, to say the least. Vicious, they say.

A person was rarely described as vicious in a formal report. Besides, he couldn’t imagine that girl as being vicious. Of course, one couldn’t presume to know everything about the other with just one meeting. But he was a fairly good judge of character.

“These reports are only based on a few social events she’s been to, so it may not be accurate.”

The Arman family was one of the oldest bloodlines in the continent, along with the royal Kalior bloodline and the now-gone Rashahel bloodline. Although they seemed to be falling apart with the head they had now; not even the emperor could ignore their influence.

My orders had been for a simple check on her character, but now I think I’ll have to dive deeper. It hadn’t been easy picking her as his fiancée. Both the Temple and the nobility had objected with their lives. But he had gone through with it because he had a purpose. To the Arman family.

He hadn’t had a particular interest in that girl… But he realized that he had been thinking of a specific person for some time. Contemplating her in every aspect possible… but that still counted as thinking. The second he realized it, he stopped.

A hint of laughter settled in his violet eyes. Finally, he came to a conclusion about that strange girl, decidedly mad but not so much to have her killed.

“We’ll see.”

It had been a long time since someone had captured his attention. That kind of person either ended up being one of his close personnel—

Or dies a particularly gruesome death. It was one or the other. Smiling rather icily to himself, he decided to keep an eye on her. Not Scarlett “Arman,” but Scarlett herself.