A Tipsy Marriage Proposal for the Emperor

Chapter 4

As I was just blankly staring into space, I slowly started to remember what had happened in that pub.

“Is it normal for a guy in his thirties to be confused about whether the sun rises in the east or the west?”

It must be a bit distorted as it’s a memory. Would I have really dared to say such a thing and speak so informally to His Majesty the Emperor? I laughed nervously.

I tried to calm my mind, but the anxiety that was surging in did not subside easily. I covered my eyes with my hands to avoid the reality I wanted to ignore, but for some reason, the memories of that day came back to me more vividly.

“Even the Emperor couldn’t do that! Right?”

What do you mean the Emperor couldn’t do that?! It’s my mouth that shouldn’t have done anything!

If I had been lying in bed, I would have been kicking the blanket in embarrassment.

“Please spare my life. I did that because I was drunk...”

Couldn’t I beg like that on my knees? I knew that this was enough to be an insult to the imperial family, but I might be able to save my life. While I had been holding on to some hope, as the memories kept coming in one by one, that hope began to be destroyed piece by piece as well.

“Hey you! Are you married?”

Even the horrible things that I hoped that I really didn’t say began to emerge to the surface. While I wished I could go back and shut my mouth, in the end, I remembered the last thing I had said.

“Then marry me.”

“Wow. It’s over for me...”

My body, which had barely been holding on, collapsed onto the floor at the vivid memory. As I laid there, I wondered how much time had passed.

Okay, it’s not completely hopeless.

While my brain had been avoiding reality, it slowly started activating the happiness circuit. I had been wearing a wig that night, and since I had never actually met His Majesty, there was a chance that he didn’t know who I really was. My actual hair color was a light blonde, not pink.

And if he had been looking for me, he would have come right after I had blacked out and lost my memories. Since nothing had happened for over a week, there was a high chance that the Emperor didn’t know my true identity.

“Let’s avoid this as best as I can.”

I wouldn’t even look in the direction of the Imperial Palace, nor would I go outside for high society events or whatnot. I would live as quietly as possible and then run away to the Academy.

I didn’t know what the Emperor was thinking when he made that marriage announcement, but if I got caught like this, I’d either become an ill-fated bride who was pitied in the newspapers or be executed for insulting the Emperor.

Let’s write a letter to that dean, accepting the professorship that I rejected.

I would then go to him, saying that I wanted to devote my entire life to scholarship and the academy. If I insisted that it was a long-time dream of mine and that I wanted to become a scholar who would make a mark on history, he might accept me again.

When I graduated, I had sworn that I would never return to the countryside again. But now I really missed the academy in the mountains where I woke up to the sounds of chickens and woodpeckers every morning.

As he was the emperor and attracted enough attention to be on the front page of the newspapers, he could come looking for me any day. When I had entered the pub, I had to write down my family name, so it was only a matter of time before I would be caught if he was looking for me.

As the academy did not depend on any one country and was neutral on the continent, I could avoid him by staying there for life. This was the only way left for me.

As the reality of my escape began to dawn on me, peace of mind returned. At that moment, the library door opened and my mother came in.

“Ellie! Ellie, are you here?”

“What’s the matter, Mother?”

Normally, she would’ve sent Jeri or another maid to bring me to her, but my mother had come all the way to the library herself. She urgently handed me a piece of paper.

“Look at this! His Majesty the Emperor has invited all the unmarried young ladies in the empire to a ball on this Coming of Age Day!”

“Pardon?”

“I’ve been worried since your engagement got called off, so isn’t this a good thing? You can take this opportunity to properly dress up and find a better fiancé than that pot-bellied count!”

I stared at the paper in my hand as I listened to the unbelievable reality coming out of my mother’s mouth. Even though I knew the words wouldn’t change if I kept looking at them, I pressed down on the innocent words with a resentful heart.

Usually, the Coming of Age Day event wasn’t a big deal. After all, nobles had their debutante ball or stepped into high society before that, so the Coming of Age Day was a quiet day celebrated with family.

Never before had there been an imperial ball held on the Coming of Age Day.

Why this year of all years?

An ominous thought crossed my mind.

Could it be that he is holding this event to find me?

“M-Mother, do I really have to go to this...”

“Let’s get you fitted for a new dress. Something that stands out and is as showy as possible. Add lots of jewels. Ellie, since you’re smart and pretty, you’ll definitely get noticed.”

Now is not a good time for me to get noticed, Mother.

I saw the vision of my escape before the Emperor caught me being blown away like dust. It had been a short-lived hope, like a midsummer night’s dream.

I didn’t hear a single word that my mother was saying about the famous boutiques of the capital. It also seemed like she hadn’t heard me asking if I had to go.

All that appeared before my eyes was a future as dark as the bottle of ink in the study.

***

“What about this style, my lady?”

“Isn’t it... too showy?”

“But the other dresses are even showier. This is one of the more modest ball gowns. What kind of design are you looking for?”

“I want the design to be as plain and unnoticeable as possible. To the point that you don’t even know I’m there. I also want it to be black, so that it can just be hidden in the shadows.”

“That’s a mourning dress, my lady!”

When I had gone to a boutique with Mother, I had barely managed to dissuade her from choosing the most eye-catching dresses. The boutique I was now in with Jeri only had showy and highly-decorated gowns on display, as the imperial ball was the next major event in high society.

I was dizzy with the red, yellow, and blue designs that I could hardly forget once I had seen them. As I was walking towards the black clothes with unsteady steps, Jeri grabbed me by my wrist and dragged me away.

If I wore black in a crowd of many people like this, won’t nobody notice me? I’d be like a shadow!

As expected of a famous boutique in the capital, it was filled with customers who had come to get fitted for new dresses. The reception room was already full due to prior reservations, so the clerk told me to wait a moment. I took a seat in the hall.

I saw a pair of older ladies waiting in line like me and chatting with each other.

“A ball on Coming of Age Day. What do you think that means?”

“Who knows what that person is thinking...”

“He invited all the unmarried young ladies in the capital, right?”

“Because of that, even all the young noblemen are coming. The scale of this will probably be huge.”

As expected, the conversation was about the ball that had suddenly been scheduled.

As they were talking more loudly than they realized, I could hear them clearly from a distance. From a suitable distance, I pretended to look at the clothes, so that I could hear some information about the Emperor.

“It hasn’t been long since he announced his marriage, even though the bride hasn’t been revealed... And I’m a bit scared that someone like him is doing this when he’s said that he doesn’t like balls because they’re too noisy.”

“I just hope that it ends well. I really hope there’s no bloodshed this time.”

“Would he really do such a thing in a place where all the young ladies will be gathered?”

“Have you already forgotten? At the spring retreat last time, Baron Fecil’s fiancée was next to him when he died. Due to that shock, I heard that she went down to live in her family’s provincial estate.”

Wait, he killed someone at a retreat?

I stared directly at the two ladies conversing, forgetting about the fact that I was eavesdropping on the unbelievable story they were sharing. The two ladies were so focused on the story that they didn’t notice me staring and continued with even more incredible details.

“Oh my, that’s right. For a while, all the balls and tea parties were canceled. But why did he kill Baron Fecil anyway?”

“No one knows still. He must’ve just said something irritating to His Majesty.”

“Well, this isn’t the first or second time this has happened, so how can anyone know what he’s thinking? We can only do our best to protect ourselves.”

My impression of him from reading the newspaper was that he was rigid, but swinging a knife at someone without following the proper procedures was more serious than I expected. It may have been a monarchical state, but the history of the empire was long and the national laws had been strictly established. The emperor beheading a baron without a trial was an act that went beyond common sense.

And yet, no one objects to him.

If I remembered correctly, before I had entered the academy, the prince who had been designated as the crown prince had definitely been someone else. The current emperor was the son of the second wife, and had been the third prince, and it had been thought that it would be difficult for him to ascend to the throne.

Then what had happened to the other princes? They wouldn’t have stayed still while the third prince became the emperor, so by now, they must have been...

Suddenly, a chill ran down my spine and I felt like running away. As I turned to go where Jeri was, I had to continue listening to the two ladies as they said something I couldn’t ignore.

“But do you have any idea about who the future empress will be? He was someone who said that he was sick of relatives by marriage and said he would ever get married. So who could make him change his mind like that? I really wonder what kind of person she is.”

“I haven’t heard anything, and those around me don’t know either.”

“Since it hasn’t been revealed and with the sudden ball, there must’ve been some kind of problem. Maybe the bride ran away...?”

“That’s impossible! Who would be able to escape a state wedding? Even if she were a duke’s daughter, it would be hard to spare her life if she tried to do something like that.”

“Yes, you’re right. It was a useless thought. Haha.”

A cold sweat ran down the actual bride’s back. I had tried to run away. It was even more discouraging to hear the reality, which I had known in my head, from someone else’s mouth.

“But even then, it doesn’t matter if she tried to run away or not. How many days can she last when she’s together with him? He’s someone who even did away with the nanny who had taken care of him since he was a baby.”

“Bets are already being made in the underground gambling dens about when the new empress will die after getting married to the Emperor.”

“Oh no, how awful.”

He killed his nanny... and bets are being placed in the gambling dens? Over when I will die?

The hand that was holding a dress’s fabric trembled. I felt like all the blood vessels from the top of my head to the tip of my toes had gone cold.

“There you are, my lady.”

“Jeri...”

“Oh my, why is your face color like that?”

I had thought the Emperor was a bit rigid and scary, but it was beyond that. The man I had proposed to while drunk that night was a tyrant who would kill people just because he didn't like them.