“Siiiiiiiiiiissttttttteeeeerrrrrrrr!”
The first person to greet Elizabeth was her sister, Princess Sabria.
“Oh, Sabria, you’ve grown so big in the time I didn’t see you.”
Delighted, Elizabeth cuddled her younger sister. Although people say that children grew fast, she could see that Sabria had grown noticeably in her absence. Elizabeth couldn’t help but regret that she hadn’t been there to watch her sister grow up.
“If it weren’t for Mother…”
“Huh? What did you say?”
“Ah, no. It’s nothing.”
“It’s nice to… Huh? Who’s the handsome older brother next to you?”
Sabria spoke after she saw Yushin. Although he stood with other people, his appearance was definitely eye-catching.
“He’s a guest I brought with me. Don’t be rude to me, alright?”
“Yes, sister.”
Sabria responded to her sister in a cute manner before gracefully raising her skirt and greeting Yushin.
“I am Sabrai Forrest. It’s nice to meet you.”
She still looked more cute than graceful or elegant.
Yushin gave her a slight bow as he replied.
“I’m Yushin. It’s nice to meet you, Princess.”
Having greeted him, Sabria once again grabbed onto Elizabeth’s arm.
“Hurry up, let’s go in. Mother Empress is waiting for you.”
“Right… I guess I should.”
Elizabeth let out a sigh as she walked in. But on the way in, the palace guards blocked the other members of the party.
“Sorry, but please identify yourself.”
Even if he was a guest who had come in with the Imperial Princess, they couldn’t allow an unidentified person to enter the palace.
Elizabeth turned to speak to the palace guards.
“He’s my guest. You can just let him in.”
At that, the guards looked troubled as they responded.
“Even if he’s a guest of Your Imperial Highness, we can’t allow an unidentified person entrance into the Imperial Palace.”
“I’m glad to see that you’re earnest and diligent, but you’re too rigid. Be a bit more flexible.”
“I’m sorry, Your Highness, but rules are rules.”
Elizabeth was in a dilemma. If this was any other Imperial family, she would’ve overwhelmed him with her rank, but Elizabeth couldn’t do that since from the palace guard’s perspective, he was only faithfully carrying out his duties.
At that moment, Jerome spoke up.
“I’ll be the guarantor for him. Let him through.”
“Yes, sir. Understood.”
When Jerome said that, the palace guards allowed Yushin to enter.
Elizabeth let out a soft sigh.
“I guess the Imperial Princess of this country has less authority than I thought.
That was true.
***
Elizabeth and her party first headed towards the palace’s Grand Hall where there were two thrones on which Empress Leila and Grand Duke Forrest were sitting. She stood at the front of her group and elegantly bowed towards them.
“I, Elizabeth von Lester, have come back. I’m glad to see the two of you healthy…”
But before she could even finish...
“Elizabeth, my cute and lovely daughter… You’ve come back to your father’s arms.”
Milton jumped out of his throne and rushed down to embrace her. Elizabeth wasn’t flustered by this. Instead, she merely smiled.
“Yes, father. Have you been well?”
“How could I when you weren’t here. I wanted to go after you personally, but your mom stopped me, so I couldn’t.”
“Haha…”
‘Nice, Mother.’
Elizabeth was deeply grateful to Empress Leila for that.
After that, Milton continued to ask her questions, such as: Are you hurt anywhere? Why did you get so thin? He turned around with Elizabeth still in his arms as he continued needlessly worrying. The fact that this man, a living legend and a hero of the war, coddled and protected his fully grown daughter needed to be kept a secret.
After that weak ‘gatekeeper’ was finished, the true ‘last boss’ was left.
“Now that you’ve traveled the world, how is it? Did you feel like you’ve seen the world?”
Empress Leila, who wasn’t hiding the fact she was in a bad mood, was the only one left now.
Elizabeth smiled at her as she responded to the question.
“Every day was wonderful.[1] May I do it again?”
“......”
Empress Leila was silent for a moment as she stared at her daughter. Then, she pressed a hand to her forehead.
“Do you remember Bianca from your childhood? The woman you used to follow around, calling her aunt?”
“Yes, I do. She had purple hair and returned to the Southern Continent, right?”
“That’s right. She’s like a sister to me.”
“But why are you talking about Aunt Bianca all of a sudden?”
“No, it’s nothing much. I just remembered an anecdote I heard from her before.”
“......”
She didn’t know why, but Elizabeth was starting to feel like something unpleasant was about to happen.
Either way, Empress Leila continued to talk.
“I heard that in the Southern Continent, daughters who were disobedient and troubled their parents got their legs broken.”
“Ha...ha ha ha… where did you hear such a thing?”
“So I prepared something just in case.”
At Empress Leila’s signal, an attendant, who had been waiting on one side, brought something over. It was a long wooden pole with a fabric wrapped around the handle to create a sort of grip.
Empress Leila grabbed it and swung it around a couple of times. Listening to the whooshing sound it made, it seemed like she used it a couple of times before. Then, she began tapping her other hand with it.
“If you truly care about your child, then sometimes, it’s necessary to use a switch.”[2]
“Honey, that’s more like a club than a switch… never mind, Your Majesty.”[3]
Milton tried to step in and stop her, but he crumpled the moment Empress Leila glared at him. And the moment Empress Leila stepped down from her throne…
“I… I kept my promise. I really brought a potential husband.”
Elizabeth spoke to her urgently.
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Then…
“What?”
“Which bastard is it?”
The first was Empress Leila’s words and the second was Milton’s. He looked like his heart was breaking.
***
It seemed like people forgot about it because so many things happened, but one of Elizabeth’s goals, while she was running away, was to find a husband. However, none of them had thought that really was her intention. They all thought it was an excuse to lessen the pressure towards her from Leila.
It’s not like this was a romance novel where an imperial princess of a country would fall in love with a random man on the street and marry him with a ‘happily ever after’ kind of an ending. An Imperial wedding wasn’t something that could be done so easily. But more than that, Elizabeth was quite picky with her men.
“Hm… You found a potential husband?”
Empress Leila seemed interested.
“Yes, that’s right. I found one. Almost like fate, I found one.”
“Which bastard is he! Tell me immediately!”
Milton shouted next to them, but both Leila and Elizabeth were completely ignoring him at this moment.
Empress Leila looked behind Elizabeth before speaking.
“There’s a face I’ve never seen before. Is that man the fateful encounter you’re talking about?”
She was looking straight at Yushin.
“What? Who are you, you bastard?”
When Milton interrupted to add one more phrase, Yushin stepped forward.
“Greetings Your Imperial Majesty, and Your Grace, I am Yushin.”
Yushin’s calm response was confident without a hint of servile attitude.
“Ho…’
Empress Leila was slightly impressed by that. Anyone who had the courage to speak to her calmly after seeing her was worthy of her favorable impression.
But Milton still continued to look at him with disapproval.
“How did the two of you meet?”
Elizabeth began to talk eagerly at her question, almost as if she had been waiting.
“Like I said, it was an encounter that was just meant to be. If it weren’t for Yushin, I’d be dead.”
“What?”
“What do you mean by that?”
This time, Milton’s expression was just as serious as Leila’s. It was thanks to the case being resolved in its infancy and because of complete information control, the news about her being kidnapped by the Ghosts hadn’t yet reached the Imperial family’s ears.
“Let me explain what happened.”
And so, Elizabeth explained everything that had happened to her, from being kidnapped by the surviving members of the Ghosts to meeting Yushin and how he had saved her from the situation.
After having told them the truth of what happened...
“That’s why I became deeply interested in Yushin, and of course, he said he also liked me. Which, of course, he would. In what world would a man dislike me?”
It was a cocky thing to say, but it wasn’t wrong.
“That’s how we ended up falling in love and promised our future to each other. It’s a happy ending, isn’t it?”
Upon hearing Elizabeth’s request, Empress Leila pressed her forehead with her hand.
“The surviving members of the Ghosts… I thought we had gotten all of them.”
“We can’t underestimate their tenacity. They’re like the leftover spirit of Siegfried’s tenacity.”
Having personally fought the Ghosts on the battlefield, Milton had a logical understanding of the situation. In fact, after the war ended and the era of peace continued, Milton Forrest had relaxed a bit, but he was still the god of war that everyone on the continent looked up to.
Just a while ago, he was a crazy idiot who loved his daughter too much, but once he focused on the Ghost problem, he became a completely different person.
“Jerome, you said that out of those you captured, one of them surrendered?”
“Yes, My Lord.”
“If one of those stubborn bastards are cooperative, then it’s no different than winning the lottery. No matter how conscious they are of their security and are organized in a cell structure, there must be something connecting them. Find out what that is.”
“Yes, My Lord. I’ll do my best.”
Finished with giving out instructions, Milton turned towards Yushin.
“Ahem… First of all, I’d like to express my sincere gratitude for saving my daughter. Thank you.”
Milton slightly bowed his head to him. At that, Yushin’s eyes widened in surprise.
‘Is this person really one of the two major powers in this country?’
Even if someone saved their life, a nation’s monarch should not lower his head carelessly. Milton wasn’t just a king of a country, he was a monarch of the great Empire that ruled this continent. And yet, he sincerely bowed his head to Yushin for saving his daughter’s life.
For Yushin, this wasn’t just easygoing, it was unconventional.
“I am deeply ashamed to receive such undue gratitude, sir.”
Yushin was a beat late, but he responded to Milton’s thanks with courtesy.
‘I thought he was just a man who loved his daughter like crazy, but I guess that’s a mask.’
The moment Yushin thought that...
“But this and that are two different things. Who gave you permission to fall in love with her? Huh? Marriage? Definitely opposed. Absolutely not. My daughter will happily live with me for a very very long time…”
An idiot who loved his daughter so much, that wasn’t a mask.
***
At Leila’s suggestion - an order, really - Milton left the Grand Hall.
Of course, he didn’t leave of his own volition.
“Jerome, how could you do this to me?”
“I’m sorry, My Lord, but you’re being a bit annoying right now.”
“This is treason. You are going against the Knight’s Code!”
He was dragged out like this.
Only after Milton had left the room did the mood finally turn to allow for conversations.
“You said you were Yushin?”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“It seems like you’re from the Southern Continent. Not to mention, your name is a common name for most southern countries.”
“You know of it, Your Majesty?”
“I have an acquaintance over there.”
1. The raw used the word ‘honey’ which is slang for very wonderful/happy. I couldn’t think of an English equivalent slang so translated the meaning instead.
2. I wanted to use a part of the English saying, ‘spare the rod, spoil the child,’ but it didn’t work with the next sentence.
3. The raw didn’t actually say, ‘Your Majesty,’ but I added that in because Milton switched formalities.