The Emperor’s Daughter - Chapter 60

Ferdel spoke seriously, but Caitel’s response was unusual.

“What am I supposed to do?”

Uh, um…

Hey, daddy? So there’s a massacre happening east of our country. Was that all he had to say? I meant, I wouldn’t expect him to say anything like ‘Oh Gosh, what should I do?’ Still, is it weird if I expected at least some kind of concern?

“I thought it’s a bit suspicious.”

Oh, was the weird one here. Sorry.

My father was a man with a history of genocide, though I forgot about it after a while. Suddenly, when I realized this fact, it made me feel weird. I used to feel that a lot.

I thought I was the only normal person here.

Before that, one premise was that my standards for the summit were different from those in here.

While Caitel moving his fingers one by one, taping his desk with his fingertips, Ferdel smiled. His smile was truly more wicked than any I had ever seen.

“Should we help?”

Why was he smiling like that?

Oh, I guessed he’s a real evil boss too. Oh no. I was scared. I thought about it while braiding my dad’s hair, but one couldn’t trust Ferdel easily. How could anyone emit evil energy flow like that? However, Caitel didn’t mind.

“Do as you wish.”

Caitel seemed like he was not interested in this problem. Ferdel whispered to Caitel, who was looking into other documents. He was like whispering a secret.

“But you are aware that this might leave a big hole in our finances for a while, right?”

‘A big one,’ he added that quietly and wickedly. Was I the only one who felt a growing sense of evil in this place? Caitel took his eyes off the papers and answered him with a thin stare.

“You could use your specialty.”

Huh? Specialty?

Caitel sighed and put the document down from his hand. Leaning back, he fixed his posture once.

“Where is the chancellor who said ‘I would use you as a front and call you a tyrant while I do all the bad things pretending that you ordered them?’”

“I’m still here.”

Ferdel smiled proudly and nodded. His pompous gesture made me shake my head. Oh, was he proud of that?

“But you are a tyrant.”

At the moment, his gaze struck Ferdel like an arrow.

“I’m sorry.”

Why does he keep picking fights even though he knew he would lose? I admire that, but sometimes, I had been curious about what was really on his mind.

“What do you want?”

“Ah.”

While scratching his cheek as if he had realized something, Ferdel smiled. It was as sinister as the smile he had earlier.

“Let me collect more taxes from nobles.”

“You are also a noble too.”

Caitel spoke with a pitiful tone, but Ferdel’s answer was amazing.

“It’s okay.”

He then raised his head proudly.

“Because I’m not a Marquis yet.”

I missed Caitel’s hair in my hands.

Wow, that guy…

***

My ball bounces out of my hand.

Oh, really. That’s been happening for a while!

Was I a fool who couldn’t even bounce a ball properly? I sighed as I looked at the ball away from me. I would catch you soon! In my previous life, I sucked at anything related to physical sports, but somehow, it didn’t change much when I got reincarnated. I wanted to dribble too, dribble!

However, that’s just my dream. The reality was that whenever I managed to catch the ball, it always ran away from me. I had to fail at doing it repeatedly.

Catching the running ball was enough exercise for me. The ball was rolling freely. Once I caught it, I was so focused on it I didn’t even know that the scenery had changed.

Where was this place?

“Hmm?”

I caught the ball, but when I looked around, I found it somewhere I had never been to. Where the hell was I? Of course, since the palace of Agregiant was so huge, there were places I had never been to. However, I knew I was near the winter tree in the garden. How did I end up here?

“Oh, my.”

Huh? I heard an unfamiliar voice.

When I turned my head, a woman from a distance was looking at me, surprised. Huh? Why was she so surprised? Was I a monster?

Oh, by the way, she’s dressed a little differently? I tilted my head. The Solay palace’s maids always wore a uniform, but this place looked a little different. No, wait a second. The style was totally different. I didn’t think I flew into a foreign palace all of a sudden, so what the hell was going on?

“What, what’s wrong?”

“Oh, my God!”

“Oh my, it’s a baby!”

Suddenly, so many women appeared one after another. I was rather curious to hear what they would say. It was because there were some languages I didn’t understand. No, it felt more like a name than a language. Suddenly, I was surrounded by many women and I didn’t know where they all came from.

Huh? Huh?

“Why is there a baby here at the harem?”

I finally realized where I was. Harem. Oh, no. it’s the Harem. It was natural that my facial expression stiffened. What the hell? I must have come all this way without realizing it.

“She’s so cute!”

“Wait, this child’s hair color is red-silver…”

“Hmm?”

After someone spoke those words, the heated atmosphere suddenly turned into a chilling one. This hair. I wanted to cut off this hair right now. I supposed everyone could guess who I was based on my appearance.

“How did you come all the way here?”

Another woman came up and talked to me, but I looked around and held the ball more tightly in my arms. I came into the tiger’s den with my own feet! W, what should I do?

“What a cute baby.”

“Oh, what’s that you’re holding?”

“Won’t you show it to me?”

Everyone was talking to me in a friendly voice, but I felt somehow uncomfortable. What the hell was this? Of course, I knew I was cute, but my thoughts were all left unsaid. Oh, it’s uncomfortable. Where the hell should I go? I was playing with Elene, and she didn’t even know I was gone? She didn’t follow me?

“What’s your name? How old are you now?”

These girls shouldn’t act like that when you all knew it.

No matter how much I thought about this, it didn’t seem like they approached me with pure goodwill. I was not sure whether they approach to give favor or to be an enemy. Oh, whatever.

“Where are you going!”

I chose the direction where it seemed empty. I ran even faster because I was worried that I might be caught anyway. However, I was so busy that my head got washed out blank.

Oh, I was so tired. Did I run away well? As soon as I arrived in an empty space, I put the ball down and fell to the ground.

I was dying.

What was all this? It’s been a long time since I had had doubts about my situation.

God damn it, how did I manage to live with this body!?