The residence bestowed by the emperor was, quite literally, so splendid and comfortable that it made my jaw drop.
Yesterday, I had endured a nerve-racking private audience with the emperor, and before that I had spent ages riding across the continent on horseback. My stamina had already hit rock bottom.
The moment I collapsed onto the soft, top-quality goose-down bed, I sank into a deep sleep as if I had fainted.
#
“Nngh.”
“Are you awake, Your Highness? We will prepare your bath and breakfast shortly.”
The next morning, when I opened my eyes to the dazzling sunlight filtering in through the window, I almost forgot for a moment that I was a hostage in an enemy nation.
The emperor’s order to treat me on par with the imperial family had not been empty words.
As soon as I opened my eyes, the attendants waiting nearby bathed me in warm water, and for breakfast, a feast was laid out using the finest ingredients in the empire.
‘At this rate, this is twice as luxurious as when I lived as the second son of a baron in the Sterling Kingdom.’
Just as I was leisurely enjoying the fragrant black tea brought out after the meal, there came a knock at the door, and a familiar face I had met yesterday entered the room.
“Did you sleep well, Your Highness?”
“Ah, Sir Knight. Welcome. Thanks to you, I rested very well.”
Amber, neatly dressed in silver officer’s armor, smiled brightly and gave me a light bow.
“Starting today, I have been assigned as Your Highness’s personal guard.”
“A guard, is it.”
I set down my teacup and thought to myself.
‘They call it a guard, but isn’t this basically saying they’ll monitor my every move—what nonsense I get up to and who I meet?’
Just as I was about to nod with an inscrutable smile—
“Though they call it a guard, in truth, it is an imperial command to openly keep watch over you.”
“Pfft!”
At Amber’s far too confident and innocent straight ball, I nearly spat out the black tea I had been drinking.
She shrugged and continued.
“I’m simply terrible at beating around the bush by nature, you see. In any case, as long as you are accompanied by me, you may roam freely anywhere within the capital. The shopping district outside the imperial castle is fine, and you may also visit the park or the library. If there is anything you wish to buy or anything you wish to eat, please tell me at any time. The expenses have all been generously paid to me from the imperial family’s privy purse.”
I stroked my chin and thought for a moment. How could I use this favor to get a little closer to this knight?
“Something I want to buy… I don’t have much desire for material things at the moment.”
“Is that so? Still, it would feel a bit disappointing to return empty-handed on your first outing.”
“Then, may I ask you in return where your favorite place in this imperial capital is, Sir Knight? I don’t know the geography here very well, and following a local’s recommendation is always the least likely to fail.”
At my words, Amber’s eyes grew as wide as a rabbit’s.
“A place I like, you mean?”
“Yes. On the way here, didn’t you mention that there was a rather delicious dessert shop?”
At that moment, Amber’s face lit up.
The cold-hearted knight who had cut down enemy heads on the battlefield was nowhere to be seen.
“Ah, you mean Madame Renée’s Bakery! That place sells the finest pudding and tarts in the empire. If Your Highness wishes, I shall guide you there at once!”
“Excellent. Let us go there.”
“Haha! Good heavens. After spending years running around with nothing but gloomy men on blood-soaked battlefields, I never imagined that the duty of guarding Your Highness would be this sweet. I may be able to spend a while feeling as though I’ve finally received a proper vacation!”
With Amber, who looked ready to leap for joy, leading the way, I stepped out of the imperial castle with an extremely light heart.
As expected of the finest dessert shop in the empire, the inside of the shop was filled with an incredible crowd and a sweet aroma.
We bought plenty of the most popular caramel pudding and freshly baked fruit tarts.
“Normally, the best way to enjoy things like this would be to sit at one of the outdoor tables and eat them under the sunlight.”
As I spoke regretfully while holding the packaged boxes, Amber asked as if puzzled.
“Then why did you not eat there? I would have arranged a seat for you.”
“No. If it became known that I am royalty from an enemy nation, troublesome onlookers would gather. I don’t wish to burden you, Sir Knight, when you’re enjoying the feeling of a vacation, with such exhausting escort duties. It would be better to eat comfortably in my safe and quiet room at the imperial palace.”
At my considerate words, Amber placed a hand on her chest and bowed her head as if genuinely moved.
We returned to my quarters in the imperial palace in a very peaceful and pleasant atmosphere.
“Now then, let’s see what the empire’s finest pudding tastes like…”
After setting the appetizing pudding and tarts on the drawing room table, I had just picked up a silver spoon.
Kwaaaang—!!!
Suddenly, the door to my quarters—its entire thick wooden panel—was torn off its hinges and smashed apart.
An enormous roar rang out as dust rose, and beyond it, a pitch-black shadow dripping with killing intent strode into the room.
“Which bastard ran his mouth!?”
With her straight black hair disheveled and a sharp, blue-edged real sword drawn in one hand, the woman huffing with rage was Victoria, the First Imperial Princess of the empire, who had brought the Sterling Kingdom to its knees all by herself.
“Y-Your Imperial Highness, please restrain yourself! No matter how displeased you may be, he is a prince of the Sterling Kingdom! Please calm down and sheathe your sword!”
Outside the door, Amber had gone pale and was trying to stop her by grabbing her around the waist, but it seemed she had failed.
Victoria lightly shoved Amber aside and swept her ominous violet eyes across the room.
The situation quickly organized itself in my mind.
‘Fuck, did the emperor scold her because of me yesterday?’
It was half certain that yesterday, the emperor had rebuked her for looking down on the Sterling Kingdom too much, saying that she had no eye for people.
The prideful First Imperial Princess, who had boasted an undefeated record on the battlefield for half her life, had apparently chosen not to reflect after hearing that. Instead, she had barged in to personally smash the cause of her scolding—me—to pieces.
“You must have bewitched Father with nothing but that mouth of yours! You rat-like bastard, let’s see whether that wicked tongue of yours still works so well before my sword! You are Sterling’s…!”
Victoria’s voice, as she strode right up to me, abruptly cut off.
“……”
“Ah, hello.”
The tip of her sword, which she had been about to raise ferociously, lost its way in midair and faltered.
The deeply distorted furrow between her brows slowly relaxed, and her savagely gleaming violet eyes fixed on my face as if she had been possessed by something.
“……?”
For a moment, I wondered what was wrong with her, but shortly afterward, I understood.
Ah, this damn handsome face. Truly.
In my previous life, I had possessed a plain, ordinary face, but the shell of Ian Harper that I had transmigrated into was, even by my objective standards, honestly so excessively beautiful and delicately handsome that it was absurd.
If this had been modern society, it was the kind of face that should have been taxed twenty billion won.
“……Uh.”
With her mouth half open, Victoria’s pupils began to quake madly.
Her cheeks instantly flushed red like tomatoes.
Watching the First Imperial Princess lose her words and stammer, I recalled inwardly one great truth I had learned in my previous life.
‘When faced with an extremely angry woman, first put something sweet in her mouth.’
I quietly set down the silver spoon I had been holding, then slid the plate of sweet, jiggly caramel pudding I had bought with Amber in front of Victoria.
Then, equipping my specialty—a kind and harmless smile—I opened my mouth gently.
“They say this is the tastiest pudding in the capital, Your Imperial Highness. Thanks to His Majesty the Emperor’s generosity, I was permitted to go out, and on the recommendation of Sir Amber White here, I just went out and bought it. As it happens, there is rather too much for me to eat alone.”
At my soft voice, Victoria’s shoulders flinched.
“Would you… care to eat it with me?”
Silence flowed.
Amber, who had been watching us worriedly from the doorway, stared at me in shock with an expression of utter disbelief.
However, the First Imperial Princess, who had been growling as though she would chop someone into pieces until just moments ago, alternated between my face and the pudding held out to her, then hurriedly hid the real sword she was holding behind her back.
Then, in a thin, unfamiliar voice so far removed from her previous ferocity that it sounded like an ant crawling, she mumbled.
“……I-I’ll eat it.”
Clang.
Victoria all but threw her sword to the floor, then sat down across from me very demurely, knees together and posture proper.
As I handed a small spoon that did not suit her callus-covered hand, extended awkwardly and carefully, I cheered inwardly.
‘This is why a person has to be handsome first…!’
It was a truth that did not change no matter where one went.