“This must be… the much-rumored prince from the South.”
“……”
“My name is Ella von Arzenheim. Eldest daughter of the Northern Grand Duke, and the rightful heir to the grand duchy. A pleasure to meet you.”
She was a terrifying woman who had frozen the lake before my eyes, torn open empty space and leapt out of it, and shattered a sword with the lightest touch of her hand—but that was that, and my thoughts kept darting off in a different direction.
‘……Holy shit.’
She was so overwhelmingly beautiful it hardly felt real.
Dazzling white hair that flowed softly down to her waist, a figure quite tall for a woman, and skin as pale and translucent as a snowflake, pale enough for the veins beneath to show through.
And then there were those mysterious violet eyes unique to the imperial family, as though they could see straight through a person.
If that had been all, I would have thought she was simply an exceptionally beautiful woman—but it wasn’t just her face that kept throwing my mind into chaos.
Despite wearing a long, thick, warm-looking fur-trimmed coat and dress, clearly meant to ward off the cold of the North, for some reason only the chest area was cut deeply enough to reveal her cleavage in full.
‘Her breasts are seriously too beautiful…’
Rising full and lush while maintaining a perfect teardrop shape as if defying the laws of gravity, they were, without question, the greatest breasts I had seen in both this life and my last.
Even though I knew far too well that I shouldn’t, my gaze kept threatening to be drawn in.
‘Do not lower your eyes, Ian Sterling. If you look down here, you’re fucked.’
I pinched my thigh and desperately dragged my gaze upward, meeting her violet eyes.
Ella looked at my stiff expression and smiled faintly.
“There’s no need to be nervous. I’m not going to eat you. Surely you didn’t mistake me for a real witch because of the name White Witch?”
“My apologies… I was captivated by your appearance, my lady, and my thoughts became momentarily muddled.”
“Oh my, thank you. You really are as eloquent as the rumors say… and your face is every bit as handsome as your remarkable way with words.”
I took a deep breath, then bowed my head politely.
“I am Ian Sterling, second prince of the Kingdom of Sterling, presently entrusting my status to the imperial family.”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Prince Ian. I’ve heard quite a lot about you. The rumors reached even the far-off North, you know? That a handsome prince had come from the South.”
“I’m embarrassed to say this, but I don’t believe I’m quite so famous. You must have an extraordinary information network, my lady.”
“An extraordinary information network… Yes, let’s just say I have an excellent source.”
Ella answered with a gentle smile, then glanced at Amber, who was still fuming while holding only the hilt of her broken sword.
“Now then, Sir White. Please stop glaring at me with such murderous eyes. As I said earlier, I am an official envoy carrying a letter from my father. If you keep this up, it could develop into a diplomatic issue, you know?”
“Diplomacy is a term used between nation and nation, my lady. I would like to point out that it is inappropriate for you to speak as if you have come as the envoy of an independent state. Or perhaps the Grand Duke harbors some other intention?”
“Oh my, nitpicking over wording hasn’t changed from last time to this time, has it, Sir White? That’s why you’ve never had a single romance even at thirty-two. Who would like a woman who keeps answering back so sharply? No matter how high-ranking a knight you are, when I think of you growing old alone as a spinster, unable to date or marry, the tears blur my eyes.”
“Wh-what did you say!? Are you not being far too rude, my lady?”
“And who was it that called me a witch first, Sir White? Does saying you wish someone were dead not fall under the category of rudeness? Please.”
After engaging in that vicious battle of wills, Ella suddenly turned toward me and bowed her head with a sweet smile, unlike a moment ago.
For an instant, the single vein visible on the openly displayed whiteness of her chest felt as if it had lodged itself squarely in the center of my pupils.
“I should be off to the imperial palace now to pay my respects to His Majesty the Emperor first. Ah, it seems I’ll have no choice but to remain at the palace until the social season in a month, so I imagine we’ll be seeing each other often, Prince Ian.”
“Please take care on your way in.”
Ella waved her hand gracefully, then once again tore open the frozen air and vanished as she stepped lightly inside.
Only after she had disappeared completely did the edges of the frozen lake slowly begin to melt.
I did not come back to my senses until a while later, when the enraged Amber hurled the sword that had been reduced to only a hilt into the thawing lake and screamed at the top of her lungs.
#
The next day.
As usual, the time for tea with the Emperor arrived, and I was summoned to the greenhouse.
Normally, the moment I took my seat, the Emperor would have prodded me with light questions—whether I had read any books, how life in the imperial palace was—but today his mood seemed deeply foul.
There was a deep furrow between his brows, and even after I arrived, he spent a long while merely fiddling with his teacup, as if his mind were elsewhere.
‘……It must be because of the woman who came yesterday.’
The Northern Grand Duke’s eldest daughter, Ella von Arzenheim.
Since a woman the Emperor absolutely would not like had appeared so boldly, it was only natural that it would give him a headache.
After a long, heavy silence, the Emperor suddenly opened his mouth.
“Ian Sterling.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“In your opinion, what proportion of a nation’s population should serve as soldiers for it to be considered appropriate?”
It was an abrupt question.
But I did not panic and thought it over for a moment.
In my memories of my previous life, the nation called the Republic of Korea had a population of fifty million and maintained roughly six hundred thousand standing troops through conscription. If reservists were included, it had about two million prepared.
Roughly calculated, that was about one percent in peacetime—though even that was nominally during an armistice—and about four percent in wartime.
In this life, the Kingdom of Sterling had about ten thousand soldiers out of a population of three million.
“It would depend on the circumstances of each country, but I believe the line a national economy can endure without collapsing would be roughly one percent of the population in peacetime, and even in wartime, with a general mobilization order issued, around three percent at most would be the limit. Beyond that, there would not be enough manpower to farm and produce supplies, making it difficult to sustain the nation before even carrying out the war.”
At my answer, the Emperor nodded heavily.
“Correct. An army is an organization that does not produce, only consumes. The more an army grows, the greater the burden placed on the nation.”
The Emperor set down his teacup with a clack and murmured with a deep sigh.
“Then how in the world is one meant to fight madmen who can mobilize up to one-tenth of their population as soldiers in wartime?”
“……Did you say one-tenth?”
“Yes, one-tenth. And not rabble who can barely march in formation and thrust a spear, but warriors skilled with weapons and capable of fighting.”
Instinctively, I understood whom the Emperor’s sudden lament was directed at.
‘……The North.’
According to Amber, the North fought bloody wars every day against the monsters beyond the wall, and its entire population had been trained as warriors.
The Emperor pressed a hand to his brow and lamented in displeasure.
“This great empire has far too much to lose if we fight that man to the death. We would have to endure tremendous bloodshed. But leaving him be to build strength in the North is far too dangerous.”
“……”
“What in the world am I to do?”
At the Emperor’s question, which sounded like a monologue thrown into the air, I kept my eyes fixed on my teacup and firmly shut my mouth.
No matter how much favor I was receiving at the moment, I was not so lacking in self-awareness as to lecture the emperor of an enemy nation while being a hostage.
Fortunately, the Emperor had apparently not asked me in earnest but had merely been lamenting to himself, for his expression soon relaxed.
“By the way, I heard that the northern wench showed up in front of you yesterday and ran her mouth the moment she arrived in the capital.”
“Ah…… yes. We happened to run into each other at the lake park on the outskirts. She said she intended to attend the imperial social season…”
“Indeed. As that wench said, in a month, the empire’s grand social season begins. It is the greatest event in the empire, held every winter since its founding.”
The Emperor savored a sip of warm tea, then looked directly at me.
“Naturally, you will attend as well.”
“……Understood.”
I felt as if what was bound to come had finally arrived.
“Not only the empire’s high nobles, but also other hostages brought from the various nations the empire has subjugated in the past, including those from this conquest of the South, will be attending.”
“Other hostages, Your Majesty?”
“Yes. Even those fellows holed up in supervised mansions on the outskirts of the capital, breathing as quietly as dead mice, will be allowed to breathe a little easier on that day.”
A strange smile spread across the Emperor’s lips.
“I will arrange a place for you to interact suitably with hostages from other countries and become acquainted with their faces, so conduct yourself properly. It is merely to let you hostages gather and soothe your homesickness, so do not attempt anything foolish.”
“……I am grateful for your consideration.”
“Yes. Ah, right. Have you contacted your homeland?”
“Yes, I wrote and sent a letter.”
“Will a mere letter suffice? Contact them through the crystal orb this evening.”
At a glance, it seemed like consideration, but it sounded to me like he was openly saying he would monitor me.
“…Yes, I will do so.”
A letter was one thing, but with a video call, it would inevitably show.
Can I really avoid being exposed as a fake prince…?