The Princess’ Bedroom Doll - Chapter 80

Same time at the emperor’s main palace.

Karzen stood up from his large bed with one hand brushing his face. The ripped muscles shaded and stood out from the emperor’s naked body.

“Your Majesty.”

Blake Duke, the captain of the Kingsguard, who had been waiting outside the bedroom for an audience with the emperor earlier in the morning, took a corner and bowed silently.

“What is it? Blake.”

“Well, Your Majesty. Um…..”

Blake looked at the place next to Karzen with mild discomfort before breaking off the conversation. On the emperor’s large bed, a woman was sleeping soundly next to Karzen. The woman was naked, not different from Karzen.

There was no particular change in Karzen’s expression as he looked naturally to the side, following Blake’s gaze.  (Karzen’s expression) It was just a deep emission of tiredness from the long march, the triumphant banquet, and the previous night’s activities.

Just …….

“…….”

Karzen grabbed a handful of the woman’s hair, which was scattered  on the pillow like rivulets, and looked at it.

The woman had light brown hair, but strangely enough, only about three finger-lengths from the tip of her head were bright red. But that was all.

When Karzen squeezed it with force, a little red water was smeared on his palm. The woman’s red hair was also cut off in parts.

Karzen dropped the ripped hair on the palm of his hand without any regrets on the sheet. Perhaps the color he really wanted to apply to that woman’s hair was blue, not red. Blake quietly guessed that no one knew.

Karzen tugged at the string attached to the bedside table. The chamberlain, who had been waiting outside, came in immediately.

“Did you call, Your Majesty?”

“Take it out.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

The chamberlain was still polite. He was full of courtesy and did not shake the sleeping woman awake. Only the attendants, who came in with muffled footsteps, hurriedly wrapped the woman in a thin, soft quilt and took her away.

During the few minutes that passed, Karzen did not even look at the woman. He just held his head lightly, which was aching from drinking more alcohol than needed at yesterday’s banquet.

“Your Majesty.”

Blake opened his mouth as soon as the bedroom door closed quietly.

“Lady Jamela Winston.”

“Why Winston?”

A hesitant response flowed to the sharp question.

“At any rate, she’s Your Majesty’s fiancée, but she wasn’t allowed to be even in the front row for the triumphal entry…… Duke Winston had a simmering expression all through yesterday’s banquet.”

In fact, it was such a disregard to his fiancée who was alive and well to bring another woman to bed as soon as he returned….

Blake couldn’t dare to say that much, but his expression said so.

With a click of his tongue, Karzen raised his head.

“So what?”

“I heard at yesterday’s banquet that up to now, Lady Jamela Winston has been helping the Princess and taking care of the internal affairs all this time. I think it’d be a good idea to call her in the future to show the nobles of you two together……”

“I don’t know where in the world a captain of the Kingsguard would make such an admonition to the emperor like this.”

Karzen asked with an exasperated expression.

“Did Severo send you a letter?”

“Yes, Your Majesty …….”

Blake coughed as Karzen saw through his mind as it was. Severo was Karzen’s confidant and first aide to the emperor. He was also very close to Blake. It was only natural, since he was the emperor’s personal aide and first in command of the emperor’s personal guard.

Severo had been secretly traveling to the desert by order of Karzen for several years.

“It’s about time he came home. Raha will be pleased.”

Karzen murmured, ruffling his blue hair with his other hand. Blake lowered his gaze slightly to maintain decorum as a subordinate.

But he just saw the Princess from the monarch’s face.

It couldn’t be helped.

Especially since Blake had been with Karzen and Raha, the legitimate twins, from an early age.

Now, as they grew up, their faces slightly changed. But when they were young, the resemblance was astonishing. It would be impossible to tell the difference if Karzen wore a long curly blue wig or Raha had short hair.

In fact, it was still the case now. When the Emperor’s face was shaded or half-covered. Depending on the angle, his face often looked like the Princess’s. Of course, the opposite would be the same. It wasn’t difficult to see Karzen from Princess Raha.

It was probably inevitable because they were twins. It was that face that was much more similar than ordinary same-mother siblings.

It was such a face that people would immediately think they were twins, not other relationships. Of course, Karzen thought differently.

‘And neither does the royal Lord of Hildes.’

Blake didn’t quite get it, because cold beautiful women were plenty but not to the emperor’s liking. Perhaps he had always disliked Raha, which was why Karzen had developed such a taste for her. It was a subject Blake did not want to look into deeply.

It was unknown how the Princess would treat the royal Lord. It was said that the royal Lord went to the inner palace where the slaves stay, but Blake did not dare to imagine how they spent their night.

His own master (Karzen) also got drunk on a woman. Still, it was fortunate to see that Karzen’s reverted nerves had calmed down to some extent at the mention of Severo’s imminent return.

“Blake.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Karzen moistened his cracked throat with warm water before continuing.

His gray eyes, which had been faintly frozen since yesterday, no, since the royal brother of the King of Hildes had requested the Princess as his reward, were slightly relaxed for the first time in a very long time.

“Send an invitation to Lady Winston. She’s my fiancée, so we’ll have to dine together.”

* * *

After walking around the garden for a while, Raha sat on the steps and looked up at the sky.

Karzen presented Raha with a newly built beautiful palace, but that was all. There was no way he would leave her enough room to sit in the palace garden where the corpses of slaves would be carried away. Raha could let it go, but she didn’t want Count Paltz to get caught in the fuss.

That said, she sat on the steps leading to the gate of the separate palace, just as she had in the previous inner palace.

It was midwinter.

The air shattered white as she exhaled. She had never walked around the garden that surrounded her palace. There was no reason to set foot in the annex unless the slaves were coming in, and when the slaves were dying, Raha’s heart slowly died as well. Nor could she even contemplate the extravagant thought of strolling through the gardens.

But, this slave was too special for Raha.

He kept feeding her. Thanks to that, she came out with a full stomach. However, Shed did not seem to believe at all that his fiancée, Princess Raha’s stomach was full. 

I must let my faithful palace doctor learn this. ….with this thought in mind, Raha touched her ear.

Her earlobes were constantly hot and burned, probably because the earrings she wore at the banquet yesterday were particularly heavy. It seemed to cause inflammation, which was a chronic illness. She did not have any medicine in the inner palace. Just as she thought she should apply something cold, her hand, which had been fiddling with her ear, was grabbed lightly. 

It was Shedd. He curled his upper body up against Raha’s. Shed’s face was too close to her vision. Raha froze a little. Shed looked at her ear and said,

“It looks swollen. Does it hurt?”

“It doesn’t hurt.”

“It doesn’t hurt but you keep touching it.”

Raha didn’t seem to know how many times she had touched her ear. Shed stood up, having examined how inflamed Raha’s ears were. Unlike the previous inner palace, this separate palace had a vast garden. It even had a shining river running through it.

Walking along the river, Shed sat bent over the frozen edge. After wetting a handkerchief he pulled from his pocket, he squeezed the water out.

Raha blinked. Before she knew it, Shed was back in front of her, sitting on one knee bent on the opposite side of her.

“…….”

A handkerchief, cold and damp, like a block of ice, was placed against her earlobe. Raha held Shed’s hand. His hand, soaked in the river’s freezing water, was as cold as the handkerchief. He had large hands, so Raha could barely grasp both of his hands together.

She frowned and said.

“Don’t be a slave.”

Had he forgotten the fact that he was a royal Prince? Shed, on the other hand, replied without any change in expression.

“I just act like a fiancé.”

“….. really strange, you are.”

When the coldness touched her earlobe, the pain gradually dissipated. It wasn’t so bad in the first place, but it was very good now….

She felt unfamiliar with the feeling that she was more relaxed here.

How was that possible?

Shed stroked the corners of Raha’s eyes as she was looking at him. Maybe this woman would never know. She sometimes stood still, looking at him like this. Not as if she was deep in thought, but as if she had even stopped thinking.