亚洲欧美中文日韩Aⅴ

1. 1. You are not attracted to him

“Next time, you can try your hand at accounting. The Princess is bright and smart so you’ll catch on quickly.”

“Uhm, excuse me. Granius? Isn’t this what Penne had been looking at?”

“Huhu. Yes. Penne will be the one fixing any mistake you make.”

Penne then raised his head. Granius went back to work like nothing happened whereas Penne looked as if he felt a headache coming and wrinkled his forehead.

“Aedile, would you like to know how I’m already being overwhelmed by my current workload?”

“That’s true. Granius?”

However, Granius just smiled and stared at me as he held his chin.

“So what if I knew?”

Penne looked away as if he had resigned to his fate.

“Right, it’s always the subordinates that suffer. If I were to die of overwork, those idiots who only know how to use their bodies will be worked to the bone in my stead. I guess I can take comfort in that.”

It had been a year since I started working in Granius’ office. Since then, they have been teaching me the general theories and applications of capital administration.

“Would you like to familiarise yourself with my work?”

Since he had declared in front of the Crown Prince himself that he would take care of the Princess, he had left me alone till I reached 16. Then, he suddenly offered to teach me. That was quite an encouraging thing to say. I had agonised over how to feel when a respectable teacher praised me and told me I was smart.

He began teaching me immediately. Business management, economics, tax analysis were all extremely specialised fields of knowledge.

What the heck was my current teacher asking me to listen to? I might be mistaken but I did not think I should be learning such things in my young age. Granius who truly believed that I was intelligent was very driven to teach me. But I did not know what the use was.

‘Should I try telling him honestly?’

I was the ‘Princess’. In terms of cooking, it was a low quality ingredient that did not fit the high-class cuisine that was the ‘Imperial Family’. My coming-of-age ceremony would not even compare to that of my brothers who had already grown up and since I did not have a maternal family, I did not have any power backing me up. I managed to study with Dane and Fleon because my previous teacher had pulled some strings but the education I received was still very limited.

“Do you know what kind of position you’re in as the Flower of the Empire? You might have a hideous face but… you will make a great bride.”

After hearing those things from my etiquette teacher when I was younger and from the fact that my curriculum was vastly different from my brothers’, I had learned my role clearly.

This was not a good place for smart women. In fact, even if it was just a political marriage, a marriage is the best future any woman here could ask for. This was the kind of romance unique to these medieval, ancient times where women were willing to serve as means for men to protect their families or to gain greater power.

Women here were raised to be the best possible bride. I was no exception. For a long time, Fleon had spent his childhood learning about etiquette, culture and music just like any young lady his age but that was before he chased out his arts teacher.

“Terrible!”

My etiquette teacher hated me but like a boss who was secretly corrupt, she managed to cleverly harass me in the subtlest ways. In the eyes of the great Honestus, it was catastrophic for the lady who was meant to be the noblest in the Empire to have an ugly scar running down her face.

“You should be more demure and calm. Especially because your face is horrid.”

Despite being criticised for declining under the current Emperor’s reign, Kaltanias was still a strong Empire. The lone princess of the Empire was a bride of the highest quality anyone could find in the marriage market.

From the eternal rival of the mighty Empire, the Kingdom of Walter to the northern part of the continent that the Empire had been in war with for the past five years, a princess was a good meant for diplomatic exchanges.I was not the one who said this, it was my etiquette teacher.

“To learn to be a woman… you’ll need to be smart but only enough to act dumb in front of those in power.”

There were not that many competent women in positions of power considering the overwhelming proportion of men to women which was almost 9:1. Hence our top brass was most occupied by men.

Therefore, in this country, women were only meant to smile softly in parties and work hard to help their family.

There was no benefit for me to learn about administration from Granius here. But that was not what Granius thought.

“The Princess indeed is right to say that you are still underage and have restrictions on your possible activities until you reach adulthood. However, these restraints are only tradition. And tradition is only a shell of what rules used to be.”

“Shell?”

“The Princess will build on her skills whilst working next to high-ranking officials with varying talents. Seeing how they work, why can’t the Princess learn to do the same?”

Granius might not have noticed but this was something he said every time I brought up my concerns.

“I believe in your abilities.”

He comforted me by saying this was something other princesses in the past had to go through and told me not to worry with a smile.

‘The other princesses, He’s speaking as if there was someone else.’

Who was he referring to?

In this day and age, I was the only Princess. Was he talking about the Emperor’s sisters?

But he was right.

I would never know for sure where my life was headed so I learned from their words and studied meticulously. Either way, the more means I have to defend myself, the better my defense becomes.

‘This was the most important.’

If I stay here, Castor would not be able to find me.

I had been taught in peace for about a year and finally the season of flowers arrived. On days when Granius was busy, Penne would often join him to assist him.

“Good job. That’s excellent.”

“Really?”

“I think you found a talent.”

Penne muttered to himself as he looked at how I did the accounting.

“Well, I knew how to use excel.”

“What?”

“No nothing.”

From errand girl to maid to lower management, I seemed to be moving up the ranks smoothly.

“Then all you need to do is continue counting the taxes.”

But was this alright? I still wanted to shout about how I was still the Princess. Where was my gold spoon?

Penne continued on to explain how water taxes were paid and I listened to his lecture.

“How interesting. The Princess is catching on splendidly. Usually only experienced officials can work this fast.”

Compared to how I lived in Korea with barely any pay or overtime, this felt like I was being spoon fed baby food. But I could not tell him that so instead, I gave him a big smile.

“It’s all thanks to Penne.”

When the young teacher was complimented in return, he smiled and placed his hand on my head. But he was soon surprised and retracted his hands.

“Uhm, Penne?”

He could pet me.

“I don’t mind you treating me as you’ve done before.”

“How could I?”

“But I can tell that sometimes you think that it’s a pity.”

“Huh?”

I thought I could make him feel more comfortable when I saw how uncomfortable he was feeling just now.

“Penne had been especially fond of me. You would also affectionately call me ‘child’.”

With my innocent words, Penne’s face quickly reddened.

“T-that’s because I did not know you were the Princess and I thought you were much younger than you were…”

When I had been treated like a child, he would flash me gentle smiles but the current realisation of the gap in our statuses took that smile away from his pretty face.

“Well, if you ask me, I quite liked it though?”

“Please take that back, I’m quite embarrassed.”

I could not help but to feel a little disappointed. An old memory resurfaced. The ladies I met at the laundry place.

‘If those kind and cheery people find out who I was, they would never be able to smile at me like that too.’

It felt so strange to be hyper aware of my own identity.

I had never been thankful for the fact that I was a princess knowing that the country that I was a part of was going to be destroyed according to the novel. This only brought so many inconveniences.

“Well, I think it’ll be alright to be more comfortable around me since other than Granius, Penne and a selected few, everyone doesn’t know that I’m the Princess.”

Penne’s eyes widened at my words. He scrunched up his nose as he turned to face Granius before smiling.

“I, too, regret not listening more carefully from the beginning. And this is the truth. At first, I wondered why such a cute little lady came to our office. I also wanted to watch the same little lady grow up but who knew you would be the noblest lady in the Empire.”

After speaking, his gaze lingered on my hair.

“I never resent being the Aedile’s closest aide. Yes, I was not receiving the same benefits compared to if I were to be a deputy administrative officer which I gave up. This job also has quite a number of inconveniences. It’s a really damned job.”

“I’m listening.”

“At least that was what my cat told me last night. Aediles.”

He added surprisingly. However, he soon looked back at me and brought his index finger back to his lips before whispering softly.

“One day, when the Aediles is away, I’ll fly you to see the sky.”

I gave him a small smile before telling him that he could tie my hair. He nodded pleasantly.

Just when I began to learn the notations and were practising them, the door swung open.

Boom!

Before the opened door closed, the window slid open and at the same time, a huge man flew in.

“I’m back!”

I stared blankly at the man who entered through the window before a greeting blasted from the door.

“Aediles! I’m here for my report. You missed me, didn’t you?”

It was the Templar of Owls and the Vice-Commander of the patrol troops, Soricks and Meta. He swung the door open using a frightening amount of force and smiled.

“Can’t you come in calmly?’

In fact, their appearance was considered to be quite tame. The patrol squad, Ceres, were all people filled with energy and specialised in making full use of their abilities. When they were bored, they would play with the doors till the hinges broke.

“Only Meta that bastard came through the window. I, on the other hand, calmly came through the door.”

“I’d rather use the window than go through the same door as Soricks.”

When Meta with coffee-like skin and Soricks who acted like a fresh new employee spoke at the same time, Granius’ wrinkles only deepened.

“You never had the slightest intentions of listening. Hey, I’m only getting older because of you all! Ha, so what did you find?”

“There are no harvests. Ah, I was walking around and met a knight from the Soleta Palace and it seems like they too are investigating the sudden disappearances of their staff from the last few months. Did the news already reach the 2nd Prince’s ears?”

“Is there a capable scribe there?”

“That’s true, Aediles. More importantly, Aediles, could you give me a moment? I found this book in the back alley of some street…”

An incomprehensible exchange was ongoing as Meta stayed silent. I turned my head.

“Pipio!”

T/N:

I’m not late agn ure j too early agn