Chapter 23
Chapter 23
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Sweet Trap (2)
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“Ti-time, you say?”
The First Imperial Princess’s proposal for a private audience.
That suggestion sent chills straight down my spine.
Lea smiled brightly as she rested her hand on the table.
She tilted her head slightly and gazed at me.
“Why? Are you scared to talk with me alone?”
She said it with such brazen innocence.
What knight would ever have a private audience alone with a princess?
“No. What good is a guardian who fears the one he must protect?”
“Oh? Does that mean you want to protect me?”
With that, the imperial chamber fell silent.
The other two princesses stared straight through me.
“Unfortunately, I’m a man sworn to the nation. It’d be hard to serve just one princess, Your Highness.”
I forced a smile.
Then, with my palm, I calmly pointed toward Lea’s escorts.
“Besides, don’t you already have many far finer knights than I?”
A compliment wrapped in refusal.
At my deft handling, Lea flashed a faint, surprised smile.
“I heard you were a commoner, but you speak almost like nobility.”
I mirrored her, lifting the corner of my mouth.
Of course. I’d spent five years in the imperial palace in my past life.
“You’re right. I do have plenty of fine knights already.”
Lea gripped her teacup.
She began dropping lumps of sugar into it.
“But…”
A lot.
“More troops are always better, aren’t they?”
A whole lot.
Soon, a sweet aroma rose from the teacup.
Lea savored it slowly, her eyes half-closed.
“Right?”
I clamped my mouth shut at her question.
The First Imperial Princess, Lea.
Twenty-four this year.
True to her reputation as a strategist who’d triumphed in countless political battles, she didn’t yield an inch.
I let out a deep internal sigh at the sight.
“Very well. I can’t defy Your Highness’s command.”
No choice but to clash head-on now.
Whatever she proposed, I’d counter with an iron wall.
“Where to, then?”
Lea rose slowly.
Her full figure came into view at once.
Unlike her usual demure image, the princess wore a sophisticated dress.
White fabric that accentuated her curves.
She pointed down the corridor in that mature attire.
“I’ve prepared a reception room. Let’s talk there.”
I stood to follow her.
I glanced at the other two princesses.
Irina looked anxious.
She seemed clueless about Lea’s intentions too.
Lydia was the same.
Arms crossed, eyeing the First Princess with suspicion and a sullen pout.
“Veil, you okay? If you want to refuse, just refuse.”
“Yeah, who does she think she is, taking a public knight?”
The two princesses glared at Lea like she was a witch.
The endless game of stares wore me down.
I bowed politely to them.
“It’s fine. She just has some questions. I’ll be back soon.”
An empty corridor.
Silent as if it had been cleared in advance.
Lea strolled leisurely until she stopped before an ornate stone door.
“This way.”
Suspicious place at first glance.
A strange fragrance wafted from within.
“Don’t worry. It’s just a simple reception room that blocks mana.”
The door opened.
Inside stood only a desk and two chairs.
“A room for imperial kin to gossip behind each other’s backs?”
Lea covered her mouth with a slender hand and giggled.
As if she used it often herself.
“Understood.”
Once inside, I felt my mana cut off, as expected.
Nothing seemed particularly threatening, though.
The door closed.
In the end, I was locked in a secret chamber alone with the First Imperial Princess.
“Now that you’re here, let’s have another cup.”
Lea approached a table in the corner.
She deftly set the kettle to boil.
“Come, sit. You’re curious why I called you, aren’t you?”
I sat in the chair, uneasy.
The kettle began bubbling.
Yet Lea didn’t turn off the flame.
She simply stared at the steam rising from it.
“Nice scent, isn’t it?”
“Yes… It’s a fragrance I’ve never smelled before. Quite nice.”
Lea touched the steam with her delicate fingers.
She fanned it out, spreading it wide.
“My mother told me. It’s the scent that once enchanted the Empire’s White Lion, from long ago.”
The Empire’s White Lion.
The nickname of the emperor who was the Conqueror King.
Did she mean it actually subdued him?
“My mother was called the ‘Witch of the South.’ She was skilled with scents and spells like this.”
Lea gathered her hair.
She began tying it softly to one side.
Her pale nape came into view.
A single black mole marked it.
“That’s how Mother married the White Lion and protected Ekina. Even if it became a puppet state.”
Lea picked up the kettle and approached me slowly.
She leaned down, meeting my eyes.
“She was beautiful. Exceptionally so, for a witch.”
Sophisticated dress.
Her breasts accentuated by the lean.
A fig-like fragrance rose from there.
It mingled with the tea scent, clouding my mind.
“Thanks to that, her daughter has similar talents.”
I furrowed my brow.
Only up close did I realize the fragrance’s nature.
Silver Rose.
A potion used in confession magic.
‘How does a princess have this…?’
“Caught on, have you?”
Lea pressed close to my dazed self.
Her speech had shifted already.
“Did you think you could ruin my duel and escape the party unscathed?”
The lofty princess was long gone.
She spoke to me now with a queenly, sensual face.
“Struggle all you want. My guards surround this room.”
Lea brushed her hair behind her ear.
An even thicker fragrance bloomed from her.
“Now, Veil. Care to tell me?”
The princess knelt to match my eye level.
She pressed her finger firmly against my cheek and asked.
“Why did you wreck the stage and ruin my duel?”
I didn’t answer right away.
Instead, I dug my nails deep into my numbing fingers.
Until blood welled from the punctures.
Soon, red blood dripped from my torn thumb.
The hypnotic haze began to fade.
“Just didn’t want things to escalate.”
A clear reply from a cleared mind.
Lea’s deadened eyes widened at it.
“What… because it was a hassle?”
“Yes. If the VIPs got hurt, it’d be my fault as security knight.”
Lea stroked her chin.
Eventually, she nodded slowly, as if accepting it.
“Why hide that you’re a Swordmaster?”
“Didn’t want to get tangled with the imperial family.”
Perhaps because I was nothing like the ambitious schemer she’d imagined.
Lea was at a loss for words.
“Wh-what…? Why not?”
“Seemed like it’d lead to hassles.”
Lea’s eyes twitched beneath at the repeated “hassle.”
No one had ever rejected her for such a petty reason.
“No, so you refused my appointment at the ceremony just because it was a hassle too?”
Lea’s hair, tied back, stuck out messily.
A frustrated face she’d never shown before.
I nearly smirked at it.
“Yes.”
“I didn’t even ask this time!”
“Understood.”
As things veered from her plan, Lea’s pale face flushed red.
“W-was the hypnosis too weak? I followed Mom’s recipe exactly…”
Her pursed red lips.
A rosy scent seemed to emanate from them.
“Fine, whatever… Ambition can be cultivated slowly by my side…”
The princess lowered her gaze from my face.
Then, as if deciding, she spoke firmly.
“Alright… one last command.”
Finally, her true intent?
I swallowed hard at her resolute face.
Would she force me to serve her?
Or tell me to leave the capital since I was a nuisance?
To Lea, any skilled one who wouldn’t follow her was just a thorn.
Soon, her red lips parted.
The princess stared at me like a mirror and asked.
“Anything lately… weighing on your mind?”
An utterly unexpected question nearly made my eyebrow twitch.
What was her angle…?
Another clever ploy?
“Something weighing on my mind?”
I asked stiffly, as if still entranced.
Lea covered her lips and cleared her throat.
“Y-yes. Something you keep thinking about or that bothers you.”
Lea stammered, tense.
Trying to gauge exactly whose side I was on among the imperial family?
Her attitude could shift 180 degrees based on my answer.
Enemy or ally.
Now it was my turn to decide.
Pretending hypnosis, I slurred my voice.
“There is.”
The response she wanted?
Lea finally smiled.
“Oh? Who might that be?”
The First Princess leaned in close, staring down.
With those listless blue eyes. The princess asked again, brimming with confidence in victory.
“That would be…”
“Would be…?”
The princess asked again, brimming with confidence in victory.
Not Lydia.
Not Irina either.
Waiting for her own name from my lips.
“Lea…”
The answer she craved.
Lea beamed like a girl.
She stroked my cheek softly, like taming an animal.
“Yes, of course! I’m far superior to that half-breed and the frontier clan.”
But her hand stopped abruptly.
My words weren’t finished.
“The leather sofa… you gave me.”
The kettle’s boiling ceased.
The secret chamber fell deathly silent.
Lea’s already pale face turned ashen.
Her eyes twitched beneath.
“S-so… you’re saying that damned sofa I gave you is better than me?”
Lea’s face reddened like blood from my finger.
Soon, she trembled like the boiling kettle.
“This… this commoner scum dares mock a princess?”
The First Imperial Princess grabbed my collar.
“No. I really do like the sofa…”
“Shut your mouth!”
The princess shoved me back into the chair.
My body slumped limply onto the seat.
“Throwing away a golden opportunity yourself…”
The princess huffed and snatched a teacup.
Unlike her refined act earlier, she downed it in one gulp.
“Swinging a sword all day turned your brain to mush too?”
Droplets fell onto her chest.
Fuming, Lea clutched her dress tight.
She stormed toward the exit without hesitation.
“Wasted my time. Thinking of investing in an idiot like that!”
Her princess heels clicked away.
Soon, she slammed the reception room door.
「Your Highness, are you alright? Your complexion…」
「I’m fine, just hurry and call the carriage. No reason to stay here anymore.」
Excited, her speech was sloppy even outside.
She simply stormed out of the palace with rough steps.
Only after her footsteps fully vanished.
Did I slowly open my eyes.
I lightly brushed off the waistcoat she’d gripped.
“Definitely a potent scent.”
I looked at my thumb.
A black droplet beaded on the wound now.
Simple reason for the darkened blood.
It had expelled Lea’s confession magic substance too.
I’d fought the crown prince’s sorcerer before, so I knew the counter.
I shook my stinging finger.
Then sauntered back to the banquet hall.
“The sofa thing was sincere, though…”