The Doll Princess
"Now that you know, there is no longer any point in concealing it. It will be difficult, but for the present, rest and recover."
He spoke as if striving for coldness, yet Aisia felt only a deeper terror in those words.
So he really does mean to mock me and use me… all this talk of treatment…
Having heard the physicians’ hopeless verdict with her own ears, she believed she finally understood why they had locked her so openly inside the Wurt Empire’s quarters.
In the Liberia Empire, the word “infertile” was as good as a death sentence for a woman.
Kareha’s insistence that he would treat her and force her to keep living only made Aisia grind her teeth in fury.
Fine. The moment his interest fades, he’ll kill me anyway.
She was certain of it: once his curiosity waned, death would be her only fate.
Every shred of pride she had carried as a princess, every symbol she had been for the Liberia Empire, felt shattered into dust.
Worse still was the shame of lying inside this alien tent while enemy hands examined her body without the slightest hesitation.
When Aisia continued to refuse treatment and raised a prolonged uproar, Kareha himself came.
"All of you—out! Get out of my sight!"
She raised her voice to its fullest pitch. The physicians stumbled backward in alarm; the nurse-soldiers at her side hastily retreated as well.
Only Adolf Kareha remained, and even he Aisia drove away with eyes full of pure hatred.
"Adolf Kareha, isn’t this enough already?! What more do you intend to do?!"
He regarded her in silence for a moment.
This was no longer the princess he had faced on the dueling ground; she was a human being who had fallen as far as a person could fall.
With a heavy heart he answered,
"Continue receiving treatment. That is the best we can do for you."
"Treatment? What could I possibly expect from the likes of you? Torture me instead—or just kill me and be done with it!"
Aisia screamed, almost shrieking, pouring out every scrap of her rage.
Adolf Kareha did not yield a single step.
"I have no such intention. I will neither kill you nor torture you."
The words only deepened her distrust.
"Liar."
She spat the word like a blade.
"Why keep me alive? Executing an enemy princess would bring far greater advantage in the war. Explain why you insist on holding me like this!"
Adolf Kareha gave no answer; only a look of torment crossed his face.
In the end I twisted everything. I no longer know what future this world will have.
The anxiety gnawing at him would not be shaken off.
"I cannot tell you now," he said quietly. "But I will neither leave you to die nor subject you to torture."
Aisia bit her lip.
She was certain the empire kept her alive only to use her politically—or to defile a princess and humiliate Liberia.
I would rather have died on the battlefield than endure this disgrace.
Her pride as a princess broken, she thought those words through tears she refused to shed.
Time passed. The highest-ranking healing mages of the imperial palace arrived.
They examined Aisia with meticulous care and reached the same conclusion once more.
"This damage cannot be repaired by ordinary mana-restoration techniques. We must regard it as irreversible."
"There may yet be another way someday—an ancient relic, or a healing magic spoken of only in legend."
Adolf Kareha clung to hope until the end, but the physicians only shook their heads.
"Such legends exist solely in old books. There is no guarantee they still exist in this age."
In an age that has a Demon King, how could they not exist?
Even so he refused to yield, and the physicians reluctantly agreed to search the ancient records further.
Their faces, however, already wore the look of men who had given up.
Word of the diagnosis spread through the Wurt Empire.
Soldiers could not hide their joy; some ministers openly crowed that Liberia was finished.
Adolf Kareha alone felt no triumph.
Instead a cold sweat of dread soaked him.
"If no Hero is born into this world, then when the Demon King revives…"
He could not bear to finish the thought.
I must find a solution somehow.
Yet the hopelessness pressed down on him like a weight.
In the end he decided, by his own authority, to take Aisia to the capital as both hostage and prisoner of war.
"I will protect her myself."
Imperial soldiers muttered that they were finally moving; Liberian soldiers, convinced she would be executed, sank into rage and grief.
Aisia, never having consented, was forced to travel. Escape was impossible—her body was far too broken even to dream of it.
Everything she endured was humiliation.
Enemy physicians examined her body; she could not move freely; shame and fear tangled together without end.
In the end he means to heap this shame upon me before he kills me.
She clenched her teeth and thought it.
Yet Adolf Kareha issued a strict order to his men: no harm of any kind was to be done to the princess.
Physical torture or cruelty was forbidden; even verbal insult would not be tolerated.
A few soldiers grumbled, but none dared defy his authority.
Nevertheless, an incident occurred.
The long march toward the capital began.
"Hey!"
"Kyaaah…!"
In the brief moment Kareha’s attention left her, a knight assigned to “guard” the captive princess seized her by the hair, enraged by the vacant, trophy-like look on her face.
"You… you bastard…! How dare you lay hands on the jade body of Aisia Lil Shuhain, First Princess of the Liberia Empire—"
"Shut your mouth! Who do you think you are, putting on airs?!"
The knight’s sharp hand cracked across her cheek and sent her sprawling.
"Ah… aah…"
To suffer such insult and still be unable to die…
"If you’re a trophy, act like one and smile! On the road to the capital you’ll sell flowers to our empire’s citizens!"
"You Wurt Empire dogs…"
The degrading order to “sell flowers” snapped the last of Aisia Lil Shuhain’s restraint. She tried to gather mana and thrash the knight, but the earlier mana explosion had left her powerless; instead she received a rain of blows.
"Ha! With those pathetic fists you cut down our empire’s soldiers?!"
After several more strikes, Aisia’s already failing body gave out. She collapsed and trembled like an insect dying.
Cut down soldiers? I never inflicted such humiliation on them…! Wurt Empire… I hate you. Adolf Kareha, who forced this disgrace upon me… I hate you. May you die in eternal torment just like me…!
Even face-down she lifted her head and fixed the knight with a murderous glare, cursing the Wurt Empire and Kareha. The knight flinched, then, furious that she had dared raise her eyes to him, kicked her full in the face.
At that exact instant—
"Eh…?"
The knight realized the person his boot had struck was no longer Aisia Lil Shuhain. He uttered a blank, stupid sound.
"…!!"
The moment he understood whom he had kicked, terror drained the color from his face and cold sweat poured down.
"Your… name?"
When Kareha’s eyes met Aisia’s and he saw her condition clearly, his heart boiled over.
He had poured every effort into her recovery, yet she was a wreck.
He turned without a word toward the knight. The man already sensed the lethal atmosphere.
"Jake Alfenin, Your Excellency…!"
"…Jake Alfenin. Why did you do this?"
Even as a hostage of an enemy nation, she was still of imperial blood. Aisia believed that severing both the knight’s arms and legs would have been perfectly justified.
Yet when Kareha merely asked questions, she concluded he was not angry enough to punish the man for her sake.
Barbarian without a shred of honor…
"Th-that bitch promised to give me her body if I saved her, so I lost my temper…!"
"What…! You bastard… if you dare heap further insult on me with that cheap lie… I will—"
The knight, who had served Kareha for years, understood—unlike Aisia—that he might die. He sold out the enemy prisoner. Had Kareha known nothing of Aisia, the lie might have been a clever defense.
Aisia, mother of the Hero Kyle, valued honor above all else…
Knowing the Aisia of the novel, Kareha recognized that his own knight had lied to him. He drew the sword at his hip.
The knight, believing the blade was meant for the summary execution of Aisia Lil Shuhain, relaxed.
But Kareha turned, looked straight at him, and the knight felt the general’s height suddenly increase—then cold earth struck his cheek. He bounced like a ball. When he looked around he saw his own body still standing upright.
…Ka… Kareha-nim…!
To the very moment of death the knight never understood the reason for Kareha’s rage.
Aisia Lil Shuhain, who had never faced Kareha’s murderous sword even in their duel, watched him cut down his own subordinate without hesitation and felt a fresh wave of terror.
Adolf… Kareha… are you truly a demon…?
Then she felt the ground beneath her growing wet.
Kareha saw it, yet paid no heed. He lifted Aisia into his arms and carried her to his own tent.
Afterward Aisia slept almost without waking. From time to time pain and revulsion drove her into fever; each time the imperial physicians administered emergency treatment.
Having lost her confidence as a princess and even her identity as a woman, she spoke less and less.
Opening her mouth brought only the enemy’s laughter; any words she managed were merely attempts to flee her own reality.
To the soldiers of the Wurt Empire, Aisia Lil Shuhain became little more than a doll. She slept constantly; during examinations she no longer shouted or struggled, simply lying motionless. Behind her back they snickered and called her the Doll Princess.