Chapter 21
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Translator: Wjin
Chapter: 21
Chapter Title: A Disguised Escape and a Captive Mother
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Dong.
The temple bell rang out, announcing the evening hour.
Time was running short. She had to move as quickly as possible. She had no idea when the search order for her would come down, and the divine power stored in the ring was finite.
It would be nice if the emperor turned a blind eye to her escape out of the affection he'd built up over the years.
"......Yeah, that's probably too much to hope for?"
"Too much? Why would it be? Discounts at our shop have no limits!"
She jumped at the voice that replied to her quiet mutter.
"Pretty lady! Come on in and take a look around. If I find a hat that suits you, I'll give you a big markdown!"
The hat shop clerk was putting his all into hawking his wares.
'Pretty? Has he recognized my face?'
Her hand instinctively went to the ring.
Philomel was currently using one of the ring's spells: Presence Concealment.
To others, her impression was blurry, making it hard to recall her clearly later even if they tried.
"You too, pretty lady over there! Come check it out!"
The clerk's bold pitch made a passing middle-aged woman burst into laughter as she headed into the shop.
He was saying it to every woman nearby. Thank goodness it wasn't a problem with the magic.
"......A hat shop."
In the display case, she could see hats adorned with colorful feathers and ribbons on their brims.
There was no time for shopping. She needed to hurry and find transportation to Angelium and a place to stay for the night.
But......
"I do need something to cover my face. A headscarf feels a bit too dowdy."
Philomel offered herself the excuse as she stepped inside.
Her thrilled expression was impossible to hide. For the first time in her life, she was tasting an incredible sense of freedom.
"Count Polan."
"......Young Duke Averyden."
Nassar called out to Polan, who was walking briskly.
"Any new information?"
Polan shook his head, and Nassar's face darkened.
It had already been a week since Princess Philomel vanished. There was still no trace of her.
They had barely convinced the emperor, who had refused to leave Utina, to return to the capital, but even there, they had nothing substantial to show for it.
Three days ago, they had given up on the secret search and publicly announced the princess's disappearance across the nation.
The news that the one and only princess was missing had thrown the entire country into chaos.
They had distributed detailed descriptions of her appearance everywhere and offered a massive reward, but not even a single hair had turned up.
Every time they rushed out on a sighting report, it turned out to be just a look-alike or the reporter's mistake.
"Where in the world could she be? We need to find her soon......"
Nassar spoke with a worried look. Up close, he had dark circles under his eyes. As her fiancé, he must have been suffering terribly.
Polan couldn't forget the desperate look in Nassar's eyes when he had come asking to share information.
It was a raw urgency he never would have expected from the always-upright young duke.
Lately, he had been constantly shuttling between the capital and reported sighting locations, even leading the ducal knights with him.
"I understand how you feel, Young Duke, but please take care of yourself. If someone else collapses......"
"Has someone collapsed?"
He had let slip something he shouldn't have.
"I-I'm the one who's about to. There's just so much going on."
"Ah, I see. You must be working hard too, Count."
Fortunately, Nassar seemed to take Polan's excuse at face value.
"I'll be going now. Please let me know if any information comes in, no matter how small."
"Off to another place?"
"Yes. Thinking of heading to Sangen."
"Sangen? Why there?"
"They say the Ring of Crimson Flame only teleports to places the user has personally visited. I went there with Her Highness once before. It's just a hunch, but...... she might have gone there."
Nassar hurried away.
"I must be tired too, slipping up like that......"
Polan sighed as he walked toward the emperor's office.
The search was trouble enough, but other headaches plagued him too. Rumors were spreading fast that the girl who appeared in the annex was the real princess, and Princess Philomel was a fake.
Everyone he met subtly probed him about it. He dismissed them as baseless gossip, but they all seemed convinced.
Something was off.
The rumors were spreading far too quickly. Now even ordinary citizens were saying the fake princess had fled after being exposed.
He had done everything possible to quash them, but Philomel's portraits posted around the streets were starting to look like wanted posters.
Honestly, Polan couldn't say if the rumors were entirely true. But he was certain the emperor wasn't trying to track her down to punish her.
What ruler in the world would faint while searching for a criminal he meant to punish?
Just thinking about that moment made his heart skip even now. Emperor Justis had collapsed on the office floor.
"Your Majesty! Are you unwell?"
"......Quiet."
Polan had shouted, and he had quickly come to, but it had been a truly harrowing moment.
The cause was overuse of divine power.
He had spread his divine power thin like a spiderweb to detect the divine power emanating from the Ring of Crimson Flame.
How far away did he think she was to resort to such a brute-force method?
It was the first time Polan had seen Justis pushed to his limits like this since his wife's death. The shock of facing a girl who looked just like her hadn't even faded when his daughter vanished too—not to mention the rumors that Princess Philomel, whom he'd believed to be his real daughter all this time, was a fake.
Lost in these thoughts, he arrived at the office.
Voices came from inside. A cute, chattering tone. Probably Ellensia.
On the way back from Utina to the capital, they couldn't leave behind the girl who might be the princess, so they had brought her along.
The emperor had met with her several times to verify her identity, but he didn't seem convinced.
"Your Majesty, it's Polan. May I enter?"
"......Come in."
In the office were Justis, Ellensia, and an elderly woman. She was the princess's nanny from long ago, who had been dismissed.
"Oh my! Your Majesty, this girl is definitely Lady Isabella's daughter! She looks exactly like her as a child!"
The nanny hugged Ellensia tightly, her eyes brimming with tears.
They had summoned her to confirm if Ellensia was indeed Empress Isabella's daughter.
The empress's parents had passed away long ago, and her only sister was missing. The nanny was the sole person who remembered the empress's childhood.
Ellensia blinked up at them.
"Am I really the daughter of His Majesty the Emperor and Her Majesty the Empress?"
"Of course! Who else could be their daughter?"
"I'm so happy! I finally found the daddy I've been missing!"
Ellensia and the nanny embraced, beaming at each other.
In stark contrast, Justis, seated a little apart, spoke with a complicated expression.
"It was the year Philomel turned nine that you stopped working here."
"Yes, that's right."
The nanny answered grudgingly, clearly uncomfortable with the topic of Philomel.
"You cared for her from infancy. That's nine years in total."
"Yes, it was."
Justis let out a scoff. His face showed no trace of amusement.
"And yet you're accepting this awfully quickly. I still...... can't believe my daughter isn't really my daughter."
The room fell silent.
As everyone watched the emperor cautiously, knights burst in.
"Your Majesty. We've captured the woman you mentioned. She was caught trying to cross a border checkpoint near Utina by the inspectors."
A brown-haired woman with her arms bound was thrown to the floor.
"Mom!"
Ellensia rushed forward upon seeing her face.
"Mom, are you okay?"
Polan soon remembered who she was too.
"Katrin Hounds."
Justis rose and approached her.
"So it was you after all."
The killing intent radiating from him put everyone in the room on edge.
"Ugh......"
The woman's face filled with terror upon seeing the emperor.
"Daddy! Calm down. Mom is......"
In an instant, Justis drew a nearby knight's sword and pressed it to the woman's throat.
"Daddy!"
"Speak. Did you really swap my daughter with your own?"
Katrin, trembling under his menacing aura, finally opened her mouth after a long moment.
"Y-Yes. Ellensia is Your Majesty's daughter. Princess Philomel...... is my daughter."
Pffft. The sound of flesh tearing ripped through the air, followed by a chilling scream.
"Aaahhh!"
The sword tip had pierced through Katrin's hand as she braced herself on the floor.
"Kyaaah! M-Mom!"
Polan grabbed the screaming Ellensia and pulled her back.
Given the emperor's temperament, Katrin would die right here. But even as a mere kidnapper, she was the foster mother who had raised Ellensia. It would be too cruel to let the girl witness her death.
"Answer me. Why did you do it?"
"Aaaah......"
There was no way someone writhing in agony could respond.
"Why repay Isabella's kindness with enmity? Have you forgotten how well she treated someone like you?"
"Urgh. Y-You......"
Her pain-twisted face barely managed to form words.
"......You! If you hadn't...... looked down on me! If Isabella hadn't...... come back to our hometown! This never would have happened!"
The physical pain seemed to make her forget her fear as she ranted on. No trace remained of the once bright and lively girl in her demonic expression.
The emperor wordlessly pressed the blade to Katrin's throat again.
"Daddy! Please, I beg you! Don't kill my mom!"
Even her daughter's tearful plea couldn't stop the raised blade.
Polan covered the struggling girl's eyes to spare her the horrific sight.
But.
Clang!
Instead of the expected death cry, there was the sound of metal hitting the floor.
Justis had let the sword slip from his hand.
"......She resembles you."
He gazed down at the trembling Katrin and muttered emptily.
"How did I never notice before? That she took after you."
With that, he turned and headed for the door.
"Throw her in prison."
That was his judgment on Katrin.