Chapter 5

Translator: wuttisyun

“This is making me quite curious.”

My biological mother had resided in the Emperor’s Palace. Every member of the Imperial Family of Kaltanias received compulsory education until they became adults. Until they finished their education, they were not allowed to carry out any other activities and leave their palaces without the Emperor’s approval.

The point is. Since I haven’t reached adulthood yet, I cannot travel to the Emperor’s Palace to meet my biological mother. That was why it was impossible for me to ask her about the diary. What should I do?

I buried myself into the sofa at the corner of Auresia’s room. Having not found the answer to my queries, I was too distracted to notice anyone approaching.

“What are you thinking about for so long?”

I snapped my head up.

“… Dane?”

A pretty boy came my way. I wondered when he came in.

“Yup. I couldn’t tell it was you from your back.”

He spoke with his voice that was as sweet as honey while flashing me an eye smile. Oh my God. Even today, he was so beautiful it was hard to take my mind off him.

Dane grabbed my hand and touched my cheeks. Then, he flashed me a smile.

“Forgive me for my lack of manners in entering the Queen’s chambers without permission. I had been worried. You hadn’t come by not matter how long I waited.”

Dane spoke as he kissed the back of my hand. The charming gesture made me burst into a fit of laughter.

“You were worried?”

“Yes, I was worried. Maybe a dragon had shown up in your palace or something.”

“If it had, would you have protected me?”

“I don’t know.”

I burst into laughter again. This little prince who was about the same size as me and looked like a beautiful girl at first glance? The fact that being a knight didn’t suit him at all made me laugh.

“What is this, dear brother. You’re acting like some prince from a fairytale. Were you trying to imitate them? It doesn’t suit you at all.”

“I’m not trying to imitate anything. I am a prince.”

He gave me a half-smile as his red eyes blazed with a fiery passion.

“Say that again after you get 2 heads taller than me.”

“You’re too mean.”

“Yes, I am. If you find it unfair, stay calm and take your revenge then. I’ll accept it.”

As I had been too deep in thought, my hair was now a tangled mess.

“Fine.”

When his eyes met mine, he squinted.

“Why won’t you say anything else?”

Dane burst into laughter. If he just grew up like this, wouldn’t he become such a good-looking man? This small older brother of mine still hadn’t seemed to realise the destructive power of his face. It would be better if he hadn’t tilted his head and laughed like this.

‘Because he was so handsome, it makes me want to break the pot next to him.’

As he felt my gaze blatantly on him, his eyes crinkled up a little more. There had been unfortunate word going around that his wrinkled and shy eye-smile had stunned many maids.

“… Do you mind stepping back a little?”

“Got it.”

His name was Dane Lowell Kaltanias. He was the Seventh Queen’s only son and my brother. He looked weak because of his lean build and a long neck that looked like that of a deer’s but so what? He was handsome.

“The weather today is great yet again.”

“It’s a good day to go on a walk.”

His collar fluttered in the wind. His hair that had slightly covered his neck was the colour of the sun-shone earth. Lit by sunlight, he was wearing simple clothes today as he didn’t like wearing complicated clothing. Nevertheless, he still stood out and remained bright as if he had come out of a painting, giving him a reverent look.

“Are you done looking?”

“… W-what do you mean looking?”

Blinking my eyes innocently, I replied shamelessly.

“Huhu. How would I know?”

Pretending as if he hadn’t just seen me almost drool from his looks, Dane wilfully ignored me.

“By the way, when did you come?”

His head tilted for a moment before replying, “About 30 minutes ago? Because brother told me to go look for you.”

Did that much time pass?

The time I spent preoccupied with this diary must have been longer than I thought. Then, I raised my head.

“Wait. Does that mean that Fleon is already here?”

“Yup.”

“… What’s up with him? Where is he now?”

“The drawing room. He came about 10 minutes ago and is now with Sir Ray.”

I raised my head again, shocked.

“What? Sir Ray? You’re saying he’s with him now? And nothing happened? Was the table in the drawing room okay?”

“Uhm, I’m not sure.”

Dane looked at me slightly troubled.

“It’s still…”

“… We won’t be safe for long.”

“Right?”

Oh, his temper. It’s the only threat my palace would ever face. Seriously, how many of our palace’s tables were they going to break?

“I’m sincerely sick and tired of their antics.”

Hearing me say that without hesitation, Dane burst into laughter.

“Your Highness, are you there?”

At that moment, the door opened and a maid entered the room. She noticed Dane and paused.

“I bid you welcome, Seventh Prince.”

I noticed the way she looked at Dane. As if to ask what he was doing in the Queen’s chambers.

“… This is the Queen’s chambers. This may be your palace but you should refrain from entering this room as you please.”

As our chief maid of the Palace, Kali Smarrow was the sole person everyone working in this palace listens to. It was impressive to see her gaze upon the Prince as if he had been an unwanted delinquent and then ignore him after just a glance.

“Your Highness, do you understand what you’ve done?”

He gave me a look stealthily. As if to ask if I agreed with her. Under the gaze of such a stern old lady, my thirteen year old self could only nod awkwardly.

“Hmm… I’ll let you off with just a warning for now.”

The she glanced at Dane.

“I should apologise.”

Dane said as he gave a slight smile. Even his voice as he apologised was as warm and pleasant as a sunny spring day. Being part of the Imperial Family, we shouldn’t be bowing to anyone but right now, there was a shitty prince and a knight, who even the Emperor had given up on, waiting in the drawing room. We had no choice but to become powerless royalty anxiously holding our breaths.

Anyways, Dane’s apology was enough to show his respect for me, the Princess, which seemed to satisfy the maid.

“The 6th Prince is currently waiting.”

Then, the woman urged me to hurry to the drawing room.

“He told me to relay onto you that if you do not show up in 3 minutes, he would pinch the Sir until he sheds tears.”

I gulped nervously as I frowned.

“I really hate this.”

As I massaged my head, the maid’s gaze remained glued onto me. She was silently conveying her sympathy for me.

“… You should hurry on now.”

“I should.”

You were too mean to me. The Sixth Prince Fleon was the second person I knew who would cause trouble because of his impatient and hot-blooded nature. I hurriedly tried to hide the diary on my lap and followed Dane. But he walked too fast.

“Ah…”

“What’s wrong, Your Highness?”

I smiled awkwardly as I gestured with my hands.

“Yes. Look at my hand.”

“Oh no, the medicinal herbs…!”

“No. I’m fine, it was just a shallow cut. I don’t think it will cause any problems.”*

*T/N: If anyone’s confused, she tried to chase after Dane but since he was walking too fast and she needed to hide the diary, she got a paper cut.

I can’t believe this. It was hard being so clumsy at this age. I mumbled quietly as I sucked on my finger that had been cut. It happened when I tried to hide the diary after bending over.

“Ashley? Why haven’t you come out?”

I quickly blocked the bookshelf as I shoved the book inside when Dane shouted from outside the door.

“D-Dane! I’ll follow you after I tidy these books up.”

“Huh? Do you need help?”

“N-no need. You can go first! Stop the two of them from fighting.”

Fortunately, Dane left without a shred of doubt. When I ran over to where he had just left and closed the door behind him, I took out the diary.

The diary seemed to be glowing in a violet light.

When I opened the diary, letters started appearing one by one on an empty page, as if to tell me that the faint light I had been seeing was not just an illusion.

“Letters?”

The letters became words and then the words soon became sentences. I got goosebumps.

“Letters appeared?”

As I turned the pages, I realised that the pages were being gradually filled up like dominoes until only 7 pages were filled. No more letters showed up after that and the remaining pages were all blank. When I flipped back to the beginning, the letters appeared on the old silver parchment like planks floating on the sea.

[Year 821, the 3rd day of the month of Habermia]

“Isn’t that today?”

I gulped nervously. The letters that had appeared were of the Imperial Language.

“Huh, I can’t believe this. Was this my biological mother’s secret?”

Thank you. I only wanted a glimpse but now I had found something entirely new.

‘The handwriting is quite poor.’

It looked like it was written by… a child. This was strange? I was pretty sure my biological mother was an adult. So what was this all about? I wasn’t sure if I found the correct answer but at least I had an answer.

“What could this be!”

Full of anticipation, I read the first chapter.

[Year 821, the 3rd day of the month of Habermia

I cleaned my mother’s room with Hannah today. This was my first time mopping! I had felt sorry for Hannah and the other maids because I thought cleaning would be hard. I also felt sorry for Hannah who looked at me, at a loss as to what she should do. Did I push her too much?”

My hands started trembling.

“W-what is all this?”