The place where her lips touched feels warm.
Ern, felt it for the first time, touched his own cheek.
“Hehe, I just wanted to try it!”
Epherna said with a slightly flushed face.
What she had done for Ern was akin to a light kiss on the cheek, born out of goodwill.
However, Ern, a young man of twenty-three who had never received even that, could only swallow the warmth that traveled from his cheek to his mind with complex emotions.
‘…Unfamiliar.’
How long had it been since he felt this kind of emotion?
Pure affection, unstained by anything else.
Had he ever received something like this?
“…Don’t do this to others.”
Those were the words he muttered, thinking she should be more cautious with her actions as she was about to live as a princess.
“Of course!”
Epherna smiled with satisfaction.
It felt like he was telling her not to do it to anyone else but him, as if he wanted to monopolize her, and that thrilled her.
“Where did you learn to do this?”
“I read it in a book.”
“Was there a romance novel among the books I bought for you?”
“Not the books you bought, Mister. The ones that were already here.”
“Oh.”
When they remodeled the mansion, there were books too old to keep.
Epherna remembered all the contents of those books, and most of her background knowledge came from them.
“And Mister, I’m going to become a princess now.”
“Already? Didn’t the Second Prince say you could take your time?”
“A lot of time has passed. I’m no longer bound. I think now is the best time.”
Epherna wanted to leave the mansion as soon as possible.
This place was precious because it allowed her to meet Ern, but it was also a cursed place that confined her for ten years.
Epherna wanted to remember this place as a cherished memory.
She wanted to leave behind the painful memories and keep the happy ones as reminiscences.
So now she was going to leave.
She didn’t want to leave any resentment towards this mansion.
*****
A day later, Ern and Epherna headed to the imperial castle.
“Little One, I’m asking you one last time, are you really ready?”
“Yeah.”
Ern nodded and didn’t ask further.
If she had made her own decision, more worry would only be interference.
But what he wanted to say was.
“It won’t be an easy position. There will be a lot to bear.”
He hoped that she would be more resolved, so that the position of princess wouldn’t feel too heavy.
He knew what kind of humiliation the First and Second Prince had endured and what conclusions they had reached.
It didn’t take long to reach the imperial capital.
Once they entered the Few Inner region, the imperial palace was visible immediately.
When they arrived at the main gate of the palace, several guards confirmed their identities.
It didn’t take long to verify as there was a prior notice from the Second Prince.
Soon after, they were instructed to wait in a reception room.
In the reception room, a woman with long ash-gray hair was sitting.
“…Why are you here?”
“Am I not supposed to be here?”
Bergamot Katia.
One of the three great dukes of the empire, she had requested an audience with the Second Prince.
*****
Bergamot often visited between the imperial palace and the ducal house.
She had a hobby of reviewing papers or giving lectures to new magicians at the Imperial Court Mage Society regularly.
Recently, she had published books through the Magic Tower, earning a lot of money.
“Do you still have no intention of pursuing magic? Seeing that you haven’t given up that gait yet.”
“I didn’t learn magic because I wanted to.”
“Once you get into magic, you can’t get out of it, but you’re still unique.”
“I’ve said many times that I learned magic to survive. How can I find it fun?”
The reason she requested an audience with the Second Prince was to ask for an increase in the Imperial Court Mage Society’s budget.
“Why is a duke like you asking for a budget increase on their behalf? They have plenty of people, why send a duke?”
“What can I do when they are too scared to speak up themselves?”
Bergamot’s affection for magic was as deep as her affection for her juniors.
She showed great interest, whether in the Magic Tower or the Imperial Court Mage Society, to the extent that she was even called a pushover.
Ern gave her a stern remark.
“Don’t you have anything else to do, Duchess? You’re the head of a house, do you have time for this?”
“No. Most of my tasks are handled by my steward.”
Ern sighed deeply, having nothing more to say.
“You might not know this, but it’s impossible to run a ducal house by just one person. So what do you do? You hire people. Luckily, I live a good life, so I have good people around me.”
Bergamot laughed softly.
Her rebuttal left no room for argument, so Epherna spoke to her in Ern’s place.
“Excuse me…”
“Oh my, who is this cute little one?”
Bergamot Katia’s eyes sparkled as she looked at Epherna.
“Uh… should I call you Duchess…?”
“Call me whatever you’re comfortable with.”
“Then I’ll call you Duchess.”
“Sure. What’s your name, my cute one?”
“My name is Epherna.”
“Would you like to learn magic? The mana around you is dancing with joy. You will surely become a great magician.”
“If it’s about learning magic, I’m already doing that.”
“Really? From whom?”
“From Mister.”
Epherna glanced at Ern.
Seeing him, Bergamot began to wipe away tears of emotion.
“…My dear… You’ve grown so much that you even have an apprentice now… It feels like just yesterday you were asking me for help because you couldn’t perform a single spell…”
“Stop it! I told you not to cry over things like this, especially being a duchess!”
“How can I not be moved…?”
Bergamot finally pulled out a tissue to dab at her eyes before leaving the waiting room to answer the Second Prince’s call.
“Cute little one, let’s have a deeper conversation later, okay?”
*****
The day’s schedule ended with a genetic test for the Second Prince.
“Then, once the test is complete, we’ll announce it to the subjects of the empire.”
“Already? You mean right away?”
“What reason is there to delay? The sooner, the better.”
Ern didn’t understand why it needed to be done quickly, but he assumed there must be a reason and left the palace.
Since Epherna’s formal entry into the palace would only happen after the genetic test was completed, they had to spend a few more days living in their original mansion.
Back at the mansion, Ern asked.
“What do you want to do in the meantime? Is there anything you’d like to do?”
Once she entered the palace, Epherna’s outside activities would be extremely limited.
With time, she would gain power and be able to do more, but for at least a few months, she would have to stay within the palace walls.
Ern wanted to let her do something she desired.
“There’s no time restriction now. You can go anywhere you want.”
“Hmm…”
Epherna couldn’t decide easily.
Now that she could go anywhere, there were too many places she wanted to visit.
The first thing that came to mind was the sea, but realistically, it would take too much time.
‘Maybe I was too hasty in saying I’d become a princess…’
She had been eager to gain power and position in the palace quickly, so she had spoken up as soon as she was freed from her confinement.
But facing these decisions made her feel regret once again.
After a few minutes of contemplation, Epherna spoke.
“I’ll just stay at home.”
Even if she had to wait a few more months, she had already endured ten years, so a few months wouldn’t be unbearable.
Thinking about the future, focusing on learning seemed to be the right choice now.
As she was lost in thought, a voice infused with mana came to her ears.
“Then, how about going to the sea?”
*****
She suddenly recalled a memory from a week ago.
A week ago, Bergamot had been eavesdropping on their conversation from the rooftop.
“…That time was awful. I didn’t know teleportation could cause such severe motion sickness.”
“I couldn’t prepare for it back then either.”
How could they have known?
Bergamot had followed them back to the house and used teleportation magic to take them to the sea.
They had even had to return home to fetch money because they hadn’t brought any.
“Let’s go again later. We couldn’t enjoy it properly last time.”
“Okay.”
Promising to go another time, they headed towards another room.
Not to Epherna’s personal room, but to meet the teacher who would start her education today.
“Mister, who did you say my educator would be?”
“I don’t know. According to the Second Prince, it’s someone who will teach you various subjects.”
The Second Prince had said he selected someone without hidden motives as there was no one trustworthy, but no matter who it was, Ern felt uneasy.
Currently, Epherna was a thorn in the side of the Second Prince on his path to the throne, so she had enemies everywhere in the palace.
“Hello, Princess!!”
A loud voice echoed.
Turning around, they saw the woman with ash-gray hair who had rushed to greet them even before they reached the room.
“Hello! I will be the teacher responsible for the First Princess’s education in all subjects!”
Bergamot Katia.
“Haha! I can finally be a proper teacher now!”
She smiled triumphantly.
“By the way, I also selected the servants who will serve the princess!”
Ern thought.
That crazy Second Prince.
