Daughter of the Emperor

“So, ugh, in the end… pfft, you were imprisoned?”

Valer was covering his mouth and leaning over while he spoke.

He said he would listen to me seriously! In times of confusion, I thought he was the one I could trust, the one to listen through my stories. But now, it seemed like he was holding back his laughter instead, which made me yell.

“Don’t laugh at this, Valer, if you don’t want to die.”

I had undoubtedly warned him not to laugh, but when I said what happened, he still snickered out loud.

As I heard him gasping for air in between laughs, I started to imagine choking him.

I really wanted to do it, for real!

Now, he was on the floor, clenching his stomach and rolling. I wanted to kick him as punishment, but Sanse, on the other side, asked seriously.

“What is the reason?”

“No dating!”

“Oh my god!”

Sanse seemed shocked.

The reason made Valer laugh even louder. Seeing him hit the floor with his hand really made me want to yell out loud.

I knew Sanse was the only one I could trust most. I felt proud of him. I promised that if I could go to a party safely and live to tell the tale, I would definitely speak glorious stories about Sanse.

Of course, Valer was like the worst part of humanity.

Cito was over the window, clicking his tongue with an irritated expression.

“Your Majesty is really something, to do that to a fully grown daughter.”

“I know!”

Right, that was what I was saying!

Thrilled with his words, I stood up.

Right! That was what I wanted to say! I was all grown up! No, I was never a kid to begin with. My mental age was different; how long did I have to stay like this?

“It’s really crazy and unexpected, but my father is the enemy, so I can’t do anything about it. Ah, really, wah!”

As I grabbed my head and screamed, Sanse took a step away from me. After living with hysteria for a day or two, it seemed like everyone had gone sick. I was the elegant and graceful princess in front of others, but I never had to hold that act in front of my childhood friends, so after seeing a lot of wicked behavior in our childhood, I was sure they wouldn’t bother with my tantrums.

I stopped pulling on my hair and sat down on the couch again. I was really nervous. No matter how much I thought, I couldn’t develop a brilliant idea to overcome the situation.

“I should have learned how to use a sword.”

“There are so many people here who would protect you; why a sword?”

Cito frowned at my words. Sweeping away my messy hair, I screamed.

“So I can fight with my dad with a sword. Did you think I would harm myself? Uh, as a threat, even that could work well, but dad might feel hurt. That man is subtly delicate!!”

“He is related to you after all.”

Cito shrugged while saying that.

Meanwhile, the maids ran over to adjust my messy hair. Only a few people said it, but it was unusual to see a princess of a country with messy hair running around like a crazy bitch. I sighed, and Sanse scooted over to me.

“If it was someone else, they would have been killed.”

“You get away with things because Your Majesty is on your side.”

I wasn’t feeling good, not a little bit.

They were telling me one or two reasons why I was blessed. Although I was too irritated to understand it in my current situation, I knew that.

It wasn’t that I didn’t love my dad.

However, he was too unreasonable.

It had been so long since the palace was filled with Fall Star Knights and Winter Moon Knights. The fact that the twins and Cito were in the room was proof of that.

Everything was being done.

I couldn’t do anything about the irritation welling up in me as I looked outside. No, shouldn’t a knight be defending the country?

Using them to lock up his daughter? The country is ruined. It has to be ruined.

I sighed as I thought about the future of this country, but Valer, who was behind me, laughed. Placing his hands on my shoulder, he said.

“Would you like to be loved?”

I took a heavy breath.

With a smile as bright as I could manage, I looked back at Valer.

“Keep talking like that; maybe I could show you how fast your life ends in my hands.”

“… I am sorry, princess.”

As if he didn’t want to die, Valer immediately removed his hands from my shoulder.

Anyway, I had to threaten him to make him listen.

Glaring at Valer, I fell into deep thoughts.

“Confinement at this age. I didn’t commit any crime. Ugh, this is messed up!”

It would be less unfair if I were confined for sinning, but I didn’t do anything! I even said that I didn’t want to do anything! I worked hard every day and struggled for the peace of the country more than anyone else. How could he do this to me?

Me! Every time dad got angry, I stopped him!

Whenever Ferdel came up with a policy, I would be the first one to approve it!

Ugh? At the same time, I devoted my body to help the country and the people, but for me to be placed in like this?

The more I thought about it, and the more I remembered his words, the more unfair it felt, which made Valer suddenly ask.

“But if that was what the Emperor wanted, then shouldn’t you be forbidden from meeting us too?”

Pathetic.

Snapping back at him, I asked.

“Are you a man?”

The three of them went silent. Valer answered back quite seriously.

“I am a man.”

It was true that their gender was male, but the man I wasn’t just talking about gender. We had known each other since our birth and saw each other in diapers. Rather than a man, they were like brothers…

Well, when the relationship was like that of siblings, the emotions one felt differed.

Ah, just the thought alone was making me nervous.

“So you are a woman, after all, huh?”

Seeing Valer on the verge of crying, Sanse mocked him. Although it felt good to hear, I couldn’t help but realize how angel-like Sanse had been.

There really was no one like Sanse.

I was about to go over and tease Valer a little more, but then Assisi came into the room right away.

Once I saw Assisi…

“Assisi!”

Yesterday, once I returned from the dining hall and was trapped in my room, my dad called Assisi over.

Once I caught Assisi, I began to bombard him with questions.

“Do you know anything about the situation? Don’t you think that this is unfair? Can an Emperor do this?”

Assisi frowned.

“It isn’t right to speak like this about Your Majesty, but I certainly think that this is too much.”

“Right? And…”

“But.”

Assisi continued… Huh? But?

The dry feeling in my throat spread. I had a bad feeling.

“I would have preferred if the princess didn’t do anything.”

“…”

Why? Why did I always get the premonition right for the wrong things in life?

Assisi’s expression seemed stern, and that only made me feel worse.

No, when did I ever say that I was getting married!?

When did I do that!? Things just looped into a colossal mess; there was no person I could lean on.

Assis’s quiet gaze leaned on me. He clearly seemed angry at me. This was unfair! How could they do this to me?

“I am going crazy, really!”

As I grabbed my head, Sanse and Valer shouted.

“Ria is exploding!”

“Woah, everyone, run away!”

“I really want to kill you now!”

Passing by them, I walked towards the couch and sat down. Assisi looked at me and then went away.

Assisi, bad!

He must have met my dad. My good Assisi couldn’t do this to me.

Yes, he was doing this because of my dad. Dad was horrible!

My dad was bad; as if curious, Sanse asked.

“But for some reason, you just let him punish you? Didn’t you fight back like you normally do?”

“Right. You ran away?”

As I bit my thumb, I sighed ultimately.

It wasn’t like I didn’t think of fighting back like I always did.

“I learned from my dad that fighting back isn’t good through experience, and fighting back would eventually find its way back to me.”

“…”

The three of them seemed lost. It seemed that they felt pity for me, well, moving on.

Still, I evolved from the time I was a child, so did my dad. After all, he couldn’t overcome his daughter’s charm, but I had to come up with a countermeasure…

Right.

This was the time for me to think big.

“Anyway, since I have a father who lives alone in the world, I need to get used to this; one day, I will be able to get back at him.”

At my words, Valer coly asked.

“So, Ria, are you dating the man?”

“Who said anything about that?!”

“Ah, ah, ah! Save me!”

I had to beat the guy once.

I hit him once.

A few hits were enough for Valer to flee. I wasn’t really in the mood to follow him for another hit, so I just went back to my spot.

“I have been holding myself back for years, so that was a big blow!”

Cito seemed shocked at my words.

“Everyone who says that the Princess of Agregiant is quiet and modest should reflect.”

“Not reflected. They should pay a fine for thinking wrong about her.”

“Right. Guilty for believing the wrong facts.”

These guys…

This time, I wanted to punch Valer and Cito at once, but Sanse suddenly raised his hand. I nodded, letting him ask his question.

“So, what’s your plan?”

Plan.

Nothing as of now, but I wanted to do something about it. In the meantime, my heart was telling me to do something soon.

Just thinking about this entire situation made me sigh.

I leaned back and let the sofa comfort me.

My dad was trying to lock me up so that I couldn’t leave his grasp.

It didn’t matter to me when I was a child because I was innocent, but I was all grown up now, and things change with age.

Even before that, I always had an adult’s brain with a child’s body, but the situation was different now.

I had to go into a relationship and live a life of my own; not everything had to be about my father. I couldn’t always be under my dad’s shadow, but I did want to be in safe hands. When my dad acted like this, I always felt more like a pet than a daughter.

I knew that parents didn’t like it when their children suffered, but this was paranoia and obsession.

If I was a know-nothing princess, this might have been good, but I was not that! I was an independent person.

What was I supposed to do?

Until now, I had lived the way my dad wanted me to.

Pretending to know nothing, not hearing anything, pretending to see nothing.

But to do more of this in the future? Right, it would be annoying. For how long should I endure? What if I lived under my dad’s word until he died? Then what should I do? At least, he would have to tell me what I was supposed to do when left all alone.

There had to be some basic education method.

I could do nothing without my dad in this world, but what should I do when something bad happens?

I couldn’t live like this forever.

After a lot of agonies, that was my conclusion.

Dad said that I needed to just be with him and let him take care of everything.

However, my opinion differed. If there was anything I really wanted, then I liked working on it. It was cliché, but it was the right thing to do. The results would only be worthy if it worked.

Even if my dad gave me the whole world, would it mean anything to me?

Eventually, when my dad disappeared, everything would end for me.

Besides, I didn’t want to bother my dad anymore.

I couldn’t always live as a daughter to him. I had lived in this world as a person named Ariadna.

Now, I wanted to work on what my dad gave me.

However, this situation made it impossible.

Right, impossible.

“… I am going to run away.”

“WHAT?”

The three of them seemed shocked and doubted their own ears, but my decision was firm.

Right, let’s go all the way to the end.

“I am going to run away.”

“…”

“…”

The stillness settled in the room. The three went silent for a while and finally waved at me.

“Die well.”

These bastards!