Chapter 95

 14. The Garden Was Already in Full Bloom (6K)

The night at the countryside villa was warm. The twin moons leaned against each other, and fish leapt across the lake’s surface, sending ripples and shimmering splashes in all directions. The waves stirred up melodious insect chirps along the shore, their chorus tingling across the entire night sky.

But well~ for some to rejoice, others must surely worry.

A hundred miles away from the countryside villa stood the heavily guarded royal sleeping quarters within Cormier Castle of the Royal Capital.

Each residence was separated by considerable distance. Along the central axis of the palace, the Kingdom’s Knight Order stood watch day and night, ensuring that every royal member dwelling there remained absolutely safe.

In this deep hour past midnight, all the magical stone lamps of the sleeping chambers had already been extinguished. From above, the place appeared utterly pitch black.

It was as though the flourishing Cormier Castle itself had slipped into slumber with the night, awaiting the dawn to awaken and once more reveal its solemn dignity.

Yet, there was a single lavish ground-level palace near the rear of the sleeping quarters—still brightly lit even at this late hour, its splendor undiminished.

The dignified decor carried a hint of lively charm. Elegant and antiquated furnishings adorned the rooms, while the pink-painted walls proudly displayed the medallion of the royal family.

All of this seemed to proclaim that this sleeping palace belonged to a beautiful princess.

Indeed.

This brightly illuminated ground-floor residence in the dead of night was none other than the dwelling of the Kingdom of Aurus’s Third Princess, Livra.

With her head bowed over the desk, her long, dark hair cascading to brush the edge of the table, Livra gripped the shaft of a quill pen, racing across the parchment as she filled sheet after sheet with graceful script.

Simply judging by the ink and brushwork of her writing, each page could have been deemed a work of calligraphic art.

Livra had practiced her penmanship since she was a child, proficient in both literature and arms. Such was the most basic refinement expected of her as a princess.

Unfortunately, Livra was not working on calligraphy right now.

After finally filling another densely packed “artful” page…

She paused, briefly thinking, then crumpled the sheet into a discarded ball. As she abruptly collapsed forward onto the desk, the crumpled ball was slapped down by her arm, joining the “mountain of paper balls” already piled up across the tabletop.

Ah… so exhausting. How many drafts had she already written and thrown out tonight?

She no longer remembered. Livra only felt her head buzzing incessantly!

Ever since returning from the council chamber, she had been seated here, writing without pause for over ten hours. She truly felt she was about to die from the fatigue!

The door to her sleeping chamber creaked open just a crack.

Then, a middle-aged woman dressed in the palace maid’s uniform pushed the door wider and hurried across the room toward Livra in alarm.

Seeing Princess Livra slumped over the table, she thought Her Highness had fainted!

“Your Highness…! What’s wrong! Are you all right?”

"Ah, it’s fine, it’s fine… Sister Anna, don’t worry. I’m just a little tired. I’ll rest a bit, then pick up the pen and keep fighting… Ugh, so tired."

The middle-aged woman finally let out a relieved sigh at those words.

This woman, around forty years old, the maid whom Livra called “Sister Anna,” was a senior member of the palace’s Royal City Maids.

She had begun working at Cormier Castle over twenty years ago, back when Livra hadn’t even been born.

Ever since Princess Livra’s birth, Anna had taken on the responsibility of looking after Her Highness the Third Princess.

Although officially a maid, she had watched Her Highness grow up, and it wouldn’t be wrong to say she was practically Livra’s second mother.

So seeing Princess Livra exhausting herself like this, Anna naturally felt pained at heart.

“Your Highness, you’ve been sitting here writing ever since you came back this afternoon… you didn’t even eat dinner. Is it truly such important state business? Why don’t you rest for a little while… You must take care of your health, don’t wear yourself out…”

"Ah… Thank you, Sister Anna. I’ll be all right." Livra turned her cheek against the desk, her expression weary as she looked up to reply to Anna. She really didn’t look “all right” at all. "Today’s work is a bit special… extremely important. If I can’t finish it today, tomorrow will be a disaster."

"Dis… disaster?"

"Yes, the future of the kingdom will be a disaster."

"It’s that serious?!"

Although Anna knew Her Highness Livra always had a mischievous streak and liked to exaggerate, this time, her eyes held no trace of jest beyond that helpless fatigue.

It seemed the truth was exactly as she said.

There was no helping it… After all, Livra herself had personally made that promise at the negotiating table.

—That she would try to persuade the First Demon Princess to set aside hostilities and help sustain peace between the kingdom and the Demon Domain.

It sounded simple when spoken… but carrying it out was perilous with every step. A single careless word could get her killed by the Demon Clan Princess!

What Livra was writing now were precisely the lines she intended to say when meeting the Demon Clan Princess tomorrow.

But no matter how she wrote them, Livra only felt her prospects were grim.

For example, the line she’d just written—“Does Your Highness the Princess have any favorite foods? Perhaps the Royal Capital has delicacies you might like”—was so absurd!

What kind of royal negotiation between two nations started with “What do you like to eat”? The Demon Clan Princess would definitely think she was being insulted!

The moment she imagined having to say farewell to this lovely world tomorrow, Livra clutched her head in anguish, looking just like a big hamster.

Seeing Her Highness so distraught, Anna frowned and tried to offer some advice.

“Your Highness, please don’t panic… I don’t know what exactly happened to make you like this… but why don’t you go speak with His Majesty the King tomorrow morning? His Majesty will surely be able to help you.”

“Ugh… I just came back from Father this afternoon.”

“What did His Majesty say?”

“Father said… he has no daughter like me! Ugh… I know Father was just speaking out of anger, but I feel like I’m about to be thrown out of the family!”

“Your Highness, don’t be upset. His Majesty the King is driven into a fury by you almost every day. It’s hardly unusual for him to say such things, is it? You won’t be disowned, rest assured.”

“Sister Anna, you’re just too good at comforting people… I’m going to cry to death.”

Livra lay sprawled over the desk, idly flicking the feathers of her quill as she recalled the scene of going to the palace to meet her father that afternoon.

She had truthfully reported everything that had happened in the council chamber to King Celt Aurus. His reaction had been nothing if not genuine.

—He had nearly toppled off the throne despite his age!

Wuwu… Livra had considered whether she should put things a bit more delicately, but if she softened her words, she wouldn’t be able to convey the urgency of the situation. If she emphasized the urgency, she couldn’t guarantee her old father’s heart would be safe.

After weighing the pros and cons over and over, Livra had ultimately decided to sacrifice her father’s cardiac health for the good of the kingdom.

Fortunately, King Celt Aurus had a strong constitution. He merely nodded, which counted as his approval of Livra’s improvised response in the council chamber.

But then he sighed and shook his head, lamenting how the kingdom’s destiny during his reign had been plagued with misfortune and perils.

If they failed to persuade Sheffy Harl, conflict between the Demon Clan and humanity would inevitably erupt into a war far more intense than any before.

If they succeeded in persuading her, then the two nations would enjoy a long stretch of peace and recuperation—a best-case outcome.

But the probability of successfully persuading the Demon Clan Princess… did it truly exist?

That ferocious and ruthless Sheffy Harl—would she really sit still to hear Livra’s entreaties?

Celt Aurus thought such a chance was very slim.

More likely, he might end up having to retrieve his daughter’s corpse instead.

Yet he couldn’t simply stand by and watch Livra take such a dangerous risk, so he had proposed sending Eclight along the next day. Since the Hero would also be present, with the two Tenth-Rank powerhouses protecting Livra together, even if negotiations failed, at least her safety could be guaranteed.

However, what the King hadn’t expected was…

Livra actually refused this proposal.

They couldn’t come along.

Because, in its essence, this meeting with the Demon Clan Princess was not a negotiation between two nations but Livra personally extending an olive branch to Sheffy.

If two Tenth-Rank warriors accompanied her, then from the very start, the meeting would be colored by hostility. The odds of success would plummet. Even if they tried to hide in the shadows, Sheffy—

Sheffy Harl would probably be able to sense them anyway, wouldn’t she?

Celt felt it tore at his heart, yet he also admired his daughter’s courage.

As royalty of Aurus… this sense of duty flowing in her blood seemed to let Celt glimpse the younger version of himself—who had once resolutely donned his armor and ridden to the distant border battlefields.

He agreed.

He permitted Livra to proceed according to her own will, to make this attempt that might decide the Kingdom of Aurus’s fate.

At the same time, Celt informed all members of the royal family, including himself, that they should each consider carefully what they might say that could possibly move the Demon Clan Princess. Come morning, they were all to gather at the castle and share their thoughts.

This wasn’t war, but it was even more perilous than war.

That being said, Livra wasn’t about to expect her royal brothers and sisters to offer any truly useful advice.

Livra might be clumsy, but she wasn’t stupid.

She actually knew well that, because their father usually favored her, her elder brothers and sisters wore polite smiles on the surface but were locked in constant hidden struggle for power beneath it all, currents surging invisibly.

None of them were willing to so easily relinquish the claim to the next throne—understandably so.

Livra herself had no interest in the crown. She only liked living freely and unrestrained, but that didn’t stop her from being a thorn in the eyes of the royal family.

She had already expressed to Father more than once that she didn’t want to be king.

But Father said to let it take its course.

In the end, the kingdom would choose the king most suited to it. As royalty, she could not so lightly declare she would abandon it.

Sigh… though it sounded pessimistic, Livra felt that perhaps her royal siblings were hoping more for her death tomorrow rather than her success…

It didn’t matter.

After all, Livra had believed since she was little that in life’s most critical moments, one couldn’t rely on anyone else. Only oneself.

Anna looked at Her Highness Livra, who had lifted her pen again, resolute and composing her words once more. Gazing at that delicate yet unyielding figure—who had never compromised with anything—Anna felt both gratified and deeply pained.

She murmured her blessing softly, then withdrew beyond the palace doors without disturbing Her Highness’s work again.

“Your Highness… may everything go well. May the gods protect you…”

Anna stepped out quietly, closing the door behind her with care.

Standing beside the guards posted at the entrance, she lifted her gaze into the distance.

She looked toward the little courtyard before the palace where Her Highness had lived nearly eighteen years, and farther still, to the boundless sky.

The pine tree planted who knew how many years ago now stood tall and proud, and the fragrance of countless blossoms filled the garden with sweetness.

When Her Highness had been small, she had often run and played among the flowers, chasing butterflies, mischievous as could be.

Anna couldn’t help but smile softly.

After all, who could have imagined it? That little courtyard had, at some point, become too small for Her Highness to run in. She had begun yearning for a bigger world. She would often climb over the walls and run about everywhere, then beg Anna to help keep it secret.

It was hard to say whether this was merely an extension of her mischief, or a sign that she was changing and growing.

But thinking of this…

Anna’s expression involuntarily grew a little sorrowful again.

Her Highness had learned to smile. She smiled more often than before.

But Her Highness…

When had she first learned to smile?

.....................................................

When Livra was born, she did not smile. She did not cry either.

There were rumors in the royal palace claiming that the Third Princess had been born under a curse—afflicted from birth with a disease of “no emotions.”

The King and Queen never believed such nonsense. They raised Livra just like any other member of the royal family and ordered everyone to stop gossiping about her, commanding that she be treated equally.

But a single spoken decree was never enough to silence all rumors.

When Livra went out walking alone, she would sometimes hear the children of noble families in the Royal Capital pointing and jeering at her, calling her things like “ice block freak” or “cold eyes.” Some even threw stones at her.

Livra paid them no mind.

She simply turned her back on those shrill, grating laughs and walked away by herself.

It wasn’t that she couldn’t get angry.

It was that she honestly didn’t understand what those children were mocking.

Not being able to smile… was that so laughable?

Livra didn’t understand. From the time she could remember, it simply seemed to her that nothing in the world was worth smiling about.

Because of this, not a single child in the palace was willing to play with her.

Among the common folk, there was a nickname that spread—’the Ice Block Princess’.

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