The Princess' Bedroom Doll

Immediately, Rosain shook his head.

“No.”

“…….”

“Don’t worry, no one has any strange suspicions.”

“Then why do you say that…”

Jamela’s speech blurred. Rosain gave a faint smile.

His longtime childhood friend, Jamela Winston, had been busy since becoming the Emperor’s fiancée. She was always busy looking around the Imperial Palace that would become her new home, her eternal history and perfect glory.

Still, if there was “something” that caught her eyes the longest, it was definitely the emperor.

The man who would later become her husband. Therefore, Rosain’s  gaze often had no choice but to go to the emperor as well.

The emperor always turned his attention to the imperial Princess.

The others would not know at all. Neither Jamela nor the Duke of Winston would know. The emperor’s only fiancée was Jamela, and his childhood friend whom he loved for a long time.

 He knew her better than anyone. Especially if the other person was suffering from a deep unrequited love.

“Because once the heir is away, the emperor will be less obsessed.”

“……!”

Both of Jamela’s eyes grew large.

“Yes, I suppose the place would be hardened too.”

“Crazy, you are.”

Jamela’s fist protruded white.

“Be careful with your words.”

“Jamela.”

“Even if you were in the mansion, alone in your room, you should never say such a thing. Yes, never, unless you want to bury your uncle and even all the people of the Lingulish family together.”

Rosain swallowed his bitterness and smiled at Jamela.

“I will.”

* * *

Meanwhile, it had been two days since the war began.

“Your Majesty! We cannot march any further!”

Karzen gritted his teeth fiercely.

“Pause!”

The place where the Delo Imperial Army and the 13 Kingdoms’s Alliance Army collided was the Shalem Hills. It was a peculiar terrain with a gentle plain in front of the hill along a narrow flat road, but the problem was that a tremendous rainstorm was pouring down where the Delo Imperial Army was advancing and staying.

It was like buckets of water pouring down. The stream of water hitting their skin painfully. Even the localized evening showers had their own degree of severity. After three days of unabated heavy rain, the scout returned and reported.

“Your Majesty! Your Majesty! I have something to report!”

Karzen, who had been sitting coldly in front of the large map, threw a glance at him.

“The 13 Kingdoms’s Union is pouring artificial rain with holy relics!”

“Holy relics?”

People on both sides of Karzen stood up quickly.

“What nonsense is this!”

“It is taboo and illegal to use magical relics in war!”

There were a total of 21 magic holy relics on the continent. Naturally, the imperial family of the Delo Empire possessed the largest number of them, and the others were scattered among the various royal families and kept as national treasures with thorough records.

All holy relics were unearthed by the wise men, and the royal family with the holy relics had to take an oath in order to bring happiness and benefit to more people.

This was the pledge that no holy relics should be used to harm others. Because of the absolute symbolism of the oath with the wise men, it has never been broken by any tyrant or mixed army in the long history of the continent.

Yes, but what about the Union of the Thirteen Kingdoms?

Karzen, who was staring coldly at the place where the 13 Kingdoms’s Union was staying, exclaimed in a booming voice.

“Send someone to the Union!”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

After a while.

The deputy commander of the Delo Empire, holding up a banner signifying dialogue, approached the 13 Kingdoms’s Allied Forces and shouted loudly.

“We have discovered that you have broken your oath to the Wise Men! What nerve you have to use holy relics in war! Keep your pledge to the Wise Men and cease the rain immediately!”

The second-in-command of the 13 Kingdoms’s Allied Forces, who appeared with the same banner, laughed out loud.

“Wasn’t it your Emperor who broke the oath first!”

“……!”

The deputy commander of the Delo Empire’s face saturated like a lump of lead for a moment. It was an outrageous provocation and a perfect truth.

For generations, the tradition that the person with the blue-sky eyes must ascend to the throne had been broken by the previous emperor and Karzen. The reality was that the heir Princess could not ascend to the throne of Delo, but only lived as a beautiful doll.

There the wise men left long ago for the desert. They went there to unearth new holy relics, but in any case, the desert was on a completely different continent. While the wise men were away, the Thirteen Kingdoms’s Union chose to break the oath.

The deputy commander of Delo gritted his teeth and cried out, 

“You mean to keep raining down this irrational rainstorm! Are you going to commit an inhumane act of flooding the seven villages behind this as well?”

“The inhumanity of bringing the priests to their knees was done by your emperor first!”

“The Holy Land threatened the security of the Delo empire first! We had a cause!”

“Before that, your emperor trampled and killed numerous kingdoms!”

“……!”

“Make it clear to your emperor what I said today! Your head will be cut off along with his!”

Laughing loudly, the Deputy Commander of the 13 Kingdoms’s Union tore the flag he had brought with him with a knife. Then he threw a piece of cloth to the deputy commander of Delo, who was shouting loudly at the bottom of the precipice.

“Pray to God there everyone!”

“……!”

This action signaled the end of the conversation.

The 13 Kingdoms’s Union had already planned to do this from the beginning. From the very beginning, they concluded that they would abandon the land and even evaluate all the inhabitants of the villages that had nothing to do with it to give the Delo army a devastating defeat.

Delo’s deputy commander returned to the barracks with a tattered flag soaked with rainwater.

“What did those filthy bastards say?”

“Your Majesty.”

“Tell me everything.”

The deputy commander closed his eyes and reported.

“They said they have a legitimate reason….”

“…….”

A crack appeared in the armrest of the chair that Karzen was holding in his hand. The deputy commander immediately slumped over. A lot of cold sweat flowed down his face, even though he had come in the cold rain. Karzen’s eyes turned red with anger.

“Call all Dukes and sub-commanders!”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

Karzen’s head went cold. He wanted to rip the arrogant tongues of the 13 Kingdom’s Union forces into shreds right now, but if they had even broken the oath and used the magic holy relics, there was no way he could win, at least not here.

This Shalem Hills area had a higher altitude, and the 13 Kingdoms’s Union was planning to bury even the villages behind them alive.

If they had evacuated the people there, Karzen might have noticed it, but he still didn’t. The soil was not much different from walking through a swamp with soil receding.

“There is no way out of this terrain. Your Majesty.”

People could come in, but they could not get out. The terrain was adjusted that way through rainstorms. Due to the uncontrollable retreat of the ground, the only path left was wide enough for one person to get out. It would take at least several months to retreat all the soldiers here.

Above all, if there was any sign of getting out that way, the 13 Kingdoms’s Union would attack. Regression and failure. Delo’s army was getting nowhere out of this.

Karzen gritted his teeth.

‘Those shallow bastards are very clever.’

All of Delo’s officials, except ones who were in poor health, were participating in this battle. Most of the knights of the various high nobles were also elected.

This was because the military scale of the 13 Kingdoms’s Union forces was that large.

Everyone knew that the imperial family of the Delo Empire was protected by the eyes of the heir, but it was not directly protected.

However, rumors circulated in the public mind that Karzen would also be protected through the eyes of the heir. The rumor was deliberately spread by the chief assistant of Karzen. The fact that they were twins worked effectively.

That was why the 13 Kingdoms’s Union made it their goal to bury 

all the high ranking nobles and knights of the Delo Empire together, not just Karzen in the first place.

If all the highest-ranking nobles and knights died, where would the resentment go?

Naturally, it would go to that Emperor and to the Princess.

Although he had a terrible nickname of a blood-drinking tyrant, the emperor who, in any case, established a position through war and united the loyalty of the nobles, was Karzen del Harsa.

It was clear that if he failed in this war and let everyone die, Karzen’s position and prestige in the Delo Empire would crumble from the bottom up.

Since they could see no way to destroy Karzen del Harsa from the outside by any means, they had to destroy it from the inside. The 13 Kingdoms’s Union therefore accepted serious damage and used their tremendous brains to devise a strategy.

* * *

It was the 10th day of the war.

It was the day when a downpour of heavy rain fell on the bodies of the fallen.

“Your Majesty! The Kingdom of Hildes has been proposing the use of a defense treaty!”

“……!”

The Dukes’ eyes focused in that direction.

“A defense treaty. Was there a defense treaty with the Kingdom of Hildes?”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

The paper was carried rapidly on thick furs to keep it from getting wet. Karzen read it quickly. The kingdom of Hildes. Although the distance from the Delo Empire was considerable, it was not an unfamiliar place. This was because, as a country reputed to be wealthy, it was also a gem-producing country, and even the nobles of Delo enjoyed the luxury of Hildes.

“Who is coming?”

“They say the King’s brother of Hildes is coming.”

“……?”

They thought a Count would come, but a royal?

For a moment, bewilderment flashed in the eyes of the nobles. Karzen, looking up at the record rainstorm, quickly turned away with a hard look on his face.

“Tell them we want the defense treaty enforced!”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

***

*Shed is coming. The prologue (the reunion) is two chapters away!