The Princess' Bedroom Doll

The servant moved away like a ghost, and Raha shifted her gaze to Shed. His expression from earlier was still clear. A face that had hardened the moment he saw her trapped in Karzen’s  arms, his lips on her neck.

She meant it when she told Karzen he couldn’t touch her anymore.

She could never have imagined that Shed would brazenly walk up to Karzen and pull her straight out of his arms…

Raha smiled as usual and opened her mouth.

“Please let go of me.”

Shed’s eyes turned to Raha. His hands, which had wrapped around her body, did not move at all. Raha’s hand, which was holding the back of Shed’s hand, tightened. She didn’t ask him to let go again. There was no need.

Shed held Raha’s hand and squeezed it, then slowly released it while looking into her eyes.

She probably didn’t know. If he wanted him to let go, he would let go, and if he didn’t want to, what would it mean to Raha not to push any further? He wasn’t going to tell her. It was hardly possible for Raha to appear weak like that.

Just with crushed emotion, Raha drew a smile at Shed and rose from his arms. She looked back at Karzen, thinking that he had to put all the heated water bags on the chair before Jamela arrived.

“I’ll bring Lady Jamela. Karzen.”

Her voice was soft and gentle. As if it didn’t matter if she escaped and that people would die in this hall or that there would be a sea of blood. She turned around and walked away quickly with such an attitude. A very short silence passed. Karzen sat down in his seat with a thud.

With the Princess gone, the atmosphere was now frozen like a terrible cold. At least the conductor conducting the performance on the platform sensed the chill. The tip of the conductor’s stick shivered thinly. There was a vague sense of foreboding that today he made even the slightest mistake, the entire orchestra would be decapitated.

And so the performance, more perfect than ever, made the empty halls weep.

“Royal lord.”

Karzen opened his mouth.

“How was your time as a bedroom slave? Did you enjoy it?”

“Yes.”

“How was it?”

“So much so that I decided I had to make a separate offering to His Majesty.”

Shed continued speaking without looking at Karzen.

“Does that answer your question?”

Karzen’s fingertips twitched slightly on the armrest.

“Oh, yes.”

Karzen chuckled. His eyes were as cold as ice.

“That’s enough.”

Then there was silence.

Neither the emperor nor Shed opened their mouths. Until that moment when the long performance ended.

* * *

“It seems that the musicians were very nervous to perform before His Majesty.”

Raha nodded lightly at Jamela’s words.

“Yes, they were.”

Their performance was perfect and wonderful. The problem was when they were leaving. One of them got out of his seat, wobbled, and fell to the floor. He completely passed out and a small commotion broke out.

Jamela looked worried and said, “We have to replace the orchestra now?”

“……!”

The conductor’s shoulders shook.

From the national wedding of the emperor to the Princess’s wedding, the orchestra was newly in charge of a big performance. Today was a test performance. What would happen if the members collapsed at the wedding?

Raha glanced at the place where the musician had fallen.

“It’s probably because he was nervous today. I don’t think it’s necessary to replace them.”

“Yes…perhaps.”

Jamela agreed with the fact that every time the orchestra made a mistake, it would take a lot of effort to find a new one.

The conductor, who had been listening to the conversation between Jamela and Raha while holding his breath, breathed a sigh of relief in his heart. The conductor’s hands, which he was carefully holding in front of the princess and the future empress, were already full of cold sweat.

Raha glanced at the conductor, who was shaking lightly up to his shoulders.

Why had the performer fainted? Perhaps he must have been surprised to see Karzen sitting Raha on his lap like no other. Their heads must fill with thoughts. Why was there such a sexual tension oozing between the twins? How was that possible? Why?

They hadn’t heard anything about it.

With their heads already spinning, the royal lord suddenly appeared and pulled the Princess away from the emperor’s embrace.

The performers must have been in over their heads. Everyone had read enough about the acrimonious atmosphere between Shed and Karzen, and there was no way the performers could not have been unaware of it.

In the end, the only conclusion was that they pushed forward with the performance while being terrified. Despite such mental hardship, there was no flaw in the performance, which meant that the performance was rather amazing in terms of competence.

Therefore, unlike Jamela, Raha was in a state of giving a very generous assessment of this orchestra. Raha asked the conductor, “But I’ll have to listen to the performance one more time as a test. Would it be a problem to play a dance song even if one or two people are missing?”

“No, of course…..! Princess!”

“What is the minimum number of people you need?”

“If it’s a basic dance piece, then five for now, oh, no, four……. No, three! We can have only three.”

Jamela, who heard the conductor’s reply with a light squeeze between her eyebrows, said to Raha.

“Princess? Shall we have a simple tea party after supper? At that time, when the other nobles are still in their seats, they can listen to the performance together.”

“Shall we do that?”

While Jamela and Raha were out separately for a while, talking with the conductor, supper was already busily being prepared in the hall inside the big door.

There was no trace anywhere of the earlier stifling confrontation between Shed and Karzen.The high nobles, who had been specially invited to the party, enjoyed the high level of music and shared the meal in an elegant manner. 

The emperor was suitably somber and impassive, but he always was, so there was no problem. And the Princess seemed more pleasant than usual, which Jamela thought was good.

The supper set a good mood. Not a single nobleman walked away at the mention of a tea party being held there. The newly prepared seating was perfect, even though it was temporary, and for some reason it even reminded them of a wedding reception after a wedding.

Raha, who had prepared the seats with Jamela, went over a few things and then headed over to where Shed was sitting. He was seated in the upper seat, as befitted a rightful fiancé of the royal Princess, and was being served tea by a servant.

“How do you like your tea?”

“Fine.”

“Are you all right?”

Raha tilted her head. The servant poured some tea for Raha.

“What kind of tea do you like? I’ll tell them to bring you something else.”

Shed looked up. With a hand gesture to dismiss the servant, he said.

“Anything is fine.”

“Really?”

Come to think of it, Raha didn’t know much about Shed’s interests. He didn’t have any particular likes or dislikes about food, and he wore the clothes Raha picked out for him. Perhaps because he was a knight?

Still, he didn’t seem to have any particular preferences despite being a royal lord of a wealthy and powerful kingdom.

He liked sleeping with Raha very much.

Raha sat by Shed and drank tea. The orchestra was playing with all their might, whatever the conductor had told them. Thanks to this, the performance was amazingly audible. Raha kind of laughed. People used all their faculties to survive. Wasn’t it her who was the living witness?

‘That much would have satisfied Lady Jamela.’

Suddenly a red fruit appeared in front of her mouth.

A strawberry pressed lightly against her lips. 

Raha looked to the side in a bit of embarrassment. Shed was looking at her.

“Open your mouth.”

Just then Raha opened her mouth and the fruit quickly entered her lips. She slowly bit into the strawberry. The fruit was sweet and sour as the tiny grains were chewed, as if it had mixed with sugar.

As soon as she chewed and swallowed, the fruit was served again. Another strawberry was fed to Raha. She then looked around sideways.

There were now over 20 tables, with two or three sitting at each round table prepared according to the order of precedence. Of course, it was not a big feast now, but the participants were only the great nobility, fully educated and dressed in decorum, just up the road in social circles.

Not a few would have seen Shed feeding her the fruit. Especially the nobles seated at the nearby tables. But none of the nobles glanced toward Raha and Shed. It was amazing how they naturally pretended they didn’t see them, even though they must have seen everything….

But that didn’t mean she could play this childish game for any length of time. The speed at which she chewed the fruit slowed down. Just as the instrument was low, Raha lightly grabbed Shed’s hand instead of opening her mouth.

Shed didn’t stop, even though it was obvious that she meant to stop feeding her. Raha stared at him. The red fruit was placed in front of her soft lips once again. He seemed much more affectionate than just trying to feed her the fruit.

“…….”

Shed smiled once Raha ate it. Shed took the rest of the fruit into his own mouth without a care in the world.

In a suitably lowered voice, Raha said,

“I ate already.”

“How many did you eat?”

“I ate a lot at supper. And why are you feeding me so much?”

“You eat too little. If you don’t want to eat the whole fruit, just eat the top part.”

Raha’s brows narrowed.

“Isn’t that the way you use to feed children?”

“Is that how Delo does it?”

“Delo is… Oh, yes.”

Raha asked.

“What about Hildes?”

A faint smile was drawn on Shed’s lips.

“It’s the same in Hildes.”