“Herbet Empire sent an official letter asking for the delivery of Rosena Herbet, the Third Princess.”
The nobles stirred for a while. Very few nobles did not know about Rosena here.
It was because there were a mere number of cases in which outsiders were accepted as Astanian.
Most also knew that she had a close relationship with the family of Marquis Helis.
As soon as the king finished speaking, one of the nobles spoke.
“She’s an imperial family member, but she’s also a citizen of Astania.”
“That’s right. You don’t have to give in to their demands.”
The person sitting next to the noble who spoke gave him strength.
The Astanians were proud and hated bowing to other countries.
The official letter was no more than a coercive order in the guise of advocating cooperation.
The king gently closed his eyes. He also had no intention of handing Rosena over to the empire. But there was a separate problem.
“Marquis Helis.”
The marquis looked up at the king’s words.
“Kayla was also mentioned in the official letter.”
The marquis’ eyes shook.
Kayla, who was studying at the Imperial Academy, was now held hostage.
If the two countries’ relations fall apart, Kayla’s safety could not be guaranteed.
The marquis bit his lips hard.
Kayla is the lovely youngest daughter of the marquis.
He would do anything for his youngest daughter. And Kayla wanted to go to the Imperial Academy.
When she said it, they even held a royal meeting to approve it.
He should have rejected it back then, but it was too late.
“Even if we hand Rosena over to the empire, we don’t know if Kayla will be able to return safely.”
The marquis corrected his disordered mind and spoke coldly.
So far, the empire has been after Astania. So they wouldn’t let Kayla go and will try to catch both rabbits.
“We must not give in to any demands.”
Everyone was silent at the marquis’ words. With his child held hostage, everyone could not disagree with him saying so much.
“Then we should be ready for the war.”
The king murmured, sweeping down his beard.
He was confident that they would win if the imperial knights attacked Astania.
Astania’s navy was far superior to the imperial knights.
However, if Astania attacked the empire, it could not guarantee neither victory nor defeat.
Imperial numbers far exceeded those of Astania, and were optimized for land combat.
A somber energy enveloped the conference room.
When everyone couldn’t open their mouths easily, there was a knock on the door.
“My King, the Princess of Herbet, came.”
The crowd was in turmoil.
The king, who was sitting still, said to let her in.
It was not long before the door opened, and Rosena came inside first.
She looked emaciated in a few days, but she still appeared elegant even among the nobles.
“I greet the King of Astania.”
Rosena greeted the king with courtesy.
“I heard that this meeting was related to my disposal, so I dared to come here.”
Her voice was soft but powerful.
The king nodded and said.
“It’s my fault that I didn’t call you when it was related to you.”
The king pointed to an empty seat, meaning to ask her to sit down.
As Rosena sat down, silence hovered on the table.
In the silence, the king opened his mouth.
“An official letter came from the empire. They say they demand the delivery of the criminal who kidnapped the imperial’s grandson.”
Rosena was undaunted.
The king looked directly at such Rosena and said sternly.
“But we’ve decided not to let you go.”
“….”
“Now you’re one of the Astanians. This is the opinion of all the nobles.”
That alone was a tremendous decision.
Technically, there was no reason Astania had to protect Rosena to the end.
All the more so if Kayla, a noble young lady, was held hostage.
Rosena made eye contact with the king and other nobles one by one.
“First of all, I am deeply grateful for your generosity.”
Rosena calmly offered her opinion.
“But I’m going to the empire.”
Everyone opened their eyes wide, startled by her words.
Rosena didn’t lose her composure and settled down.
“I’ll bring back the Helis’ young lady.”
***
Monsters began to appear throughout the Herbet Empire.
He thought it would be okay for the time being because Yerhan took care of most of the monsters for seven years, but it was a miscalculation.
Rather, they seemed to have taken the opportunity and jumped faster than before.
Hiding behind objects outside the estates, they came down hard, causing enormous damage.
Even when the well-trained knights were sent, they fell like autumn leaves in front of the water.
There was a flood of appeals in the Imperial Palace. But the royal family was not bothered by the complaints asking for subjugation of the monsters.
They gathered all the blood relatives and dispatched them, but it was not enough to handle the ever-increasing number of monsters.
Zigrit thought he should bring in the Tiriad knights led by Yerhan. But a late call for them found no trace.
The knights of Tiriad had all disappeared like smoke since Yerhan left for exile.
The vacancy of Yerhan was too great. Even though only one person disappeared.
Zigrit ignored the local lords asking for support.
Without Rosena, Zigrit couldn’t deal with that many monsters.
If he made a narrow attack, he might get a serious injury like last time.
Zigrit waited for an answer from Astania quickly.
While waiting for a reply like that, an incident broke out.
A large-scale monster appeared on the outskirts of the capital.
So far, no monster has appeared in the capital city.
Since every capital monster was quietly buried by Yerhan’s work. But this time it was a completely different matter.
Rumors that the monster appeared in the capital spread rapidly throughout the empire.
The nobles and imperial people living in the capital were terrified, and the imperial affairs were not operating properly due to too many complaints.
By this time, Zigrit could no longer sit and watch.
Barmum handed over the imperial order to Zigrit.
He led the knights away to defeat the monster, but Zigrit couldn’t have handled it properly.
Eventually, Zigrit failed to defeat the monster and his reputation fell to the bottom.
People began to doubt Zigrit’s qualities and his achievements so far.
Some nobles strongly criticized the imperial family for this situation.
“Damn it.”
Zigrit hurled his gloves away, swearing.
As soon as Yerhan died, monsters appeared all over the empire.
The nervous Zigrit messed up his hair.
When he glanced at the desk, there were a lot of letters for him.
Zigrit eventually couldn’t beat his temper and swept all the things on the desk away.
“Huuu….”
As soon as he exhaled deeply, he heard a knock on the door.
Turning his head, Zigrit looked at the door.
“Your Highness, you got a letter from Astania!”
Zigrit stopped immediately. Then he strode along and opened the door wide.
The man holding the letter shrank in surprise.
Zigrit snatched the letter from the man’s hand as if he would withhold it from him.
He quickly read the letter, tearing the gilded envelope right away.
The contents of the letter were not long, and only the business was written.
It was a request to exchange the Helis’ young lady with Rosena.
***
Rosena prepared to return to the empire. The king and other nobles expressed concern, but she did not change her mind.
It was not that she wasn’t afraid of the crown prince. No one knew what would happen if she returned to the empire. But Rosena couldn’t turn away from Kayla. If she pretended not to know Kayla, she would regret it for the rest of her life.
Rosena thought a lot before breaking into the conference hall. First, she considered the case in which the crown prince would not let Kayla go.
Obviously, the crown prince would not let Kayla, the golden key, go without a hitch. So she had to induce him to trade Kayla with her.
Rosena put conditions on the reply to the empire.
The Astanian side will also take the soldiers, and the exchange of hostages was decided by the Astanian side.
Actually, the problem was after that. Even if Kayla returned to Astania safely, Rosena would be held captive by the empire.
Rosena had already escaped the empire once.
It was her first time, and she was able to succeed because she took time and meticulously planned it. So the same technique would not work again against the crown prince.
It might be near impossible to escape the empire again.
Rosena pondered for days and days to make a plan to return to Astania again, and came up with a way.
The negotiating place was the southernmost point of the empire, so the crown prince could not bring many soldiers down.
Thus, he would bring a minimal amount of escorts and take Rosena.
At that time, if the Astanians had seized Rosena’s carriage, they would have escaped before reaching the capital.
In fact, Rosena wanted to watch Yerhan’s last moments. However, it was impossible to escape the empire after attending the national funeral.
She had no choice but to give up on seeing the funeral for Illian’s sake.
Once the plan was made, unexpected variables had to be taken into account. If she couldn’t go back…
Rosena shook her head. That won’t happen. As long as Illian was here, it was this place that Rosena would return to.
Rosena kept it a secret from Illian that she would return to the empire.
The empire wanted Rosena back under the pretext of kidnapping the imperial grandson, but there was no mention of Illian at all.
Illian meant nothing to them. So, Rosena was going to leave Illian here.
In order to say that she was leaving for a while, Rosena went looking for Illian. However, Illian was nowhere to be seen even after searching the entire mansion.
While looking for a while, she heard from the servant that Illian went out to play in the garden.
“Illian?”
Rosena called out his name and walked into the garden. Because it was Astania, which was warm all year round, there were always many flowers growing in the garden.
Rosena carefully checked among the plants taller than her.
“Yeah, I get it.”
Illian’s small voice flowed into Rosena’s ear.
Rosena went a little further towards it. Illian was talking to someone, but no one was around. Except for birds and cats.
Rosena stood tall and watched it. The bird sitting on the bush said something to Illian, and Illian answered it.
Rosena could understand the animal’s speech, so their conversation came to her naturally.
Rosena opened her lips slightly. Illian can talk to beasts?
She couldn’t believe it, Rosena just blinked blankly.
Up until now, Illian had never revealed that he could talk to animals, so Rosena didn’t know.
Marquis Jurgen, a close friend of her father, said that only those who inherited the name of Rosena could talk to the animals.
Illian did not inherit Rosena’s name. But how…?
Perplexed, Rosena came up with a guess.
“Don’t tell me….”
Is it because Illian is a child who inherited the powers of her and Yerhan?
It might have been that the power of the divinity, which had been divided into two a long time ago, was merged into one again.
To think that Yerhan’s power flows to Illian….
As she was gazing at his bright blond hair that were like fragments of sunlight, the image of Yerhan seemed to overlap.
Rosena barely caught her breath because she felt like she was going to cry again.
No matter how hard she tried to bury it, the feeling of longing did not diminish at all. Every time she remembered that he was dead, her heart sank.
Rosena couldn’t go closer to Illian and quietly turned away.
As she was walking through the garden, a slightly cooler wind blew and the sky quickly darkened.
Rosena stood tall in the middle of the garden.
She tried to clear her mind, but it was filled with shrewd thoughts.
Rosena slowly turned her gaze away. At the end of her gaze, was a rose bush in full bloom.
Memories of the time she had with Yerhan came to mind one by one. He would sometimes go out to the garden early in the morning to pick fresh roses. So that Rosena can smell the roses as soon as she wakes up.
It was a small thing, but it made her feel like she was in the garden every morning.
After looking at the roses for a long time, Rosena turned her head. In the midst of the well-organized garden, a straight promenade was visible.
The day she once went for a walk on a moonlit night with him suddenly passed. The conversation they had back then was still vivid in her mind.
– Can you give me your full name?
– Rosena Estarot. I want to formally hear your name too.
– It is Yerhan Herbet.
It was the first day they learned each other’s names, not aliases.
From that point on, memories started pouring down on Rosena like a shower.
The day she got married to him, the first night they had, the memories of going on a family trip to the sea together, the dance at the banquet hall…
And the day they knew each other’s true feelings.
“……”
In front of Rosena’s eyes, images of Yerhan flashed past like an illusion.
The person who took off his coat for her every time they went for a walk, who treasured the little clothes she handed over 7 years ago, and who ate sweets for her even though he couldn’t eat them…
Rosena gasped as she covered her face with her palms. Emerging tears seemed to make her hold her breath.
It was time to let him go, but why won’t his presence grow any smaller in her?
As she wandered around for a long time, she thought that he intended to stay in her heart for a very long time.
It was imprinted on her chest like a flower, and she didn’t know that it would disappear forever.
She thought she had no more tears left to shed, but like a lie, the tears flowed down her cheeks and fell to the tip of her chin.
Rosena sobbed quietly, wiping away her tears.
She missed Yerhan so much. If she could only see him again, she felt like she could give up anything. But he was no longer with Rosena. Rosena sat down and buried her face in her knees.
Perhaps she will never be able to hold someone in her heart this much in her lifetime.
“Herbet Empire sent an official letter asking for the delivery of Rosena Herbet, the Third Princess.”
The nobles stirred for a while. Very few nobles did not know about Rosena here.
It was because there were a mere number of cases in which outsiders were accepted as Astanian.
Most also knew that she had a close relationship with the family of Marquis Helis.
As soon as the king finished speaking, one of the nobles spoke.
“She’s an imperial family member, but she’s also a citizen of Astania.”
“That’s right. You don’t have to give in to their demands.”
The person sitting next to the noble who spoke gave him strength.
The Astanians were proud and hated bowing to other countries.
The official letter was no more than a coercive order in the guise of advocating cooperation.
The king gently closed his eyes. He also had no intention of handing Rosena over to the empire. But there was a separate problem.
“Marquis Helis.”
The marquis looked up at the king’s words.
“Kayla was also mentioned in the official letter.”
The marquis’ eyes shook.
Kayla, who was studying at the Imperial Academy, was now held hostage.
If the two countries’ relations fall apart, Kayla’s safety could not be guaranteed.
The marquis bit his lips hard.
Kayla is the lovely youngest daughter of the marquis.
He would do anything for his youngest daughter. And Kayla wanted to go to the Imperial Academy.
When she said it, they even held a royal meeting to approve it.
He should have rejected it back then, but it was too late.
“Even if we hand Rosena over to the empire, we don’t know if Kayla will be able to return safely.”
The marquis corrected his disordered mind and spoke coldly.
So far, the empire has been after Astania. So they wouldn’t let Kayla go and will try to catch both rabbits.
“We must not give in to any demands.”
Everyone was silent at the marquis’ words. With his child held hostage, everyone could not disagree with him saying so much.
“Then we should be ready for the war.”
The king murmured, sweeping down his beard.
He was confident that they would win if the imperial knights attacked Astania.
Astania’s navy was far superior to the imperial knights.
However, if Astania attacked the empire, it could not guarantee neither victory nor defeat.
Imperial numbers far exceeded those of Astania, and were optimized for land combat.
A somber energy enveloped the conference room.
When everyone couldn’t open their mouths easily, there was a knock on the door.
“My King, the Princess of Herbet, came.”
The crowd was in turmoil.
The king, who was sitting still, said to let her in.
It was not long before the door opened, and Rosena came inside first.
She looked emaciated in a few days, but she still appeared elegant even among the nobles.
“I greet the King of Astania.”
Rosena greeted the king with courtesy.
“I heard that this meeting was related to my disposal, so I dared to come here.”
Her voice was soft but powerful.
The king nodded and said.
“It’s my fault that I didn’t call you when it was related to you.”
The king pointed to an empty seat, meaning to ask her to sit down.
As Rosena sat down, silence hovered on the table.
In the silence, the king opened his mouth.
“An official letter came from the empire. They say they demand the delivery of the criminal who kidnapped the imperial’s grandson.”
Rosena was undaunted.
The king looked directly at such Rosena and said sternly.
“But we’ve decided not to let you go.”
“….”
“Now you’re one of the Astanians. This is the opinion of all the nobles.”
That alone was a tremendous decision.
Technically, there was no reason Astania had to protect Rosena to the end.
All the more so if Kayla, a noble young lady, was held hostage.
Rosena made eye contact with the king and other nobles one by one.
“First of all, I am deeply grateful for your generosity.”
Rosena calmly offered her opinion.
“But I’m going to the empire.”
Everyone opened their eyes wide, startled by her words.
Rosena didn’t lose her composure and settled down.
“I’ll bring back the Helis’ young lady.”
***
Monsters began to appear throughout the Herbet Empire.
He thought it would be okay for the time being because Yerhan took care of most of the monsters for seven years, but it was a miscalculation.
Rather, they seemed to have taken the opportunity and jumped faster than before.
Hiding behind objects outside the estates, they came down hard, causing enormous damage.
Even when the well-trained knights were sent, they fell like autumn leaves in front of the water.
There was a flood of appeals in the Imperial Palace. But the royal family was not bothered by the complaints asking for subjugation of the monsters.
They gathered all the blood relatives and dispatched them, but it was not enough to handle the ever-increasing number of monsters.
Zigrit thought he should bring in the Tiriad knights led by Yerhan. But a late call for them found no trace.
The knights of Tiriad had all disappeared like smoke since Yerhan left for exile.
The vacancy of Yerhan was too great. Even though only one person disappeared.
Zigrit ignored the local lords asking for support.
Without Rosena, Zigrit couldn’t deal with that many monsters.
If he made a narrow attack, he might get a serious injury like last time.
Zigrit waited for an answer from Astania quickly.
While waiting for a reply like that, an incident broke out.
A large-scale monster appeared on the outskirts of the capital.
So far, no monster has appeared in the capital city.
Since every capital monster was quietly buried by Yerhan’s work. But this time it was a completely different matter.
Rumors that the monster appeared in the capital spread rapidly throughout the empire.
The nobles and imperial people living in the capital were terrified, and the imperial affairs were not operating properly due to too many complaints.
By this time, Zigrit could no longer sit and watch.
Barmum handed over the imperial order to Zigrit.
He led the knights away to defeat the monster, but Zigrit couldn’t have handled it properly.
Eventually, Zigrit failed to defeat the monster and his reputation fell to the bottom.
People began to doubt Zigrit’s qualities and his achievements so far.
Some nobles strongly criticized the imperial family for this situation.
“Damn it.”
Zigrit hurled his gloves away, swearing.
As soon as Yerhan died, monsters appeared all over the empire.
The nervous Zigrit messed up his hair.
When he glanced at the desk, there were a lot of letters for him.
Zigrit eventually couldn’t beat his temper and swept all the things on the desk away.
“Huuu….”
As soon as he exhaled deeply, he heard a knock on the door.
Turning his head, Zigrit looked at the door.
“Your Highness, you got a letter from Astania!”
Zigrit stopped immediately. Then he strode along and opened the door wide.
The man holding the letter shrank in surprise.
Zigrit snatched the letter from the man’s hand as if he would withhold it from him.
He quickly read the letter, tearing the gilded envelope right away.
The contents of the letter were not long, and only the business was written.
It was a request to exchange the Helis’ young lady with Rosena.
***
Rosena prepared to return to the empire. The king and other nobles expressed concern, but she did not change her mind.
It was not that she wasn’t afraid of the crown prince. No one knew what would happen if she returned to the empire. But Rosena couldn’t turn away from Kayla. If she pretended not to know Kayla, she would regret it for the rest of her life.
Rosena thought a lot before breaking into the conference hall. First, she considered the case in which the crown prince would not let Kayla go.
Obviously, the crown prince would not let Kayla, the golden key, go without a hitch. So she had to induce him to trade Kayla with her.
Rosena put conditions on the reply to the empire.
The Astanian side will also take the soldiers, and the exchange of hostages was decided by the Astanian side.
Actually, the problem was after that. Even if Kayla returned to Astania safely, Rosena would be held captive by the empire.
Rosena had already escaped the empire once.
It was her first time, and she was able to succeed because she took time and meticulously planned it. So the same technique would not work again against the crown prince.
It might be near impossible to escape the empire again.
Rosena pondered for days and days to make a plan to return to Astania again, and came up with a way.
The negotiating place was the southernmost point of the empire, so the crown prince could not bring many soldiers down.
Thus, he would bring a minimal amount of escorts and take Rosena.
At that time, if the Astanians had seized Rosena’s carriage, they would have escaped before reaching the capital.
In fact, Rosena wanted to watch Yerhan’s last moments. However, it was impossible to escape the empire after attending the national funeral.
She had no choice but to give up on seeing the funeral for Illian’s sake.
Once the plan was made, unexpected variables had to be taken into account. If she couldn’t go back…
Rosena shook her head. That won’t happen. As long as Illian was here, it was this place that Rosena would return to.
Rosena kept it a secret from Illian that she would return to the empire.
The empire wanted Rosena back under the pretext of kidnapping the imperial grandson, but there was no mention of Illian at all.
Illian meant nothing to them. So, Rosena was going to leave Illian here.
In order to say that she was leaving for a while, Rosena went looking for Illian. However, Illian was nowhere to be seen even after searching the entire mansion.
While looking for a while, she heard from the servant that Illian went out to play in the garden.
“Illian?”
Rosena called out his name and walked into the garden. Because it was Astania, which was warm all year round, there were always many flowers growing in the garden.
Rosena carefully checked among the plants taller than her.
“Yeah, I get it.”
Illian’s small voice flowed into Rosena’s ear.
Rosena went a little further towards it. Illian was talking to someone, but no one was around. Except for birds and cats.
Rosena stood tall and watched it. The bird sitting on the bush said something to Illian, and Illian answered it.
Rosena could understand the animal’s speech, so their conversation came to her naturally.
Rosena opened her lips slightly. Illian can talk to beasts?
She couldn’t believe it, Rosena just blinked blankly.
Up until now, Illian had never revealed that he could talk to animals, so Rosena didn’t know.
Marquis Jurgen, a close friend of her father, said that only those who inherited the name of Rosena could talk to the animals.
Illian did not inherit Rosena’s name. But how…?
Perplexed, Rosena came up with a guess.
“Don’t tell me….”
Is it because Illian is a child who inherited the powers of her and Yerhan?
It might have been that the power of the divinity, which had been divided into two a long time ago, was merged into one again.
To think that Yerhan’s power flows to Illian….
As she was gazing at his bright blond hair that were like fragments of sunlight, the image of Yerhan seemed to overlap.
Rosena barely caught her breath because she felt like she was going to cry again.
No matter how hard she tried to bury it, the feeling of longing did not diminish at all. Every time she remembered that he was dead, her heart sank.
Rosena couldn’t go closer to Illian and quietly turned away.
As she was walking through the garden, a slightly cooler wind blew and the sky quickly darkened.
Rosena stood tall in the middle of the garden.
She tried to clear her mind, but it was filled with shrewd thoughts.
Rosena slowly turned her gaze away. At the end of her gaze, was a rose bush in full bloom.
Memories of the time she had with Yerhan came to mind one by one. He would sometimes go out to the garden early in the morning to pick fresh roses. So that Rosena can smell the roses as soon as she wakes up.
It was a small thing, but it made her feel like she was in the garden every morning.
After looking at the roses for a long time, Rosena turned her head. In the midst of the well-organized garden, a straight promenade was visible.
The day she once went for a walk on a moonlit night with him suddenly passed. The conversation they had back then was still vivid in her mind.
– Can you give me your full name?
– Rosena Estarot. I want to formally hear your name too.
– It is Yerhan Herbet.
It was the first day they learned each other’s names, not aliases.
From that point on, memories started pouring down on Rosena like a shower.
The day she got married to him, the first night they had, the memories of going on a family trip to the sea together, the dance at the banquet hall…
And the day they knew each other’s true feelings.
“……”
In front of Rosena’s eyes, images of Yerhan flashed past like an illusion.
The person who took off his coat for her every time they went for a walk, who treasured the little clothes she handed over 7 years ago, and who ate sweets for her even though he couldn’t eat them…
Rosena gasped as she covered her face with her palms. Emerging tears seemed to make her hold her breath.
It was time to let him go, but why won’t his presence grow any smaller in her?
As she wandered around for a long time, she thought that he intended to stay in her heart for a very long time.
It was imprinted on her chest like a flower, and she didn’t know that it would disappear forever.
She thought she had no more tears left to shed, but like a lie, the tears flowed down her cheeks and fell to the tip of her chin.
Rosena sobbed quietly, wiping away her tears.
She missed Yerhan so much. If she could only see him again, she felt like she could give up anything. But he was no longer with Rosena. Rosena sat down and buried her face in her knees.
Perhaps she will never be able to hold someone in her heart this much in her lifetime.
