Chapter 56

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter Title: Super Hidden Child Looking for Dad 150

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Imperial Palace.

Sunlight streamed into the reception hall as Pides, crown prince of Talochium, stepped inside.

The woman seated at the oval table looked up.

It was Ardiana, the empire's crimson princess.

"...Ardiana. You've come."

Ardiana rose to her feet.

"I haven't kept you waiting long."

Her calm reply made one of Pides' eyebrows twitch.

He stared at her for a moment before roughly dragging his chair back.

"Then that's fine."

Despite his words, his fist was clenched tight under the table.

"By the way, you look pale. Are you feeling unwell?"

Ardiana offered a faint smile.

"As you can see, I'm perfectly healthy. I'm more worried about Your Highness. You must be so busy tending to state affairs."

Pides let out a sneer.

"I'm fine, don't worry about it. If anything, I'm too healthy. Unnaturally so."

Ardiana made no reply.

Instead, she kept her smile and clasped her hands neatly in her lap.

Displeasure flickered in Pides' eyes.

'Why are you always so unscathed? Every single time.'

Ardiana had always been Pides' greatest obstacle.

Pides was the son of a commoner the emperor had lusted after uncontrollably, while Ardiana was the only daughter of a noble empress.

'You can tell just by how the state councilors scheme against me behind my back.'

Pides was the emperor's most beloved child.

Yet scandals trailed him relentlessly.

Most concerned his mother and his birth.

'Is it true? That Her Majesty the Empress was really the chief maidservant to the late Empress?'

'Of course it is! The late Empress was the one who brought Her Majesty into the palace.'

Pides' mother, Lavinia, was a beautiful woman.

She had been a commoner, a survivor from a village on the capital's outskirts razed by magical beasts.

The one who saved her as she lay dying was the empress.

During an incognito tour of the ravaged area, the empress had stumbled upon her by chance.

The empress brought the wounded Lavinia back to the palace for treatment.

And began tending to her personally.

Though that benevolence didn't endure.

'The empress doted on Lady Lavinia so much. Why else would she appoint her chief maidservant over all those noble daughters?'

But unlike the empress's trust, Lavinia was pregnant less than a month after becoming chief maidservant.

She gave birth to Pides.

The emperor's firstborn—even before the empress had borne one.

'They say the empress was remarkable too. Despite the humiliation, she visited the emperor daily, pleading. Begging him to share her bed and help her bear an imperial heir.'

Yet the empress was a woman of icy reason.

She feared the chaos that would engulf the empire without a legitimate heir between her and the emperor.

'I won't beg for your love. But I am more than just a title. The empress is the nation's foundation, and bloodline ensures the empire's stability.'

'...Hah.'

'If Your Majesty sires children only with Lavinia, controversy will surely erupt in posterity over the child's legitimacy.'

'Is that your view?'

'...Your Majesty, please consider the nation's future. I beg you earnestly.'

A year later.

The empress became pregnant.

But she could not raise the child she so painstakingly bore.

Soon after delivering the princess, illness claimed her.

Even so, the child who was born—Ardiana—became the imperial crimson princess.

The emperor's hatred for her twisted into outright loathing.

'Your eyes are just like your mother's. Always holding your head high, as if looking down on me from above, your sovereign.'

He insulted Ardiana freely, even before the state councilors.

His indifference during her upbringing was only natural.

In stark contrast, his favoritism toward Pides grew daily.

'If I could, I'd hand Talochium to you. If not for those state councilors' opposition...'

He pitied his firstborn, forever barred from the throne.

And perhaps to cleanse his own guilt, he elevated Lavinia to empress.

'Support Pides well. You never know—should Ardiana fall ill or meet harm...'

Such words formed most of what Pides heard growing up.

If Ardiana fell ill.

If Ardiana was injured.

If Ardiana died.

Then the throne would be his.

So his desire to kill her felt almost like the natural order of things.

One problem, though.

'Why is she so damn hard to kill? How many assassins have I sent by now?'

The first time he poisoned her snack.

Ardiana survived it at age eleven.

Assassins followed, yet she lived.

She dodged death endlessly—again, again, countless times.

A few years back, she even reached adulthood.

Pides' anxieties mounted with each passing day.

Killing her grew harder year by year.

'Does she have some death-defying sorcery?'

Lost in thought, the meal arrived.

A servant approached.

"His Imperial Majesty will not be joining. He wishes to dine alone with Your Highness this evening."

"Understood. Leave us."

Pides snapped at the servant and picked up his utensils.

Ardiana had already begun eating.

Watching her neatly slice her food stirred fresh irritation.

Pides said with deliberate mockery.

"How's that association of yours coming along?"

Ardiana looked up.

For the first time since the meal began, faint hostility glinted in her eyes.

"...It's going well."

"Keeping your identity hidden?"

"Yes."

"Good. Can't have imperial blood bragging about serving the interests of lowly scum."

Ardiana fell silent.

Pides sneered as he watched her.

'I won't give you anything. Won't yield a single merit.'

A few years prior.

Ardiana had stepped forward, claiming mercenaries needed protection.

The emperor and Pides dismissed it as her usual arrogance.

But some state councilors disagreed.

'Your Majesty, the princess is right. Holy knights and mercenaries must unite more often these days. We need a way to mobilize them efficiently.'

After clashing with the councilors, the emperor permitted the association's founding.

Deeming it a shameful role, he dumped the chairmanship on Ardiana like a worthless card.

Yet she rejoiced.

The sight twisted something deep inside Pides.

'Ardiana. You don't mean to lead those vermin with your own name, do you?'

'...I don't follow.'

'You're a princess. The empire's princess guaranteeing scum's profits? Use a false name. Or hide behind your veil forever.'

Ardiana was meant to fade into obscurity, unknown to all.

She'd be eliminated by Pides someday anyway.

He wanted no ties to hold him back.

And a smooth ascension soon enough.

"Some assembly under the clock tower today?"

Ardiana paused, meeting his gaze.

"Mind your manners. Or I'll tell Father and have you yanked right then."

Ardiana swallowed a bitter smile and flashed her usual one.

"I'll remember."

Several hours later.

"Ahem!"

Tiye stood in the center of the clock tower square, clearing her throat.

Right beneath the towering clock tower.

Two figures in sky-blue cloaks stood awkwardly.

Basto spoke up.

"Frost Association executives, probably. Tiye."

Tiye nodded.

She strode forward boldly, then widened her eyes at one of their faces.

'Wow...!'

Above the mask concealing nose and lips.

Sky-blue eyes gleamed like jewels, fixed on Tiye.

Tiye gulped involuntarily and muttered.

"It's the princess!"

Bewilderment flashed in the other's eyes.