PTB | Chapter 2

2. “Give yourself to me.”

She had recklessly shouted for him to teach her swordsmanship, and now she was covered in filth. It was clear he would be disgusted. Rose’s cheeks flushed with embarrassment. Arsen, who had been watching her intently, dismissed the trainee knights and approached.

“Are you all right?”

As she buried her face to mask the unpleasant smell, the man lowered his head. Their eyes met, and Rose took a step back. His serious gaze was just as she had always imagined. Her heart pounding at such a moment felt unfair. To meet like this, in such a sorry state—she realized her plan to make a good impression was a total failure.

“Oh, I’ll get going now. We can talk later.”

“You’re going back like that?”

Just as she tried to hastily leave, Arsen grabbed her arm.

“Please wait a moment.”

“Yes?”

She looked back in confusion to see his eyes sweeping over her. Glancing down at herself, Rose realized with horror just how dreadful she looked. Not only was she covered in dust and dirt, but straw was tangled in her hair, which had become a wild mess. Something sticky clung to her, making it look like she hadn’t washed in days. If she returned like this, people would surely think the foolish youngest princess had now become a lunatic princess.

“Please stay here—I’ll fetch something to clean you up.”

For some reason, he now treated her more formally than before, which only made her more embarrassed. After all, who would want their favorite character to see them like this? She wanted to disappear on the spot.

‘But I can’t walk around like this either.’

Unable to do anything, she anxiously shifted her feet.

“I’m telling you, I saw it! The captain was swinging his sword like he was going to kill someone again.”

“But he’s not there now. And you wouldn’t stand a chance against him.”

“What kind of disrespect is that?!”

At the voices coming from behind the training yard, Rose flinched and hunched her shoulders. Two rugged men were arguing as they walked toward her. At this rate, they would see her disheveled state.

“Wh-what do I do…”

As Rose stammered anxiously, Arsen grabbed her and pulled her into the stable. The sudden force caused her to stumble against his bare chest.

‘Ow! Is this steel or a human body?’

Through her palm, she felt the firm, sun-kissed skin. A warrior’s body was unlike anything she had ever known.

Glancing up, she saw his tightly pressed lips as he watched the approaching knights. A soft sigh escaped his well-formed mouth.

“Tsk… unnecessary trouble.”

The knights lingered outside, seemingly looking for him. Arsen, looking troubled, said in an unusually long-winded way for him:

“We’ll have to wait a bit before going out. They’re not usually the type to seek me out like this… I don’t know what’s gotten into them today.”

He seemed sincerely sorry, which only confirmed for her how upright he was.

‘Just like the book described—so steadfast.’

Even though she had caused this scene, he still supported her simply because she was royalty. Even though she was only the third princess, a largely insignificant one.

‘Right. That’s what made me fall for him.’

But Arsen had sworn loyalty to the wrong person. In the later part of the original novel, during the war, Tanasis sacrifices Arsen to defeat Duke Ludwig, the mastermind. The death of her favorite character—she cried endlessly reading that scene. After he died, the rest of the story hardly mattered to her.

‘How could the author kill off Arsen like that?’

Rose gazed closely at his profile. Here, in this world, he was still alive, still brilliant. But if he stayed with Tanasis, he would meet the same fate. She lifted her hand and gently caressed the sharply cut line of his jaw.

‘I won’t let my favorite character die again.’

This was her second reason for wanting Arsen on her side. She would never treat him as a disposable pawn.

‘So that both of us can live—we need to team up.’

“Your Highness…?”

A hoarse voice spilled from Arsen’s lips. As the coral hair framed her face, his black eyes wavered, and he stiffly leaned against the wooden wall behind him.

Peeking out beyond the plank wall, Rose saw that the training yard was now empty. The knights who had been lingering earlier seemed to have gone back inside. Which meant—it was just her and Arsen, alone.

She moved her hand from his jaw to his chest, over his heart. Thump, thump. The sound echoed deeply.

The first thing she did upon waking in this familiar yet strange world was search for him. She had met him before even adjusting to this new body. Their encounter had already caused the first deviation from the original plot. That subtle shift would change the course of her second life.

“Actually, I came here to see you.”

“Me?”

“Yes. I had something important to say.”

Rose smiled sweetly. Her charming smile transformed her entire aura, shedding the grime and filth as if it had never been there. She now looked like a dangerous succubus that had visited in the night.

She beckoned him to come closer. When Arsen bent forward, she whispered in his ear like casting a spell:

“Arsen, give yourself to me.”

Whoosh—Arsen quickly pulled away from her. His sun-darkened face turned noticeably red.

After a moment of silence, he spoke in a husky voice.

“…I’ll call a maid for you.”

Then he turned and briskly left the stable. Rose stood there, stunned.

“What? Did he just ditch me?”

Rejected on the spot, she clicked her tongue in disappointment.

“Tch, seriously. How could he just leave like that?”

She had thought he was being affectionate—but maybe that was just pity. She dejectedly played with her tangled hair. Now that she thought about it, his reaction had been rather odd. He practically ran away.

“Was asking him to be my knight that offensive?”

Soon, a maid arrived at the stable and escorted her back to the princess’s quarters, where they wiped her down with fine cloths. While tending to her, the maids exclaimed:

“This is why Your Highness should never have gone to such a place!”

“What do you mean, ‘such a place’?”

“The knights’ training grounds, of course!”

One of the maids shivered, recalling the rugged men.

“Being near those brutes caused all this!”

“You shouldn’t speak so carelessly of the imperial knights.”

“Oh, Your Highness doesn’t understand! Just because they’re under the Imperial Banner doesn’t make them proper knights. You mustn’t even speak with those outside the Imperial Order!”

“They were conscripted only a year ago—there’s no refinement in them. And their looks are just so terrifying.”

In the Callon Empire, the military was divided into two main factions: the Imperial Knights and the Remigis Knights. Arsen led the latter, comprised of men from his homeland.

From Dunstane Island in the southern sea of Callon, the Remigis Knights were seasoned sailors. Their large builds and bronzed skin made them targets of prejudice in the empire.

The Callon Empire idealized pale, delicate beauty, and their rugged appearances made them outsiders. Rose raised her slender, pale wrist.

“Isn’t healthy and strong better than looking like a wax doll?”

“There’s a limit. I’ve never seen anyone that dark in my life.”

“Exactly. I wish they’d just go back to where they came from. It’s terrifying having them in the palace.”

Listening quietly to their chatter, Rose’s expression grew serious. In her excitement at seeing him, she had forgotten the strong prejudice that surrounded Arsen before he became the Imperial Knight Commander. It dawned on her—he was under heavy scrutiny.

‘So that’s why he was so cold…’

She began to understand his initial cold demeanor.

“Dunstane Island is harsh and sun-scorched, isn’t it?”

“You can imagine how barren it must be. I heard they work as mercenaries to survive. The only reason they’re here now is to eke out a living through conscription.”

“Even Lord Lafayette—he may be a noble, but really, he’s no better than those savages…”

“Hey.”

Rose’s cold voice cut off the rising insults.

“When did I ever give you permission to judge him like that?”

The maids, startled by the sharpness in her eyes, quickly bowed their heads. Rose waved off their hands.

“That man is a marquis of the Callon Empire.”

Arsen was head of the Lafayette family, a noble house in the empire. Though his background and appearance marked him as an outsider, a mere maid had no right to speak ill of him.

“W-we beg your pardon, Your Highness!”

The maids dropped to the floor, trembling. Their pale hands scrubbed at the marble as if to erase their sins. The weight of her authority left them in shocked whispers as Rose dismissed them and collapsed onto the bed.

‘Sigh. Everyone thinks I’ve changed. Well, I have. How could I not, when someone else is in this body now?’

Judging by their reactions, the former “Foolish Princess Rose” must’ve kept to herself within the palace. And yet just a small show of authority now had everyone flustered.

In her past life, she had grown up in a conglomerate family that ran a shipbuilding company. She had managed projects, dealt with people, and handled tasks of all sizes—eventually becoming a team leader at a young age, living each day alongside ships.

Her fascination with this novel came from its many references to medieval-style ships. The world it portrayed, rich with wooden vessels, was vastly different from modern shipbuilding—and comparing the two made time fly.

‘And now I’m supposed to be some foolish princess? Not a chance.’

There wasn’t much description of Rose de Callon in the novel. She had died early at the hands of the protagonist, Tanasis, and wasn’t a major character.

All she knew was that Rose had grown up alone in the imperial palace, separated from her biological mother, the second empress, at a young age. She had been the weakest in the palace, without a single supporter to protect her.

A flower in a greenhouse.

That was her assessment of Princess Rose.

The Rose who appeared in the novel was incredibly ignorant of the ways of the world. That ignorance had ultimately led to her death.

Isn’t this setup too different from the male lead Tanasis?

Truthfully, she hadn’t felt even a shred of pity when Rose died. She wasn’t merciful enough to defend someone who couldn’t even take care of themselves. In contrast, Tanasis fought fiercely for the throne, won, and eventually became emperor. He even had fortune on his side, narrowly avoiding death many times. That only made her more drawn to him and made her root for him.

If I had known I’d end up becoming Rose, I wouldn’t have supported him.

Rose let out a heavy sigh. Now that she had possessed the princess fated to die at the hands of the protagonist, the future looked bleak. If Arsen ended up by Tanasis’s side—who had the powerful protagonist’s advantage—her death would be inevitable.

She needed to win Arsen over as soon as possible, but instead, she had ended up embarrassing herself in front of him.

While planning her next steps, the sun had set. The canopy hanging from the ceiling had turned crimson in the sunset. Through the fluttering fabric, she could see the tall windows that reached the ceiling. Staring absentmindedly at the golden evening light streaming in through the glass, a scene from the novel came to her mind.

“That’s right! The Pontus!“

The Pontus was a ship that appeared in an episode about its launch ceremony in the original novel. The nostalgic mood evoking the port hometown had made the episode even more memorable.

A single ship bathed in sunset.

That was the phrase describing the Pontus anchored in the red sea. She was sure the launch ceremony took place around this time.

Rose smiled slyly, already scheming.

“That’s a great idea.”

＊＊＊

The next day, Rose went straight to request an audience with the emperor.

She’ll attend the launch ceremony of the Pontus.

It was the perfect event to earn Arsen’s favor before Tanasis could. During the demonstration voyage, the Remigis Knights had been severely insulted by the nobles.

And yet, Arsen had endured it all for the sake of diplomacy.

She planned to attend and stand up for Arsen—her first move to win him over.

To leave the palace, she needed the emperor’s permission. The current Emperor of the Callon Empire, Euclid de Callon, had been in seclusion for seven years. He had left the affairs of state to the ministers and the royal family, receiving only reports. He appeared only at major events like the founding festival.

There had been growing criticism that the emperor’s seclusion was a sign of weakness and his inability to rule.

But she didn’t think that was the case. In the later part of the original story, the emperor’s foresight was revealed—he had seen several moves ahead.

Maybe even this was part of his plan.

The guards at the audience chamber announced her presence. When she stepped inside, the first thing she saw was a deep brown tapestry. Though it was meant to block out the spring chill, it was half-pulled aside, letting in a fairly brisk breeze.

A figure presumed to be the emperor was sitting on a sofa, backlit by the sunlight. His once-glorious blond hair had faded, and his eyes were the same hue as Rose’s.

“May the blessings of the fairies be with you. Rose Agnes de Callon, greets Your Majesty.”

“Welcome, Princess Rose,”

the emperor replied in a detached voice. His eyes were so emotionless they seemed to belong to someone completely alone in the world.

How could anyone call that man weak?

Rose’s suspicions only deepened.

“What brings you here so early in the morning?”

He didn’t even offer her a seat, getting straight to the point. Rose, undeterred, spoke clearly.

“I came to express my wish to attend the launch ceremony.”

“The launch ceremony?”

He raised an eyebrow, clearly not expecting that, as he sipped his tea.

“Yes, I, Rose de Callon, Third Princess of the Empire, humbly request permission to attend.”

“You?”

Imperial ships always held a launch ceremony before their maiden voyage. It was a tradition dating back to the days when Callon was still a small kingdom, before it rose to become an empire.

“By attending the launch, I hope to elevate the Empire’s prestige as a member of the royal family.”

The emperor stared at her. The cold gaze that seemed to pierce her very soul made sweat bead on her back. Even the moment he took a sip of tea felt like an eternity.

Finally, his emotionless voice spoke.

“Very well. Permission granted.”

“Thank you for your grace, Your Majesty.”

Rose bowed politely. As she turned to leave the chamber, the emperor spoke again, his voice flat.

“Is your cold better now?”

“…Yes, thanks to Your Majesty’s concern, I recovered quickly.”

She was slightly taken aback—she hadn’t expected him to ask. She glanced back at the emperor again, but his expression remained unreadable as he sipped his tea.

Maybe he does care about me as his daughter.

His emotionless face looked almost like that of a doll. Soon after, she was dismissed, and Rose left the chamber.

“Whew.”

Even though he was just a character from a novel, facing the emperor in person had been intimidating. She wiped her forehead, her palm damp with sweat.

Just then, a sharp voice called out behind her.

“Well, well. Look who it is.”

She turned to see a woman with an icy smile.

Surrounded by half a dozen attendants, she had elegant, curled blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. The woman opened a fancy fan and covered her mouth.

Rose recognized her instantly.

Aracne de Callon.

She was the second princess, two years older than Rose, born of the first empress. The smug look in her eyes made Rose suddenly realize something.

When she’d first woken up in this world, she’d been bedridden.

It was Aracne’s doing, wasn’t it?

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I’M SO SORRYYYY, I KNOW I HAVEN’T UPDATED IN A LONG TIME, but the UNI is killing me with assignments, presentations and f**king team works heh. anyway, I’ll try to update more (not a promise tho until this freaking semester ends)

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