Chapter 7
At Letier’s short reply, the knight who brought the royal letter blushed and shouted.
“No-now… How dare you defy the Imperial decree!”
“Our Le-Letier… your answer is just…”
The face of Duke Lenever, who was standing one step behind Letier, turned white in contrast to the knight.
The servants standing in the back also began to mumble.
Ah… Shouldn’t it have been rejected?
Letier swiped her arm with a puzzled expression.
“… I don’t have the great skill to dare to come close to the sun of the Empire. My insignificant ability is just to make cosmetics that are slightly helpful to the skin, and it is not enough to take care of the fundamental skin disease.”
I had no choice but to round it up with nice words and reject it.
Letier tried not to lose the attitude of keeping etiquette until the end.
“If you are looking for someone who is good at treatment, I can introduce you to a clinic I know…”
“You don’t want to see a company that you’ve grown so hard collapsing under all sorts of regulations.”
In the midst of the chaotic commotion, the knight commander, who had been staring at Letier, opened his mouth.
“I beg your pardon?”
Are you threatening me now?
Hearing the knight commander’s words, Letier furrowed her eyebrows.
“This is the business of those who dared to defy the Emperor. Aren’t you naive to think that you’ll be able to continue selling in the Empire without any problems in the future?”
“What….”
“Well, all we have to do is convey your intentions to the imperial court, and you’ll be fine, but I’m afraid someone will be very embarrassed.”
Letier followed the knight commander’s distorted gaze and turned her head.
The Duke of Lenever, with a white face, was fiddling with it as if pulling out a mustache.
It was a habit of my father that came out whenever he was very nervous or afraid.
‘Father…’
“I’ll give you some time, Princess. We have been ordered by Her Majesty the Empress to return with the princess. I will give you two days, so please think carefully and make a wise decision.”
Letier looked at the knight commander, who was smiling with one corner of his mouth tilted up.
After a while, she let out an answer with a sigh.
“… Let’s think about it.”
*****
“What is it, really!”
Lucy shouted, stamping her feet on the floor.
“Suddenly entering the palace? And the prince? No matter how much you think, it’s so sudden…”
“Lucy, lower your voice. There are still knights roaming around below.”
“Ugh! What do you mean! They invaded on their own and demanded two days’ worth of lodging and food! It’s nothing to be ashamed of. There really is no law like this!”
Lucy continued to rage and lose her temper.
She wandered around Letier’s large room, getting more angry herself.
“The room and food were provided by my father as a favor. Actually, the Knights said they had lodging outside the mansion.”
“Any noble could just send the Imperial Knights back! It’s just what they asked for.”
“Are you going?”
At the sudden voice, both Letier and Lucy turned their heads.
Ephron stood in front of the open door.
“Ephron.”
“Princess, are you going to enter the palace?”
“What do you mean! We need to find a way to deny it as much as possible! It’s a founding festival soon. Did you know that sales volume increases enormously at that time? You decided to launch a new line just in time for that time. What if you leave at such an important time!”
“Lucy is right.”
Letier nodded.
“It’s not easy to vacate now and delay development of a new product.”
“But, it was the Empress.”
Ephron said in a low voice, still not entering the room.
“Ephron, you are right. There is no way I would dare to reject the Empress.”
Letier touched her throbbing forehead.
Why would you call me at such an important time?
Letier, who was reclining on the sofa, slowly raised her face and asked Lucy.
“Lucy, do you know anything about the Prince?”
Lucy stared blankly at her lady, who was really not interested in anything other than cosmetic development.
“… Princess, aren’t you too interested in what’s going on in the world?”
“Is it…”
“You mean Prince Dante Loxate? Hmm, let’s see… He’s the son of Her Majesty the Empress, and was originally appointed as Her Highness the Crown Prince, but a few years ago, that position was usurped by hus half-brother.”
“If it’s a half-brother…”
“His Highness, Crown Prince Aiden Loxate. He’s the son of Her Majesty, the newly ascended Empress after Her Majesty’s death.”
I heard that Her Majesty the former empress was very weak.
They said she died shortly after giving birth to the prince.
“It’s like my mother…”
Letier murmured softly.
“Yes?”
“No, go ahead.”
“Originally, Prince Dante was so smart and ambitious that he was firmly establishing himself as the Crown Prince. However, he suddenly developed a skin disease of unknown cause and turned into a hideous figure overnight. After that, I heard that he gradually avoided people and developed an eccentric and bad personality.”
“I see…”
“That made him distance himself from politics more and more, and eventually….”
“His younger brother took the position of crown prince, right?”
“Yes! That’s right.”
It wasn’t much different from what I had heard from rumors.
It’s a skin disease of unknown cause…. What is it?
Letier gradually began to have an academic curiosity about skin disease.
“Princess, but haven’t you met the Prince before?”
“What? Have I?”
“Why, when you lived in the capital for a while when you were younger, and sometimes you attended banquets at the imperial palace.”
“Ah…”
When I was living in the capital for a short time, it seemed to be referring to the time when my mother was not feeling well when she was alive.
We stayed in the capital calling famous doctors for my mother’s treatment.
“Come to think of it, do you think that was the case? It seems that aristocratic children of the same age as the princes sometimes went into the imperial palace and held social gatherings….”
“Do you remember anything about the princes?”
Lucy came closer and asked with her eyes shining.
It was cute that she was more curious than anyone else, saying she had no interest and no intention of going to the imperial palace.
“Hmm… I don’t think there’s anything particularly memorable. At that time, it was long before the prince’s skin disease even started, so there was nothing special about it.”
“That, so…. I mean….”
“Huh?”
“Do you really…”
Lucy blurted out her words in an unanswerable way.
Whatever she was trying to say, it was an awkward tone.
“Really… what?”
“Is he really handsome?”
“Lucy!”
Ephron, who was standing still outside the door, frowned and called Lucy’s name.
Lucy looked back at Ephron, who had called her, and sighed.
“Why? What? I’m curious! Whenever there was a story about the princes, the adjective “handsome” would always follow. I heard that the two of them are handsome, but it was because I was curious about how handsome they are!”
“Well, since I was young… I can’t remember.”
“Okay, I’m sorry!”
Lucy licked her lips and stepped back.
“Lucy, when exactly will the founding date be held?”
“Two months and twelve days later.”
“It’s a little tight….”
Letier thought deeply.
Now, I couldn’t come up with a way to defy the order.
And, a very small curiosity about the skin disease kept stimulating myself.
“Lucy….”
“Yes?”
“Isn’t it just a matter of treating the skin disease?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Isn’t it just enough to cure skin disease in two months and twelve days?”
“Princess! How do you know what kind of disease it is!”
“I thought it wouldn’t be impossible to develop a new product before the founding festival if I researched formulations in my spare time while I went and looked after the Prince…”
Letier scratched her cheek and replied.
If this happened, if it were known that Lady Lenever at the Lenever cosmetics store had cured the prince’s skin disease, cosmetics sales could have increased exponentially.
After staring at Letier for a moment, Lucy jumped up.
“Then I’ll pack up quickly!”
“Huh?”
“Anyway, if you think that way even a little bit, in the end you will act as you wish. No matter what I said, you never changed your opinion.”
Lucy strode to the closet that was built on one side of the room.
She opened the closet, pulled out a large luggage bag from the bottommost compartment, and began rummaging through the hanging dresses to pick out items worth keeping.
“But you change your attitude so quickly…?”
“I watched from the side, but it was better to prepare at least a little bit first, that the Princess would act as she pleases anyway. so I might as well prepare myself a little first, so get ready to start working on the formulation in your spare time while you’re gone!”
“I’ll start getting ready too!”
Ephron, who was standing outside the door, also ran back into the hallway in a huff.
Letier looked at the back of Lucy, who was packing her things with a blank face, and the hallway Ephron ran to.
“I’m glad all my people are fast…”
*****
Two days later, Letier packed her things and got on the carriage.
The imperial knights formed an escort line in front and behind, centering on the carriage that Letier rode on.
The knight commander watched Letier climb into the carriage, then rode to the front and looked around the display.
“Letier…! My sweetheart!”
Just then, the Duke of Renneburgh leapt to his feet and reached for the carriage.
Letier reached out through the window in the carriage’s body and clasped the Duke’s hands.
“Father!”
“How is my beautiful baby going to live in that strict imperial palace… It’s nice to just stay in our duchy and do whatever you want to do comfortably, but how can I…”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be right back! The goal is to return before the founding festival!”
“Okay, don’t push yourself too hard.”
Letier wiped her father’s teary eyes once, then turned around and straightened her posture.
“Depart!”
Starting with the knight commander’s loud voice, the carriage’s wheels began to move slowly.
