Unexpectedly, I Became the Emperor’s Fiancé

It was a warm spring day.

“Seri.”

Before getting into the carriage waiting in front of the mansion’s main gate, my father, who had been fiddling with his cufflinks, looked down at me.

“Yes, Father.”

“Stay quietly inside the mansion until we return.”

I glanced at my stern-faced father and giggled.
“Because people who covet my abilities might harm me if I leave the mansion?”

“Yes.”

“I know that much. Anyway, I have a book I stopped reading the other day; I’ll be reading that. Quietly.”

“Hmm…”

Father, emphasizing the word ‘quietly’ while shrugging his shoulders skeptically at me, finally sighed.

“Trust me.”

Then, with a tone of disbelief, he muttered to himself before climbing into the carriage.
As Father boarded, the carriage, carrying my mother and sister as well as my father, started to move slowly.

I watched the back of the carriage until it was no longer visible, then turned around.

“Let’s go inside.”

“Yes, miss,” I moved into the mansion first, and I could hear the sound of the maids following me from behind.

On my way to my bedroom, one of the maids following me asked cautiously, “Weren’t you planning to go straight to the study?” It seemed strange to her that the direction I was heading in was not towards the study.

Hmm… I pretended to consider for a moment and then shook my head.

“I was going to, but I decided to take a nap before heading to the study.”

“Understood.”

“……”

“……” After our brief conversation, a long silence fell in the hallway. In a way, it was an inevitable silence.

Unlike my sister, who had a dedicated maid, I was attended by anonymous maids who rotated every three days, and even then, only when I needed them.

Therefore, I did not have a single maid with whom I was close.

And it was virtually impossible for a scion of a distinguished family and a commoner to have a friendly conversation without any real familiarity.

As soon as I arrived at the bedroom, before entering, I firmly told the maids, “I want to sleep comfortably alone, so don’t come in until I say it’s okay.

Got it?” In short, it meant not to disturb me while I was in the bedroom.

“Understood.” After getting a clear response from the maids, I entered the bedroom, softly closed the door, and walked straight towards the bed.

Precisely, towards the nightstand by the bed.

“I think I left my shovel here. Or did I?” I murmured quietly as I crouched in front of the nightstand.

I couldn’t quite remember where I had put the shovel after using it last week. After pondering for a moment, I hesitantly extended my arm.

“Ah, here it is.” Fiddling my fingers a few times, I managed to grasp the handle of the shovel. I took out the shovel and placed it on the bed, then moved towards the armchair near the window.

“The robe is here.” Lifting the cushion of the armchair, I saw a slightly wrinkled, pearl-colored robe.

After taking out my robe and dusting it off, the robe tailored to my size regained its original form.

Having checked even the blue magic stone inside the pocket of the robe, I grinned with satisfaction.

After completing preparations to go outside, I grasped the magic stone and closed my eyes, thinking of the garden.

Then, after a few seconds, feeling a warm spring breeze brush against my cheek, I opened my eyes. Where previously I was inside my bedroom, now I found myself in the middle of a garden where cherry blossom trees were planted at regular intervals.

“Huh.” I glanced over the garden, where the pink blossoms were in full bloom, and lifted the corners of my mouth upwards.

The outside experienced through a window and the outside enjoyed directly were distinctly different, the latter contained an indescribable sense of liberation.

While idly gazing at the sky, I belatedly realized that time was passing even as I stood there.

I’ve wasted time unnecessarily when I need to return before sunset.

Muttering to myself, I hurriedly looked for the cherry blossom tree tied with a red ribbon and started to dig near a protruding root with a shovel.

How long had I dug when suddenly, the shovel hit something hard and wouldn’t move. I set aside the now useless shovel and carefully, so as not to dirty my hands, extracted the object.

The object that was in the ground turned out to be none other than a small jewel box.

I silently rejoiced and lightly brushed off the dirt that covered the jewel box before clicking it open.

Inside were three rubies, each the size of two finger segments, and a pearl necklace.

It wasn’t bad considering it was the result of saving little by little while wary of my family’s watchful eyes.

I carefully placed the jewels in the pocket of my robe and grasped the warp stone.

Then, just like before, when I thought of the forest trail behind the mansion, I found myself there in the blink of an eye.

“Phew.” I placed my hand on my chest, looking at the now familiar scene.

The thought that I had made it out successfully without being caught today comforted me. Due to my unusual abilities, my father did not allow me to leave the ducal residence.

The outside world was deemed too dangerous for me. Even going to the garden required my father’s permission, which says it all.

Thus, when children my age played with their friends, I read books by myself, and when I roamed the town, I planted flowers in the garden.

Living isolated from the outside world, I learned about ‘the sea’ from a book around the age of ten.

The description of a large body of blue water forming beautiful waves felt so enchanting that I desperately wanted to see this ‘sea’ at least once.

So, I’ve been collecting funds in secret from my family all this time. Because if my family finds out about my plan, they’ll definitely force me into seclusion.

The way I collected funds was simple.

I picked up things lying around the mansion that could be sold for money and hid them in a treasure chest hidden under a pomegranate tree tied with a red ribbon.

Then, every Wednesday, I gathered the items I had collected over the week and hid them in an old cabin located in the forest behind the mansion.

The reason I chose Wednesday to go to the cabin was singular.

On Wednesdays, not only was my father, the prime minister, and my mother, his aide, but also my sister, the second princess, went to the palace to be company, leaving me alone in the mansion. It was much easier to sneak out when my family was not in the mansion.

I stepped out, always amazed by the surroundings.

Following this forest path for a few minutes would lead me to the cabin where I hid my funds.
Aside from being overall worn-out, it had no significant drawbacks, making it quite a good place to kill time.

“Huh?”

As I was walking, thinking about the jewels I had gathered in the cabin, something heavy suddenly tripped me.

“……?”

Following the sensation slowly, I lowered my gaze and saw unfamiliar platinum hair that seemed to be made of pure gold.

I momentarily gazed at the platinum blonde hair fluttering in the occasional spring breeze, then recognized the owner of the hair.

The dazzling platinum blonde belonged to a boy who appeared to be about my age.

His tightly closed eyes and pale skin seemed almost like those of a dead person, yet the breaths that slipped through his lips were undoubtedly those of a living person.

Why on earth was this boy lying here? With a growing curiosity that overshadowed my caution, I approached the boy and knelt beside him.

Though it was my first time encountering an outsider who wasn’t a servant of the mansion, my curiosity prevailed over wariness.

Despite his face being smeared with blood, the boy’s handsome features were distinct.

If I were to describe them using expressions from a novel I recently read, his features were like those meticulously drawn with a paintbrush by an artist, stroke by stroke.

Shifting my gaze slightly, I noticed the clothes the boy wore. What must have once been a white shirt was now a rag, dyed with blood, and his pitch-black trousers were torn in places.

As I silently scrutinized the somewhat shocking appearance of the boy, a pungent smell of blood numbed my sense of smell.

“Ugh.”

An involuntary grimace formed on my face. The intense smell of blood was unpleasant, the likes of which I had never encountered before.

Before I knew it, I got up abruptly, wanting to get even slightly away from the terrible smell of blood, turning around just in time to hear,
“…Who’s there?”

A hoarse voice penetrated my ears.

“…!”

I was startled by the unexpected voice of a boy, halting the step I was about to take.

However, instead of turning around fully, I hesitated. Having retracted my step, my mind went blank.

What should I do now? Should I turn around to check the situation, or should I just leave it and return to the mansion?

I was unsure how to handle this unfamiliar situation.

Although I knew in my head that it was right to leave the boy alone, assuming his consciousness wasn’t clear, for some reason, I didn’t want to ignore the boy who lay as if abandoned in the forest, covered in numerous wounds.

“Seri, you must always live without presence.”

The stern voice of my father in my memory rang as if warning me not to be caught in vain impulses and make a mistake.

“Ha.”

The moment I let out a breath quietly, troubled by many thoughts without reaching a conclusion.
“I asked, who’s there?”

The boy’s voice came sharper than before.

“Seeing that there’s no response, it seems you must be someone sent by my brother.”

Brother?

I mulled over the term the boy had resentfully used and tilted my head in confusion.

Was “brother” a term to be spat out in such a context like this?

“So, what did my brother send you here for? To check if I was completely dead? Or to capture my dying moments on video?”

The boy, who kept talking without pause, burst into a scornful laugh as if he had given up on everything.

Listening to the boy’s story, a strange emotion began to slowly rise from within me.

“But what to do? I’m not yet dead, and I have no intention of dying by my brother’s hand.”
Was he crying?

It was a plea that even as a third party, transmitted a heavy feeling to me.

Moreover, his voice trembled as if he was holding something back, making me believe he was indeed crying.

“So go tell my brother. I don’t want his damned throne, so please, just leave me alone now… cough!”

The boy, whose voice had been gradually increasing, suddenly stopped talking and began to cough violently.

As the boy’s coughing grew longer, the smell of blood lingering around his nose became increasingly intense.

Finally, when the pungent smell became so strong that my head started to throb, I couldn’t bear it any longer and turned around to fully look at the boy.