“Take this.”
A week and a day after returning from her three-month long absence spent on the battlefield, Leona, whose lips were dry and not fully healed yet, held out the jewelry box on the nightstand to Julius. Julius clucked his tongue at the smile on her face that went against her pale complexion.
“You’re smiling even after being sick for a whole week?”
“Why wouldn’t I! We’ve announced victory and made peace. That’s great!”
“Yeah.”
In addition to being wounded, she’d had to ride her horse in a hurry for three days and nights, and even before that, was overworked at the military camp. The problem was that the arrow that hit her shoulder was poisonous, and she’d worn the necklace that changed her voice for a long time. Because of all that, Leona had to spend an entire week in a hospital bed.
The king lamented that Leona conveniently fell ill just to avoid punishment and sent a healer to her five times a day.
“The war is over, so we need to settle things. Take this.”
“I don’t need it.”
Julius quickly retorted, carefully observing her complexion. Leona’s face had grown gaunt, but at least some color had returned, and her voice, once praised by the courtiers as having the ‘tone of an aurora’, had returned to its former state, though it was slightly hoarse from being bedridden.
“Her Majesty the Queen prepared this for you.”
“I told you, I don’t need it…”
“You’re penniless from your pay cut. Wouldn’t it be wise to take it when it’s offered? You need to buy a house to get married.”
“…”
Julius closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and pursed his lips.
It was the king who tearfully begged Julius to look after this troublemaker. This time, after she ran away from home, the king loudly proclaimed Julius Rashid’s dismissal and pay cut, but then secretly called him and gave him double the deducted amount from his private funds. When Julius declined, he found a chest of gold bars already delivered to his residence.
However, even if he told her this, he wasn’t confident that he could overcome the princess’s rhetoric.
“…Anyway, have you taken your medicine?”
“Ah, I hate taking it.”
“Just quietly and obediently take it.”
“It’s incredibly bitter.”
“General Aslan will be arriving in the capital in a few days, and there’s a ball to celebrate the victory. Aren’t you going to attend?”
“I was planning to use the excuse of being sick to avoid it. Anyway, I’ve never attended such events; I’ve always pretended to be a sick chicken at the villa.”
“…”
Julius was about to ask something but stopped. Leona thought Julius seemed to be in a slightly better mood but didn’t ask why.
‘Surely, he’s not happy about me pretending to be a sick chicken.’
Julius held out the medicine to her again.
“I’ll give you some sweets, so please take your medicine.”
“Shouldn’t medicine be edible? If I eat this, I think my lifespan will shorten.”
“At least it wouldn’t kill you right away.”
“…Are you still mad at me for sneaking out?”
Leona carefully watched Julius. As the top knight in the palace, it might have upset him to become the personal guard of a mere princess. He’d never shown it, but considering how much he had to put up with regarding her constant escapades, it was understandable if his patience had worn thin. Moreover, this time she even rolled around as an ordinary soldier at the border.
“I’m not angry. This isn’t the first time you’ve done something like this.”
“That’s harsh, Sir Rashid.”
“Then, since I’m angry, you’ll relieve my anger if you eat all of this.”
Leona pouted but couldn’t hide the smile in her eyes. Despite the bitterness of the medicine, she closed her eyes tightly and downed the tonic in one go. Julius pulled out some cookies from his coat.
“Open it quickly!”
“Hold on a moment. Geez.”
“Hurry up ~!”
Leona impatiently kicked her feet on the bed. Julius grumbled but hurriedly unwrapped the cookies and placed them in front of Leona.
Leona picked up the cookie and took a bite, laughing. Julius blurted out.
“It’s from Lord Millard.”
“Uh…?”
Leona’s eyes widened as she stopped eating the cookie.
Before her father, the current King, ascended the throne, his older brother, then Crown Prince Terenzio, died, leaving behind his only son, Millard. Terezio’s wife had already died while giving birth to Millard, and so, the young Millard became an orphan. After that, Leona’s father succeeded his older brother as crown prince and ascended to the throne, where he sat to this day.
The current king, who was very different from his deceased brother, allowed his orphaned nephew to grow up in the royal castle. As a result, she was obviously close to Millard when she was younger…
‘Since when did it start? Brother Millard used to tell me to go away whenever he saw me.’
After they grew apart, their relationship felt awkward. Or so she thought, until she realized that in the future she’d left behind, he’d died trying to protect her from her biological brother Aiden, who was about to hand her and the entire resistance over to the empire.
As Leona wrinkled her brow in thought, Julius studied her face and sighed.
“Why are you sighing just looking at someone’s face?”
“It’s because your face looks like it would scare even a ghost away.”
Leona ran a hand over her face.
“Is it… that bad?”
“Yes.”
Julius replied grumpily, then brought up something he hadn’t told her yet.
“Her Excellency, the Marchioness of Erazem, is coming to the royal capital.”
“What? My maternal grandmother? Really?”
“Yes. She must’ve been quite surprised. I’d come running too if I were her.”
“You don’t have to worry that much… Still, it’s been a while since I’ve seen grandma!”
Julius secretly smiled at Leona’s words, but quickly hid it and stood up to leave.
“What, you’re leaving already?”
“Did you already forget I’m on probation and my salary was reduced? The other knights will keep an eye on you, so don’t trouble them like you do me.”
“Okay, I’ll show you what a noble princess looks like!”
“…Please…”
Julius earnestly pleaded and turned his back. Leona waved her hand at his back and sent him off.
Julius didn’t take the jewelry box after all.
* * *
There were many times when she thought about wanting to die.
When she heard that General Aslan, whom everyone in the kingdom trusted, had died and the war had been lost, when she was finally forced to flee with her brother, the crown prince, after seeing the king and queen executed at the hands of the empire.
When Crown Prince Aiden, leader of the resistance, betrayed his country and tried to hand over herself and the resistance to the imperial emperor, when her cousin, Prince Millard, died protecting her from the crown prince, and when she watched her own brother being killed by the imperial emperor. When…
When she first stood in front of the remaining resistance members, on behalf of the dead crown prince, and realized that no matter what she did, she could not rally them in any way.
All those days of realizing that everyone distrusted and feared the young princess.
All those nights spent desperately poring over tactics books she’d never read before.
Every moment she listened to a song commemorating the people who died because of her own poor decisions, she wanted to die.
And yet, she persevered.
Being betrayed by the Crown Prince had hurt everyone in the resistance, and it had hurt her deeply as well. Leona didn’t understand why her dear brother would want to kill her and hand her over to the Emperor, or why he would betray the resistance.
She didn’t know what to do when her cousin Millard, whom she thought she’d had a falling out with, died protecting her. It was only in that moment that she realized that Aiden had hated and despised Millard all along, and that everything he’d suffered all his life, had been at the hands of Aiden, who hated him. That he’d kept her at arm’s length only out of concern for her.
She couldn’t tell anyone in the chaos of it all, and it was too much for her to lead the people alone with such venomous hatred in her heart.
With every breath she took, she was reminded of her lack of experience and ability. She regretted all the time she wasted living comfortably as a princess, but there was nothing she could do about it. Without a leader, the resistance was divided into factions, fighting amongst themselves, and she, new to battle, war, downfall, and defeat, was too new to unite and lead it.
Day after day, she cried out in front of the others blood pooling in her throat, and at night, she endured it by vomiting in a place that no one knew. If only General Aslan were still alive, if only he hadn’t died, she thought, falling asleep in tears and waking up chastising herself for blaming the past.
Until this moment when the imperial army was breathing down her neck. Unable to turn her back on the people who believed in her, she felt compelled to do something, anything, because she didn’t want anyone else to die…
As she was surrounded by imperial soldiers, a figure appeared in the midst of them. It was Crown Prince Arcadia on horseback.
“Princess, this has all been for nothing!”
“Ar……cadia.”
A booming voice mocked her. If only General Aslan had been there at a time like this. Oh, if only he’d been there. If only she had one other talent. There was one thing she could do, other than cry and get angry…
“Indeed, you have a voice worthy of being called an Aurora. It is not unpleasant to be called such a name for a princess, is it?”
“For the crown prince of the empire to make such a derisive remark at a place like this, that’s quite a level of insult, why don’t you go back and listen to your nanny’s lullaby!”
Leona shouted furiously, her eyes darting around. Looking for someone who should be there. The crown prince, noticing her gaze, merely shrugged his shoulders in response to her words. Then, in a voice showing his goodwill, he said.
“…Princess, are you looking for that knight? He swore to commit suicide from the beginning to save you.”
“!”
The crown prince stared at her face, his lighthearted expression erased, and drew his sword. Leona bit her lip until it bled, then picked up the blade from the floor. As the sound of the surrounding Imperial soldiers pointing their swords echoed in the air, the crown prince raised his other hand to stop them and spoke.
“I hate to break my word, so if you surrender now, I will spare your life, as I swore to the knight, and treat you as my queen for the rest of my life.”
She had lost everything at the hands of the Empire, and now he wants her to become the wife of the Crown Prince and live out the rest of her days in the Empire?
Leona didn’t even pretend to listen to the prince’s words, but gripped her sword tighter and rushed at him. However, the crude swordsmanship she’d learned for less than a year, the hardships she’d endured, exhausted from the current battle, only dulled her movements, allowing the crown prince to easily evade her every strike.
Finally, his sword struck her blade away. As Leona lunged at him with her bare hands, caught off guard, his sword pierced her abdomen in one swift motion.
“Princess!”
Leona looked at her abdomen and then at the prince, who’s expression showed disbelief. She stumbles backwards, thinking to herself, ‘Why does he look like that when he’s the one who stabbed me?’ Only then did the sound of the violent water over the cliff reach her ears. If she fell, she’d die. But even if she stopped, she would die just the same.
But before she could make a choice, the cliff’s foundation gave way. The crown prince stretched out his hand, but he couldn’t reach her.
As Leona fell down the cliff, thoughts passed through her mind.
‘Is Julius alive? If General Aslan Nautilus had been alive, if he’d not received his subordinate’s drink, if that subordinate had not betrayed him, would it have been different, and why did he betray him? Why is everyone betraying, why…’
* * *
Leona woke with a start. Her whole body was damp with a cold sweat. What the hell, it’d been over three months since she’d returned to the past, and she was still having nightmares.
When she opened her eyes, Julius, her guard knight, was next to her, looking at her with a worried expression. When she realized it was a warm, sunny afternoon in the royal palace, she burst into tears. That day, her escort extended his shift and stayed up all night to watch over her.
And the very next day, Leona stole Julius’s family plaque and headed straight for the battlefield on the border. She cut her hair, dyed it black, and wore a necklace that changed her voice, which she normally wore when she went out at night. Rolling around in the camp as Aslan’s squire, with soot and mud on her face. Julius, who came after her, was unable to defeat her stubbornness and was forced to become an infantryman.
In the meantime, she prevented the betrayal of a subordinate officer and saved Aslan’s life. Only on the day when the long war that lasted for several years ended with victory and a peace agreement was signed with the Formillas Empire was Leona able to leave his military camp. She couldn’t bring herself to reveal that she was the princess, so she rode her horse for three days and nights and barely returned to her palace.
Upon returning to the palace, Leona was scolded to death by the king and queen. The same was true for Julius, her escort knight. It is only natural since she, the princess of a country, had been missing for over three months during the war. Julius was almost dismissed from his job, but she saved him and it ended with a three-month pay cut.
It also helped that the five-year war with the empire on the border ended in victory and a report related to peacemaking was posted. This made both the king and queen extremely busy.
Although she’d been sick for ten full days after returning from the battlefield, her country was safe and she herself had survived. Aslan, her cousin, and Julius were all alive. If the price for this result was some rough nights of sleep, Leona was willing to endure a few nightmares.
