CH 4

Chapter 1. Strange World

Episode 4

It felt like my blood was draining from each memory.

“Alcohol is the enemy. Argh. How do I do this?”

My head was pounding from a hangover.

But, more than that, last night’s promise bothered me more. No matter how much I wanted revenge on Tatiana, this was not the way.

‘I need to apologize to the emperor right now, and I have to say that this cannot be the case.’

How can I soothe the ferocious emperor?

I was grabbing my messy hair when I heard a knock on the door.

“Miss, this is Lily. May I come in?”

“Come in.”

My maid, Lily, came in with a glass of cool looking orange juice on the tray.

“Are you alright?”

“Ha…don’t say anything.”

I gulped down the juice. The sweet and sour juice running down my throat seemed to relieve my headache for a while.

“You have to come to your senses, today is the day the Duke returns.”

“Hah…”

Wilhelm’s bombshell made me so mad that I forgot if today was my father’s day of return.

I had to get up early and act like nothing happened last night.

“Lily, can you ask the butler to contact the palace because I have something to say?”

“Alright.”

First, to hide the hangover from last night, I had to wash and dress up before my father came. As I hurriedly washed up, the time for my father’s arrival drew nearer.

While changing clothes with the help of the maids, I noticed a strange noise outside the door.

“Miss, I think you should come out soon.”

The butler in a rare bewildered voice knocked on the door.

I left the room and headed towards the main hall.

“Oh my god, what is that?”

It was such a huge amount of gifts that it could be seen from the stairs connected to the main hall.

I hurried down the stairs and checked the pile of presents.

Each of them was emblazoned with a lion’s profile, a rose, and an imperial symbol with a sword placed on it.

“Princess Pioneer?”

It was the servant who called my name yesterday.

The fact that the vassal, who had always been by the emperor’s side and looked after him, appeared here in person, made me dazed.

“These are gifts from His Majesty. He said he hoped you would like it.”

“His Majesty?”

“Yes, and he sent you this letter as well.”

It was a pink envelope unlike a man called an iron-blooded monarch.

[Please don’t change your mind overnight.

-Aster Leruye Gratia.]

There were no words in the letter that didn’t seem to know my heart.

“And he said he would get in touch with you sooner or later. In that case, he asked that you please wear at least one of the items that His Majesty gave you as a gift.”

After finishing his speech, the servant politely bowed and left.

“Miss, look at this. This is the Florian cloth that the Archduke of Gloucester could not find.”

Lily mumbled as she picked up one of the presents.

It wasn’t just that.

Rare jewels, ornaments, and even old books.

All of them seemed to fit my taste.

“Did His Majesty the Emperor choose them all?”

“Well…”

“He must have liked you! Oh my gosh… This is the perfume that only the people of the imperial family can get!”

Lily and the maids were so excited that they began to open and organize the presents.

Looking at the list of gifts, the emperor seemed to know what I had been through.

I didn’t feel bad.

No, to be honest, I felt good.

I didn’t know I would like it, but I didn’t know it was more exhilarating because it was things that Tatiana wanted.

“What is all this?”

“Oh, Father.”

Then I heard my father’s voice.

As soon as he arrived at the mansion, he was astonished to see the pile of gifts piled up.

“Karina Pioneer! Follow me to the office right now!”

I haven’t been very lucky since yesterday.

~*~

Father drank cold water at once to calm his anger.

And he sat across from me and asked for an explanation.

“What are all those presents!”

“I have something to tell you first, Dad. I have decided to break up with Wilhelm.”

“Okay. Breaking up with that guy… What?”

Surprisingly, my father was still speechless.

It wasn’t once or twice, it was already the fourth time.

Fortunately, my father knew what was going on between me and Tatiana.

“Is it because of that Grand Duchess again?”

“…”

“But, isn’t the child already married?”

“Wilhelm said he wanted to be the paramour of Duchess Gloucester.”

“How dare he look use the Pioneers!”

As expected, the hot-tempered father was so angry that he broke the armrest of his chair.

Being a paramour in the name of a Pioneer, I couldn’t forgive him either.

I chose him because he wasn’t that blind to Tatiana, but I guess I was wrong.

“Marquis of Hunt will be rewarded greatly. Don’t worry, I’ll brush him from head to toe.”

My father grinded his teeth to make sure the anger didn’t go away.

I also wanted to give him a big reward, so I wondered if there was any information I could use appropriately.

Then I saw that it was there.

“If possible, I would like to get the sea they have.”

“Oh?”

At my very specific request, my father looked at me with amusing eyes.

In fact, Duke Pioneer had full of money. He did not have to take anything from others, especially Marquis Hunt.

The salt from the Sabin Islands known as the Abandoned Sea was rich in minerals.

In particular, it can be used as a bathing salt thanks to the special ingredients that can be applied with any desired fragrance. Read only at pm tl.

In the original, a bath bomb named Tatiana’s Perfume dispelled perfume and became a necessity for ladies.

In addition, she raised his reputation by launching a perfume based on that fragrance.

Thanks to that, Wilhelm gained enormous wealth in the ending.

‘Now that Tatiana did not choose him, the development has been delayed, but maybe it will be developed someday.’

It’s like cutting off the buds from the beginning.

And if I succeed in business with the salt from the sea stolen from Wilhelm, it will probably go up quite a bit.

“Do what you want.”

“Thank you, father.”

The Duke pondered for a moment, then suddenly remembered the pile of presents.

The words of the emperor who recently asked him if he would like to give up his neutrality and stand by his side came to mind.

“Then knowing that, he sent those gifts. No matter how much you say, you know it’s not good for a lady who just broke up her engagement to receive all those gifts.”

Father did not hide his displeasure by clicking his tongue.

He poured all sorts of contempt, saying that it was not something he had done once or twice.

When I saw the reaction, the words that I wanted to say first did not come out.

‘Father hated him that much?’

It was getting harder and harder to speak out.

“Well, if you like His Majesty, don’t say anything.”

“What?”

“I don’t know about your ex-lovers as well, but I know His Majesty better than anyone. He is not the type of person to have multiple women.”

“That… it is.”

Due to the negligent love affairs of the previous emperor, Aster had to spend nearly ten years cutting off his bloodline.

It was such a harsh time that even my father, who had gone through all the care, was fed up just thinking about it.

“Anyway, don’t worry too much about the future of the family. Even though this father can’t do anything else, he’s good at riding one rope.”

Seeing my father side with him made my heart proud for nothing.

“And, I’m sure I’ll beat that Wilhelm guy.”

He also seems to have gotten a little radical, but I decided to think about that later.

~*~

News of the breakup with Wilhelm and the courtship of the emperor shook the country in an instant.

[The 4th breakup of Princess Pioneer! Who will the princess be with next?]

[Will the Emperor’s most powerful marriage partner be Duke Pioneer?]

[Rising star, Wilhelm Hunt. Who is the lucky woman?]

All the gossip was talking about this funny business.

In the past, I would have been shaken by gossip like this. But when it happened once, then twice, and finally the fourth time, it became dull.

But I couldn’t help but feel bad.

So, I decided to go shopping under the pretext of being sad.

My father, who was strict on luxury, even gave me a large check to make me feel better.

“The best way to relieve stress is to spend money.”

“Miss, how long have we been out like this?”

Lily and I were a little excited about shopping after a long time.

In the last two years, I haven’t appeared on this street. The reason was simple.

It was because of Tatiana and her men that appeared everywhere she went.

Lately, Archduke Gloucester was behind her, and it has been quite painful to see that.

‘So I always avoided it. I don’t know why.’

Last time, Wilhelm’s declaration broke the thin bond of patience that had been within me.

‘Whatever, it’s all different now.’

Thinking about it, I wondered if I really needed to do that. I decided not to care about other people’s opinions anymore from the moment tea was poured over Wilhelm’s head.

“Who is this?”

Still, it happened once in a while that made my situation worse.

“Long time no see, Karina.”

Exactly, it was the same situation now. I stopped at the entrance to the boutique and saw a man calling my name.

A man with a sharp impression with his long, light pink hair tied loosely.

A wizard with a strange presence that doesn’t seem to exist in this world.

And, my second lover, whom I spent the shortest time with.

“Aren’t we too distant from each other to call by those names? Raymond.”

Raymond gave me a subtle smile at my answer.

It was still bad luck.