Me, a Princess? My Lord! - Chapter 32
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 32
“That young lady just now, Heidi was it? Look into her. As thoroughly as possible.”
Noah’s eyebrows rose subtly.
“May I ask the reason?”
The King’s lips twitched slightly, then a very small smile spread across them.
“She resembles someone.”
“Pardon?”
Noah asked back in bewilderment.
“Her smiling face, I mean. The resemblance is so striking… it keeps reminding me of someone.”
The King, who had been looking at the closed door, slowly lowered his head. He let out a short sigh and continued.
“It’s probably nothing. But I should confirm it first. Though it may be foolish…”
As his words faded away, Noah finally bowed his head deeply.
“I shall obey your command, Your Majesty.”
The King looked at the door once more.
The girl he had seen for the first time today. Her smile wouldn’t leave his mind.
* * *
Deep in the night, Anastasia was alone in her room, biting her nails. Click, click. The sound of nail-biting echoed repeatedly.
“That bastard finally…”
Her red lips parted, and a chillingly sharp voice burst out.
“He must have found her.”
The face she had seen during the day vividly appeared in Anastasia’s mind.
Snow-white, sparkling skin and bright golden hair that seemed to capture sunlight. Her large, round eyes were clear and innocent without a single flaw.
‘Those eyes…’
Vivid violet pupils with the exact same light as the King’s.
A frown formed on her brow as she gnawed at her fingernail tips.
“Father’s real daughter… A daughter who truly inherited the royal bloodline.”
A memory from the past suddenly resurfaced in Anastasia’s mind.
* * *
The day Anastasia remembered was not much different from usual.
After finishing her tedious morning lessons, Anastasia spent time exploring the basement filled with all sorts of precious objects.
‘I like this one?’
She reached toward a splendid tiara that seemed perfect for her.
“Anastasia!”
At the voice from behind her, Anastasia quickly put down the tiara.
Deshion was standing at the entrance to the basement. Anastasia flinched like a child caught doing wrong, then soon showed a playful smile as if nothing had happened.
“Teacher.”
“I must have warned you countless times. The royal treasury can only be accessed by the King and officially recognized heirs to the throne. Since Your Highness has not yet been announced as an heir in any official capacity, you have no authority to enter this place.”
The coldly delivered words grated on her ears.
‘Such nagging. What kind of person has no flexibility at all?’
Anastasia snorted inwardly and replied lightly.
“Oh my, how strict you are. It’s just that the announcement hasn’t been made yet, but who else could be the heir besides me? Father has only one child, which is me. Isn’t that right?”
“Still, rules are rules.”
“You’re really too much, Teacher.”
Anastasia pouted her lips and grabbed the tiara from the marble surface.
“This is the crown Mother wore at her wedding, right? How can it be so dazzlingly beautiful? I’ll get to wear such a pretty tiara when I marry later too, won’t I?”
At that moment, Deshion’s brow twitched.
“If you handle it carelessly…”
But why was that?
His words of reproach toward Anastasia’s behavior couldn’t continue to the end.
He was staring intently at the tiara in her hands with a startled expression.
‘Why is he acting like that? What’s with that reaction?’
Anastasia raised an eyebrow at the incomprehensible reaction.
But with Deshion’s behavior returning to normal as usual, the puzzlement she felt in that moment quickly scattered and disappeared.
Leaving only a very faint uneasiness behind.
* * *
And a few days later.
When golden sunlight was streaming through the window, Anastasia was spending time sitting across from the King after a long while. Fragrant steam rose gently from above the teacups.
The King spoke in a deliberately stern voice.
“Count Haizen tells me you entered the underground storehouse again.”
Ha, he already tattled?
Anastasia swallowed her irritation inwardly and said with a bright smile.
“I just looked around the rooms near the entrance a bit. I didn’t even go deep inside.”
The King let out a deep sigh, then spoke in a gentle, admonishing voice.
“I know you’re always curious. But don’t let yourself be too captivated. It nurtures vanity in the heart.”
“Yes, I understand.”
Anastasia nodded perfunctorily, then said with sparkling eyes.
“But Father, I saw a really beautiful tiara there.”
“A tiara?”
“The one Mother wore at her wedding. The one with the large ruby.”
At that moment, faint longing spread across the King’s eyes.
“So you saw that.”
He put down his teacup and continued.
“It was sent from the Grand Palace to bless the marriage. But the jewel set in the center isn’t a ruby. It’s a sacred relic made by containing one drop each of my blood and your mother’s blood.”
“A sacred relic?”
The King nodded.
“So when someone with royal blood flowing through them touches the crown, it reacts with divine power and emits brilliant light.”
“…It emits light?”
Clatter.
Anastasia’s hand slipped as she was lifting her teacup. Her heart suddenly sank.
‘Light? But when I touched it that day, there was no reaction at all…’
The King seemed not to notice her subtle expression and laughed happily.
“I didn’t know you would like it so much. I’ll give it to you as a gift.”
Anastasia’s eyes widened. She asked, stammering uncharacteristically.
“…R-really?”
“Your mother would surely have wanted that. Please treat it preciously. It’s a very precious object to me as well.”
Anastasia’s expression, having obtained the object she coveted, was not bright at all.
* * *
“…”
After that day, Anastasia developed a habit. The habit of fiddling with the tiara whenever no one was in her room.
“What light is supposed to come from this thing?”
She tried wearing it on her head and rubbing the jewel with her hands to polish it, but the ‘light’ the King had mentioned was nowhere to be found.
“Why is there no reaction for me?”
Anastasia tried to comfort herself and find rational reasons, but the more she did so, the deeper her inner anxiety grew.
The whispers people had exchanged echoed in her mind like an echo.
“Don’t you think she doesn’t really resemble Her Majesty the Queen?”
“She doesn’t have many similarities to His Majesty the King either.”
“Well, there’s no law that children must look exactly like their parents, but…”
Words she had dismissed as simple gossip in childhood now felt different. Anastasia’s face grew paler as she carefully compared her face in the mirror with the faces of the royal couple.
‘That’s impossible. Surely not really…’
Anastasia couldn’t endure this any longer. She immediately called for Sheila, her governess.
“I should assign someone to the teacher. Find me someone trustworthy, Sheila.”
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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