The Kidnapped Prince is Mine Now - Chapter 13

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 13
No, this is my room.
“How did you manage to find roses in the dead of winter?”
Rotar Eisenrit asked with evident curiosity.
Is that really what matters right now? I glanced at him with that thought.
“Everyone here knows we’re bound by a marriage of abduction, don’t they?”
At that moment, a booming voice erupted from behind me.
“Even if it’s a ceremonial abduction marriage, a marriage is a marriage! Spouses must share passionate affection!”
The Margrave had made her grand reappearance, now draped in a thick robe instead of armor. Had the woman already lost her mind to senility?
She strode forward and positioned herself before Rotar Eisenrit. He, already wearing an exhausted expression, quickly opened his mouth.
“Perhaps you should change your clothes first, Aunt, and then we can talk.”
But the Margrave had no intention of meekly obeying her impertinent nephew’s words.
With her arms crossed, she brazenly scrutinized Rotar Eisenrit’s physique. Then she spoke in a tone of clear disapproval.
“You’ve lost some muscle since being locked away in the dungeon.”
“….”
Really? Without thinking, my gaze drifted to Rotar Eisenrit’s body.
Broad shoulders and a firm chest, sculpted forearms. When he moved, the muscles across his entire frame rippled visibly beneath his skin.
‘And she calls that lost muscle?’
In that moment, our eyes met.
He seemed to notice that I had been admiring his physique, and his expression became subtly complicated.
Somehow, I felt as though I had been teasing him with my gaze. Though I hadn’t intended to.
Meanwhile, the Margrave’s unsolicited commentary showed no signs of stopping.
“A man with nothing but a passably handsome face… Did you manage to satisfy the Holy Maiden in such a weakened state?”
Wait. Now the sparks are flying at me too?
As all eyes turned toward me, I let out an involuntary laugh.
No, Margrave. We already explained the entire plan to you. We said we wouldn’t actually do ‘that’, remember?
Suddenly, memories from the carriage flooded back—along with the vivid gaze of the man who had gripped my sweat-dampened thighs.
“…It was quite satisfactory.”
So I gave him a double thumbs up.
It was a truly excellent establishment. Though I hadn’t actually sampled the full menu.
“Is that so?”
The Margrave furrowed her brow as though she didn’t believe the answer, but it was of no concern to me. I needed to change the subject.
“Where is the Margrave’s Consort?”
“Konrad? He’s preparing the evening meal right now. You can take your time. The room tour comes first.”
No, just go. I’ll look around on my own.
“Are you pleased with the room’s atmosphere? I gave special instructions for it. Don’t worry about soundproofing—we built these walls exceptionally thick, hehehehe.”
“That much is certainly true, hohohо.”
Enough with these suggestive remarks.
It was Rotar Eisenrit who cut short the Margrave’s endless foolishness.
“I shall complete the room tour myself. Might you grant her some time to rest?”
Right. Please, just leave me alone.
Yet somehow, the Margrave understood Rotar’s words and his eyes lit up.
“Oh? Oh… Oh! Yes. I’ll step aside!”
No, that’s not what I meant.
Did Graupels lack stimulation for the Margrave? I found myself wishing I could install a television in his bedroom.
“Then I shall withdraw, hehehehe.”
“Rest well, you two. Hehehehe!”
After the Margrave and the Butler departed, Rotar—his face aged by a decade—opened a door set into the right wall of my bedroom.
A narrow connecting passage revealed itself immediately, linking to the adjacent chamber.
“The room beyond was your aunt’s. This was your mother’s. They say the two sisters were exceptionally close.”
Ah yes, the Empress who died long ago was the second daughter of House of Staufen.
Before crossing into the adjoining room, Rotar studied me once more and asked.
“Do you wish to keep that gun?”
Only then did I become acutely aware of the object I’d been holding all along.
Now that I thought about it, this gun was a treasure of House of Staufen.
“Should I put it back?”
“No. Elise is now one of House of Staufen, so you may keep it without concern.”
One of House of Staufen?
I’d never thought of it that way. Even calling it an abduction marriage, it was merely a contract between those whose interests aligned. For the imperial family and nobility of this era, marriage rooted in love would be the far stranger concept.
Perhaps that’s why Rotar had grown subtly tender since we’d been bound as husband and wife—why he’d taken unnecessary issue with Wolfgang as well.
I nodded without revealing the turbulence in my heart.
“I won’t refuse. I’ll sleep clutching it like a beloved doll. When I die, bury it with me.”
“…Yes. Take your time preparing, then.”
Rotar bowed lightly and departed toward his own quarters.
Preparing. Now that he mentioned it, the Margrave’s Consort was indeed arranging a banquet.
I set the gun on the bed and spotted a small hand mirror atop the nightstand. Lifting it to examine my face, I realized I desperately needed to wash.
Was the bathroom beyond the dressing room? I moved forward, imagining the typical layout of a castle.
I was just opening the dressing room door, dreaming of how wonderful it would be to lie on a warm heated floor and melt away my exhaustion, when—
“We greet the Imperial Princess Consort!”
“Oh my.”
I flinched at the chorus-like voices. A line of women bowed in unison before me.
“…Um, hello?”
Was this the right way to respond?
Reflexively returning their greeting, I wasn’t sure if I’d done well. I’d never received such treatment before.
‘You must fulfill your duties as a plaything.’
The icy voice of those women brushed past a corner of my mind.
Fragrances lined up in rows. Flower petals filling the bathtub.
I recalled what Maximilian’s attendants had done before pushing me into the Emperor’s chambers.
Contempt. Pity. Revulsion. Stains I wanted to forget. Women regarding me with different eyes, hands dragging me like a captured beast, then forcing my body into the tub, and….
“It is an honor to have the opportunity to display our skills after so long.”
Ah.
I came to my senses at the unfamiliar voice.
Watching the maids’ eyes gleam with genuine earnestness, I realized this was not the Imperial Palace.
It was different from before. Or more precisely, I hadn’t yet reached that point in time.
“…I look forward to working with you from now on.”
I needed to regain my composure.
I was now the sole Imperial Consort of the Elheim Empire. Not a plaything that could be broken and fixed at any moment.
***
“Phew.”
Rotar Eisenrit exhaled the sigh he’d been holding back.
After dismissing all the maids who had been waiting in the bedchamber, he examined his reflection in the bathroom mirror.
Sun-bronzed skin. A fierce gaze and a rough expression.
It was the same as always. Which meant he didn’t look like a vacant fool or an excited pervert.
Reassured, Rotar Eisenrit wiped his face with both hands. Then a cold smile crossed his lips.
‘Checking my expression? I’m not some adolescent boy.’
This had never happened before. Not until I met Elise.
Twenty-two, an age when blood always runs hot. There had been many women who desired him, and among them were beauties of exceptional caliber.
But if asked whether body and heart had ever moved in unison—no. Rotar Eisenrit had no such luxury.
He had rolled endlessly across battlefields, treading the boundary between life and death. When he stayed in the Imperial Palace, he had to sharpen himself through constant threats of assassination.
Three months ago, the day he first saw Elise was no different.
That morning, Rotar Eisenrit had to kill a maidservant who had offered him poisoned soup.
When he told her to taste it herself, her face turned ashen and she fell to her knees begging for forgiveness. She was someone who had served him for over three years.
Sometimes it felt as though an invisible hand was strangling his throat. With a precarious heart, Rotar Eisenrit attended the Imperial Palace’s Foundation Day ceremony.
There, he saw Elise for the first time, arriving with the Archbishop.
‘Interesting eyes you have there, Holy Maiden.’
Elise stood before Maximilian, adorned with such excessive finery that she resembled a princess of a great nation.
She responded to Maximilian’s rudeness with a serene smile.
‘Is that so? My life has been so devoid of enjoyment.’
She seemed utterly indifferent to the Archbishop’s shocked glare.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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