The Kidnapped Prince is Mine Now - Chapter 62

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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 62
‘Where is Frederike?’
Her position was placed one step behind Maximilian, making her face difficult to see clearly.
Yet I could distinctly feel her cool gaze looking down upon me.
…No, I shouldn’t concern myself with that. There was someone else I needed to focus on here.
I lowered my gaze and walked forward.
As the thick carpet swallowed my footsteps, the vast Audience Chamber fell into an oppressive silence. In that heavy quiet, the gazes of three people bore down on me with unmistakable intensity.
When I finally came to a halt at the edge of the red velvet, a man’s voice rang out, tinged with the metallic edge of authority.
“Raise your head.”
I obeyed the command. My eyes met those of a middle-aged man whose face was etched with deep lines.
‘…He bears a striking resemblance to Maximilian.’
The golden hair cascading to his shoulders and the distinctly blue eyes—all traits Maximilian had inherited from the Emperor.
Though his expression, draped in ennui and irritation, bore far less similarity.
‘Is this how Maximilian will age?’
I was grateful that I could discern little resemblance to Rotar Eisenrit in him.
Perhaps that was why he had suffered such discrimination since childhood.
The Emperor fixed his gaze upon my face with a single eyebrow raised—the look of an aging tiger assessing whether prey would be easy to capture.
I did not avert my eyes from his stare. After all, he was merely an old man who would soon be dead. Why should I cower?
At last, the Emperor opened his mouth.
“It seems remarkably difficult to lay eyes upon my daughter-in-law’s face.”
“I am deeply apologetic, Your Majesty.”
“Of course, why would a Holy Maiden concern herself with a mere Emperor? She need only heed the whims of that exalted goddess.”
Yes, you wretch. I never gave you a second thought!
I kept my true sentiments locked behind my teeth. Instead, I began to recite the apology I had prepared following Clara’s counsel.
“I was delayed in paying my respects to Your Majesty while I prayed that the goddess’s mercy would extend to the Empire’s borders. Yet I have never forgotten for a moment that it is Your Majesty, the sun of the Empire, who has allowed me to set foot upon this land. I humbly beseech you to accept my belated greetings with a heart as vast as the ocean.”
It was a way of glossing over the matter.
“Hmph, yes. As the sun of the Empire, it is only fitting that I show magnanimity.”
The Emperor let out a derisive snort, as though my thoughts were transparent to him. His tone suggested he might accept my apology, yet the mocking pressure did not relent.
“A commoner who seized the position of Imperial Princess Consort, no less. Even if the methods were barbarously astonishing, I shall acknowledge what deserves acknowledgment.”
“….”
Ah, truly. I wanted to kill him.
Pick up the gun. Open the case, pull the trigger, and blow the Emperor’s head clean off in one shot!
‘Breathe…. Compose yourself.’
Do not forget. The magical gun in my hand is not merely a murder weapon.
It requires a heart that considers others. That ambiguous standard must be met, even slightly, for the holy power within my body to be mobilized.
Besides, was he always this insufferable? I recalled the memory of meeting the Emperor alongside the Archbishop at the recent banquet.
‘So you are the Holy Maiden who appeared after two hundred years?’
‘I hope you will contribute to the peace of the Empire.’
Hmm. He was hardly gracious even then.
Yet whereas that had been mockery bordering on indifference, this was contempt laced with outright hostility.
Why? Because I share a surname with a commoner of no particular consequence?
Or perhaps because I appear to be an unscrupulous woman who kidnapped his son and forced a relationship upon him?
Either way, I had lost all desire to wag my tail any further. It seemed unlikely to produce any meaningful effect anyway.
I lowered my gaze once more, waiting for the Emperor’s insults to pass.
“Your Majesty. Is this not your daughter-in-law, who has ridden far to see you? Please, ease your heart.”
A clear voice, refined in its cadence.
Maximilian had opened his mouth. To take my side.
Just shut up! You staying silent is the only way you can actually help me.
I swallowed the curses roiling in my chest as Maximilian continued speaking.
“And perhaps inform the Princess Consort of the punishment you have decreed for Rotar. It would be most unfortunate if she learned of it only upon arriving at the Princess Consort’s Palace.”
“Ah, yes, quite right.”
So this was the real matter at hand.
This was what I had been waiting for. I lifted my gaze slightly toward Maximilian.
Our eyes met immediately. He had never once looked away from me from beginning to end.
His eyes burned as though he might pin me down at any moment and stuff my own skirts into my mouth. Maximilian made no effort to conceal the desire he harbored for me.
Then what of Frederike? I was about to avert my gaze from that revolting stare when—
“Tell me, Second Princess Consort. Are you not curious about where your husband is at this very moment?”
I turned my eyes immediately toward the Emperor’s provocation.
Why was it? The Emperor’s voice, when he spoke Rotar’s name, had grown far colder than before.
I bowed my head deeply to conceal my irritated expression, and forced out the most obedient tone I could muster.
“I know nothing of the matter, Your Majesty.”
“Of course you don’t. What could someone like you possibly understand of Imperial law?”
I may not know the law, but I know your future, you bastard!
No, wait. Don’t let yourself get heated over such petty provocation. Ignoring worthless taunts was one of my strengths in my past life, wasn’t it?
I held my silence. The Emperor, unable to contain himself, finally drew out the main point he had been waiting to deliver.
“It is only natural that, having suddenly been subjected to a kidnapping marriage, you did not proceed to the Monastery as originally planned. I have not, up to this point, charged you with the crime of disobeying orders.”
“….”
“But then, why did you remain in Graupels for several months without immediately returning to the Imperial Palace? And why did you even threaten the brother who came to retrieve you?”
What nonsense is this? Maximilian didn’t go all the way to the Northern Border to fetch Rotar as though he were some lost errand boy or useless youngest sibling.
‘What he was really after was me, not my half-brother.’
I opened my mouth to speak, but stopped as I listened to this distorted narrative devoid of all logic.
We had merely stopped briefly at the domain of the Staufen Margrave, my maternal relative, to settle our affairs. But then a sudden swarm of monsters attacked, placing Graupels in peril, and Rotar, as the Empire’s sword, had to lend his strength to the subjugation effort.
The excuse that he had rested for several months due to injuries sustained during that time was one Rotar had prepared before even leaving Graupels.
If that excuse had failed to convince the Emperor, it meant there was something else that had truly unsettled him.
What on earth could it be….
“And on top of all that, you refuse to take a concubine? Have you no respect for the Emperor’s authority!”
Ah.
Only then did I grasp what I had been overlooking all this time.
My status.
The bloodline value of this era, barely concealed beneath the respectable title of “Saint.”
Through countless lives, I had forgotten a fundamental truth of this world: a person’s family influence mattered far more than their individual abilities.
A commoner orphan from the Orphanage had become the Second Imperial Princess Consort?
To the common folk on the streets, it was a romantic tale of social ascension beyond measure. Conversely, to the Empire’s ruling class, it was a deeply unsettling narrative that threatened the very foundations of society.
Yet if the Empire’s ancient laws forbade the dissolution of a marriage once consummated…
‘Then naturally, they would have broached the subject of a concubine.’
A noblewoman of distinguished lineage, educated in the finest arts and refinements.
At minimum, a daughter of an Earl’s house—preferably a Marquess or Duke—would have made a suitable secondary consort.
As Emperor, he had merely issued the obvious command to his son: maintain the ‘purity’ of the Imperial bloodline as much as possible.
‘Though if I’m destined to die by my half-brother’s hand anyway, what meaning does any of this hold?’
Let me focus on the essential point.
I had been preoccupied with other matters and had not even considered Rotar’s concubine situation.
Then, had Rotar and his inner circle truly failed to contemplate this matter as well?
….
No. That was impossible.
‘Rotar, this man truly is…’
He had cut off the discussion first, ensuring my input would not interfere with his preparations for this contingency.

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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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