The Munchkin Princess Wants to Run Away - Chapter 14

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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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“The Border is truly vicious these days.”
Ethan had meant to casually relate a few battles convincingly, but the Imperial Princess’s response caught him off guard—the truth tumbled out instead.
Had she received proper education and treatment, information like this would have been within easy reach of her station.
Ethan felt a pang of sympathy for the Imperial Princess, sold off into marriage to the Duchy like a commodity. But there was nothing he could do.
“It’s said that Traitan’s Succession Structure will shift soon. Once the King passes—and it could be any day now—Civil War will likely erupt immediately.”
Ivanna’s eyes widened in shock, yet her mind raced swiftly behind that expression.
Seeming delighted by her genuine alarm, Ethan began pouring out accounts of the Border conflicts without restraint.
Though he claimed it was information anyone could access, Ivanna extracted from his words the deeper currents moving between Kingdom and Empire.
“But is it wise to conduct a territorial inspection in circumstances like these?”
She’d hoped to hear it called dangerous. Ivanna spoke with veiled concern in her voice.
She had no wish to use the danger as an excuse to retreat—to return to the Duchy against her will.
There was no real need to drag someone meant to stay quietly in the Capital all the way to the Duchy.
Part of her wanted to remain in the Capital and oversee the trading house; part of her yearned to see lands beyond it.
But a Duke who conducted everything by principle would certainly bring his Duchess to her territory, however nominal her role.
“Of course it is! The Reynold Knights are the Empire’s finest, after all.”
“More so than the Imperial Knights?”
Her hopes shattered.
Ethan winked conspiratorially, then spoke with unmistakable pride: technically a secret, but excepting the Divine Power of the royal family itself, no force in the Empire could match the Ebony Knights of the Duke’s house.
“Hmm. But if there’s danger of war—”
“We’ll protect the Duchess no matter what befalls us. Rest assured.”
Faced with such unflinching confidence, Ivanna could only nod reluctantly.
Her thoughts turned to the Duke.
When she first saw him, she’d thought him nothing but cold and distant.
Certainly that had been her impression before the apology.
After that formal apology in the Garden, her assessment of him had shifted.
He was indeed cold and distant, yet he possessed the capacity to acknowledge his wrongs.
Still, the thought of meeting the Duke again and voicing her reluctance to journey to the territory held no appeal.
“Quiet obedience” surely meant complying with his wishes as well.
“I’ll trust in your skill. Besides, what could possibly go wrong within the Empire itself?”
* * *
Everything goes wrong.
Ivanna vowed then and there to cure herself of hasty judgments.
Of course, nothing had gone wrong within the Empire.
“You’re truly going to share a carriage with me?”
She asked the Duke in the smallest of voices.
Her plan to rest comfortably in the carriage had just been demolished.
She hadn’t imagined the Duke would actually ride in the same carriage with her.
“Is there a problem?”
A great many, her mind screamed—but Ivanna managed only to shake her head.
Anthony and Sola had already seen to the luggage.
When she found them, they were already standing near the servants’ carriage, watching her with deeply amused eyes.
She wanted to cry out for help, to beg for rescue—but there was no one left who could save her now.
“Board.”
She’d deliberately worn comfortable traveling clothes, hoping for a proper journey. Ivanna forced her lips upward into a smile.
He offered his hand for an escort; at his questioning look, she had no choice but to take it.
Click.
The carriage door closed, and as they settled into their seats, he spoke.
“Forgive the inconvenience, but the Duchy tends to be rather sensitive about such matters.”
Such matters?
Ivanna’s head tilted at his phrasing.
“It’s a staid place. The disparities there run deeper than even in the Capital’s Duchy.”
From the reluctance in his eyes and the weight of his words, she grasped his meaning.
“We’ll need to appear intimate, at least outwardly.”
“Precisely.”
It was unexpected.
‘Obedient’ she’d thought meant playing ignorant to everything—but this man was far more attentive to her circumstances than she’d realized.
Not merely indifferent, then.
Ivanna bit back the question forming on her tongue: what exactly did his “obedience” mean? Such a conversation was not one they could have.
She was in a position where gratitude was owed when the Duke took care of her.
“Thank you.”
“It’s only natural. Please bear with any discomfort until we reach the Duchy.”
His tone was formal.
Was this too a consequence of her becoming his wife?
She shouldn’t give her affection so easily. After all, she was nothing more than a wife bound by contract.
Ivanna thought the Duke had finished speaking and turned her gaze toward the window.
Riding in a carriage with someone other than Anthony and Sola was a first since the Day of Authority.
Though anxious, he’d said they would use the Movement Teleportation Circle to reach the territory at the Duchy’s entrance, so the journey should be brief.
‘There’s no need to worry ahead of time.’
She would have to spend a month with the Duke, but as long as she held her tongue and sat quietly, it would be manageable.
That was what she did best.
Ivanna gazed at the passing scenery and fervently prayed that this schedule would pass without incident.
* * *
“Lady Ivanna. I’m afraid we’ll need to wait a bit longer.”
Ivanna nodded, seeing the difficulty etched across Ethan’s face.
It hadn’t been like this from the start. At the first territory they visited, the baron had received them grandly.
Though somewhat intimidated by the Duke, he’d boasted that their territory’s water supply remained steady.
Indeed, he had faithfully followed the Duke’s orders—collecting water in the Reservoir and managing it carefully, distributing fresh water through Purification Magic on a regular basis.
He said that when it rained, each household was made to gather rainwater for their use.
So when Ivanna observed him presenting his achievements with pride, she could find some reassurance in his boasting.
But the problem began after that.
“Is water scarce here too?”
“Yes…”
The same answer as the last village. Seeing Ethan lower his head, Ivanna swallowed a sigh.
Only the territories nearest the Capital remained intact; as they drew closer to the South where the Duchy lay, the drought intensified.
In several territories, the water had run so dry that even the rice paddies lay cracked and withered.
‘If I call down rain right now, they might sense my Divine Power.’
Ivanna stared out of the carriage with a helpless expression.
She could see Cedric conversing with the village administrator.
“Cannot we locate any blocked wells or groundwater?”
“The drought has persisted so long that even when they dig, no water rises from the earth, or so they say.”
Since Ethan was relaying the Duke’s words, it was unlikely to be a lie.
A weary sigh escaped her.
Ivanna told Ethan not to mind her and to go assist the Duke, then sent him away.
Sharing the carriage with the Duke proved uncomplicated.
He showed no interest in her whatsoever. During the entire journey, he was occupied processing documents he’d brought along.
Such diligence, working even in a carriage—she couldn’t so much as breathe audibly, yet Ivanna found herself stealing glances at him as he worked.
She was curious about how someone educated differently from childhood managed his affairs.
‘Will he sleep elsewhere tonight?’
Ivanna watched the Duke issuing instructions to people left and right.
The greatest problem of the itinerary lay in the bedchamber. After arriving at the Duchy, they were made to share a room.
On the first night of travel, Ivanna was startled to find only one bed in the room.
“Why is there only one bed?”
“In the South, that’s how it’s always been.”
The Duke answered without hesitation, and Ivanna had no choice but to perch precariously at the edge of the bed.
Meanwhile, he lay down beside her without the slightest concern and closed his eyes.
Ivanna couldn’t fall asleep for a long time that night.
The Duke had been right.
“Ugh.”
A heavy sigh escaped Ivanna’s lips.
It seemed only she was aware of him in that way.
Ivanna had not forgotten what she needed to protect. Their being together was because of the Contract—there was no love, no genuine concern.
She existed merely as a link in the chain of the Contract exchanged between the Imperial Family and the Duchy.
“But the people are suffering so much.”
She shouldn’t meddle where she didn’t belong. The hollow eyes of children who couldn’t eat properly stayed with her.
Once, the South had been a prosperous land embracing wide plains and the sea. Yet it was the South too that had suffered the worst from the drought.
Seeing children who were nothing but skin and bone, Ivanna bit her lip hard.
How much longer could she keep this hidden?
She only wanted to escape her own fate, but it felt as though it were accusing her of doing something wrong.
‘I am not a saint who gives everything to those who abandoned me.’
Ivanna bit her lip hard, her eyes fixed on the cloudless sky overhead.
If the Duke couldn’t find a way out, then she would make her move in secret.
Watching the people carry the Water Bucket that had been brought from the Capital, Ivanna drew the curtain across the window.

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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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