The Munchkin Princess Wants to Run Away - Chapter 3

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

“Do as the Duke wishes. I have no particular desires of my own.”
“Truly? I may do as I please?”
“Wasn’t it you who told me to expect nothing from you?”
Had she made a mistake?
Something probing hung in the air, but without information, she couldn’t even begin to guess what lay beneath it—and that ignorance gnawed at her.
Ivanna forced her jaw to relax.
‘He doesn’t know.’
Cedric watched the Princess sip her tea with feigned composure before him, and certainty crystallized within him.
Her eyes moved with keen alertness, searching his face for something unspoken.
Cedric took a single sip of the tea the maid had brought and set it down untouched.
Marriage bound house to house, threading power and meaning through every thread, every ornament. A Ceremonial Robe was never merely cloth.
It was drenched in the Imperial Family’s sigils and colors.
And the very person meant to wear it knew nothing of the matter.
“If you desire a Ceremonial Robe embroidered with gold thread and the Imperial Family’s insignia, I shall see it done.”
Only then did he meet her startled sky-blue eyes, and a peculiar satisfaction kindled in his gaze.
The Princess truly had been ignorant of this fact.
“It seems there’s been some misunderstanding.”
“A misunderstanding?”
The situation was far graver than she had anticipated.
Ivanna replied with measured calm, but her heart hammered against her ribs as she watched the cool tilt of Cedric’s lips.
‘Using me right to the end, then.’
Even as she departed, the Imperial Family dealt her nothing but disappointment and wounds.
Yet there was no time for self-pity.
Ivanna needed to make clear to the Duke that this was not her failure—she would be living in his household from now on.
Now it was she who had to prove herself worthy.
“Did you see the Empress directly?”
“Yes.”
The absolute certainty of his reply made Ivanna bite down hard on her lip.
It hollowed her out.
She herself had to submit formal requests for an audience, then wait endlessly for the Empress’s pleasure—yet he had seen her at once, as though it cost nothing.
She had thought herself hardened to pain, but her chest tightened with a fresh ache.
“What did she say to do?”
The Princess’s voice wavered almost imperceptibly. Cedric detected the fracture in her composure.
But that was not his concern.
“She said her body is weak, she lacks worldly experience, and asks that you understand her inexperience.”
At his words, Ivanna’s eyes hardened with force.
That day had been the same.
When she’d asked why he could see nothing, the sharp sting of her hand being thrust away remained vivid in her memory.
“This won’t happen again. Please alter the garments according to your wishes.”
She checked herself—whether her voice trembled, whether tears would fall.
Ivanna held herself rigid, suppressing every sign of weakness before him.
He was a party to a contract, not someone bound to understand her.
The need to apologize endlessly to someone was a pattern that had only deepened since the Day of Awakening.
It was unjust and bitter, yet to them she would always be guilty. And so Ivanna had no choice but to accept what was demanded of her.
“Since neither of us foresaw such complications in the wedding preparations, let us consider it a matter in which no blame attaches to either side.”
At the Duke’s cold drawing of the line, Ivanna forced the corners of her mouth upward.
“I’ll be careful not to bring shame upon the Duke’s household.”
“As I have said before, I desire nothing beyond what is specified in the Contract.”
The Duke offered a formal bow and departed the Reception Room.
The moment the door closed, Ivanna’s carefully maintained composure shattered, and she bit her lip until it nearly bled.
He seemed to harbor no expectation of her whatsoever. And why should he, when such complications arose even before they were wed?
Ivanna’s chest burned with a quiet ache.
She would spend her whole life—or at minimum, decades according to the Contract—alongside this man.
She had harbored even a fragile hope of maintaining courteous dignity as his wife, if not warmth. That hope lay in ruins.
“Really! What kind of person is he? What on earth did Your Highness do?”
Anthony, who had been attending so quietly as to be nearly invisible, burst forth with indignation.
Ivanna quickly drew up her Divine Power and engulfed the Reception Room in water.
“Oh! I’m sorry. The Duke didn’t hear that, did he?”
“Anthony, the Duke is blameless. Mother was simply verifying my usefulness one last time.”
“It won’t be easy for the Duke’s house either.”
At Anthony’s words, Ivanna smiled thinly.
“Still, he won’t treat me with contempt. The Emperor must have promised him something considerable in exchange.”
Even a daughter who’d missed her marriage prospects remained of Imperial blood, so they would have exchanged everything each desired.
That’s why the Duke accepted the marriage without protest.
In exchange, they wouldn’t have to witness the Princess making a spectacle of herself in the Duke’s house—so they’d drawn up a contract instead. It amounted to an order to vanish quietly.
“Anthony, go find out how the ceremonial robe turned out.”
Ivanna, recovering herself, commanded Anthony to gather intelligence. Even if the matter was settled, she needed to understand the situation.
Anthony was on good terms with the handmaidens from other palaces and regularly brought back information.
“I’ll be right back. Ugh—I made this tea with so much effort, and he barely touched a drop of it!”
Anthony cursed the Duke even as she pulled the tray out of the room.
“Are you all right?”
Once Anthony left, Sola, who had been quietly observing the situation, spoke up.
His normally expressionless face carried an unusual gravity.
“Princess, do you truly intend to go through with this marriage?”
“What else—spend the rest of my life fleeing? I’m no criminal.”
Ivanna shook her head firmly.
“I have no wish to become a propaganda tool for the Imperial Family. I will never divorce him.”
Just as they had abandoned her, she would abandon them. Ivanna gripped the teacup tightly.
There is no God.
Or rather, there is one—but He was not on her side. If He meant to grant her Divine Power, He should have given it to Ivanna when she was ten years old. Then she would not have been abandoned by her family.
But neither God nor family had stood by her.
Ivanna Snow Windsor, who possessed no Divine Power, was useless to the Imperial Family.
Seventeen years old.
On her coming-of-age day, celebrated modestly with only Sola and Anthony, Divine Power had manifested before her eyes.
“You must tell them you’ve awakened your power immediately!”
Anthony cried out in joy, but Ivanna had to shake her head.
She couldn’t trust a Divine Power granted so late. What was this, really? She wasn’t about to simply use it.
And she had no desire to help the family that had cast her aside.
She’d fled the Imperial Capital using her power out of sheer desperation to survive, but even now an unease clung to her.
“I agree with what you say, Princess, but living alongside Duke Cedric may cause you even greater pain.”
“Don’t worry. I won’t harbor any expectations of him.”
At her firm response, Sola could only nod in resignation.
“In that case, I’ll make preparations through the Merchant Guild. If need be, we can arrange for you to disappear.”
The Merchant Guild that Sola spoke of was something they’d built after she received her power and left the Imperial Capital.
For the first time—or rather, after a very, very long time—something that belonged only to her.
She didn’t want the Imperial Family to learn of the Guild’s existence either. She wouldn’t let anyone take what she treasured.
“I’ll leave that to you. My power won’t be discovered.”
As she let out a soft sigh, Sola offered a sympathetic smile.
Ivanna said nothing more upon seeing it.
If she lived quietly as she was now, the Duke’s house would have no real cause for complaint.
He’d told her to stay quiet, so he wouldn’t come looking for trouble on purpose.
Ivanna waited for the information Anthony would bring, gazing quietly out the window.
At that same moment, Cedric was leaving the Princess’s Palace with a slight furrow in his brow.
‘Worse than I expected.’
The building was far too dilapidated.
The bride-to-be couldn’t even choose her own ceremonial robe.
Though he’d anticipated some of it, there was something decidedly strange about how the Princess was treated with such contempt within the Imperial Family.
“Is something the matter, sir?”
“Is there a problem?”
Cedric paused at Marcel’s question, who’d followed behind him.
“The Princess seems to understand nothing of this situation. What if she causes a scene at the wedding?”
“That won’t happen.”
Cedric shook his head decisively. She was a woman who didn’t even know what was happening to her.
“One cannot judge by appearance alone, sir.”
Marcel spoke, recalling the Princess’s delicate features.
“Never mind—have him redesign the ceremonial robe to suit her properly.”
“What? Me, sir?”
Marcel asked in surprise.
“Of course. Who else would my one and only aide do it but you?”
“Ha ha ha. Of course—as the one and only Duke’s aide, naturally I would. No, wait! The wedding arrangements should be your responsibility, sir!”
Marcel, who had been unable to hide his pride at the Duke’s words, suddenly snapped to attention.
Cedric let his aide’s protest pass in one ear and out the other. The Ceremonial Robe stripped of the Imperial Family’s insignia and adorned instead with the Raymond House crest and colors.
He found himself curious about how the Princess would look wearing that dress.
It was only the family crest being embroidered, after all.

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