Chapter 146
“Aurora. You don't happen to like that young man, do you?”
The feelings Aurora had never revealed to anyone.
The feelings she had quietly kept to herself.
That was the moment the Empress put them into words.
“……!”
Aurora reflexively lowered her head, as if trying to hide her expression for fear that her true feelings would be discovered.
But she couldn't hide her ears, which had turned bright red. That alone must have been answer enough.
“Aurora.”
But the Empress had no intention of letting a guess suffice.
She stared intently at Aurora, as if determined to hear her daughter's feelings directly from her own lips.
Unable to withstand that gaze, Aurora reluctantly opened her mouth. Her voice was tiny.
“Yes……”
“Hmm.”
The Empress let out a thoughtful hum.
Aurora kept her head bowed deeply, fidgeting only with her fingers.
She had often gotten in trouble and been scolded since childhood, but nothing like this had ever happened before.
She had absolutely no idea what the Empress was going to say.
“When did you start liking him?”
“At the imperial banquet during Aether's coming-of-age ceremony……”
“What?”
The Empress was uncharacteristically startled by the answer, which was far beyond anything she had expected.
She couldn't remember the last time she had been this surprised. Perhaps it was the first time in her life.
“Aether's coming-of-age ceremony was quite some time ago. Had you already met him back then?”
“N-no. I only went to watch him from afar because I'd heard he was a famous slave knight……”
“Was that the first time? You hadn't even spoken to him?”
Nod, nod.
Aurora shyly nodded.
The Empress was speechless for a moment.
She had naturally assumed Aurora had developed feelings for Leon after making him her slave and living with him.
But apparently not.
Aurora had fallen in love at first sight with a slave she hadn't even exchanged a word with.
‘What kind of novel-like situation is this…….’
Was it because she had read too many romance novels? Had reality itself turned into a novel as a result?
The Empress struggled to find a reasonably rational explanation.
The truth was a little different.
Even Aurora herself didn't know exactly when she had started liking Leon.
She had certainly felt favorably toward him from their first meeting, but that had been nothing more than an extension of her curiosity.
She had come to like Leon afterward. She had only realized that feeling recently.
In other words, even Aurora couldn't say exactly when she had begun to like Leon.
If so, perhaps it didn't matter if she chose the timing herself.
After all, her feelings were the same either way.
Then she would say it had been love at first sight. It was far more romantic, and much more like a romance novel.
That was the vague story hidden behind her answer.
If the Empress had heard it, she would have squeezed her eyes shut, but fortunately, she had no way of knowing.
“……”
The Empress closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again.
Whether it had been love at first sight or something she had realized later, that wasn't what mattered right now.
“Does he know about this?”
“Pardon?”
“Does that boy know that you have feelings for him?”
“Ah…… I suppose he probably doesn't?”
Aurora, of all people, having an unrequited love.
The Empress couldn't decide whether to consider it fortunate or resent the boy for not knowing her daughter's feelings.
A conflict arose within the Empress, but it lasted only a moment.
She did not forget what she needed to do.
“Aurora. As you know, at your age, it wouldn't be strange for you to have a fiancé. No, it would be stranger not to have one.”
Aurora was the imperial princess.
That title alone gave her an overwhelming position in society, even without any other connections.
In aristocratic society, where marriage was used to connect bloodlines and power, this was even more obvious.
Countless marriage proposals came not only from high-ranking noble families, but also from royalty and grand nobles of other countries.
Even so, there was only one reason Aurora still wasn't engaged.
“Because you don't want one. We know what kind of girl you are.”
Aurora loved romance novels dearly.
Ever since she was young, she had dreamed of the sort of fated connection that belonged in a novel.
But novels were only novels.
The chances of that dream coming true in reality were vanishingly small. The kind of meeting Aurora wanted probably didn't exist.
Even knowing that, the emperor and empress had quietly waited for her.
They knew that forcing Aurora to accept their reasoning would only hurt her.
They intended to wait until she sorted out her own feelings.
Until she emerged from her novels and faced reality.
That was how much they cherished their daughter.
But……
“Just because we cherish you doesn't mean we can permit you to do anything you want.”
The Empress's voice grew a little more solemn.
“I have no intention of blaming you for whoever you choose to love, or for the feelings themselves. A person's heart doesn't appear because it is commanded to, nor does it disappear because it is forbidden.”
“……”
“I understand why you dream of a romance-novel kind of connection. Love that transcends differences in status, a fated attraction, a story of two people who remain together after overcoming the world's opposition. I know those things are beautiful, too.”
The Empress paused.
She looked straight at Aurora, who couldn't meet her eyes.
“But reality has its limits. You are an imperial princess, and that boy is a slave. You mustn't forget that.”
“……”
It wasn't that Aurora didn't know this.
It was precisely why she had realized her feelings for Leon so late.
An imperial princess developing romantic feelings for a slave simply made no sense.
The world would never allow it.
It was a love that could never be fulfilled, and one that would only end in heartbreak.
Having subconsciously realized that, Aurora had desperately tried to ignore her own feelings.
“But……”
And yet those feelings had blossomed despite knowing all that. They were emotions in full bloom.
Aurora couldn't bring herself to kill them.
“But Leon isn't an ordinary slave.”
“I'm not looking down on Leon himself. I know how much help he has been to you. And I understand why you consider him special.”
“Then……”
“No matter how capable he is, a slave is still a slave. Until that changes, I can never permit it.”
At the Empress's flat dismissal, which left not even a sliver of room for hope, Aurora's shoulders drooped.
“……Does Father know?”
“No. For now, I'm the only one who knows. If His Majesty finds out, he won't sit idly by.”
That was only natural.
If Kaisel found out, he would disregard the promise and everything else and take Leon away from Aurora.
“……”
Aurora couldn't say anything. Everything the Empress had said was right.
Even so.
Even so.
‘Isn't there any way……?’
As Aurora pondered, the Empress's words from a moment ago flashed through her mind.
No matter how capable he is, a slave is still a slave.
Until that changes, I can never permit it.
Then……
What if that changed?
What if Leon were no longer a slave?
“Mom.”
Aurora cautiously raised her head.
“What is it?”
“Just now…… you said you couldn't permit it while he was a slave, right?”
“I did.”
“Then……”
Gulp.
Aurora swallowed nervously.
“What if Leon were no longer a slave?”
The Empress's eyes shifted faintly.
“Father made a promise to Leon before. He said he would emancipate him if he earned merit.”
“And?”
“If Leon were emancipated, he wouldn't be a slave anymore, and then his status wouldn't be a problem, right?”
Aurora's voice was more excited than before, as if she had solved a riddle.
She looked at the Empress as if to say, Isn't this the answer?
“Hmm, who knows?”
The Empress merely gave a faint smile.
Aurora's excited expression sank again.
“Why? Would it still not be all right……?”
“Even if he became a freeman, wouldn't it be difficult for him to stand beside an imperial princess right away?”
“Then what? What else would he need?”
“Wouldn't it be better if he had a title?”
“That certainly……”
Aurora was not merely a noblewoman.
She was an imperial princess.
Aurora herself didn't care, but the people of the world did.
A commoner would hardly be acceptable as an imperial princess's partner.
In other words, Leon needed to receive a title.
That, too, was far from easy, but Aurora was confident that Leon could accomplish it.
“And there's one more thing.”
“There's more?”
“The higher one's position, the more complications come with it.”
“Um…… What kind?”
“His feelings.”
“……?”
Perhaps she didn't understand from those words alone, because Aurora tilted her head.
The Empress looked directly into Aurora's eyes and continued.
“Even if that boy escaped slavery, earned merit, and received a title, that wouldn't give him a reason to stand beside you.”
“……”
“It would only mean that Leon had earned the qualifications to stand beside an imperial princess. It wouldn't mean that he had chosen to stand beside you.”
Aurora pressed her lips tightly together.
Leon wanted emancipation.
He wanted freedom.
The freedom to live according to his own will, rather than as someone else's property.
Aurora wasn't certain that she would be waiting for him at the end of that road.
“So, Aurora.”
The Empress spoke gently.
“If you truly like that boy, you must wait until Leon is free and can choose to remain by your side.”
“Wait……”
“Yes.”
The Empress nodded.
“Not because you held on to him, not because you are an imperial princess, and not because you were his master.”
The Empress paused, then quietly added,
“Until Leon himself says that he wants to stand beside you.”
Emancipation.
Merit.
A title.
And Leon's feelings.
Perhaps the last condition would be the most difficult of all.
It was the one thing she could neither command nor ask for.
“What if he says he doesn't want to……?”
“Then it can't be helped. Rejecting your feelings is also his freedom.”
“……”
“If you truly see him as a person, then you must respect his answer even if it isn't the one you hoped for.”
Once again, the Empress was right.
Aurora knew that, too.
But her heart couldn't follow so easily.
Leon leaving her side.
Leon becoming a free man and choosing a path other than hers.
“Then…… I think I'd be so sad.”
Even imagining it made her feel as if a hole had been punched through the center of her chest.
The Empress gently took Aurora's hand in hers.
“You would be sad. You might cry a lot and suffer for a long time. Especially if this is the first feeling you've ever held in your heart.”
“……”
“But Aurora, you mustn't hold on to that boy because of your pain.”
Aurora's shoulders trembled faintly.
“You mustn't make him hide his feelings because he is afraid you'll cry or be hurt. That would no longer be love; it would be using his guilt against him.”
“I wouldn't do that……”
Aurora answered petulantly.
“I know.”
The Empress gazed at her with gentle warmth and stroked the back of her hand.
***
After sharing a private conversation with Aurora, the Empress left the empress's palace.
Leon, who had stepped aside, was sitting in the garden and playing with a stray cat.
When he made eye contact with the Empress, he hurriedly stood up.
“Your Majesty.”
Leon bowed politely.
The cat kept tapping at Leon's leg, but he did his best to ignore it.
“Are you on your way back?”
“Yes. We've discussed everything I wanted to.”
“I see.”
Leon had noticed that the conversation must have been a serious one.
But he didn't ask.
It had been a conversation between the Empress and the imperial princess. It wasn't his place to pry.
He merely waited for the Empress to leave.
The Empress stared at Leon for a moment, then started walking—not away from him, but toward him.
And then……
“Hup.”
Poke.
She poked Leon in the side with her fingertip.
“……?”
Leon stared at her, his eyes widening.
Whether he understood or not, the Empress kept poking him in the side.
“Your Majesty? This is……”
The Empress smiled.
“It's punishment.”
“Punishment……?”
“Yes. Punishment.”
“Uh…… If you don't mind my asking, could you tell me what offense I committed? I'll make sure to correct it.”
There were, in fact, quite a lot.
The crime of stealing Aurora's heart.
The crime of making her daughter suffer alone.
And the crime of placidly petting a cat while wearing an expression that said he knew nothing at all.
But the Empress had no intention whatsoever of listing those charges to Leon.
This was a problem the two of them had to resolve themselves.
“It's a secret. Hehe.”
She simply smiled a playful smile that was the spitting image of someone else's.