Daughter of the Emperor

Volume 1

Chapter 3

My mother was a princess of a northern kingdom. She was commonly called Royal Princess Jereina, but that wasn’t her actual name. Her real name was said to sound more northern with harder sounds.

However, that name had been erased when her father sold her off to this palace in order to protect his kingdom. When she was brought over, she was given a name in the style of the Agrigent Empire: Jereina. And so she became Royal Princess Jereina.

“Ariadna is too long a name.”

Elene was feeling anguished by my name for no reason at all this morning. I looked away from her as I sucked fervidly on the bottle in my mouth.

“Would it be better to call her ‘Ria’ or ‘Ana’ for short?”

They’re both weird. I put on a very disapproving look to express my disagreement, but it was useless. I was a baby after all. My opinion was disregarded simply because of the fact that I was young. The world is unfair!

“Let’s do ‘Ria.’”

Sure. Ria does sound better than Ana, I suppose.

But I still hate both! I cried out in disapproval in my mind as I continued to diligently suck on my bottle. Ah, I can’t believe this tastes so good. It’s over for me! I’m the babiest baby that ever babied.

“Oh, Princess Ria~”

The nanny picked me up after I finished eating to help me burp. Meanwhile, Elene couldn’t wait a second to poke her head in and try out my new nickname. I scowled as soon as I saw Elene’s face. You. I don’t like you.

“She doesn’t like it, Elene.”

Ah, you are my Superman, Serira. You are a magician who can read my mind. You are like my mother. I have no one but you, Serira!

I showed some affection by rubbing my cheeks on her as I clung to her chest. Meanwhile, Elene looked shocked. She puffed out her cheeks and grumbled like a child.

Elene, with her much bigger body and, more importantly, the ability to talk, started to whine. “Her Highness hates me!”

I don’t hate you. You’re just annoying.

Serira gave her a stern look. Elene shut her mouth immediately at the cold expression, then sat down with a sullen look on her face. Now that I think about it, I’m a princess, but I only have one maid? Her? It seemed my circumstances were pitiful in their own right. Although the thought that I might have more people to be annoyed about made me think that this might actually be better.

“But, it’s fascinating how she doesn’t cry in front of His Majesty. She doesn’t cry much as it is, but still.”

“Her Highness recognizes him, even at such a young age.”

I felt both of their gazes on me. I let out a big burp and gave them a nice big smile. It was all very instinctual.

“She knows he is her father.”

Uhh, I mean, I do know, but it isn’t because of my instincts. It didn’t sit well with me that I was being seen as some genius baby who instinctively recognized her father. We can’t be having that kind of misunderstanding!

Nanny had a completely different interpretation of my whining, however, and suddenly became worried. “What’s the matter, Princess? Are you not feeling well?”

Sigh. Never mind. It’s nothing. I’ll just take care of this on my own.

Still, Nanny proceeded to check my diaper and other things to make sure I was all right. I could tell by her delicate and caring touch that she had experience raising a child. It was evident she wasn’t an amateur mother.

“Wow.”

I landed comfortably back in Nanny’s arms and sucked on my binky. This binky here is the very symbol of babies. At first, I’d wondered why such a thing was ever needed in the first place, but it was nice to have it in my mouth to keep it busy.

“She really doesn’t look anything like the Royal Princess.”

Nanny’s face darkened upon Elene’s words. Looking at their serious expressions made me want to suck on my binky more for some reason. Why the long faces? Both of you?

“She doesn’t have Her Ladyship’s bright, blonde hair or green eyes. Or any of her other features for that matter…”

“No one would know unless someone told them.”

“I agree.”

Ah, my appearance. I’ve only been alive for a few weeks now. I don’t know why they’re making such a fuss about who I resemble and who I don’t. Although, I’d probably be doing the same thing if I were looking at a baby.

But watching this happen from a baby’s point of view? It all felt really dumb.

“Why do you think the Royal Princess would have said such a thing?”

Elene looked conflicted. Are her spirits down because I keep rejecting her? I didn’t think she would be easily offended, given her strong personality.

I was contemplating whether I should start playing along with her despite how annoying she was when I began to get tired again. As I closed my eyes, I heard the nanny’s voice from above. It sounded mixed with a sigh. “How could we ever know what she meant?”

The topics of conversation between these two were always similar. It was either about me or about my mother and father. I had been hearing them talk tirelessly for the past week, so I was quick to catch on to what they were talking about.

Caitel, The Crazed Emperor, had killed every woman who had ever born his child. Of course, in some way, it was the women who had brought it on themselves because they were trying to get something from the emperor through their unborn child, but in any case, he was the one who’d murdered them all.

There were some among them who tried to hide their children until they were born. But Caitel soon caught on and ended up cutting their stomachs open while they were alive.

Anyway, he was a crazy bastard not worth associating with.

I’d shuddered when I first heard it all. How could he be so quick and careless to get rid of his own children? Soon thereafter, I became deeply troubled about my own life. So for me, it all came down to this: if you’re going to kill me, kill me without pain.

Yeah, I know. It’s pathetic.

“I just hope…” Nanny stroked my cheek with a solemn look on her face. I smiled at her, and a soft smile quickly appeared on her lips. “…that His Majesty has an ounce of warmth in him to love this child.”

“Warmth”…

Sounds pretty impossible. There is no such thing within him. He was the kind of man who killed women who bore his children without an ounce of hesitation, courtesy of his icy temperament and nature. It would be better to pray to the heavens during a drought for some rain rather than look for an ounce of love in that man.

He was a cold-blooded creature who didn’t care about his parents or siblings. As if killing his own father to seize the throne weren’t enough, he’d sold all his sisters to foreign countries and gathered all his brothers in one room to slaughter them.

To say I was shocked when I heard it is an understatement. But apparently, that wasn’t enough, for he started a war to kill his sisters in the end. He’d swept through the battlefields like a strong wind, causing the whole continent to be ravaged by war.

If I were to summarize all this in one sentence for a member of the busy, modern-day society, he was a rotten bastard reminiscent of Hitler.

So killing his own child was nothing for a guy like him. But still, there were people who claimed that he would still be different toward his own child. Even a hedgehog loves its own babies after all. But after hearing that the emperor had beheaded the woman who had his child, such talk stopped immediately. Goodbye.

“In any case, I firmly believe both the Royal Princess and His Imperial Majesty are extraordinary people.”

Having protected me from such a man, it seemed my mother was recognized as quite an impressive woman throughout the palace. After getting pregnant with me after just one night, as soon as my mother found out she was having me, she’d sequestered herself in Echelon. It was practically solitary confinement.

I grew in her fragile body while she lived in the most remote corner of the entire Imperial Palace. She was only found out a month before she had me. The emperor naturally sought to kill her.

Actually, I didn’t know exactly how it happened. I only knew that the Royal Princess had survived, but died giving birth. And during that time, the emperor had gone off to conquer Izarta.

I looked up blankly at Serira. She was smiling softly at me. I didn’t know how many months it had been since I entered this body, but she made up the majority of my memories from my time there so far. What a curious feeling.

If I could have chosen my own mother, it would be Serira who stood before my eyes now, not the Royal Princess they continued to talk about.

“Ah, but have you heard the rumors, Lady Serira?”

“Hm?”

“That His Majesty is cursed?”

“Ah.”

Serira’s face darkened. I glared at Elene right away. How dare you? That’s my nanny! Elene became dispirited again. Ah, I was going to be nicer to her, but I ended up glaring at her again. I felt a bit bad. She was obsessed with me after all.

Serira put me back in the cradle. It seemed it was time to sleep.

“It’s not a curse.”

Serira looked glum as she looked down at me. She was probably reminiscing.

“If I had to give it a name…”

She held my little hand tight with hers. The obvious size difference was regrettable. I gripped her pinky tightly.

“I would call it a ‘scream.’”

A scream…

A certain memory came to mind. As the memory came up to the surface, like a flopping fish caught in a net, a voice from the memory emerged with it. It was a deep and desperate voice, a voice of a person filled with han (“han” is a Korean term used to describe the blend of grief, injustice, resentment, and anger born from suffering and hardship.).

“I loathe you, Emperor. My body and blood shall never forgive you. If I am to die, the child who has my blood will curse you in my stead.” I mumbled to myself with my eyes closed.

That’s a lot of responsibility to put on a kid.

***

After our first meeting, which I thought was quite terrifying, the emperor surprisingly came to visit me often.

It was cumbersome if anything for me, but Elene and Nanny seemed to be secretly elated by the fact. I mean, not that I didn’t know the reason why. To be honest, I may have been a princess, but technically, I was born out of wedlock, so it made my position a bit ambiguous.

Even if some scoundrels would insist, “She is not a princess because of this! Or that!” the sad truth was that I had no legitimacy to shut those annoying mouths for good.

In all honesty, I did like the fact that my father came to see his daughter every now and then. Search high and low, and there may be nothing father-like about him, but he does have killer good looks.

At least he’s a treat for the eyes. And he wouldn’t actually kill his daughter, would he?

“You’re not sleeping.”

Ah, right. My bad. I misjudged you for a second. You are the kind of guy who would kill his daughter.

Right when I looked up, I met Caitel’s eyes. I had no idea when he’d gotten there. I’m just ridden with back luck, aren’t I?

I wasn’t as nervous now that I had looked into his eyes a handful of times, but I couldn’t help that my heart naturally started pounding in my chest whenever I met his gaze. It was just a difference in intensity from before.

Ah, I’d rather it be hard to breathe because he’s so handsome. I can’t believe my heart is pounding right now because I feel like I might die. What’s with that, huh, God?

It didn’t seem like he was looking down at me with a murderous gaze, necessarily, but the fact that those were just his natural eyes… Hm, well it was scary. Yeah, I’m scared, all right?!

“Is it because I’m here?”

Believe whatever you want, man.

He smiled at me. I turned away with a rotten look on my face and continued to suck on my binky. I had heard over and over again that breastfeeding was good for a baby’s growth, but seeing as my mother was dead, there was no way for me to get breast milk.

Wait. Or is all the milk I’ve been drinking breast milk? No, it can’t be. It’s too yummy for it to be.

Or, are they using a really good formula?

“Nn-gah!”

Just when I was about to drift off into my own thoughts, my binky suddenly disappeared from my mouth. I flapped around, not knowing what had happened, and then looked up to the sky toward where my binky had disappeared. Oh, what?!

“Want it?”

Dear God, is what I’m feeling right now murderous intent? How dare a father steal his daughter’s binky?!

I looked up at him, enraged. Not that my plump babe cheeks would pose any threat, but I was doing my best. He was giving me a detestable smile as he held my binky up in the air.

Ugh, I hate you!

This was exactly the problem. I liked the fact that he came to see me often and that he was good-looking. That was all cool, but… The problem was that he thought of me not as his daughter, but as a toy to play with when he was bored.

You damn bastard!

“Your eyes are so red, I’m almost offended.”

Uh, I got them from you? You detestable red-eyed monster.

“Too red.”

Yeah, and whose fault is that?!

“I want to pluck them out.”

My jaw dropped in shock, and he let out a hearty laugh. That gleaming smile on that beautiful face of his was refreshing to the eyes, but I didn’t find it all that attractive.

There’s a devil in there.

After laughing like that, he stuck the binky back in my mouth. The gesture looked so intentional and serious that I thought he was going to cut me with that binky.

My bad, I misread that.

“You’re so small.”

Yeah, that’s really something deep and poignant to say about a baby that isn’t even two months old. I sucked on my binky with pouted lips. Our eyes met again.

Go ahead. Look at me. I already know the things you’re going to say to me. The things he said while he watched at me were always the same. Emotions, evaluations, and impressions.

Am I some sort of material object to you?

I’d come to treat all his words as nonsense at that point. Namu Amida Butsu, please free me from this crazy lunatic. I guess I’m the idiot for having listened so intently to everything he was saying to me.

“So very small.”

Still, there were a few things I’d learned thanks to his diligent visits. They were things I couldn’t have found out from Elene or Serira’s chatter, so I found these new discoveries fascinating and fun.

“Hmm.”

The first was that this jerk had a more rational mind for a psychopath than I’d expected. He even had morals and ethics.

The only problem was that he had no intention of keeping them. At first, people called him a maniac as a joke or as slang, but it was a little different than what had manifested.

Not that it changed the fact that he was a maniac, but he didn’t do things like shower in blood like Elizabeth Báthory (a 16th-century countess from Transylvania who captured girls and bathed in their blood to maintain her beauty) or Vlad III of Romania (the Duke of Wallachia and second prince of Romania who impaled his captives like skewers.)

It was a good thing that Caitel wasn’t as perverted a maniac as those people, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t a maniac at all…

Maybe just more psychopath-esque?

Agh, I don’t know how I would define him.

“Cry.”