The rooms inside the cave were cold, especially at night, but a certain boy was lying on the cold ground without minding it. He hummed through the silence of the night.
“Luke,” a man came near the entrance of his room.
“Hmmm?”
“A letter of invitation came from the palace.”
“And?”
“It’s time you check on the princess.”
“Can I kill her?” the boy stood up with excitement in his eyes.
“No, you can’t. We need her.”
Disappointment filled the young boy’s face as he sighed, “No fun.”
“You’ll have your fun soon, but for now all you need to do is to observe.”
The boy walked towards the man, “But I thought I was not allowed to be seen by the people?”
“Oh, you won’t be. You’ll be lurking in the shadows. I know you’re good at that.”
“Okay, fine. What do you want me to do?”
****
It was a long day, and as soon as the imperial grounds were once again open, people in the palace were busy with the preparations for my birthday. Merchants went in and out as Lucil and Emilia checked every item together with the maids. They’re pretty hands-on with this birthday banquet thing. I thought the servants do everything.
Right now, the designer had my sizes check as her assistant gave Lucil a catalog.
“I want this design for her as her main outfit for the banquet.” The assistant took notes as Lucil suggested other adjustments.
“The invitations have been sent to the respective nobles in the empire. Father told me not to invite anyone outside the empire since this is just a banquet, not a ball.” Emilia came in and sat down with an exhausted look on her face.
“Also, the preparations for her birthday are only two weeks. Two weeks! That’s not enough to prepare everything! That’s not enough for royalties from other kingdoms to prepare.” Emilia took a biscuit that was prepared by the maids beforehand.
“You looked quite exhausted, sister.” Lucil smiled at her as she put down the catalog.
“Of course I am! I was writing invitations for the last two days!”
Emilia then looked at me, “Right, Fae wants to play with her again. She’s becoming quite fond of her.”
“Flizeria? Do you want to go and play with Fae?” Lucil asked me.
Playing with Fae means babysitting her, again. That’s too troublesome, I’d rather hear the adults talk about what’s going on outside these imperial grounds than take care of a baby.
“Let her play with her! At least she’ll act like a baby for once.” Emilia spoke not waiting for my response.
She looked at Cecil, “Take her to Fae’s room.”
Cecil bowed down and carried me, “Let’s go princess.”
We left the room and Ser Wayne followed us.
“Ce”, I touched Cecil’s face.
“What is it, princess? Do you want to walk by yourself?”
I shook my head, “Twins?”
“The twins?”
I nodded. Instead of playing with Fae, I’d rather hang out with the twins. I’m not really fond of babies and maybe that’s because of how I was brought up in my life before.
“But they’re having their lessons.”
I stared at Cecil eye to eye.
“Awweee, why are you so cute? Okay fine, let’s go to where they are. Let’s ask if it’s okay for you to join the class.”
We walked to the library, “There are classrooms inside the library, I don’t really know which one they’re using but let’s find them.”
“I know where they are”, Ser Wayne is now walking beside us as he smiled at Cecil and I.
“Oh, okay. Thank you, Ser Wayne, please do lead the way.”
There were many people outside as we walked towards the library. Most of them are construction workers for the Caelum palace while others were merchants who are decorating the ballroom for the banquet.
Cecil looked around with a worried expression on her face.
“Are you okay, Miss Cecil?” Ser Wayne asked her.
“Y-yeah I’m fine. It’s just I’m a little anxious. Many people are walking inside the imperial grounds, and the explosion happened only a few days ago.”
“Don’t worry, the Emperor is wise, he knows what he’s doing.”
I also wondered why the Emperor chose to hold a banquet for me even though there was an explosion a few days ago. Was he not afraid something worse might happen? Or is it because he just doesn’t want to let the people think that he was afraid.
As we continued to walk we heard someone clear their throat from behind us. We turned around and saw Lord Earl and the Emperor.
Cecil curtsied as Ser Wayne bowed down immediately.
“We greet His Imperial Majesty.”
“Give me the princess and you two may leave.”
Cecil gave me to the emperor without lifting her head. She and Ser Wayne then went their way without asking any questions. But I saw them take one last look at me before they walked away completely.
“Lord Earl, you may also leave us.” Lord Earl bowed down and left.
The Emperor lifted me and scanned me from head to toe, “You look too weak for someone who has the imperial blood.”
What does he want from me? He has that regal look on his face as he looked me in the eye.
“I’m guessing you can already understand me.”
He then pulled me closer to his chest as he continue to walk around the imperial grounds.
“I never doubted you being part of the family, you know. Even before,” the emperor sighed.
“But I did what I thought was right back then. But now, it’s all different. Everything will be different now, Flizer, your father, did not die in vain.” He looked at me as if he believed that I can do anything. He’s showing too much faith in me.
“Let’s go to the princes’ class.”
Our walk was quiet, the emperor no longer spoke of anything after that. I became more curious about what he meant by everything will be different now. So what happened before? And what is happening now?
The emperor opened the door as the man, probably their teacher, stopped talking and calmly look at the emperor and smiled as he bowed. Nix and the twins also stood up and bowed down to the emperor.
“We greet His imperial majesty.”
“Hello Ronan, how are the children doing?”
“They are doing very well, your majesty.”
“Children, you may sit down. Ronan, please do continue your discussion.”
“Okay, thank you, your majesty.”
“Now, that you are all turning four this year, I assume that you are already knowledgeable with the four basic operations. Mathematics is essential, especially when you’re leading a duchy and perhaps will be leading the empire someday.”
“Let’s have a recap, what do you mean by addition?”
The princes’ backs were towards us so I can’t see what expressions they were wearing. Ronan waited for someone to raise their hands, but no one did.
“I guess, I’ll have to call someone then. Prince Ashwin, would you want to answer the question?”
Ashwin stood up and looked at the emperor then he looked at me.
“A ruler must not be shy. He must be confident and firm.” Ronan told Ashwin.
Ashwin took a deep breath, “It is when you add something to something else.”
“Okay, good. You may sit down. Prince Nix, would you like to explain further? Give me an example.”
Nix stood up, “For example, I have five swords and father would give me three more, I will now have eight swords in total.”
Nix answered with confidence as he looked at the emperor with a proud smile on his face.
The emperor nodded at him, acknowledging him.
Nix sat down with a big smile on his face.
The discussion continued as Ronan let them explain the other operations.
“Okay, now we’ll focus on addition and start by adding four-digit numbers to three-digit numbers.”
He wrote something on the board, “Eyes here, does anyone here knows how to answer this?”
He wrote 4567 plus 567.
He let them try answering it, one by one they wrote down their answers, but I saw the three of them scratching their heads as they proceeded to count with their fingers.
“Lord Ronan, how can you put a fourteen under the line?” Ashwin asked Ronan.
“Good question, that would be our lesson for today. I assume that no one can yet answer this since you were not yet taught how to do carry-over addition. Okay, let’s contin-“
“Wait, I believe the princess knows how to answer that.”
What?! I looked at him as he smiled at me proudly.
Ronan had his mouth open for a few seconds before he remembered that he was face to face with the emperor. He then put on a calm expression.
“Oh, the princess, your majesty?”
“Yes, her. I’ll carry her over to the board so that she can write the answer.”
Does the emperor know something more about me? Does he know that I’m not really a baby? That inside I’m already a sixteen-year-old girl.
“Go on, don’t be shy.”
He then covered my mouth and nose gently as he let me hold the chalk.
What should I do, should I act like I don’t know how to? Or should I answer this correctly?
I thought hard about it, would it benefit me if they would know I know more than any other one to two-year-old baby?
A part of me somehow knew that from the moment I found myself in this world, my life is in danger. I learned from my previous life that a title, a high social standing can bring protection. If I were to show intelligence in this life, no doubt I will be given a good position in the future. A power that would give me protection, especially when I’m a granddaughter of the emperor. But do I even need protection? Can I not just handle myself the way I used to?
There’s also a chance that they would kick me out for being weird but that is kind of unlikely seeing how the emperor seemed to have faith in me.
I remembered that even though I was trained and intelligent enough to carry out assassinations with success, I had no power, I had no title that would give me power and protection. I was just a doll, a tool for assassination.
So, I decided bet everything on this moment, to make an impression to the emperor. I wrote on the board the correct answer – 5134.