The Lion and the Royal Princess - Chapter 5

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Richard returned before the sun had risen. He remained the same as he left. He must have rushed without even thinking about washing his dirty body or changing his clothes.

Adelaine looked at him with bloodshot eyes.

“His Highness has commanded your immediate return.”

Richard suddenly reached out his hand and said. He said nothing of the sight of her, who was on the verge of collapse due to her injury, showing no hint of sympathy.

Adelaine wondered who gave Richard the order.

“Cesare? Or did father command it?”

“His Majesty personally spoke to His Highness the Crown Prince.”

I see.

It was expected how Cesare must have grilled him, and yet, she nodded slowly.

Yeah. I should go back. My destination is not the arms of the Lion King but the royal family of Marma. 

Adelaine naturally tried to grab Richard’s hand. However, she could not get up because of the Lion King, who suddenly appeared and grabbed her hand.

“Where are you going?”

“…hmm, Your Highness?”

Richard, bewildered, looked up at him. The Lion King had anger in his blue eyes. He held Adelaine’s hand tightly and opened his mouth with a growl.

“The princess is in serious condition.”

He revealed the fact seriously as if it were a natural disaster.

Richard hastily withdrew the hand he had held out. The Lion King’s fierce gaze lingered on his hand.

“Your Highness, but…”

“I said the princess is in serious condition, knight of Marma.”

Richard, who could not bring himself to oppose the Lion King, looked at Adelaine.

What?

Adelaine mouthed.

Cesare, who insisted on immediate departure regardless of whether the injured person was in pain or not, and the Lion King, who was so concerned about her and sought to protect her even though it was their first time meeting.

Adelaine shivered at the fact that the Lion King’s palm, which was wrapped around her hand, was as rough as the sand in the desert. It was even more so because she had never encountered such rough hands before.

This man is dangerous, at least to me.

The heat of the desert that would remain even after heating up the cold body. If she leaned on this warmth, she would die.

Adelaine Vita was a woman more frozen than the ice in a distant iceberg. Her body was as rigid as a frozen corpse and her heart had long since frozen and cooled.

“I’m going back.”

Adelaine raised her head in a flash. She had been the one to resolve Richard’s awkward situation.

When she twisted her palm with a feeble force, the Lion King’s large grp easily came off. Using her long sleeves, she roughly wiped off her wet face, removed the blanket, and grabbed Richard’s hand.

Richard was surprised and looked at Adelaine and the Lion King alternately. It seemed he had not expected Adelaine to walk towards Cesare on her own.

But Adelaine got up. Even in terrible pain and dizzy heat, she stubbornly rose and stepped on the floor with her two feet.

“Adelaine.”

The Lion King’s voice, dettering her, contained deep reprimand. There was also a greater concern. Adelaine shook her head. Her long, disheveled hair fluttered.

“Don’t interfere.”

“You might die if you go.”

“I still have to go.”

There was a good reason why she risked her life to come back all the way.

“I appreciate your help but that doesn’t mean I have to follow your orders. If you want compensation, come to the royal palace.”

“Are you serious?”

The Lion King looked at her with blazing eyes. It was an incomprehensible anger. 

Adelaine, who was stumbling, eventually clung to Richard’s forearm. It was fine until she stood up but she did not have the strength to support her legs.

Richard reached out and hugged her reflexively as she was about to fall. At that moment, the Lion King’s gaze intensified. It was a fierce look. Richard flinched and narrowed his shoulders.

“Adelaine.”

The Lion King called her name. Adelained swallowed a sigh in Richard’s arm who was supporting her unsteadily. Then, she warned him.

“Don’t call my name.”

Never again with that burning voice.  

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

Crown Prince Cesare refused to allow Adelaine to enter the royal palace through the main gate. She had to enter the palace through a back door used by workers, hiding and covering her face like a stray cat.

Even without using this method, she already knew that Cesare was ashamed of herself. The doctor had prescribed medicinethat was not even effective with an indifferent face and left. The Lion King must have been so good at providing first aid that the doctor did not even look at her wound for very long.

Later, Adelaine was placed in a small annex attached to Cesare’s palace.

And that night, the king came.

“Welcome, my dear daughter.”

A benevolent smile moved with exquisite wrinkles. The ladies-in-waiting looked at the king and the princess who were reunited after 11 years with thrilled faces.

However, among them, those who were old enough to know Adelaine 11 years ago, case uneasy glances. It seemed they were worried that she might act out as she did before.

It was amusing. 

“Why did you stand like that? Adelaine, call me father.”

The king said. He said the same thing on the day she was adopted.

Back then, Adelaine dared to shout and cry towards the king of the country. She threw tantrum, begging to be sent home. Even as she cried out loud, she never uttered the word ‘father’.

The king smiled graciously but Adelaine was beaten until she lost consciousness that night. She was only 9 years old. Time passed, and until before she was sold to the enemy’s king when she was 17 years old, Adelaine lived a puppet life as the king’s adopted daughter in Marma. 

She was 28 years old when she returned.

When Adelaine took a careful step, everyone in the room focused on her. She walked slowly and unsteadily, standing before the king. A glimpse of faint impatience was visible in his aged eyes. 

“Father.”

When Adelaine knelt on the floor and placed her forehead on the back of his hand, sounds of sobbing could be heard from various place. The king trembled slightly, then affectionately stroked her cheek with a deeply moved expression.

“I missed you, Adelaine.”

“You have no idea how happy I am to be back.”

Adelaine warmly smiled while looking at the somewhat anxious eyes of the king. He trembled even more. She felt cheerful.

She meant it when she said she was happy to be back.

The deep-seated resentment in my heart was so profound that I thought I would collapse and cry when I meet you. I thought i would scream, get angry, and throw tantrums.

But look.

I have become an adult who knows how to smile like you. This is how much I have changed. 11 years is indeed a long time.

Now it’s time to pay back as much as I have endured.

2. 2. Tell Me Who I Am

“You’ll accept it, right?”

“What?”

Adelaine was eating the soup brought by her lady-in-waiting. It was a cream soup with a rich flavour of clams. It was made with such care that he mouth involuntarily curled up with each spoonful.

It was delicious. The spices were top-notch and the seasoning was just right.

“Do you know that the chef made that soup three tiems?”

“And?”

Of course, she knew. She did not touch the first soup and threw it away, and the second one, she took a bite and tossed it. The lady-in-waiting screamed but Adelaine paid no attention.

She sarcastically commented that she could not eat it because the smell was unbearable, or the taste was trash. The lady-in-waiting would have relayed Adelaine’s words exactly to the chef. The chef, who must have considered working in the crown prince’s palace as an honor for the family, gave the princess a harsh hazing ceremony when she returned unexpectedly.

“Why did you do that?”

Looking at Adelaine humming and eating the soup, the lady-in-waiting asked as if repremanding her. Since Adelaine quite liked this girl, she decided to answer honestly.

“The first dish was porridge made with mashed potatoes and sheep’s milk, and the second one was the same ingredients with only onion and salt added.

“What’s wrong with that?”

“It’s the staple food for the fourth-class slaves.”

The lady-in-waiting opened her mouth in surprise.

Adelaine Vita was a princess but not a royal.  She was from the Vita-class, once a slave. 

While slavery had disappeared on the continent, Marma still maintained a rigid caste society. Those in power going so far as to coin the word ‘Vita’ instead of derogatory term ‘slave’ to maintain the caste system somehow.

Rebellion was only natural. When the Vita-class rebellion spread to an unavoidable level, the king used shallow tricks.

“As the father of the people, I will adopt and raise a Vita-class girl as my own daughter with love.”

That was Adelaine. The puppet chosen by the king himself to quell the rebellion. It seemed the chef wanted to enlighten her about that fact.

The lady-in-waiting asked cautiously.

“Then…are you going to continue to do that?”

“If you’re asking me if I’m going to throw the plate every time I was served a dish I don’t like, then yes.”

Of course. She deserved to be treated. If the chef dared to pull such a stunt again, he would have to make the same dish until he died.

Adelaine wondered how the lady-in-waiting in front of her would explain this to the Crown Prince. Would she say that the princess has gone crazy? Or would she claim that this was her original personality.

The lady-in-waiting hesitated for a long time. She hesitated, read the room, hesitated again, and  mumbled. It seemed like she was trying to gauge whether this was something worth reporting.

Adelaine let the lady-in-waiting thought to her heart’s content.

“Hmm… Princess?”

“Why?”

“Shall I comb your hair?”

It seemed she was not going to report it yet. Disappointed, she nodded with her head half-resting on the bed.

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