Who Could Have Loved the Monster Princess? - Chapter 58 - Not Aunt, but Sister

7. Not Aunt, but Sister

The imperial palace’s operations came to a halt. The reason? The Crown Prince had been placed under house arrest.

‘They actually placed the Crown Prince on probation.’

As expected, the Emperor blamed Carnelian for the situation that arose after Geoffrey Buser’s death, when the Duke of Felix halted the trade of mana stones. Then, he proudly sent an envoy to the Duke of Felix, boasting that he had severely punished Carnelian by placing him under house arrest for a month.

That was the last official task the Emperor completed before sinking back into indulgence. His concubines continued to receive lavish goods and delicacies, and noblemen vying for favor kept bringing in new women.

It seemed the Emperor had learned nothing from the situation with the Duchess of Felix. He still refused to grant audiences unless the matter piqued his personal interest.

The Empress, Carnelian’s mother, was no different. She, too, was enjoying a leisurely life in her separate palace.

With both his parents like that, it was admirable how Carnelian alone continued to shoulder his responsibilities.

‘I really should start taking his request seriously.’

Specifically, the matter of registering someone in the Staedt family as a potential Crown Princess. If a Crown Princess were established, it would strengthen Carnelian’s position and also allow him to share the burden.

‘It’s rare, but it might even become possible to dethrone the Emperor.’

Given the current political climate, even a motion for abdication seemed within reach.

Apparently, many nobles had been bottling up resentment throughout the flag-hunting tournament. Though constrained by their social positions and the court’s atmosphere, there were more than a few, like the Duchess of Felix, who had lost family in the competition.

There was a reason some participants sent proxies while the heads of noble houses waited around the palace all day.

‘That’s why I tried to find the Emperor’s flag every year — to bring the tournament to a stop.’

Whenever discussions about the imperial family or the tournament arose, I always insisted that the flag-hunting competition was too dangerous and that if they were going to keep holding it, it needed to be in a safer location. But my opinions were rarely taken seriously.

‘I’d just been waiting for an opportunity, and now it’s all being resolved in one fell swoop.’

It was satisfying, to say the least.

‘That part went well, but now that Carnelian’s confined, there won’t be any noble council meetings for a month.’

Without going to the palace, I had no chance to see Mir.

‘I wanted to talk to her about the curse.’

My mother had intended to ask the sage Unknown whether he could break my curse, so I thought I might get some answers through Mir.

Mir didn’t stay solely in the palace; she moved around quite actively. But since she didn’t have any attendants and traveled alone, it was incredibly difficult to meet her without arranging it in advance.

‘I did leave a note at her palace quarters.’

But sometimes when she went out, she wouldn’t return for over a week, so there was no telling when I might see her again.

‘Dad doesn’t like Mir either…’

At this point, it was almost strange how much he still loved Mom and me.

‘Well, maybe it’s because Mir keeps getting drunk and asking me to vouch for her.’

Dad always told me to make friends who could take responsibility for their own actions. Mir was a great friend though, aside from the drinking. She didn’t really get into trouble even when she was drunk, but… I could never understand why she loved sleeping outdoors so much. So once, I asked her directly:

“Wouldn’t it be more comfortable to sleep back at your lodgings?”

“They say the roof of the sky is the safest place in the City of Sages.”

She meant it wouldn’t collapse on you, and apparently, it even “washes you when needed.” That was how she described getting rained on.

There was something else I wanted to consult Mir about: the matter of the Crown Princess candidate that Carnelian had asked for.

‘Judging from the way Carnelian talked, he wasn’t even considering me as a potential candidate.’

Maybe it was because Mir had planted some unnecessary ideas, but after hearing Carnelian suggest I register even my younger sister, my mood had definitely soured.

‘If I narrow down the candidates by status, there really aren’t that many.’

To be recognized as Crown Princess by the nobility, the candidate naturally had to be of royal blood.

In the narrow sense, “royal” meant a person from a family that currently ruled as the sovereign of a kingdom. But in a broader sense, it included houses that used to be royal. Even if a family now served an emperor or a pope, as long as they preserved their royal lineage, they were still considered nobility of royal blood.

‘That’s the case with Staedt.’

A hundred years ago, the Duchy of Staedt was annexed into the Empire and became a ducal house that served the Latropole imperial family, preserving its bloodline.

My uncle and aunt both married into royal families. Even the youngest scion, my father, had married my mother, who was a princess of the Kingdom of Amortan.

‘Since the second son of Staedt had no chance to marry into royalty unless he entered as a prince-consort… If not for the Demon King, I might’ve grown up in Amortan’s royal palace.’

In any case, for Carnelian, a suitable Crown Princess candidate had to be royal. But it was impossible for me to bring in a princess from an intact kingdom.

Still, if someone only had the royal bloodline left with no territory or no wealth, it might be possible to bring them into Staedt.

There were a few like that. After all, there were many fallen kingdoms, destroyed during the war against the Demon King.

‘But there aren’t many unmarried princesses left.’
And if they were unmarried, they were either too young or too old and rarely in the perfect age range. Still, it wasn’t that there were none.

Some of the surviving royals from the Demon King war, those who had fled their kingdoms in disgrace, were now hiding to avoid the bitter eyes of their own people.

‘There are even two living right here in the capital. I won’t have to go all the way to the border right away.’

Among the candidates, the one who stood out most was a lady of Amortan.

“Alyssa Amortan’s daughter is twenty-four years old…”

Alyssa Amortan was my mother’s sister. She lived with her twenty-four-year-old daughter, Elena. That made her my aunt, and Elena my cousin.

I flipped through the records and found that Aunt Alyssa had once again taken on a commission from the Mage Tower this past spring, crafting magical tools.

Twenty-four years ago, when the Kingdom of Amortan fell, Alyssa had sought asylum in the Latropole Empire with her husband. The emperor had permitted them to stay, but he had done nothing to support them in maintaining their royal dignity.

Soon after, her husband had returned to his homeland, leaving Alyssa alone to raise her daughter.

‘My cousin… I never knew. I’ve never looked into it before, so I didn’t realize.’

I had helped countless refugees, but I didn’t realize a blood relative of mine had been wandering like this.

Since it happened 24 years ago, before my parents were even married, I suppose there was no reason for Staedt to take in my aunt and her family.The official documents kept by the family only stated that Staedt would not support Princess Alyssa’s resettlement.

Her daughter, I heard, was frail and rarely leaves the house.

‘I should’ve looked for them sooner. Now I’m only going because a political marriage requires it… If they refuse now because of that, I suppose I’ll have deserved it.’

But even if they did reject me, I still wanted to meet them first.