RPL 8

Chapter 8

I staggered backward, then turned my back to flee.

“……!”

But people were approaching from that direction as well.

‘With this body…….’

I bit down on my lip.

Even setting aside the fact that I was a child, with these unsteady legs, any attempt to run would be pointless.

“Princess Regina has escaped! Help us!”

Please, just shut up already.

I glared at the woman who was still shouting, seething with rising anger.

The reason I had revealed myself as Regina was because Regina was a princess and the heir to the imperial throne.

The only one who could punish someone like Regina was the emperor himself.

So even if they were startled by my sudden appearance, they wouldn’t be able to do anything about it and would guide me to the emperor—or so I had thought.

Even if not that, they would at least report it to the emperor right away, and as long as the emperor heard the news, that would be enough.

But that wasn’t what happened.

“…….”

I tore my gaze away from the woman and looked at those who had already surrounded me.

They were adults. All those adults had encircled a single child and were pointing their swords at me.

“Make way.”

“Has the real Princess Regina come out?”

The ones who pushed through the crowd were dressed distinctly differently from those who had arrived first.

The ones who had rushed over and pointed their swords first were probably ordinary soldiers; these ones seemed to be knights.

“My, it does seem to be the real one.”

The man who stepped forward first smiled faintly as he looked at me.

I took a calm, steadying breath. If he was a knight—if he was a noble—perhaps words would work on him.

“Please guide me to His Majesty……”

“Restrain her.”

What came instead was someone’s rough grip.

In an instant my arms were twisted behind me. My already trembling legs were forced to bend.

I knelt. No—I was made to kneel.

‘You son of a bitch…….’

Rage surged through me so fiercely that my whole body shook. In the face of that rage I clenched my fists tightly.

Pain flooded in from the sudden events—from my arms and legs, and from the fists I had clenched so hard.

“There’s some kind of misunderstanding……”

I forced down the anger and pain and opened my mouth.

“However you managed to get out—”

But my words were cut off helplessly once again.

The man who had ordered my restraint blocked them in a loud voice.

I couldn’t see what expression he was making.

Right now my arms were twisted behind me and my head was forced down against the floor.

All I could tell was that a hint of laughter was mixed into the man’s voice.

“You will have to return.”

With that laughter-tinged voice the man continued.

In that moment my words stuck in my throat and my vision went dark.

‘Return, he says?’

To that pitch-black, dark room filled with loneliness and despair, saturated with the stench of death.

Back to that room?

“Are you insane.”

After everything I went through to get out of there.

Knowing full well what that child, Kiseira, would suffer, yet unable to endure it any longer, I had no choice but to deceive the child and leave—

And now go back there?

“What did you just……”

“Let go of me.”

I thrashed, trying to pull my arms free.

“I said let go!”

But no matter how hard I struggled, my arms wouldn’t come free.

Of course they wouldn’t. There was no way a child’s strength could break free from the iron grip of an adult man.

My body, the arms that were held, the legs that had been forced to kneel, and even the hand I had stabbed myself with to escape—all of it hurt terribly.

‘Damn it.’

I ground my teeth.

This world ran according to the settings the author had established.

The author wanted Regina to suffer for the sake of future catharsis, and so had created this world that swallowed up every last shred of plausibility.

Even after setting it as a hierarchical society, the author made it so that a princess would be treated like this.

In other words, this world was one that transcended every moral, ethical, and legal boundary if it meant making Regina suffer.

Once I realized that fact, the reality of my situation struck me with sharp clarity.

“How dare you.”

But even if reality was like that, I couldn’t just sit still and take it.

I forced my upper body—bent down against my will—upright and looked back.

Through the tangled mess of my hair I could see the face of the man who had twisted my arms.

“You laid hands on a member of the imperial family.”

I stared straight into his eyes as I spoke.

Not once had I ever wanted to become Regina.

Yet I had suddenly become Regina and was receiving every single one of the sufferings that child had been destined to endure.

While I was suffering as Regina like this, was it a problem to act as Regina?

For Regina, despised as the child of a criminal, there was one good card left.

The fact that she was a member of the imperial family and the heir to the throne.

“I will cut off your hands and throw them to the dogs.”

I glared at the man’s flustered face, eyes flashing.

If they were going to move according to the novel’s settings, then I would do the same.

I didn’t know which setting would take priority, but I would make full use of this one advantage I had.

“My apologies, Your Highness. But Your Highness is a criminal……”

I turned my head and looked up at the knight who was spouting nonsense.

“Kneel.”

“……What?”

“How dare you look down on a member of the imperial family. Kneel.”

At my words his face twisted.

But soon he smoothed his expression and glanced around.

People who had gathered because of the commotion were watching the confrontation between me and the knight.

“……Release her.”

Perhaps it was difficult to show himself ignoring a princess in front of so many palace attendants.

After glancing around for a moment, he spoke.

“…….”

My arms were freed. I pushed myself up from the messy kneel and stood.

Just that single motion made my body tremble as if it might go into spasms.

With hands that were likewise trembling, I swept up the dirty, fallen hair—and frowned.

I had unconsciously used the injured hand.

“…….”

Blood from my hand trickled down and stained my face.

I had stabbed myself without thinking of front or back, but the wound wasn’t large. Of course not—I hadn’t had the strength to make a serious wound.

The bleeding had stopped quickly, so I hadn’t paid it any mind, but the recent struggle must have reopened it.

“A criminal, you say.”

I looked down at the bleeding hand and muttered briefly.

Then I took my eyes off my hand and walked toward the knight who had ordered my restraint.

“Why are you still standing? Kneel.”

“……But Your Highness.”

“Do not look down on a member of the imperial family. You, a mere servant of the imperial house.”

“Even if you are of the imperial family, you cannot insult me like this when I am a knight and a noble.”

“Is it so difficult to show proper respect to me, a member of the imperial family and the heir to the throne? Is that an insult to you?”

The knight’s face hardened. But he could not refute my words.

With a look of humiliation he slowly dropped to one knee.

I immediately seized him by the collar.

“Even if I am guilty of some crime, do you have the right to judge my sins?”

I spoke with eyes blazing in fury.

After barely surviving and coming outside, to be treated like this right away—

Wasn’t it only natural that I would be furious?

“I am asking if you have the qualifications to pass judgment on me, a princess.”

“The one I serve is not Your Highness but His Majesty the Emperor, and His Majesty has already decided Your Highness’s crime, so I am merely following his will.”

The knight answered.

Still gripping his collar, I laughed.

“Shall we make a bet?”

“……A bet?”

At my words the knight looked confused.

“Whether the emperor will confine me again or not.”

I leaned my face right up to his.

My reflection appeared in the knight’s pale irises.

Hair in disarray and face covered in blood—Regina, or rather, me.

“If I am confined again, I will kneel and apologize to you. I will let myself be dragged back in by your hand.”

“…….”

“If I am not confined……”

His tightly closed mouth looked so amusing that I burst out laughing.

“Then give me your neck.”

I quickly wiped the laughter from my face and released the man’s collar.

“Guide me to the emperor.”

—

* * *

—

“Please enter.”

The emperor’s attendants and knights accepted my request for an audience without much reaction. It seemed they had already been given word by the emperor.

In the short time it took to be guided into the room by the attendant, I wiped the blood from my forehead with my sleeve and thought.

‘What should I say.’

But then I let out a sigh and lowered my arm.

‘Forget it. I’m exhausted.’

Hearing the door close behind me, I raised my previously bowed head.

At the same moment, the man sitting at the desk slowly turned his gaze toward me as well.

His transparent crimson eyes were the exact same as those of the pure, innocent Kiseira.

But the cold gaze that held not even a trace of warmth completely erased any remnant of Kiseira from his eyes.

Silver hair that glittered in the sunlight, a dry white face, and jewel-like transparent crimson eyes.

These things blended with the atmosphere the man gave off and quietly radiated coldness.

That coldness told me: this man had no interest in me whatsoever.

This man was the emperor of this place, and Regina’s father.

“…….”

The man—the emperor—soon turned his eyes back to the documents.

As if he had no interest in me at all.

‘I expected as much, but.’

I had expected that our first meeting would not go well. That was why I had given up early on.

That man was a typical “karmic father.”

The kind who paid no attention to his daughter, then gradually had his heart stolen by her, came to regret his actions, and treated her well in proportion to the karma he had accumulated.

But the gap between expectation and reality was large. Facing this actual situation with my own eyes left me speechless.

‘Whatever the reason, he was seeing the daughter he had personally confined for the first time in years.’

Setting aside any apology, did he not even feel worry?

‘……Whatever. He’s not even my real father.’

I let out a heavy sigh.

Just then, the man who had been fixing his gaze on the documents turned his eyes toward me once more.

“I’m here.”

I said. Then I leaned my body against the closed door. Even standing was hard.

‘Hurry up, hurry.’

Ask me whether I participated in the rebellion already. I would claim my innocence with all my might.

I pressed a hand to my forehead. A warm temperature and a forehead damp with cold sweat met my touch.

My head was hazy, and my body, soaked in sweat, was trembling.

Even standing, even continuing to think, was difficult.

“Etiquette.”

I heard an unfamiliar voice just as I was considering simply sitting down where I was.

I slowly raised my head.

“It seems you will have to learn it again.”

The owner of the voice—the one who had spoken of etiquette—was none other than the emperor.

“What?”

Without even realizing it, a retort slipped from my mouth.