A little dizzy from the sudden movement, she leaned her forehead against the closed door.
“Princess!”
Maureen came right up to her and supported her.
“As expected, this won’t do. I’ll go and tell…”
“No. No.”
Rieta remembered the word ‘die’ that the messenger had just said.
He looked really terrified.
Rieta couldn’t let someone risk his life for something that would have been easily solved just by her showing up.
“I don’t know if there’s a dress I can wear here . . .”
“I’m sorry, but . . .”
Mrs. Maureen hesitated for a moment while answering.
It was because the dresses here had once been worn by the King’s concubines.
It would be nice if they could buy new clothes, but they wouldn’t be able to make it right now.
“It doesn’t matter. I hope some of them are decent.”
Rieta recalled the Duke’s words.
He always emphasized the need to wear dignified clothes and good shoes.
But, judging from the expressions on the Maureen couple, she couldn’t expect anything like that.
Rieta smiled bitterly.
* * *
The high and beautiful Liz autumn sky.
Underneath it there was the ‘coming of the Beautiful Princess Rieta who returned from the Empire’.
As the crowd murmured over her shoulders, she headed to the shore of the lake where the King was waiting.
Perhaps there was still time before the boat was launched, the King was resting in a tent.
Arriving in front of the tent, Rieta straightened up her clothes.
She wanted to open the tent right away and go in and scream. Do you have any idea what you did?
To have people break into an Imperial Duke’s house . . .
Even if the empire started a war with this as an excuse, Liz wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.
But she couldn’t argue with him right now.
Instead of attending the banquet, Rieta made a promise with the Maureen couple.
“Princess. You’ve been through something that wasn’t right, so you have to come back quietly and safely. Even if you think about your body. Now is not the time to be angry.”
Since Rieta couldn’t ignore that concern, she decided to give the minimum courtesy to the King.
“Your Majesty, the Princess has arrived.”
When a servant standing in front of the tent spoke, the curtain was immediately lifted.
Her father whom she hadn’t seen after many years.
She skimmed her memory of him for a brief moment as the curtain moved.
“Pathetic,” was the first thing that came to her mind as she glanced down.
She didn’t expect anything in particular from such a father.
Rieta cautiously raised her head.
Her father, whom she hadn’t seen in a while, held a young woman on each side.
Rieta understood at once why the Duke had been emphasizing ‘dignity’ for so long.
It must be because no nobility could be found in those who had lost it.
Even if there was a crown representing a country on his head.
However, Rieta bowed her head in silence before the King according to her promise to the Maureen couple.
“You called me.”
There was no reply from the King to her words. He probably pretended not to hear her.
“Your Majesty.”
Rieta called again, and only then did his gaze turn to her.
“They said you were sick, the damn Maureens lied again, right?”
“It wasn’t a lie.”
“It doesn’t seem like the truth. You’re walking around like this.”
The King sighed.
In his eyes, it seemed that he couldn’t see Rieta’s white face or her skinny body.
“…”
Rieta let out a small sigh and moved on to the main subject.
She was worried that sparks of anger would fly at the Maureen couple.
“Tell me why you called me into the Kingdom.”
The King laughed at the question.
Rieta was a little surprised that his smile was so hideous.
If there was a God, God was very fair.
Even though the Duke and her father are of similar age, God gave all the beauty to the Duke and not a bit to her father.
“Because it is necessary.”
The king took the woman by his side and came right in front of Rieta.
“Even when I brought you, I was actually nervous. What if you’re no longer useful?”
He squeezed Rieta’s chin hard.
Her little face twisted in his hand.
He pulled Rieta’s face towards him and looked at it closely.
From the shape of her eyelashes to the delicate curves of her lips and chin.
His smile gave Rieta goosebumps.
“That’s good, you look quite alike. You might be useful. Even if I ask for additional money, they will pay without saying anything.”
He nodded satisfiedly, and pushed Rieta slightly.
Her aching body reeled from even the slightest force.
Rieta collapsed to the floor amidst the dizziness.
The servants nearby tried to help her, but the King raised his hand to stop them.
It’s probably a good look for him that Rieta had to look up at him from below.
“You think I will be useful?”
The king went back to his seat and kissed the woman sitting next to him. Then he answered,
“Yes, beauty is money.”
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