Chapter 88 - Jealousy

“Helene?” Why was Helene with her? Helene, who had been so graceful and dignified before the young ladies that day, was standing here, unable to raise her head. 

“Don’t forget. You and your sibling’s lives are in my hands,” Blue Hair continued. It seemed that Helene was being threatened.

“Yes, Miss.” 

“Hmph!” The blue-haired lady ended the conversation and turned around. Luciana immediately grabbed me, “Princess.”

“Ah.” Thankfully, Luciana managed to hide me, so that we weren’t caught eavesdropping on their conversation. Luciana glared at me, but I didn’t have a guilty conscience, “Do you know who Blue Hair is?”

Luciana glanced at her and nodded, “She’s the daughter of Count Jebastian. Her name’s Trisha.”

“Why that face?”

“Something about her is suspicious,” I whispered, thinking back to when I first saw her. She had said to me, “She’s not someone you’d know.” I didn’t think much of it at the time, but looking back now, it was definitely suspicious. All the young ladies had entered the palace to get my attention, but she didn’t even try. At the time, I remembered thinking that she was being overwhelmed… 

“How suspicious.”

“What is?”

“I smell something.” 

“A smell? What smell?”

“Something’s up,” I had a feeling that something was going to happen soon. And I realized all of a sudden why Helene’s name was so familiar.

***

When I arrived at the training grounds, Miltiades was sparring with someone. “Wow!” He looked so attractive as he held his sword! I wanted to take a photo, and lamented the fact that cameras didn’t exist in this world. 

“You’ve arrived.”

“Who’s that, Callian?” I asked. Callian came over to me and told me who the gray-haired man sparring against Miltiades was, “Ah, that’s Enoch.”

“Enoch?” He looked to be about seventeen or eighteen. His young face was beautiful enough to charm everyone around him. But I had never heard of him before. 

“He’s the last descendant of the now-extinct Kalita People.”

“The Kalita People?” Many small tribes lived in the Northern Empire. The extreme climate and rugged terrain there might have deterred most people from entering, but the small tribes were extremely adept at survival. 

“He might look frail, but he’s quite talented. There’s talk of a fifth knight.”

Why didn’t such a talented individual appear in the novel? Enoch’s name was unfamiliar. But I felt like I had heard it somewhere before…I instinctively realized why his name never appeared. He must have died. I had forgotten how depressing the novel was.

“…Amel.” I was lost in thought and didn’t notice when the spar ended, but Miltiades started walking towards me.

“Daddy!” I immediately ran over to him. He hugged me and said, “I might stink from all the sweat.”

“I don’t smell anything,” I replied. He didn’t sweat a drop after moving like that, and I wasn’t sure how to feel. I had been absorbed by Miltiades earlier, but now I started glancing around. Where did Enoch go? I wanted to be introduced to him but he had disappeared. He moved quickly.

“Is it already snack time?” 

“Yep, it’s my snack time with you!”

“Then let’s go,” Miltiades started walking to his office with me in his arms. The knights at the training grounds and the servants in the palace bowed at us with looks of shock on their faces. 

While everyone gaped at us with wide eyes, a golden-haired beauty came up next to Miltiades, “Your Majesty.” His expression immediately changed when he saw Helene. 

“Why are you here?”

“I have something to tell you,” Helene trembled as she spoke. Her demeanor made me feel even more nervous than she was. 

“I’m fine. Go talk with her,” I reassured Miltiades. 

His expression turned more serious. He looked at me as I urged him to go, and then turned to Helene, “We’ll talk later.”

“Your Majesty!” a desperate Helene tried to approach him, but Callian blocked her path. Why was she acting like this? Was it because of the blue-haired lady’s lecture from earlier? 

“What are you thinking about?” 

I was thinking about Helene and the blue-haired lady, but Miltiades’s low voice roused me from my stupor. “Um. I was thinking about how you’re so good-looking…?” Miltiades looked at me silently. “I’m kidding. I was thinking about how pretty that lady is. Is she also one of the candidates for my mom?”

“Candidate for your mom?” Miltiades’s voice grew deeper. 

“Yeah. I heard you were going to select the next empress. Doesn’t that mean I’ll be getting a mommy?” Miltiades fell silent once more. “It’s alright, Daddy. I know everything!”

Boom! Crash! The sudden noise startled me. I thought I saw lightning crash behind us. “You won’t have a new mother,” Miltiades said sternly as if to banish any such thought from my head, “There’ll never be one.”