Play it safe and weed out as much information from the Emperor as she can.

The Emperor watched from his dining room chair as he would from his throne, his elbow rested against the armrest and his hand holding his chin. He watched with a hunter’s patience at his little sister, to the obvious bait he had planted.

The Princess trembled, grasping the ends of her own chair’s armrests for support. She stole a breath to calm herself down and she began to think. ‘That bastard has planned this from the beginning, does he know I’m not his sister?’

To confirm her suspicions she mustered the effort to lift her head and face the princess’ brother. In her panicked state the table had appeared longer and at the other end the silent figure surveying her. ‘Damnit even if he doesn't know, he's bound to notice by the way I’m acting now.’ She rationalised her thoughts, despite the many questions she had, they were too much of a risk to have answered now. She focused on what she could control and slowed her breathing before thinking clearly. ‘Right; the only way I can survive is if I play his game. You want to make sure I’m Alexandra then you’re going to get her, let's play big brother.’

The Princess freed her grasp on the chair and revised her posture, nonchalantly she slouched back and draped her leg over the armrest. “Pass.”

“You would pass on the opportunity to see your own son?” He asked not giving the women he saw as his own flesh and blood a moment to breathe.

“Nero’s waited over a decade, he can wait a little longer.” She caught the man’s eyes, so similar to her own, she held them to avoid showing fear, as she gave a vague guess Alexandra’s son’s age, the halfhearted reply only helped to vain her disinterest.

“He reached his fourteen summers this year. I thought as his mother you would have at least kept a count of how old your own child was…” He lectured in a stern voice before he was abruptly cut off.

“Fourteen? Wow, doesn’t time fly by?” In dramatic fashion she pulled her eyes from the emperor’s eyes to convey to him she’d grown bored of the conversation. She further extracted the point by reaching for the empty glass off the table and held it over her head.

He watched in disgust as his sister caught the last drop of wine on the tip of her tongue after it trailed down and out of the glass as if he had just witnessed a man dying of thirst. He had seen enough to know this was indeed the lecherous sister he’d grown accustomed to.

“Do you have any more wine?” She pointed the glass directly at the man across the table like a sword as she asked him abruptly and grasped his gaze with her piercing blues eyes one last time.

He replied with a soft chuckle and returned to his cheerful self from earlier. “It was the only bottle brought up for the meal.”

“Stingy.” Taking the calculated risk to insult the emperor she added a childish tone to her voice.

“Me!? Stingy? Hardly, have you seen the palace’s gardens? Utterly breathtaking and priceless like the women I keep.” He chuckled again but even she could hear his disappointment. “So about negotiations?”

‘Give it up already!’ She thought to herself and shrugged coldly. “I’ll think about it.” She waited to measure the emperor's expression as he dropped his regal posture. “Are we done?”

“You make it sound like I’m keeping you here my sunny little dragon.” That name again. It made her brow twitch as she watched the man’s eyes and he hers both seeing who would break first.

By a miracle she realized it, she was standing out in the middle of the empty hallway and after she heard the doors close behind her she imminently dropped her act and panted profusely. ‘I don’t know how much more of that I could’ve taken!’

She didn’t have a single desire to return to her room. ‘It should have been me, not Dimitri, who should have run away in the middle of the night.’ She admitted to herself.

She stepped to the window, her mind too preoccupied to look outside; she looked at the princess’ reflection. ‘But that man… In the end, he had really pushed it onto me. To use his own sister’s son as a bargaining chip? That’s cold. And Alexandra, how could she avoid meeting him for fourteen years? I mean this is Alexandra we’re talking about. It's not like anyone could have stopped her when she wanted something, just look at the effort she went just to have Dimitri for goodness sake!’

“You’re Highness?” The voice asked from behind the woman who was lost in thought.

“What?!” She shouted as she turned around and glared at the servant.

The large man, who was tasked to deliver the princess to the emperor, was alarmed by the response as if he has just woken a monster he instinctively reached for a weapon he didn't even have on his person. Only after he fumbled his attempt to grasp an imaginary weapon from a scabbard did he control himself.

“I’m sorry I lost my temper.” She admitted.

“No! No your highness it was my fault.” He easily admitted to something that was specifically not his fault and his earnestness provoked a smile from her before she looked back for the princess’ reflection but only not to find it.

“I want to go outside.”

The servant courageously took a step towards her, his posture looked more like he was preparing to salute her than what he was about to say next. “I shall escort you!”

Returning from the heavily guarded area of the emperor's domain of the palace she was greeted by somewhat familiar surroundings, at least she noticed a very very familiar maid carrying a basket of laundry. ‘Right, I’m definitely getting her name this time!’

Particularly ambushing the poor girl, the giant following close behind her didn’t help either, but nevertheless she walked up to them.

“Hey.”

“Yes!” Meanwhile, as though her concentration was faltering the maid’s footing was unfocused and haphazard. ‘She could trip at any moment.’

“You? What’s your name?”

“Yes?……It’s Emily, Your Highness. Wait, Your Highness?! When did you leave your room? … Kyaa!” Just like that, Emily stepped on the hem of the older women’s dress and fell forward, dropping the basket.

She also stumbled before regaining her balance. Because the result matched her prediction so exactly, she couldn’t even be angry.

If she hadn’t caught herself, she would have fallen ungracefully on top of Emily. If it had been the original princess, Emily would have been a dead woman. Either way, it seemed that she had just barely kept her dignity as a princess. Emily looked up at her.

“I- I- I- I apo- I apologize! Your Highness!”

“It’s alr-.”

“I- I- I- I’ll- I’ll compensate you! Compensation! Your Highness!”

Without giving her a chance to speak, Emily walked over to her on their knees and clung to her ankle. She was shedding tears like her tear ducts were malfunctioning.

“How about you let go first….”Their grip was much stronger than she had imagined. She was unable to pull her off. Using their hands, Emily tried to erase the conspicuous footprint they had left on her dress.

But the more that she rubbed at it, the more the mark spread out into an unsightly mess. It seemed Emily realized there was nothing she could do because she quickly gave up and bowed her head to the ground.

“Please spare me, Your Highness!”

“…..Pfft.”

Emily was so surprised by the sound of the princess’ laughter that she jerked her head up. Her eyes looked as if they were about to pop out of her head.

“Ah, I’m sorry.”

She felt embarrassed for laughing at someone so ****, so she crouched down in front of the maid and looked her in the eyes. She used her fingers to sweep away the tears that had gathered at the corners of their eyes.

“I’ll spare you so stop crying.”

“What? Is this real? Th- Then… will you punish me?”

“No.”

She couldn’t help herself and started chuckling again. Because the maid was so sunny. They were the first person like this she’d met here. That might explain why she felt so refreshed.

“Does it hurt where you fell? Are you okay?”

“Yes? Oh, yes! I’m okay!”

Looking over at the dropped basket she found it drop flat on the floor and didn’t spill any of the laundries. “Are those undergarments?”

“Yes! Yours I just had them washed!”

Picking a pair up she pressed her thumb into the fabric. ‘Sooo soft!’

Meanwhile, the emperor's servant was staring blankly at the wall muttering to himself. “I saw nothing! I saw nothing! I saw nothing! I saw nothing! …”

She tossed the pair back into the basket and handed it back to the surprised maid. “Your highness…”

“Carry on the good work.”

“Yes, Your Highness!” Emily curtsied and scrambled away without looking back. A slight skip in her step.

“We have arrived, Your Highness.” The servant nervously coughed.

‘Recovered from the ‘traumatic’ ordeal I see?’ The servant flung open the heavy door in one move. Instantly, the breeze swept in, carrying with it a refreshing and crisp scent.

She had been staying in her room all this time in order not to unnecessarily drop hints about her identity. The sunlight couldn’t feel any better on her skin.

“Thank you I don’t want to keep you from my brother.” Like the maid before him, he bowed.

“It was a pleasure, Your Highness.”

“Which part?” She asked with a coy smile as she looked down at him and he became flustered.

“…….”

After that, she was completely alone.

Although the chilly breeze slipped past her clothes, the feeling of cold seeping into her bones wasn’t entirely unpleasant.

The garden was peaceful. In between skinny trunks, she caught glimpses of evergreens desperately guarding their leaves. She slowly followed the path lined by the trees.

Feeling much better than before, she slipped off her heels and tossed them to the side without a second thought. She gathered her long, dragging skirts and lifted them up. The dirt that pushed up between her toes felt soft and ticklish.

‘It’s great to get out of those heels!’ Just as she was thinking of letting out a satisfying yell, she saw it.

Someone was sitting with their back leaning against a massive tree that looked over two hundred years old. With the spotless grey sky behind them, both the tree and the man’s hair were tossing in the wind.

As if he had felt her presence, the man turned his head in her direction. Their eyes clashed.

It was Dimitri.