Chapter 8 (2/2)

“….Why are you crying?”

“Just because.”

“Is it because of me?”

“Please don’t talk now, or my head is going to explode. I’m afraid I might do something wrong with someone who already has some kind of weird effect.”

She didn’t think that he would shut his mouth just because she told him to, but the Emperor, who always would not listen to her, began to talk earnestly.

“What’s your name?”

‘Really, that was fast. Why are you asking for it anyway?’

She had never felt bad that her name was eight letters long, but it was true that when she heard such a question from him, she had difficulty in saying that name.

“It’s Celestia.”

“I see. Have you met your brother? It seemed like servant Zhang was saying something, but I was out of my mind at that time.”

“Thank you for assigning a doctor for him…..That’s the first time I’ve seen him looking so bright. Thank you very much.”

“Yeah.”

She was annoyed because he suddenly became so friendly. While she was talking, she burst into tears. Because of that, she wasn’t able to complete her calculations. She felt irritated, wiping away her tears that kept coming up with her sleeves.

“Who uses magic so carelessly? Don’t you know why these marks are appearing?”

His face twisted into a smile, but she couldn’t say whether it was for the funny remark of a slave or if he felt better as the pain was a little relieved.

“Is it because of your poor understanding of magic?”

“The problem is not my knowledge but that you use too much intensity. Please use it in moderation.”

His red eyes turned towards her.

“You’re funny. Golddina’s Academy system doesn’t seem to be too bad. I don’t know what the curriculum is like, but I’m a little surprised to understand it’s levels. I don’t know if there’s a place you can apply to in the Empire.”

‘Why are you talking about that now?’

“….I didn’t. I didn’t attend any.”

“What?”

“Academy.”

He went silent for a moment.

“Then how did you know this?”

“Self-study.”

“Is that possible? Why didn’t you go in the first place? Didn’t you say that magic can’t be just made up in any way? It wouldn’t have been that expensive if it was an academy dealing with magic. Golddina is said to be a culture of high academic zeal.”

She cried so hard to the point that she wasn’t able to hold back saying her thoughts. Otherwise, she would never have brought this up.

“It was because of Serek.”

She didn’t realize that he was waiting for her explanation. After not hearing a reply for quite some time, he added.

“Serek? A person? Golddina must really be different.”

Indeed, she couldn’t guess the Emperor’s interests. She answered seriously without having a second thought.

“His original name is Serangueban.”

“Hmm.”

She thought he would let it slip, but the Emperor had to pry at it again. She tried to ignore it, but it was too late.

“He promised that he would marry me, but after I spent all my savings for that chameleon, I didn’t have anything left to spend for my dreams.”

“You were a fool.”

“Don’t be so conclusive.”

“No, he was the stupid one. You were smart, but you spent all of your money on him for a better return. And instead, you tried to self-study.”

It was like a compliment. She was rather ungrateful of his praise or admiration, but she could say his aspect was good. It made her feel better.

“It’s because there’s a trick to make it easier to raise your status in Golddina. The identity system was not something that can be overcome so easily.”

“Hmm….I see. Maybe. I heard Golddina is a bit worse than our country. But our country has less talented people compared to Golddina’s. It’s good that the Queen of Golddina is the wisest among her ancestors.”

“Sometimes, I wanted to study properly. I wanted to go to the academy, study, and pray to be a greater person.”

“So you wanted to impress Serek?”

She seemed to be a bit annoyed because of his languid voice, who acted as if he knew everything.

But, she couldn’t blame His Highness for her foolish love affair.

She didn’t know why she was even talking about it. Frankly, it was useless to stop here.

“He became ashamed of me when he became better than me. But now, I want to be an even better person than him. I want to make him regret what he has done to me.”