There Is No Place For Fakes

“Push.”

But at that moment Eustis lifted her to meet Philomel at eye level. He wiped the tears from her little cheeks with his hand.

“You are not a liar.”

“…!”

“If you are a liar, then I am also a liar. I heard it too.”

“You-Your Majesty!”

In an instant, the marquise’s pretty face turned pale. Logan, who at least grasped the situation, fell flat.

“…I have committed a mortal sin! I made such a mistake because I was worried about my immature brother!”

“Bro-brother?”

Liam took a step back.

“What’s the matter? Everyone says it. That His Majesty also marked my older brother as the successor…”

“Noisy!”

Puck!

Logan hit his brother on the head.

“Why is my brother hitting me? Wah…”

Liam started crying bitterly. He was making a mess.

“Your Majesty, what my brother said is a lie. Neither I nor my parents ever said that to my brother.”

“Yeah, yes! My son is so imaginative that he must have mistaken imagination for reality.”

The two people who called Philomel a liar now call Liam a liar. Liam’s face was devastated when his trusted family betrayed him.

“Stop.”

The turmoil was finally stopped by the icy voice.

“I didn’t pay too much attention to you until now. I would never have thought he was plotting a plot right in front of my eyes.”

Even though a warm wind was blowing, the temperature suddenly seemed to drop. He himself was so scary, what about them?

“That, that, that’s why…”

The Marquise of Elros trembled, unable to properly follow her words. Logan, who had been pretending to be smart, was white and silent as if his lips were sticking.

“Sylvia, the reason I didn’t touch you was because it wasn’t worth getting my hands dirty.”

“Yu, Eustis…”

The Marquise of Elros sat down. The situation of former Princess Sylvia, who tried to appeal to her half-brother, was miserable.

“If you don’t want to lose your head right here, take your children and leave. I don’t want to see blood today either.”

Just like that, the three disappeared.

After that, the title and property of the Marquis of Elros were confiscated, and Sylvia and her two sons were said to have been erased from the imperial register. Those whose names had been erased from the imperial family had to live like commoners, with their sacred powers sealed and kept under surveillance for the rest of their lives. It was a light punishment for being guilty of treason, but everyone knew that the Elros family hadn’t really plotted treason, just because they couldn’t control their son’s mouth. According to what Philomel later found out, they were also nobles there, and they were ostracized by their neighbors for showing off their arrogance, so they couldn’t get a bowl of soup. Well, that was only a later story, and for Philomel now, the evaluation of the man who had already walked far away was more important.

‘…I’m scared.’

He was so cold-hearted even to her true blood relatives, so it was obvious how she would treat her fake daughter.

Then the emperor looked back like a ghost.

“Are you not going to walk?”

“…Yes, yes?”

“Walk. Let’s do it?”

Right. Walk!

She forgot because of the three hats. Philomel talked while she followed the emperor about how a model student she was, and how her teachers praised her. Eustis only gave short answers, such as ‘yes’, or ‘not bad’, but she thought it positively, saying that there were answered all the time.

Philomel looked at him at the end of the walk and asked.

“Your Majesty, do you not like walking?”

“I don’t particularly like it. But since I chased away the bugs that stray without knowing the subject, I guess I need to come out from time to time.”

‘If it’s a bug, it must be the story of the marquise and her sons, right?’

Philomel carefully opened her mouth.

“Then can you take a walk with me from time to time?”

“… go out?”

“Yeah!”

“Not interesting.”

“It’s fine though.”

Could it be that ‘not interesting’ meant that something harmful would happen to her? Wouldn’t that be ‘not interesting’…? The emperor answered quietly, whether he knew Philomel’s agony or not.

“I get it.”

“Wow!”

Wait, that was not it. Philomel came to her senses and bowed her head respectfully.

“Thank you for listening.”

“…you can do as usual.”

“Yes? I’m sorry, but I didn’t hear, so if you could say it one more time…”

“No. Do what you like.”

Eustis said nothing more and walked silently. Philomel obediently followed and looked at the beautiful garden.

* * *

From that day on, it became Philomel’s daily routine to storm into the emperor’s bedroom with ‘premium mountain vinegar tea’ the morning after the emperor drank too much. Count Pollan, who wanted to change the emperor’s drinking habit, actively cooperated and provided information. Eustis glared at the Count and drank the vinegar tea each time. Then the two of them took a light walk in the garden.

“My writing teacher says I’m the smartest student she has ever taught!”

“Good.”

“It’s a compliment because I’m a princess.”

“Is that so? She was also my teacher, but she was not flattering.”

“But I didn’t go that far… Uwaa!”

Philomel, who often walked, stumbled because her foot was twisted.

“Ough…

It looked like her knee was bruised. She felt a tingling sensation as if her skin had peeled off, and she was involuntarily in tears.

‘I can’t be like this. I have to follow him quickly…’

Otherwise, it was clear that the emperor would abandon her. Or he might look at her with pitiful eyes for crying over something like this.

“Are you okay?”

But Eustis returned. He even asked if she was okay.

“It’s nothing!”

Philomel hurriedly got up and walked with a slight limp. She stared at him and drew closer. After a while, Philomel’s body floated into the air. Eustis grabbed Mel by her waist with her arms and lifted her up!

“Your, Your Majesty!”

Bewildered, Philomel struggled.

“Stay still.”

“Yeah, but…!”

“Only the imperial family is allowed to enter this place, so there is no one else who can move you.”

“But… His Majesty is having a hard time.”

“Okay.”

“Eh? They’ll see me as a dying corpse.”

Eustis held Philomel around, found her most comfortable position, and continued the walk. Philomel found this situation stiflingly awkward for her, and squirmed at her elongated body.

“Be patient even if it makes you uncomfortable.”

‘How can you stand this!’

Even if it was physically uncomfortable because the arms were hard, it was painful mentally.

“If you don’t like it, go to sleep.”

She couldn’t sleep peacefully. While thinking so, Philomel closed her eyes for the time being. And to her surprise… she really fell asleep.

Upon discovering the emperor holding the sleeping princess in his arms, Countess Deles came running in surprise.

“Oh, she must be tired. My, she always wakes up early on days like today when she visits His Majesty to bring him tea.”

“…Right.”

Countess Deles swallowed her saliva. She was well aware of how hard Philomel usually lived. It was only natural that she would want to do something for her when she saw her working hard with such a small body. Besides, judging from the expression on the emperor’s face as he held his daughter, she seemed somehow to be alright.

The Countess mustered up her courage and dared to speak.

“Her Majesty Isabella also liked the garden.”

She loved to go for walks, she heard

“She liked flower viewing.”

When the answer came back, the countess said delighted.

“It seems that Her Highness the Princess resembles Her Majesty the Empress. Seeing that she gets up early every time to take a walk with His Majesty.”

Her blue eyes, recalling the past, were locked in memories.

“Whenever we went for a walk together, Isabella looked at the surrounding landscape. And I looked at the face of the person next to me.”

Eustis looked down at her daughter.

“So this child might not be Isabella, she might be more like me.”

At that moment, an oriole perched on a nearby tree branch chirped. Because of her birdsong, Countess Deles could not hear the details of what the emperor was saying about the empress. However, she definitely heard his last words that the princess resembled him. To tell the truth, having watched the princess by her side for several months, she did not agree. However, it was clear that it was a positive sign for her father-daughter relationship.