Chapter 17: Chapter Sixteen: Lonely Princess

After his curiosity was satisfied after walking around in the street in broad daylight, Kai fixed his clothes before he went to the castle. He thought, since Kai Zein visits the royal castle every year, he would be known to the imperial soldiers or that the king would send out a word of his entry. But not everything went according to his plan.

Now kneeling before the royal's gate, Kai blankly stared at the soldier who scolded him with no mercy whatsoever.

"How dare you pretend to be the great Duke of Zein?! He is not someone you can just impersonate! Do you not know that it is a great crime?!"

Kai smiled helplessly, hoping for all of this to end already. How does one even prove themselves? For a while, Kai thought of a solution for this. It would be great if some hero appears out of nowhere to save him…

He even considered tearing the seal apart to summon Helix. But honestly, he was more afraid of Helix's anger of being summoned for something trivial like this than these soldiers doing their duty in pure ignorance.

Sighing, he decided to wait until these guards calm down so that he can ask one of the people from the castle to verify his identity. His words really have no effect on them after all.

"Duke?"

His brain didn't register that he was the one being called for a while. Until he realized that he was the only duke in the vicinity.

He raised his head and met a pair of deep blue eyes. Those eyes overlapped with the eyes that rightfully belonged to Helix for a second, momentarily confusing him. But the brown hair and blue eyes were all different shades from Helix's. But Kai recognized this young lady immediately.

In the royal family, purple eyes were the symbol of power and absolute rule. This is why Helix's political faction had the largest fraction of power in the kingdom before he abdicated his rights to the throne. But because of his abdication, the royal family was disgraced. Thus, the king altered the beliefs of the entire kingdom shamelessly.

The cooler shade of purple eyes, which the king and his other children had, the blue eyes were made as the symbol instead. While purple eyes were regarded with contempt and the color of the demons.

At first, people found it weird because of the fact that purple eyes were a sign of high-level magic talent. But because religion and demons were involved, they slowly adjusted to being against the color purple.

The color purple is now treated with hostility while the color blue is revered by the entirety of the kingdom.

Now, the young lady before him had eyes resembling the sky. Bright blue but as deep as the ocean. Other than the only princess of this kingdom, who else would it be?

"Princess Edith…"

She truly is a beauty.

Honestly, all characters that were mainly mentioned in the novel are good-looking. That just means that most people in this world are born with a beautiful face…

Edith Rukadius, the second prince's sister and Helix's half-sister. In the novel, she was written as someone who lived in the shadows of her brother. She was gentle and calm. Although her character is sometimes ignored, shallow, and written to be irrelevant, Kai liked her quite a bit. After all, he felt a bit of kinship with her.

He stared at her with a blank look for a while. While the soldiers, although they were shocked by the princess' appearance, they were even more shocked at Kai's identity. Even more the one who was scolding Kai earlier.

"T-The duke! H-Hurry and let him go!" The soldiers scrambled to help Kai up in panic and fear.

Oh, what have they done? He really was the Duke, not some kind of random person pretending!

Kai finally looked at the soldiers standing stiffly while their faces were drenched with sweat. He didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He cleared his throat and looked at the princess,

"They were simply doing their job, weren't they? They seem to be new. I only visit the capital once a year and I didn't even have anything to prove myself. They were right, they have every reason to be suspicious and wary." He looked at the trio before adding on. "They did a good job, actually."

The poor guards who misunderstood him were on the verge of tears, staring at him with watery eyes.

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They looked like children caught in the act of doing something naughty right now in Kai's eyes, honestly.

The princess, Edith, looked at Kai blankly for a while and then briefly shifted her gaze to the trio. And then, after a moment, they were all just surprised when they heard the princess chuckling. "What the duke had said is true. These guards didn't do anything wrong so there will be no punishments." Her smile was kind and gentle as she spoke of these words.

The guards were immediately in tears from happiness. "We are so sorry, Duke Kai! And thank you!"

They kept on and on, showing their gratitude and apologies through words. Kai didn't know how to react to their overwhelming words so he simply smiled, awkwardly. The princess just laughed softly at the reaction of the three guards and Kai's awkward response.

"Well then, Duke. Since you came to the castle, you're here to greet father, aren't you? Let me accompany you. I was also going to meet my father." Edith looked at Kai with a polite smile.

'I met the princess right off the bat… Ah, am I considered lucky because of this or not?'

Within his heart, Kai hoped that he wouldn't act weirdly and out of character while he was with her.

The two walked inside the castle. Kai walked beside her and couldn't help but notice the princess' curly brown hair. Both Helix and the second prince had black hair that resembled the black night sky. But her hair was light and brown. Different from her older brothers. Kai smiled and asked the princess, "Princess Edith, you turned seventeen last winter didn't you?"

While the two kept on walking through the long and large halls of the castle, Edith raised her head to look at Kai. "Mhm, that's right. I have sent you an invitation for the banquet, haven't I?" Kai recalled the letter that a magic bird beast sent to him while he was staying in the castle in the Zein duchy.

It arrived a week before Christmas so Kai remembered it very well.

Kai nods and sighed apologetically. "I have received your letter. I am thankful for your invitation however I let you down. I wasn't able to attend." The original Kai didn't accept as well.

But in Kai's case, he wasn't able to accept because of himself. How could he attend if he can't even reach the nearest village? Not to mention, he was waiting for Helix's arrival. He wouldn't risk leaving and missing Helix's return to the castle.

Edith saw that Kai stopped walking so she followed. Kai closed his eyes and then placed his hand on his abdomen before bowing slightly in front of her. "It's quite late but it's better than never. Princess Edith, happy birthday. May you continue having as many birthdays and happiness for years."

Kai's greeting was both elegant and attractive. The maids and servants that were passing by, curious of what was happening, were surprised and flustered. Kai's hair which normally reached his shoulders was tied with a white ribbon.

The handsome elegance definitely captured some of the passing servant's hearts. No doubt.

The princess' shock only lasted a second. She smiled amiably and nodded her head. "Thank you, Duke. Your words are greatly appreciated and I am happy."

Kai straightened his back and smiled slightly at her. 'For someone so young, she's so calm and mature…' Really, she is a great princess and would be a good ruler.

It's a shame. Edith was only used in the plot if the story talks about politics. It would be a brief cameo too since the novel politics is rarely touched.

Her ending was getting married off in a political marriage.

That's… a really sad ending. Her brother got the throne, and her teacher and his partner lived happily ever after all while Edith is just… there. She was a princess who had no other choice but to follow the future her brother made for her. It was written in the novel that it was for her sake, as well as for the kingdom so her situation was simply ignored while the readers didn't notice her lonesome end.

The second prince of the novel was written to be morally good. But in Kai's perspective, he was someone who would use anybody, as in anybody, even his own sister for his personal interest. Perhaps, because of that, Kai never found himself liking the 'kind and selfless' crown prince.

The two shared a smile and went on their way to the king.