The Emperor’s Lady-in-Waiting Is Wanted as a Bride: Volume 4 by Kanata Satsuki

Author:Kanata Satsuki [SATSUKI, KANATA]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: J-Novel Club
Published: 2022-04-07T00:00:00+00:00

The room they’d used for the ritual was to be a guest room, and the smaller room beside it was intended for the servant of said guest. It wasn’t cramped by any means, however—especially without any furniture in it. Lyse couldn’t help thinking Egbert deserved a grander setting to discuss anything important. After all, he’d been born and raised to be the emperor. That was how she’d seen him all his life.

Egbert stepped into the room and let out a sigh. “There’s something calming about small, cozy rooms like these,” he said. “Do you remember how I used to always pester you to play hide-and-seek?”

“Yes, Your Majesty. You would always try to sneak up on me...”

It was less of hide-and-seek and more a game of cat and mouse to him. So Lyse thought, though she didn’t dare say so out loud. It wasn’t that she thought Egbert would take offense. Merely that she didn’t want to be disrespectful to the emperor.

He stared longingly out the window. “All through my childhood, everybody told me that my mana was even stronger than my father’s. I always felt that I had to prove my strength by besting the adults around me. How wrong I was...” That was something he’d come to realize over time.

“Most wise, Your Majesty. The only foes you need to best are monsters and the enemies of your subjects,” Lyse said with a bow.

“That’s not wisdom. An emperor ought to understand that much implicitly, but it eluded me as a boy. Foolishly, the only thing on my mind at that age was beating Qatora—the ultimate glory in my mind.”

“Boys will be boys, after all.” Lyse believed it would have been worse to have no mettle. The only people who’d ever outranked Egbert were his parents, and most folks would have been satisfied with such a peerless existence—complacent with their abilities and happy to stagnate. But Egbert sought to be better, as befitting a man destined to take the Razanate throne. “As a child, I was always desperate to best my brother in sword fighting as well.”

“That’s right, isn’t it?” Egbert said, laughing. “I suppose I only had defeating Qatora in mind, but Sidis... He was too good at hiding for his own good. He’d always crawl out of his hiding spot teary-eyed, and you’d always be there to console him. I was envious. I... I couldn’t bring myself to admit that I wanted to be spoiled too.”

From the day Egbert was born, great expectations had been placed on him. Had he been a more delicate child, he might have gotten the affection he longed for. But he was strong and obstinate. Qatora had sympathized with that.

I thought I’d let him have his way.

Young though he’d been at the time, the emperor-to-be was still deserving of respect. Chastising his stubbornness might have wounded his pride. But in the end, he was only human, and humans—especially children—can harbor great loneliness.

“And so I made a promise to myself back then. If I could best Qatora, I would allow myself to be pampered.

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