Princess Shu

Chapter 2.2 – If Only I Didn’t Love You

And after a time.

Yeri became pregnant with the First Prince’s child. The First Prince was elevated to the sole Crown Prince of the Empire, and Yeri was chosen as the Crown Princess. A lavish royal celebration was thrown, and it was there that an incident occurred that caused gossip to break out into society.

[If only I didn’t love you, then this wouldn’t hurt as much!]

Quite a few people heard the outburst, and there was no one there who didn’t know who the ‘you’ was referring to.

Marquis Garth left the party while holding his wife, who was silently shedding tears in his arms. Since then, the Marquis’ wife had never been seen again in noble society.

‘…I heard that they eventually got divorced.’

Valia knew because society was in an uproar over the scandal. It was extremely rare to see a high-ranking noble such as Marquis Garth get divorced. His wife was also a subject of conversation. It was unknown as to who initiated the divorce, and opinions in society were divided. However, many people leaned towards thinking it was the Marquis himself.

Like a twisted love triangle, the ending was unhappy.

Yeri, the woman of the oracle, was chosen by God. Some people also called her the Saintess. She was a high-ranking person equal to the Imperial Family, and was always surrounded by many admirers. A woman chosen by God, and a woman that was an offering to God. It was a stunningly stark contrast.

The nobles laughed at the former wife of the Marquis. Since the woman had come from a fallen noble family of a small kingdom, she should have been grateful to have become the wife of someone as influential as Marquis Garth in the first place. She was severely mocked for not knowing her place.

But Valia could hardly agree with the nobles’ jeers. Wasn’t it enough of a tragedy that the wife was in agony for loving her husband? The wife was miserable because she loved Marquis Garth. And, as she said, Marquis Garth would have been miserable too. He loved the Crown Princess, who he could never have for the rest of his life.

The same events could be true again in this life. The woman loved her husband, and the Marquis loved Yeri. Perhaps such a tragedy would prevail again in this world.

Valia didn’t empathize well with those who cried over love. She herself had to tread cautiously her whole life, as the state of affairs in the palace changed rapidly. There were more than one or two servant girls who were dragged out of the palace overnight because they supposedly defied their master. There were other servants that were in similar positions with Valia, who didn’t have strong families to protect him.

For Valia, the matter of survival was everything. She didn’t have the luxury to indulge in feelings.

‘…Perhaps she’s different from me.’

Yeri. The woman of the oracle. The Saintess. The First Prince’s lover. The Crown Princess. She was a woman loved by God, and loved by everyone as well. It was no wonder that Marquis Garth fell for her too, if the rumors of society were correct.

‘They’ all ended up miserable in the end…’

Every instance of love that Valia saw was like that—agony and suffering that seemed to tear one’s heart apart, only ending in regret. Maybe that was why Valia had a strange confidence. She was confident that she wouldn’t fall in love.

Valia sighed when she had that thought.

‘So what if I’m confident?’

Valia had only seen Yeri a few times in the past. The first time she spied the Crown Princess was at a royal banquet. A huge celebration was held in the Imperial Court to commemorate the woman of the oracle that was bestowed upon the Empire. Marquis Garth had attended with his wife. The Marquis himself was a man so handsome that his beauty even roused Valia’s fatigued eyes.

“Ah, so what am I supposed to do now,” Valia murmured as she leaned against the wall. In her hand was a letter with the seal of the Imperial Family. A subtle fragrance drifted from the expensive paper.

“The princess selection…”

It was the day when Valia turned eighteen. It was the beginning of her story.

***

Valia stared at the letter. It was just like she remembered.

She couldn’t recall the exact contents of the letter from that past, but it wasn’t that much different from what she jotted down. This princess selection letter did not go to the nobles all at once. The kingdoms of the continent were divided into several groups, and the letters from the Imperial Family were then delivered according to rank. The kingdom where Valia lived was ranked first among them. The standard was unimaginable. She thought it was just random.

“No one volunteered, even in this kingdom,” Valia recalled.

What nobleman would allow his daughter to join this mysterious princess recruitment? Even Carl was against it. In addition, while the process was said to be a princess recruitment, many people called it the “selection of a sacrifice”. Sacrifice. The word was heavy and eerie in people’s minds.

Valia flipped the letter she was holding over and over again. Even if she knew the future, she was still worried.

“The chosen one is not really going to be a living sacrifice, right…?”

Even though Valia knew that it wouldn’t turn out that way, she was still uneasy—everyone was in the face of this grave matter. Because of the letter, Valia resumed her housework with a blank expression all day long.

“Valia, I thought I told you not to cook.”

It was only after Valia heard Carl’s grumbles that she snapped back into awareness. Carl was sitting at the dinner table, stirring his stew with a pinched expression like his tongue had rotted in his mouth.

“Not good?” Valia asked awkwardly.

“As always.”

There was no hesitation in Carl’s reply. Not that there was any surprise; Valia was an awful cook. Even though she took a big step forward and added cream and butter, the completed stew was still unpalatable. She cut the potatoes and carrots well, even the onions, and added seasoning, so where did it all go wrong?

‘Why do I have no talent in cooking?’

Valia held back a sigh. It wasn’t like her sense of taste was weird. The stew certainly tasted like something edible as it was boiled over the fire. However, once it was served at the dinner table, it would gradually taste strange after a bite or two. In the past, Valia wildly suspected that she was cursed.

In any case, Carl took over the cooking once more. The bread was the only dish Valia didn’t fail at making, and she only had to chop raw vegetables for the salad, so there was no problem with the taste. The leafy vegetables were terribly misshapen, but they were edible. Carl had learned several recipes while raising Valia, and quickly stirred up another stew that was two hundred times more delicious than the one Valia made.

Valia took a bite of the stew. And after a moment of silent thought, she opened her mouth to speak.