The tyrant Wants To Live Honestly Chapter 12

My body didn’t get better easily.

 

After taking sleeping pills, starving for three days, barely surviving on milk and bread, fighting Danny, then walking the wasteland all day—it was only natural that my body couldn’t stand it.

 

Even after returning to the palace, I suffered from a high fever for nearly a week before my temperature finally dropped to a low-grade fever.

 

The body gradually returned to recovery, but there were no noticeable changes.

 

“Princess, are you okay?”

 

asked the new nanny.

 

The nanny who took care of me for a long time before was cut off at the Imperial Palace for this kidnapping.

 

It’s not even the nanny’s fault. There wouldn’t have been anything a nanny could do.

 

I didn’t feel good because I felt like I had one more fault.

 

Fortunately, the nanny was not punished further.

 

“I think it would be better to go to recuperation and fully recover.”

 

“Is it a cure? But the princess just went through something like that… Shouldn’t she stay in the Imperial Palace?”

 

The doctor and the new nanny muttered in small voices.

 

‘Recuperation?’

 

The two were pretty careful about discussing recuperation, but the word caught my ears.

 

If I go to recuperate, at least I won’t be staying in this palace, and I will be able to distance myself from Carnan and Ray, and from Theon and Julia who are attending Episteme.

 

And…

 

‘I have to be strong.’

 

I realized this, even if I want to live a good life, I need strength.

 

Until now, I was afraid that if I became strong, I would not be able to properly handle that power again.

 

I fear that I will gain the strength to be able to decapitate others and enter the path of tyranny again.

 

But power is like a sword.

 

If used incorrectly, it harms people, but if used well, it can cook delicious food, serve people, and protect people in crisis.

 

‘I can go to recuperate to increase my strength.’

 

Here, there is Carnan’s Eye, Ray, and Theon come to visit.

 

As long as they are here, I don’t have the courage to pick up a sword.

 

“I’m going to recuperate.”

 

“Princess!”

 

“It’s so frustrating here.”

 

This is the first time I have properly expressed my opinion after the kidnapping, so the nanny and the doctor looked at each other and shared their thoughts.

 

Then someone knocked.

 

“Knock, knock—hello! Flowers, coming through~”

 

The door opened and Ray, whose face was covered with a rich bouquet of flowers, came in.

 

“Ta-da”

 

Ray gave a bouquet of flowers and smiled softly, but I didn’t smile at all.

 

His behavior only seemed foolish.

 

He’d come to see me every day— since I went through the kidnapping, and it was unbearably annoying.

 

“Your Highness, Prince Raymond,” the nanny greeted.

 

“Dorothy, are you okay today?”

 

Ray seemed awkward at my lack of response and handed the bouquet to the nanny as he spoke.

 

He must have come straight from his Episteme classes; he wore a white shirt with the Episteme badge pinned to it.

 

“What were you talking about?”

 

He came naturally to me, sat down, and smiled. But I didn’t look at him.

 

“We were talking about how to recuperate because the princess is not feeling well.”

 

“recuperate?”

 

“At the same time, there is a separate palace in Ceritian that is good for recuperation. The climate is mild and it is near the beach, so the princess will feel refreshed.”

 

“Still, Dorothy’s health has improved a lot. Does she need to go?”

 

Ray seemed to be subtly opposed to my recuperation.

 

“I want to go.”

 

“But Dorothy, if you go there, you are alone.”

 

“I do not care.”

 

It’s not as if staying here means I’m not alone

 

“Dorothy…”

 

Ray stared at me.

 

The eyes were like a puppy begging for food, so I frowned.

 

‘why do you look at me with those eyes?’

He shifted his gaze back and forth, then seemed to think of something.

“Oh, right. You’ll be able to go to Episteme soon too. You’re finally old enough to take the entrance exam this year.”

‘Ha, Is that supposed to be the reason I stay here? Episteme?’

 

I burst into laughter.

 

“I’m not going to Episteme.”

 

“Why not? Dorothy, you could enter at the top of your class. You’re smart, after all—”

 

“I can’t go.”

 

“yes?”

 

“I can’t go.”

 

“Why do you think you can’t go…?”

 

Why do you think you can’t go?

 

“Did you get scared because Episteme studies are too hard?”

 

Ray asked innocently—so innocently that it’s annoying.

 

Ray had quite a hard time getting into the Episteme. He’d barely passed the entrance exam, scraping by right at the cutoff score.

 

And that was after relentless, brutal private tutoring funded by the Imperial family.

 

The Empire’s long-standing tradition dictated that the Crown Prince may drop out of Episteme, but he may not refuse to enroll.

 

So Ray, who could handle spirits from an early age, had been forced to study all day with private tutors.

He hated that time.

He’d even complained to me more than once about how much he didn’t want to study.

Without having the slightest idea how I felt.

“I barely made it, but you’re smart, Dorothy. You can definitely do it. Don’t give up so easily.”

 

“Give up… easily?”

 

The tip of my lips twisted at his gentle comfort.

 

‘Did I give up easily? Episteme? Do you know how hard I studied to get in there?’

 

‘Do you know how much I cried and protested the day Carnan ordered me not to go in?’

 

There have been times when I secretly escaped to take a test, but was caught and locked up in the room again.

 

‘Do you know how much I had to let go of…How long it took me… To give up on Episteme completely?’

 

But what? give up easily? He who has everything easy can’t understand me.

 

“I have nothing more to say to you. Get out, Ray.”

 

“Dorothy…”

 

“Get out!”

 

When I shouted sharply, Ray’s eyes widened in panic.

 

The nanny and the doctor beside us stared at me in shock as well.

 

“I’m sorry, Dorothy… I didn’t mean to upset you. I just wanted you to stay here with me.”

 

Ray bowed her head and apologized.

 

The nanny and the doctor’s expressions then change to sympathy.

 

‘Ha… there it is again. I’m the bad one.’

 

A good older brother who worries about his younger sister and a younger sister who is hysterically annoyed.

 

This is the relationship between the legitimate Crown Prince and the illegitimate princess.

 

I really hope I can be so kind and pure at heart.

 

I bit my lip and didn’t say anything.

 

“I’ll just leave.”

 

Ray looked at me and quietly stood up.

 

As Ray left, the nanny approached.

 

“His Majesty Raymond did this because he was worried about the princess.”

 

‘I know. I know!’

 

Ray is good and I am bad. It’s the truth everyone knows. I didn’t want to hear the kind and kind nanny’s comfort, so I covered my head with the blanket.

 

I now had a very good reason to go recuperate.

 

* * *

 

In this respect, I was grateful for Carnan’s indifference.

 

Carnan threw it away as if it was up to me to go to recuperation or not.

 

Soon after discussion with the nanny and some of the servants, my recuperation was decided.

 

I headed to the south palace, which occasionally serves as the summer vacation home of the imperial family.

 

“Welcome, Princess Dorothea.”

 

The steward of the detached palace welcomed me and opened the door.

 

A white stone building stood facing the emerald sea.

 

There was no Ray and no Carnan here.

 

There are no old memories buried in the Imperial Palace.

 

The Imperial Palace was not only the place where I was born and raised, but also the place where I killed Ray and where my love Theon died.

 

It was also where my people and servants came in and made me knelt wildly and marched to the square.

 

Looking back, I was amazed at how I had survived that nightmare until now.

 

I purposely didn’t go to places where bad memories remain…

 

‘I’m so glad I came here.’

 

The more I thought about it, the more satisfied I was, and I took a deep breath of fresh air.

 

I needed a place without old scars.

 

“My name is Clara, who will accompany the princess here.”

 

A woman in a white apron greeted me.

 

Clara was the first maid who came down from Lampas, and was not originally in charge of me.

 

She looked young—probably someone who’d been pushed out here after losing standing in the hierarchy.

 

“From now on, you will be staying in this room.”

 

They led me to a room with a terrace overlooking the sea. It was a clean, sunny room. A cool sea breeze blew in from the open terrace.

 

I was satisfied because the scenery was completely different from my room in the Imperial Palace.

 

While looking around the room, someone knocked on the door.

 

I turned around and saw a man big enough to fill the door.

 

“This is the knight Stefan Greenwall, the knight who will be guarding Your Highness at close range.”

 

Clara introduced me to an escort knight who would be by my side while I was staying in the private palace.

 

Short black hair and dark skin. Scars passing through the eye area.

 

Overwhelmingly tall, broad shoulders, and strong muscles.

 

“Stefan…!”

 

I almost called out to him without thinking.

 

My escort is Stefan!

 

A person who will rise to the rank of deputy commander of the Knights of Brilliance, the best knights in the Empire.

 

He was one of the top five most talented people I’ve known in my entire life.

 

Coming from someone who had once been Emperor, that meant even considering the entire world, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration.

 

But I didn’t like him.

 

Because Stefan also died at my hands.

 

before returning. My relationship with Stefan was not very deep.

 

At that time, I led the army to the Lampas and occupied the Imperial Palace at once. And the last thing left is Raymond.

 

Stefan was a knight who stood guarding the last gate to Ray.

 

“Good to see you, Sir Stefan.”

 

I wiped the blood from my sword as I greeted him.

 

It wasn’t our first meeting.

 

I was interested in him because he was quite famous inside and outside the Knights, but Stefan was not the kind of person I could get along with.

 

His towering height and tightly sealed lips were exactly the same then.

 

“The princess said hello, but you didn’t answer. You still are not polite.”

 

“…..”

 

“You’re arrogant.”

 

I didn’t like Stefan who was silent.

 

When I see Stefan who doesn’t answer, I think he doesn’t think that the princess’s words are worth listening to.

 

I remembered a lot of “silent things” that blocked me.

 

Instead of answering my words, Stefan took out a sword that was much longer than that of an ordinary sword.

 

* * *