Mistaken for a Wicked Woman!

Chapter 27

“If you’re here to see his majesty the Emperor, you’re a little late, he’s just gone to bed.”

‘What did they talk about?’

The Empress pressed the corners of her lips together. She tried to hide the anxiety that was creeping inside her heart.

“I have heard that you have become the Young Viscountess Sabrina’s cavalier.”

“You’ve heard about it already? Oh how fast the news travels.”

“For the sake of the future crown princess, perhaps we should avoid the gossips.”

“Young Viscountess Sabrina could be my Crown Princess.”

Vasil replied in a dignified tone.

The troubled Empress finally clenched and unclenched her fists inside her sleeves.

“How can a mere daughter of a viscountess become an imperial princess?”

“Have you forgotten, my mother used to be a Baroness?”

Vasil retorted leisurely.

He then spoke with a beaming smile.

“And Young Viscountess Sabrina is the blood of the Bright Family. She is both the daughter of Viscountess Sabrina and Marquis Bright, and, moreover, she’s the granddaughter of a duke.”

“That’s…”

The Empress pursed her lips, then shut them again.

The crown prince was right.

When nobles of different titles mixed through marriage, it was customary for their children to take the higher titles of their parents.

The Marquis of Bright and Viscountess Sabrina were divorced, so she was raised as a young viscountess.

But since the Bright family had declared them related, Young Viscountess Sabrina was now another Daughter of the Marquis Bright.

Furthermore, once the current Duke of Bright dies, the heir apparent becomes the new Duke.

She would then become the Princess Bright, not just the Young Marchioness Bright.

In terms of status, she was well on her way to becoming a crown princess.

“So don’t let it concern you. His Majesty the Emperor was already pleased to hear about it.”

“What?”

“I just came to tell my father that I’ve just been made as the Cavalier of the Young Viscountess Sabrina, and he was delighted that I’ve finally taken an interest in the opposite sex. ”

‘Damn it.’

The Empress, who realized that she’d been outplayed by the Crown Prince, managed to swallow a series of curses.

She then said in a low tone,

“I see. I guess I’ve walked here in vain.”

The Empress smiled wryly at Vasil, then quickly turned away before her expression could crumble.

“I’m afraid I must return first.”

“Good night, Your Majesty the Empress.”

Vasil bade her good night with a pleasant tone.

The Empress shifted her gait without a word.

She walked back to her palace, while grinding her teeth.

“Hah.”

Vasil closed and opened his eyes lazily. He was quietly watching the Empress’ fading form in front of him.

Then the bush suddenly swayed in the wind, its leaves rustled against each other, and a breeze carrying the scent of flowers blew across his body.

「Shhuahhhhh」

Vasil closed his eyes and listened silently as the spirit told him an interesting story.

‘Yes, yes, yes. Thank you.’

Vasil thanked the spirits as they spoke to him.

The spirits was the one who alerted him about Countess Olette’s visit to Iris, and he had been able to move in time to meet with the Emperor before the empress, because of their help.

“Well done, everyone.”

The spirits chuckled as they heard Vasil’s praise. He flicked his fingers lightly in the air, and a warmth that only Vasil could feel, tickled his fingers.

“Ah, Sylph is now next to Iris.”

The spirits chorused in response to Vasil’s answer.

As he sensed from sylph’s reaction earlier, the spirits seemed to like Iris a lot more than he thought.

By nature, spirits like beautiful things.

That’s why most elementalists are beautiful, and it’s also the reason why spirits prefer to make jewelries their home.

Of course, they don’t just like things that are pretty.

It didn’t really matter if you were ugly on the outside, as long as your soul was strong.

Above all, to be loved by spirits, you had to be on the same wavelength as them.

Gypsies are free-spirited wanderers who lived off the land.

They were the most attuned to the spirits aside from the elementalists themselves.

In that sense, Iris was someone that spirits couldn’t help but to love.

She has a beautiful face, a strong soul, and a gypsy blood.

‘Would you like to protect her like sylphs do, huh? If you don’t want to do that, how about we watch her for a while?’

With a small laugh, Vasil blew on his lips.

The spirits around him glowed like fireflies in the starlight.

The excited spirits giggled and flew off into the brightness.

“This is fun.”

Vasil grinned as he watched the spirits dancing across the night sky.

He thought of Iris again and smirked.

Just thinking about her, who boldly pushed away Countess Olette without any hesitation, brought back faded memories that he had buried deep inside his heart.

“You really haven’t changed at all.”

(T/N: Ohh he knew her before?~)

He smiled, with his golden eyes sparkling in the moonlight.

For the first time in a very long time, his heart pounded inside his chest as if it were alive.

“I can’t wait.”

Vasil murmured excitedly.

“I’m looking forward to the future.”

The next day, the news that his Royal Highness the crown prince was to become the Cavalier of the young Viscountess Sabrina, was published in the papers first thing in the morning.

The newspapers rushed to publish the story.

The reunion of the Bright family with the imperial family was the scoop of the day.

The meeting between the crown prince and another Daughter of the Bright family, was a story that appealed not only to journalists but also to the general public.

Newspapers that published stories about the two sold like hotcakes, with some of the highest revenue in history.

✤

I slowly raised my sword as I breathed in the cold early morning air.

I stared into the empty space and imagined that an enemy was in front of me.

‘Don’t think of it as a weapon, think of it as a part of your body.’

I closed my eyes and my mother’s voice floated inside my mind.

I took a deep breath and exhaled as I tried to remember everything she’s taught me.

With a grunt, I lunged my sword forward.

As I stepped forward, I swung my sword and pivoted my body, using my right foot as an axis to make a turn.

Each movement of the sword made a sound that cut through the air.

The flow was uninterrupted, never stopping and slicing through the air again and again.

Swish.

I turned once more, while thinking about the right trajectory I had to draw with the sword.

I stretched out my hand and the sword trembled.

‘If you don’t have enough strength, you have to be faster than everyone else, and that’s how you win.’

The first time I held a sword, I was six years old.

I was much younger than I was now, I thought that learning swordsmanship would allow me to follow my mother out of the estate.

‘House Sabrina’s swordsmanship is light and swift.’

My mother neither liked nor disliked my desire to learn the sword.

Without another word, she took me to the training grounds and gave me an overview of House Sabrina’s swordsmanship.

‘To embody our family’s swordsmanship, you must have a flexible wrist.’

‘Imagine drawing a flower with a sword Just like that.’

My mother was only at the manor for three or four months a year. Life on the estate was tight, and we were pretty much dependent on the money she made from her mercenary work.

Even without that, she wasn’t the type to stay in one place for long.

Still, whenever she came to the manor, she would take me to the training hall.

So we always spent some time in there.

In retrospect, I suppose that was her way of being a parent.

I learned basic swordsmanship from the captain of the Guards in the Manor, and once I had gained enough skill, we could invite knights to teach me.

But most of them didn’t fit in on our estate and quickly left.

So I ended up training on my own, filling in the gaps whenever my mother was not around.

Then once she returns, I would learn more from her.

She did care about me to some extent while she was at the estate.

But we were not close.

We were more like master and apprentice than parent and child.

‘Today we will learn the sword arts of the Eastern Continent.’

After traveling the empire as a mercenary for so long, my mother had learned so many different types of swordsmanships.

I learned other skills from her besides the swordsmanship of the House Sabrina, sometimes not even swordsmanship, but archery, spearmanship, and fencing.

In any case, the time spent training with my mother was invariably enjoyable, and If I had to put a name to it, it would be more like a vivid memory.

‘You’re Wendy’s daughter?’

‘Who are you?’

‘Oh, I used to work with Wendy. I’m going north for a job this time.’

A mercenary with ties to my mother would occasionally come to the estate.

They would tell me that they had been tasked by my mother to teach me swordsmanship for a while.

Since I was always thirsty for learning, I gladly took them as my teachers.

“Ha!”

I stomped off the ground and stretched my sword towards the sky, the blade was shimmering white in the sunlight.

‘You’re getting better every time I see you.’

‘Will this be enough to make me a knight?’

‘Knight? Of course. You’ll be able to join the imperial knight division.’

‘Really?’

‘Well, then. You’re probably the best in your class.’

The more I learned about swordsmanship, the more I realized how amazing my mother was.

To me, she was someone who could never be defeated.

I couldn’t believe it whenever she told me that I had a talent for swordsmanship.

I took the selection test because it was my long-held dream to become a knight, but I also wanted to know how good I was.

‘Good.’

My body is lighter than I thought. I was worried because I hadn’t been able to hold a sword well lately, but it seemed that my skills hadn’t gotten rusty after all.

I took a deep breath and let it out to steady my breathing.

Then, I heard it.

Clap, clap.

“Who? Ah—”

I turned at the sound of the applause from behind me, and there stood the Duke Bright.

“I see you’ve got the basics down, and your movements are fluid.”

“Thank you.”

How long had he been watching me?

I felt a little embarrassed by the Duke Bright’s compliment.

“Did you learn your swordsmanship from Wendy?”

“I learned it from my mother, and I learned it from the captain of the guards… And others…”

“I see.”