"I'm going to restore your title as a Princess". The Empress Dowager looked at me with a serious and firm gaze. "I know the hardships you've encountered. No one treated you properly as a person and I also know it's so sudden to restore your title. But it's the only way..." 'The only way for what?' I asked to myself. "Can you forgive this old lady's mistake and let me repay the pain I've caused you in the past?" The Empress Dowager said. 'Ah~...' "Are you trying to restore my title as a bribe for neglecting me for the past 16 years?" I asked with the most sarcastic tone, but I could heard her sigh and stayed silent.
How fun she must had think it was, to torture Poinsettia all the way she wanted and stuffed this poor child with poison then returned the Princess title back and wanted to rule the empire together.
"Princess, it is true that I have a feeling of debt for the times you have been through. But I'm not trying to restore your title as a bribe," The Empress Dowager finally opened her mouth. "..." "True that the 1st Prince has the qualities of an emperor. But after you woke up and I heard the reports about what you had been doing over the past month," The Empress Dowager continued. 'You mean the doing of me beating people?' I talked to myself.
4 servants who disobeyed my words, including Marie, a maid who was beaten to the point where she couldn't open her eyes. 5 maids who put her backs on me, a librarian who pushed me by shoulder while passing by, and some nobles who chatted when I passed.
While my mind was wondering away, The Empress Dowager continued her words. "The Princess was able to learn all about the situation of the empire within a week and discussed it with some scholars." "Oh yes that. Sure," I replied. The nobles I met in the library irritated me and they gave me cold glares just when I waked in and out the place. I wouldn't forget how they also prevented me from borrowing books and uttered rudeness. The original Princess may have stayed quiet, but not me whom seek for violence or whatever to repay their actions.
After the meeting with the Empress Dowager was over, I headed to the library as usual and of course this time none of them treated me rudely. I was busy reading until some guys who heard the rumor about me came to check it themselves. "I heard the rumor of the first princess who was a fool has became a genius," said one of them while looking at me. I remained calm and focused on my book, but they kept spitting out nonsense around me. That in the end I shut the mouth of the one whom talked most and left the library.
On my way I spotted the second son of the Count Oscar's family and the third son of the Count Lynton's family at the outside garden, they look particularly in good terms. They noticed my presence then approached me in a polite manner.
"I heard about the rumor about the first princess," the second son of the Count Oscar's family said. "..." "Right. The rumor about how amazing you were handling those scholars. I thought that the princess indeed Empress Belladonna's daughter and she was inherited with the intelligent. Those who ignored Her Majesty the Princess were well punished," the third son of Count Lynton's added.
Somehow, after the day I had breakfast with The Empress Dowager, invitation for having meal together kept coming. A new rumor had spread as well, the rumor that I had interest on the 1st Prince. Because of that The Empress Dowager had to punished those who heard or spread the rumor.
As the future successor and a Princess, Empress Dowager insisted for me to have at least one knight by my side. So she gathered some young healthy men at the garden. "I had gathered some of the knights for you to choose," The Empress Dowager said. I took a look of them, there was one problem. They were chosen to serve The Empress Dowager and listened to her, not to me. Putting one of them by my side as her spy. I rejected her offer, because I needed a strong and trustworthy person beside me who would get star if I told him to.
I got to find my own personal knight in the end, one person who met my standards, who was not from the nobles, who was from nothing. "Hi," I greeted him. He looked at me cluelessly. "Who are you?" He asked. "I'm Poinsettia and I want to buy you," I answered.
His eyebrows frowned, as if he displeased. "Leave." "You said you can use sword," I said. "No. As you can see, I am just a thief and a thug. I threat those with a knife to get money from them. So leave now," he replied.
He maybe looked like from nothing and no one, he wore a worn out black shirt, but he had the promising future as the eldest son of Schaumberg family, the family that famous for their swordsmanship history. He and his family might be forgotten, but at the age of 15, he was the genius of swordsmanship who beat all the adults and won the swordsmanship contest.
"I'll pay off all your family's debt, I'll make you your own sword, so stop being whatever you are doing now," I said. "It's useless with a fair amount of money. This damn piles of debt that come down from my grandfather's days," he said. I gave a look to the knight who wore black robe to disguised himself, he placed a pocket of gold coins in front of the man.
"I know, Noah. There are many of those so take them and pay for everything," I said. Noah, the man's name opened the pocket and counted the money. "20 billions carta!?" He looked at me with an unbelievable face. "Now go home, your sisters must have missed you so much," I said and about to leave when Noah held my hand.
"Since I was a child, I hoped to live and die honorably as a knight," he uttered. Sorry no romance fluttering moment, instead I felt boring listening to his story since I knew about all his past glory but thankfully his handsome appearance that stopped me from being rude. "I tried to continue with the pride of my family but in the end the debt broke my family and caused the whole family to be scattered. It was really frustrating to not knowing what happened to my younger siblings, what were they doing, how were they, and how bad things were done." "Okay," I responded. "Is it really okay to start over?" He asked. "It's fine," I answered. "May I ask again what is your name?" He asked again. "Poinsettia. Don't ask again in the future because I don't like to repeat the same thing," I answered. "I will keep that in mind. I will follow you with all life I have under the honor of a knight," he said. "Okay. Just wait when I call for you and officially appoint you as my knight." I finally left the place.
10 days later..
Noah definitely looked different from the first day I met him, it worked for him to. Some men in robes approached him and guided him to the imperial palace all of sudden. There he stood, looked at me speechlessly, the young girl who was standing with a frivolous tone and looking down on others had turned into a royal daughter who suited well with a golden dress like a winged dress. He had long forgotten about the girl he saw that day, showing graceful gestures and speech as if he was from a noble bloodline.
"Long live Her Majesty the Princess and the Empress Dowager." I could thought how amazed he was at the fact that his master was actually the princess of the empire. Afterward, Noah was officially awarded the title of 1st Princess Imperial Knight and finished his oath by kissing the back of my hand. He stood and proudly tried to fulfill his role.