Chapter 4
“I’d Appreciate It If You Kept This a Secret from Grand Duke Hargent”
Annette still couldn’t shake the feeling that she was dreaming, so she hurriedly pinched her own cheek with her fingers.
“Ow!”
Despite her poor physical condition, the strength in her grip was intense enough to make her cheek sting sharply.
Rubbing her cheek with a grimace, Annette looked around in confusion—until her eyes landed on a full-length mirror standing against one wall of the room.
She couldn’t tell whether the bed was unusually high or her own height had shrunk too much, but after struggling and grunting her way down from the bed, she finally stood in front of the mirror.
“…!”
Reflected in the mirror was a small child with red hair hanging messily all the way down to her hips.
Snow-white, translucent skin. Large, round eyes set beneath a smooth forehead. A small, daintily raised nose. Slightly parted crimson lips.
Even though her cheeks were hollow from malnutrition, her delicate and well-balanced features were undeniably beautiful.
Annette couldn’t tear her eyes away from the child with fluttering lashes and red eyes staring back at her. Suddenly, a face surfaced in her mind.
The former queen—whose portrait Franz had treasured so dearly.
〈It’s not a lie. The princess truly looks just like Her Majesty the Queen.〉
‘Come to think of it… the nanny used to say that a lot.’
When Annette was young, the detached palace she lived in had only a tiny mirror, shattered into fragments.
Terrified that she might truly be as grotesque as the maids claimed—a cursed beast like a monster—she had stared into that broken mirror for a long time.
But all she ever saw reflected back was a distorted, misshapen red mass.
‘That’s why I thought the nanny was lying…’
Without thinking, Annette raised her small, maple-leaf-like hand toward the mirror.
Startled, she stumbled backward.
Her rabbit-red eyes trembled violently.
“What in the world is this…?”
“Oh my.”
At that moment, a stranger’s voice came from behind her.
Annette stared blankly at the woman before her.
With softly flowing lavender hair and radiant violet eyes, the woman was breathtakingly beautiful.
So beautiful that even Bridget—revered as the greatest beauty of the Hayworth Kingdom—couldn’t compare.
“You’re already awake? They said it would take much longer for you to regain consciousness!”
The woman’s clear, gentle voice met Annette’s gaze.
Startled, Annette quickly bowed her head.
‘Idiot. Everyone hates these eyes.’
Her obvious attempt to avoid eye contact made the woman hesitate in confusion—just as hurried footsteps sounded from outside.
The bedroom door flew open.
“…!”
Annette reflexively looked up, and her eyes widened at the sight of the man who entered.
Before coming to the Empire, she had been given a brief explanation of the Alkan imperial family.
‘They said the direct imperial bloodline has hair like melted pure gold.’
And the man before her undeniably possessed beautiful golden hair.
‘I heard the Emperor was in his mid-thirties.’
Yet no matter how she looked at him, the man appeared to be in his twenties.
Still, he couldn’t be Grand Duke Hargent. She had been told the duke wore a mask due to his grotesque appearance.
‘Then… is he really the Emperor?’
As Annette stood frozen, unable to decide how to act—
The Emperor of Alkan, Lucius, was equally shocked. He hadn’t expected her to be awake and could only move his lips silently.
Then the woman shouted at him.
“Your Majesty! You can’t just enter a lady’s room like this!”
“I heard the Empress was here and came without thinking…”
At Lucius’s casual reply, Annette snapped back to her senses and dropped to one knee with a loud thud.
“Annette Hayworth, Princess of Hayworth, greets His Majesty the Emperor and Her Majesty the Empress of the Alkan Empire.”
As she hastily offered a formal greeting, Annette grimaced.
Her knee and wrist throbbed sharply against the marble floor—but pain wasn’t the real reason her face twisted.
Only then did she realize she had bowed like a knight.
Since Sarah had taught her only a handful of proper court manners, and she had learned the rest by observation, Annette had never been confident in etiquette. Worse, her long-ingrained habits had resurfaced.
“My goodness—please, get up!”
Empress Charlotte cried out in alarm.
As Annette bit down on the soft flesh inside her cheek, silently berating herself, Charlotte spoke again.
“You were in critical condition. How could you bow like that in this state?”
“…Pardon?”
The unexpected kindness made Annette blink.
Charlotte carefully lifted her up by the arm, as though handling fragile glass.
Annette froze, unsure what expression she was supposed to make.
The warmth of another person’s touch was unfamiliar. So was someone reaching out without hesitation.
“This is all Your Majesty’s fault, you know.”
“I sincerely apologize.”
Lucius immediately responded to his wife’s reproach.
His tone was as polite as his neat features.
Annette was even more surprised—she hadn’t expected the Emperor to speak to her so formally.
And more than that, he wasn’t even looking at her properly. He had turned halfway away, facing the wall.
Tilting her head in confusion, Annette recalled Charlotte’s words and glanced down at herself.
She was wearing a cream-colored nightgown that reached her ankles. It seemed slightly oversized, hiding nearly all traces of her body’s outline.
And for reasons unknown, she had turned into a child—so there was nothing to be embarrassed about in the first place.
Yet Lucius continued apologizing as though he had committed a grave offense.
“The palace physician said you wouldn’t awaken until evening… No, regardless, it was wrong of me to enter without permission. I apologize, Princess.”
Then he added something strange.
“I’d appreciate it if you kept this from Cardin—no, I mean, from Grand Duke Hargent.”
“…What?”
“If he finds out, he’ll undoubtedly go berserk—”
“Your Majesty.”
Charlotte hurriedly cut him off, then winked at Annette and whispered,
“This is a secret too.”
Caught off guard, Annette nodded without thinking and swallowed hard.
“Um… but…”
Don’t you see that I look like a child?
She almost asked, wondering if only she saw herself this way—but her voice trailed off.
What if the monster’s blood had clouded her mind and she was hallucinating? What if she said something strange and was treated like a madwoman?
She worried less about herself than about causing trouble for the alliance.
Fortunately, neither of them seemed to guess what she was trying to say.
‘Right… there’s no way someone would suddenly turn into a child.’
Just as Annette was convincing herself this was an extension of her earlier dream—
“So you really are Sir Hayworth. I suspected it from your hair color, but… anyone would think you’re just a child.”
“…!”
Annette’s eyes flew wide open.
There was only one knight in the Hayworth royal family—herself. “Sir Hayworth” clearly referred to Annette.
A child?!
Staring at her in shock, she saw Charlotte smile gently and ask,
“Could you tell us what happened?”
“Please come this way, Princess.”
Annette nodded and followed the maids Charlotte had assigned to her.
Because they couldn’t wash her without consent, they had at least wiped off the monster’s blood in a hurry. Still, she was filthy with dust and grime, so the Empress suggested she bathe first and explain everything afterward.
As Annette entered the bath chamber, her eyes widened at the sight of the steaming bathtub.
‘Warm water!’
Even after becoming commander of the royal knights, the condition of Annette’s detached palace had never improved.
She rarely stayed there anyway due to monster subjugation missions, so she hadn’t complained—but there was one thing she had always wanted.
To soak her body in warm water.
Even in the dead of winter, sneaking out at night to plunge into a frozen lake just to bathe had been agony.
“Then we’ll assist you with your bath.”
When the maids began preparing scented oils and foam and moved to help her undress, Annette stepped back.
“That won’t be necessary.”
“But—”
“I can do it myself.”
Except for when she was very young and still had her nanny, Annette had never once been attended during a bath.
The maids hesitated, but having already been informed of her true identity, they eventually complied.
The moment they left the room, Annette jumped into the tub.
Perhaps because her body had become that of a child, even her behavior felt younger—but the fluffy bubbles and pleasantly relaxing warmth quickly melted her thoughts away.
Unfortunately, the peace didn’t last long.
Remembering that the imperial couple was waiting, Annette hurriedly finished bathing and stepped out—
Only to be met with an enormous obstacle.
