I raised my voice higher than usual, startled.

“No, what nonsense are you saying!”

Yes, it’s nonsense.

“If I were the eldest daughter of the Yo family, that would be one thing. But publicly, I’m the eldest son, father. And you’re telling me to marry the 13th Prince!”

At that moment, my mother, who had been watching gloomily from the side, grabbed my hand and interjected.

“But Yo Yohwa. You’re in love with His Highness, aren’t you?”

“No, I’m not!”

“I know you’ve been worried about the 13th Prince all this time. Originally, you didn’t want to become His Highness’s teacher. But even though you diligently attended for half a year, you never showed any personal feelings for His Highness in front of us. However, recently, I could see that you were troubled and distressed over the 13th Prince.”

Ah, I was distressed alright. Not because I was in love, but because I was scared!

I was worried too. Not because we couldn’t be together, but because it wasn’t easy to find a way to escape!

But since I couldn’t say these things, I just opened my mouth and gaped like a goldfish.

I think that mother’s strong misunderstanding must have been conveyed to the Emperor through the eunuch.

But marriage between the 13th Prince and me! It’s still nonsense.

However, since it’s hard to speak properly when excited, I tried to calmly ask my father.

“Well, even if that’s the case for me. Why did His Majesty propose such a marriage to me? His Majesty knows that I’m a woman, doesn’t he?”

“Because he knows, he proposed it.”

“What? What does that mean…”

Mother was speaking but still seemed perplexed, drinking the cooled tea and answering on behalf of father.

“His Majesty sent the eunuch, but it was the Empress who proposed this.”

No, again?

Wasn’t it her who assigned me as the 13th Prince’s teacher too?

“The 13th Prince has no mother or maternal relatives to rely on, so he needs to marry a good wife. But the powerful families don’t want to marry their daughters to him, so she was always worried about this. Then when she heard that you were in love with His Highness, she thought it was a good opportunity. You also can’t marry a proper young man from a powerful family anyway.”

I tried to listen carefully, but in the end, I couldn’t help but interject.

“It doesn’t seem like she’s concerned about the 13th Prince, but rather using me to ensure the 13th Prince never ascends to the throne.”

“Yo Yohwa!”

But as soon as I finished speaking, my father scolded me harshly.

“How dare you say such a thing!”

“I’m sorry.”

I apologized reluctantly. But there are eyes and ears everywhere, and talk about the throne shouldn’t be spoken lightly. I understood why my father shouted like that.

“But that’s what I think.”

My mother hurriedly went to the door, opened it and looked outside, then ordered the servant who was there.

“The tea has gone cold, bring a fresh pot. And some sticky rice cakes to eat with it.”

It’ll probably take all day to make those sticky rice cakes.

After the servants retreated, my mother closed the door and came back, and my father finally spoke.

“The 13th Prince was never related to the throne anyway, so why would the Empress need to do that?”

It may look that way now. But in the future, he’s the one who will ascend to the throne, father.

However, since I thought the same as my father in this era before my regression, I just made a sullen expression without objecting.

My mother watched us and then grabbed my father’s arm and said.

“Even if that was the intention, what does it matter? The Empress has no princes, so later there will surely be fierce competition for the throne among the princes. Many people will be entangled in that. But if you marry the 13th Prince, both of you can avoid that bitter wind.”

This… this can be interpreted this way too. Our parents are so positive.

I’m so dumbfounded I can’t even speak. After a while, I managed to ask.

“Does His Highness know that I’m a woman?”

“He probably doesn’t know yet.”

Oh my. I put my hand on my forehead and sat down in the chair.

As I sat there blankly, a servant came in with tea a moment later and said.

“I apologize, madam, sir, young master. The rice cakes are being prepared now.”

I watched the servant set down the teacups and leave, and after he was gone, I asked again in a hushed voice.

“Where did the story that I’m in love with His Highness come from?”

My father answered.

“Apparently, she heard it from several people.”

A false rumor with a source. I don’t know what to say. Who are the blind fools responsible for this?

‘I’ve never been in love with the 13th Prince, so why are such rumors spreading? Did I stare too intently while being cautious? But even if I stared intently, it was only when we were alone, so how could anyone know?

Then I remembered Lady Go. Her surprised expression when she saw me clinging to the 13th Prince.

Then I thought of the 2nd Prince and 6th Prince and couldn’t help but stay silent. I think I know who the culprits are.

Of course, normally even if they heard such things and saw such behavior, they would just think we were close, and wouldn’t link two men together in that way.

But it became an issue because the story reached the Emperor and Empress who know I’m a woman.

I held back tears that were about to fall and asked.

“Can I refuse?”

My father sighed and answered.

“They said you can refuse if your love for the 13th Prince is just a false rumor. But…”

As my father trailed off, my mother continued.

“Your secret has been discovered, and if you refuse the marriage proposal too, you’ll have to be wary of His Majesty for the rest of your life. If you marry the 13th Prince, your secret will become the imperial family’s secret, so they’ll naturally keep it confidential, but if you refuse-”

“If we fall out of favor, they might leak the secret. They could also use this as leverage to control our family.”

Only the family head can see the genealogy, and although I’ve lived disguised as a man all my life, I’m recorded as a woman in the genealogy. In the household register, the Emperor ‘accidentally’ spilled ink to cover the gender section.

I was dressed as a man for the heir issue, but it was a precaution. My parents could have just quietly dressed me as a man, but they specifically got permission from His Majesty for my male disguise because of this aspect.

The reason His Majesty and the Empress can proceed with my marriage to the 13th Prince is probably because they know the genealogy and household register were handled that way.

I don’t know how things got so twisted.

I just tried not to die in vain like in my past life, but now I’m about to become the Emperor’s daughter-in-law while disguised as a man!

Who would dare refuse a marriage proposal from the imperial family without a proper excuse?

“Please give me some time to collect my thoughts.”

“If you don’t want to-”

“I know it’s difficult to refuse. If it were another family, I could use the excuse of a prenatal engagement or a verbal promise to refuse, but I can’t even do that. Anyway, I’d like to think alone for a while.”

After realizing I was different from other ordinary children. To comfort myself, I tried to count the advantages of dressing as a man.

One of the advantages I found was that I wouldn’t have to be entangled in arranged marriages between families. But now things have twisted and I’ve received a marriage proposal from the imperial family.

I immediately went to find Sun An and asked.

“I need a place to escape to right now. Can you find one for me?”

“Are you crazy?”

Sun An looked at me with an expression of utter disbelief. Not just asking, but with a face that seemed genuinely curious if I had gone mad.

“Before you were trying to secure a hiding place, and now you need a place to escape to? Are you perhaps…”

“What? Perhaps what?”

“You’re not trying to elope with the princess, are you?”

Very similar, very similar indeed. Except it’s not a princess but a prince, and it’s not an elopement for love but an escape for survival.

When I dropped my shoulders, Sun An’s eyes widened.

“Is it true?”

“No. More importantly, can you set up a drink for me? I’ll just have one and go.”

“Drink at your own home.”

“I need to think about something.”

“That’s why you should drink at your own home even more.”

Sun An grumbled but eventually had the servants prepare drinks and took me to his room.

“Do you want to drink alone? Or should I join you? Actually, I need to study. Drink alone.”

‘Why did you even ask then?’

Sun An patted my shoulder and went out. Though he said that, he was clearly making up an excuse to give me privacy.

I watched the door close and slowly started drinking, tilting the bottle.

While doing so, I tried my best to find advantages to this marriage. My parents’ positive ability to find advantages in any situation must be in me too.

So let’s find them. What would be good for me if I marry the 13th Prince?

“…”

Hmm. If I marry him, I might not be able to become a state councilor in the future, but would my chances of dying decrease?

That sounds plausible. If I end up marrying him, when he becomes Emperor, the most revenge he could take on me would probably be just giving me a divorce certificate, right?

Oh… that really sounds plausible. If I spend time and effort pretending to be deeply in love with the 13th Prince, he might eventually believe it.

Then he might mistakenly think that giving me a divorce certificate would be a great revenge.

Is it because of the alcohol? The thoughts I had to collect myself are starting to seem really good.

If I keep telling the 13th Prince “I’d rather die than be separated from you, Your Highness” endlessly, later when time passes and he wants to take revenge on me, he might write a divorce certificate and feel triumphant.

‘But what about the bedroom? What should I do about that?’

I pondered again and found a solution.

The 13th Prince isn’t into men, and it’s a forced marriage, so when he doesn’t know I’m a woman, he’ll naturally keep his distance and use separate rooms.

Even if he finds out I’m a woman later… he hates me. He won’t want to share a bed with me, let alone embrace me.

I’ll seize an opportunity to run away anyway.

It feels like the clear liquor is taking away all my worries.

I put down the half-empty bottle and raised both arms to cheer alone. This is really good!

Since I haven’t found a hiding place yet, getting engaged as a precaution will surely help if I fail to escape.

Even if I do run away, they’ll think I ran away because I didn’t want to marry a man, not because we’ve had several lifetimes of bad karma!

“Sun An, thank you! I enjoyed the drink!”

After sorting out my thoughts like that, I returned home feeling a bit elated and sought out my mother.

“Did you drink in the middle of the day?”

Mother frowned as soon as she saw me, but the effects of alcohol had spread enough that I didn’t shrink back at all.

“I needed to think about something.”

At my words, mother’s expression immediately darkened and she pulled my ear to ask.

“Is it because you don’t want to marry His Highness? Did your mother misunderstand?”

“Yes. You misunderstood. But your misunderstanding isn’t important in this matter. The Empress and His Majesty’s misunderstanding is what’s important. You can’t propose marriage to the 13th Prince, can you?”

I quickly ushered mother into a room and asked a servant to bring father.

When father arrived, I closed the door well and solemnly told my parents.

“I will accept the marriage proposal.”

My parents, who had brought it up first, now looked troubled when they heard my answer.

I don’t know where all the power of positivity they showed a few hours ago has gone. Is it because I came back after drinking?

I tried to put on a bright smile for both of them, but got tired of it and just made a request.

“But I have a condition.”

Father nodded.

“Tell me.”

“No matter how well marriage talks go, you never know what will happen before the wedding ceremony. If by chance the engagement breaks off, my secret might leak out and put me in danger. So, I will tell His Highness that I’m a woman when the marriage is fully confirmed, at a time I deem appropriate. Please ask His Majesty the Emperor and Her Majesty the Empress to do the same.”

Since the marriage talks are an affair for parents to handle, there’s nothing more for me to do now.

That night. As the effects of alcohol wore off completely, I lay awake all night and only managed to close my eyes when dawn broke.

But not long after, I had to get up again and prepare to enter the palace for today’s lecture.

However, as the alcohol effects faded, my heart grew heavy again, and my steps towards Wolmugung became heavy as well.

I felt so uncomfortable the whole time that just thinking about seeing the 13th Prince’s face made me feel overwhelmed.

Still, I finally arrived in front of Wolmugung and was about to take a deep breath before entering.

Before I could collect my thoughts, the 13th Prince suddenly emerged from beside the door like a ghost, stared at me with terrifying eyes, and coldly ordered.

“Teacher. Let’s have a talk.”

“!”