Simon staggered, shocked.

It was too early to be surprised.

“I will personally conduct His Highness’s swordsmanship instruction as well.”

“Do you think swordsmanship is like sewing or flower arranging? Without proper training, one cannot become a good knight!”

“It doesn’t matter if he doesn’t become a good knight.”

“What?!”

“Our Highness is destined to be an emperor, not a knight.”

She stroked Franz’s golden hair, soft as a hummingbird’s feathers.

Simon huffed, seemingly unable to come up with a suitable retort.

“This is overstepping your bounds!”

“How can it be overstepping when it’s His Majesty’s decision?”

Franz, who had been quietly listening, made a sullen face.

“Can’t I continue learning swordsmanship? Sir Brenden is a good teacher.”

“You heard him, didn’t you? His Highness wants me too!”

Simon straightened his slumped shoulders.

Pfft. I could only snort in derision.

“Nothing changes. I’m still the education officer.”

“Miss Elizabeth, why are you being so unreasonable? This is not a matter for a woman to recklessly interfere in.”

“Are you deliberately choosing harsh words?”

“I meant well, so don’t take it personally.”

The nobles’ vulgar true nature, wrapped in all sorts of formalities, was often revealed in just a few words.

Unreasonable? Woman? Reckless?

I pointed out coldly:

“If you know it’s offensive, shouldn’t you refrain from saying it?”

Simon glared at me with eyes full of hostility and blatant anger.

“You’re going too far.”

“I said that for Sir Brenden’s sake.”

“I know well that Miss Elizabeth is favored by His Majesty. But you can’t treat His Highness’s trusted swordsmanship instructor like this.”

“Sigh… Since you don’t understand, let me clarify.”

It seemed I wasn’t entirely lacking in teaching qualities.

Seeing that I wasn’t particularly angry even with a slow student.

“First, I only conveyed His Majesty’s decision.”

“……”

“Second, don’t assume I won’t be able to teach swordsmanship. I’ve learned methods perfectly suited for His Highness.”

“Who taught you what?”

The impatient student with poor comprehension interrupted.

“I’m not finished. Wait to ask questions.”

“!”

“Third, growth is more important for His Highness than intensive swordsmanship training.”

“Are you saying my instruction was wrong?”

“Very wrong. What were you doing letting His Highness… no, your young disciple’s hands end up like this?”

“……”

“If you didn’t know, that’s a problem, and if you did, it’s an even bigger problem. You said you’d tell His Majesty? You said His Highness is the empire’s future?”

“There seems to be some misunderstanding…”

“What misunderstanding? Why did you pretend not to know when the Crown Prince’s Palace was in uproar? Did you gloss over it because you’re a noble man?”

I pressed Simon with a fierce momentum.

The man who had been flirting, calling me beautiful and a descended goddess, trembled.

I drove the final nail into him.

“For your information, His Majesty personally taught me the swordsmanship instruction method. So that I could teach even if I’d never touched a sword before.”

Franz looked up at Elizabeth with a dazed expression.

“What are you trying to do?”

“Stay still. It’s an ointment I specially ordered for a friend.”

Elizabeth forcibly pulled Franz’s hand.

He could have shaken her off if he wanted to.

But with ‘this woman’, he just couldn’t do it.

‘She’s a strange woman. Butting in whenever she wants, acting like she knows everything. But why isn’t it annoying? Why is it cool?’

She applied medicine and wrapped bandages on wounds that no one had bothered to look at.

Franz asked gruffly.

“Don’t you know you can be executed for treating me so casually?”

“You’re speaking informally too.”

“I’m the Crown Prince. You’re just an education officer from a commoner background.”

“How petty. What happened to whining ‘How long do I have to wait, Teacher Elizabeth?'”

Elizabeth mimicked Franz’s voice, as if finding it funny even now.

Franz pressed his pink lips together.

‘It’s only because elder brother asked. He told me to monitor so the literature professor and Elizabeth’s conversation wouldn’t get too long!’

He couldn’t understand why Nikolai made such a request.

He was just overjoyed that his revered elder brother wanted his help.

There had been a change in their relationship that seemed to have grown distant forever.

It all happened after Elizabeth arrived.

“Actually, you want to look good to your father, right? If you appoint me as education officer, I’ll make the Emperor the biggest doting father in the empire.”

Elizabeth’s whisper came to mind again.

She didn’t know that Franz wasn’t Nikolai’s biological son.

Franz didn’t know what ‘doting father’ meant either.

But the phrase stirred up an inexplicable longing.

It also touched on a shy wish he had secretly harbored.

‘Everyone thinks I hate elder brother, but I like him the most in the world. He’s my idol. How did Elizabeth know that?’

Until his mother passed away six years ago, Franz lived with her in the Canary Room.

The only visitor to the locked Canary Room was his half-brother Nikolai.

Until his death, the former emperor didn’t grant his young concubine the qualification of empress.

He didn’t recognize 4-year-old Franz as a prince either.

Ironically, thanks to that discrimination, he was registered as Nikolai’s son.

But what meaning did that have?

Franz was always alone in the imperial palace teeming with packs of hyenas.

Whenever he felt lonely, he visited the Canary Room.

In that room where time seemed to have stopped, he traced his mother’s scent that might still remain.

A new owner appeared in the Canary Room that had been empty all along.

The shock and sense of betrayal from that day were indescribable.

‘I thought she was a vulgar woman coveting elder brother’s power… What is Elizabeth’s true identity?’

From a very young age, Franz was surrounded only by servants receiving salaries and flatterers seeking advancement.

There were also assassins hiding knives behind smiling faces.

This shameless and beautiful woman was the first to find that out and raise her voice for Franz.

“If it weren’t for me, things could have gone badly. Aren’t you going to thank me?”

“Hmph. Do you know why I hid it from His Majesty?”

“You wanted to find the culprit and prove it. That Franz Lob Yevrei is such a capable and wise Crown Prince.”

“Is that all?”

“You didn’t want to show your whimpering side either. Especially not to His Majesty, whom you love so much.”

Elizabeth was right again.

But Franz shook his head with a serious face.

“I’m not foolish enough to risk my life for just that.”

“What’s the other reason then?”

“His Majesty couldn’t uncover their background either. Even though several confessed. What do you think this means?”

“That you’re a popular type among assassins?”

“Is that something to say to a 10-year-old?!”

Franz flared up.

Elizabeth chuckled and pinched Franz’s cheek.

“You think I’ll treat you like a child when you only call me teacher when it’s convenient for you, you little old man?”

Franz frowned as he swatted Elizabeth’s hand away.

He didn’t show that her giggling made her seem like a peer.

“It means they’re not to be underestimated. I was waiting for them to make a mistake. Only then could I properly catch those behind it.”

Franz boasted.

Elizabeth clicked her tongue.

“You know one thing but not two, you foolish fellow. Tsk tsk.”

The woman who seemed like a friend just now looked like an old man with a long white beard.

“Franz. The ones who confessed are just the lowest of the lowest pawns. Even if they make mistakes, you can’t uncover the mastermind.”

“But…”

“You invited danger. If you didn’t have a mischievous image, they would have noticed you were plotting something. What would have happened after that?”

“…You mean I would have been silenced?”

“What couldn’t those who poisoned the Crown Prince do? While you were trying to solve it alone with false bravado, something really bad could have happened.”

Franz vaguely knew too.

That he couldn’t solve anything alone.

He was very upset at having that fact exposed.

But his opponent was Elizabeth.

He somewhat understood that showing off would be useless against her.

“I’m grateful for that point.”

“Oh my! What did you say, Your Highness? I can’t hear you well?”

“I-I said thank you!”

Franz raised his voice abruptly.

Elizabeth, who he thought would pinch his cheek again, ruffled Franz’s golden hair.

“Good boy. You know how to say thanks too.”

A kind word with added warmth.

Tears welled up.

The relief of having someone who understood his heart choked his throat.

Perhaps Franz just needed an adult who would pat his head and say he was good.

A trustworthy adult who would sometimes scold and sometimes caress.

“Still, getting rid of Sir Brenden was too much. What were you thinking doing that?”

“I’m sorry, but that person isn’t as excellent a teacher as you think, Franz.”

“Sir Brenden was the only one who encouraged me that I could become a good knight.”

“That’s typical false hope.”

“How cynical.”

“Admit it, Franz. You have no talent for swordsmanship.”

Nikolai was not only the emperor but also an outstanding swordsman who could hold his own against the strongest knights.

Franz had heard countless times that he showed exceptional skills from a young age.

He wanted to become a strong man like his elder brother.

He endured grueling training, gritting his teeth.

‘Even though I’m not his biological son or brother, I wanted to prove that the same blood flows in me as in elder brother. That I am of the emperor’s bloodline.’

Despite having other fields he liked, Franz clung only to swordsmanship.

The more he did so, the deeper his physical and mental wounds became.

His grades in other subjects fell further, and his sense of self-loathing grew day by day.

“His Majesty said so too. That you don’t need to try so hard.”

Elizabeth put her hand on Franz’s head once more.

“The elders want to depose me and install a new crown prince. They say a weakling like me can’t become emperor…”

“Do you think His Majesty would be swayed by such small fry?”

“You call the heads of noble families small fry?”

“You don’t need to worry either. We can just sweep away those things.”

“!”

“If we ask His Majesty, he might send them far away into exile. Shall we try an experiment?”

Mischief glinted in Elizabeth’s eyes, black as pearls.

Franz’s face reddened as if it was absurd.

“Are you telling me to become a tyrant? The empire can’t be run by the emperor alone. It’s also the monarch’s role to persuade the nobles.”

“I see why His Majesty chose you as his successor.”

“What?”

“If it were me, I’d want someone as clever as you to succeed me too. Even without a drop of shared blood.”

She probably didn’t mean it, but it choked him up.

He turned his gaze away to hide his overwhelming joy and ticklish embarrassment.

“Elizabeth. Can you really teach me swordsmanship?”

“I learned the teaching method from His Majesty, but I plan to do it roughly.”

“Roughly?”

“We have other things to do in that time.”

Elizabeth brushed back her fallen hair.

Franz thought her red hair, like a ripe apple, was as beautiful as his mother’s golden hair.

That too was a strange thing.

“What’s that?”

Curiosity filled his chest.

He didn’t know that was also part of Elizabeth’s plan.

Even if he had known, he might have pretended to go along with it.

Elizabeth always had that kind of magic about her.