Chapter 3

Author: gucchi

TL: N. Irene

When His Majesty waved his hand, the entourage left the audience chamber, however a few of them still remained.

Ah, that’s no good.

Thinking so, I quickly added another request, “Please tell the chief lady-in-waiting to leave as well.”

His Majesty waved his hand again with an expressionless face as if my voice had never been heard.

It seemed as if he was ordering whom to leave by the number of times he waved his hand.

“Do I need to leave as well, Your Majesty?” asked the chief-lady, “Why” written all over her face.

With a blank, expressionless face, His Majesty replied.

“I just remembered that I had something to deliver to the crown prince and his wife.”

I don’t know if he really had such a errand or he just make up with it, however, the chief-lady was still reluctant to leave.

“I will do the errand later.” said the chief=lady.

“…Now.”

“What?”

“Didn’t you hear me say ‘now’?”

“Y-yes!”

After being reminded by His Majesty, who had clearly gotten annoyed, the chief-lady immediately left.

She didn’t forget to give me an ugly glare as if I was an idiot.

In the spacious audience chamber, the only people left besides me and the His Majesty, was the Commander of the Imperial Knights and one other person.

Dr. Renkin, a doctor who was also the chief chamberlain.

He was always by His Majesty’s side, who was very old.

For the time being, His Majesty assured the two of them that everything was going to be alright.

“Now, Sofia,” he said. “This is the first time you have said something like this. I am sure that there is something wrong with you, what’s wrong?”

“There is a problem.” said Sofia.

“What do you mean?”

“First of all, please take a look at this.”

His Majesty placed me down on the floor, and I took of my dress on the spot with a great deal of vigor.

What was revealed under the oversized dress were my thin hands and legs that looked so thin they seem to break off any moment.

My ribs were raised and my abdomen seemed distended.

My body was covered with bruises and the skin was dry.

My body was clearly malnourished and abused.

The three of them gasped loudly and stared.

How had no one noticed till now?

How could they not notice that I wore the same dress every time they met, which was at least once a month?

Even my hair, which were silver, look gray and dry.

And my eyes that were a sparkling blue looked dull and sunken.

It was quite shocking for them when they saw my neglected state.

“What’s going on here…Renkin, immediately check on Sofia!”

“Yes!”

Dr. Renkin began to examine me and looked at me with such eyes as if was looking at something terribly painful.

When he looked at my back, he gave out a loud gasp.

There was probably a big bruise there.

“…Princess Sofia. may I ask where you got this bruise on your back?”

“I was walking down a corridor, when a maid pushed me and stepped on me.”

“How terrible!”

He wrote down the location and conditions of all the bruises on his medical record book and carefully changed my clothes so that it won’t hurt me.

He looked very old to me. I thought as he dressed me up.

I bet he didn’t know about my situation.

Because Dr. Renkin never leaved His Majesty’s side.

And since no one would dare be foolish enough to gossip near His Majesty, he surely never heard anything about my situation.

Ii was probably the same for Eugen, the Commander of the Imperial Knights.

“Can you explain… what happened?”

“It is easy for me to explain, but I can’t prove it.”

“What? What do you mean?”

“I can explain my situation to you but it will be hard to prove. That is why I want you to keep an eye on me.”

“Surveillance? On you?”
“Yes, as strict as possible, so that no one else can see me.”

If they knew that His Majesty was the one who put me under surveillance, no one would dare try to touch me.

His Majesty nodded, showing that he understood me.

“Alright, however, before I put you under my surveillance, tell me. What’s going on here?”