“Your Highness, please don’t do this. It’s embarrassing.”
“Right, the Crown Princess must be exhausted.”
He lifted me up, then headed toward the large door inside.
“Only the Head Butler may enter.”
The moment he gave the command, I heard Leon’s indignant sigh, but perhaps because he’d been asked if he wanted to see me naked, he couldn’t bring himself to stop it.
Eldon supported my body with one hand and opened the heavy door with the other. Warm steam rushed out through the small gap.
Once inside, a space as vast as a concert hall was filled entirely in pure white.
The walls decorated with flowers, the pillars, the royal ornaments, the enormous statue of Goddess Wersheen, three large baths, a wide marble bed for examination—all of it was white.
The obsessively all-white space was so mysterious and beautiful that it became terrifying. It seemed like it wouldn’t tolerate even a speck of foreign matter. And I was a kind of foreign matter in this world. I felt like I shouldn’t be here. The moment my eyes met with the statue of Goddess Wersheen, I unconsciously clutched Eldon’s neck tightly. A vague fear welled up as if I were standing before a guillotine.
“It’s alright.”
Eldon patted my back in a deliberately gentle voice. Though I was in the arms of the most dangerous person, the warm body heat and soft tone relaxed my tension.
“Bill, cover your eyes.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
The moment the order was given, Head Butler Bill loosened his tie and covered his own eyes.
“What is the ceremonial procedure?”
“First, you must enter the Serian River water to purify your body, then the palace physician will confirm your bodily purity.”
Eldon finished unbuttoning my half-open shirt. I said I was fine and would do it myself, but he ignored me without even pretending to listen. Then he removed my pants and underwear and threw them on the floor. My backside was covered with the love fluid that had dripped from my buttocks, and the front was also stained with semen. I reflexively reached out to cover my lower body. Eldon cast a peculiar glance, but didn’t tease me about it.
“The first bath on the right. Please sit in the chair in the center of the bath to purify yourself.”
The Head Butler spoke as soon as I became naked. As if he were watching. In reality, he probably judged by hearing the sound of clothes falling.
I headed to the first bath engraved with the plaza’s clock tower.
“Hot!”
“What’s wrong?”
“The water is cold?”
I came back out in surprise the moment I put my foot in. The water was freezing cold, as if they’d really scooped up November river water. I, who had been worried it might be too hot after seeing the steam filling the hall, was surprised in the opposite way.
“You must enter.”
The Head Butler spoke firmly, and Eldon just burst into laughter, looking like he had no intention of helping. I had no choice but to grit my teeth and go inside.
Then I waded through the water and sat on the pure white chair in the center of the bath. No—the moment my buttocks touched it, I immediately jumped out.
I heard a cry that I must sit for 30 minutes, but I absolutely couldn’t bring myself to go back in.
I’m someone who doesn’t even take cold showers or back-washing in midsummer. I hate swimming pools. My whole body was trembling from the cold when Eldon pulled me into a tight embrace.
“Your clothes will get wet.”
“I suppose so.”
When I jumped in surprise and pushed him away, he obediently moved back. What the hell, if he was going to do that, he shouldn’t have hugged me in the first place. It’s even colder now. A strange sense of disappointment washed over me, when Eldon began unhesitatingly removing his own clothes.
His black frock coat, soft silk tie, and shirt fell one after another onto the damp floor. He even removed his crimson sword, pants, and boots, then embraced me again.
As his body heat, pubic hair, and his erect member pressing upward were felt vividly, my body contracted completely. I pushed him away.
“Won’t your clothes get even wetter if you do this? You should be careful since they could lose their shape if they touch water.”
“Duke Chendewden must have been unexpectedly harsh with his child. To worry so much over a single outfit.”
It seems Lee Minchan’s commoner instincts had inadvertently emerged. I was startled, but thinking about it again, since I’d already claimed amnesia, there was no need to maintain an aristocratic attitude.
“Do you know how much one of Your Highness’s coats costs? It’s equivalent to the National Library’s annual budget.”
“A very Crown Princess-like remark.”
Eldon smiled with satisfaction and properly reinserted the Prolain that had been half-fallen out.
‘A Crown Princess-like remark.’ I felt déjà vu again. This was something Eldon often said to Seha in the original work. Of course, since Seha was appointed after Eldon ascended to Emperor, he said ‘A very Empress-like remark.’
Had the main uke really changed? My heart fluttered when the Head Butler’s businesslike voice was heard.
“Your Highness, you must sit for 30 minutes to purify your body.”
Really make me complete the full 30 minutes? I stiffened, and Eldon’s lips curved up.
“Would 30 minutes be enough for purification? It should be at least an hour.”
This bastard is trying to freeze me to death!
“Your Highness, please spare me.”
I cried out desperately, clinging to him. I might really freeze to death. Eldon laughed heartily as if my shivering was amusing, then commanded the Head Butler.
“That’s enough, proceed with the next ceremony.”
“However…”
“I said to proceed with the next ceremony.”
When Eldon commanded firmly, Head Butler Bill had no choice but to bow his head.
“…Then I shall summon the palace physician to confirm bodily purity.”
Eldon frowned and waved his hand.
“That’s not necessary. It’s heat cycle. The Crown Princess has a pure body.”
“However.”
“Is there need for greater proof than this? Tell me the next step.”
“Not only current purity, but past purity must also be confirmed.”
The ‘purity’ mentioned here wasn’t about experience but about ‘pregnancy’. I understood why Leon had ground his teeth saying they would inevitably examine me despite my heat cycle. Even if not now, he must have thought I’d at least had the experience of pregnancy in the past. He was convinced that past infidelity would be discovered unless Duke Chendewden’s house bribed the palace physician to cover it up.
But Rosenthal had been thorough about contraception. He was someone who aimed to become Empress. No matter how promiscuous, he didn’t mix bodies without minimum protection.
Even in the original work, there are repeated descriptions that he’d never been pregnant. So there was nothing to worry about.
“Understood.”
I was about to nod and accept the examination when Eldon blocked it.
“That’s not necessary, tell me the next procedure.”
“…Second, after purifying your body in the Jebeln River, your spiritual purity must be confirmed.”
The ‘Jebeln River’ was a small river flowing behind the imperial palace.
“It’s the central bath. Enter alone this time as well.”
The Head Butler added as if watching. As expected, he’s competent. You’d have to possess that level of expertise to become Head Butler.
Eldon slowly released me. As I left his embrace, my jaw chattered with cold despite the warm steam enveloping me.
I entered the second bath engraved with the Generoanth royal family’s crest.
“Huak!”
I’d prepared myself mentally, but it was several times colder than the Serian River water. It felt like not just my skin but all the blood inside my body would freeze completely. I displayed superhuman strength as I touched the central chair and sprang out.
“Thirty minutes…”
The Head Butler started to speak then just closed his mouth. He’d probably given up.
“What’s next?”
“Now your spiritual purity must be confirmed. Please pick up the bottle in front of the statue of Goddess Wersheen.”
Eldon held me and transmitted his body heat for quite a while. Though we were both naked, embarrassment had long since fled before the bone-chilling cold. He stroked my back until my trembling subsided, then headed to the goddess statue. And he picked up the small, transparent crystal bottle placed on the pedestal.
“That is Goddess Wersheen’s holy water. If you have a pure soul without a spiritually bonded mate, the transparent holy water will bead on your wrist, but if you have a lover held in your soul, it will flow down.”
A lover held in the soul? In the original work, Rosenthal mixed bodies with numerous people, but in the end, the only person he truly loved was Eldon alone. I too once had a lover, but now they’re just an enemy, with not even a speck of emotion remaining.
So this time too, there would be no problem.
I confidently extended my hand. Eldon glanced at me.
“Are you confident?”
“Yes.”
He smiled and opened the crystal bottle, pouring the holy water onto my wrist.
Then a transparent droplet like a jewel formed. Just as I’d expected. In the first place, the original Rosenthal completed all ceremonies safely and waited for Eldon in the Crown Princess’s chamber. There’s no way I couldn’t pass what Rosenthal passed.
Since Eldon had confirmed it too, I was about to confidently lower my hand when suddenly the droplet beaded on my wrist turned red, then dropped down like a stream of blood.
My heart sank. Cracks appeared in Eldon’s smiling face as well.
Why on earth? It didn’t simply flow down. If it had, I could have made excuses like my arm moved or there was moisture remaining on my wrist. But I couldn’t.
Wersheen’s holy water turned red like blood and ominously flowed down.
And this isn’t Rosenthal’s body’s problem—it’s mine.
If such an anomaly had occurred before the eyes of retainers and servants, no matter how strong Duke Chendewden’s house was, it couldn’t have been covered up. First of all, Leon wouldn’t have left it alone.
But in the original work, Rosenthal completed the wedding ceremony, then performed the first night ritual according to etiquette and passed safely. The holy water that didn’t react to him turned red on my wrist.
I have a lover held in my soul? Kim Jigwang came to mind but I immediately erased him. It’s absolutely not that bastard. If the person the holy water indicated is Kim Jigwang, I’ll visit the Temple of Goddess Wersheen and genuinely protest.
Perhaps the holy water is wrong. Or… could it be, could it be Hereis?
Could it be because I performed a marriage ceremony with Hereis? Yes, that’s why it came out saying I have a soul mate. The more I thought about it, the more certain I became. Even the red color felt like it symbolized Hereis’s hair color or the incubus.
