WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Potter
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◈ The Protagonist of a Romance Fantasy Only Likes Me ◈
Chapter 11: Warrior Marigold. (6)
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12.
“Young master. Everything is ready, just as you asked.”
Lancel followed bright-faced Hestie.
“You’ll be surprised.”
“How much?”
“You’ll see.”
Hestie sounded oddly excited.
“Mary, I’m coming in.”
“Ah, just a moment longer!”
“Too late.”
Hestie opened the closed door.
“Oh.”
Lancel’s eyes widened.
The first thing he saw was Marigold’s face, which she hurriedly covered with her hands. She wore light makeup. The small scars she’d gained from her harsh life as a mercenary were now nowhere to be seen.
Then there was her outfit.
A sheer veil, pure white fabric, and golden ornaments glittering in the sunlight. It was a splendid, luxurious ensemble unlike anything she had ever worn before.
“What do you think, young master?”
“She’s pretty. It suits her.”
He meant it.
A protagonist really was a protagonist.
“If you keep staring at me like that…”
Marigold squirmed this way and that, apparently feeling awkward, as she avoided Lancel’s gaze.
“Hm. Maybe I should’ve just committed to the charm route.”
“Pardon?”
“It’s nothing.”
The Emperor had summoned him.
The moment he heard those words, Lancel had already decided to take Marigold with him.
Why?
Because he was headed for that famous Secret Garden map.
A secret hideout exclusively for the imperial family. A place where encounter events with the princes were almost certain to occur. The Empire’s most secret place... that was the Secret Garden.
Not taking Marigold there never made sense in the first place.
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Marigold found the ‘Imperial Palace Noble Dress (Rental)’ uncomfortable, but unfortunately, it suited her far too well.
※Charm, sex appeal, and Elegance greatly UP!!
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‘Even on the warrior route, she looks like this...’
Lancel kept scrutinizing Marigold’s flushed face from every angle.
“I think I understand why more mercenaries have been rushing to propose to Mary lately. Don’t you, young master?”
“What? Those bastards?”
Lancel reacted with a start.
Those lowly mercenaries dared make advances on a woman who would someday become an Imperial Consort?
The thought alone made his blood boil.
“Didn’t you say there was one just yesterday?”
“Yes. Mr. Godman.”
“That crazy old fool.”
Lancel was dumbfounded. Godman was a mercenary well past forty. Compared to Marigold, who wasn’t even twenty yet, he was more than twice her age. And that man had proposed?
‘Godman. You’re finished.’
Lancel decided he’d teach him a lesson as soon as he got back. He needed to make an example of him so no one would ever dare dream of it again.
There was already that damned trap ending called ‘Marriage to a Mercenary’ in the warrior route.
“So what did you do to Godman?”
“I knocked him flat!”
That was a relief.
But did she hate it that much?
“Mr. Godman is a good person, but he isn’t someone I like. Marriage is for people who love each other.”
Marigold raised a fist as if to show him and grinned.
“You think so too, Master, right?”
“Well, generally... yes.”
“I do too.”
Taking Lancel’s answer as agreement, Marigold smiled with her eyes.
Her smile in that pure white court attire was dazzling enough to leave him speechless for a moment.
‘Marigold, you’re going to become an Imperial Consort now. Your life has really turned around, you idiot.’
When he met the Emperor, Lancel intended to make sure an opportunity presented itself.
That was right. He would make it an undeniable fact that the Fifth Prince and Marigold belonged together.
“It’s time to leave, young master. His Excellency the Court Count is waiting.”
“Let’s go.”
When they stepped outside, the Court Count’s carriage had already arrived.
“Why are you so late!”
“We can’t appear before His Majesty covered in dust, Your Excellency.”
At the Court Count’s urging, Lancel and Marigold quickly climbed into the carriage.
‘What does the Emperor look like?’
Lancel’s memories of Fallen Noble Lady Simulation had returned quite clearly, but information about the Emperor was limited.
‘He was a character who didn’t even have a single illustration. That says it all.’
His older sister, who had made the game, had never cared much about the Emperor to begin with. Her thinking had been that the Emperor was simply the Emperor. What more was needed?
As a result, the Emperor’s role and presence in the game were so negligible that it was hard to even call him minor. Wasn’t he basically an extra?
But that was a game.
This was reality.
In this world, the Emperor was an absolute ruler.
The leader of the current Empire, which had filled the void left by the fall of the old imperial family.
“Depart.”
“Yes!”
The carriage began racing along the capital’s widest road.
13.
Only when the massive imperial palace came into view did Lancel truly feel that he had entered the heart of the Empire.
“I will cover your eyes now. The fewer people who know the way into the Secret Garden, the better.”
“I understand.”
Black cloth covered Lancel and Marigold’s eyes.
Perhaps to disorient them, the carriage circled around several times before finally heading straight toward one place.
“M-My stomach feels sick.”
“Bear with it.”
“I think I’m going to throw up.”
“Just don’t dirty your clothes.”
“I-I’ll try. Urp.”
Lancel could sense Marigold’s complexion worsening. It was certainly the perfect situation for motion sickness.
“We’ve arrived.”
When the blindfolds were removed, the carriage stood in the middle of a garden decorated with flowering bushes.
“This is...”
“All I can see are flowers, Master.”
A quiet gasp escaped Marigold, who had been groaning until moments ago. Flowers of every color filled her view, making her feel as though she had stepped into a fairy tale.
As expected of royalty.
They’d thrown money at the place like crazy.
“To think a Secret Garden built for doing shady things away from prying eyes would be this extravagant.”
“Shady things?”
Marigold tilted her head at his absentminded mutter.
“Stop spacing out and follow me.”
“Ah, yes.”
They walked for a while along a path of flower beds in full bloom. Before long, the view suddenly opened up.
A lake.
A tranquil garden.
And someone standing within it.
‘The Emperor?’
A large veil had been set up around the Emperor. The only thing visible was a hazy silhouette.
No illustration here either, Lancel thought pointlessly as he dropped to one knee.
Marigold noticed and followed his lead beside him.
“Your Majesty, as ordered, I have brought Lancel Dante of Viscount Dante’s family.”
Lancel could feel the silhouette beyond the veil looking at him. A sticky current of mana swept over him in an instant. The imperial family of this Empire really was suspicious of everything.
“So you are Lancel Dante.”
The voice sounded so aged that it seemed ready to break at any moment. Yet Lancel felt tangled mana gathered around the man’s lips.
‘He altered his voice with magic.’
How determined was he to hide himself?
“I am told one of my sons has taken a liking to you. That is also why you are here, Lancel Dante.”
He knew who it was without being told.
‘It can only be the Third Prince.’
That man really did have a loose tongue.
“I don’t recall meeting whoever thought well of me, but I’m honored nonetheless, Your Majesty.”
Lancel bowed deeply and answered mechanically.
“Then be honored. The reason I summoned you today is to bestow a gift upon you in accordance with that.”
A gift?
All of a sudden?
Money?
While Lancel was bewildered, the Court Count nudged him with an elbow.
“What are you doing? His Majesty says he will grant you a gift.”
“I had no idea I came here to receive a gift today.”
“He says he will give it to you, so just accept it.”
“It’s free, so should I?”
“Were you planning not to accept it?”
“You two, they can hear you.”
The whispered exchange between Lancel, the Court Count, and Marigold passed in an instant. In the end, Lancel bowed his head even lower.
“Your Majesty’s grace is as boundless as the sea. I am deeply grateful.”
After a brief pause, the Emperor spoke.
“I grant you the position of Court Knight, Lancel Dante. This is the gift I have prepared for you.”
It was bigger than he had expected.
For a knightly house, having a son appointed as a Court Knight was certainly an honor.
It was not bad news for Lancel either. It practically meant he had been granted the right to enter the imperial palace.
“I wish to reward good knights and keep them at my side. Take pride in this.”
But...
Hm.
“Your Majesty.”
Lancel still wanted something else.
“Would you be willing to spend a little more on me?”
The Court Count and Marigold, along with the maid and knights attending the Emperor, all stared in shock at once.
14.
“...What?”
Lancel repeated himself without flinching.
“I asked whether Your Majesty would be willing to spend a little more on me.”
“So I heard correctly.”
Apparently, he had thought he was hearing things. Perhaps everyone had, including the Emperor.
One of the knights standing beside the Emperor began trembling in the face.
“How dare you... speak to His Majesty with such insolence...”
That was right. After dying, being wounded, and even dragged onto an execution platform to be burned over the past two hundred years, there was one way Lancel had become distinctly different from everyone else.
He had lost all sense of fear.
“You dare...”
Beyond the veil, the Emperor seemed frozen. He appeared quite surprised.
Lancel continued without pause.
“You said you were granting me a gift, but I honestly do not understand it, Your Majesty.”
“...What do you mean?”
On his right, the Court Count kept nudging his shoulder and urgently muttering something, mostly curses mixed with pleas for him to stop.
On his left, Marigold was half-pale as she tugged at his collar, though her murmuring had not formed into words clearly enough to understand.
Lancel neatly ignored them all.
“I do not remember doing anything worthy of receiving a gift from Your Majesty.”
“I have often given gifts without reason, but you are the first to question it, Lancel Dante.”
The Emperor looked beyond shocked and utterly baffled.
“Perhaps the people who accept them without question are the stranger ones, Your Majesty.”
“Perhaps. But your words are contradictory. You claim you have done nothing to deserve a gift, yet you demand even more. What does that mean?”
The Court Count and Marigold, who had been trying to stop Lancel, found themselves agreeing with the Emperor for a moment. Now that they heard it, it was contradictory.
“I took this gift to mean that Your Majesty intends to ask much of me in the future.”
“Do you object to that? To becoming the Emperor’s man? To my expecting something from you?”
“If Your Majesty wishes to make me yours, then you will need to pay more.”
A chain of stunned silence followed.
“You dare try to bargain with me, Lancel Dante.”
“Everything in this world is weighed upon a scale, Your Majesty.”
“Even if I were to cut off your head right here?”
The Emperor’s voice trembled with quiet anger. He must have thought that would make Lancel back down.
“If that is what Your Majesty wishes.”
The Emperor froze again, his mouth hanging open blankly.
There was nothing to fear.
Because...
‘After all, this man is not even the Emperor.’
Lancel already knew his identity.
Until now, it had only been a suspicion, but after seeing that reaction earlier, he was certain.
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