The Slave Princess Every Night - Chapter 16

Someone was repairing a tent, and across from them, a soldier with a trough of fodder for the horses hurried past. On one side, three or four people gathered, chatting and sharpening their weapons, and somewhere, smoke from baking bread rose, as if preparing a meal.

The Aitalos people, who had seemed scattered, were gathered here like this. To achieve a single, desperate goal.

The will that had been broken and broken again under Godfrey’s banner seemed to stiffen again, receiving the solemn and hopeful energy that permeated this place.

Maybe we can win.

Maybe we can escape.

No, we must.

Lenazia closed her eyes, feeling the resonance of her heart beating deeply.

Trying to erase the face of that man that kept digging in ominously.

* * *

The march proceeded quietly and surely every evening. Lena could have simply been loaded onto the supply wagon like baggage, but Regnos wouldn’t allow it. Lena was assigned a fine warhorse that anyone could see was good, and she sat in the saddle beside Regnos, heading toward Aitalos on her own. Though her body was a little uncomfortable, her heart was at ease on the road.

When night fell, she was provided with her own tent, just like on the first day she arrived at the camp. Setting up and dismantling the tent, cleaning the stables, or helping with kitchen work were not her duties. Regnos forbade her from doing any work at all, and he placed two soldiers in front of Lena’s tent to prevent any untoward incidents.

“Bear with it a little longer, Lena, even if it’s uncomfortable. We’ll be able to return to the palace together soon.”

Far from being uncomfortable, she was treated so well that she didn’t know what to do with herself.

In a word, she was treated like a princess, but since everyone knew she wasn’t a real princess, all of this felt burdensome. Sitting idly in her tent or wandering around the camp without anything to do, Lena was lost in thought.

If she returned to Aitalos like this…

If the battle went well, and everything went as she wished… what position would she be in now?

Of course, she was planning to become a commoner and start a new life. She had no home or property, but she thought she could find somewhere to rely on and work. But it seemed that Regnos intended to keep her in the palace, introducing her as a princess all the time.

If she lived in the palace, what excuse could she give? She was no longer a princess, so would she be placed in the court as a meritorious subject who had protected the new king’s life during her childhood?

Or as a servant who had been loyal to the royal family her whole life?

‘Or…’

Lena, continuing her thoughts, closed her eyes tightly and shook her head.

As the night came with the sound of crickets chirping, it seemed that only absurd fantasies had increased. She pulled back the tent flap and went outside. She thought she might be able to clear her head by feeling the cool night air.

Except for the soldiers on guard duty, it was deserted, and she didn’t run into anyone as she walked along the road. As she wandered aimlessly, her foolish steps were somehow heading toward the tent where Regnos was staying.

‘What are you going to do?’

When she arrived in front of his residence, the soldiers guarding the door gave her questioning glances. Lena also didn’t know what she wanted to do.

“Um, Prince Regnos…”

She just wanted to see his face and have a light conversation. But she also wondered what right she had to do so. Was her chatting with him valuable enough to disturb the prince’s private rest time before the war?

“Um, I…”

As Lena shrank back, intimidated by her own thoughts, a familiar voice came from behind her.

“The Prince is not in his tent.”

“Ah.”

When she turned around, it was Duke Maido. Lena, even more intimidated in front of him, lowered her head, and several neatly folded towels were suddenly placed in her arms.

“Duke. What is this…?”

“He went to the nearby stream to bathe. You must be bored alone, so go and attend to him.”

“……?”

Lena’s face flushed slightly at the mention of bathing, but she questioned the Duke’s subsequent remarks. Bored? Isn’t bathing usually done alone?

However, after listening to the end, she could see what the Duke intended.

“What work do you have in the army? Shouldn’t you do that at least?”

“Ah…”

Bathing attendance implied a sexual meaning in any country. She didn’t want to think about it, but just as she had never gone past Godfrey’s bathtub without mingling with him.

The role that Duke Maido expected of her, and the value that Lena had as a woman in this army, was only one thing. Why had she only realized it now? She laughed at herself for being so foolish.

It was dishonorable. From the moment she was dragged out of the palace and pushed into the conqueror’s bedroom, all she had been given was a dishonorable name and contemptuous glances.

The only difference was that even if it was the same dishonor, if it was obtained by Regnos’s side, Lena would be happy to accept it.

She was guided toward the stream with the towels in her arms. Passing through the soldiers guarding the area, she saw Regnos in the distance, soaking his lower body in a pool of water like a pond.

Lena unconsciously muffled her footsteps. The quiet moonlight cast a blue light, and the stream water looked very deep, clear, and cold.

And Regnos, submerged in it as well.

Whether he had put his head in and was swimming, droplets of water dripped from his closely clinging silver hair. The droplets flowed down his straight neck, pooled in the hollow above his long collarbone, flowed down his flat chest, and merged back into the stream water.

What could he be thinking so deeply about?

Could she disturb the thoughts of this man who carried the fate of the country and the people on his shoulders? Even if she had such thoughts, she couldn’t help it. Lena put the towel down in the bushes and took off her clothes.

As she took off her outer garment and skirt one by one, she was soon naked. Covering her full breasts with one arm, she carefully entered the wide pool of stream water.

The water was colder than she had expected. As soon as her toes touched it, she felt refreshed.

Regnos opened his eyes at the sound of the splashing. The stream water, which was high enough to submerge his lower body, barely covered Lena’s chest.

“…Lena?”

He called out. As if he couldn’t believe she was in front of him. Lena parted the stream water and took a step forward toward him. Regnos’s gaze was fixed on her nipples, which were slightly revealed and shyly hidden by the movement, before being averted as if trembling.

“Lord Regnos.”

She reached out her hand.

Why hadn’t she thought of it? One way to stay in the palace with him was to become his mistress. She was tired of warming someone’s bed, but it seemed like it would be different if the other person was Regnos.

Even if she couldn’t dare to dream of becoming his queen.

“……”

“Lord Regnos.”

She took another step closer and wrapped her outstretched hand around the back of his neck. At the closer distance, Lena’s full breasts were pressed flat against Regnos’s abs.

Her fluttering fingers touched his wet neck, then brushed down his neck and the area around his shoulder blades. The hand that was about to stroke down his spine was blocked by his large hands, each holding her wrist.

“What are you doing, Lena?”

“Ah, that, that’s…”

Lena’s face flushed as if it would burst. She was flustered when the seduction she had thought would be accepted naturally was blocked, and when Regnos, who had always been gentle and kind, hardened his expression.

“That’s, well…”

It felt awkward to breathe, or even to keep her hands and feet in place. It felt unnatural to be here in this form. Lena just wanted to disappear from his sight right now.

Just when the time she was hesitating was getting unbearably long, Regnos sighed.

“Someone sent you to me.”

“……!”

“Someone must have said such nonsense that you have no value in the army, so you should prove your usefulness by doing something like this. It’s probably Duke Maido.”

“……”

She hadn’t said anything, but he had seen through everything. As if her insides were transparently visible.

“You don’t have to do that, Lena.”

“Lord Regnos…”

“You don’t have to prove anything.”

For some reason, she felt like she was about to burst into tears. She didn’t know if it was because she felt like she was being rejected because she was useless in this way as well, or because she was moved by the words that she herself was valuable enough to him.

“Come on, Lena.”

Regnos went to the edge of the stream, unfolded the towel she had brought, and covered Lena’s bare shoulders.

“Let’s go out.”

The large towel generously covered her small body. As she gathered the fabric herself, Regnos carefully put his arm around her over it. She could feel his firm and slender arm over the thin cloth.

“I’ll take you to your tent.”

“I’m fine on my own.”

“I’ll take you.”

In a camp full of hungry men, the existence of a woman wearing only a towel was like a ticking time bomb. It was the same even if Lena put on her clothes. With water dripping from her wet hair, and with a body that seemed to shout that she had just taken a bath.

So Regnos wanted to allow only himself to be by this woman’s side.

Thump, thump. She could feel him with a distance of one step between them. Regnos’s breathing, his gait, and his gaze. More than anything, what she could hear most loudly was her own heartbeat.

‘I like you.’

Suddenly, Lena realized.

From her childhood when her memories began, to her life as a princess that felt like walking on thin ice, and to her life as a prisoner that was hell on earth. Throughout all that time, she had cherished this prince in her heart.

Not only as the object of her loyalty and protection, but also as a woman, she wanted to be by his side.

“Your Highness.”

The road from the tent to the stream had been so long, but the road back to Lena’s tent together was so short.

In front of it, Lena whispered.

“Please stay with me.”

“……”

“Actually, I can’t sleep every night.”

“What do you mean, Lena?”

Regnos’s face, which had looked troubled when she asked him to stay with her, now held a serious question at the words that she couldn’t sleep. Lena opened her mouth without realizing it.

“That man… it’s like he’s going to come and get me tonight.”

Lies flowed out smoothly. In fact, she didn’t think the Emperor still wanted her. At best, she had only been a toy on the bed to be played with for a while. Something that was fun to have, but not something that needed to be found if it disappeared.

Perhaps, just perhaps, he was obsessed with her. If she were to look for them, she could find plenty of signs. He seemed to care for her in his own way, and he had taken her side when confronting someone of higher status.

But whenever her thoughts concluded, the result was always the same. All that attention was merely for amusement, and he had probably forgotten all about her by now. There were plenty of other women in his patronage to satisfy his lust.

Even so, the reason she made up the emperor’s excuse to Regnos was because she knew he was kind. Gentle Prince Regnos would try to ignore the fact that she was worthless, and he would surely embrace even the delusion that the emperor was obsessed with such an insignificant woman as herself with pity.

Just referring to him as “that man” was enough explanation. Regnos’s expression hardened coldly, then softened gently as he looked at Lena.

“You were worried about that.”

“Y-yes…”

Lena was surprised to realize how skilled she was at making herself look pathetic and trembling. But even that surprise only made her frightened appearance more convincing.

“If you’re having difficulties, you should have told me sooner. I didn’t even know, and I thought I was taking good care of you…”