Royal Secret : I'm a Princess!

TTEOKBOKKI IS USEFUL TODAY

Chapter 44

TTEOKBOKKI IS USEFUL TODAY

"PAPA, please don't punish Duke Sloane," Neoma said in a "weak voice. Of course, she was on acting mode now. "Duke Sloane was right– I've said rude things about the late empress. I shouldn't have said those things. Had I kept my mouth shut, perhaps His Grace wouldn't have been that angry."

All eyes were on her now.

"What do you mean by that, Prince Nero?" Emperor Nikolai asked while giving her a cold look. "What did the duke say to you?"

It was definitely a warning for her not to mess up the atmosphere that he created.

[Trust me, Papa Boss. I have more experience than you in the acting department.]

"Papa, it doesn't matter," she said, acting like she didn't want to be a snitch. "I admit that it's my fault so please don't punish Duke Sloane."

"Stop acting, Your Royal Highness!" Duke Sloane yelled at her. "We both know the truth!"

"Duke Sloane," Sir Glenn warned the duke.

"Answer my question first, Prince Nero," the emperor said firmly, ignoring Duke Sloane. "I will decide Duke Sloane's fate after I hear your side of the story."

She let out a deep sigh, acting like it was hard for her to be a snitch. But of course, she still opened her cute little mouth in the end. "Duke Sloane said that the son of a mistress like me don't deserve to be the royal heir."

She heard a collective gasp of servants standing behind them.

The royal knights, trained to be pokerfaced in situations like that, didn't react. But she could tell that the way they looked at the duke changed.

She took a discreet glance at Count Thompson and Marquis Alberts.

The two lords were scowling at the duke.

[Heh.]

"I was hurt by the duke's words so I said that I didn't wish to be born as a prince," she said in a cracked voice. She wanted to cry but the emperor's glare stopped her. Right, he was the kind of person that believed the "boys don't cry" b*llshit. "Then, I asked him why the late empress didn't give birth to an heir. I realized that I sounded like I was blaming the late empress, which was very rude, so I apologized to His Grace right away. But it was too late. I already made Duke Sloane very angry."

"You didn't say anything wrong, Prince Nero," Emperor Nikolai said indifferently. "The fact that the late empress failed to give birth to a royal heir was indeed a sin."

She hated hearing that b*llshit.

And she hated it even more to see that no one even batted an eye.

It was as if everyone acknowledged that it was really the late empress's fault for not giving birth to a royal heir. She understood that it was literally a law that an empress must give the emperor a son. But it didn't change the fact that it was a sh*tty law.

[A woman's worth isn't measured by her ability to give birth.]

Still, the show must go on.

"Duke Sloane, I apologize for hurting your feelings by being rude to the late empress," Neoma said in a (convincing) sad voice while acting remorseful. Well, she felt bad for the late empress but she needed to bring down the dyke before he became a threat in the future. "I will be careful from now on to avoid making the same mistake."

To put the nail in the duke's coffin, she even bowed to him.

A royal prince shouldn't be bowing to a person beneath him, but he was here to create the perfect image for the emperor's heir. Risks be damned.