IWBAACTWITOS Chapter 4

The Empire's Empress, Charlotte, smiled warmly as she watched her young son eating cake. Snack time was precious to her, as it was one of the few moments when Aegis showed a childlike smile.

His chubby cheeks looked so adorable that she wanted to poke them with her finger, but if she actually did, Aegis would surely tell her politely not to do such things.

'He's so cute.'

Why weren't the words that came out of his small mouth cute at all?

"Ash."

When Charlotte called out, Aegis put down his fork, swallowed the food in his mouth, and then responded.

"Yes, Mother."

"You might meet a new friend soon."

"A new friend? From which family?"

Charlotte's smile nearly faltered when Aegis immediately asked about which family, but she skillfully concealed her expression.

"Lady Remetio. She's a lovely young lady who's one year younger than our Ash."

At the mention of Remetio, Aegis's eyes widened. His pretty blue eyes blinked a few times before a smile settled on his face.

"Tilly?"

"You know her?"

"Yes, I overheard Father talking with the Duke and Countess last time. Father said she might become my bride."

"...What? Bride?"

This was completely news to Charlotte. As Charlotte's face froze with her smile still in place, Aegis tilted his head with a confused expression.

"Well, the Duke and Countess said they would think about it slowly."

"I see. Then that's fine."

Of course they would. Charlotte reassured Aegis and told him to continue eating while pouring milk into his teacup. Relieved, Aegis began eating his cake again. Charlotte's smile was gentle and warm, but her hands resting on her lap were not.

Charlotte fell into thought for a moment, then told her lady-in-waiting to inform them that she would briefly visit the Imperial Palace in an hour. Her husband, Philius, would surely be wiggling his bottom in anticipation of her visit.

Thirty minutes later, having finished a leisurely tea time with Aegis, Charlotte headed straight to the Imperial Palace. When Charlotte entered the office, Philius put down his quill and jumped up from his seat. As if he had been eagerly waiting for her since receiving the message, a bright smile bloomed on Philius's face.

"Lottie."

"I have something urgent to discuss with Your Majesty, so could everyone please step out for a moment?"

"Yes, Your Imperial Majesty."

Charlotte, who would normally have greeted Philius warmly first, instead asked everyone to leave. Realizing that her mood was unusual, the advisors hurriedly left, and Charlotte began removing her gloves. Uncharacteristically harsh sounds came from her lace-gloved hands.

"L-Lottie?"

Shortly after, the lustrous golden hair that Charlotte loved most in the world was caught in her grip. At Philius's scream, the knights and advisors waiting outside turned their gaaze toward the window.

'What a peaceful and happy day today as well.'

"Roxy, it seems like Tilly really takes after me a lot."

Roxana looked at Julian with an expression that said he was talking nonsense, and I paid no attention to it as I put a large piece of meat from the stew into my mouth.

"She said it was playing house and dragged me outside, then suddenly became the Demon King. Does the Demon King usually appear in playing house?"

At Julian's expression that showed he truly didn't understand, Roxana burst into laughter.

"You don't know anything. Playing house originally requires a Demon King."

"...Really?"

"You've been called a genius since childhood and only studied, so you wouldn't know. I was once one of the Four Heavenly Kings."

"There were even Four Heavenly Kings?"

"Of course, I eventually ascended to become the new Demon King through rebellion, but initially I was one of the Four Heavenly Kings. The Four Heavenly Kings and the Demon King, and five chosen heroes."

Julian tilted his head as if he couldn't understand. Roxana had many friends her age and was sociable because she had played with both nobles and commoners without distinction when she was young in her rural territory. In contrast, Julian had few friends he could be comfortable with due to his position as one of the three great families—only the Emperor, Philius, and perhaps a few others.

"Then doesn't our Tilly need Four Heavenly Kings too?"

"No."

"Why?"

"Because I'm a tyrant, so I'll eliminate the Four Heavenly Kings who might stab me in the back first."

"B-but then you'll be at a disadvantage when the heroes come."

"The Demon King absorbs the blood of the Four Heavenly Kings and becomes stronger, so don't worry."

Julian seemed to judge that it was difficult to argue further and chuckled while feeding me finely chopped meat. I chewed while smiling at Julian, who was staring intently at me.

"Tilly."

"Yeah?"

"Would you like to visit the Imperial Palace once?"

"No."

At my immediate answer, Julian smiled as if he had expected this and fed me meat again. It was so convenient today that food kept entering my mouth without me having to move my hands.

"Julian, feeding her is nice, but eat your own food first."

"...Okay."

"Even though there's talk of engagement from the Imperial family, nothing's been decided yet. The children are still young, and His Majesty only mentioned it in passing, so don't worry too much."

I was startled at the mention of engagement. An engagement between the Remetio ducal family and the Imperial family? There definitely wasn't such a story in the original work!

'No, wait.'

In the original work, Royna was the sole heir of the Remetio ducal family. But now there were two heirs including me, so there would be no problem with succession even if one married into the Imperial family.

'But the prince is a sub male lead.'

And the sub male lead had a one-sided love for Royna since he was very young. But if I got engaged to the prince, it would be a disaster, and if Royna got engaged, there might be a change in male leads—a serious problem. As I fell into confusion with my cheeks full of food, Roxana called out to me with a puzzled voice.

"Tilly?"

Only then did I come to my senses and swallow the food in my mouth. I wiped the sauce and oil from my lips while calmly and coolly analyzing the situation.

'So, asking me to go to the Imperial Palace wasn't simply suggesting a visit for fun.'

Would avoiding it right now really be a good thing? Wouldn't it be better to go to the Imperial Palace and cause a scene while I'm still at an age where some unreasonable behavior is tolerated?

'So that later, after everything passes, I don't end up in a situation where it turns out the engagement was already arranged and my fiancé is His Highness the Prince!'

Royna manifests her ability at fifteen, and by then I'll probably be around nineteen or twenty. The moment Royna manifests her ability, she immediately becomes the heir of the ducal family. Then the older sibling above the young heir becomes redundant.

Usually in such cases, it's divided into three options: receiving an appropriate honorary title that's only in name, inheriting a title from the maternal side, or marrying into another family. Roxana also has a title, but she's already decided on an heir among her nephews. She's thorough about such matters, so she would have no intention of passing the title to me or Royna.

Moreover, those who have received the blessing don't bear many children, so in this place where the infant mortality rate is high and people have many children as a precaution, I wouldn't be a very desirable marriage partner. Then, since neither side would have many children anyway, there was a high probability that an opinion would emerge to marry me and Aegis, considering the union between the three great families.

Anyone would think it's better to unite with the Imperial family rather than a political marriage with a mediocre family or receiving a meaningless honorary title.

Of course, I didn't think Roxana and Julian would proceed without my consent, but still, anxiety welled up just in case. Given the relationship between the Imperial family and the ducal family, they couldn't consider only my wishes.

'Right, it's better to have some direction rather than being unable to predict anything when Royna was born.'

But I didn't want to be Empress. The status was annoyingly high, but there was lots of work and many duties. Most of all, the sub male lead was a typical prince character who didn't appeal to me much. My taste, as straight as a pine tree, never changes. No, taste aside, marriage sounded like a story from beyond the stars in Andromeda to me, who was a non-marriage advocate.

'If I do well, I could receive an honorary title and property and live as a wealthy unemployed person for life as a single—fulfilling my past life's dream. I'd rather voluntarily put on silver bracelets than get engaged to a five-year-old brat.'

Clank clank, in my head, Mr. Podol with a somewhat crazed look smiled brightly at me and said let's go together. There was rejection due to the mental age gap, but the obsessive fear that the original story might go wrong was greater. While I was chewing my lips, pondering how to escape, Roxana called out to me with a desperate voice.

"Thalia, are you listening to Mom?"

I looked up and met Roxana's gaze. Her eyes were full of worry. I used her worry to my advantage and asked with a thoroughly dejected expression.

"Do I have to go to the Imperial Palace?"

"No, you don't have to. If you don't want to go, you don't have to."

"..."

"There's a child at the Imperial Palace who could become Tilly's friend, that's all. If you don't want to be friends with that child either, I won't try to arrange friends for you on purpose anymore."

Currently, the only child my age living in the Imperial Palace was His Highness the Prince. Since I kept escaping whenever she tried to arrange friends, Roxana seemed to have pulled out her last resort. I sighed and said as if I had no choice.

"This is the last time."

At my permission, Roxana smiled brightly, and Julian wore a somewhat complicated expression. But I had my own scheme. Making one five-year-old boy cry wasn't that difficult, so I planned to make him cry his eyes out. If I bullied him for a few months, Aegis would come to hate me. What could they do if the parties involved said they'd rather die than marry?

'I need to engrave fear in his childhood to the extent that he'll never want to see me again.'