“Ha, ha.”
Amanda heaved in deep breaths of exhaustion. This wouldn’t have had a great of a toll on her in her previous life, but she wasn’t in peak condition anymore. When they managed to get to safety, Amanda took stock of Oliver’s condition. His face was very pale. She didn’t know how he managed to hang on this long in his wounded state.
“Your Highness, come down. Let’s look at the wound.”
Amanda got off her horse and extended her arm, Oliver looked at her as if she was being patronizing by helping him get off a horse like a child. However, contrary to his piercing expression, Oliver quietly accepted her hand. He got off the horse then leaned against a tree, pulling open his ragged clothes. His right arm, which was covered in hard, lizard-like scales when she first saw him, was back to normal.
“Ah…”
It was as if the scales were never there, but Amanda was not so naive as to mistake what had happened. Oliver immediately understood what her brief pause meant.
“You’re wondering why this arm is now normal?”
There was some bitterness in his voice. Of course she wondered why, but she knew that treating Oliver was more important at the moment.
“I’ll treat you first.”
Fortunately, Amanda had carried medicine with her in case of emergencies. It was a pity that she had not brought much because it had to fit inside her armor.
“This will sting a little, Your Highness.”
Oliver’s blue eyes gazed cautiously at Amanda as she calmly took out the medicine. However, Amanda looked at Oliver’s large and small wounds with confusion. There were more than just a few wounds here and there. His body bore signs of deep scars, old scars. Oliver didn’t even make a sound as she touched his painful looking wounds. This situation must be very familiar to him.
‘…Fortunately, the crown prince’s achievements were not exaggerations.’
Come to think of it, this was the first time she had seen the crown prince. One of the terrible rumors had said he was a large, hairy, and ugly man. She didn’t realize he would actually be this handsome…
As she worked she noticed his tight, hard muscles peeking through the torn edges of his clothes. He looked rather like an ideal man. In fact, his tall, handsome appearance was more akin a man who partied wild in the city than one who lived on the battlefield.
However, he had a dangerous air about him. Even when he was sitting on the ground, his presence was so overwhelming she couldn’t easily find a weakness. Amanda remembered what kind of empire the Keith was. A country obsessed with war. There were many words for the emperors of the Keith Empire. The butcher, the bloody devil, the conqueror…she felt that all of those words could apply to that man who gave off that overwhelming aura. Amanda glanced silently at Oliver, and he spoke to her in a sharper voice than before.
“I don’t think you’re from my army. Why did you save me?”
Amanda thought over how to answer to this question. It hadn’t been easy to rescue the prince, but now she found it even more nerve-wracking to talk to him. Still, she was determined to give him an answer.
Amanda hoped that Oliver would continue to survive long enough to become emperor and defeat Luke. She was willing to risk everything she had to help him. The road to make Oliver emperor would be difficult, and there was no way to know what other dangers were lurking. She couldn’t let him know about it.
“…Your Highness.”
“Tell me, what did you save me for?”
Amanda had seen Oliver’s power and accepted the fact that he might be suited to being an emperor. She remembered the people who said that Luke would not have been able to take the throne so easily had Oliver been alive.
Since Amanda was born an aristocrat, she had to marry the man that her father decided for her. In her previous life, her family was destroyed and she was free from such duties, but that wasn’t the case anymore. Amanda now had to marry a man who would bring the most benefit the Windsor family. If so…the man was sitting right in front of her.
She looked at him up and down. He had a sharp jaw, a high nose, and fierce-looking blue eyes. His black hair, darker than the night sky, stood out against his milky white skin. She remembered the dark, monster-like scales on his right arm, but fortunately it wasn’t visible at the moment. Oliver narrowed his eyes as Amanda continued to silently stare at him.
“Well if–”
Oliver was about to speak.
“I want to marry you.”
“…What?!”
Oliver’s composed expression instantly changed to shock. Amanda repeated herself once more.
“Please marry me, Your Highness.”