Chapter 205

An Insurmountable Wall

Olivia blinked stupidly.

No matter how much she thought about it, she could not understand.

This was not a casual conversation between two young noblewomen. Two women of the highest social rank were speaking to each other.

Their way of fighting was to circle around the point again and again, maintaining perfect decorum while trading veiled blows.

Olivia had naturally come prepared for that kind of battle, and she had intended to fight until the very end.

Yet a single sentence had just brought all her defenses crashing down.

‘She summoned me because she wants to become beautiful and intelligent like me?’

Was that truly all?

Was there not some hidden intent behind those words, meant to strike at her?

Olivia tried to interpret it that way, but she could not grasp anything.

The more information she gathered, the more Valdrova’s image became a mass of contradictions.

‘A dragon who behaves like an immature young noblewoman…?’

People called even a willful dragon like Storeus childish, but he was not truly a child.

His words had always contained meanings that only dragons understood.

Olivia’s mind worked faster than ever.

What if this childlike behavior was a strategy meant to lower her guard?

What if the claim that there was no other reason was a lie?

What if Valdrova planned to test Olivia’s intentions and cut off her head the moment she showed affection toward Ferda?

Olivia continued constructing possible responses.

The more tangled her thoughts became, the more menacing Valdrova’s horns seemed to gleam.

“Are you hot?”

Everything stopped at that one question.

Her emotional turmoil had left her forehead and underarms damp.

The powder applied to more sensitive areas threatened to run.

“My apologies. I have always been prone to sweating…”

“Wait a moment. Luri.”

Luri handed Olivia a glass of water filled with ice.

Wind spirits circled around her, cooling the air.

Olivia drank the icy water and tried to cool her head.

Just as she was about to begin thinking again—

“I am sorry.”

“…Pardon?”

The dragon had apologized.

“I chose a place suitable for an Imperial Princess, but I was thoughtless. I did not consider that you might be sensitive to the heat.”

“It is nothing. I was also excessively nervous, so please do not concern yourself.”

“You were nervous. Hmm…”

Valdrova appeared to ponder something.

The message contained within that silence became yet another flood of information tormenting Olivia.

Then Valdrova looked toward her attendant.

Luri merely stood there with her eyes closed.

Yet that alone seemed sufficient for them to communicate, because Valdrova immediately acted.

She removed her mask and revealed her face.

“Would this… help you relax…?”

And with that, every theory Olivia had formed was thrown into the rubbish bin.

The face hidden beneath the mask was nothing like what she had expected.

Valdrova wore an awkward smile on an extraordinarily gentle face.

Her round eyes and glossy, cherry-like lips carried a shy expression.

She was easily one of the most beautiful women Olivia had ever seen.

Had she merely been beautiful, Olivia would not have been so shocked.

The true surprise was that her appearance did not suit a dragon’s majesty in the slightest.

Whenever Olivia looked at those vicious horns, she had felt as though a blade were being pressed against her throat.

But after seeing Valdrova’s face, that blade vanished.

Although the overwhelming presence unique to dragons still surrounded her, Olivia could not help wondering whether this woman was truly a dragon.

“Do you feel a little less nervous now?”

“…Yes.”

“That is a relief.”

Valdrova smiled brightly, giving Olivia another piece of information.

She was a woman whose expressions were remarkably easy to read.

“I have been very curious about how I might become beautiful and intelligent like you.”

That only made things more difficult for Olivia.

Had she not spent years honing her social skills, she was certain she would have stammered disgracefully.

“There is nothing special about me. I am so foolish that I failed to understand what part of me made you think that way and have been floundering this entire time. How could anyone call me intelligent?”

“Hmm, that… What was it again…? ‘Made in the image of the gods,’ was it? How are you able to say things like that?”

“Those were not my own words. Embarrassing as it is to admit, I merely borrowed them from a famous philosophical text.”

“Does philosophy not mean making iron?”

“The dictionary defines it as the discipline of deeply examining the world and human life. However, what Your Highness said is also correct. It is much like forging iron, because one continuously hammers and tempers the mind until it becomes a useful tool.”

Valdrova’s golden eyes sparkled.

“I see. If I read that book, will I be able to speak intelligently?”

“Of course.”

“Philosophy… Wait a moment. Luri.”

She gestured for something to write with.

Luri quietly answered with a hint of displeasure.

“I will remember it for you.”

“But… No, would that not be a poor attitude toward learning?”

“…”

Those were words Luri herself had once said.

Having never expected them to be used against her in this manner, Luri struggled to maintain a professional expression as she handed Valdrova paper and a pen.

“Could you perhaps recommend which books I should read?”

The dignified voice was now completely gone.

Olivia answered.

“It would be best to begin with a light collection of meditations and a book of dialogues. The meditations contain many questions meant to provoke thought, while the dialogues show how philosophers approached such questions and what answers they offered. You should find them quite engaging.”

“I see. Meditations and… dialogues… Could you also explain what those words mean?”

“Of course.”

Olivia explained them carefully, one step at a time.

Whenever Valdrova looked confused, Olivia explained again, continuing until she was certain Valdrova understood.

It was a truly strange situation.

She was teaching the dragon whom everyone feared.

She was undoubtedly speaking with a dragon, yet that distinctive pressure was no longer present.

It felt as though she were speaking with a child.

And that was precisely what frightened her.

Olivia still could not tell whether there truly was no hidden motive behind this situation—

or whether she had simply failed to notice it even now.

Instead, her own mind was beginning to go blank.

She was being helplessly swept along at Valdrova’s pace.

When a brief silence fell, Olivia glanced at the words Valdrova was writing and reflexively remarked,

“Your handwriting is remarkably beautiful.”

“Isn’t it?!”

Valdrova’s face brightened as though the sun had risen upon it.

“I practiced so much. Writing letters is easier than I thought, but writing them beautifully is really difficult.”

“But is there truly any need for Your Highness to do such things personally?”

Realizing that her words might cause offense, Olivia quickly softened them.

“With my limited understanding, I would have thought it more efficient for Your Highness to entrust such matters to a representative rather than putting yourself through all this effort. That is why I dared to ask.”

“Mm, that’s true.”

Valdrova had once thought the same.

What use would she ever have for learning to write like this?

She had never felt any need to learn and had held no interest in it.

“I wanted to show this handwriting to Ferda. I thought he might be pleased if I showed him something written beautifully…”

“Is that the only reason?”

“That’s the only reason.”

She smiled foolishly.

“Because right now, that is everything to me.”

“I… see.”

“And once I started, I kept wanting to learn more things. I thought that if I continued learning and became intelligent, perhaps I wouldn’t feel ashamed to stand beside Ferda…”

Valdrova looked at Olivia again.

“And then I started wanting to speak with you too.”

No matter how Olivia considered it, it made no sense.

Why would a dragon seek the approval of a mere human?

She could not believe that a dragon said to have existed since the dawn of time could possess such modest, ordinary desires.

Their eyes met once more.

Within Valdrova’s golden irises were vertically slit pupils.

What Olivia saw in them was pure admiration.

It was the same look the children of the Empire had given Olivia.

And it was Valdrova who shyly averted her gaze.

“I want to learn many more things from now on.”

“Whenever Your Highness wishes, I will gladly teach you.”

“About that…”

Valdrova’s face gradually reddened.

Her lips fidgeted as she carefully drew out the words.

“Olivia… would you become my friend?”

Olivia answered her question.

“Of course, Your Highness.”

After finishing the tea party with Valdrova, Olivia stepped outside.

She had excused herself by saying that she needed to discuss diplomatic matters with Ferda.

In truth, the matter was not particularly urgent.

Olivia rarely announced that she would leave first, since doing so could be considered discourteous, as though she were trying to escape.

Yet this time, she had done exactly that.

Being alone in the same room as Valdrova had been unbearably difficult.

Whenever Olivia appeared in public, she always wore a bright smile to conceal her emotions.

Now, however, only a strange and awkward smile remained on her face.

What had shaken her so deeply was a single word.

‘Friend…’

It was an exceedingly familiar word in high society.

‘What is a friend?’

And yet it was a word utterly distant from Olivia.

Was it someone who went beyond being a mere acquaintance—someone who remained by your side in joy and hardship, respected you, and exchanged help with you?

‘…Was I ever capable of making a friend?’

She suddenly remembered the first time she had been slapped.

The person bold enough to do it had been the first wife of Crown Prince Alexander Arken.

Although she was the wife of a detestable blood relative, she had been a woman of good character.

After formally marrying Alexander and entering the palace, she had tried to ease Olivia’s loneliness and sincerely become close to her.

Olivia had even allowed herself to hope that she might one day regard the woman as an elder sister.

That had been the first and last time Olivia believed she might be able to make a friend.

Hope had always been cruel to her.

It did not take long for the first wife, who had once smiled and joked with Olivia, to come to hate her.

With her mascara smeared until she looked like a ghost, the woman approached and struck Olivia across the cheek.

—You… Because of you…!

The first wife disappeared from her life forever after pouring out hatred Olivia could not understand.

Olivia only learned later why she had been so furious.

Despite sharing Alexander’s bed countless times, she had failed to conceive a child.

People pointed fingers at her, claiming she was barren, and eventually a decision was made to depose her.

Of course she had been furious.

The problem had not been her.

It had been Alexander.

She had discovered that the only woman Alexander regarded romantically was Olivia.

Unable to strike the man who would soon become Emperor, she had redirected her anger toward the innocent Olivia.

Olivia had felt deeply sorry for the Crown Princess.

But she had not felt guilty.

Such resentment already echoed endlessly in places beyond her hearing.

If only the Imperial Princess did not exist, the person I love would look at me.

If only the Imperial Princess did not exist, my fiancé would treasure me more.

‘They’re nothing but excuses.’

Olivia had always believed such thoughts were excuses made by the lazy.

She considered them fools who remained trapped in the past, doing nothing but hating and raging.

Would anything truly change if I were gone?

If one lacked something, one could create it.

If that was impossible, one could cultivate one’s own strengths instead.

Olivia had always lived that way.

She had never once treated the gifts she had received carelessly.

Whenever she found herself lacking, she worked to improve, even if it meant sacrificing sleep.

That was how she had risen to become the Imperial Princess admired by everyone.

She had never once doubted that she was right.

At least, not until today.

—Would you become my friend?

The moment she heard those words, Olivia realized that Valdrova possessed something she herself lacked.

—I like pure people.

The words Olivia had spoken when she first met Ferda overlapped in her mind.

Valdrova was an extraordinarily pure person.

She struggled to speak indirectly and found it difficult to conceal her emotions.

Even so, she worried that she might inconvenience others, and whenever she loved something, she loved it without restraint.

She was inexperienced, but Olivia could not mock that inexperience.

Even if Olivia created and wore thousands of masks, she could never imitate what lay naturally beneath Valdrova’s face.

‘So this is what it feels like.’

Olivia unconsciously clenched her fist.

She could now understand, at least in part, a fragment of what Alexander’s first wife had felt.

To look up at a realm one could never reach, no matter how much effort one made—

She had never known it could be this painful.

That sense of despair was now boiling inside Olivia’s chest.

For the first time in her life, Olivia was jealous of someone.