Falling petals

Who're you???

While she imagined herself surrounded by beautiful and handsome men and being treated as a queen by them, she woke from it when the man with a red robe, enters her view.

She was put back down on the bed in a sitting position so the man was standing before her.

She looks up at him and he looks down toward her, his eyes a fiery red, yet tints of silver is seen in them, he was handsome, very handsome.

'Wow~ the otome game didn't do him justice, rather, it hasn't done any justice for all of this men!'

Remembering that when she played the game, the graphics weren't that great, but still good enough that you can see their face, just a bit blurry. While still looking straight in his eyes, she noticed a bit of purple too, she wondered how wonderful they looked, especially with his scarlet hair.

'No wonder a women was crazy enough to drug the emperor to get with him, he is literally a walking God.'

"Cough' cough hmph" she ends up leaving her thoughts when she heard him coughing and look away from her, but he stood there with his back straight and his hands behind his back.

" A, are you doing fine now...?" He tries to ask me that in a majestic and aloof way, but he keeps glancing back at her. She just squinted her eye and didn't think she'd witness a "tsundere".

'Was this one of his character traits???' She might have remembered a part in the game where the heroine comes back from a subjugation mission to strengthen her powers. No one noticed his thoughts except the narrator helped the gamers with that.

The king was worried and his hands were trembling when he saw his daughter back, a bit distraught and tensed from her first battle. He wanted to go and hug her and comfort her, but he restrained himself and just told her.

"Good job, you will recieve an appropriate reward" but the heroine said "the only reward needed was seeing my father again, I am content with just that." Before he said anything, Sakura appeared.

"That is nice to say, but it is an insult to the emperor if you do not accept a reward, it is custom in all empires to reward a subjugation well done." Sakura didn't mean to sound bitter, since watching her father, she can see his care for her half-sister, but she wanted to just remind them of custom of the royalty.

"Ah... I'm so sorry father, I didn't know... sorry for insulting the empires customs..." Rose muttered the last part and looks like a pitiful puppy who was scolded. "No need to, who should be apologizing is Sakura, you shouldn't speak unless the emperor allows you to" the emperor glances at his first daughter and can only sigh, causing great pain to spread in Sakura's chest.

'he didn't think twice to embarrass his first child for his bastard one. He only cares for her, not you.'

Those thoughts entered her mind, a thought that has been festering deep in her mind, that seem to grow stronger by the day. 'It hurts, it hurts, it hurts!!'

Sakura wanted to scream and ask for help, but her tutors teaching has been ingrained in her body and mind. To not show your pain or weakness in front of others, to show no emotion in front of others.

So she looked down and bowed toward her father "forgive me fa... your majesty, I spoke out of bounds, I will reflect on myself in my quarters, if you would allow me to." the emperor and her surrounding couldn't see her expression, the pain and struggling she is trying to endure.

"Go." The emperor didn't even look at Sakura, since he himself had been taught to never desplay how he feels or express any weakness.

But then he felt he may have been too hard on her, she was his child too and worried for her, he saw her be born, saw her first smile, heard her first laugh, and her first word "papa!"