Chapter 156 --156
Even while Elara slept, her mind refused to rest. Thoughts spun like overworked gears, cold and relentless. Maybe her brain was broken, maybe it was just how she’d always been—unable to feel things properly, only able to dissect them. Her dreams weren’t really dreams at all. They were like a desktop screen replaying scenes in neat little windows: what happened, what variables she’d missed, how to fix it next time. No warmth, no softness—just optimization.
Tonight, one question kept looping in that mechanical mind: she couldn’t handle this. Not like this. The problem wasn’t that she was too tired or too weak; it was that the **position** itself was wrong. She wasn’t Crown Princess. On paper, she was only the Emperor’s stand-in, a temporary substitute wearing his shadow while he lay in a coma. Substitute. Not successor. And when he woke up—if she ever allowed that—her authority vanished in a blink.
She knew the nobles wouldn’t wait politely for that day. Right now, they were quiet, pretending to watch. But in truth, they were just like ants stuck to a fan on a low speed—still, but only because the fan hadn’t truly started spinning. Once they chose to move, they’d whirl into a hurricane that could tear her to pieces. At the moment, they were probably using only twenty percent of their influence, and even that was enough to make her uneasy. The newcomers, the young noble heirs, she could deal with. They were loud, impatient, easy to provoke and pin down.
It was the old ones she feared—the old foxes with slow smiles and long memories. Their minds were sharp, like double-edged swords you only noticed when you were already bleeding. She’d spread the story that the Emperor personally assigned her to act in his place while he slept, but she didn’t fool herself. It wouldn’t take long for those men and women to smell the cracks, to start digging for proof, to ask the questions no one else dared voice. Before that happened, she needed to solidify her position so thoroughly that even suspicion wouldn’t be enough to move her.
Somewhere in the middle of that endless planning, the lines blurred. Her calculations thinned out, thoughts grew fuzzy at the edges, and finally her brain gave up. She slid into a deep, heavy sleep that felt more like dropping off a cliff than resting.
When her eyes opened again, it was already night. The room was dim and quiet. She realized she was still lying on the couch, a thick fur blanket tucked around her shoulders. Someone had covered her while she slept. She pushed the blanket off and sat up slowly. Pain slammed into her skull like a hammer. Her head throbbed viciously, each pulse beating behind her eyes.
"Great," she muttered, fingers pressing her temples. "This body really is fragile."
In her first life, she hadn’t exactly been a gym rat, but she’d been used to long hours, little sleep, constant stress. This body, spoiled and undertrained, complained at every push. When she stood too quickly, the world tilted. Her vision blurred, black spots dancing at the edges, and her knees almost buckled.
She grabbed the nearest small table for support, fingers digging into the wood. The slight noise of it scraping against the floor was enough—within seconds, the door swung open.
"Your Highness, are you alright?" a voice asked anxiously.
She turned her head and saw today’s guard. His armor was neat, posture straight... and on top of his head, two soft rabbit ears twitched, alert and nervous. For a second, despite the pain, Elara’s analytical gaze softened. He looked... oddly cute like that.
"I’m fine," she said shortly, easing herself back down onto the couch. Her head still spun, and the couch was safer than the floor.