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The warm sunlight streaming through the window and the sound of birds announced the morning after a moonlit night. Retina, who had been sleeping like the dead, suddenly opened her eyes and blinked a few times, staring blankly at the ceiling that came into view.
Ah, I’m screwed.
That was the first thought that came to Retina’s hazy mind as she woke. For a refreshing morning bathed in sunlight, her whole body ached terribly, as if there wasn’t a single part that didn’t hurt.
The memories of last night rushed through her head like a flash, and Retina’s face quickly darkened. Swept up by the mood, she’d made a mistake, and only now did she fully realize how huge the consequences could be.
Although the Crown Prince was notorious for being promiscuous, she was not. This was her first time officially entering the capital, and she’d promised her father to stay quietly only until the end of the social season before returning home.
When she looked to the side, she saw the Crown Prince sleeping peacefully—the same Crown Prince with whom she had spent the night. She hated the fact that she knew he wasn’t just shirtless but completely naked under the sheets.
I’m doomed, I’m doomed.
As she shuddered and hurriedly slipped out of bed, Retina realized that she was just as naked as he was.
Panicking, she quickly grabbed the scattered clothes from the floor. Her own clothes were mixed with his, and she couldn’t tell which was which, so she just shoved them on haphazardly. All the while, her eyes were fixed nervously on the Prince, but he didn’t stir despite the commotion—he must have been exhausted.
Her head, shoulders, knees, and feet—all ached. Somehow, she managed to wrestle herself into the dress alone, though she looked utterly ridiculous.
Still, most people leaving a party in the morning probably looked disheveled, so she wouldn’t stand out too much. Finally, she hid her silvery hair under a wig, and her preparations were complete. Thankfully, even through all of this, the Crown Prince’s eyelids remained firmly shut.
Heart pounding, Retina tried to calm herself down as she hurried to leave. She dreaded the awkwardness of facing him if he woke now. She needed to escape before he came to—if only for her own safety.
He’s not dead, right…?
Just in case, she held her finger under his nose to check for breath. Thankfully, she could feel the steady tickle of his breathing.
She let out a sigh of relief and backed away. Getting involved with the Crown Prince was already troublesome enough; the last thing she needed was to be accused of assassinating a member of the royal family.
“Let’s just pretend nothing happened, and both of us go our separate ways peacefully.”
With a composed expression, Retina glanced back at the Prince one last time before leaving the room. Some couples ended up married after such encounters at parties, but many just treated them as fleeting one-night affairs.
Since there was no engagement between them, it was best for both of their sakes to let the night be forgotten rather than becoming entangled in scandalous rumors. Ideally, he’d been so drunk that he wouldn’t remember anything.
After all, last night had been nothing more than an accident.
As she slipped out, leaving the sleeping Crown Prince behind, she couldn’t help but feel like she was the one acting like a flirt. Holding her shoes in hand, Retina didn’t put them on until she was well down the corridor, away from the room.
No one saw me… right?
She barely made it in time to meet her brothers at the agreed hour from the previous night. Straightening her clothes, Retina climbed into the carriage. The two men inside turned to look at her simultaneously.
“You’re late.”
“Haha… Something came up.”
“What happened?”
Retina, sitting across from them, forced an awkward laugh and turned to look out the window. The twins looked identical, but if you examined them closely, you could tell them apart. One of them looked suspicious for a moment, but his expression soon softened, full of trust—what trouble could their one and only little sister possibly get into?
“L-let’s go.”
Feeling guilty, Retina couldn’t meet their eyes and began sweating nervously.
Sorry, I messed up.
She swallowed the words she could never say to her brothers. She didn’t even want to imagine what would happen if they found out. She was certain that disaster would follow.
Retina Cecelica.
The youngest daughter of the Duke of Deneuve’s household, and a peculiar young lady who had reached the age of twenty-two without ever making her debut in society.
She had inherited her mother’s surname and had never spoken about her family. Until graduation, no one at the academy ever guessed that she was the Deneuve family’s youngest daughter.
It was no surprise: she shared none of the Deneuve family’s signature features—near-black navy hair and red eyes. Instead, she had ordinary brown hair and blue eyes, so no one connected her with the powerful duke’s house.
Before entering society, she had attended Evelynte Academy only for the required three years of high school education. She didn’t appear at the debutante ball before graduation and always kept to herself, so the nobles had no way of knowing who she was.
Had it not been for the Deneuve twins showing up to congratulate her graduation, no one would have realized who she was even then.
She had actually preferred it that way, so when her brothers showed up uninvited that day, she’d been openly annoyed. Her fellow students, however, couldn’t understand why she’d hidden her identity as the daughter of one of the Empire’s most famous aristocratic families.
The Duke of Deneuve was a household name, the leader of the noble faction—just the family name carried enormous weight.
People were curious why she’d hidden such a powerful background, but Retina disappeared after graduation, and no one heard her side of the story.
For a brief moment, Retina became an unintentional topic of gossip, but she quickly faded into obscurity in the bustling world of high society, overshadowed by her famously attention-grabbing twin brothers.
And then…
“Reti! Reti!”
Suddenly, the door—once firmly shut—swung open with a crash, one hinge slightly knocked loose. Her second brother, Heint, appeared.
“The Syles family sent us an invitation to a party!”
“To me?”
“No, to me.”
Retina shot him a sharp glare. He didn’t even know what kind of trouble she might have gotten into at the last party, and now he wanted to drag her to another one—on his invitation?
“I told you, if the invitation isn’t addressed to me, I’m not going.”
“You still have to go. You’re my sister.”
“I don’t need to.”
She had only come to the capital to make her debut, which she’d skipped at age eighteen. Her father had threatened to cut off support if she didn’t present herself to the Empress during this social season, so she’d reluctantly returned. She had no interest in the marriage market.
“Refusal denied!”
“Retina, as a member of House Deneuve, you’re obliged to attend if we’ve been invited.”
The twin brothers, born a minute apart, always worked in perfect tandem when it came to meddling in her affairs.
“Don’t be so grumpy, Reti. This party’s going to be extra fun.”
Heint laughed boisterously and slung his heavy arm over her shoulder. It felt like having a bear lean on her; the weight practically halved her height.
“Why?”
“Well, you see…”
He lowered his voice like he was sharing a great secret. Sart, the other twin, seemed to already know and looked bored.
“The Crown Prince is searching for the woman he fell for at the Penelti party.”
Her heart plummeted to her toes.
“Apparently some bold woman spent a passionate night with him and fled without a word. He’s already begun searching for her, and everyone’s dying to know who she is. That’s why everyone’s going to this party. Lady Syles really got lucky hosting it.”
Excited by juicy gossip, Heint snickered mischievously. Retina jabbed him in the stomach to escape his arm.
Are you seriously laughing right now? Your little sister might be in the biggest mess of her life!
It didn’t hurt him, of course—his brain was probably made of muscle, too.
“I’m not interested.”
“Oh, come on. Don’t you want to see how His Highness plans to find the woman who stole his purity? I think he mentioned her hair color was…”
“White. Platinum blonde.”
Even Sart, who had seemed uninterested, remembered the details precisely.
“Oh, right. He woke up naked and alone in bed, haha! The guy who never gave any woman the time of day! You should’ve seen his face, priceless. And that woman… amazing! Who would dare stand up the Crown Prince like that?”
Heint puffed out his cheeks, struggling not to laugh.
The woman he’s laughing about is standing right here, why?! Retina hid her trembling fists under her dress and forced a smile to keep up appearances.
“So, he’s going to find her just by her hair color? There are tons of blondes in the Empire. Even His Highness himself is blond.”
She feigned ignorance, hoping desperately that the Prince had been too drunk to remember her face.
“Reti, you act uninterested, but you’re asking a lot of questions. Don’t tell me you’ve fallen for the Crown Prince.”
“I–I’m just curious. I mean, who would dare to walk out on His Highness? Ha ha…”
“Well, from what I heard, he was too drunk to remember clearly. The room was dark, too. He said she had light blond hair, but he’s sure he’d recognize her if they met again.”
Heint tapped his chin thoughtfully and shrugged.
Thank goodness.
The tension melted from Retina’s shoulders the moment she heard he didn’t remember clearly. She was the only one in the Empire with silver hair, so if he’d said silver, her brothers would’ve figured it out instantly.
“Oh, has His Highness finally found true love? I wonder what kind of woman could stand him up like that.”
Heint switched to a mock theatrical tone, still obliviously joking.
Retina shot him a sidelong glare, but he was too caught up in his gossip to notice.
She had come to the capital hoping to avoid the cutthroat world of noble society—full of social climbing, marriage politics, and luxury—and live a quiet life in the countryside. But her plans to keep a low profile until her debut were shattered overnight.
Once my debut’s over, I’m heading straight back to the countryside.
Thankfully, her lack of presence in society worked in her favor now. Unlike her brothers, her appearance—aside from her silver hair—was unremarkable, making it easy to blend into the crowd. And since she always wore a brown wig, no one knew she was silver-haired.
Even her former classmates might not remember she’d graduated with them unless they looked at the yearbook.
“Fine. I’m going to have Lina clean the room now, so could you please get out?”
Retina beamed at her brothers and ushered them out. She’d expected trouble after sneaking away from the sleeping Crown Prince, but she hadn’t expected him to search so openly.
If my brothers find out I’m the woman from the rumors…
She rubbed her goosebump-covered arms furiously. Just imagining that future made her shudder, and she shook her head vigorously to chase away the thought.
