🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter : 4
You’re Far Too Uncautious
Benjamin lazily drew in a breath.
“Do you like wine?”
The languid question fell softly, followed by a gentle, murmuring voice.
“In the Windsor family, everyone—young and old alike—loves wine. What about you?”
“I like it too, probably because I take after my mother. She used to enjoy it often when she was alive.”
“…Was it Sharlof?”
Sharlof nodded.
“That blood really is thick. Even your tastes are exactly alike.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. The presence is unmistakable. Just like how I recognized you as a Windsor the first time I saw you.”
Just as he said, the blood of the Windsor family ran thick.
From appearances to trivial preferences, the Windsor blood—so deeply despised by her biological father—was strongly mixed in Sharlof as well.
“Is there somewhere you’d recommend?”
“For what?”
“You asked if I like wine.”
“Do you have a place you usually go?”
Benjamin slipped into his shirt neatly and fastened the buttons, his gaze trailing languidly after her.
Sharlof held her breath once more. It felt as though something was tightening around her chest.
Was it because of his clean, composed movements? She almost forgot that Benjamin had been injured.
She waited until he had even put on his jacket before answering.
“There’s a tavern in Roskella that’s famous for its wine.”
The very place your subordinate used to manage in my past life.
Benjamin’s hand paused. He lifted his head to meet her eyes, then tidied his jacket sleeve.
He looked very different from the first time he had stepped into the Windsor estate—now immaculately put together.
“…Have you been there?”
“No. I’m thinking of going today.”
Benjamin stared at her silently for a few seconds, then turned away.
“They have good Ailia wine there. A thirty-year vintage should be enough to satisfy a Windsor palate.”
After saying that, Benjamin fell silent. Why did that vacant, downward gaze seem so intense?
Sharlof answered with a smiling glance. Benjamin departed with a light farewell.
As she followed his retreating figure with her eyes, he seemed to sense her gaze and slowly turned back.
“See you again.”
We had a premonition. This wasn’t the end.
“See you again, Your Highness.”
That day, Benjamin left after only having his wounds treated. The Windsor estate returned to silence.
As if they had forgotten Benjamin’s existence, people didn’t even speak his name anymore. They were already used to such days.
“Sharlof.”
After Benjamin left, Aster called Sharlof over.
“Did His Highness say anything else?”
“He just said we’d see each other again.”
“What? See again? What does he mean by that—who does he think he’s…!”
“…Pardon?”
“No. It’s nothing. I worried for nothing.”
When she asked what he meant, Aster only brushed it off, saying, “He just has a bad personality, so don’t get involved with him.”
“Miss!”
Someone knocked on the carriage door. The coachman called from outside.
“What are you thinking about? You didn’t even hear me calling.”
Sharlof cast her gaze out the carriage window. It seemed she had dozed off.
“We’ve arrived.”
She opened the door and stepped down. It was a familiar path; there was no need to look around.
It was the spot she had come to once before.
The horse snorted and shook its head, and the coachman soothed it before asking her,
“Are you really coming back alone?”
“Probably. At least, that’s the plan…”
That was why she had gone out alone, wearing a beret.
“You won’t be late, so you can go on ahead.”
She answered with a nod. After confirming the coachman had left, she touched her lips.
“Is this the place?”
The narrow alley looked familiar—the alley where she had run into Benjamin.
The man her biological father hated most, and the ruler who would someday become the head of the imperial family.
That man was standing right here now.
Just his existence alone made her father foam at the mouth, grow hypersensitive, and curse him to die.
“The one” branded a monster for his moral flaws.
Even if he was a monster, it didn’t matter. Even if he had moral defects, it didn’t matter.
As long as those flaws didn’t affect me. And even if they did—so what?
If it was enough to make my father loathe him, then that was enough.
Enough reason to stick my head into the jaws of a snake.
‘Roskella’s Tavern.’
It was an institution that handled information outside the imperial palace for Benjamin, managed by his strategist.
This was also near where she had run into Benjamin.
‘I think we bumped into each other around here…’
Then this must be it.
She steadied her breathing. As if driving out the chill that had seeped deep into her lungs, her chest slowly settled.
The narrow alley was barely wide enough for one grown man to pass through. Beyond it stood a single tavern.
Her memory was hazy, but it felt like it had been around here.
Sharlof removed her beret and looked up at the sign.
‘Roskella Tavern.’
It was a modest little place. When she opened the door, a small bell rang.
—Jingle.
The rich scent of wine filled the air. A man who had been polishing glasses turned his head at the sound.
“Oh? So you’re a customer?”
Standing at the threshold, Sharlof looked around inside.
“Yes. And I can sit here?”
She set her beret on the table, pulled a chair to one side of the island counter, and sat.
“The menu’s over there. Take a look and order whatever you’d like—”
“I’ll have a glass of wine made from Ailia grapes. It has to be thirty years old.”
The man polishing glasses—Franz, the bartender—raised his brows.
“You’re asking for Ailia wine? What’s this? Are you a rare wine lover, miss? Are you alone?”
“For now, yes.”
“We also have some incredible fruit cheese that goes perfectly with wine. Want some of that too?”
“As long as it doesn’t have raisins in it.”
“What? Why skip the raisins? They’re the most important part! You’re telling me you’ll drink Ailia wine but skip fruit cheese with raisins?”
Franz brought out the Ailia wine and fruit cheese. Since she’d asked to leave out the raisins, he brought cheese made with dried apples instead.
The fruit cheese melted gently in her mouth. She swirled the wine lightly in her hand and let it linger on her tongue.
“Where’s the owner? He’s not here?”
“Oh, you know Mr. Roskella?”
“Not personally. But you named the tavern after him, didn’t you?”
“Ah, that’s right! I almost forgot.”
“The quality of the wine is good. I didn’t expect much since it’s tucked away like this.”
She took another sip. Just then, a shadow fell behind her. As if knowing who she was, he draped a robe over her shoulders.
“Sharl.”
Benjamin leaned down, bracing himself on the table beside her.
“We meet again.”
The person who will ruin me.
“Since we said we’d meet again, did I come too early?”
“It is earlier than I expected.”
We quietly examined each other—and instantly knew. We needed each other.
He calculated my value, dissecting me with that meticulous gaze.
Yes. You must have felt it then too.
That we would end up rolling together in the mud.
And I would willingly throw myself into that mire.
Sharlof took a sip of wine, moving only her eyes. Her breath fogged the glass.
“Did you tell Aster you were coming?”
“My uncle doesn’t know I’m here.”
“So you really did come alone.”
“I plan to go back alone too.”
As she finished her wine, Benjamin took the glass from her.
“Every single Windsor is crazy about wine.”
He clicked his tongue.
“How did you find this place?”
“Isn’t it fairly well-known?”
“That Roskella fellow is good at collecting wine.”
“Yes. The quality was excellent. I ordered the Ailia wine you recommended.”
Benjamin stared at her intently, like he was tapping on a calculator—deciding what to do with her.
As she brushed back her curly hair, the door opened again. Franz called out a name.
“Mr. Roskella, you’re here?”
“Tch. Why does it start raining when I’m almost there?”
Roskella grumbled as he shook the water from his clothes.
“Boss, you’ve got a big umbrella—why do you have to use it all by yourself? You just don’t want to share with another guy, is that it? Look at this! I’m soaked to my underwear! Don’t you have any mercy? Have you forgotten the day I stitched your crushed arm back together, stitch by stitch?”
“Mr. Roskella, there’s a guest waiting for you up front.”
Only then did Roskella notice Sharlof and widen his eyes.
“Franz, prepare a seat inside for them.”
She glanced toward the entrance. The sound of rain could be faintly heard.
“This is a hangover cure. Drink it all.”
Roskella handed her a green bottle.
“If you talk with His Highness while drunk, you’ll just get tossed around.”
Sharlof took the bottle and only dipped her tongue in it slightly. A bitter mint flavor spread. She didn’t really need a hangover remedy after just a few glasses of wine, but since his aide insisted, she drank it all.
“Honestly… Even when he’s sober, it’s hard enough to keep your head straight around him. Our miss is too careless…”
Roskella clicked his tongue and gestured at Benjamin.
“Your Highness, you can’t treat her like you do other men.”
“That’s enough. Get out.”
“Oh, come on! Can’t you be a little nicer to me?”
She set down the empty bottle and glanced at Roskella.
“You seem pretty close. Your Highness, isn’t it a bit cold of you to treat someone who stitched your crushed arm back together so poorly?”
Roskella looked at his superior with a wounded expression.
“Your Highness, did you hear that? Even this lady, whom I’ve just met, understands me! I still remember stitching that arm of yours, and even the inside of your thigh, one stitch at a time—!”
“Roskella, you’re being noisy.”
Benjamin effectively kicked him out. Sharlof glanced at Roskella with new eyes.
‘He’s different from what I expected.’
In her past life, Roskella had been cruel and resolute.
‘The man who held the kill list at the side of the deposed crown prince.’
The current emperor had long been bedridden with illness, and the palace was in turmoil. Except for the empress, no one could even approach him.
Years from now, the deposed crown prince would kill his family and relatives and ascend the throne.
Benjamin would purge the opposing factions to strengthen imperial authority—and Roskella, the strategist holding that kill list, would be the one to carry it out.
“Then please, take a rest here, Miss Sharlof.”
After Roskella left, Benjamin sat with his fingers interlaced.
“Sharl.”
Did that nickname sound so familiar now because I’d grown used to him?
“Aren’t you wandering around without fear?”
“Am I?”
“You’re far too unguarded.”
Sharlof shrugged. It was true—she had let her guard down in front of him, the one person she should have been most wary of. Naturally, Benjamin was the first to notice.
“You should,” Benjamin murmured slowly,
“be a little more cautious.”
Now she understood, at least a little, why Aster said he had a bad personality.
“So that’s why he gave me the hangover cure before leaving.”
If you lose focus, you’ll be swept along all too easily.
