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Chapter 16
To the frail Richard, covered in dirt and clutching one arm as he stood there.
“Hic… hngh… Riese…”
Tears streamed nonstop from the boy’s clear eyes. As soon as he met Alina’s gaze, he staggered forward toward her.
When Richard came closer, Alina instinctively stepped back. Her reaction made Richard’s face crumple as though deeply hurt.
“Ri… Riese…”
“Ha! Did you butt in without even knowing who that is?”
Richard’s older brother exclaimed happily at their exchange.
“That brat is none other than the Malharc Empire’s Second Prince, Maximilian Richard von Holtzriger!”
“……”
When Alina kept silent with a stiff face, he gave a sly, nasty smile.
“Go ahead and report me to Lillith if you want. I’m curious what she’ll say about me disciplining my baby brother a little.”
“Riese…”
Alina snapped back to reality at Richard’s trembling voice and glared at Lysian.
After thinking for a brief moment, she reached into her basket.
Alina took out a ripe peach.
She didn’t hesitate—she threw the peach straight at the First Prince. Lysian cried out in shock when it hit him square in the face.
“You—what are you—!”
“So you’re Prince Lysian, I see. Great. That makes this even easier.”
Anger flickered in her lime-green eyes.
“On my first day in the palace, I was trained on the constitutions and dietary habits of all major members of the imperial family.”
“What absurd nonsense are you—! A-choo!”
Lysian, reaching out toward her, suddenly burst into violent coughing.
When he coughed, the snake tormenting Til vanished into mist. Freed from the creature, Til crumpled to the ground like he had fainted.
Seeing that, Alina walked toward Lysian with an icy expression.
Another ripe peach was in her hand.
“What I mean, Your Highness,” she said,
“A-choo! Ugh—A-CHOO!”
Alina brought the peach close to Lysian’s face as he coughed uncontrollably.
She shot a glance at a dumbfounded Richard and continued,
“I happen to know you have a peach allergy. And I know exactly how severe it is, and exactly how much peach it takes to trigger it.”
With gleaming eyes, she crushed the soft peach in her hand.
“You despise the fuzz on peach skin, right? Just having one this close makes you cough nonstop.”
As the pale-pink skin slipped between her fingers and juice dripped down, Lysian shuddered violently and stumbled back.
“S-stop—A-choo! Stop that!”
“And the flesh and juice? You hate those even more.”
Alina smiled sweetly. But Lysian recoiled in horror from that bright smile.
“You—damn it! A-cough—ACHOO! You just wait!”
In the end, Lysian fled while coughing uncontrollably. A pitiful exit for someone who’d seemed so confident moments ago.
As the sound of the prince running faded, Alina collapsed onto the ground with a thump. Her face pale, she muttered,
“Wow… what on earth did I just do…”
Alina had told the truth—she knew Lysian’s allergy precisely.
His peach allergy wasn’t serious. So mild, in fact, that even he often forgot about it. A shower and a single pill would fix him right up.
He did look like he was suffering, though…
But Alina had never bullied anyone before. Without meaning to, she found herself worrying about Lysian.
“Riese, are you okay?”
Still concerned about Lysian, she looked up to see Richard running toward her.
His beautiful face was streaked with tears.
That alone would break anyone’s heart, but the dirt smeared across him made him look even more pitiful.
There’s someone else who deserves worrying about far more.
Alina steeled herself. Lysian was the one who had left Richard in this state.
He abused the child—beat him, starved him, tormented him.
Someone like that deserved punishment.
“How can you ask if I’m okay? You were the one who got hurt.”
She pulled Richard’s hand away from checking her for injuries.
Richard lost his balance and stumbled, and Alina pulled him into a hug.
Quietly, Richard wrapped his arms around her in return.
Holding him gently like one might comfort a puppy, Alina brushed the sand from his silver hair and sighed.
She had been shocked to learn he was the Second Prince.
But the moment their eyes met, none of that mattered.
Seeing a little boy desperately trying to protect her… everything else became irrelevant.
A past life was only a past life.
The life before this one had also been different from the one before that.
Richard would not kill her.
Stroking his head, she asked softly,
“Richard, are you okay?”
“…Not at all.”
Still clinging tightly to her, Richard mumbled into her embrace,
“I was okay before. But thinking about you seeing me like this… now I’m not.”
“You were planning to keep your identity a secret from me forever?”
Richard gave a tiny nod.
“The Second Prince is unwanted… If you knew who I was, I was scared your feelings would change.”
“What feelings?”
“That you’d be on my side.”
His defeated little voice made Alina’s eyes sting. She forced a smile.
“How insulting. So you thought I’d dump you at the first excuse?”
Her teasing made Richard immediately deny it with a serious face.
“No! Absolutely not!”
“Mm-hm. Seems like it… ow.”
Alina winced mid-joke. Richard quickly pulled back to examine her.
“What’s wrong? Did something hurt?”
“I think I twisted my ankle when I sat down.”
She rubbed her aching ankle with a sheepish smile.
She hadn’t been harmed by Lysian or his snake, only to injure herself afterward—she found it almost funny.
Richard did not.
Watching her reddening ankle, he looked deadly serious.
“Wait.”
Bzzzzz—
When he cupped her ankle, a faint blue glow pulsed as the air vibrated.
A soft breeze swirled around them, then settled.
Richard muttered a spell urgently, his face tense.
A pale light spread through Alina’s ankle.
“Please… work…”
Despite his plea, the light soon fizzled out.
“Ah…”
Richard stared at her with a crushed expression.
“I’m sorry. I can’t do anything.”
“Don’t say that.”
Alina flicked his forehead lightly.
“This is nothing—some ointment will fix it. Just help me walk.”
“…Okay.”
With a sulky expression, Richard slipped an arm under her shoulder and helped her up.
She leaned carefully on him—he was just a bit shorter than she was.
“Ugh…”
Pain stabbed her ankle as her foot touched the ground.
Alina forced her expression to smooth out. Richard was watching her anxiously, unable to look at anything else.
“If I’d gone to the Academy, I could’ve learned magic for times like this. I’m sorry.”
“I’m seriously fine. Stop apologizing. But… why didn’t you go? Isn’t a royal supposed to?”
“Because of Til.”
She tilted her head.
“Mm?”
“My guardian beast is a little bird, so Father said he has no expectations for me. A weaker guardian beast means weaker magic. And he already hated me because of my mother.”
“Your mother?”
“She died giving birth to me.”
A hollow light filled Richard’s young face—far too adult for a child.
Alina looked at him silently, then changed the subject.
“So Til is your guardian beast? That’s amazing. Xenotath didn’t have anything like that, so I didn’t recognize it.”
“Right. In the Malharc imperial family, it’s common. The first magic we learn at age four is summoning our guardian beast. After that, the beast and its royal stay together for life.”
He rubbed his reddened eyes as he continued,
“High-mana royals get powerful guardian beasts. Like Lysian’s Teshi, or Lillith’s Mar.”
“Teshi was that snake, right? What’s Mar?”
“Both Teshi and Mar are dragons. They just look like snakes most of the time.”
“But I haven’t seen a snake near Her Highness.”
“That’s obvious.”
Just then, Lillith appeared in front of Alina, who was limping forward.
With a bright laugh, she spoke.
“Keeping your guardian beast visible drains a ton of mana.”
She pointed at Alina’s ankle—unlike Richard’s healing attempt, green light wrapped her ankle like a band and vanished.
“It doesn’t hurt at all…”
Alina stood straight, eyes wide. Lillith winked.
“Hello, delicious Riese?”
With her cool smile, she approached.
“Since Riese was worrying about this brat, I started worrying about him too. That’s why I came.”
Standing before them, Lillith turned to Richard.
“Next month, the ambassador from Kestol is visiting. Come to the banquet. I’ll prepare your seat.”
“Is it okay for me to go to something like that?”
“You’re still a Holtzriger. Of course. And if Lysian tries anything, I’ll shove a peach down his throat, so don’t worry.”
Alina snorted at Lillith’s wicked remark. Lillith gazed at her warmly, then continued,
“And sorry I couldn’t lend you the magic stone last time. I came to bring it, but you weren’t at the Ivory Palace.”
“I borrowed one from Lysian.”
“…What?”
Lillith’s eyes widened at Richard’s answer.
“Why? What was so urgent?”
“……”
Richard clamped his mouth shut and stared at Alina.
Only then did Alina realize why Lillith had visited the Ivory Palace that day.
