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Chapter : 17
“Let me see you off…”
“I’ll see you off.”
“But the Grand Duke is my guest…”
“After everything that happened today, it would be better for you to rest at the palace.”
With that, the Crown Prince lifted me up in his arms.
‘This is insane…!’
Of course, there was no way I could resist the Crown Prince physically.
There were also the overzealous royal guards, and it wasn’t like I could use magic against the Crown Prince.
“I’ll make sure Bi is escorted safely inside the palace.”
“Yes! Your Highness, I’ll wait!”
Whether he knew my predicament or not, the Duke kept waving at me and the Crown Prince with sparkling eyes…
“….”
Before I knew it, I had been “delivered” to my room.
“W-we’ll be going in now.”
The maids, keeping an eye on me, hurriedly ran out of the room.
And…
‘Damn it!’
I flopped onto the bed.
‘I’ve lost control of the situation!’
At some point, I had completely lost the flow of events.
‘How could I have stayed rational in that situation?’
From the moment the royal guards appeared, weapons drawn… no, from the moment the Duke appeared half-naked, I was completely flustered.
Yet, the Crown Prince remained composed.
As a result, the Crown Prince ended up taking the Duke away.
‘Surely, the Crown Prince wouldn’t harm the Duke, right? No, he couldn’t. He’s not foolish enough to mistreat the Grand Duke of a nation outside the royal family.’
I spent a long time biting my nails, lost in various thoughts.
After some time…
“I can’t just sit here!”
I jumped up from the bed.
I slammed open the drawer and pulled out my plan for the “counter-adultery scheme.”
Let’s see… the first step is [Step 1: Get as close as possible to the Grand Duke!]
‘Grand Duke Rikesis said he doesn’t have the capacity to stay at the Academy, but if other nobles reach out, that might change.’
So, what would be a way to monopolize Duke Rikesis at the Heim Ducal Estate?
‘I suppose I need to start the Mana Stone business quickly.’
In Magic Revolution, the magical revolution occurs when Luak is in his mid-20s.
That is, ten years from now.
For now, the commercialization of Mana Stones depends on various conditions…
“If I, the Crown Princess, want to keep visiting the Heim Ducal Estate, I need concrete results.”
It seemed that it was time to make use of information from the original story.
I jotted down several business ideas that came to mind in my plan, making a firm resolution.
‘I’ll go to the Heim Ducal Estate first thing tomorrow.’
To make Cardmael Rikesis mine!
“It’s an honor to serve Grand Duke Rikesis. We will do our utmost to attend to you.”
Even though the visit was unexpected, the butler of the ducal estate treated the Duke’s party with extraordinary kindness.
‘Didn’t the young lady say we must win their favor?’
Three days ago, I had received a secret message from Letie.
“This is the bathroom museum, the pride of the Heim Ducal Estate. When the current Crown Princess was sixteen, she developed a fixation on cleanliness after a carriage accident. After studying magic, she carried out reforms. Thanks to that, Heim’s bath facilities are the best on the continent.”
“Wow! Can we look around some more?”
“Of course! Hehe.”
After that, the Duke kept wandering throughout the bathroom museum.
“Wow! Amazing!”
Watching the Duke, the guards felt uneasy.
‘He won’t cause trouble again, will he?’
‘Like breaking the museum’s exhibits…!’
In truth, the guards had been excited when they came to the Academy with the Duke.
But after just one day, they already wanted to return to Rikesis. Because…
“This Cardmael Rikesis will keep Your Highness’s body warm as long as he’s here!”
—he had even started carrying a wood-cutting axe.
And on top of that, his endless chatter about “The bathwater is clean!” and “The modern bathroom is the best!”
And he even did all this in front of the Crown Princess’s husband!
“Everything’s ready? You want to bathe together? Is that something you say in the sacred royal family?!”
What the Duke actually said was unclear, but even the palace guards were shocked when they heard from that royal knight, Aidell.
‘I thought the Crown Prince was going to challenge the Duke to a duel!’
‘Thanks to the Crown Princess, it was avoided!’
‘Was it really avoided?’
“…Ugh!”
As the guards shivered under the Crown Prince’s fierce gaze, the museum tour ended.
After that, the Duke and his guards followed the butler Rochen to their quarters.
“Then, may you all have a comfortable evening.”
Once the Heim Ducal Estate’s butler left, the Duke removed his jacket.
“Phew…”
He stretched and meditated, then carefully pulled out two sheets of paper from both sides of his jacket.
They were the signatures of Crown Prince Abel and Crown Princess Letie.
‘So he’s going to make charms again!’
As expected, the Duke began wiping the signatures with cloth, making the guards tremble.
‘He must have come to the Academy specifically to make charms!’
The Duke had always been eager to find a fated partner like the Crown Prince and Princess.
That’s why he carried their signatures like charms and carefully polished them.
In other words, all the chaos up to now had been caused by these charms.
‘Aaaah!’
‘So frustrating!’
Just as the guards buried their heads in their hands…
“Grand Duke!”
Three guards entered.
Having refused the handover from the palace knights under the pretense of patrolling the Academy, they had finally arrived at the quarters.
However, their faces were tense.
And their leader, Zenin, frowned upon seeing the Duke polishing the signatures.
“Do you realize how troublesome this is? Right now, the Grand Duke could be mistaken for the Crown Princess’s lover.”
“Lover? What’s that?”
The Duke asked the nearby guard with a puzzled look, but Zenin cleared up his confusion.
“It means a shameless scoundrel who pursues a woman who already has a husband.”
At Zenin’s blunt explanation, the Duke’s mouth dropped open, and the two sheets of paper fell from his hands.
“….”
Silence fell over the quarters.
After some time, the Duke spoke first.
“I… am a… scoundrel?”
“That’s not all. There’s also a woman currently involved with Crown Prince Abel. Her name is Nevia Khalid, a notorious villainess. Because of her reputation, rumors about you are spreading too. In other words, you’re right in the middle of the Crown Prince and Crown Princess’s situation.”
“Wh-what…?”
The innocent Duke couldn’t comprehend everything at once.
Zenin clicked his tongue at the blank-faced Duke.
“In short, if you don’t want to be pointed at as a shameless scoundrel by the world, you need to keep a proper distance from the Crown Princess. Understood?”
“Keep a distance?!”
Duke Rikesis jumped up. And…
Bam!
His fist struck Zenin squarely in the face.
“How dare you say that when the Crown Princess has treated us so well?!”
Thud! Crash!
Zenin rolled twice on the floor.
Yet, even with a bloody nose, he grinned without a trace of pain.
“Ah, right! I just thought of a good idea.”
He gave a sinister smile and, instead of sitting, got up and trudged closer…
Duke Rikesis hesitated at the change in Zenin’s demeanor.
‘What evil scheme is he going to suggest now?!’
“If you don’t want to keep your distance, there’s another way.”
“…Another way?”
However, the Duke perked up at the idea of being able to stay close to the Crown Princess.
‘That guy always comes up with some cunning plan!’
Thinking that, the Duke leaned in to listen, and Zenin whispered in his ear:
“Grand Duke, since it’s come to this, why not try properly seducing Crown Princess Letie?”
“…What?!”
The Duke’s eyes widened at those words.
