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Chapter 9
The moment Prince Alec appeared, Blake’s face instantly filled with the exhaustion of having to deal with an annoying person.
“Ah, Alec.”
“Hah, eating food meant for commoners again, I see.”
At those words, Blake let out a quiet sigh and set down his sandwich.
More than the insulting remarks directed at him about being a commoner, that was what irritated him the most.
Do you know how hard I worked to get him to eat this? He hasn’t even had more than a few bites!
Glaring at Alec, I stood up from my seat.
“I heard quite the commotion this morning, and it turns out it was Your Highness the Prince. You burst the door open without so much as a greeting—I almost thought there was another master of this office.”
“What?”
Prince Alec and I had almost never crossed paths.
Since possessing Ariel’s body, I had spent nearly all my time confined to my room in the Imperial Palace and rarely went outside.
At my remark, Alec glared at me, clearly irritated, before sneering.
“Well, if it isn’t Her Highness the Crown Princess, who’s so busy locking herself away in her room that it’s hard to even catch a glimpse of her.”
“…”
“You’ve never been glued to Dominic’s side before, so what exactly are you doing here now?”
“Oh my, can’t you tell? I heard my husband was so busy he wasn’t even eating breakfast properly, so I came to take care of him.”
Even after Blake had become Crown Prince, Alec stubbornly continued calling him “hey,” “you,” or by the name everyone knew him by—Dominic.
It was because he looked down on Blake for being born to a maid, but Blake always ignored him with ease.
When I had read it in the novel, I hadn’t thought much of it…
But isn’t he the one who keeps saying Blake is an uncivilized commoner while showing absolutely no respect to the Crown Prince himself?
Frowning in displeasure, I glared at Alec.
“Hah. Dominic’s been acting strange ever since he died and came back to life. Have you gone crazy following your husband?”
“Alec.”
When Alec directed those harsh words toward me as well, Blake finally called his name in a low voice.
“Didn’t you come here because you had business with me? Then speak to me.”
Without bothering to hide how annoyed he was, Blake spoke as though soothing a child.
Immediately, Alec’s hot temper flared.
“How dare you treat me like a child!”
“Then why don’t you answer me so I don’t have to?”
Still fuming, Alec surprisingly got straight to the point.
The Emperor had assigned Blake a task, and it concerned the report about the Orion territory that I had secretly glanced at earlier.
It seemed that was why he’d come…
Still, perhaps he wasn’t completely brainless, because before bringing up the real subject, he looked at me.
“And… aren’t you leaving? If you had any sense, you’d excuse yourself.”
“Of course. I wouldn’t want to interrupt the two of you.”
Ah, before I go…
“You have to finish the sandwich I made for you, Your Highness. Would Your Highness the Prince like one as well?”
“Food for commoners…”
Though Alec grumbled, his eyes kept darting toward the sandwich in my hand.
Watching him, I sneered inwardly.
Just as I thought.
The free-spirited and hot-blooded Prince Alec had become engaged to the young lady of House Vermia under the influence of his mother, Empress Lucia.
However, despite Lady Vermia’s perfect status and flawless personality, there was one thing Alec disliked about her.
Her appearance.
Now, that didn’t mean Lady Vermia was ugly.
She was tall and elegant, like a model.
She simply wasn’t Alec’s type.
Surprisingly, Alec’s ideal type was Blake’s wife in name only—Ariel Rekaysha.
It had only been briefly mentioned in the original novel, but it had left enough of an impression that I still remembered it.
Cherry blossom-pink hair, sky-blue eyes, a petite frame, and an adorable, lovable appearance.
A spotless, fair face that resembled a little rabbit doll—that was the Ariel I had possessed.
Prince Alec liked women who were small, cute, and lovable, so every time he encountered Ariel, he would secretly steal glances at her, thinking that at least her face was worth admiring.
And he was doing exactly that now.
Pretending not to notice, I smiled and held out the sandwich.
He looked down on it as commoner food so much that I was curious whether he’d still refuse it if it was offered by his ideal woman.
“Ariel.”
Before Alec could react, Blake called my name first.
I couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but although his voice remained flat, it seemed as though he was trying to hide his displeasure.
“Give that to me as well. Alec isn’t going to eat it anyway, is that right?”
“Uh… huh? W-Well… that’s right…”
“Thank you for bringing it. I’ll finish work early today so we can sleep together tonight. Would you mind leaving now?”
“Huh? Ah, yes!”
A faint smile rested on Blake’s face, but combined with his decadent features, it looked anything but gentle.
If anything, it made him seem colder—and even more intimidating.
At the same time, watching Blake pretend to be a loving husband felt so awkward that I quickly shoved the entire basket into his arms and fled.
The fabricated affection in his words gave me goosebumps.
Everyone in the Imperial Palace knew that we hardly even saw each other and slept in separate rooms.
And yet he acted like that.
Honestly, I could understand why Alec looked so dumbfounded.
Anyone seeing us would think we were newlyweds enjoying a blissful marriage or a happily devoted couple.
The reality was…
Well, a zombie and the necromancer who brought the zombie back to life.
That summed it up perfectly.
In any case, my mission of delivering breakfast to Blake was complete.
So I headed toward the library, the next stop in my plan.
First.
Find a way to repair Blake’s incomplete body.
After all, everything I knew about necromancers came from the original novel’s side stories. I’d have to dig through books for more information.
Second.
The matter of the Orion territory that Blake and Alec would now be discussing.
To put it simply, the Orion Count family, the Emperor’s maternal relatives, had eventually fallen out with the Imperial Family after a power struggle.
The Imperial Family emerged victorious.
As a result, the prestigious House Orion was made to appear as though it had died out for lack of an heir, and its territory was absorbed into the Imperial Family.
The Emperor then bestowed the wealth of the Orion territory upon Blake and Alec.
However, he added one condition.
“The Crown Prince is to divide it fairly and share it between the two of you.”
Naturally, Alec had come charging over first thing in the morning, determined to secure his share.
In the end, it was safe to say the Emperor was testing Blake.
He wanted to see whether the Crown Prince could skillfully negotiate even with an opponent, while still securing his own interests.
But rather unexpectedly for me, this was an incident that originally required Saint Seira’s help.
It had been resolved using her holy power.
The problem was that she was currently missing, and I had no idea where she was or even whether she would return.
So I had to help Blake in Seira’s place, or the flow of the novel would become distorted.
The only problem was that unlike Saint Seira, who had holy power…
I had none.
So I’d have to come up with another method.
There was another way introduced later in the novel that didn’t rely on holy power. If I want to find it, I’ll have to gather information from the library first.
Making one plan after another in my mind, I slowly walked toward the library as though enjoying a peaceful morning stroll.
The weather had become pleasantly chilly.
It really is autumn now, I thought.
Then, in the quiet surroundings, I heard the faint sound of footsteps.
Did I imagine it?
The footsteps were so faint that it almost sounded as if someone were following me.
I looked around before turning the corner.
But in the distance, there was only the library building.
No one was there after all.
“…”
I must have imagined it.
As I absentmindedly stared at the stone path leading to the library and resumed walking, a pair of black shoes covered in dirt stopped directly in front of me.
Oddly enough, although they were caked in mud, they looked to be made of expensive leather.
At the same time, they seemed strangely familiar.
The black trousers above them were ordinary.
No…
Unlike the filthy shoes, they were impeccably clean and neatly pressed, making the contrast feel unsettling.
Finally, I slowly raised my head to see the person who clearly had no intention of moving aside.
“…Huh?”
“Hello.”
A casual, easygoing greeting.
Which only made him seem even stranger.
The person standing before me was my husband…
Blake.
