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Chapter 2
There is a time for everything.
How to Live as an Immature Crown Prince
It’s a fantasy bestseller that gained popularity and became a hit in the fantasy category on a certain platform.
To summarize the content briefly:
It’s an episodic novel where the protagonist, the Crown Prince, pretends to be a frivolous layabout while hiding his identity and solving bizarre incidents occurring throughout the empire.
In the early part, he lightly resolves incidents caused by monsters, and later, along with a past arc explaining why the protagonist began hiding his identity and doing these activities, the work reaches its first turning point.
The content of the incidents was fun, but the protagonist’s situation—walking a precarious tightrope between the Crown Prince acting like a layabout and the nighttime vigilante ‘Leon’—was also a considerable point of interest. Originally, this kind of slice-of-life story needs that much thrill to be enjoyable.
The problem was that the content masquerading as slice-of-life began to change genre once it passed chapter 100. It started lightly, but from the midpoint, readers were left tearing their hair out over the developments.
I was one of those victims.
Fortunately, it was completed recently, and I even read the side stories and closed it thinking it was a beautiful ending.
Fortunately, the cliché of not properly remembering the original work’s content didn’t seem to apply to me. Of course, knowing it didn’t solve the problem either.
First, I had to point out that my family was closely connected to House Zervan, one of the masterminds behind all these events. In other words, it meant a family destined to fall later.
No matter how much the trend these days is reincarnating into a villain family! Do I really need to be this buried in clichés?
Yeah, at least I’m not a slave. Let’s think positively. Entering a world without serfs or slaves is fortunate if anything is.
“F-First, I need a little more time to think…….”
As I was groaning in worry, a small sound reached my ears. At the crisp footsteps that seemed to show his personality, I held my breath—just then, someone entered through the open door.
A handsome man with pitch-black hair and cold-looking golden eyes stopped at the doorway and looked at me. We silently exchanged gazes.
The white uniform and cloak decorated with gold thread suited this astonishingly beautiful man very well. Though the novel’s description said he originally often wore black clothes.
I slightly lifted the veil covering my face toward today’s bridegroom—the man who had just become my husband—and offered an awkward greeting.
“A-Ah, hello?”
Yes, the biggest problem was actually this man standing before me.
Kaien de Siegfried Elision, the Grand Duke.
The protagonist’s uncle and an ally active from the early part of the work, a capable and cold man. In this novel where the Crown Prince’s popularity was overwhelming, he was also my favorite character.
A cool golden gaze fixed on me. He’d been like that since we first met, so I wasn’t newly hurt by it.
I knew he held no particular ill will toward me. Frankly, what grudge would he hold against a woman he’d met only a handful of times?
It was our family that was the problem.
Despite my greeting, the man didn’t stir at all. He neither responded nor came any closer. In the utterly awkward situation, I forced myself to speak.
“Um…….”
“Wendy Remia Dermis.”
The voice slowly reciting my name was incomparably elegant. Even that suited the man very well.
“How old are you?”
“I turned twenty-one two months ago.”
We were engaged at eighteen, and it was a marriage finally realized after waiting a full three years. Even this was nearly delayed further, but my father, the Duke, had pushed it through.
He wasn’t asking because he genuinely didn’t know my age. As expected, the main point followed.
“Then you must be old enough to understand that this is nothing more or less than a union between houses.”
Despite the chilling warning, I smiled awkwardly.
Of course, how could I not know? I knew even before my memories returned that this was a political marriage forced by my family.
Though I only realized a moment ago that it was secured using medicine to save the little Crown Prince, who was ill with a fever, as bait.
“Live as if you were dead. I will give you the minimum courtesy.”
We’re married, but don’t expect duties as a couple. Something like that, I suppose.
“Then.”
“Wait!”
The man, who had been about to turn and leave, paused at my call. I steadily met his emotionless gaze fixed on me.
“Your Highness the Grand Duke, may I be so bold as to ask one question?”
“What is it?”
I took a light deep breath and opened my mouth.
“What exactly is the standard for ‘living quietly as if dead’?”
“……Pardon?”
“Is it enough that I simply don’t catch Your Highness’s eye? Or does it mean not interfering at all with the household affairs of the Grand Duke’s estate? For external events, I should go out with you, right? If you just tell me a week in advance, I think that would be fine.”
Whether in my past life or now, it was my first marriage, but I knew well that marriages between nobles come with that much obligation.
My father had ordered me to actively use the wife’s rights to spy on the Grand Duke’s house, but I had no intention of following that, naturally. If anything, I’d interfere rather than help.
“Oh, will I receive a dignity maintenance allowance? I don’t need a large budget, but I’d like to be able to buy one or two dresses a month.”
Having worked as an accountant at a company when I was Joo Ha-yeon, this was an important issue for me. After all, isn’t money absolutely essential for making any kind of plan?
Come to think of it, my family had set aside a fairly large estate as my dowry, so funding probably wouldn’t be too difficult.
But if possible, it’s better to receive as much as I can.
“What would be an appropriate frequency for going out? I tend to like roaming around outside, so if you don’t trust me, you can attach plenty of guards!”
As I chattered on, I became self-conscious of Kaien staring at me and felt embarrassed.
Oops, did I talk too much nonsense?
“……Before others, I will treat you as my wife. Other than that, I would prefer we simply don’t cross paths. As for the budget, I’ll tell the butler to set it. You won’t find living difficult.”
“…….”
“You may go out as you please, but within the Grand Duchy’s territory, take at least three knights with you.”
Looking at Kaien answering my questions one by one, I was surprised and simultaneously thought—this is why I liked him.
Wasn’t he a man who, though blunt and taciturn, always worried about his nephew the Crown Prince first? Though strict in all matters and cold to enemies, he never treated people emotionally.
“The Grand Duke’s estate is fundamentally a place far removed from luxury, so keep that in mind.”
So don’t even dream of embezzlement, I suppose. Of course, I nodded without hesitation.
“Of course. And…….”
“Speak.”
“What should I call you?”
“…….”
“Is it fine to just call you ‘Your Highness’ as I do now? Ah, please call me whatever is comfortable for you. You can call me Wendy, or you can call me ‘my lady.’”
Honestly, I’d like to call him Kaien, but he’d surely not permit it.
“Just as it is now is fine.”
“Understood, Your Highness the Grand Duke. And also.”
“What else remains?”
“Just—thank you for being considerate in various ways.”
As I grinned while holding the veil, the man narrowed his eyes.
“You…….”
Kaien, whose lips had moved as if about to say something, eventually turned his back on me just like that. The sound of his footsteps leaving the bridal chamber gradually faded.
I’d essentially been snubbed on my wedding night, but it was actually better. Right now, I needed time to organize these absurd memories and make plans.
One night should be enough.
“Haa. This is a real mess!”
Only then did I throw off the veil wrapped around my head, carelessly strip off even the dress, and lie down on the wide bed with my limbs stretched out.
Staring blankly at the ceiling draped with a white canopy, my thoughts tangled complexly.
Wendy Demia Dermis. Honestly, a name never mentioned in the original work.
It couldn’t be helped, because How to Live as an Immature Crown Prince begins ten years from now……
According to the original plot, I am a character who will die in three years.
