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Chapter 76
“Of course you’d hate me.”
The crown prince laughed hollowly when he realized, belatedly, what he had said.
Lord Belang widened his eyes and stared at his superior for a moment before quickly slipping back into his usual expressionless mask.
“So that’s why you try so hard to avoid me. Not for a single moment do you want to be with me, is that it?”
You know I don’t want to meet you, do you?
“I know it’s awkward, my lady, and I am truly sorry. If you’d only forgive me, I’ll do whatever you ask.”
Even the emperor’s orders couldn’t make the crown prince apologize repeatedly for the same mistake.
The fact that the crown prince had humbled himself so much made me wonder whether some other incident had occurred that I didn’t know about.
Given how many unexpected things have been happening in this run, it was certainly possible.
“Please don’t coldly cast me aside. I already apologized before — isn’t it too harsh to keep avoiding me?”
A hypothesis flashed through my mind.
Could the empress be pregnant? With a new heir on the way, had the emperor’s attention shifted? The empress had never been pregnant before, so it was a shaky guess, but the crown prince, whose life goal had been his mother’s dying wish, would only hesitate for a reason like that.
There were collateral branches of the royal family, but as long as the crown prince didn’t make a fatal mistake, there was nothing to fear.
With Merina’s influence waning, his longing for his mother’s will would only grow stronger. That must be when he realized our family’s, and my, usefulness.
If he goes back to Merina later, will he try to have me killed?
I couldn’t even bring myself to laugh.
“Why on earth is the crown prince treating me like this?” I asked.
I bit my tongue hard enough to feel the pain sting my eyes.
“If you feel even a bit sorry, didn’t you ask the crown prince to help make sure there’s nothing that could be misunderstood by Silla?” I said, my voice thin and trembling. “What did I do today that you’re trying to separate me from Silla?”
“My lady, I only ask that you stop avoiding me so much.”
“So in the end you intend to keep coming to the Levian estate, don’t you? The selection for crown princess is underway — if the crown prince keeps visiting the family of a woman who isn’t even a candidate, what will people say?”
Tears streamed down my cheeks.
The escort guards sneered at the crown prince as if he were a common rogue.
I only wished there were more onlookers — it would have been better. Sadly, there weren’t.
“Do you mean to sully my reputation?” I asked.
“My lady, isn’t that an overreaction? I only asked to be invited to a party once!” he protested.
“You may be a large, stout tree, Your Highness, but I am just a weed. Even if we are in the same wind, the outcomes will inevitably differ.” I clenched my lips to hold back my emotions.
“Ha…”
The crown prince snorted hollowly. He neither rose nor ordered me to step aside.
If killing him hadn’t risked my exposure the moment I did it, I would have taken care of him long ago. I felt fresh regret.
“I don’t intend to harm you, my lady. I only want to improve our relationship. I have wronged you before, and besides…” He hesitated, unable to sugarcoat the real reason — that he needed the power of my family to become the next emperor.
So he wasn’t going to let me go easily. The man was unbearable.
With a thud, he dropped to his knees.
“Please, Your Highness. Spare me.”
“My lady?”
“Why today of all days are you trying to besmirch my honor? You know perfectly well that a noble lady who is seriously courting someone cannot survive scandal with another man.”
“Get up. Quickly.”
“Why do you hate me so much…” I sobbed, helplessly, burying my face against the stiff shaft of his boot.
“My lady, that’s not what I mean!” he cried.
Even now I refused to say I wouldn’t go to the Levian estate. I was caught properly this time. If more eyes were watching, the crown prince would have no choice but to back down.
Would he back off at the sight of blood?
I braced myself to bang my head hard on the stone floor, but someone’s hand gently wrapped around my shoulder.
A familiar scent cut through the stench of the slums and touched my nostrils as a cautious hand pulled me to my feet.
“How dare you make my sister cry — even Your Highness would find that hard to forgive.”
“Duke Lysianthus?” I said.
The man, whose voice dripped with iciness as he mocked the crown prince, supported my swaying body with a firm arm.
“You call that a crime? I merely came to apologize to Lady Levian.” the crown prince protested.
“How did you apologize that made Lady Levian kneel and beg like that?” Duke Lysianthus demanded.
The crown prince’s face contorted in an unflattering way. He cleared his throat ostentatiously and tried to change the subject.
“By the way, you said ‘my sister’?” he asked.
“Yes. Rosia is like my sister.”
“Oh! Since when did the Levian marquess house and the Lysianthus dukedom become cousins?” the crown prince scoffed.
“Must it be by blood? Isn’t it enough that I consider her a sister from the bottom of my heart?” Duke Lysianthus replied firmly, as if his words were gospel.
“If you don’t believe me, ask the Marchioness of Levian whether she doesn’t cherish me like a son.”
For a moment I had forgotten how kind he could be.
“I’ll see Lady Rosia home to the Levian estate,” he said.
“Stop right there. You’re turning your back on me in front of me?” the crown prince barked.
The tense standoff between the commander of the guard and the crown prince left the escort guards unsure how to act.
“Your Highness.”
With his usual arrogant tone, Rexian — no, Duke Lysianthus — spoke to his rival.
“You may think you are worth more than I am, but soon you’ll learn that you are not,” he said, turning away coldly as if to say the crown prince wasn’t even worth answering. Even so, he still held me gently.
We didn’t speak until we were well clear of the slums.
I was the first to break the uneasy silence, a tangled mix of worry over Rexian and the fatigue that had accumulated since the moment I met the crown prince.
“Why did you interfere again?” I asked.
“Would you have just walked on by? You were acting as though you’d bang your head on the ground any minute,” he grumbled.
He inspected me with the care one uses with delicate glass — my palms, knees, face — despite the irritation in his voice. His annoyance seemed aimed at something else, not me.
“Luckily you’re not hurt. If the crown prince had harmed you, I would have had him taken care of.”
What on earth was he saying?
If he eliminated the crown prince just for insulting me, he’d be a traitor and arrow fodder in no time.
Getting involved with Rexian was dangerous, as always.
“I didn’t ask for your help, so I won’t thank you. I can manage on my own, so go on your way.”
“You’re going home like that?” he asked.
“I’ll manage. Mind your own business.”
“Fine.”
Surprisingly, he relented.
“I’m going to see the Marchioness of Levian right now. I’ll tell her everything and force her to pull you out of whatever you’re planning. If it becomes known that her daughter is connected to a criminal organization, the Marchioness will have plenty to deal with.”
“Rex!” I grabbed his arm as he was about to walk off.
“Are you really going to tell my father?” I pleaded.
“You said it yourself before: it’s better that your father knows everything than to be blackmailed by me,” he shot back.
What I’d said to make him let go of me had turned into a blade now.
His deep blue eyes looked at me with an ocean-like calmness; I couldn’t guess what he was thinking.
“If you answer my question honestly, I may reconsider,” he said.
The situation I’d feared had arrived.
How much does he know, and how much must I reveal?
Everything about me, everything I do, always drives you closer to death — what could I possibly say?
Should I plead that he not pry, relying on the mercy of the fact that he hasn’t revealed anything about me?
“How many…?” My voice trembled genuinely, not on purpose.
“How many questions will you ask? I can’t answer too many.”
“I only need to know one thing,” he said, unnervingly calm despite the tension.
“Are you safe?”
