#18
A bitter smile briefly leaked out.
‘Was it my imagination that I felt Sercil’s gaze too?’
Then I felt gentle hands grasping and lifting me as I sat slumped.
‘…It’s you.’
I… Ah. That’s right.
The Archduke was looking down at me with a stiff face.
“Your Highness.”
A man who seemed carefully crafted from gold that only exists in heaven quietly examined my face from a position lower than mine. Even in a posture kneeling on one knee, he looked like a statue.
His eyes trying to meet my gaze were endlessly indifferent, yet I felt endless warmth from them.
My lips, which hadn’t moved easily, finally began to tremble.
I slowly blinked my eyes.
In that moment, a droplet that had formed on my eyelid fell onto his cheek with a plop.
Startled by this, I flinched and trembled.
“…Your Highness?”
Calling me again, he frowned slightly.
Without being conscious of what expression I was making, I quietly, carefully brought my hand to his cheek.
Strangely, he didn’t avoid my touch.
Why?
Why are you always so kind like this?
“Sorry.”
“…Excuse me?”
After apologizing first for the moisture on his cheek, I shamelessly wiped away the droplet on his cheek.
After brushing once more to check if any moisture remained, I spoke again.
“I’ll need to wash my face again.”
“……”
The Archduke, who had been looking at me with a strange expression whose meaning I couldn’t understand, blinked those beautiful blue eyes for a moment.
I came to my senses at that blueness.
More precisely, I should say I found the strength to come to my senses.
“Uh… but what brings the Archduke here?”
Tilting my head, I naturally changed my expression.
Opening my eyes slightly wide and adding a bit of mischievous laughter.
“Did you come to see me by any chance? This is it, right?”
“…What is?”
“A silent sign of affection allowing me to use a nickname!”
I sparkled my eyes and brought my face close to his.
‘Hmm. I thought he’d avoid me…?’
He just quietly watched me with an expressionless face.
There was no sharp look in the eyes I met up close.
Rather, seeing how wretched I looked reflected there, I finally realized what mistake I had made.
“Ah, this is, um.”
“…Are you alright?”
Perhaps knowing I had become aware of my own condition, he finally spoke.
It was a calm voice. One that might sound businesslike if heard casually.
But to my ears, it was so warm it was bewildering.
‘There’s no displeasure.’
As I smiled foxily but somewhat awkwardly, he slowly shook his head and said:
“Let’s treat you first.”
“Mmm. Alright. Wait for me in the reception room.”
“Pardon?”
He was about to remove his hands from me and stand up when he asked back.
It felt like coldness was rushing in from where he had moved away. My body kept trembling, which was troublesome.
So I didn’t notice him whip around to look at me, only looking at him belatedly.
“Hm?”
“What did you just say?”
“I said alright… huh?”
“After that.”
“I told you to wait in the reception room…”
He seemed to have something he very much disliked.
He twitched his eyebrows and rarely showed an angry face.
I shouted with 90 percent sincerity:
“What? What are you doing in the middle of the night, Archduke? If you keep showing me such uniquely beautiful appearances like that! What am I supposed to do…!”
“…Hah.”
He let out a long sigh.
Th-that’s also unique!
I felt I would know even without acting. Surely my eyes were sparkling right now.
“Stop making a fool of yourself.”
Then an unwelcome intruder appeared and interrupted.
Marcus hyung-nim was looking at me and the Archduke with a distorted face. And…
“Uh…?”
Sercil?
No, more precisely, it was Sercil who had followed Crown Prince Theodore hyung-nim.
So all four of us had gathered at the 2nd Prince’s palace in the middle of the night.
I seriously nodded my head.
“Ah. It’s a dream.”
“Hmm.”
Sercil’s expression became strange, and Theodore hyung-nim made an odd sound while examining me with narrowed eyes.
“Did you hit your head?”
“Hyung-nim, it sounds like you were hoping I did, but that’s not it, right?”
“I told you not to call me that.”
“Right, Your Highness. Your Highness. Is that good?”
When I winked cheekily, Sercil’s expression became even stranger.
Then Marcus hyung-nim tried to grab the back of my neck but stopped.
“Hm? Why, hyung-nim?”
“Tsk.”
Hyung-nim looked at me with cold eyes holding an unreadable light, then clicked his tongue.
Just as I was about to ask what that meant, the Archduke called me.
“Come here, Your Highness.”
When I turned around, he was sitting on a chair he had brought near my bed, drawing a calm smile like a painting.
Then he patted the empty bed with his hand.
At that moment, I unavoidably turned red in the face.
“Oh my?”
No. Calm down.
Damn, how do I calm down?
The me inside me rebelled against me, but I suppressed it familiarly, then shook my head vigorously and approached him. I sat demurely with my bottom on the spot farthest from him.
Then, as I fidgeted with my fingers restlessly, the Archduke sighed.
“Why are you doing that?”
Marcus shouted:
“What are you doing? Put your face forward, Your Highness.”
“Ah…”
“Don’t be shy when it doesn’t suit you.”
“But… it’s like an angel lost its wings and got caught by me!”
Non-nonsense…! Just as Marcus hyung-nim was shocked, Sercil, who had been staring blankly this way, spoke for the first time.
“Excuse me, Your Highness the Crown Prince.”
“What is it?”
I could see the Crown Prince’s cold eyes soften slightly.
…Strange. It was about time for them to meet, but… I thought they’d meet in a different scene first, so why is Sercil here at this timing?
‘Don’t tell me he came straight here after leaving the temple?’
And he went to the Crown Prince’s palace? Why?
In the original work, he was acquainted with the Crown Prince and escaped with his help, but this time…
‘I was going to let them meet when I was safe and at my prettiest.’
Usually when things change like that, fate changes too, but Theodore hyung-nim is a seme who falls for Sercil at first sight…
But the two of them together looked quite natural.
As I looked that way with a curious face, Sercil said:
“This is the 2nd Prince’s palace, right?”
“…? That’s right.”
“Then that’s really that 2nd Prince…”
“Hey, hey, fairy over there?”
I spoke while still looking that way.
“You seem to think you’re whispering, but I can hear everything.”
“F-fairy…!”
Sercil trembled and looked at me. It was a very disgusted reaction.
‘You don’t know it yet, but you really are a fairy…’
I smiled confidently and mischievously.
“Being so pretty yet coming to this palace on your own feet… aren’t you fearless?”
“What, what are you… What?”
“What else, I’m asking things like what your name is, whether you have a lover.”
“Ack!”
Crown Prince hyung-nim’s expression was still cold, but I could feel the atmosphere in the room soften very slightly at Sercil’s voice.
As expected of the main uke.
Then something cold touched my neck.
“Stay still.”
Ugh. Swallowing a scream that didn’t become a sound, I unconsciously stiffened my body according to his words.
He smiled slightly and applied medicine to my neck.
* * *
The Archduke’s voice could be heard from close by. Such moments only happened when he was torturing me.
I quietly accepted his touch.
Whether my body hurt or my heart hurt, I would never refuse his touch.
My slightly stiff body seemed like it could be interpreted as just being tense, so I left it as is.
Then I suddenly realized something. That I had briefly forgotten about what happened with the elder just now.
‘Huh?’
Why was that…
After wondering briefly, I organized my thoughts.
About why they were here.
And I came to a conclusion.
Sercil was a bit unexpected, but I think I know how it happened.
“So, are you feeling inclined to deal with me now, Your Highness?”
“Who knows.”
Theodore hyung-nim answered as if he’d been waiting. Marcus hyung-nim started frowning and glaring at me.
Even while glaring like that, he doesn’t curse.
Everyone’s actions were quite affectionate, but their gazes remained cold.
If this were before my regression, I would have spread the wings of delusion in this situation. Things like them worrying about me.
I felt a very small sense of pride in not making such mistakes anymore and opened my mouth.
“You were checking whether I’d really be helpful, whether I’m worth dealing with, weren’t you, fairy?”
I said to the cat, no, fairy, no no, Sercil, who was looking between me and the Crown Prince with puzzlement.
As I said, they had certainly stood by and watched the elder’s visit.
And being here now proved that they had decided to include me in their affairs as I had intended.
“I told you I’m not a fairy. I’m Sercil.”
“Sercil?”
Ah, finally.
I hid my delight and smiled mischievously, “Hmm.”
“I see.”
As if I knew something about him.
Since he wasn’t just naive but also perceptive, Sercil felt this too and hesitated.
Crown Prince hyung-nim grabbed the wary Sercil’s arm and sat him on the sofa.
Then he sat beside him and looked back at me.
‘Already taking care of him. How wonderful!’
This time I’ll definitely protect him.
Hiding my pleased feelings, I made that promise inwardly.
When I smiled colorfully while meeting the Crown Prince’s eyes, the Crown Prince sighed briefly.
“The High Priest’s weakness. It seems you didn’t need to ask me about it. Isn’t that right?”
“Well, if that could be called a weakness, it could be one.”
The Archduke, who had finished treatment and removed his hands from me, muttered.
I nodded, then jumped up—Marcus hyung-nim made an angry expression again—and sat soundlessly like a cat in an empty spot on the sofa.
Sercil was watching me with strange eyes.
“The weakness I wanted wasn’t something like that, Your Highness.”
“What you wanted…”
When Marcus hyung-nim sat down as if reluctantly and the Archduke also finished organizing the medicine and sat down, I spoke.
Crown Prince hyung-nim muttered slowly, then raised one corner of his mouth.
“Just say it. I don’t have time for a war of nerves with you.”
And he said to me:
“I also went to the temple. I felt a strange sensation there.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
