Understanding the Subject Matter of a Delusional Person 6

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#6

“……”

I focused on breathing evenly as I turned my head toward the door.

“What is it?”

“Your Highness. His Grace Archduke Rodias has requested a visit.”

The Head Servant reported from outside the door in a mechanical voice.

“Hmm? Archduke Rodias?”

I muttered in a strange tone, then called out.

“Why would that person come here? …I understand. Let him in.”

“Yes.”

I tidied myself up with trembling hands.

I kept checking the mirror for no reason.

The reflection in the mirror that looked shabby no matter when I looked at it.

A short while later.

I saw the man standing like a painting by the window of the reception room.

“Do you know? The curse that befell us required the ‘consent’ of two or more half-demons who shared the same blood.”

Still tearfully beautiful.

“So when I realized that you weren’t that foolish human I once knew, that was the first thought I had.”

“Ersen Mayer. If he wasn’t a foolish child who ignorantly followed demons, but rather a collaborator who knew everything precisely and acted accordingly—”

“Shouldn’t he be properly destroyed?”

That person who was painful just to look at.

* * *

I remember our first meeting.

Before my regression, while I was visiting the Crown Prince’s palace daily to clear up the misunderstanding between Sercil and Crown Prince Theodore, I felt someone brush past me.

Marcus hyung. He passed by me quickly without even showing his face, as if he hadn’t seen anything.

And that person who was beside him spoke to me.

“I greet Your Highness the 2nd Prince.”

A beat too late, I realized he was addressing me and reacted.

It wasn’t because I hadn’t adapted to the body I had possessed. It was simply because I had never seen such a beautiful person before.

Sercil and Theodore hyung were also picturesquely beautiful people, but the Archduke was different from them.

He was—

“I greet Your Highness the 2nd Prince.”

In a form so beautiful it seemed as if God had drawn it while intoxicated with happiness, he turned to look at me.

Greeting me just like that time.

“Your Highness?”

Even in the moments when I was being tortured by him, the dazzling impression of our first meeting never faded.

That’s why my insides became even more tattered.

Because your appearance, having lost the light of life, was compared to that dazzling first day.

“Ah, aah.”

I thought my body would tremble upon seeing him again, but I didn’t expect my heart to tremble.

‘How dare I, really.’

I scolded myself inwardly and cleared my throat. Then I playfully tousled my hair and put on airs toward him.

“Wow, so, Archduke? Right?”

“…Yes, Your Highness.”

He blinked quietly, then tilted his head slightly as he answered.

I felt his observing gaze. Normally, someone seeing him for the first time would be too stunned to think such thoughts or keep their wits about them.

‘You must be thinking I’d be the same, right?’

What was it like before?

I recalled what he had said while smiling like an angel, watching me lose my composure and unable to speak properly.

“I didn’t expect to see you here. Are you perhaps lost?”

“N-no, I’m…!”

“Oh my. I hadn’t heard rumors that His Highness the 2nd Prince had any chronic illness. If you need it, please let me know. I’ll call a veterinarian for you.”

I only realized after he had leisurely passed by me that I had been treated like a beast by the first angel I’d ever seen.

‘But how will it be today?’

This time, I need to safely take him as a witness to ‘that incident.’

I now know why he spoke to me so openly dismissively back then.

Because I didn’t hold anything they didn’t know. Because there was no reason to be wary—I was literally no different from livestock.

But now it’s a little different.

‘I know how to make you focus on me more.’

I need to move in an unexpected direction.

I shouldn’t be too threatening, but I should maintain an atmosphere that’s appropriately worth being wary of.

I pretended not to notice his openly observing gaze, then shook my head while speaking in a languid voice.

“Archduke… by any chance, are you not human?”

“—Excuse me?”

Perhaps because there’s no one who speaks up this quickly after seeing him for the first time? A flash of surprise briefly crossed his eyes.

“No, I just thought that God would prefer bowing to you rather than to the statues in the temple.”

Expressing his beauty was something I couldn’t even dare to attempt, but as Ersen approaching them as a villain, this would be more natural.

The blue eyes that seemed like summer sky or like crystals from the deep sea became strangely distorted for a moment.

I smiled wryly while staring at that.

“It’s like you were crafted most nobly by gathering the jewels of heaven.”

I hummed as I said this, naturally approaching him.

He simply watched me approach with that strange look in his eyes.

“The Archduke is a beautiful person.”

“……”

The strange look in his eyes deepened.

I didn’t wait for his answer. I just hummed like that as if talking to myself, then stopped at a distance where he wouldn’t be on guard.

And as naturally as if this had been my purpose all along, I lightly bounced over to sit on the reception room sofa.

With soundless, light movements.

“I can’t keep such a person standing. Sit down, Archduke!”

I gestured to him with a mischievous smile.

For a brief moment, it seemed like interest flickered in his eyes that were always indifferent toward me.

…It must be my imagination.

He who had been smiling quietly moved his body smoothly after a moment.

“With such a warm welcome, I don’t know what to do with myself.”

“Would I ever see another person who looks like you in my lifetime? Of course I should welcome you. And it’s not just me welcoming you, it seems? Look, the Head Servant prepared warm tea. The fragrance is very nice.”

“Haha.”

His elegant and serene appearance that I hadn’t seen in a very long time.

Watching him move, it felt like there would be an endlessly quiet rustling sound from somewhere.

As I smiled foxily and rambled on, laughter flowed from him.

Laughter that seemed pleasant but actually contained nothing.

“You’re more interesting than I thought, Your Highness.”

“Oh, did I make you laugh? What an honor.”

I propped my chin and replied with a strange gleam in my eyes.

“An honor.”

He muttered in a casually bright tone.

I gazed at him quietly expressing hostility differently than before.

It was truly subtle expression.

After stroking the rim of the warm teacup with his pale fingertips a few times, he withdrew his hand.

The look in his eyes as he gazed down at the tea was quite strange.

‘It’s like—the look you’d give someone rude enough to serve livestock feed.’

He drew a gentle smile as he lifted his eyes from the teacup to look at me.

“I heard you frequently visit the temple.”

“Mmm, you heard from Priest Yuan?”

Guiding royalty is formally done by sending a high-ranking priest.

Priest Yuan was the priest who had taken charge of guiding me at the temple.

And among the high-ranking priests, there were those who admired Archduke Skyle, the Great Mage of Light.

“He’s a devout man. He often sends me invitation letters…”

The priest’s letters politely asking him to become a believer out of admiration—he must have received thousands of them.

There was no way he would specifically check the ones sent by Priest Yuan.

But the Archduke smiled very kindly, creating an atmosphere as if he really had some small connection with that priest.

“In any case, Priest Yuan said that he himself was too inadequate to continue serving such a noble person exclusively. He apologetically asked me for a favor.”

“Oh my, don’t tell me.”

“Yes, how about you accompany me when you visit the temple from now on?”

“But you’re not even a priest, Archduke…”

“The temple is also part of the Empire. By position, I’m slightly higher in rank than the high-ranking priests.”

This country recognizes the temple but doesn’t recognize the temple’s autonomy.

He was pointing that out.

And in other words, this was indirectly letting me know that harming High Priest Bormir would mean harming a subject of the Empire.

He doesn’t think I can do anything, but he’s putting up a safety net just in case.

‘…If it were the old me, I wouldn’t have understood what he meant at this point.’

He tends not to express displeasure openly. But I was an exception.

He might have thought I wouldn’t understand, but in reality, right after my possession, I lacked such awareness.

“No matter how much I explain, you don’t understand. What am I to do about this? Your Highness, my words don’t mean that you are noble, but rather that you are utterly base.”

Watching him say that with a cold smile, I felt shame for the first time.

‘And somehow I started studying diligently to fit in.’

I smiled strangely and delayed my answer.

“Hmm. So that’s how it is.”

Then I asked him meaningfully.

“Alright, Archduke. Then want to make a deal with me?”

“Suddenly, a deal? …Your Highness, with me?”

He replied in a strange tone.

Meaning something like ‘How dare you, with me?’

“Archduke, please reduce my house arrest by one day and speak well of me to our hyung. Then I’ll tell you one fact that you absolutely wouldn’t know. Of course, I’ll also accept everything about accompanying you to the temple.”

If it were Marcus hyung listening to our conversation while hidden somewhere, he would have readily accepted the proposal. No matter how base the demon’s bloodline, if it was interesting, he’d bite first.

But the Archduke, as expected, didn’t answer immediately.

He still wore that proper smile as he looked down at me calmly.

He was contemplating whether to kill this bug before him that was acting unexpectedly, or to observe it further.

“It means you can monitor me!”

I grinned and said it outright.

His eyebrows stiffened slightly.