Episode 81. You Will Definitely Return
His eyes calmly settled in response to my question. However, when I saw the agitation that passed through him for a brief moment, I thought that I could not trust his answer now.
Up until now, the man I knew was shameless and unlucky. He was so confident that he didn’t even feel the need to lie.
When he was so reserved with his words, there had to be some secret.
“You’re right. Your eyes say so.”
Prince Kydel stared into my eyes and spoke. Each word was soft, as if it were taking root in the ground.
“You will return to the palace. I, Locard, promise.”
I froze and blinked.
It wasn’t because of his empty promise, but because of the way his hand carefully moved the hair covering my cheek to my ear.
“You know me better than you think. So trust me.”
“Your Excellency...”
I opened my mouth, but my answer dissipated into the air. Neither the answer nor the words.
I suddenly came to my senses and stepped back.
I looked at the man who was still standing beyond my range of vision and chewed on his words.
Believe me. I don’t trust anyone.
I promised my mother. I won’t trust anyone anymore.
Meanwhile, Prince Kydel, who had risen from his seat, was wearing that easygoing smile that he usually wore like armor.
“I thought you would figure it out right away.”
My voice was now calm.
“I don’t understand. I won’t lift a finger in the competition anymore. So there’s no need to trap me.”
But his answer was cold.
“In the eyes of Their Highnesses, your very existence is a variable in the competition. And they have no intention of tolerating that.”
“Why don’t you just kick me out! Why are you trying to take me away from Their Highnesses by making a scandal?”
“A scandal? How unpleasant, Miss Loire.”
His casually calling my last name had the effect of calming my excitement.
“Then isn’t this a scandal? We are in competition. And then there’s the scandal of the first lion’s successor and the third lion's illegitimate daughter. Who do you think will be blamed for sullying the nobility of the Prince? No one will believe that the Prince seduced me first.”
“...!”
Prince Kydel was genuinely surprised. It was clear that he had never considered the possibility that the arrows of blame could be directed at me.
Now that I looked at him, that man was good at war but terrible at men and women.
He looked very serious and seemed to be suffering from a situation he had not anticipated.
But soon he seemed to have made up his mind.
“You don’t know until you try.”
“Your Excellency!”
“I will make the first move, and I will take responsibility. The situation you are talking about is still a fearful assumption. Now that I know, I will avoid that situation.”
I touched my forehead, but he did not stop.
“I swear that the consequences of this will not harm you, Miss Loire. So be my lover.”
I asked him in vain, frustrated by his determination and firmness that were completely out of place in this situation.
“A fake lover?”
“Yes. A fake lover.”
“Do you know what you’re talking about?”
“Your point is valid, but right now there’s no other option. Since I’ve already become a bad guy to Miss Loire, I’ll continue to be a bad guy.”
His assertion made my eyes dizzy.
“Just kick me out. Why are you making things so complicated?”
“The situation is complicated.”
You damn noble!
I sat down on him, criticizing him, but also desperately.
“Don’t be like that. Tell me why. Your Excellency is the most noble person I’ve ever known. Of course, except for our Count. That’s why I’ve never really hated you...”
Oh. And oh.
If I were sane, I wouldn’t have said such a thing.
I froze with my mouth wide open, and he blushed and avoided eye contact.
He said, trying to clear his throat.
“Then, maid, step down from your position. I will take care of the rest, so that is all I can give.”
“I can’t.”
“Miss Loire!”
“I will stay by Her Highness’s side.”
He covered his face with his palm and sighed deeply.
Then he smiled sadly at me and said.
“I knew you would answer like that. So I will seduce you too.”
“Your Excellency, really...!”
“I will take responsibility for the old age you desire and make it come true.”
I raised my voice without realizing it.
“Why, Your Excellency? Why do you think I would entrust my life and future to your hands?”
“...!”
Prince Kydel looked at me for a long time with a face as if he had been hit on the head, and then said,
“I will come again. Because I really want you.”
After he left, I pulled the blanket over me with a cold feeling.
It seemed like a storm had just passed, but the room was so quiet that I wondered if what had just happened was a dream.
However, it was neither a dream nor a misunderstanding. Prince Kydel was trying to ruin my credibility with a scandal with me.
If rumors spread that I was in a relationship with Prince Kydel, the Princess would not believe me. Even if she did believe me, she would not be able to keep me by her side because of her reputation.
Then there was no need to get other people’s hands dirty to get me kicked out of the palace.
I couldn’t believe that Prince Kudel, whom I had secretly admired, had come before me with such a stupid and terrible plan.
***
Locard was on his way back to the Second Prince’s Palace, but soon found himself taking the wrong path. He had come this far while his mind was blank for a moment.
He headed toward the Third Palace, which was nearby, in a faint bewilderment.
Whined felt nervous when Locard suddenly came. However, he continued what he was doing when Locard collapsed on his cot.
“How is Miss Loire?”
“She’s recovering. Still sharp.”
“Oh. That’s understandable.”
Locard said that her judgment was sharp, but Whined understood it as a reference to Lorisha’s mood.
Whined said with a pitying tone.
“You were lying there for two days because of an unexpected accident. The competition is really...”
Hearing that, Locard immediately got up and went to his chair.
‘Youth is...’
Whined thought that Locard was embarrassed by his own inadvertent actions, and his face flushed slightly. He said that he was embarrassed to sit in her warm body.
However, Locard was so focused on Lorisha that he didn’t notice Whined’s delusion at all.
Her stubbornness and will. And the difference in their positions that he had to confirm earlier.
He slowly realized that his attitude of regarding her as a future helper was his own one-sided position.
He had never assumed rejection because all those around him were people who tried to catch his eye.
That’s why Lorisha’s reaction earlier felt like a slap in the face to him.
‘Why, Your Excellency? Why do you think I’m going to put my life and future in your hands?’
He clenched his molars as his feelings grew more and more depressed.
He would never forget the look in her eyes when he asked her to trust him. At that moment, she seemed to be saying, ‘How dare you!’
‘Damn it. Why don’t you trust me?’
Locard knew that he had been a mess in Lorisha’s room earlier. If this had been a showdown, there would have been no such defeat.
He had not been a plausible flirt there, and he had not persuaded her.
His attempt to do both at the same time had been a mess from beginning to end. It was because he had never intentionally pretended to be a ‘man’.
He seethed and admitted that he lacked the skills and strategies to seduce women.
However, it was difficult to say that it was Locard’s fault.
Most of the ladies of the Imperial Society were already in love with him, and the rest who were not in love would not have rejected him.
Whether it was because of his looks and abilities or because of his background as the successor of the Kydel family, the conclusion was the same.
However, Lorisha had neither of those in mind. She was only interested in what she would create, not what he had.
Lorisha Loire was the kind of person he had never seen before. That strangeness was fascinating, and now Locard felt that he had no choice but to watch the ending she was making right next to him.
Whether that intense desire was curiosity or a desire to collect, he held back on deciding. It didn’t matter now.
‘You say that I am the only one you consider noble!’
Locard felt a strange sense of defeat as he recalled her words.
When she said those words, she had compared him to her father, Count Loire. Being placed next to the third lion made the listener feel flattered.
But perhaps it was just a way of saying that she did not consider him a man at all. After all, the third lion was her father.
“How old do I look!”
Locard muttered and clenched his fists, and Whined rolled his eyes anxiously.
However, he decided to watch for a while longer. Prince Kydel had clearly been in a different state than usual in recent days.
Locard was now beginning to feel angry at Lorisha.
‘You’re swinging me around like this!’
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