“I will accompany you, at least until the end, Your Highness.”
Lester steadfastly saw Winfred off until the very end. Even if it was the Crown Prince's order, it was a butler's duty to see his guest through to the end.
Turning back halfway through seeing off a guest was something his pride, having worked as the Duke's butler long before Winfred was born, would not allow.
Thanks to that, Winfred had to sweat profusely.
He was planning to sneak into the garden after shaking off the butler and catch a glimpse of the girl called the Princess, but wasn't he blocked from the moment he shook off the butler?
“Then, have a safe trip, Your Highness.”
Unaware of Winfred's speed, the old butler stood by him and watched him silently until he mounted his horse, then greeted him.
As he started to speak with a reluctant expression, Lester finally turned around and went into the building, as if he thought he had done his job.
'Now is the chance!'
And finally free from the watcher's gaze, Winfred looked around and hid among the low shrubs.
'Shh, be good. You have to be quiet.'
As he stroked the mane of the handsome dark brown horse, calming it, the horse blinked its docile eyes, as if it truly understood what its master was saying.
'So, where should we go now?'
Although he managed to sneak into the mansion's garden, he soon encountered a major obstacle: he didn't know where the Princess was.
To begin with, he wasn't particularly close to such troublemakers and deviant behavior. A model Crown Prince, he was the type to never do anything adults told him not to do.
The most he could do in rebellion was to declare that he was leaving home and going to see his father's closest friend, the Duke of Weishaffen.
It was a situation that made him laugh even when he thought about it himself.
Normally, he wouldn't have been so stubborn about something he shouldn't have done, but it seemed like Roderick and Ophelia were quite precious people to him.
Unsure where to go to see the Princess, Winfred wandered aimlessly through the garden grass. The sun, which had begun to set by the time he finished his conversation with the Duke, was already painting the sky crimson.
'They'll soon find out I haven't left the mansion yet... If they don't find me soon, I might have to go back.'
Winfred, his mind racing, absentmindedly glanced up at the sunset-tinged western sky. He spotted a woman leaning against the mansion's second-floor balcony.
Her long silver hair fluttered pleasantly in the blowing breeze.
Winfred momentarily mistook her for Ophelia and quickly hid behind a tree. Wouldn't it be embarrassing if Ophelia, the owner of the mansion, caught him sneaking around?
But the woman wasn't Ophelia. She certainly resembled the Duchess, but she looked much younger. She was a girl of about sixteen or seventeen.
At that moment, Winfred realized. The Princess he had been searching for was right before his eyes. And how base his suspicions had been.
She was indeed Aila Hailing Weishaffen. She could never have been a fraud. Look at her resemblance to Ophelia, and to Roderick.
Winfred stared blankly at Aila, unable to understand why his eyes were drawn to her.
The woman standing against the crimson western sky was exquisitely beautiful, almost like a painting, yet somehow also seemed precarious. Her beautiful face was imbued with a depth that belied her age.
And then.
“...Is there anyone there?”
Aila turned her head sharply toward Winfred. Without even moving, without even breathing, she stared at his profile, but he couldn't figure out how she knew.
He crouched behind a tree and calmed his pounding heart.
'Her voice is pretty too.'
Winfred, who had been pondering this for a moment as the sweet voice rang in his ear, finally let out a small laugh. It was absurd that he had been caught secretly watching, and now he was having such thoughts.
"Who is this?"
And perhaps hearing his snort, Aila's voice rose a little higher.
“Oops,” he said, trying to cover his mouth and nose, but it was already too late.
The knights would soon arrive, saying that a suspicious person had sneaked into the garden, and he would be captured by the knights, leaving a bad first impression on the girl.
He thought it would be better to show himself and greet her confidently, and was about to leave from behind the tree.
A vicious hand grabbed his arm. Startled, he turned around to find Roderick staring at Winfred with a stern expression.
Roderick put his index finger to his lips as if telling him to be quiet, then appeared in front of his daughter with a shameless face.
“...It’s me, Aila.”
“Oh, Father…? What are you doing there?”
“I was taking a walk because I liked the sunset.”
“I see.”
It was a flimsy excuse, but she couldn't help but doubt the Duke's words, so she nodded hesitantly.
“I’m sorry to bother you. I’ll be going now, so don’t worry about it.”
“...Oh, no. I’ll go in.”
It was a conversation that was too cautious and dry to be called a conversation between a father and a daughter.
Aila went into the room, and Roderick led Winfred out onto the main street.
“Oh, Duke. How is it here...?”
"The butler claims he saw Your Highness off, but the knight guarding the entrance claims Your Highness never passed. So I went out to look for Your Highness, but I found Your Highness's horse tied up in the grass. So I followed your footsteps."
“So, that’s...”
Roderick didn't sound particularly angry, but Winfred, who had been guilty, grumbled and looked at him.
Even if he was the Crown Prince, he couldn't arbitrarily disturb another's home without the head of the household's permission. While he might not face legal punishment, it was still a breach of etiquette.
If this had become known to the world, the royal family would have had to officially apologize to the Duke's family.
"I know Your Highness's intentions. I'm sure it was out of concern for us. It wasn't done with ill intentions, and I know Your Highness wouldn't normally do such things, so I'll overlook this incident."
"...I'm sorry."
"Please return to the palace immediately before it gets dark, Your Highness. His Majesty and the Empress will be worried."
This wasn't a subject's advice to the next Crown Prince. It was nagging from a friend's son, from a father's friend.
“Yes, Duke... have a peaceful night.”
After being escorted by Roderick, Winfred walked heavily toward the palace. He couldn't understand why his steps were so slow.
His worries were half-solved. Though he'd only seen her briefly, the "Princess" truly seemed to be Roderick and Ophelia's biological daughter.
At first glance, she resembled Ophelia, but there were also hints of Roderick, just as he resembled Hiram in general and Selene in particular.
Even though he couldn't figure out her personality in that short time, he should at least feel better knowing that she wasn't a con artist pretending to be the Duke's daughter.
Rather, his heart seemed to have become much heavier than before he had sneaked into the Duke's garden.
It was truly a strange thing.
Even after several days had passed, the image of the girl named Aila he had seen in the garden that day kept lingering in Winfred's mind.
'Why did she look so anxious?'
It was never the case that Aila looked frail and weak.
He wasn't the type to be very athletic, so he didn't know her well, but perhaps because she was from the Weishyafen clan, a place famous for its martial arts, he felt a strong energy coming from her.
Yet, Aila looked terribly precarious. She looked precarious and lonely, like someone trapped in a desperate situation with no room to stand.
‘...The Duke and Duchess are not the kind of people who would harass the daughter they just found.’
The Duke's servants were no different. If the master had cherished and cared for the daughter he had worked so hard to find, they wouldn't have made the Princess feel lonely and anxious.
But why did she look so anxious, like a child abandoned alone in a lonely place with no one on her side?
Winfred was concerned. Her suffering, for reasons he couldn't even fathom, ached in his heart as if it were his own, and her image kept flashing through his mind.
Even in his peaceful sleep, even in his dreams, he couldn't escape her. That day, that moment. Against the backdrop of the sunset-tinged western sky, the owner of the silver hair, fluttering in the cold wind, visited him every night in his dreams.
Winfred began to paint the scene.
It took a very long time to complete, as he painted it little by little whenever he had free time due to his busy schedule as Crown Prince.
And when that picture was finished.
The curiosity about 'Aila Hailing Weishaffen' lingered deeply within Winfred.
He wanted to know every single detail about her, what kind of person she was, what she liked, and where her insecurities came from, so he could find the root of them and resolve them.
Winfred carefully ran his finger along the edges of his painting, feeling the dry paint and the rough texture of the canvas.
Someday, he's just waiting for the day when he can meet her officially.
The Crown Prince of the Empire, Winfred Ulysses Vito Peles, had been developing feelings for Aila without even realizing it.
But unfortunately, the day he had been so eagerly waiting for never came.
Time went back several times, turning back the seasons, due to the single-minded determination of a woman to save her daughter and husband, and the only person who had any memories of that time was unaware of the Crown Prince, who was spying on her...
This story became a dull story that was forgotten by everyone, and no one knew about it.
Lester steadfastly saw Winfred off until the very end. Even if it was the Crown Prince's order, it was a butler's duty to see his guest through to the end.
Turning back halfway through seeing off a guest was something his pride, having worked as the Duke's butler long before Winfred was born, would not allow.
Thanks to that, Winfred had to sweat profusely.
He was planning to sneak into the garden after shaking off the butler and catch a glimpse of the girl called the Princess, but wasn't he blocked from the moment he shook off the butler?
“Then, have a safe trip, Your Highness.”
Unaware of Winfred's speed, the old butler stood by him and watched him silently until he mounted his horse, then greeted him.
As he started to speak with a reluctant expression, Lester finally turned around and went into the building, as if he thought he had done his job.
'Now is the chance!'
And finally free from the watcher's gaze, Winfred looked around and hid among the low shrubs.
'Shh, be good. You have to be quiet.'
As he stroked the mane of the handsome dark brown horse, calming it, the horse blinked its docile eyes, as if it truly understood what its master was saying.
'So, where should we go now?'
Although he managed to sneak into the mansion's garden, he soon encountered a major obstacle: he didn't know where the Princess was.
To begin with, he wasn't particularly close to such troublemakers and deviant behavior. A model Crown Prince, he was the type to never do anything adults told him not to do.
The most he could do in rebellion was to declare that he was leaving home and going to see his father's closest friend, the Duke of Weishaffen.
‘...You’re nineteen years old, and you’re acting like a stubborn little child.’
Normally, he wouldn't have been so stubborn about something he shouldn't have done, but it seemed like Roderick and Ophelia were quite precious people to him.
Unsure where to go to see the Princess, Winfred wandered aimlessly through the garden grass. The sun, which had begun to set by the time he finished his conversation with the Duke, was already painting the sky crimson.
'They'll soon find out I haven't left the mansion yet... If they don't find me soon, I might have to go back.'
Winfred, his mind racing, absentmindedly glanced up at the sunset-tinged western sky. He spotted a woman leaning against the mansion's second-floor balcony.
Her long silver hair fluttered pleasantly in the blowing breeze.
Winfred momentarily mistook her for Ophelia and quickly hid behind a tree. Wouldn't it be embarrassing if Ophelia, the owner of the mansion, caught him sneaking around?
But the woman wasn't Ophelia. She certainly resembled the Duchess, but she looked much younger. She was a girl of about sixteen or seventeen.
At that moment, Winfred realized. The Princess he had been searching for was right before his eyes. And how base his suspicions had been.
She was indeed Aila Hailing Weishaffen. She could never have been a fraud. Look at her resemblance to Ophelia, and to Roderick.
Winfred stared blankly at Aila, unable to understand why his eyes were drawn to her.
The woman standing against the crimson western sky was exquisitely beautiful, almost like a painting, yet somehow also seemed precarious. Her beautiful face was imbued with a depth that belied her age.
And then.
“...Is there anyone there?”
Aila turned her head sharply toward Winfred. Without even moving, without even breathing, she stared at his profile, but he couldn't figure out how she knew.
He crouched behind a tree and calmed his pounding heart.
'Her voice is pretty too.'
Winfred, who had been pondering this for a moment as the sweet voice rang in his ear, finally let out a small laugh. It was absurd that he had been caught secretly watching, and now he was having such thoughts.
"Who is this?"
And perhaps hearing his snort, Aila's voice rose a little higher.
“Oops,” he said, trying to cover his mouth and nose, but it was already too late.
The knights would soon arrive, saying that a suspicious person had sneaked into the garden, and he would be captured by the knights, leaving a bad first impression on the girl.
He thought it would be better to show himself and greet her confidently, and was about to leave from behind the tree.
A vicious hand grabbed his arm. Startled, he turned around to find Roderick staring at Winfred with a stern expression.
Roderick put his index finger to his lips as if telling him to be quiet, then appeared in front of his daughter with a shameless face.
“...It’s me, Aila.”
“Oh, Father…? What are you doing there?”
“I was taking a walk because I liked the sunset.”
“I see.”
It was a flimsy excuse, but she couldn't help but doubt the Duke's words, so she nodded hesitantly.
“I’m sorry to bother you. I’ll be going now, so don’t worry about it.”
“...Oh, no. I’ll go in.”
It was a conversation that was too cautious and dry to be called a conversation between a father and a daughter.
Aila went into the room, and Roderick led Winfred out onto the main street.
“Oh, Duke. How is it here...?”
"The butler claims he saw Your Highness off, but the knight guarding the entrance claims Your Highness never passed. So I went out to look for Your Highness, but I found Your Highness's horse tied up in the grass. So I followed your footsteps."
“So, that’s...”
Roderick didn't sound particularly angry, but Winfred, who had been guilty, grumbled and looked at him.
Even if he was the Crown Prince, he couldn't arbitrarily disturb another's home without the head of the household's permission. While he might not face legal punishment, it was still a breach of etiquette.
If this had become known to the world, the royal family would have had to officially apologize to the Duke's family.
"I know Your Highness's intentions. I'm sure it was out of concern for us. It wasn't done with ill intentions, and I know Your Highness wouldn't normally do such things, so I'll overlook this incident."
"...I'm sorry."
"Please return to the palace immediately before it gets dark, Your Highness. His Majesty and the Empress will be worried."
This wasn't a subject's advice to the next Crown Prince. It was nagging from a friend's son, from a father's friend.
“Yes, Duke... have a peaceful night.”
After being escorted by Roderick, Winfred walked heavily toward the palace. He couldn't understand why his steps were so slow.
His worries were half-solved. Though he'd only seen her briefly, the "Princess" truly seemed to be Roderick and Ophelia's biological daughter.
At first glance, she resembled Ophelia, but there were also hints of Roderick, just as he resembled Hiram in general and Selene in particular.
Even though he couldn't figure out her personality in that short time, he should at least feel better knowing that she wasn't a con artist pretending to be the Duke's daughter.
Rather, his heart seemed to have become much heavier than before he had sneaked into the Duke's garden.
It was truly a strange thing.
Even after several days had passed, the image of the girl named Aila he had seen in the garden that day kept lingering in Winfred's mind.
'Why did she look so anxious?'
It was never the case that Aila looked frail and weak.
He wasn't the type to be very athletic, so he didn't know her well, but perhaps because she was from the Weishyafen clan, a place famous for its martial arts, he felt a strong energy coming from her.
Yet, Aila looked terribly precarious. She looked precarious and lonely, like someone trapped in a desperate situation with no room to stand.
‘...The Duke and Duchess are not the kind of people who would harass the daughter they just found.’
The Duke's servants were no different. If the master had cherished and cared for the daughter he had worked so hard to find, they wouldn't have made the Princess feel lonely and anxious.
But why did she look so anxious, like a child abandoned alone in a lonely place with no one on her side?
Winfred was concerned. Her suffering, for reasons he couldn't even fathom, ached in his heart as if it were his own, and her image kept flashing through his mind.
Even in his peaceful sleep, even in his dreams, he couldn't escape her. That day, that moment. Against the backdrop of the sunset-tinged western sky, the owner of the silver hair, fluttering in the cold wind, visited him every night in his dreams.
Winfred began to paint the scene.
It took a very long time to complete, as he painted it little by little whenever he had free time due to his busy schedule as Crown Prince.
And when that picture was finished.
The curiosity about 'Aila Hailing Weishaffen' lingered deeply within Winfred.
He wanted to know every single detail about her, what kind of person she was, what she liked, and where her insecurities came from, so he could find the root of them and resolve them.
Winfred carefully ran his finger along the edges of his painting, feeling the dry paint and the rough texture of the canvas.
Someday, he's just waiting for the day when he can meet her officially.
The Crown Prince of the Empire, Winfred Ulysses Vito Peles, had been developing feelings for Aila without even realizing it.
But unfortunately, the day he had been so eagerly waiting for never came.
Time went back several times, turning back the seasons, due to the single-minded determination of a woman to save her daughter and husband, and the only person who had any memories of that time was unaware of the Crown Prince, who was spying on her...
This story became a dull story that was forgotten by everyone, and no one knew about it.
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