“What kind of… talk?”
She thought the Crown Prince would talk about anything, though when he suggested that they have a private conversation like this, Selina got instinctively wary.
She saw a person fall by an arrow right in front of her. Now that she firmly believed that the person who ordered it could be the Crown Prince, she couldn’t act like before. Meanwhile, the Crown Prince was openly saddened by Selina’s refusal to accept the offer.
“Oh no, after our repeated fateful meeting, why are you moving further away?”
“I’m sorry.”
“I didn’t mean to ask for an apology. Rather, I wanted to see you because I wanted to apologize.”
“…Apologize?”
Selina raised her head to see the Crown Prince when he said something completely unexpected. He erased his sad expression in an instant and smiled brightly like the sun.
It was a smile that brightened the eyes.
“You must have been very surprised at the hunting ground. You are also a victim, so I want to apologize for the circumstances of the incident.”
“Ah…”
How kind and caring he was.
“If that’s the case, I think it’s okay to say it right here.”
Kalcion intervened and interrupted.
“I have my own pride, so it is not easy to apologize in front of others. It’s impossible to take pride in the position of the one apologizing, but can’t you understand that it’s my destiny as a royal family, Lady Selina?”
It was a defense against Kalcion’s point, but again, the choice was placed in front of Selina.
She knew by example that the princess, despite a royal family, was not someone to be wary of. However, at least the Crown Prince wouldn’t put the effort into acting like this if he was going to beat or kill Selina.
Selina nodded her head with difficulty.
“…Yes. It will be a moment, right?”
“I don’t want to take your time too long.”
Saying so, the Crown Prince stretched out his arm to Selina in front of Kalcion.
Kalcion’s eyebrows twitched with displeasure.
“I’ll go quickly.”
Even though she spoke to Kalcion to console him, he didn’t answer and only had a dissatisfied look. But now, she had to accompany the Crown Prince to hear anything.
Without waiting for his answer, Selina placed her hand on the Crown Prince’s outstretched arm.
An exhilarating satisfaction flashed in his eyes.
She was going to let him enjoy it this time. Selina glanced at that face and even gave him a grin. At the same time, Kalcion’s eyes that touched the side of her face were stinging as if they had a blade on them.
“Then, shall we go?”
The Crown Prince took a gentle step. Although Kalcion had some rough parts, he was delicate in unexpected parts, but the Crown Prince was gentle on all sides.
From the width of his steps to the height of his arms and the distance from his shoulders, he calculated and adjusted it moment by moment.
If she had been escorted without knowing it, she would have just thought, ‘It’s comfortable to be with the Crown Prince’. However, knowing that this was the result of calculations when it came together, it was rather suffocating because of the lack of humanity.
It was even more so when she considered that the arm she was holding onto was the arm that hit the Princess’s head.
“Would it be comfortable to stop here?”
It was enough to see Kalcion staring at her from a distance. A short distance to run, too.
“Thank you.”
The Crown Prince was considerate once again. The more he gave consideration again and again, the worse she felt.
“You gave me your precious time, so I’ll repay as much. Of course, if I wanted to, I would like to hide it from your eyes forever.”
“Is that a foreshadowing for a crime, Your Highness?”
As Selina asked in a joking-like tone, the Crown Prince laughed out loud. It might have felt like a sting and stabbing, but he passed it on like the world’s most generous monarch.
“Can I?”
In the same way, the eyes that asked playfully were twinkling. Are you playing with fire right now? He seemed to say that. If she had been a normal lady, she would immediately have a torch lit in her hand.
“No way. I want to live a stable and quiet life.”
“What a pity.”
Selina’s game of tug-of-war was very different, she raised her hand after giving a stab and immediately backed away. As the awkward atmosphere was relieved with a light joke, the Crown Prince coughed lightly to set the mood.
He managed to secure a meeting in someone else’s house.
The maze-like garden was filled with various kinds of flowers everywhere, and the Crown Prince took a seat under a lilac vine that was lush like a midsummer rain. His bright blonde hair and the lilac lavender color matched very well.
When the wind blew, the branches of flowers that fluttered like a seductive hand tickled her.
“Are you okay now?”
Since the Crown Prince did not know that Selina was injured, the question was about the shock she felt that day.
“Ah… I’m okay.”
Hearing those words, her ear wounded by the arrow throbbed. Still, the bandage on the wound was covered with her hair and would not be visible. There was no reason to hide it, but it seemed to reveal a weakness, so she hid it without knowing it.
“That day… It was an unexpected accident and I was too busy, so I couldn’t take care of you. Could you understand me?”
“How dare I dare to complain to Your Highness. That is not your duty.”
“I thought you would say that.”
The Crown Prince smiled sweetly as if he had a lot of honey in his mouth. Selina’s mouth got even more bitter.
“By the way, it was an unexpected accident. Are you saying that there are predictable accidents?”
Her twisted heart kept throwing meaningless words. Even though she knew she shouldn’t provoke the Crown Prince in this way, offensive words came out to the person whom she had already hated.
“Some accidents are predictable. Whenever I hear rumors that the families are tussling, there must be an accident at the hunting competition.”
The Crown Prince’s patience was stronger than she thought. He might have felt scratched enough by this, but he gave a benevolent smile and kind explanation.
‘What are you aiming for?’
He must have a purpose, that was why he was patient. Selina doesn’t know if seducing her was the goal in itself or if there was something else he was aiming for after that.
Selina smiled innocently like a fool, hiding her feelings.
“Oh, I see. Though I heard that it might have been aiming for me, wasn’t that a predictable accident?”
“…Well, after all, that story has reached your ears as well.”
The Crown Prince muttered bitterly without denying it.
“Yes, it was an accident that the Count was shot by an arrow because it was an arrow aimed at you.”
“…Yes?”
The purpose of the crime that no one could reveal, the Crown Prince summed it up in one word.
‘What does this mean…?’
A whirlwind ran through her mind. Knowing the purpose of the assassin meant too much. It meant that he knew who sent the assassin, why the assassin was sent, and even why they used an assassin…
In front of the confused Selina, the Crown Prince took a step closer. As if he was going to tell her a big secret that no one could know.
She could not stand back from it.
As the height towards the Crown Prince’s approaching eyes increased, she had to look up.
“Selina. I am very sorry that I had to tell you this.”
“…What are you talking about?”
“I know the culprit.”
“…What?”
Was there another culprit other than him? There was only one name that flashed through her mind.
Rosalyn.
“Actually, it was Rosalyn.”
The name came out of the Crown Prince’s mouth.
The name Rosalyn itself was rather obvious. Was there anyone other than Rosalyn that the Crown Prince would blame?
Of course, there were more, but the easiest and closest person to relate to Selina was Rosalyn. But, she was surprised at his audacity to blame Rosalyn with so much pride. He said he cared for her like a sister…?
Did he know what care was? Selling such a person’s name so easily?
A stunned laughter was about to pour out first, but she managed to gulp it down her throat. Selina played along as if she knew nothing.
“What…? What do you mean?”
She didn’t know that she would have a tight match with the Crown Prince in terms of acting skills.
“Where to start… If I had to find the cause, it was my fault for not stopping Rosalyn properly.”
With a genuinely sad face, he acted like an older brother who cared for his sister.
“Remember what I said last time? To me, Rosalyn is like a younger sister.”
“…Oh, yes.”
“Rosalyn seems to have grown up while naturally thinking she would be the queen. So, I guess she thought she should marry me. But it wasn’t easy for me. In a dilemma, I suggested Duke Renbird.”
It was completely different from the reason for Rosalyn’s approach that she had heard from Kalcion.
“Ahh.”
Still, Selina nodded her head as if she understood it. A good audience only needs to move her head well.
“There are no single men of the right age among the royal family… I was looking for a family with the right level, so I just caught the unmarried Duke Renbird. Marriage of nobility is bound to be of the highest priority. Will you understand?”
“…Roughly.”
“As expected, you’re smart.”
He must’ve wanted to praise her for being naive and stupid, as expected. From the Crown Prince’s expression as well as his mouth. Mentions of Irell were completely absent in the story itself. As if from the very beginning, it was decided that he and Rosalyn were to marry.
He was so natural that she would have been fooled and deceived if she had not learned the truth.
“From the point of refusal, I was just trying to find a better match though it seems that Rosalyn misunderstood that. As if I had ordered her to become the Duke’s wife, she suddenly began to act blindly. She starts approaching the Duke recklessly… at that point, you appear.”
He was really good, too.
The same passage of time, the same situation, he adapted it perfectly from Rosalyn’s point of view. Even though it may have actually happened, it was clear that it would be a completely different story if it was recreated for Rosalyn.
“She was hasty. How uncomfortable your presence must have been when she thought my suggestion was something she ‘must do.’ So, I heard that she’s been insulting since the beginning.”
“You… heard? Did you hear from Rosalyn?”
“Otherwise, how would I know all this?”
The Crown Prince asked Selina as if teaching a child 1+1.
“She was so emotionally stressed about what happened this time that she cried and confessed. So. I knew everything about it.”
…Rosalyn was crying?
It was equivalent to saying that Kalcion cried.
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