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“I know what you’re thinking right now, but it’s a misunderstanding.” (Prince)

I said firmly.

“Misunderstanding?”

The second Prince raised his eyebrows.

“I stopped by for a while because I had business to do, and there was a familiar face of the Crown Princess, so I just came to check it out.”

I replied, trying to look as nonchalant as possible. The second prince didn’t seem to believe me, but I didn’t explain anymore.

“What do you mean Crown Princess? I’m still engaged to His Highness the Crown Prince, but I’m not married yet. That’s why you can’t call me that so early on.” (Roxana)

I said, and the second Prince just blinked with a slightly surprised look on his face. As soon as he did, he apologized to me.

“I’ve been rude.” (Prince)

“It’s fine. But please lower your voice.”

“If it’s not convenient to call you Crown Princess, what should I call you?” (Prince)

“Young Lady. That’s all. Now If you’re done with what you have to say, please step aside.” (Roxana)

I said to the second Prince, who still stood in front of me.

“If you are new to the path, may I show you the way?” (Prince)

“I was just about to leave, thank you very much, but I can at least do the job of finding the parked carriage by myself.” (Roxana)

“Is that so?” (Prince)

I wanted to see what Claire and the nanny were talking about when they met… It was both awkward and uncomfortable, being interrupted in what I was about to do by an uninvited guest. Still, I put up with it because he was a member of the royal family and a powerful heir to the throne.

But if he was going to stand there any longer, I wasn’t willing to endure his rudeness either. Fortunately, instead of holding me back, the second Prince stepped aside.

“Thank you for keeping what happened last time a secret.” (Prince)

“…?”

Before I was completely out of the alleyway, his calm voice stopped me.

“Are you talking about the last time Your Highness had a secret meeting with the daughter of Marquis Kylon on the terrace?” (Roxana)

The second Prince’s face suddenly turned pale when I mentioned young lady Kylon.

The last time I saw him, he didn’t look too good. Could it be that he had a quarrel with her?

I wondered, but since he seemed to want to keep the matter a secret, I didn’t ask. Instead, I opened my mouth to reassure him who seemed anxious.

“If it’s about that day, don’t worry. I don’t have time to get involved in other people’s love business, either.” (Roxana)

However, instead of being relieved by my words, the second Prince firmly denied it with a blank face.

“It’s a misunderstanding.” (Prince)

“…”

I stared at him in wonder, and he added with a stiff face.

“Young lady Kylon and I are not in a relationship ……” (Prince)

I don’t know if it was an accurate fact, but seeing he said it like that, perhaps I misunderstood, just like the second Prince said.

So was it a one-sided feeling of Lady Kylon? Well, either way, it has nothing to do with me.

“Is that so.” (Roxana)

When I replied with an indifferent face, the second Prince squinted.

“You don’t seem to believe me.” (Prince)

“I do. I have no reason not to believe you.” (Roxana)

The second Prince looked at me as if he was quite surprised by my answer, and then immediately burst into an amused laugh.

I heard that he grew up not in the Imperial Palace but on the battlefield, perhaps that was why he looked cheerful and free.

The stiff figure I saw at the Imperial Palace and the free-spirited figure of the present. I don’t know which one was the real one.

It was possible that both of them were fake.

“Well, I’ll be going now.” (Roxana)

I grabbed the hem of my dress and slightly bent my knees to the second Prince.

As I was about to leave, I saw him approaching, so I stopped.

“Do you still have something to say?” (Roxana)

I stared at him, and he smiled.

“It was an honor to have a short conversation with the princess. See you next time.” (Prince)

The second Prince bowed and lightly kissed the back of my hand as if we were in a ballroom. It was a common greeting among the nobles, but it made me feel a little strange.

The place where his lips had touched earlier felt hot, like it was on fire. The second Prince finished his goodbyes and went away. I also went back to the place where the carriage was.

On the way back, the knights’ expressions were not cheerful. Before I got into the carriage, they bent down deeply and said to me,

“Miss, please punish me.”

“What do you mean?”

As I stared at them with furrowed brows, the knight at the front of the group said,

“We were unable to prevent someone from approaching the Lady even though we escorted her. We didn’t do our job properly, so we deserve to be punished.”

At the words of the knights, I finally remembered the situation from earlier and made a complicated face. Come to think of it, the second Prince passed through my escorts and approached me very naturally.

I can’t believe that there were several of them, but they didn’t notice someone approaching them. The overwhelming difference in their abilities made me uncomfortable.

It meant that if the second Prince had approached me with evil intentions, I might have been beaten defenseless. However, although the knights in my family were well trained, the second Prince was one of the most talented swordsmen in the empire.

He was so good that the emperor directly gave him the treasure sword that had been handed down from generation to generation in the imperial family.

In a sense, it was only natural.

The battlefield was a bleak place where hundreds, maybe even thousands of people could have died in the blink of an eye.

In order to survive in such a place for that long, he couldn’t just rely on the abilities of others without developing his own abilities.

Even if he barely maintained his life with the help of others at first, the experience accumulated through those countless battles could never be ignored.

So it wasn’t strange even if the knights didn’t notice his footsteps. It wasn’t something to blame them for.

“Stand up now. Because the second Prince is superior, not because you are lacking.”

I commanded, patting the knight on the shoulder. They looked at me with great admiration. I climbed into the carriage with their burdensome gazes behind me.

On the way back to the Duke’s residence, the unexpected meeting with the second Prince kept lingering in my mind. I forgot about the nanny and Claire for a moment.

“What did the second Prince come to do?”

***

*The nanny’s pov*

As soon as she got home, Viscountess Willis* slammed the door shut and calmed her trembling heart. (*the nanny)

She looked down at the handkerchief still in her hand. Someone’s initials were embroidered small on the bottom right corner of the handkerchief.

The pale pink handkerchief belonged to none other than Claire.

The morning of the day before.

When Viscountess Willis woke up, the room was strangely quiet.

She sat up and looked around curiously, and eventually found a note on a drawer next to her bed.

When she checked what was written on the note, Viscountess Willis’ eyes widened. Then she immediately looked under the bed with a pale face and shaking hands like a crazy person.

The entire box containing the severance pay she had received from Roxana was gone. She went to the trouble of hiding it in an inconspicuous place just in case, but now….

She quickly ran out of the room and checked the other rooms. In the first room, she could see that her son had fallen asleep drunk. And in the second, her daughter’s room, but it was empty.

Viscountess Willis bit her lip as she recalled the contents of the note.

A missing severance pay, a missing daughter, and a note left behind……

In the letter, in the handwriting of her daughter Sarah, she wrote that she was leaving the capital with her beloved so she asked not to look for her.

The other day, her son Alec gambled with all the actual goods in the house, including the dowry the Viscountess secretly saved for her daughter, Sarah. And he came home lost.

She was worried that the same thing would happen again.

Sarah fled with the severance pay.

Sarah’s lover was probably a commoner status mercenary that she had started dating a while ago. The Viscountess was against marriage because Sarah’s lover was poor. But she couldn’t imagine that her daughter would elope.

She was so confused that she felt as if her eyes had gone black.

She immediately ran out of the house and hurried to look for her daughter.

But in the end, she could not find Sarah, and she returned home after dark. When Viscountess Willis returned home, the house was very noisy.

She heard something cracking and breaking in Sarah’s bedroom, so she opened the door to check and found a terribly upset Alec inside.

Broken things were lying around the room, and in his hand was the note left by Sarah that he had discovered this morning. Alec realized the whole situation.

He left the house in a fury.

The next day, a group of people came to the house.

They were people from a gambling house that Alec frequented. They said that Alec owed a big debt yesterday and had beaten someone there, injuring him badly.

The news came like a bolt of lightning.

The people from the gambling house demanded the Viscountess to sell the house to pay off the debt, and the settlement.

Her daughter disappeared, no more money left, and now the house was taken away.

She felt hopeless.

It would have been fine before.

Now that she had nowhere to turn, she had no one to ask for help.

The people from the gambling house gave her a deadline, I’d she couldn’t pay the money within that time, they couldn’t guarantee Alec’s safety.

She felt like giving up everything, but she couldn’t do that.

The people in that world were very rough.

As long as Alec was in their possession, his life would be in danger if she couldn’t settle the debt.

Now that her daughter was gone, shouldn’t she protect the one child left?

The first thing that came to the Viscountess’ mind when she found reason was Roxana’s face.

Roxana kicked her out, but she (Roxana) had quietly covered up her (the nanny) mistake and not charged her with any crime.

On top of that, Roxana even gave her a large amount of money that he would have no problem living with for the time being, even after he paid off all the debts.

So Roxana probably would not turn away if she knew about her (the nanny) situation she (the nanny) was facing now.

However, even if Roxana was willing to help, it would only solve the current problem. The situation thereafter would be problematic.

A child could be scolded and whipped to change their habits, but the Viscountess couldn’t do that with grown children. But Alec and Sarah’s spending was out of control.

Especially Alec’s.

Her monthly salary, other support, severance pay…. Everything was lost. No amount was enough.

The old mansion was old so it couldn’t make much money even if it was sold.

When she sat on the street and cried in a deadlocked situation after she pulled Alec out with the money she got from selling the necklace that Roxana gave her long ago….

“Viscountess Willis?”

“…?”

When the Viscountess raised her head at the familiar voice, there was a face as beautiful as an angel. Wispy, glossy blonde hair, and green eyes that shone so vibrantly that they seemed to have been transferred straight from summer greens.

It was Claire, the Crown Prince’s one and only lover.