Chapter 12
“This…!”
The knight swiftly swung the long drawn sword.
The sharp swing of the sword perfectly split the spider’s web behind the curtain.
The knight made several more swings, clearing the cobwebs completely and creating neat edges.
“You almost made a bad impression on Princess Letier!”
The knight muttered with a proud voice and moved towards the door.
While fiddling with the doorknob they had broken, he left the room and disappeared with the door closed tightly, looking the same as when he first entered.
Soon, only silence flowed in the room.
“…….”
I heard a low breathing sound from above my head.
The man was holding Letier so that she couldn’t move, but he didn’t apply too much force, as if he did not want to hurt her.
Letier’s attitude convinced him that he wouldn’t hurt her right away.
She struggled hard with her final thrusts.
But his rock-hard body still didn’t budge.
“Don’t try too hard, I’ll let you go. If you scream instead, I’ll grab you again.”
Letier held her breath quietly.
There’s no way.
If released by the man, she would immediately call the knights back with a shout.
“If you understand, nod your head.”
Letier did not move her head at all.
Even in this situation, the lie did not come easily.
“I guess you didn’t understand.”
Only then did Letier nod her head.
Is it the answer to the question of ‘didn’t understand?’
The dumbfounded man looked down at the top of her head for a moment before opening his mouth again.
“I’ll show you who I am. If you can still scream after facing me, do it.”
As soon as the man finished speaking, the hand that held Letier relaxed.
Letier, freed from the man, quickly ran towards the opposite wall.
Letier slammed her back against the wall and breathed in so hard that she could scream right away. When she found the man who was holding onto her, she let out the breath she had taken in effortlessly.
That person…?
“… Prince?”
In the darkness, she saw a black face facing her.
The one who had been hiding in the shadows against the wall took a step forward.
The weak light of the lamp swayed in the wind, revealing the mask.
The mask that completely covered the man’s face, giving off a dark and smooth glow, was the mask of the prince.
“Are you really the prince?”
“Yes, as you see with your own two eyes.”
“Then why are you hiding?”
Letier looked at the prince with a wary eye.
It is true that it was the intruder who broke into the imperial palace, but I suspected that it was wearing the same mask as the prince.
She looked him up and down, positioning herself to escape at a moment’s notice.
“I was being chased by knights because of a misunderstanding while walking around the imperial palace. I hid because I didn’t want to make a fuss late at night.”
“What could you possibly have done to be misunderstood inside the imperial palace?”
“… You’re sharper than I thought.”
“What?”
The prince raised a hand and brushed the bangs that fell over his forehead.
“I went to a place where I was not allowed and came back. I get caught.”
“Are there places in the palace where the prince is not permitted?”
“There are many places that a powerless prince cannot go.”
Is it…?
Letier looked at the prince still unresolved.
“I won’t touch the princess anymore, so please take that look away. I will leave the room quietly.”
“Tomorrow, I will visit the prince and ask him again if he had any encounters with me today.”
“As you wish.”
“And I will go first. I’m a bit scared right now….”
“Oh yeah.”
The prince nodded with a slightly flustered voice.
Letier looked the prince up and down again, then quickly turned around, opened the door, and ran out.
After leaving the corridor, Letier ran to her room without stopping.
I didn’t even dare to look back, fearing that the assailant wearing the prince’s mask would come after me.
“Hah… Hah….”
Finally, after safely entering the room, Letier collapsed onto the bed and gasped for breath.
I couldn’t quite wrap my head around what had just happened.
The prince who is being chased by the imperial knights.
The prince who held me like a hostage with great power.
“What kind of prince is he…?”
Letier continued to breathe heavily, then slowly closed her eyes.
*****
The next morning, Letier woke up in the same position she had been lying on the bed.
Perhaps it was because I hadn’t slept for a few hours, the fatigue didn’t go away at all.
Letier, frowning, slowly raised her upper body and sat down.
“Princess, Princess!”
Lucy shouted as she ran into the room, holding a tray with both hands.
“Lucy, my head is ringing…”
“Oops, I’m sorry! Did you come home late yesterday? I didn’t even see the princess come in, so I fell asleep….”
“At dawn….”
“At dawn?”
Surprised, Lucy put down the tray she had been carrying on the small table and quickly grabbed Letier and started looking around.
“Princess, did you encounter any terrifying creatures last night?”
Letier, who was swaying around in Lucy’s arms with her eyes half-closed, opened her eyes at her question.
“Terrifying creature?”
“I heard from the maids of the imperial palace on my way back that a terrifying creature broke into the imperial palace last night, you don’t know!”
“Broke into the imperial palace…?”
“There seems to be a big thief breaking into the imperial palace because there’s nowhere else to break into the world. By the way, nothing was missing and no one was hurt. Why the hell did you come in?”
Letier remembered the prince she met last night.
Was it not the prince, but the real monster?
“I’m glad I didn’t meet a scary person. ah! Have some of this. I brought breakfast.”
Lucy began to set the simple dishes on the tray on the table.
Letier took the fork that Lucy was holding and pushed the delicious food into her mouth.
“Did you do a lot of experiments yesterday?”
“Yes.”
“Thank god! Is the prince going to call the princess today?”
“Well.”
Letier mumbled and answered.
Perhaps she had been hungry all night, so she emptied the plate.
“Princess, are you very hungry? I should have brought more if I had known this was going to happen…. First off, wash up! I’ll bring you more snacks later.”
While Lucy was away to prepare the bath water, someone knocked on the door.
Letier got up from her chair and opened the door herself.
“Who….”
“Ah, Princess Letier! hello?”
Yesterday morning, he was the secretary of the prince who had visited Letier to inform her that she did not have to visit him.
Seeing that you came again in the morning, are you saying it’s not today?
Letier calmly calmed down.
“I don’t think I was able to greet you formally yesterday, I’m the one who is in charge of the prince’s secretary my name is Roy…”
The man, who had slightly bowed his head as if to greet Letier, suddenly stopped talking.
“Yes?”
“My name is Roi…zen Maxey.”
“Ah, Mr. Roizen! nice to meet you.”
“I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other in the future, so if you have any questions or concerns about the prince, be sure to let me know.”
“Yes, I will.”
Reuter deeply cursed his owner for making him lose the name he had used for the past 25 years in an instant.
“Seeing that you came early, it seems that the prince is very busy today too?”
“Yes? Oh no! Today, the prince asked first to see the princess.”
“Is that so?”
Letier raised her eyebrows in surprise.
“Later, after lunch, if you are free? The place is the drawing room on the third floor, just like last time.”
“Yes. I see.”
“I’ll see you there, then.”
Reuter bowed naturally.
Returning to the room, Letier started rummaging through the luggage she had brought from the dukedom.
Lucy came out of the bathroom and asked with a puzzled face.
“Huh? Who is here?”
“The prince’s secretary. The prince told me to visit him this afternoon.”
“Ah… Is that so?”
“Why is your voice sad, Lucy?”
When Letier turned her head, Lucy jumped up and shouted.
“It’s absolutely not regrettable that Princess has less time to research cosmetics!”
“… I see.”
“By the way, what are you looking for?”
Lucy approached Letier, who continued to rummage through her bag, and asked.
“I thought I brought an encyclopedia of raw materials, but I guess I didn’t. I was going to look into it one more time before going to the prince…”
“Hmm… Then why don’t you stop by the Imperial Palace Library quickly before having lunch? Wouldn’t there be a similar books stored there?”
Letier recalled Roizen, who said it was okay to look around the imperial library.
“Is that so?”
*****
After moving to another building in the imperial palace, Letier handed over the pass she had obtained in advance to the knight guarding the imperial palace library.
The knight who checked the identity written on the pass opened the door to the imperial library.
Letier entered first, followed by Lucy, but the knight blocked Lucy with a spear.
“Oh!”
“Only those with permission can enter.”
“She is my secretary. She’s coming with me for work, can’t she just stay for a while?”
“It’s not possible.”
He was a very inflexible person.
After thinking for a while, Letier said to Lucy, who was standing there with a teary face.
“Lucy, I’ll be in and out soon. Wait for a while.”
“I understand, princess!”
Letier turned to herself and entered the library.
“Oh wow…”
It was much bigger than I thought.
Quite high ceilings and bookshelves that go up that high.
Lots of books filling it up.
Letier, who had been admiring the interior for a while, suddenly came to her senses after thinking of Lucy waiting for her.
‘Let’s see, the encyclopedia….’
The library in the imperial palace was organized very efficiently.
It is a place organized by category, so I was able to find a bookshelf with only raw materials and books related to raw materials without much difficulty.
Letier began to search the encyclopedia for raw materials, raising her finger and going through the bookshelf one by one.
Letier’s eyes, which were scanning the titles of books with quick glances, passed a certain place and stopped abruptly.
“… Human toxicology?”
‘Are you familiar with poisons?’
Suddenly, I remembered the man who asked me about poison.
