Chapter 25
It was a more immediate reaction than he thought.
Aiden stared silently at Dante’s broad back as he stopped.
Then, slowly, Dante turned to face him.
“Princess what?”
“You really haven’t changed a bit, have you?”
At Aiden’s words, Dante’s face slowly wrinkled.
I couldn’t understand what he was talking about.
“Do you know Letier?”
“Do you know the Princess?”
Aiden asked.
He unknowingly clenched his fists tightly.
Like Princess Letier, and my older brother, I thought that both of them were too much.
In the end, I was the only person who remembered that day.
“I don’t think you remember it either, brother.”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“… All right.”
Aiden, who had been staring at Dante’s mask, turned around without regret.
He took one step at a time, enduring the emotions rising from the depths of his body.
It was like a kind of sadness.
“Aiden.”
Then, Dante’s low voice from behind filled the hallway.
Aiden stopped walking at the sound of his voice.
I didn’t want to stop, but hearing Dante’s voice and my legs stop on their own, I thought I was really foolish.
“Take your medicine well. Even if the wound has healed.”
“Ha….”
Aiden smiled involuntarily.
He quietly lowered his head and slightly pulled up the sleeve that half covered the back of his left hand.
On the back of his hand, which should have been smooth, he could see that it was stained red and wrinkled.
When did you see this again…
After finishing what he had to say, Dante started walking again.
The sound of footsteps, which were moving away from each other, gradually faded away and then completely disappeared.
Standing blankly in the hallway, Aiden roughly pulled down his sleeves to completely cover his wrinkled hands.
“… I couldn’t find it.”
He stood still for a while with a sunken expression.
*****
Knock!
“Yes, I’m coming!”
Lucy, who was organizing the closet in Letier’s room located in the imperial palace, quickly ran out when someone knocked.
When I pushed the door open, a man I had never seen before was standing outside the door.
“Huh? Who are you?”
“Ah, my name is Patrick, the chief chamberlain of the Imperial palace. I came after receiving orders from the Prince to bring Princess Letier.”
“The prince?”
Lucy quickly turned to look at Letier, who was reading near the window.
“Princess! I hear the Prince is calling you right now?”
“Now?”
Like Lucy, Letier got up from her seat and approached the door with a puzzled face.
If it was the prince calling, she had expected Mr. Roizen would have come, but there in the doorway stood Patrick, the man who had escorted her to the Palace on her first day.
“Ah, hello!”
“Good afternoon, Princess. I hope this is a good time for you?”
“Ah, yes! But where did Mr. Roizen go, and where is Chamberlain…”
“Mr. Roizen?”
Patrick asked, puzzled.
But being an experienced and perceptive servant, he soon realized that Letier mistook Reuter for Roizen.
Perhaps she’d gotten her name mixed up with the many people she’d met since entering the palace.
“The Prince’s secretary was away for a while because he had other business.”
The court chamberlain, overflowing with consideration, even showed manners of not mentioning the proper name, fearing that Princess Letier would be embarrassed.
Letier nodded at his kind explanation.
“Oh, I see. Then I will go now!”
Letier followed Patrick to the prince’s private office.
Leading her down a long hallway, Patrick knocked on the large door for her, turned the knob, and opened it for her.
After finishing all the work, he bowed his head towards Letier.
“I was only ordered to bring the Princess, so I’ll go back now.”
“Ah yes! thank you. Patrick.”
“You’re welcome.”
Letier looked at Patrick, who took a step back, then entered through the open door.
“Your Highness, I understand you were called me.”
She bowed politely, but the office was empty.
Where is he?
Looking around, Letier noticed that the door leading to the Prince’s private garden was open and slowly approached it.
“… He said I can visit whenever I want.”
Letier hesitated a little, licked her lips once, and went out through the door.
As before, the warm scenery caught her attention.
‘Where is the prince?’
Letier cautiously took a step onto the green grass.
The feeling of gently wrapping my feet was very pleasant.
“Letier.”
At that time, the Prince’s low voice came from the side.
Letier turned her head and looked in the direction of the sound.
“Prince!”
“Long time no see.”
“Yes…?”
Dante was standing under a tree in a light shirt.
He wasn’t wearing a uniform that went all the way up to his neck, as usual, and he had even taken off his gloves, which looked stuffy just looking at them.
The black mask that completely covered his face was still intact, but Letier felt somehow proud of his much lighter clothes.
Because it was the outfit that represented his open heart toward her, even just a little bit.
“Prince, you’re dressed quite coolly today, aren’t you?”
Letier asked, stepping closer to Dante.
“It’s a beautiful day.”
Dante replied bluntly.
It was a voice that seemed casual to hear from the outside, but his heart was already beating as he watched her running towards him.
“It looks so much better!”
Letier smiled broadly at him.
She scanned the exposed nape of Dante’s neck, his chest visible through the buttons, his wrists, and the back of his hand in turn.
It must have been just for the purpose of checking for treatment, but Dante felt his mouth dry at her gaze.
On the other hand, after examining every detail of Dante’s exposed skin, Letier’s mind was very complicated.
No matter how she looked at it, he did not appear to be suffering from a terrible skin disease.
A thick, sleek neckline and a solid chest that extends underneath. And the skin on the wrist and back of the hand, which I had never seen before, was so normal.
‘Is everything else fine, only the face?’
But if that’s the case, there’s no reason to meticulously cover up everything that’s exposed.
The only way to know for sure was to remove the mask.
“Let’s sit down for now.”
Dante led Letier to a prepared spot next to the tree trunk, similar to last time.
Letier carefully took her seat next to Dante, who had slumped down.
“Prince, did the cream I gave you gave you any effect?”
“I don’t know.”
“Ah….”
At Dante’s words, Letier made a visibly disappointed expression.
Also, it wasn’t easy from the beginning.
“Then I should change the ingredients for anti-inflammatory ingredients….”
Letier began scribbling in her notebook.
“Did it not work at all? The burning? Does it feel hard and firm?”
Dante paused for a moment, unsure of how to answer her next question.
If it had been the same, he would have rejected it with harsh words, saying that it had no effect, as he had done to the people who came to treat his skin.
However, if he told Letier that it didn’t have much effect, he thought she would be very disappointed.
“That… It seems to have eased up a bit.”
“Really?”
Letier raised her face buried in the notebook.
At the cute gesture, Dante couldn’t help but smile slightly.
“Yes, indeed. I see you’re a brilliant cosmetics researcher after all.”
“I’m glad it worked a little! I see hope.”
Letier was a little excited, wrote down <It works!> in the notebook and drew stars around it.
Glancing at her notebook, Dante sighed and raised the corner of his mouth.
He gently ran a hand through the hair that flowed down Letier’s shoulders.
Soft, fluffy hair tangled in his hands.
“Letier, how have you been?”
“What, I… I did some formulation research in the lab and market research, and that’s how it went. Hasn’t the prince been very busy all this time? You haven’t called me for a while…”
“I wasn’t too busy. Instead, the secretary never left my side.”
“Yes?”
“I struggled a bit to get him out of work today.”
The Prince was still spouting puzzling words.
And Letier had long given up on understanding him.
“… Okay.”
Dante looked at Letier, who muttered a little, and opened his mouth.
“Isn’t life in the Imperial family frustrating?”
He brought her to the Imperial palace for the purpose of treating his skin, and felt sorry for not calling her properly.
If it had been like other people, he would have sent them back sooner, saying that his symptoms did not improve, but he was holding Letier in the Imperial palace forcibly and making various excuses.
“I’m not frustrated, but I’m nervous.”
“Nervous?”
Dante felt his heart sink a little faster.
He thought that he felt more nervous as he waited for Letier’s answer.
“I want to look around the dealership in the Duchy of Lenever… I would also like to visit the factory. I also want to go to the market and experience the consumer reaction. However, those things are difficult now that I am staying in the Imperial palace…”
Letier answered cautiously.
“Then do you want to leave the imperial palace?”
“Um…”
At the Prince’s question, Letier rolled her eyes as if seriously thinking about it.
“First, after treating the Prince’s skin!”
Letier turned quickly and grabbed Dante by the cheeks, catching him off guard.
The ends of the stiff mask were caught beneath her hands.
“…….”
If I pull it with force like this, the Prince’s mask will come off.
