It was the crown prince’s voice. Even while she was busy preparing for the Festival event, it felt like she found herself behind the scenes and walked for a month. The noble women let out exclamations of ‘Oh my, oh my’ and quietly walked away, secretly watching them from afar.
It was surprising. This would be the first time she saw the crown prince speak to her first in an official setting. Something happened yesterday, and she didn’t want to face him until she got her thoughts together.
She never thought they would meet again so soon. She slowly turned around at the sound of his voice. When he somehow made eye contact with her, he looked slightly surprised.
She slightly raised the hem of her dress and bowed her head to show respect.
“Greetings, His Majesty the Crown Prince.”
Usually she just said ‘Hello’. It was a simple greeting, but since it was a formal event, she had no choice but to pay attention to etiquette. But no matter how long she waited, the crown prince did not give the order to raise her head. So she couldn’t tell what expression he was making.
She was staring at the floor to the point where she thought she was being sucked into the floor, and her back started to hurt. After waiting for a long time, the crown prince finally spoke in a deep voice.
“Wait a moment…”
The voice was so low that she couldn’t hear it properly, so she thought an order had finally come to raise her head, so she tried to raise her head, but the crown prince stopped her by pressing down on her head.
“…!?”
She was surprised. What a disgrace this was in front of people. No matter how much he hated her, that’s true!
As she gritted her teeth in frustration and tried to lift her head, the force pressing down on her head became stronger. There was no way she could overcome the crown prince’s grip, but when she continued to struggle and tried to resist, the crown prince spoke in an urgent voice.
“I told you to wait! Don’t look!”
“Why, why?!”
Did something happen? She tried to look up, but she couldn’t see the Prince’s face at all.
The crown prince spoke in a somewhat urgent voice as if he were shouting.
“It’s ugly, so just stay where you are!”
Was it ugly? What was it? What was ugly? Or was he just saying that her appearance was ugly?!
It seemed like that.
My, she had put in so much effort into dressing up since this morning, but it looked ugly! If the maids heard it, they would have been sad. At this moment, the worry that she had had all morning, “Maybe the Crown Prince likes me?” disappeared.
He must still hate her. Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to openly insult her in a place where so many people were gathered.
He even told her not to raise her head because it was ugly.
There was a sudden commotion and the sound of people rushing around. The sound of the crown prince clicking his tongue was heard from above. The crown prince, who was still staring at the floor, seemed to be aware of the gaze around him, grabbed his inner arm and hurriedly dragged him somewhere.
“Now, wait a minute!”
The place the crown prince brought her was to the garden behind the imperial palace. Seeing that there were no people on a day like today, it was probably a space that only the royal family could enter.
What on earth was the crown prince thinking of bringing me to such a place so easily?
Now she was finally able to see the crown prince’s face. He came running and his face was very red, probably because he was out of breath. She was the one who was suddenly dragged out, but the crown prince was looking at her with a resentful look on his face.
They all looked like they thought she was bad.
She also glared at him, filled with unfair feelings.
“What on earth are you doing?”
She took a deep breath and asked the crown prince. In contrast to her, who looked exhausted, he was not shedding even a drop of sweat.
The crown prince, who seemed to be normal when he spoke to him from behind, came face to face with her and started acting in an unreasonable way. She didn’t even act that rudely, she greeted him to the point that her back hurt, so what was wrong?
“Why are you doing this all of a sudden!”
The crown prince looked worried at her bruises and then spoke to her with a serious expression. His gaze was somehow focused on her.
“You just go home quickly.”
“Yes? Why?”
It would be absurd to go back now when the festival has not even started yet. She had worked really hard since this morning for today. It took over an hour just to wake up at dawn and wash, and with fifteen maids coming together, they put in so much effort into getting dressed. On a day like today, wasn’t it right to go out and show off her beauty as much as possible?
After thinking that, she shook her head. Then the crown prince spoke as if he was annoyed.
“If I tell you to go back, can’t you just go back? Go home!”
Go back and not take a single step.
“Huh? I don’t like it.”
The words were so absurd that she refused the crown prince’s order. Because it was a reflexive answer, she covered her mouth in surprise.
Since she openly said no to the crown prince’s orders, she had nothing to say even if she was captured. She didn’t think the crown prince would do that. When she refused to listen to him several times, he spoke to her with a scary, stern look on his face.
“Do you want me to imprison you for the duration of the founding of the nation on charges of disorderly conduct? Do you want that? I don’t mind either way, as long as you don’t attract people’s attention anymore.”
She gasped in surprise. It seemed like the crown prince was really planning to send her to prison. She barely managed to keep her mind from dazing for a moment. Why? Because she disobeyed his orders? What was the name of this crime…? Why did all of a sudden everything that was unethical come out?
She didn’t take off her clothes and walk around, she didn’t say obscenities, she just stood there… No matter how much she thought about it, she had never done anything that could be considered disorderly conduct. But at least it seemed that way in the crown prince’s eyes.
At this rate, the crown prince was really going to keep her in prison until the founding of the nation ended. So she came to her senses and objected to the crown prince.
“Why? I didn’t do anything.”
“Everyone around you was mesmerized by the sight of you, but you sure weren’t going to act like they didn’t notice, right? Why did you come out dressed like this?”
Everyone was mesmerized? This was a fact she didn’t know. He was too interested in her surroundings. What did that have to do with her? And what’s wrong with her outfit? The crown prince, who was examining her attire, blushed and turned his head as if he saw something he couldn’t see. Only her arms and collarbone line were exposed.
This kid was a lot more conservative than she thought. Or was it because he was too young to know something?
She felt like she wanted to show what it really is to be unruly. This was the outfit worn by all the noble women who came to the National Foundation Day event. If you add more, it never becomes less. Nevertheless, the Crown Prince was only commenting on her attire.
So she came to a conclusion.
“I don’t like it.”
“What?”
“Like Raven, I have a schedule left for the International Foundation Festival, so I can’t go back now just for that reason. And I also have an appointment in the afternoon…”
The crown prince’s brows furrowed slightly as he listened to my story at the word promise.
“An appointment?”
“Yes.”
“What appointment? With whom?”
“That…”
Why did she have to explain every detail of this to the crown prince? He was acting like a husband suspecting an infidelity, but he didn’t seem to know. She frowned.
“There’s no reason to tell you about that.”
Somehow, a feeling of defiance arose and he spat it out, and the prince’s expression turned cold. For a while, the crown prince didn’t say anything about what he was thinking. The crown prince thought for a while before opening his mouth.
“…Serabi.”
“Yes.”
“Tonight…”
“…”
The crown prince opened his mouth in an uncertain voice, hesitated for a while, then curled his fists, looked straight at her, and spoke in a voice that seemed to have made up his mind.
“I have something to say to you.”
“…”
She looked at him with eyes that said, ‘So what?’ Uncharacteristically, he hesitated and spoke as if hanging up.
“So, let’s meet later, in the evening, at the square.”
If he had something to say, why not just say it now? Why did she have to go there and talk about it? She wanted to ask that, but it seemed like he wouldn’t let her go until she said yes.
“All right.”
The crown prince sighed as if he had relaxed at her words. She didn’t know what he was trying to say, but she was worried about whether the crown prince, who seemed to have a hard time even telling her to come out because he had something to say, would be able to say the words he wanted to change places.
“Then I’ll just…”
“…okay.”
When she told him that she would go back, the crown prince looked upset, but fortunately, he seemed to have decided to let it go this time.
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Translator Note:
Hello there! This is RJR. I hope you liked it <3
If you like my work please support me with Ko-fi or Patreon. Next post will be released on June, 13.
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Woooot she’s gonna confess and wow he’s acting like a total yandere! Yup pls run away girl!