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“This is just that, because I came out in a hurry. Anyway, for now, this necklace . . . !”
Rieta continued to make ridiculous excuses, and finally just gave up.
Because the longer her words were, the more it seemed like a loss.
Instead, she opened the carriage door a little, and pushed the box containing the necklace through the narrow gap.
First of all, she has to get this done.
But for some reason, Hugh McLean didn’t accept the box she was handing over.
“Do you have any identity card?”
“What?”
She doesn’t know why he asked such a thing, but Rieta nodded her head once.
“You are well prepared.”
“No, I never meant to get into the Academy!”
“You even prepared an identity card?”
“It, it happened to be in the pocket . . .”
“The Princess accidentally found and put on a dress with a counterfeit identity card. While you’re going to the academy, too.”
Rieta had no other answer to Hugh McLean’s laugh.
As expected, the more she spoke, the more she lost.
“Anyway, I don’t have time for this. You have to deliver this to Everett.”
“Yes.”
He took out his pocket watch, checked the time for a moment, then opened the carriage door wide open.
“Hurry.”
And then he reached out his hand to her.
Rieta hesitated a little when she heard if they should go together. But she soon realized that he couldn’t talk like that.
There is no way the upright male lead would cooperate with smuggling a foreigner.
Rieta put the necklace box on top of his hand.
“Princess.”
He returned the box and held out his hand again.
“Will you come by my side?”
It just happened to be the same question they shared at the lakeside last time.
At the time, Rieta gave the scripted answer, “I can’t do that,” and he asked if it was because of Noel.
Apparently Hugh McLean was misunderstanding the relationship between Noel and Rieta.
So Rieta took hold of his outstretched hand again.
“. . . I’m coming.”
Did he think the answer was unexpected?
Hugh McLean’s eyes widened for a moment.
But he soon smiled.
* * *
Rieta followed Hugh McLean and soon arrived at the Academy’s access control room.
She was a little nervous, probably because she had gone through the identification process here last time.
But fortunately for her, there was no such procedure this time.
Come to think of it, didn’t Darrel say the other day, ‘When a high-ranking noble passes by, they don’t bother to check the servant?’
She was really unlucky when she came with Darrel who told her so, and she had to go through a complicated procedure . . .
“Well, it’s simpler than I thought.”
Hugh McLean muttered as they entered the academy.
“If they were strict at the entrance, I was prepared to say something plausible.”
Unexpectedly, the staff at the access control room paid no attention to Rieta, who was following Hugh McLean.
She looked around for a moment at the door of the Academy, which she passed through so easily.
. . . How did I commit this sin again?
Now that this had happened, she had no choice but to quickly deliver the necklace and get out of this unpleasant place quickly.
“Where is Everett?”
“He will be in the dressing room. We set up a dressing room in an unused tool room. I will guide you.”
He hurried, and Rieta quickly followed her.
The familiar scene of the academy quickly passed by.
“If you find it difficult, please tell me, Princess.”
When he said that, Rieta replied in a small voice, “No.”
“Ah.”
He seems to have realized his mistake.
He had called Rieta ‘Princess’.
It was very much like advertising to catch her.
“Okay, sorry. Rieta.”
“. . . You call my name so casually.”
“I’m sorry. But I can’t even call Rieta’s last name.”
Her last name was also the name of the Kingdom. He seems to point that out.
“I guess so.”
“Come on.”
He glanced back at Rieta even as he walked quickly.
He smiles rather shyly.
“Rieta, will you call me by my first name?”
Why did that question remind her of what happened last time?
“Every time Princess Rieta called my first and last name, it sounded like you were speaking to a character from a story. With a somewhat bad role.”
After hearing that story, Rieta thought she should treat Hugh McLean a little more normally.
But she found it a bit difficult to call him casually all of a sudden.
Maybe it’s because she’s been wary of him for so many years.
“. . . That.”
Rieta opened her mouth with a troubled expression.
The good thing is that she immediately came up with a way to escape from the question.
“It’s difficult to call you by name, I’m a servant, young master.”
As she replied with a friendly smile, he scratched his head for no reason, saying, “Oh, that’s right.”
“Still, there was a lot more progress today than last time.”
“Progress?”
“It’s about my own feelings. It’s okay if you don’t mind, Princess . . . No, Rieta.”
He looked back a little more and went ahead
More and more people were passing by around them.
Rieta followed Hugh McLean with her head slightly bowed, worried that she might bump into Duke Mayer or Darrel.
They soon arrived at the back entrance, used only by the participating students of the play.