CH 20

A cold breeze blew on our way to the library.

I watched Eugene walking next to me and when our eyes met occasionally I smiled as if it were a coincidence. I wasn’t able to stop smiling.

“What a beautiful world it is.”

Eugene looked at me with a strange expression on his face at the words that came out without me knowing.

“Why are you looking like that?”

When I asked him with narrowed eyes, Eugene replied as if he had been waiting.

“You are a poet, Your Highness. That was a very poetic thing to say.” It was a teasing tone.

I replied with a grin: “I do have a lot of emotions.”

It was nice seeing a gentle smile hanging around his mouth.

“Eugene, Do you think the world is not beautiful?”

“Well, I don’t really like the expression beautiful.”

Oh, well, he’s a man who had developed a severe distrust in women because of his beauty. A nodded my head a couple of times in understanding.

At that time, Eugene looked at me and asked in a passing tone: “What do you like so much, Your Highness? There are to little things for the world to look beautiful.”

I felt like I should be holding back , but I answered without asking: “I feel like I’ve become friends with Sir Eugene.”

He stopped for a moment.

“With me?”

Oh, did I misunderstand? We were getting along in comparison to before, so it felt like we became friends

“Didn’t we?”

I asked him sullenly, a little disappointed by his reaction. Then he began to stare at me. It was a gaze full of unknown agitation. After a while I tilted my head and he replied to me in a strange tone, dodging my gaze slowly: “I see.” He then raised the corners of his mouth very slightly: “Friends. You’re right.“

I was just relieved when I got a very comfortable look from him.

So I smiled and said playfully: “Even if you don’t like it, we’re friends now.”

He burst into laughter and nodded his head. Soon the putter palace library was visible in the distance.

“We’re here.”

“You have walked quite a lot. Aren’t you tired?”

“It’s okay.”

Our Cain is waiting over there. The Outer Palace Library was different from the Inner Palace Library, which is only visited by royal family members and high-ranking nobles. Meanwhile the Outer Palace Library was a place that anyone who visits the Imperial Palace can find, but of cause one needs aa pass to enter. Obviously I and Eugene could just get in.

“I am verified to enter, Sir.”

“You’re showing off with just one pass, your Highness.”

Maybe it was just me imagining things, but Eugene’s words seemed to have become more casual. I smiled playfully at him, and he rolled up his lips and tilted his head slightly.

Ooh! What is that? What is it? What a handsome man!

Hmmm, I let it slide this time… Cain was found in a deep corner of the library. The intense midday sun passed through the library window, making him look more gracefully. His black hair was tied together and hung down aver one shoulder.

As the calm sunlight fell on him, he was exuding a mysterious feeling as if he were all alone here. I paused as I watched him sitting in a chair and immersing himself in an old books.

“Your Highness?”

At Eugene’s sudden whispering I hissed at him and put my finger on my mouth… Then I continued standing there and observing Cain for a while, before I turned and led Eugene out of the library quietly.

“What’s wrong?”

I smiled at Eugene, who had asked me suspiciously, and said: “I don’t want to disturb him. Come to think of it, he’s spending his vacation doing what he wanted to, so I don’t think I should disturb him.”

Actually, I didn’t want to interrupt Cain because he was such a stunning sight to see. Eugene looked at me with strange eyes and burst into laughter again. These days, Eugene would often burst out laughing like this when he was with me. I observed his image with my eyes for a moment and calmed down my fluttering heart.

It was something that had never been mentioned in the original. It was extremely beautiful, but it evoked a special sentiment in me. It felt like Eugene was getting further away from the supporting role he had played in the original to support Ariel the female lead.

After patting myself on the shoulder, saying that I was doing well, I pretended not to observe Eugene and moved on. I enjoyed taking a leisurely walk with Eugene. We were a pretty striking combination. Therefore, if possible, I chose outside places with few people to visit.

In fact, Leticia unnie was very weak in the original work, but my body didn’t seem to be that impaired yet. Well, it’s good not to have a big physical problem for at least three months.

“What are you thinking about?”

The handsome man on my side called me while I was immersed in my thoughts.

“Nothing.”

I replied with a smile. And while chatting around, which has become a daily routine, I heard a voice calling from behind.

“Your Highness, Sir Volton.”

When I turned around, I thought: “Huh?” I saw a clear handsome man who had lost the faint atmosphere from earlier. It was Cain. I greeted him instinctively with a big smile.

He adverted his eyes and spoke slowly.

“You left…“

You knew everything, didn’t you? I thought you wouldn’t know who came in because you were so focused.

“That’s right. It’s been a long time since you have been on vacation, so I thought about getting some fresh air together. I left and went back outside because I thought I would be disturbing you.”

“Disturbing? No, you wouldn’t be a disturbance, Your Highness…”

His face turned stiff, but I had become familiar with him. No, this guy, he’s just shy! I caught a little smile on Eugene’s face for a moment.

I let out a relieved sight and smiled: “That’s a relief.”

Cain blinked slowly as I smiled and answered him. We took a walk together as it was. Later on my, Eugene‘s, and Cain’s handkerchiefs were laying down widely overlapped on the ground , causing the three of us to laugh. Of course Cain refused to sit down with us. Were we rude?

But I was relived to see him keep his eyes on us, not looking away even for a second. It was because I knew that this was his way of showing that he’s getting along with one. It was fascinating to see that Eugene, who hated Cain for being cunning in the original, was getting along with Cain now.

“It was a fun time.”

After taking Cain back to the library, I said while returning along with Eugene: “I think he’s a good person.”

“His Excellency, the Duke?”

“Yes.”

When I answered him with he smile, Eugene said: “You are aware that no one would describe his Excellency the Dude like that, aren’t you, You Highness?”

“Is that so?”

When I shrugged my shoulders as if it had nothing to do with me, Eugene smiled lightly: “Your Highness is a strange woman.”

He said it with a subtle voice, so I couldn’t hear it very well, but later on I figure that’s what he had said.

༻﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡﹡༺

Rumors circulating in the palace were unusual. Malicious interpretation of the rumor spawned another rumor, and no one raised a question about it.

Starting with a rumor that the princess is dying, rumors that she’s about to kill herself and even rumors that the emperor eventually abandoned the princess to wounds that shouldn’t be spoken in the first place.

However, such rumors did not reach the Princess‘ Palace. It was because the servants working there now were different from before. Before they knew it, the princess had permeated their hearts and had become a decent master.

No, that wasn’t all. Today, on the day of the cleaning, the princess, who sat by the window, suddenly opened her mouth: “I think I’m a really happy person.”

Leticia smiled gracefully at the sky. Her mumbling made the servants at her palace shut their mouths and the glanced at each other. They had heard the recent rumors spreading about the princess secretly and feared it would reach their masters ear and hurt her.

As the wind blew against her hair gently, her hair, which was shining under the moonlight, covered the princess’ cheek. The princess gathered her hair with her hands and gathered it over one shoulder. Her hair, which was loosely braided and left untied, had become a mess.

The face of the princess, who seems to be deep in thoughts, was clearly revealed. Her beautiful purple eyes were dreamy. The seemed to look at something fa away, as if she was longing for something. Suddenly, a clear voice leaked through her red lips: “What a beautiful world. It’s like a dream.”

She was talking to herself quietly, in fact, she was suffering from the aftereffects of seeing the two handsome men to her heart’s content and making cherished memories with them.

However, she looked lonely and like there was a sad aura surrounding her. Furthermore, from the point of view of the servants, whose hearts have been melted by the princess‘ change over the last weeks, it looked like the princess might have already been exposed to the unsavory rumors.

“If it’s a dream… …I don’t want to wake up.”

A bright smile lit up on her face. She didn’t know that her expressions and words make the listeners’ hearts flutter.

‚Oh, my… What should we do? Our princess…‘

‚You have been working so hard, but why did you become like this?‘

In the past, the servants had no special affection for the princess whom they served. However, seeing the princess, who always had a straight face and an elegant but cold air around her, change and create such a sentimental atmosphere, their hearts were getting shattered for no reason.

After the servants were filtered out once, the people remaining in the Princess‘ Palace had a slight sense of debt. It is a sense of debt that even though they have been watching from the side, they were swept away by the unfair rumors about the princess. As they began to open their hearts to the princess for various reasons, they were at a loss and looked at the princess with sad eyes.

Now they know that the princess is different from the rumors. But she had become a person likely to leave at any moment.

It was then. Suddenly the princess looked at them and opened her mouth: “It would be nice to leave something behind if possible. “