Chapter 19

After a moment of hesitation, Irene said, “No.”

“I’m ordering you again. Take it off.”

“I don’t want… to.”

“Rather, you should kill anyone who dares give such an order to you in the future. You shouldn’t bear with it. It’s late. Sleep here for tonight.” Though there was a cold look in his eyes, the tone of his voice was vague but friendly.

Without waiting for a response, Kael immediately walked out of the door. Wondering which was the real side of him, Irene could only confusedly stare at his back as the door closed behind him.

“Your Highness?”

Passing by the bewildered head maid and grand chamberlain, Kael said, “About what happened today, I’ll hear about it tomorrow morning.” Then, he immediately headed straight for the room next to his, locked the door behind him, and immediately ran to open the window. “Ugh,” he gasped, as he let out the breath he’d been holding in. “What kind of treatment has she been living with?!”

The man who’d pretended to be his usual self in front of Irene and his servants quickly unraveled. He realized when he stood before Irene that he couldn’t act as ‘Prince Kael.’ In front of her, he could only be a man.

As he pondered more and more about Irene’s defeatist attitude, he felt his annoyance and irritation soar. He’d never felt like this before and didn’t know what to do. What most upset him was that there was nothing he could do for Irene right now. “How could I be so incompetent?” he muttered.  He did his best to reign in his anger and calm his racing heart, but his grip on the windowsill was so tight it began to crush under the pressure.

After a few moments, he was finally able to collect his breath. Then, he glanced down because of a stiffness in his lower region. “It feels like it’s about to explode,” he sighed. After being patient and enduring it all, the moment his tension was relieved, his lower half began to react violently. Aside from the rage that erupted, his body was responding like the hot-blooded male that he was. If  seeing Irene’s body was all it took for him to react like this, he could hardly imagine what it’d be like with even greater stimuli.

“I can’t stop thinking about it so maybe I should talk to Wellen…” He wondered if he should consult Wellen, but was quickly dissuaded when he thought of how Wellen would pretend he wasn’t, but actually be dying inside from excitement. Instead, he let the cold winter air hit him, as he slumped and leaned against the window frame. Kael let out a deep sigh and he rubbed his face. Both his head and bottom were making him feel uncomfortable and he felt frustrated because he couldn’t figure out a way to resolve it.

“By the way… Did I look so experienced? Oh no, what have I done? If I want to make her like me, it looks like it might take some time,” Kael groaned in slight despair.

As he replayed the night from the beginning to the end, he remembered his words and actions. Thoroughly being educated on sex from a young age didn’t mean that he was good at dating, especially when everything was his first time. The feeling of laying Irene on the bed was still vivid, and was enough to cause him to stiffen again. Still, the pounding of his heart didn’t feel bad. Rather, it was much better than the fear that gripped him when he wondered if he might not ever see her again.

“I’m definitely not okay.” Kael really felt like he turned into a madman. However, even as he reflected over his actions, the image of Irene’s mesmerizing gaze never left him alone. Like the soft flesh of a fruit inside a hard shell, Kael felt inexplicably drawn to them. “I wonder if she was aware of the way she gazed at me…”

In the short span of their brief meeting, Kael had learned a lot about Irene. She’d probably given up on many things in life in order to obey the orders given to her. The gaze in her eyes when she talked about following orders appeared contradictorily strong and noble, yet weak and pitiful at the same time. As she strove to embody the persona of a perfect knight, Irene failed to notice how heavily she’d armed herself with tenacity. Kael couldn’t imagine the pain she’d endured as a knight. He vowed to himself, ‘I’ll make it possible for her to have everything that she’s given up so far. I’ll let her do everything she wants to do.’

A gust of wind blew snow through the window, which began to pile on his feet. “It looks like it’s going to snow again.” Though he sighed, the corners of his mouth had relaxed. “More importantly… How do I get her to like me?”

His thoughts began to expand as they turned towards what he needed to do to be loved by Irene. Suddenly, an idea came to mind. “The library. Yes, there was the library!” Even though it was late at night, Kael sprinted out of the room with a determined look like that of a scholar with a burning passion for learning. As the night continued to deepen, so did his heart.