CH 21

“A different deal?”

“Yes, Your Highness. Just as I said.”

I looked up at the Crown Prince, who was looking down at me with a smug expression, and nodded.

“Explain to me the complete details.”

Bathed in the noonday sunlight, his golden eyes were sparkling with considerable interest.

“Rumors are circulating that the culprit who attempted to harm Your Highness is Grand Duke Damian. Furthermore, I heard he is currently being held in the imperial prison.”

“And so?”

“Can you guide me to where he is being held?”

In response to my request, the Crown Prince scoffed as if what he just heard was absurd.

“You want me to guide you to where the Duke is?”

“Yes.”

“What will I gain from doing that?”

“I will show you my healing ability. Right here, at this moment.”

I gave him a confident smile as I spoke.

“Didn’t you turn down my request last time because there had been no one with a fatal injury?”

“When did I say that my healing abilities are limited to only living people?”

My answer caused the Crown Prince’s eyes to narrow as he frowned.

“What do you mean?”

“I can make the flower Your Highness is currently trampling on bloom like a brand new blossom.”

Then I pointed down at the flowers that the Crown Prince was carelessly stepping on. The withered forget-me-nots that had been trampled mercilessly by the man’s shoe came into clear vision.

“It seems that Your Highness doesn’t care about plants.”

“!”

The Crown Prince kicked the trampled flowers away out of irritation at my comment. And that revealed the pitiful state of the forget-me-nots, which had now lost most of their vitality.

What once would have been lush foliage couldn’t withstand the weight of his boots and crumpled, and the sky-blue flowers that must have blossomed beautifully lost some of their petals and lay helplessly on the floor.

I stood up from the chair, approached the poor forget-me-nots, and knelt down.

“What are you doing?”

The Crown Prince’s annoyed voice loomed over me.

“I’m trying to heal this poor thing.”

I completely bent my knees and looked around. Fortunately, the imperial knights were standing far enough away that they couldn’t see what I was about to do.

In that position, I closed my eyes and gently placed my hand on a forget-me-not. Since it was a plant, it didn’t consume my mental energy. Which also meant that there would be no radiant glow like when I healed the Crown Prince’s or Cassadin’s scars.

It was only for a moment that my hand came in contact with the forget-me-not, but the wilting plant quickly regained its vitality.

The frail and droopy leaves transformed into their original, pristine form, seeming to have absorbed the fresh morning dew, and the forget-me-not that had lost its petals and was left in a pitiful form regained its vibrance as if nothing had happened.

“I can’t believe it…”

Then I heard the Crown Prince’s exclamation from above my head, his angry tone now gone. I straightened my legs to stand up, then dusted off the dirt from my dress. In front of me was the Crown Prince, suddenly closing in the gap between our faces with a twinkling gaze.

“Are you… a mage? How did you do that?”

“I’m nothing of the sort. You’re Highness, I’m merely a healer.”

“A healer…?”

The Crown Prince crouched down and picked up the forget-me-not, then looked at me with a partially childish expression.

“It may get trampled on by another if it stays here, so I’ll keep this flower in my room.”

He must have suddenly realized the beauty of the blooming flowers in a field, as his attitude became a little different from how it had been earlier. Then with a cheery smile, he gently put the forget-me-not into the pocket of his upper uniform.

‘Sigh, it isn’t much different from trampling it if you pick up the flower like that….’

Seeing the Crown Prince puff up with pride as if he just did something incredibly righteous, I once again realized that common sense wouldn’t work on this man.

“By the way, I have one question.”

The Prince tilted his head and asked me.

“Please go ahead.”

“Why are you trying to meet the Grand Duke imprisoned in the imperial prison?”

“…”

“I was just wondering why you, of all people, would need to go see the Grand Duke even in prison.”

I did expect him to ask about the reason, but how should I respond?

‘Do you believe in love at first sight?’

‘…I was also once a disbeliever of such things, but I’ve fallen in love with Grand Duke Damian at first sight. I just wanted to see his handsome face before I leave.’

No, not that. It would be strange to confess your love to someone who’s locked up in prison. Especially if I’m telling this not to the person involved, but to the Crown Prince. And it is weird for me to be telling that to the person who proposed to me for the Crown Princess position.

“Why aren’t you answering?”

I wondered if the Crown Prince’s patience was longer than three seconds, since he was urging me to give him an answer immediately after he asked the question.

I hesitated, acting as if I were conflicted about bringing up a serious topic.

“Your Highness… Are you positive that the imprisoned Duke is the real culprit?”

The Crown Prince’s expression hardened instantly.

“No.”

It was a firm and definite answer.

“Why would someone like the Grand Duke commit such an act? It’s surely the doing of someone else who harbors resentment against the empire.”

In contrast with his strange behavior, the Crown Prince was smart.

“I don’t know who it is, but the culprit is surely brave. To dare think of causing such an incident on my birthday.”

It was true that the culprit was a bold man. But there wasn’t a single occasion where I would confess that Cassadin was the culprit, no matter what.

“The poison that Your Highness consumed was made from a type of poisonous herb found only in the northern region.”

“What?”

The Crown Prince looked at me in surprise. It seemed like he had never heard about this before.

“I found out about this while treating Your Highness. Taking into account the poisonous herb found only in the north and that the Duke arrived late to the banquet, the Grand Duke was accused of being the culprit.”

“I see. That makes sense. But there is no concrete evidence.”

The Prince nodded firmly, seeming to understand it now.

“Yes. I felt as if it was my fault that the Duke was imprisoned in the absence of any concrete evidence, which is why I wanted to go check if he was faring well in prison…”

“Why is it your fault that the Duke was accused the culprit?”

“I believe that the innocent Grand Duke was imprisoned because I told His Majesty that the type of poisonous plant used grew ‘only’ in the northern region. So I do indeed hold a large portion of the responsibility.”

Then I hung my head to act as if I truly felt guilty. And I knew that my act convinced the Crown Prince after I saw his reaction.

“How is that your fault? Wouldn’t it be a bigger problem if you were considered guilty for speaking the truth?”

“But the truth can be interpreted as a lie by someone else…”

A large hand extended into my lowered vision. When I just wordlessly stared at the hand, the owner of the hand waved it up and down as he spoke.

“Alright. I have understood what you said, so I will personally guide you to the prison.”

It was a success.

I smiled faintly as I lifted my head. At the same time, I felt someone staring intently at me.

So I focused my vision on where I felt the gaze was coming from. Then my eyes met the eyes of a knight who was standing far behind the Crown Prince.

‘Is it just my imagination?’

But why was he wearing a helmet in this hot weather? Wasn’t he hot?

After a while, a gloomy tower, completely out of place with the golden palace, came into view.

It felt as if we had walked quite a distance when a gloomy tower, which looked completely out of place within the golden palace, came into view.

It was a huge cylindrical black tower. Then the Crown Prince suddenly stopped in front of the ominous tower.

“We’re here.”

“Is this tower the imperial prison?”

The infamous tower known as a prison was eerie enough to make one shiver just by looking at it.

The sound of crows cawing came from somewhere nearby. This place felt like it imprisoned witches or other prisoners with more severe crimes.

“Yes. You must not have seen it before since the imperial prison is located far away from the main palace.”

As he said that, the Crown Prince was about to step into the tower, but I hastily stopped the Prince, who looked like he intended to follow me into the prison.

“Your Highness, your guidance so far has already been more than enough.”

“Wait, are you planning to enter this dreary dungeon alone?”

“It would be ignorant of me to bother Your Highness any further.”

“…Hah.”

When I drew a clear line between us, the Crown Prince looked at me with annoyance. However, his constant arrogant attitude seems to have lessened after I showed him my healing abilities.

The Prince shrugged as he let out a soft sigh, then signaled at the imperial knight, who had been tailing us for some time now.

“You there.”

The knight with the iron helmet approached us at the Crown Prince’s call. The only thing I could see through the helmet that covered his entire face were his glowing purple eyes.

‘Wait a minute. Purple eyes?’

Just as I realized something strange and tilted my head, the Crown Prince started speaking to the knight.

“Why have you been following us?”

I could feel myself getting nervous after hearing his question. Why was it that I couldn’t shake off the feeling that this unidentified knight was Cassadin? Maybe it was because I’d only seen one person with such an expression in his eyes.

I was about to speak up first, but the Crown Prince started to speak before me.

“Was it the Emperor’s orders? To monitor and report my every move?”

The knight in the helmet stood still for a moment, then nodded slightly.

“Following me here even with a helmet on in this weather. That’s quite the dedication.”

The Crown Prince’s eyes narrowed as if he were tired of this. He seemed uncomfortable with the Emperor’s attempt to monitor him wherever he went.

“…”

“I’m fine, so take responsibility and guide the lady next to me through the prison.”

The knight quietly came to my side, then nodded to acknowledge he understood.

“If anything happens to her, it’s all your responsibility. Do you understand?”

“…”

“What is your name?”

“…”

“Are you mute? You seem suspicious.”

No! I quickly changed the subject before the Crown Prince suspected the knight any further.

“Your Highness, I think that’s being a little too harsh to the knight who came all the way here out of concern.”

“I’m being too harsh?”

“Yes, this knight only obeyed the Emperor’s command. I just thought your words might be too harsh.”

The Crown Prince seemed a little upset when I sided with the knight. Though I didn’t understand exactly why that would make him upset, the stranger thing at the moment was that Cassadin, who should be at the mansion right now, was wandering around the palace pretending to be an imperial knight.

“Do you know why I asked you to come to the palace alone?”

Suddenly, the Crown Prince asked me a strange question. And I answered him honestly.

“I’m not sure.”

“It’s because your younger brother’s gaze felt peculiar.”

Of course, his gaze felt peculiar, since the person he tried to kill at the risk of his own life was well and alive in front of him. So I smiled and defended Cassadin.

“My younger brother is a bit shy. He must have felt uncomfortable after meeting Your Highness for the first time.”

“It’s not his gaze toward me.”

“I don’t understand. Then…”

“It’s the way he looks at you.”

Wait a moment.

“That couldn’t have been the gaze one has towards his sister. It was something more primitive. Even if you two are unrelated, from a third-party’s perspective, it looked a bit…”

I couldn’t bear to listen to this any longer when the involved person was right in front of us, so I bowed my head and responded.

“Your Highness, Cassadin is my precious family member. Speaking of my younger brother in such a way will put me in a difficult position.”

“Your affection for your brother is remarkable.”

“He’s my one and only precious younger brother, after all.”

Then I bowed my head once again to the Crown Prince. When I deflected the topic, the Crown Prince then smirked and said to me,

“Did you know? Since I didn’t have a proper banquet for my birthday, I plan to hold another big banquet in the near future.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Until then, I will take good care of this forget-me-not that you have given me. I will send an invitation, so let’s meet again soon. Just so you know, there is no option for you to refuse.”

As the Crown Prince looked down at the light blue forget-me-not tucked in his pocket, he added,

“If you refuse, I will take that as your agreement with the proposal I made earlier.”

I was left speechless in disbelief, but then quickly changed my mindset.

It was a shocking proposition to become the Crown Princess, but judging from all of his actions so far, rashly accepting this offer would only make him lose interest in me.

There would be definite limitations to my actions even if I did obtain such power, and if that happened, then it would become completely impossible to approach Damian.

If I attempted to approach Damian as the Crown Prince’s wife, he would definitely be guarded around me, causing my plans to bring Damian to his downfall to have a higher chance of failure.

It would instead be a better option to maintain a friendly relationship with the Crown Prince while occasionally displaying my healing abilities to keep him interested.

So that the Crown Prince wouldn’t lose interest in me, and I could utilize my relationship with him to my advantage.

Having organized my thoughts, I was about to say that I would accept the invitation, but with his three-second patience, the Crown Prince had already vanished after telling me what he wanted.

As I stared blankly at the spot where the Crown Prince had been, a low and quiet voice pierced the silent air.

“Sister.”

I turned my head towards the voice. A far too familiar voice was coming from the knight with the iron helmet.