♛
I glanced at his face to look at his expression, but as soon as I met his eyes, my heart that was beating because of anxiety earlier was now pounding for a different reason.
It wasn’t a feeling because of excitement or that I fell in love with the languid corners of his mouth or his crescent-shaped eyes.
Rather, it was because of the fear of knowing something I shouldn’t have known. The fact that dimple on his left cheek was in the same position as the dimples of the prince.
‘When I think about it, their voice was the same as the last time when the prince whispered in my ear.’
When he stuttered and spoke timidly, the tone of his voice was slightly higher, but it was similar to his voice when he whispered that I was a ‘funny person.’
Even if I tried to deny the similarities between Nepenthes and the Prince, they kept overlapping that which made me more confused.
‘Let’s be calm. My pupils shouldn’t shake right now. If he was truly the Crown Prince, then he would be able to read my emotions, so I need to calm myself.’
I tried to calm myself down, but I just felt like running away at this moment. But I’m just holding back with the thought that I might be killed at any moment when I show my back to him.
Honestly, it was a story that had nothing to do with me whether Nepenthes and the Crown Prince were the same or not. I wasn’t curious about his identity, nor did I want to risk his life by knowing his secret.
My goal was simply to escape this situation safely! I shook my head in front of Nepenthes and quietly took off my luck with an expression of realizing the important facts.
“Oh, but I’m lost. Which direction should I go to get to the square?”
“You’re lost? There’s a blockage in the front, and if you walk five steps to the other side, and from there the main road comes out?”
“Because I was seriously bad at directions. I thought there might be a shortcut, so I came this way, but the road was blocked, and even if I kept going around this area, I was feeling frustrated because I couldn’t find where the road to the square was!”
I laughed like an idiot and lied skillfully, “If you have time, could you please guide me to the square?”
I was smiling on the outside, but my insides were burning from fear. It was because I knew that the longer the conversation, the more disadvantageous I was in this situation.
Soon he’ll catch on to the lies I told.
‘Please go over it already.’
However, my earnest prayer did not work. His almond-colored eyes, fixed on me, hardly fell off. Although the eye color was different, it was the same eyes I encountered on the terrace.
The eyes of a predator who found a mysterious toy.
My lips are dry. I felt like walking on a tightrope.
“There was no information that Mayerie was bad with directions. Did it happen suddenly today?”
“…!”
Nepenthes, who slowly raised only the corner of his mouth, muttered in a small voice, “This was also fun.”
I couldn’t move, it felt like I was caught in a spider’s web.
Of course, he was the head of the Information Guild, but it wasn’t that strange that he had every detail of my information.
However, he only said something similar to yesterday, where his appearance, voice, and dimples matched.
I closed my eyes and admitted. It was undeniable that Nepenthes was Grandiel.
“Why do you know my name?”
But I pretended not to know until the end and looked surprised.
I wasn’t just acting like a fool. It was dangerous to rush to the truth without knowing his true intentions.
Nepenthes wasn’t an idiot and he didn’t come up with my name for no reason, so I had to act carefully.
“Well, why do you think?” He playfully asked back and reached out to me.
I stepped back in fear that he might strangle me for some reason, but I couldn’t back down because of the hard wall behind me.
I pushed his hand carefully in fear. Fortunately, he only frowned slightly and didn’t forcefully hold me.
He withdrew his hand as if he was sorry, but there was a faint curiosity remaining in his eyes. He was watching my reaction now. Like a top predator waiting for the hunt.
‘Was he trying to induce me to get the prince’s name out of my mouth?’
Nepenthes swallowed not only the Information Guild but also the underworld’s commercial districts and the assassin guilds, and other forces that were not originally integrated at a young age.
For the first time, the powers of the underworld gathered in one person, so they began to call him the ‘King of the Dark World.’
‘This may be the reason why Prince Grandiel’s childhood was shrouded in mystery.’
There was a strong possibility. Grandiel never appeared in public until he became an adult.
He was compared to Princess Stella, who had attended many parties with the queen since she was young.
The Empress, who should have protected him, died while giving birth to him, and the nobles did not care about Grandiel because the queen hated him so much.
Everyone thought the Empress would give birth to a son. Unlike the wind, however, the Queen had two daughters.
In addition, she tried many folk remedies just to give birth to a son, but they became poisonous, and eventually, she didn’t live long either.
‘The Emperor, who has become weaker day by day, does not receive the new rain and appoints Grandiel as the Crown Prince.’
When even the queen died, the Emperor’s noble faction belatedly tried to join the line, pretending to be close to Grandiel.
However, the Crown Prince was stammering, he bent his shoulders and couldn’t see people properly, so the nobles spoke badly behind him, and some nobles even complained because the Crown Prince was so stupid that they should hide him.
‘Why are you acting?’
Still, my fingertips were cold. I’m still scared that I might die here, but when I was convinced that the Prince and Nepenthes were the same, my mind calmed down.
I remembered the novels I had read in my previous life, not the rumors I had heard while living as Mayerie.
As a sub-male, his influence was quite large, so he was able to draw new conclusions based on the information he had obtained so far.
‘Perhaps his purpose was strengthening the Imperial power.’
Nepenthes especially hated the aristocrats. In the latter half of the novel, he took advantage of the ‘Chaos of Disaster‘ and destroyed the center of the aristocratic family.
‘So, it turns out that Radiata also mentioned Nepenthes and said that he was like a man trying to become an Emperor.’
When she asked, Nepenthes smiled softly and asked if she would choose him when he became the Emperor.
My favorite scene was a big hint. In the lake under the moonlight, Nepenthes muttered, looking at Radiata with his dark eyes.
‘It would be nice if I could have you as an Emperor,’ Nepenthes said.
It was a scene where the comments exploded that everyone had to remove the frustrated crown prince and put Nepenthes as the Emperor.
“Was it such a serious question?”
I had to admit it. Even if I keep pretending that I don’t know, it only takes time and this situation can’t be solved.
On top of that, he was looking at me with a strange conviction.
‘How can I say that he looks like the Crown Prince?’
The word “Nepenthes” or “King of the Dark World” shouldn’t be mentioned.
This kind of information that I shouldn’t have known because I just found out after reading the novel.
I thought of a sentence that would alleviate his doubts even a little.
“I was hesitating because the thoughts that popped into my head were so ridiculous.”
My voice trembled slightly, but the line I said with my lips raised was smooth. It wouldn’t have been awkward.
I watched his eyes carefully. With a pretty smile on his eyes as if to respond to my smile, he whispered in my left ear in a creepy low voice.
“What did you think?”
“Do you think you look very similar to the person you saw on the terrace yesterday?” He replied suspiciously.
So the only person I met yesterday on the terrace could understand what it means. If he intends to reveal his identity, he would’ve admitted it here, otherwise, he’d pretend not to know.
“That’s an interesting story.”
His languid smile deepened. I think he was interested, to what extent I know about him, with this maybe I could still escape and live! I had a little hope.
“Why did you think so?”
“Because you have the same face?”
There was no answer, but his expression seems to say that it was correct.
“The atmosphere was so different that I thought it was a different person. If the Prince hadn’t called my name, I wouldn’t even notice it!” I deliberately shuddered and said exaggeratedly.
The magic tools that change the hair or eye colors like this are expensive, but because they could be obtained with money, Grandiel agreed without hiding it.
“Did you change the color of your hair and eyes with a magic tool to change your impression?”
“I didn’t expect to meet Lady Mayerie here either. Would you rather call me Diel here?”
He spoke informally earlier, but when he admitted that he was the Crown Prince, the speed of his transition was faster than the light.
Now I didn’t like pretending to be proud, but I nodded, hiding my quivering expression.
Even if he reads my emotions, it’s unlikely that he would be able to understand them in a complex manner, such as ‘I want to go home, but I keep talking to him, and I want it to be over’ or ‘I’m distressed to hear him lie about his Identity’.
“But what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in the Imperial Palace?”
To be honest, I wanted to leave my post right away, but I recognized the Crown Prince who shouldn’t be here.
It would be rather strange if I didn’t ask anything. To move on smoothly, I had to ask how he was doing, even if I’m not curious about it.
“I was on patrol in the village.”
You’re talking out loud. I gulped down the words that came up to the tip of my tongue. I didn’t want to be with him until the end of the day.
After holding back what I wanted to say, I was ready to run away.
“Oh, you were on official duty. I interrupted you. I’ll ask someone else about the way to the square. Then work hard!” I said goodbye very quickly.
It’s the final goodbye! I tried to get out of the alley with a bright smile on my heart.
“Is that all?”
But Grandiel didn’t let me go. My steps that were about to pass him stopped again.
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