Chapter 23
Elonia was about to get up from her spot since she had already been caught.
But when she tried to support herself on the grass with her bare hands, Alberich extended a gloved hand to her.
“Ah, thank-”
“You’re welcome.”
Elonia grabbed Alberich’s hand, which was large for his age, and stood up.
‘He’s only fourteen now but kids these days have good physique.’
Maybe he would grow as big as Ricardo.
Thinking that, she tried to brush off the grass leaves stuck all over her dress and bonnet, but Alberich beat her to it.
He knelt on one knee to match Elonia’s eye level and delicately brushed off the grass leaves for her.
Elonia frowned at the obvious child treatment and blurted out,
“…I can do it myself.”
“My apologies.”
Alberich backed off immediately, making the speaker feel awkward.
Elonia roughly patted her skirt with her tiny hands, incomparable to Alberich’s.
But somehow, Alberich’s eyes seemed filled with dissatisfaction.
“If you have complaints, say it.”
“My apologies.”
“I told you to say it?”
“…It’s nothing, but the bonnet ribbon being crooked bothered me. If it’s not rude, may I tie it for you?”
“…”
For a moment, she was dumbfounded and at a loss for words.
‘Right. He had an obsessive-compulsive disorder.’
When talking with Llewellyn, stories about Alberich naturally came up.
Alberich was such an extreme neat freak that he couldn’t go out without gloves, and he had a severe obsessive-compulsive disorder, disliking disheveled attire.
The problem was that he couldn’t leave other people’s disheveled attire alone either.
‘How does he attend the swordsmanship department like this?’
Clothes getting disheveled, let alone frequently stripping, was the daily life of the swordsmanship department.
She remembered the complaints she had heard until her ears were sore, about how Alberich always pointed out Llewellyn’s attire whenever they encountered each other at the academy or the ducal residence.
When she first heard it, she thought it was an exaggeration, but seeing him act like this even though he knew she was the princess, Alberich was quite abnormal too.
“Sure, do that.”
“It’s an honor.”
Anyway, Alberich neatly tied the ribbon.
And he brought up the main point.
“So why are you here, Princess?”
Elonia naturally couldn’t answer.
Seeing Elonia tightly shut her mouth, Alberich sighed and arbitrarily reached a conclusion.
“Judging by how you’ve thoroughly hidden your hair, you must have snuck out. You probably came with Llewellyn, right?”
“…”
“Ah, if you can’t answer because I seem suspicious to you, I deeply apologize. I’m late to introduce myself. I’m Alberich Asta, Llewellyn’s brother. Do you trust me a bit now?”
“…I knew from the beginning.”
“Then that’s a relief. I thought I was misunderstood as a suspicious person. But where is Llewellyn?”
Sorry, but I couldn’t answer because I knew who you were.
Elonia wracked her brain on how to answer.
Your younger brother is currently vomiting his guts out after being hit by my guard’s teleportation magic?
‘Sigh…’
Elonia’s specialty was attacking whatever she encountered, not coming up with good excuses.
Ricardo was good at this kind of thing.
She couldn’t think of a decent excuse and wasn’t answering, but thankfully, Alberich misunderstood again.
“So you lost Llewellyn.”
“…Yeah, that’s right.”
“Where did you get separated from Llewellyn?”
“Don’t worry about it. I can go by myself.”
Elonia turned her head away.
It wasn’t out of courtesy, but for real.
Now that she had been caught by Alberich, she had to call Ricardo and return to the Princess Palace.
Since she had snuck in, she had to sneak out, so teleportation magic was a must, but she couldn’t reveal in front of Alberich that Ricardo was a sword mage.
But if she tried to catch a carriage, it would take too long and Ethan, who had been sleeping, would wake up in the meantime.
To Elonia, Alberich was an obstacle she had unfortunately encountered.
“It’s your first visit to the academy, isn’t it?”
“It’s not something a prince should worry about, so just go back.”
Elonia deliberately answered curtly, trying to get rid of Alberich.
He hated troublesome things, so if she did this much, he wouldn’t meddle unnecessarily and leave.
But Alberich wouldn’t budge.
“However you got to the academy, I’ll escort you back.”
“I said no need?”
“How can I just walk away after seeing this? His Majesty will punish me if he finds out.”
“Keep it a secret. You didn’t see me today, Ducal Prince.”
“How can I pretend I didn’t see what I saw? If something happens to you, Princess, I’ll also be held responsible.”
“I’m telling you it’s harder for me to go back if the prince sticks with me now.”
“Then I’ll call a carriage for you.”
“I said no. I came with my guard so I’ll go with him.”
“Then I’ll escort you to where your guard is.”
‘He’s so persistent.’
As expected of Llewellyn’s brother, he was annoyingly clingy.
Honestly, there was nothing wrong with what Alberich said.
But from Elonia’s perspective, with many things weighing on her conscience, it was unnecessary meddling.
The first one to run out of patience was Elonia.
“Princess?”
Elonia left Alberich behind and ran off.
No matter how far her short legs could take her, she could use magic to conceal her presence while momentarily disappearing from Alberich’s sight.
Even if she couldn’t use teleportation magic with her current body, she could at least do that much.
‘If I had known he would be this persistent, I should have used it from the beginning.’
Elonia turned the corner of the building and slipped into the bushes.
There were many large trees, perfectly concealing Elonia’s small physique.
“Princess?”
Alberich called out for Elonia and approached this way.
But thanks to the magic, Alberich couldn’t sense Elonia’s presence at all and passed by, disappearing far away.
“Phew.”
When Alberich completely disappeared from sight, Elonia let out a deep sigh of relief.
‘I need to hurry to where Rica is.’
She carefully got up and sprinted with all her might, but as soon as she turned the corner, Elonia bumped into someone.
“Ouch…”
Elonia ended up falling on her bottom.
Thinking it might be Alberich still around, she looked up and immediately froze.
“What the hell, this wench?”
Dazzling blond hair.
Terribly vivid green eyes.
On the fluttering white long coat was not gold embroidery, but red embroidery signifying ‘hostage’.
It was undoubtedly the uniform exclusively for Heilanians at Lucid Academy.
“Wench. Do you know who I am that you bumped into me without a single apology?”
‘No way. Why here…’
Cheron’s half-brother in the past and Heilan’s second prince.
It was Dolce Heilan.
She never dreamed she would encounter Dolce here.
Moreover, it was on a completely different level from when she had faced Vermon and Felix again in the past.
Her body trembled.
“I’m asking you, wench.”
For Elonia in the past, in other words for Cheron, the biggest trauma was inflicted by Vermon and Felix, but the most feared one was none other than Dolce.
“What, can’t you talk?”
“Lowly wench, how dare you enter the main palace without knowing your place? You think my siblings will consider you real family?”
“Hmm. Looking closely, your face is pretty but you’re a mute, what a waste.”
“Hey, military life suits you well, huh? As expected, there’s a place for everyone.”
With each word Dolce spat out, the verbal abuse he had poured out in the past muddled Elonia’s mind.
That’s when it happened.
“Wait, wench. Your hair color…”
“…!”
Elonia flinched.
‘Damn it, I should have run away right away.’
Fear had shackled her ankles.
But even now, her feet wouldn’t move.
Usually, she would have chosen to knock him out and run away, but even Elonia, who knew the tyrant of the world as a pushover, couldn’t shake off the memories of past abuse.
Cheron was Heilan’s hunting dog.
A livestock tamed with a whip and fear had no way to rebel against humans.
‘I can’t run away.’
In the meantime, the ribbon of the bonnet was untied by Dolce with a rustle.
As the bonnet was removed, Elonia’s light peppermint-colored hair was exposed.
“Ha. It’s real. I thought it looked like an annoying color I had seen somewhere.”
Dolce dropped the bonnet on the floor, stepped on it, and sneered.
“Oh my, I, a mere prince of a defeated nation, have offended the noble princess?”
Dolce knelt in front of Elonia and apologized.
Elonia found Dolce frightening yet disgusting.
‘I never received a single apology when I was Cheron.’
Not even on that day when Dolce had tried and failed to rape Cheron.
Cheron had never received an apology from Dolce for anything, and Dolce had taken it for granted.
Just as no one would sincerely feel sorry for stepping on and killing an ant.
Bile rose in her throat.
She wanted to leave this place quickly.
But still, her feet wouldn’t move.
Dolce opened his mouth as if mocking Elonia, who had completely frozen in fear.
“Come to think of it, what brings the princess in the greenhouse to the academy? I don’t think His Majesty the Emperor would let it slide.”
“…”
“Ah, I get it. You snuck out. Well, that’s understandable. His Majesty cherishes you so much, Princess.”
There was no way Dolce didn’t know the fact that Elonia was a neglected princess.
This was a clear mockery.
Dolce despised the Ravanta Empire.
That useless Cheron wench had died without fulfilling her role, and Heilan had instantly fallen to a vassal state.
He had tried to vent his anger on Cheron, but that wench had already gone to hell, and before he knew it, he had been labeled as a hostage and was being ignored to his heart’s content at Ravanta’s academy.
Whenever contemptuous gazes fell on him, he wanted to gouge out all those eyeballs.
But he couldn’t act rashly under the surveillance of Ravanta’s mad tyrant, so he had been on the verge of going crazy these past few years, and in that situation, he had encountered the baby princess, so there was no way Dolce would let it slide.
“If they find out you snuck out, Princess, His Majesty will be furious. Wouldn’t it be quite troublesome for you if I report this fact to His Majesty?”
This was an opportunity God had given Dolce.
Dolce was irritated by Felix, who had sent him to Ravanta.
‘What makes me inferior to my brother?’
Just because he was born a few years earlier, as soon as Vermon died, he had taken the throne, and he had the nerve to sell his useless younger siblings as hostages to Ravanta, including Dolce himself.
And without a moment’s hesitation at that.
Dolce had been grinding his teeth all this time.
‘We’ll see. Will I rot as a slave in Ravanta for the rest of my life?’
Threatening a little kid was a piece of cake.
If he caught one weakness and threatened them with their parents, most children would be scared and listen to Dolce.
‘She’s said to be smart, but as expected, even the princess is just a brat when she’s a brat.’
It was amusing to see her trembling when he said he would tattle to the emperor.
Seeing the princess in person, she was nothing special.
If such a pushover was the princess, it wouldn’t be impossible to threaten her with her weakness, become the princess’s husband, and become the emperor of Ravanta himself.
“Anyway, since I’m the one who bumped into you, I should receive an apology.”
“…”
“Ah, right. How about you play with me a few times as an apology? I’ll keep it a secret from His Majesty the Emperor that you snuck out, Princess.”
“…What?”
“Haha, you’re finally letting me hear your voice. As expected, it’s a beautiful voice worth waiting for.”
‘…Ha.’
When a person gets too angry, their head becomes cold instead.
That was Elonia right now.
Until just now, her head had been so dizzy she couldn’t bear it, but now her head was so cold that all the stray thoughts seemed to have frozen.
She hated to admit it, but Dolce had once been her blood relative.
There was no way she wouldn’t know what kind of scheme Dolce was plotting now.
‘Filthy bastard, they say you can’t fix bad habits, and you’re at it again…!’
That bastard was trying to catch her weakness and use it as an excuse to make unwanted advances.
Meet a few times?
‘There’s no way it would end there.’
Sooner or later, he would reach out his dirty hands to her and use that to threaten her into an engagement or something.
Dolce’s way of thinking, looking down on women, was obvious.
But even after Heilan had fallen like that, he still hadn’t come to his senses.
It felt like something snapped inside Elonia.
Even if Artius found out, she wanted to kill that bastard with her own hands.
Just as she was about to slice Dolce’s throat.
“…?”
Suddenly, a huge shadow loomed over Elonia.
Looking to the side, Alberich was standing there, not knowing when he had arrived.
“What business do you have with my cousin?”