LSK 7

Chapter 7

As I felt the cool breeze against me, I could feel my eyes slowly beginning to close.

Just as I was about to fall asleep, I heard someone approaching from behind. I was too lazy to open my eyes, so I simply perked up my ears and focused only on the sound of footsteps.

The person who discovered me stopped in surprise.

The owner of the footsteps, who I thought would leave soon, stood frozen in place as if they had seen a ghost.

I was sleepy enough to die. I just wished they would disappear without picking a fight with me.

Contrary to my wish, the footsteps remained still for a long time before slowly coming closer.

Then they stopped right beside my head.

And from directly above me, I felt a sharp gaze staring down at me.

The gaze was so intense that I almost felt as if my face was stinging.

It seemed to be someone who really hated me.

The problem was that, since I was already in a position where many people hated me, there were far too many possibilities.

I felt such strong killing intent that I wondered if I was about to be murdered, so I slowly opened my eyes.

“…….”

“…….”

What? It was the Crown Prince.

No wonder the presence felt so overwhelming.

When our eyes met, I saw his golden eyes widen in surprise against the sky behind him.

After what happened yesterday when I made a joke and got kicked out, things were still awkward between us, and neither of us was comfortable facing the other.

But then why was he staring so closely at a sleeping person’s face?

When I blinked at him in confusion, the Crown Prince finally seemed to come to his senses. His body stiffened in surprise, and he instinctively stepped backward.

Then he looked at me with a wary expression.

He seemed to be on guard because he had already assumed that I might do something to him.

I wasn’t the one who followed him here. Strictly speaking, the Crown Prince was the one who came later.

I could understand why the Crown Prince instinctively became wary when he saw me, considering what had happened to him. But being misunderstood out of nowhere still made me feel wronged, no matter who I was.

When I neither rushed at him as I usually did nor even looked at him, and simply did nothing, he cautiously lowered his guard.

……Is he a small animal or something?

His reaction somehow left me speechless.

Such a small guy, yet so suspicious. What did he think I was going to do to him?

After hesitating for a moment, he muttered in a small voice.

“……I thought you were dead.”

I had been told I looked like a corpse several times today.

Or maybe that was simply the Crown Prince’s wish that I would die showing on his face.

Because I was feeling a little cynical, the Crown Prince’s words, “I thought you were dead,” sounded less like concern for me and more like a scolding of, “If you die here, who’s going to clean up your corpse?”

But unfortunately, I had no intention of granting his wish.

Without even turning my eyes toward the Crown Prince, who was looking at me with distrust, I answered absentmindedly.

“If you only go without food for a day…… you don’t die…….”

“What? ……Ah.”

The Crown Prince asked back as if I had just said something ridiculous. Then, perhaps remembering what had happened yesterday, he let out a small exclamation.

After frowning for a long time and thinking, the Crown Prince carefully opened his mouth.

“……Were you really doing such a useless thing?”

The Crown Prince’s face was much softer than it had been when I last saw him.

For a moment, he really seemed to be considering the possibility that I might actually be worried about him.

“…….”

But after thinking it over, he shook his head and quickly hardened his expression again.

The answer had already been decided in the Crown Prince’s mind anyway.

His distrust of me was not a wall that could be brought down so easily.

Even I would probably think that someone was doing this because they had some hidden motive.

Anyway, I had no reason to stay here anymore, so I thought the Crown Prince would soon leave and closed my eyes again.

But even after a long time, I didn’t hear him walk away.

Confused, I opened my eyes again.

He was still standing there, looking down at me with his arms crossed.

He had an uncomfortable expression, as if he were wearing clothes that didn’t fit him.

I sighed inwardly.

What on earth had made that guy upset again……?

“I heard you received a spare uniform from Damian. I didn’t think you would actually wear it.”

“I told you I would change it.”

At the Crown Prince’s sudden words, I replied with a slightly dissatisfied expression.

He had kept criticizing me for wearing dresses in the military, so what was bothering him this time?

But when I looked at him for the first time, a barely noticeable smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

What was that about?

“Until recently, you were saying that, as a noblewoman, you couldn’t possibly wear such shabby clothes. You said they didn’t fit your sense of beauty. Why did you suddenly change your mind?”

“…….”

It felt like the conversation was going to get longer, so I slowly got up from the training ground floor.

If what I had been feeling earlier was correct, the Crown Prince was picking a fight with me.

Until now, although the Crown Prince disliked Lady Celebi, he had always dealt with her by simply ignoring her. He had never gone out of his way to start a conversation with her for no reason, like he was doing now.

It was a wise choice on his part, since he had realized that talking with her would only stress him out.

So I had no idea why he had suddenly changed his attitude.

Had being ignored made him want to bother me instead?

He was the one who told me to change, and I had only listened to him. I hadn’t even expected to receive praise, but this felt like a petty boss who kept finding fault with an employee even after they had done their job properly.

There was no one here who would laugh along with him if he insulted me. So he couldn’t gain anything from it.

The more we talked, the worse the Crown Prince’s mood would become.

And yet he was saying these things to me……

In other words, I could only think of it as the Crown Prince simply taking out his anger on me.

It seemed that his emotions were taking priority over his reason.

That was very unlike someone who was known for being extremely wise and level-headed.

I couldn’t know what was really going on inside the Crown Prince’s mind, but picking a fight with someone who was quietly minding their own business made him seem like a child who simply wanted attention.

He was not someone I could gain anything from fighting with, so I tried my best to ignore his hostile words.

But if he was going to pick a fight this openly, I couldn’t keep ignoring him forever.

“What exactly are you dissatisfied with?”

“What am I?”

The Crown Prince tilted his head as if he genuinely had no idea what I was talking about.

He didn’t seem to realize how petty he was being.

Maybe it was just my imagination, but he even looked like he was enjoying himself a little.

The Crown Prince was probably the one who wanted nothing to do with me personally even more than I did with him.

So I wondered what his real intention was in deliberately taking time out of his busy schedule to pick a fight with me when there was no longer anything he could criticize.

“Usually, you didn’t care what I wore.”

The novel had described the Crown Prince as never once giving Lady Celebi even a cold look.

Whether she was beautiful or not……

Even so, he was still a boy, so normally he would probably pay more attention if a woman showed some skin.

Yet somehow, it seemed that the way I was completely covered up now attracted the Crown Prince’s attention more.

Boys his age should be at the age when their curiosity was especially strong.

So what happened to him?

Could it be that he wasn’t interested in women?

No, maybe he was simply too young to know anything yet.

In response to my question, the Crown Prince asked back as if he were the one feeling frustrated.

“You’ve never once acted while worrying about what I thought, either. Even when I said something, you never even pretended to listen……”

“…….”

“And now you’re pretending to listen to me and pretending to worry about me, telling me nothing but fake lies. You suddenly changed your behavior completely, so you can’t tell me you don’t have some hidden motive, can you? Tell me what your dirty intentions are.”

The Crown Prince had started speaking calmly, almost as if he were simply talking.

But as he continued, he seemed to grow angrier, and he finished his words through clenched teeth.

Somehow, he looked even angrier now than when he had told me that Lady Celebi had entered his bedroom.

“Hidden motive? What hidden motive? I’m not planning anything. What exactly are you misunderstanding?”

At my frustrated answer, the Crown Prince shot back.

“Really? You have no hidden motive? Then are you saying you just wanted to cook, so you went into a kitchen you had never stepped into in your entire life, and you suddenly changed your mind and wanted to wear a uniform even though you had never worn anything except dresses?”

“Yes. I suddenly changed my mind.”

“…….”

The Crown Prince stopped the words that were about to come out of his mouth.

He stared at me with his mouth open, looking completely dumbfounded.

It was a little shameless, but this was the only answer I had.

Even if I told the Crown Prince that the person inside this body had been replaced overnight by someone from another world, there was no way he would believe me.

And if the truth were discovered, I would probably be dragged to the Magic Tower and used as a research subject.

It wasn’t like I was clever enough to suddenly come up with a convincing lie, either.

Besides, the Crown Prince seemed desperate to find something to use against my words.

If that was the case, then simply saying that my mind had changed was the best answer.

There was also no reason why I shouldn’t pay attention to the Crown Prince’s reactions.

Even his own subordinates had no choice but to watch the Crown Prince’s mood, no matter how casually he treated them.

He was still standing there blankly, so I added another sentence.

“……And from my position, it’s only natural for me to worry about what Lord Raven thinks. I want to make a good impression on Your Highness.”

In truth, there was another reason why I needed to make a good impression on the Crown Prince.

But Lady Celebi was deeply in love with the Crown Prince, wasn’t she?