TSTRP 12

Chapter 12

What is that sound?

But what did a little bell matter?

After briefly looking down the empty corridor, I raised my voice a little more.

“Your Highness, this is your secretary. Are you really not inside?”

Jingle, jingle, jingle—

The sound of bells came again through the silence.

Where on earth does that bell sound keep coming from? Is there some kind of dreamcatcher hanging by the window?

While I was wondering about it, the bell began ringing faster and faster. The clear, pure sound almost seemed to carry a note of irritation.

Jingle, jingle… jingle-jingle-jingle-jingle!!

“W-What?”

As the sound grew louder, I finally realized where it was coming from.

It was coming from none other than Crown Prince Lynel’s room.

Does he… want me to come in? What on earth is this?

I carefully opened the door. I cautiously poked my head inside, and before I could even take in the room, a scolding voice reached me.

“Is this secretary a person or a sluggish grub?”

I frowned and looked around the room at the unfamiliar voice.

Who says something like that to someone they’ve never even met before?

But I couldn’t immediately spot the speaker, so I turned my head from side to side. Then the voice scolded me again.

“Are you planning to stand there and greet me?”

A languid voice drifted from behind the sofa. A few strands of golden hair, the symbol of the imperial family, swayed above the backrest.

Hesitantly, I walked around the sofa, and his figure gradually came into view.

Starting with the leather slippers resting on the armrest of the sofa, the thin, soft-looking clothes he wore revealed his silhouette without reservation. He was sprawled carelessly across the sofa, yet even that languid posture naturally inspired admiration.

Finally, when my eyes reached his face, I stopped breathing.

Golden hair, as though filled with sunlight, brushed against his forehead. Beneath it, mysterious golden-brown eyes were fixed on me.

My first impression of Crown Prince Lynel, the first time I saw him in this world, was…

Huh? That face…

The very face that artists had praised with childish nicknames, calling him the incarnation of the sun or the muse of the soul, was right before me.

Now I understood why the noble young ladies, born with countless precious things at their disposal, were so desperate to send him love letters every single day.

He truly had that kind of mesmerizing appearance.

If he were on Earth, he’d become a luxury-brand ambassador in an instant…

It was almost a shame that cameras had not yet developed enough for everyone to see this face vividly.

Perhaps that was why the newspapers kept publishing strange scandals about the man. Maybe they simply wanted to leave some sort of image of him in their papers.

But his extraordinary face wasn’t what surprised me.

That face is so familiar.

Such an exceptional appearance had been etched deep into my memory.

And for a completely unexpected reason.

The cover of a fantasy novel I read in my previous life!

There had been a fairly popular web novel in my previous life that was famous not only for its story, but also for the face of its protagonist illustrated on the cover.

It was so impressive that readers jokingly said the cover artist must have sold their soul to draw it.

Countless people captivated by the cover had even uploaded drawings of the novel’s protagonist on social media, trying to recreate his appearance.

The title of that novel was [The Chronicles of Lynel].

What? Now that I think about it, even his name is exactly the same.

Lynel in the novel had been my favorite character.

What I meant by that was simple: no matter how many years had passed since I died, was reincarnated, and lived a new life for more than twenty years, there was no way I could forget that face.

I felt as though someone had struck the back of my head.

This is the world of [The Chronicles of Lynel]?

It wasn’t merely a reincarnation story. I had been reincarnated inside the original story.

It was the moment the genre of my life changed.

No wonder I had waited and waited but never encountered some Northern Grand Duke who was supposed to become my destined man.

I was apparently living in a fantasy novel.

And to make matters worse, [The Chronicles of Lynel] was a revenge story.

Lynel killed the culprit who murdered his mother and all of his brothers, eventually becoming emperor.

In other words, the central plot revolved around a bloody struggle for the throne.

No!

Favorites were supposed to make you happy from a safe distance.

There was absolutely nothing good about getting close to a favorite character who would kill all of his brothers in order to become emperor.

Once the struggle for the throne begins, someone like me will die in no time!

I was a character who had never appeared in the original novel even once.

There had never been a female secretary among Lynel’s secretaries in the original story. If there had been such an unusual character, she certainly would have been mentioned.

A minor extra like me could easily get caught up in the chaos and disappear somewhere, because the First Imperial Prince’s Palace was an extremely dangerous place.

I came here to escape that Montreche bastard, only to end up inside the tiger’s mouth!

This really had to be some cruel joke played by fate.

While I was panicking, Crown Prince Lynel’s gaze gradually became more menacing.

His blatant eyes traveled from the top of my head all the way down to my feet. I came back to my senses and looked at him.

He really is ridiculously handsome, even at a time like this.

After a long silence, his red lips finally parted.

“You’re filthy.”

“…Pardon?”

It was an utterly unexpected remark, and I was caught off guard.

“I said you’re filthy.”

It was an extremely humiliating thing to say.

Being told I was filthy by someone I had just met out of nowhere.

I had been half mesmerized by Crown Prince Lynel’s appearance, but that splash of cold water brought me back to reality.

“W-What exactly do you mean?”

Unable to control my distorted expression, I quickly checked myself over.

My eyes landed on the old dress I had carefully groomed myself to wear, along with the shoes that were scuffed here and there.

Could it be because my clothes are old? Is he offended that I dared to wear something like this in front of a prince?

I bit my lip tightly and glared at Crown Prince Lynel.

He gave me a crooked smile, as though he clearly understood my confusion.

“I don’t care about those clothes.”

“Then why are you saying something like that?”

“The problem is that the dirt on your feet has made my room dirty.”

Following his gaze, I looked down at the floor.

There were faint traces of dirt on the luxurious carpet.

Apparently, the traces from yesterday’s passage through the muddy vine forest had remained on my shoes.

And whose fault is that?

I calmly suppressed the heat rising in my face and maintained a thoroughly respectful attitude, determined to leave him no room to find fault with me.

“…My apologies, Your Highness.”

That should be enough, right?

After apologizing, I took a step toward Crown Prince Lynel.

He recoiled in disgust and held up his palm.

“Where did you not understand what I just said? Just try coming any closer.”

Apparently, things were not resolved at all.

I sighed deeply to myself.

Right. My favorite really was this kind of person.

A foul-tempered, prickly man with severe cleanliness issues and an extreme case of paranoia!

Seeing him in person made me seriously question my taste in my previous life.

At least there was one reassuring fact: although he eventually killed all of his brothers, he wasn’t a psychopath who took pleasure in murder.

Feeling slightly relieved, I opened my mouth.

“I have a report to give Your Highness.”

“Are you trying to make this place even dirtier? Give your report from there.”

For all his beautiful looks, his mouth was as sharp as thorns.

Crown Prince Lynel seemed worried that I might move even slightly, because his gaze remained fixed on my feet.

He looked as though he would immediately throw me out if I took even one more step.

His deeply wrinkled expression made it seem as if he were looking at a cockroach.

Anyone would think he, not me, was the Korean one.

Who would have thought Lynel had inherited the Korean custom of not wearing shoes inside the house?

Even I, a reincarnated Korean, had forgotten about it.

It hurt my pride a little.

I’m being lectured about cleanliness by someone from this world!

The nobles of this world didn’t bathe once a week—not even once a month. Instead, they covered their terrible odors with perfume.

In this world, it was practically strange if someone didn’t have lice in their hair.

It felt like being called dirty by people who had pointed at me and called me excessive for bathing every day.

And hearing it from the protagonist of this world made the blow even harder to take.

But there was nothing I could do to Crown Prince Lynel here.

I needed to endure for several years to avoid getting married. There was no way I could throw a tantrum and shout at him over something this trivial.

The reason Crown Prince Lynel is being even more prickly with me right now is because I’m his secretary.

Every secretary Crown Prince Lynel had ever had was a spy belonging to another faction.

Even if they weren’t spies at first, they soon defected to another faction and became spies.

And it wasn’t just the secretaries.

Most of the attendants and maids in this palace probably had connections to other imperial palaces.

There was no doubt that Crown Prince Lynel thought I, his new secretary, was either already a spy or someone who would soon become one.

That was why he was putting this much pressure on me from our very first meeting.

If he sensed even the slightest sign that I was suspicious, he would probably dispose of me.

Just like the secretaries who had disappeared before me.

Then the way out of this situation is…

Under Crown Prince Lynel’s watchful gaze, I bent deeply at the waist and slowly took off my shoes.

At the same time, the bored look in Crown Prince Lynel’s eyes widened.

In this world, a noble taking off their own shoes in front of another person was somewhat humiliating.

Setting one’s bare feet on dirty ground symbolized lowering oneself beneath the other person.

For noblewomen in particular, taking off their shoes on a surface without even a silk cloth laid down was practically unheard of.

Even when they removed their shoes to have them fitted, they kept their feet elevated.

No matter how much of a prince he was, seeing a woman standing barefoot was bound to be surprising.

But I already took off these shoes in the vine forest yesterday. That place was muddy as hell.

Besides, although Korean blood no longer flowed through my veins, I had been born with a Korean soul.

Did he really think I would attach any significance to taking off a pair of shoes inside Crown Prince Lynel’s room?