TSTRP 13

Unlike before, Crown Prince Lynel was watching me with a strange glint in his eyes. I met his gaze, took a deep breath, and then quickly lowered my head.

“Oh my goodness! I dared to appear before Your Highness, who is revered as the God of the Sun, while wearing shoes covered in dirt. What an unforgivable disrespect!”

“……”

“I don’t know if Your Highness is aware, but I passed through the vine forest yesterday, and it was terribly muddy. I failed to check the condition of my shoes. Please, kill me!”

Crown Prince Lynel seemed momentarily speechless. Then he let out a strange little sound of admiration, looking at me as though I were some bizarre creature.

“What is this supposed to be?”

What kind of lunatic creature is this?

I could feel his gaze judging me for my utterly servile attitude, but I stubbornly ignored it.

Once I had abandoned my pride, there was no room left for shame.

There was, however, one problem…

Ugh, my back hurts.

I had to remain bent over.

This was a filthy class-based society where I wasn’t even allowed to straighten my back or raise my head without permission from a member of the imperial family.

Perhaps Crown Prince Lynel found me amusing, because he didn’t tell me to straighten up.

Or maybe he was deliberately keeping me like this just to torment me.

I cautiously watched him, and when our eyes met, I awkwardly looked away.

“Oh! I couldn’t possibly dirty Your Highness’s beautiful hands by making you kill me, so I shall go outside and die on my own!”

What a filthy dobi! What a filthy Solana!

The moment I straightened my back with that perfectly timed excuse and tried to leave while holding my shoes in both hands, Crown Prince Lynel, who had been absentmindedly watching me, didn’t miss the opportunity to stop me.

“Where are you going? Stay there.”

“…Yes!”

Although my attempt to escape had failed, Crown Prince Lynel seemed to be in a much better mood.

After making it abundantly clear that the dirt on my shoes had offended him, he let out a dry laugh.

“Those shoes… No. Forget it.”

Apparently, the shoes I was holding neatly in both hands were quite conspicuous. He even sighed.

He was probably thinking that some lunatic had been assigned as his new spy this time and cursing under his breath.

Only after our little exchange was finally over did Crown Prince Lynel rise from the sofa.

With his slow movements, the thin robe draped over him slipped slightly.

Contrary to my expectation that his exposed upper body would be as smooth and flawless as a sculpture, it was covered in all kinds of scars, etched across his skin like scribbles.

I had never seen such a terrible body in either my previous life or this one, and for a moment, I couldn’t even control my expression.

Was Crown Prince Lynel ever seriously injured in the novel? Could these scars have come from assassination attempts?

I thought about it, but the original novel had never described scars on the protagonist’s body.

Crown Prince Lynel leaned back against the sofa and sat there, breaking me out of my thoughts with a question.

“Why did you come here?”

It was a casual question, as though it were nothing important.

He was clearly asking because he suspected me of being a spy, but I pretended not to understand.

“What do you mean?”

“Why did you come to the First Imperial Prince’s Palace of all places?”

What do you mean, why did I come here?

I simply got a job and was assigned here.

I turned the question over in my mind before answering.

“His Majesty the Emperor sent me.”

That’s what it said on my appointment letter.

Crown Prince Lynel stared at me with narrowed eyes after hearing my foolish answer.

Apparently, it wasn’t the answer he had wanted.

Then why did he suddenly ask who sent me?

“You were assigned as a secretary without any previous experience or education.”

“That… is correct.”

I was surprised too.

I couldn’t believe I had been selected for the elite group of direct secretaries serving the imperial family.

“How am I supposed to interpret that?”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t know either.”

“Why did you willingly come to the First Imperial Prince’s Palace? Didn’t you hear the rumors about me?”

“I heard the rumors, but I simply came because I was assigned to the First Imperial Prince’s Palace.”

Given the protagonist’s personality, I thought that if I tried to flatter him by saying something like I wanted to meet His Highness the First Imperial Prince, I would only make him more suspicious.

So I simply answered honestly.

Despite my efforts, however, Crown Prince Lynel’s face twisted as he spoke harshly.

“I’m warning you. It would be best not to do anything suspicious here. There are many people who have disappeared from the imperial palace after taking one wrong step. A little rat disappeared just a few days ago, too.”

“……”

Now that I knew about the original story, I understood his suspicions.

But it still felt unfair.

I hadn’t done anything suspicious since starting work. I had been too busy wrestling with letters all day!

All I wanted was to work moderately, save enough money, and leave so I could live a comfortable life.

Being a spy would be absolutely no help in achieving a comfortable life.

Still, what can I do? I just have to endure.

Pretending not to understand anything, I tilted my head shamelessly.

“Does that mean there are rats living in the First Imperial Prince’s Palace?”

“Hah. Never mind.”

Crown Prince Lynel let out a cold sigh and turned his head away.

As though our business were over, he completely withdrew his attention from me.

But I still had something left to do.

The previous secretary had disappeared, so I hadn’t even received a proper handover. Until now, I had merely been sending replies to letters.

But shouldn’t I finally start doing the actual work of a secretary?

I cleared my throat to change the atmosphere.

“I’d like to ask Your Highness a few questions so that I can perform my duties smoothly. What time do you begin work?”

Crown Prince Lynel casually dug a finger into his ear, then raised an eyebrow as though he had just heard something absurd.

“Why?”

“As I mentioned, I haven’t been given any information about the previous secretary, so I haven’t been able to properly understand my duties.”

“You intend to work as a secretary?”

“Yes. If you tell me what time you begin work and also inform me of your main schedule, I’ll familiarize myself with everything quickly and provide support.”

From my experience working as a secretary in the modern world, the most important duty of a secretary was managing the boss’s schedule.

Depending on the superior, there were countless miscellaneous tasks to deal with, but schedule management was the absolute basics!

Things couldn’t be all that different in this world.

Since I had become a secretary anyway, I wanted to show off my skills as a modern secretary.

It certainly had nothing to do with the gossip I had overheard at the restaurant about me supposedly becoming the prince’s courtesan.

“Work?”

Contrary to my enthusiastic thoughts, Crown Prince Lynel crossed his arms with a cynical smile.

“I don’t have any duties assigned to me.”

“What?”

“Haven’t you heard the rumors about me? What duties could there possibly be for a prince who has already been half cast aside?”

As I listened to his cynical answer, I bit my lip.

I knew that the princes and princesses born to the Empress and Imperial Consorts had already each been given responsibilities.

And yet the First Imperial Prince still had no duties.

But I couldn’t exactly say something like, Come on, that can’t be true. You’re the First Imperial Prince, after all.

It wasn’t a joke, nor was he simply teasing his new secretary.

I could genuinely feel that there were no duties assigned to him.

If someone heard about Crown Prince Lynel’s circumstances, they might wonder whether he was an illegitimate child.

After all, it was a familiar story for an illegitimate child to be neglected at the center of power.

But Crown Prince Lynel was not an illegitimate child.

He was the legitimate firstborn son of the Emperor and his first Empress, Empress Louise. He had been born amid the expectations and blessings that he would become the next emperor.

At least while Empress Louise was alive, everyone had praised the young prince.

Even after he became twisted following Empress Louise’s death, there were many people who defended him for a while.

But at some point, Crown Prince Lynel had become the greatest good-for-nothing the empire had ever seen.

It was all a reputation Crown Prince Lynel created himself.

To survive.

A young prince who had lost his mother at an early age, embarking on a path of revenge.

Then who had killed the prince’s mother?

Obviously, the person who had gained the greatest benefit afterward.

The current Empress, Gisela.

As long as she wielded power, our pitiful Crown Prince Lynel had to keep his head down and survive.

In such circumstances, it would be dangerous for him to hold any position that could put him forward as a political figure.

That was the reason he had no duties to perform.

I carefully concealed my stiffening expression and spoke.

“Then what will Your Highness’s schedule look like from now on?”

“My schedule from now on…”

“Shall I briefly go over the invitations that arrived today?”

There were several events that seemed like ones a member of the imperial family ought to attend, so going over them might help me manage his schedule.

Just as I was about to take out the invitations I had brought with me, Crown Prince Lynel didn’t show even the slightest bit of interest, as though they weren’t worth looking at.

“Oh, right. I was planning to go to a bar tonight.”

“A… bar?”

“The owner there cheated me out of some money last time. Don’t tell me you intend to follow me all the way there?”

I pretended not to hear him and fiddled with the shoes in my hands.

A secretary had no obligation to accompany their employer after work just because the employer wanted to go drinking.

Besides, I was planning to leave work on time.

There was no way I was going to take on extra work at a bar.

Crown Prince Lynel saw my entire body rejecting the idea and laughed mockingly, as though he had never expected me to agree in the first place.

I practically fled his room.

The moment I stepped into the corridor, my eyes met those of a maid standing across from the room.

What?

The maid casually picked up a cloth and began wiping the window frame, as though nothing had happened.

I guess it was just a coincidence.