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“Breakup…? How can you say that so easily?”

After a few minutes of silence, the Crown Prince asked me with an incredulous expression. His eyes were full of betrayal. He seemed genuinely hurt by what I said. I couldn’t understand him. Actually, I didn’t want to understand any more. Then, it suddenly became noisy outside. I asked the servant.

“What’s going on?”

“I’ll check it out.”

The servant returned quickly less than a minute after leaving the room.

“His Excellency is back.”

The time the Duke returned was sooner than expected.

Contrary to expectations, he was not far away, or he was already on the way back.

Either way, it was good for me.

Thanks to the Duke’s early return, it was easy to expel the uninvited guest who entered my room without permission.

“I’m tired and want to rest. Would you please go home today?”

“Okay. I’ll leave today. I guess I got too excited and said a lot of things I shouldn’t say to you. Let’s talk again after the excitement has subsided.” (*excitement in this situation is more like anger, loss of temper.)

The Crown Prince seemed to think that I talked about breaking up because I was not in my right mind.

I wanted to correct it right away, but the time was not yet.

“I can’t see you off because I’m not feeling well. Then I’ll see you later.”

The Crown Prince hesitated for a moment at my words, then left the room.

***

“Sir, you have to hurry.”

Annie said.

With those words, the Duke gave more strength to the hand holding the reins.

On his way home from work, he ran into Roxana’s maid.

The maid said the Crown Prince had come to the mansion, but he didn’t seem in a very good mood.

After he heard those words, he frantically swung his whip.

The thought of nearly losing Roxana kept flashing through his mind.

He could not repeat the same mistake.

The Duke clenched his fist tightly.

When he arrived at the front of the mansion, he saw an imperial carriage parked in front of the main gate.

The Duke strode into the building with an angry face.

There were several imperial knights.

When they saw the Duke, they bowed their heads in bewilderment.

“I see the Duke.”

The Duke glared at them once with a cold glance, and walked past them.

As he was going up the stairs, he met the Crown Prince who was coming down from Roxana’s room.

“Duke.”

“Crown Prince.”

The eyes of the two collided.

The Duke’s face became colder.

The Crown Prince’s expression wasn’t very good either.

He raised the corners of his lips awkwardly with a worried face.

“Because of the next schedule, we won’t be able to talk much. Next time I will set a date and visit you formally. Let’s have a cup of tea together then.”

“Your Highness doesn’t have to bother with that. From now on, I hope that there will be no sudden visits like this without a message.”

The Duke’s attitude toward the Crown Prince was cold and determined.

To the Crown Prince of his own country, that attitude was rude.

But he (the Duke) was also a powerful man with no formidable opponents.

On top of that, the Crown Prince borrowed the Duke’s power to help him with many things, so he (CP) couldn’t complain.

“……Sure.”

“Goodbye, then.”

The Duke greeted him without sincerity, then passed the Crown Prince and went up the stairs.

The Crown Prince, who was left behind, stood there for a while, then moved his steps.

***

I approached the window with a cold face.

It wasn’t long before the Crown Prince was seen walking through the front door towards the gate.

Just in time, the Duke returned.

“I just came across the Crown Prince. Did everything go okay?”

I turned my head and looked at him.

The Duke looked at me with a worried face.

Annie, who was drenched in sweat, was also with him.

“He wouldn’t have acted out in front of you again, would he?”

The Duke asked in an angry voice.

Although angry, he naturally used the word “he” for the Crown Prince of the Empire.

It would certainly be a source of trouble if anyone heard it.

But it could not be stopped.

If I answered ‘yes’, the Duke was ready to attack the imperial palace at any moment.

“Don’t worry. There was nothing special. His Highness misunderstood something, so we were just talking about it.”

Even with my words, the Duke did not release his hard expression.

“To come here without a message, he must think Duke Lillian’s residence is some kind of a playground. I’ll instruct the Knights to increase their security. From now on, no one can come in and out without a prior appointment like today.”

The Duke looked out the window with a frown.

The carriage with the Crown Prince had already left.

Seeing that there was no one, it seemed that he had already gone far.

I pulled the curtains and smiled at the Duke.

“I would like that. By the way, I have something to tell you. Can you spare a moment for me?”

“As much as you want.”

After a while, Tien served tea and refreshments.

I grabbed a teapot and poured tea into the Duke’s teacup.

“Thank you.”

The Duke brought the teacup to his lips.

Seeing this, I also drank my tea.

I then gave orders to the maids and Annie who remained in the room.

“I have something to discuss with my father, so everyone go out.”

At my words, the maids and Annie had puzzled faces.

But without objection, they quietly left the room.

“Yes, Lady. Then please talk comfortably.”

When only the two of us were left in the room, the Duke asked as if puzzled. Also, what happened earlier?”

“It’s not like that. Rather, father, do you remember what I said to His Majesty at the banquet a few days ago?”

“You mean that you asked him to re-investigate the matter concerning the Viscountess Willis?”

“Yes. Right.”

I graciously admitted it.

“When the nanny died, it was very suspicious. I thought it was strange, and when they investigated, it was not only the nanny who was dead.”

“What do you mean?”

“All those involved in the incident died in one day. Except for one person.”

“Go on.”

The Duke’s expression became serious.

“I think the Crown Prince killed all the witnesses for Young Lady Dana, including the nanny. If the investigation turns out to be true…”

I stopped talking and looked at the Duke.

Of course, his expression wasn’t good.

I bit the soft flesh in my mouth.

“Still, the nanny was the one who raised me. The Crown Prince killed her casually for the sake of Lady Dana. I can’t be with someone like that for the rest of her life, can I?”

“…”

The Duke didn’t say anything.

“I don’t know when he’ll put a knife on my back. It’d be better to cut the kite as early as possible, for the sake of the family.”

In an instant, I felt the warmth in my hand.

The Duke was holding my hand on the table.

“You don’t have to try to persuade me. Didn’t I tell you before? I’m on your side. I’ll do whatever you want. I’ll support you from behind.”

The Duke’s words warmed my heart somehow.

I bit the soft flesh in my mouth to hold back my tears.

After calming down a bit, I opened my mouth with difficulty.

“Thank you. I will do my best not to cause any damage to the family.”

***

The Duke left the room with a blank expression on his face. As the door closed, his face darkened.

Stephen asked with a puzzled expression.

“Sir, what the Lady said makes you look…”

The Duke licked his lips. Then he asked in a heavy voice.

“Stephen, has there been anything strange about Roxana these days?”

“If anything is strange…”

“Meeting strange people or going to strange places.”

Stephen made a face of incomprehension.

“I don’t know, but is there anything wrong with the Lady?”

“I don’t know either. However…….”

The Duke frowned.

Recently, Roxana has changed like a different person.

At first, he only thought that she had grown and changed as she went through many things. But it wasn’t easy for a person to become like another person overnight. As she changed, Roxana was overly smart and surprisingly she knew a lot. He didn’t mean she was stupid before.

But it was certainly a wonder. The Duke of Lillian was nothing more than the goose that laid the golden eggs. It was the same for the Crown Prince as well as for others. It would be a big deal if anyone was to approach Roxana and manipulate her for impure purposes.

The Duke ordered Stephen with a serious face.

“Find out who Roxana has been close with lately.”

***

The Crown Prince did not return to the Imperial Palace until evening.

He went to the Duke’s residence to ask about the brooch, but he didn’t ask what he wanted to ask.

He was afraid of what kind of answer would come out of Roxana’s mouth, who had changed so much.

“Your Highness, you’re back.”

Upon entering the Imperial Palace, the attendant greeted him with a respectful attitude.

The Crown Prince passed him and went straight to the office.

“Your Highness.”

Baron Cheston, his secretary, stood at the door and looked surprised when he saw the Crown Prince.

“What’s going on?” (CP)

“That’s….” (Baron)

Baron Cheston looked into the Crown Prince’s eyes as he was hesitant to answer.

The Crown Prince, feeling ominous again by the Baron’s attitude, sighed and said.

“I’m tired. Let’s go inside and talk.”

The Crown Prince pulled the doorknob before Baron Cheston could speak.

The moment the Crown Prince opened the door to the office, a different landscape was unfolding.

As if someone had turned his office upside down, the Crown Prince’s complexion quickly hardened as he saw the cluttered scenery in the room.

“Who did this?”

It was a stupid question in the first place.

While the owner was away, there was only one eldest who dared to search the Crown Prince’s office.

“While Your Highness was away earlier, the men sent by His Majesty came.”

Baron Cheston answered in a crawling voice.

The Crown Prince clenched his teeth.

His face turned white from anger.

Baron Cheston, who watched the scene, remained still with an anxious face.

“Why did he suddenly do this?”

“I don’t know….”

“It’s too late to report, and you haven’t figured out the situation yet…What the hell are you doing?”

At his rebuke, Baron Cheston bit his lips with a bitter face.

The Crown Prince looked at him with a cold gaze and then looked out the window.

From where his gaze reached, he could see a palace with a high, pointed roof in the distance.

Previously, the 2nd Prince’s mother, the Empress, lived there, and now it was the 2nd Prince’s Palace.

“It seems that Payne (2nd Prince) did his tricks. No matter how urgent it is, to come out like this.”

The Crown Prince clenched his fists.

This time, it was a little different from the usual method of the 2nd Prince.

But no one else would benefit from doing this.

The Crown Prince remembered the face of the second Prince and sharpened his teeth.

“It is clear that blood cannot be deceived. Payne is a child of a princess from a small country infested with barbarians, who seduced the emperor with her body with the excuse of a tribute, and earned her the throne.”

Contrary to the calm voice, the content inside contained a deep malice that stung the skin.

Baron Cheston’s eyes widened at the excessive venom.

“You crouch in the front and stick your sword in the back like this. Payne, that bastard… I’m sure you’ll pay back for what you have done today.” (*The CP thought the second Prince was investigating him, but it was Roxana’s request to the emperor)

He (CP) never expected this to happen while he was away.

The Crown Prince’s palace was his own territory, and his office was one of the most private of them all.

There were books and documents with a lot of information written in them.

No one in the world could exist without a single speck of dust.

The higher the status and the more possessions, the more so.

The Crown Prince’s position could not be as clean and noble as it appeared.

Of course he left no traces of himself, but relatively recent things could have been left behind.

The Crown Prince quickly shook his head.

But without looking around his room, it was impossible to know what the men sent by the emperor had found.

At that moment, the emperor’s servant approached from afar.

“I see the Crown Prince.”

The Crown Prince tried to hide his anxiety and asked with a calm face.

“What did you come here for?”

“His Majesty has ordered me to bring Your Highness.”

The Crown Prince forcibly raised the corners of his lips. However, avoiding it was not inevitable.

In the end, he replied in a resigned tone.

“Tell him I’ll be there soon.”