* * *
Veronica had Ronen give Empress Ludmila nothing more than a formal greeting, then promptly entrusted him to Adrian and shooed the two of them out.
“My sister and I have a great deal of catching up to do. Surely you’ll help us, won’t you, Adrian?”
“Yes, Aunt.”
“Please take good care of him, Adrian.”
“Yes, Mother.”
Ronen had plenty he wanted to protest, but when Adrian accepted so cheerfully, there was no opening for him to cut in.
In the end, Ronen could not say a single word and followed Adrian out.
“Let go of me!”
Adrian looked down at the insolent brat who had smacked his hand away.
The violet-eyed brat with the gray hair peculiar to the Sirius imperial family was, at a glance, a young lord of obvious noble bearing.
Whether he was the Crown Prince of Sirius or whatever else, Adrian had not the slightest interest in his younger cousin—but neither did he intend to neglect the task he had been given.
“Hey, brat.”
“What? I’m the Crown Prince of Sirius―.”
“I don’t care who you are. By rank, we’re equals. No, actually—by national power, Appennino wins overwhelmingly. Add to that the fact that I’m older, which puts you below me in the hierarchy.”
“That’s absurd!”
“Shall we test whether it’s absurd or not?”
Adrian said, gesturing to a decorative sword hanging on the corridor wall.
“If you win, I’ll treat you as a crown prince.”
Ronen furrowed his brow.
He had learned the sword, but this proposal was still too much for the young crown prince. After pondering deeply, Ronen spoke.
“Aren’t you worried about after I become Emperor of Sirius?”
“Aren’t you the one who should be worried about when I become Emperor of Appennino?”
Their eyes met. Sparks flew in the air.
Adrian smiled a thin, cold smile.
“While I’m still using words, watch your mouth. Brat.”
Had Terni seen this, he would have clicked his tongue and asked what kind of childish standoff this was with a young child—but there were only the two of them in this place.
Ronen scowled.
He was already in a foul mood from being dragged to Appennino against his will.
In that moment, a finely decorated ceramic piece caught Ronen’s eye.
Adrian saw Ronen’s eyes gleam for an instant, but unfortunately, he could not read what the boy was thinking.
In that instant, Ronen reached out and pushed the ceramic.
Crash―
At the shattering sound he had heard at some point before, Adrian’s brow furrowed.
Ronen stuck out his tongue and mocked Adrian.
“Hmph!”
“What?”
That was not the end of it.
Ronen, having suddenly bolted, began throwing everything in the corridor—framed paintings, ceramics, armor—whatever he could get his hands on.
“That little bastard.”
At the sound of armor clattering to the floor and ceramics shattering, the attendants and maids cried out in shock.
Paying them no mind, Ronen darted all over the corridor.
Watching the brat who had vanished in the blink of an eye, Adrian felt a deep irritation.
“Bring him here.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
The Sirius attendants could be seen sighing and making tearful faces.
“Sirius’s future looks bleak as well.”
* * *
“Your Highness!”
“Crown Prince Ronen~! Where are you!”
“Where on earth could he be?”
Ronen poked his head out from the bushes.
After escaping Adrian’s grasp, Ronen had been wandering freely through the imperial palace of Appennino.
Attendants and maids alike were all searching for Ronen.
“Do they think I’ll be caught so easily?”
Hiding was Ronen’s specialty. Even in the Sirius imperial palace, Ronen would hide whenever he didn’t want to attend his lessons.
Even if the location had changed, the workings of an imperial palace were much the same.
“If the imperial guards get involved, I’ll be caught quickly. I need to go somewhere with no people.”
Ronen’s plan to head toward a place with few people carried a slight risk. Naturally, the imperial guards strictly controlled passage between each palace.
But with the skill he had honed over years, Ronen used his small body to weave his way around with ease.
Ronen had hated coming to Appennino from the very beginning.
He naturally hated his mother for forcing him to do something he didn’t want to do, and he didn’t like his cousin Adrian either.
He liked Empress Ludmila, but that alone was not enough to make him like Appennino.
“Two weeks here, of all things.”
He was already sighing.
Just as Ronen was stepping into the rear garden of some palace, someone was sitting in the pavilion at its center, humming a song.
It was a very beautiful voice.
Ronen instinctively shrank back to avoid being noticed, but when the girl sitting in the pavilion lifted her head, he was so startled that he froze on the spot.
‘An angel!’
Ronen’s violet eyes, which had been utterly listless, sparkled.
Normally, he would never have stepped forward for fear of being discovered, but the feeling that he must not miss this moment drove Ronen toward the angel in the pavilion.
“Um.”
At Ronen’s voice, the angel raised her head.
She had been pretty even from a distance, but up close she was even prettier.
How could a person look like this? She really was an angel. Ronen rubbed his eyes, wondering if he was dreaming, but it was not a dream.
The angel tilted her head.
Ronen asked earnestly.
“Are you perhaps an angel?”
* * *
An angel?
At the sudden question, I tilted my head in confusion. The boy who had appeared out of nowhere asked, his violet eyes sparkling.
“Or a fairy?”
The boy, his hands clasped together, was a face I had never seen in the imperial palace before.
Who is he?
“I’m not an angel.”
“Then you really are a fairy?”
“I’m not a fairy either.”
I was simply bewildered by words I had never heard before in my life. I had only been sitting in the pavilion for a moment on my way back from the library.
“That can’t be.”
I couldn’t understand what couldn’t be. Judging by his clothes, he was absolutely not a noble.
I could tell because purple was used in his clothing. That meant he was at least a member of the imperial family.
But there was no boy of this age in the Appenson imperial family.
Then perhaps a foreign royal?
But the detached palace where foreign royalty stayed was in the south. There was no reason for foreign royalty to suddenly appear at Poinsettia Palace.
Just as I was wondering what on earth his identity was, the boy suddenly cleared his throat and spoke to me.
“To meet a lady more beautiful than light by chance like this—this must truly be the grace of the gods.”
“…….”
“If it’s all right with you, would you care to have a glass of juice with me?”
Watching the little young lord speak so seriously in a deepened voice, laughter burst out of me on its own.
When I laughed, the boy puffed out his cheeks.
“I appreciate the offer, but unfortunately, I must decline.”
“Wha—why?”
“Why? Because I want to decline.”
The boy looked at me with an expression of disbelief.
“Why? Do you dislike me?”
“I’ve only met you today. How could I dislike you?”
“Then why?”
“Does there have to be a reason?”
“Yeah.”
The child questioned me persistently, as if he absolutely had to know the reason. I didn’t know what to answer. I tilted my head, then simply smiled.
How on earth was I supposed to make this child accept it and go back?
Just as I was at a loss, unable to find a proper reason to refuse—
“Because that person is my fiancée. You damn brat.”
The Crown Prince suddenly appeared.
As I froze in shock, the Crown Prince, who had roughly swept his hair back, grabbed the boy beside me by the scruff of his neck and lifted him up.
“So you were hiding here, brat.”
“I’m not a brat! And let go of me!”
When the child struggled, the frowning Adrian set him down. The child ran straight to me and clung tightly.
“Angel, please help me! A demon is trying to catch me! Please scold him!”
If the angel is me, then the demon is…… the Crown Prince?
“He says that. What will you do?”
“Haha. Please be kind to the child.”
At my words, which were neither a scolding nor a request, the Crown Prince nodded surprisingly readily.
“All right. I will.”
Then he slung the boy over his shoulder like a piece of luggage.
“Is this kind enough?”
“Uh…….”
I didn’t know where to even begin pointing out the problems. As I hesitated, the boy cried out.
“Let me go! Demon!”
“Yes, you’ll be the demon’s dinner tonight. Weak little human.”
“Sob, sob. Save me! Angel!”
“I told you, that angel is my fiancée.”
The Crown Prince’s gaze turned to me. His look, as if asking ‘Where exactly is the angel in this?’ made me flinch without meaning to. The Crown Prince asked me.
“Do you happen to know who this is?”
“What? No.”
The Crown Prince stared at me intently, as if something displeased him. The boy cried out.
“I’m Ronen! Angel!”
“He’s Ronen, the Crown Prince of Sirius.”
“……?”
Why is the Crown Prince here?
I had thought he must be a member of the imperial family, but a crown prince was beyond anything I had imagined.
Watching me freeze, Crown Prince Adrian let out a sigh.
