If someone were to ask me what kind of person Luci was, I had only one thing to say.
She was unusual.
Yes, from our very first meeting, she seemed somehow different.
Survival had been my top priority since childhood.
As the young and powerless first prince of the empire, I was more than enough of a thorn in others’ sides.
My father’s favored consort, Isabel, viewed my existence with clear displeasure.
That resentment grew blatantly worse after she gave birth to her son, Stephen.
At first, it was just subtle glares, but as I grew older, it escalated into actions.
When I was seven, I collapsed after ingesting poison for the first time.
I was fortunate to survive, but it was a shocking experience for me.
Even when I tried to be cautious, poison kept appearing in my food at random intervals, and I’d collapse only to barely cling to life, over and over again.
The only silver lining was that my utterly indifferent father was the type who wouldn’t tolerate outright harm, so at least I wasn’t directly stabbed or assaulted.
The more openly Isabel acted against me, the more the people I could trust around me dwindled away.
I felt that despair keenly when I was eight.
“W-why…?”
Even though my body had built up some tolerance to poison, a surge of blood welled up in my throat.
The burning pain in my gut hurt less than the ache in my heart.
“I’m sorry, Your Highness. I’m so sorry.”
The sight of her shedding tears and begging for forgiveness filled me with loathing.
She had been someone I trusted.
No, someone I had no choice but to trust.
Because when everyone else abandoned me, she was the only family who stayed by my side.
The drink handed to me by my beloved uncle contained poison.
I collapsed in utter devastation, wishing I could just die like this.
That it would be a relief to end it all this way.
‘At least I won’t have to fight so desperately to survive anymore.’
But I lived.
When I opened my eyes again and realized I was alive, the emptiness outweighed any relief.
I wanted to demand answers—who had saved me, and why.
When I interrogated the servants, they said a passing noblewoman had fortunately saved me.
That my father’s intervention had been unavoidable after the child’s cries alerted him.
It was a needless act.
Now, I couldn’t trust anyone.
If even family could turn on me like that, who could I possibly believe in?
After that, I began to keep my distance from people.
I didn’t even seek out the noblewoman who had saved my life.
They had probably just rescued me on a whim in that moment.
No matter how vigilant I was, the threats never ended.
There were those who truly turned against me and got caught slipping in poison.
And others whose suspicious behavior forced me to drive them out.
If there was even the slightest hint of doubt, I expelled them from the prince’s palace.
Just as the palace emptied out, so too did my heart grow hollow.
In that frigid palace, day after day, time and again, countless times, I pondered.
What if I had been born to an ordinary family?
Or better yet, what if I had no family at all?
Would life have been enjoyable for me then?
Could I have laughed and played like other children?
People disgusted me to the point of death, yet occasionally, I felt lonely.
I’d think I was fine, but then in the dark of night,
Left alone in that desolate palace, I’d feel a surge of sorrow and fear.
As if the darkness would swallow me whole.
“It’s okay. I’m okay.”
In those moments, I’d curl up with my knees hugged to my chest, murmuring to myself over and over that I was fine, and somehow endure the night.
It made me feel a little better.
I didn’t know why I had to keep living, yet survival remained my sole goal as I pressed on.
Then came the day my life became extraordinary.
The day I became aware of the existence called Luci.
It was on a certain day when I was nine.
I had come out to attend the tea party that Isabel hosted every year.
That tea party was an utterly loathsome affair.
No one was unaware that it was held to isolate me further and make me an object of ridicule.
Knowing all that, having to sit there and become the butt of their jokes was far from welcome.
“Prince Luciano, are you alone again this year?”
Isabel brazenly put on a facade of kindness.
“Is there no one who would befriend Prince Luciano? I’m terribly worried seeing the prince so isolated.”
Under the guise of concern, she uttered insulting words, a smile she couldn’t hide playing at the corners of her mouth.
‘Finding a playmate for Prince Luciano.’
I had anticipated it, and it wasn’t the first or second time, but each time I endured the pitying gazes of the entire nobility, a wave of misery washed over me.
The resolve I’d steeled myself with threatened to crumble.
It was heartbreaking to have to go through this chilling ordeal every time.
“Me!”
A clear, ringing voice pierced the silence.
A girl with deep chestnut eyes and hair that shone with a bright light as if it held the sky itself stared wide-eyed with utter innocence.
She beamed a radiant smile and declared brightly.
“I’ll be the prince’s friend!”
She was so utterly cheerful that for a moment, her words didn’t fully register.
It had been a long time since anyone dared involve themselves in my affairs out of fear of Isabel.
Yet this one girl shattered the unspoken silence so effortlessly.
“I’m Luci Samuel. Count Benjamin Samuel is my father.”
Luci Samuel.
The child of Count Samuel.
That was the moment her name etched itself into my mind.
Watching her respond in that persistently bright voice, I thought she was an incredibly peculiar girl.
“I’ve been taught to get along with kids my age. But do you need a reason to become friends? Didn’t everyone else learn the same?”
Luci, oblivious to Isabel’s warnings, just kept smiling obliviously.
“Your Majesty, may I be friends with Prince Luciano?”
A foolish Luci, unaware that everyone else avoided me.
“Prince Luciano, let’s get along just like Her Majesty said!”
The moment I met her eyes and saw that beaming smile, I could only nod slowly.
At the time, I thought it was just a minor incident.
Something that happened at the tea party and would pass by.
She must have stepped forward because she didn’t know what kind of position Prince Luciano was in.
Or perhaps, as Isabel had implied, she pitied the prince who seemed so alone, acting out of sympathy.
I figured that once she went home and heard explanations from her parents, she’d lose interest in me.
Or that her parents would forbid it.
But not long after the tea party, Luci came to visit.
“Hello, Prince Luciano.”
It was an unexpected visit, so I remained silent.
“You look wonderful today, too.”
The moment I saw the bright Luci, who even offered compliments so naturally.
“Who said you could come?”
I instinctively felt I needed to keep her at a distance.
“Before, you agreed that we’d get along, Prince Luciano.”
This child striding closer was dangerous.
“That didn’t mean you could just show up unannounced.”
I deliberately spoke coldly, pushing her away.
I left her there and walked away.
I thought such rude behavior would wound her pride enough to make her give up on approaching me.
But then a letter arrived.
After I’d chased her out for barging in without permission, it proposed setting a proper appointment.
To refuse, I didn’t send a reply.
After ignoring her a few times, she sent a presumptuous letter saying that no response would be taken as permission.
The moment I read it, a chuckle escaped me at how whimsical it was.
But I couldn’t accept it, so I sent a refusal.
Then a letter stripped of all formality arrived immediately.
It was as if she’d sent it the instant she confirmed mine.
Luci requested visits time and again, and I returned words of refusal each time.
The embellishments grew more amusing, and I’d find myself chuckling as I sent replies.
Was it a mistake to exchange letters multiple times a day?
“Prince Luciano, who are you exchanging such entertaining stories with?”
I ended up receiving an unexpected visitor: Isabel.
It had been a very long time since anyone came to this barren palace.
“What brings you here?”
“I’ve heard something concerning. I was told the prince has been diligently exchanging letters with someone outside today—who is it, and what schemes are you plotting?”
I’d known I was under constant surveillance, but her shamelessness in not hiding it was typical of Isabel.
“Schemes? There’s nothing like that.”
“Oh? Then who are you exchanging letters with so busily?”
Isabel’s voice was sharp.
After isolating me so thoroughly.
Yet still so wary that I might build influence from the outside.
As if anyone would risk themselves for the likes of me.
Sensing trouble if I stayed silent, I told her honestly.
“It’s Luci Samuel.”
“Come to think of it, she visited recently and left quickly, didn’t she? Are you trying to get close to her?”
I’d thrown it out to deflect, but Isabel showed curiosity in a different sense.
“Isn’t she the friend you assigned to me? I have to show some courtesy.”
Implying: Would I really accept someone who might be your spy?
After a brief silence, pondering my words, Isabel smirked.
“I’m glad you appreciate my efforts. Do try to get along well with her.”
Realizing I wasn’t up to any mischief, Isabel left, relieved.
My eyes fell on the stack of letters piled to one side.
The sender probably had no idea she’d created this troublesome situation.
She truly was a headache.
Thinking that continuing the letters was risky, I sent a final one.
[I understand. I permit your visit tomorrow.]
* * *
“Hello, Prince Luciano.”
Luci greeted me with a face that was astonishingly bright every single time.
“You are…”
“Please call me Luci casually, Your Highness.”
And even more astonishingly, she approached without hesitation.
“Do people ever say you’re a bit slow on the uptake?”
“No? I hear I’m quite smart a lot.”
Even when I asked bluntly, she answered whimsically.
And her beaming smile was bewildering.
How could anyone smile after hearing something like that?
“Then why can’t you understand what people say? Haven’t you been making me repeat myself over and over?”
When I spoke more harshly,
“I understood. I understood, but I pretended not to because I wanted to meet you, Your Highness.”
An astounding reply came back.
‘What in the world…’
“Why?”
Why do you want to be friends with me?
Didn’t you hear about me when you got home?
“We agreed to get along!”
Don’t you know it’ll be disadvantageous to be with me?
Don’t your parents stop you?
“So why do we have to get along?”
“I told you last time. I’m going to get along with everyone.”
Get along with everyone?
That was an idealistic notion.
Her answer, foolishly kind to the point of naivety, brought a mix of emptiness and anger surging over me at once.
So my voice shot out even colder.
“You can’t get along with everyone. Go to the others who’ll accept you.”
I saw Luci’s expression harden completely, but I offered no kind explanation.
This was right.
She shouldn’t approach me with such half-hearted feelings.
