The Crown Prince’s Fiancée, Episode 1
Prologue. An Unexpected Disaster
What did I just hear?
My eyes went wide at the truth I had stumbled upon by chance.
I was so startled that I backed away without realizing it, and the object in my hands slipped from my grasp.
Crash!
The porcelain piece Princess Marie had ordered me to deliver to the Crown Prince shattered into pieces with a deafening clatter.
“Who’s there?!”
Oh, my life.
A loud voice rang out from inside the Crown Prince’s office, the very place I had been about to enter just moments ago.
At the sound of footsteps approaching, my lifespan shrank with every step.
One step, two steps…
Bang. The door that had been left slightly ajar was flung wide open at last.
The people beyond it, who had been scowling in anger, turned their eyes on me all at once. The three pairs of eyes fixed on me were piercing.
I’m dead.
I hadn’t lived long, but it was easy enough to foresee. Today was the end of my life.
There was a man I had glimpsed from afar now and then, wandering the palace since I came in as a maid, and another I was seeing for the first time today.
If they had one thing in common, it was that they all stood at the very summit of power as nobles.
Terni Agira Obiedo, heir to the House of Marquis Obiedo and the Crown Prince’s closest aide.
The man beside him was Diano Shabi Benedetto, the Crown Prince’s aide-de-camp, known as a prodigy of the sword.
But more overwhelming than either of them was the presence of the man who had thrown the door open.
Soft-looking, pale golden hair neatly framed his forehead, and beneath it, I met a cold, sharp gaze.
Crimson eyes bored into me.
The moment I met that blood-red stare, goosebumps rose over my whole body.
Unlike me, who had flinched, the man with the delicate features showed no reaction at all.
A strikingly handsome man in an immaculate uniform.
Crown Prince Adrian.
How many days in a lifetime does a person get to have an audience with the Crown Prince?
Even though I had entered the imperial palace as a maid, facing the Crown Prince this closely was a rare thing.
And on top of that, to be looking him straight in the eye like this!
I knew instinctively that I should lower my gaze, but my body had frozen and I couldn’t.
How on earth had I ended up in this situation?
My only crime was following Princess Marie’s order to deliver a gift to His Highness the Crown Prince…
No wonder not a single one of the senior maids had wanted to go.
I had been pushed into coming by chance, and of all things, the Crown Prince’s attendants had all claimed to be too busy to deal with me!
I had only been wandering around trying to complete my duty, and had finally found my way to the office!
“Who are you?”
His low voice didn’t sound human.
My hands began to tremble without my meaning them to.
The Crown Prince had merely furrowed his brow slightly, and my heart dropped.
“I-I’m from Lupinus Palace, a…”
“Who asked you that? What are you, I said.”
“W-what I am? I’m just a maid, but…”
The Crown Prince knit his brows as though I were a nuisance.
Was I going to die like this?
My mind had gone blank, and I couldn’t think of anything.
“Ah… Um, I…”
In my desperation to say something, anything, I kept babbling, and the more I stammered, the colder the Crown Prince’s gaze became.
What was I supposed to say?
Just when I fell silent, unable to say anything at all, the Crown Prince suddenly drew his sword.
It happened so smoothly that I didn’t even have time to be shocked.
As if it were all a bother, the Crown Prince said coldly,
“Enough. Die.”
The raised sword gleamed with an unusually keen edge.
So this was how I would die!
I shut my eyes reflexively. Just as I clenched both fists, certain that death was upon me,
an unfamiliar voice suddenly cut in to restrain the Crown Prince.
“Hold on, Adrian! If someone turns up dead here, suspicion will fall on us right away. That would only make things more complicated! I know it’s irritating, but let’s be rational about this. If we’re going to kill her, we should do it more carefully. We need to be more cautious. That’s advice from your aide and your childhood friend.”
It was the voice of the Crown Prince’s closest aide, Terni Agira Obiedo.
It was hard to tell whether he was trying to stop him or not, but it seemed to buy my life even a single second more, so I didn’t feel resentful.
Perhaps because it made sense once he’d said it, the Crown Prince quietly lowered his sword.
Even so, he did not sheathe the blade he had drawn.
My neck was still in danger.
“Where did you start listening?”
“Um… Ah, well…”
Where should I say I started listening in order to survive?
In that brief moment, a fierce inner conflict raged over saving my one and only life.
As I watched his expression, wondering how best to put it, a cold voice warned me, as if he had seen right through my thoughts.
“Don’t even think about lying.”
At that growling voice, the answer burst out of me before I knew it.
“T-the fiancée ran away!”
It seemed I hadn’t needed to go far. A blade was at my throat at once.
Is this how my life ends?
I was trembling, frozen with fear, when the Crown Prince snarled at me menacingly.
“Is that all?”
“T-the fiancée is a man!”
To explain: I had wandered around this palace to complete the errand Princess Marie had given me, and had barely managed to find the Crown Prince’s office.
Up to that point, it had been fine.
The trouble began after that.
Just as I stood before the door thinking, ‘I’ll go in right now, hand over this porcelain piece, and head back!’ talk from inside leaked out through the slightly open door.
The truth was that the Crown Prince’s fiancée had run away.
On top of that, the fiancée was actually a man…
Then is the Crown Prince gay…?
Well, that could happen.
But it couldn’t be helped that I was shocked when I first realized it.
In any case, I had found out. It was a truth I couldn’t handle.
After hearing my words, the Crown Prince fell silent as if chewing on something, then promptly reached a conclusion.
“This won’t do. I’ll have to kill you.”
Oh, no.
Sensing the threat to my life, tears burst from my eyes on their own. I dropped to my knees at once and rubbed my palms together.
I begged, looking as pitiful as I possibly could, appealing to whatever mercy the Crown Prince might have.
I hadn’t done anything wrong enough to deserve death, so leaving this world like this was far too unfair.
I still didn’t want to die!
“Please spare me! I’ll do anything!”
The Crown Prince, who had been raising his sword without hesitation, suddenly stopped.
W-what?
Then, all at once, he tilted up my chin with his fingertips.
W-why is he doing this…?
The Crown Prince studied my face from one angle after another, then stared at me intently.
Under that blatant gaze, my face flushed hot.
He looked at me as if my reaction were laughable, and then he suddenly chuckled.
I never knew a person’s smile could look so wicked.
“Anything?”
I nodded desperately, bobbing my head. At that, the Crown Prince’s smile deepened.
“Is that so? Then I’ll go with you.”
What was he saying? Go with me?
When I blinked, my eyes still full of tears, the Crown Prince looked down straight into my eyes with an intrigued gaze.
“Her hair color is similar, her eye color is similar, and as for her looks, we can just muddle through somehow. As for her voice, we can manage if she does it well… And if worst comes to worst, she can simply keep her mouth shut. No, just shut up and don’t make a peep.”
What on earth was he talking about?
“What are you asking me to do?”
I gathered my courage and asked the Crown Prince.
It seemed he intended to do something centered on me, and I felt left out, being the only one who didn’t know what it was.
The Crown Prince answered as though it were obvious.
For the first time, his vivid smile truly frightened me.
“My fiancée.”
And that was how I became the Crown Prince’s fiancée.
