The Crown Prince’s Fiancée, Episode 2
Chapter 1. I Became the Crown Prince’s Fiancée
It was a mess from the very start.
Adrian frowned.
A carelessly discarded dress and all sorts of belongings lay scattered across the room.
And the room itself was empty, with not a soul in it.
Looking around a room that held not the faintest trace of a living presence, Adrian clenched his teeth.
The violent emotion boiling up inside him felt as though it would drive him out of his mind.
“Essen is gone!”
Terni, Adrian’s aide, who had followed him into the Crown Princess-designate’s chamber, cried out in shock.
Diano, the other aide, who came in right after, was thrown by the empty room as well.
“Wow, what is this…”
The aides, who had been staring blankly around the room, turned to look at each other, leaving Adrian to himself.
Adrian stood alone with his fists clenched, radiating a dark aura.
“Uh, so what do we do now?”
Diano scratched his head.
Terni looked the room over once and grumbled.
“Wow, that Essen. If he was going to run, he could’ve at least said something first.”
Diano shot back at Terni’s complaint.
“If he had, we’d have stopped him, so of course he didn’t. Are you stupid?”
“Well, that’s true.”
The two of them frowned and came to stand beside Adrian.
Adrian glared at Terni and Diano, who were chatting away so carelessly even in a situation like this, and then struck a nearby chair.
He had only meant to give it a light tap, yet the chair toppled over with a tremendous crash.
Suppressing an irritation and fury he could do nothing about, Adrian swept his hair back.
“To think he would actually run.”
Recalling the quarrel of only a few days ago, Adrian steadied his breathing, which had turned rough with agitation.
In the wake of the wreckage Adrian always left behind whenever he was angry, the two men watched his mood and edged slowly away from him.
This was because an immensely menacing aura was pouring off Adrian’s entire body, as if he would smash whoever got caught in it.
Gritting his teeth and swallowing his emotions, Adrian glared at the two men standing before him.
“Find him. Now!”
At the savage command, Diano went straight out of the bedchamber.
He would have liked to run around himself and turn the palace inside and out, but Adrian held back.
For a certain reason, this matter had to be kept as secret as possible.
But Adrian’s expectation that he would soon be found was wrong.
All that awaited Adrian when he returned to his office was a report that Essen had not been found.
“After a thorough search, he is not within Poinsettia Palace. There are many witnesses who claim to have seen someone believed to be Sir Essen, but there are far too many to count, so it seems it will take some time to work out the circumstances.”
“Then why are you here?”
At Adrian’s frigid words, Diano smiled sheepishly.
Terni, grinning, teased Adrian.
“Our Highness is awfully furious, isn’t he? Must be because his fiancée ran off.”
“If you know that, shut your mouth.”
“Though I suppose it was easy for her to run, since your fiancée is a man. What do we do now?”
“What do we do about what?”
Undaunted by a gaze sharp enough to run him through, Terni shrugged.
“Your Highness, are you going to have to marry ‘that woman’?”
In that instant, sparks flew in Adrian’s eyes as he glared at Terni.
“Find him. By any means necessary.”
Just as the stern order was issued and Terni and Diano nodded,
Crash!
A sound that should never have been heard rang out from beyond the office.
* * *
It could only be described as luck.
There was no need to say which side had been the lucky one.
Adrian was desperate, and the maid who had just happened to learn the secret had hair and eyes of a color similar to Essen’s.
At first, Adrian had meant to kill the maid.
But in that moment, Adrian’s hand stopped.
The trigger was simple.
The maid’s words, ‘I’ll do anything.’ And what he had thought, if only for a moment, was similar to Essen’s…
Those blue eyes.
“I should make use of everything that can be used.”
That was all it was.
That was the conclusion Adrian reached about the matter.
Having made a maid whose name he didn’t even know into his fiancée, the first thing Adrian set about doing was investigating her background.
He didn’t think she was a spy for the chancellor or the other nobles, but verification was a procedure that had to be carried out.
“Viola Bilbao, was it? A fallen noble family.”
“There’s nothing shady about her in particular. I get the feeling she’s truly innocent.”
Terni, who had finished the entire investigation of the maid Viola Bilbao in a single day, smiled brightly.
Having no troublesome complications was welcome news, but Adrian had no particular expectations of the maid.
Suddenly, his head throbbed with irritation at the people who had made things turn out this way.
Why should I have to marry at all? I want to kill them all.
Once I inherit the throne, once I properly inherit the throne, it will all be over.
Adrian ground his teeth and mastered his temper.
Then he lifted his head toward Terni.
“How is the search for Essen going?”
“Diano’s probably searching hard.”
Terni answered offhandedly and went on enjoying his black tea.
Seeing him lounge so leisurely all by himself made Adrian’s irritation surge, and he scowled.
“Why are you here?”
“Ah, let’s take a break. Do you always have to work me like a madman?”
Terni whined.
Naturally, Adrian was not merciful enough to indulge Terni’s whining.
Moreover, Terni was the one who had to take responsibility for the most critical problem right now.
That was, to transform the maid Viola Bilbao into a lady of the House of Marquis Obiedo and the Crown Prince’s fiancée.
“Go and start teaching her this instant.”
“Aw. Why? We can take our time, can’t we?”
“It’s urgent. Now get out.”
“Seriously, you won’t even let me rest.”
Terni pouted and got to his feet.
Adrian let Terni’s complaints go in one ear and out the other.
Even as he headed for the door, Terni’s grumbling never let up.
“Ha. How on earth did I end up in this state?”
“Take responsibility and make her presentable.”
At Adrian’s firm words, Terni answered with a bright smile.
“Yes, yes. As you wish, Crown Prince Your Highness.”
* * *
The world had changed overnight.
I, who had been a mere maid, had in an instant become the Crown Prince’s fiancée.
Something I could never have imagined yesterday was happening to me now.
Where am I, and who am I?
“I’m counting on you, little sister!”
A man who had popped up out of nowhere greeted me with a smile.
“I’m your brother, Terni.”
The man had hair as black as the night sky and sparkling golden eyes, with an affable look about him, and he regarded me with mischief in his gaze.
I knew this man.
He was Terni Agira Obiedo, the Crown Prince’s closest aide.
That this man would suddenly become my brother, truly, you never know what you’ll see if you live long enough.
“You know I’m your brother, right?”
I’m sorry, but I don’t want to know…
I wanted to say that, but I only had one life.
And even that had long since been mortgaged.
“Haah…”
I let out a sigh and looked back on everything that had happened to me in the meantime.
Yesterday, after the Crown Prince suddenly singled me out as his fiancée, I had been hauled off to Lily Palace.
Lily Palace was where a Crown Princess-designate stayed to learn the rules of the imperial family.
They told me to rest, saying the real work would begin tomorrow, but there was no way I could have slept properly.
And now it was morning.
Since I had become a fiancée, I had to learn common knowledge, he said, and this man had barged in at the crack of dawn and sat me down on the sofa in the reception room.
The situation was thoroughly awkward and I still found it hard to believe it was real, yet everyone but me seemed perfectly calm.
The maids and attendants who received me at Lily Palace, the servants, and even the Crown Prince’s aides!
“You probably know this already, but I’ll explain once more to make absolutely sure.”
Terni kept gazing at me with a smile on his face, as if he found something about all this vastly amusing.
“I’m Terni Agira Obiedo.And as of today, you are Artienne Chevil Rabat Obiedo. The hidden daughter of the House of Marquis Obiedo.”
“What?!”
A hidden lady, he said, tossing off something this enormous as if it were nothing.
Stroking his chin, Terni muttered.
“Honestly, if Essen hadn’t run away, we wouldn’t have needed to go through all this trouble. No wait, if he hadn’t run and you had learned the secret anyway, would you have been killed?”
On top of that, he tossed off something terrifying as if it were nothing at all.
Essen.
It was the name of a man who was very likely the Crown Prince’s “she” ?.
The Crown Prince’s beloved fiancé, which is to say, a man in women’s clothing.
