I could sleep longer the next day since I had no work, and I woke up feeling nice and refreshed. The weather was good too \u2014 a perfect day for going outside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Keith would usually come with me whenever I went to the castle, but today he was busy helping Father with his work, so my maid, Anne, came with me instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDon\u2019t do anything reckless and make sure that you are not, under any circumstance, alone with Jeord,\u201d Keith said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDo not do anything abnormal. Do not run around with your skirt pulled up,\u201d Mother followed up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two of them then asked Anne to be very, very careful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Is it just me, or am I still being treated like an 8-year-old child despite being a 18-year-old, respectable, adult lady?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Regardless of this treatment, at least they gave me permission to go to the castle (I insisted that I wanted to thank someone for returning something important which I had lost), so I promised to do as they said and boarded the carriage. Upon reaching the castle, I decided to go to the room where my book had been kept. If I went there, I could probably seek out the person who had found my bag, and ask any questions I had directly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I also wanted to ask Jeord if he knew about the note, but Keith had told me that \u201cPrince Jeord is very busy with his official affairs, so if you want to greet him, limit yourself to a brief goodbye right before coming back home,\u201d so that would have to wait.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Accompanied by Anne, I went to the storage room. I was walking deliberately and elegantly, as Mother had instructed. I can be ladylike if I need to.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The last time I\u2019d been to the castle was during the graduation party for the twin princes. Back then the whole place had been covered in festive decorations, but now it was back to normal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I reached the room, I spoke to one of the servants who was working there and, after stating my name, asked to see the person who had found my bag. That servant rushed to lead me to a table in the corner of the room, quickly bringing me tea and snacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I hadn\u2019t received the castle-treatment in quite a while, so I went ahead and commented to Anne under my breath. \u201cWhen I\u2019m treated like this, I kind of feel like I\u2019m some kind of noblewoman!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c…Young miss, in case you have forgotten, you are<\/em> a noblewoman,\u201d she replied, amazed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course she was right \u2014 I was a noblewoman who had people take care of everything, from dressing up to preparing meals, for her. But Mother gave orders to all the servants to be very strict with me, so they would say things like \u201cDo not leave crumbs around when you eat.\u201d <\/em>That didn\u2019t really make me feel like a noblewoman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was still thinking about that when the person in charge of the room, a middle-aged man, came in. He greeted me gracefully and replied to my questions. Unfortunately, he didn\u2019t know who had first found my bag and brought it in here. The mysterious benefactor just found it lying around in the castle, carried over to this room, and left it here. The servants all happened to be very busy at the time, so nobody took the trouble to look at the person\u2019s face, and now they couldn\u2019t even agree on whether it was a man or a woman who had done it. I felt disappointed that I had gained no information at all, but the man\u2019s sincere apology at being unable to help kept me from saying that out loud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAfter it was brought here, could anyone have touched it?\u201d I asked him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWas anything missing from your bag?!\u201d he replied, turning pale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course I couldn\u2019t just tell him that there was a note talking about an otome game in there, so I came up with an unrelated, half-hearted excuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo, it\u2019s just that thinking that anyone could have touched it is a bit… you know…\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The man, relieved, explained that in general only the servants had access to this storage room, but, considering that sometimes they were all so busy that they had to leave the place unattended, he couldn\u2019t say with 100% certainty that nobody had access to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Furthermore, only one of the servants, a woman, had opened the bag to check its contents. I casually asked that woman whether she had looked inside the book, but she said that she hadn\u2019t, as she wasn\u2019t really into reading and wasn\u2019t interested in books.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This left me with two possibilities as to who had put the note inside my book: either the person who had brought the bag here, or someone who had snuck into the storage room while the servants were away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I left the room, convinced that it held no more useful information for me. I planned to ask Jeord if I ran into him, but that didn\u2019t sound likely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Neither he nor Sophia knew that this world was set inside a game. If they did, they would know what the \u201croutes\u201d and \u201cends\u201d I sometimes talked about meant, and they wouldn\u2019t look so weirded out. And they definitely would have mentioned it in the 10 years we\u2019d known each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, it was only reasonable to think that the note had been put in there by someone else who had entered the castle, or more specifically the storage room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But who? If this person knew about the game, were they another person reincarnated into this world from Japan?<\/p>\n\n\n\n While I was walking alongside Anne, thinking hard about the information I had collected so far, Pochi came out of my shadow all of a sudden and started running away while wagging his tail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is just like that time at the party…<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I knew that a Dark Familiar like Pochi wouldn\u2019t soil the castle floors or anything, but I still couldn\u2019t let him run around by himself. I have to do something!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I forgot about Mother\u2019s warning, pulled up my dress, and started running after Pochi as fast as I could.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYoung miss! Wait!\u201d I heard Anne call out from behind me, but I was too busy running after my dog to worry about her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Following him, I ended up in a dark hallway. It was weird that the hallway would be so dark, since it was still afternoon. I looked behind, and Anne was nowhere to be seen. I\u2019m going to get scolded once I come back, aren\u2019t I?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Anyway, I had seen this hallway somewhere. I picked up Pochi, who had finally calmed down, and looked around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh, right, this is the same place he ran off to during the party!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n The hallway had also looked very dark back then, but I hadn\u2019t given it much thought, since it was at night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe there are a lot of trees planted around the windows or something.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I also saw that even though it was still pretty early in the day, the torches were already lit. I remembered that, during the party, I saw a woman in this hallway who told me that I wasn\u2019t allowed to go any further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I squinted to see through the darkness and made out the outline of a door. Was there a room at the end of the hallway? What kind of room could there be in the castle that people weren\u2019t allowed to enter?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Curious, I started moving forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOh, a guest? That\u2019s quite unusual,\u201d said the cold voice of a woman from behind me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I turned around and saw an elderly woman, followed by several servants, elegantly walking towards me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now that she was close, I could tell two things: the first was that she was probably somewhere in her fifties, and the second was that she looked so beautiful that, in her younger days, she must have been extremely popular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c…My dog ran away, and I just followed him here, to catch him…\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The woman didn\u2019t look angry, but since I was stepping in a place I had been told was off-limits, I thought I had to explain myself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cReally? I am glad you were able to catch up to him,\u201d she replied with a warm laugh. I was relieved that she wasn\u2019t mad at me, but seeing her laugh so nonchalantly, I couldn\u2019t keep myself from telling her what was on my mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cExcuse me… what is at the end of this hallway? It looks like there\u2019s a door, so I think there must be some kind of room…\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOh?\u201d replied the woman, blinking in surprise at my uncouth question. The servants behind her shot me cold stares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m pretty sure I screwed up right here.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSorry, I was just wondering… I\u2019m sorry I was so uncouth with my question,\u201d I hurriedly apologized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOh-hoh-hoh, do not worry,\u201d laughed the woman. \u201cWe have nothing to hide here.\u201d She then looked at the door behind me. \u201cMy son lives there,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYour son?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYes. He is well of age, but he refuses to leave his room \u2014 or do anything at all, really. Quite the troubled son, is he not?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She sounded really casual despite the gravity of what she had said. First of all, I was surprised to know that there were shut-ins in this world as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut,\u201d she said, staring sadly at the door, \u201cthe reasons why he became like this are so serious that I cannot bring myself to force him out of his room. I let him stay there, and sometimes, like today, I visit him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c…That must be tough for you…\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Previously, I had considered shutting myself in the mansion to avoid the Catastrophic Bad Ends, but seeing the sad expression of a mother worrying about her child made me glad that I had ultimately decided against it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, a shut-in inside the castle… who could that be?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ah! I\u2019m pretty sure that only the royal family and the servants live inside the castle. The servants have their own, separate quarters… and this place doesn\u2019t look like that, which means that the shut-in is a member of the royal family! Unbelievable! And wait, if he\u2019s royalty, then his mother must be…<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cExcuse me, but you are…\u201d I said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOh, I have not introduced myself yet. I am Estella Stuart,\u201d she replied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cStuart…?\u201d I said to myself, surprised, as she chuckled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn regards to my rank, I am the dowager queen and stepmother of the current king. But now I am but an old woman, living away from the public eye and with too much free time on her hands.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve been talking to the former queen without any hint of formality… that\u2019s why the servants were staring at me like that!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I introduced myself in a hurry. \u201cI am Katarina Claes, daughter of Duke Claes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOh? The Katarina from the rumors?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rumors? What rumors?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOh-hoh-hoh, I am glad I could meet you,\u201d she said with a smile. She seemed like a calm, kind woman.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cKatarina!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cLady Katarina!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I heard two voices calling for me \u2014 Jeord and Anne. They were probably looking for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI wish I could have spoken with you a while longer,\u201d Lady Estella said, still chuckling. \u201cBut it seems that there are people looking for you. Let us meet again.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She gestured for me to go towards Jeord and Anne. I bowed to her like a proper noblewoman should and went back through the hallway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I walked back to Jeord and Anne, who started scolding me. \u201cDon\u2019t run around with your dress pulled up,\u201d \u201cDon\u2019t do weird things on your own,\u201d \u201cThink before you act,\u201d and so on and so forth. I knew it was my fault for running off like that, but I still felt dejected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I also found out that it was Anne who had told Jeord that I was lost inside the castle, and the two had then started looking for me together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m very sorry. I heard that you were very busy with work today, and I made you lose time looking for me,\u201d I apologized, and he looked at me in confusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI did indeed have official business today,\u201d he said, \u201chowever it was only a greeting which lasted but a few minutes. Who, exactly, told you that I was busy?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cKeith told me, but I guess he was wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOh, I see,\u201d he said, with a smile that seemed to be hiding something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We went back to the guest room while chatting, and I was served tea and pastries. That was the second time that day, but I definitely wasn\u2019t going to complain. Chasing Pochi had made me thirsty. As soon as I took my first sip of tea, Jeord started talking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHow far into the castle did you go?\u201d he asked. He and Anne had seen me walk towards them from deep inside the hallway, and they had apparently been wondering about that. I told him about my encounter with Lady Estella.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOh, so you met the dowager queen,\u201d he murmured, staring down pensively. His usual smile was nowhere to be seen, and instead he had a concerned expression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This must mean I\u2019ve done something really bad this time…<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI shouldn\u2019t have spoken so casually to her… I didn\u2019t even know who she was,\u201d I said, and Jeord looked at me, his expression still troubled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNot at all. Since the previous king died, she has avoided the public eye almost completely. Most people our age would not know her appearance, and, in any case, she is not the kind of person to be offended at not being recognized. You should not worry about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI see! So, what\u2019s the problem?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cProblem? What do you mean?\u201d he asked, surprised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWell, you look so distressed…\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOh, that <\/em>is what you meant,\u201d he said, laughing gloomily. \u201cI was simply embarrassed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEmbarrassed? Why?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBecause you have come to know a most unfortunate truth about my family \u2014 the fact that my uncle has barricaded himself in his room and has not left it in years. We are not actively hiding that, nor is it a complete secret, but it certainly is not something we are proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The royal family would never be proud of an adult shutting himself inside the castle, that much was clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut I heard that there were very serious reasons why he started doing that,\u201d I said, remembering what the former queen had told me. Maybe he was scared about some Catastrophic Bad Ends waiting for him outside his room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIndeed, he has his reasons. But those, too, all relate to trifles amongst relatives… Katarina, you do know that the previous king had concubines, yes?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYes, I know that much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sorci\u00e9\u2019s current king (Jeord\u2019s father) only had one wife (Jeord\u2019s mother) and no concubines. And since he already had four sons ready to succeed him, he had announced that he didn\u2019t plan to take on any concubines in the future. I didn\u2019t know about other kingdoms, but, at least here in Sorci\u00e9, monogamy was the norm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, I had heard that the ancient practice of holding concubines still remained in high society, with some nobles going as far as having several lovers. Apparently, the former king was one such noble. Because of my young age, the only king I directly knew of was the current one, so I didn\u2019t have any more details.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I just figured that, as the most powerful person in the kingdom, kings would have to take concubines for political reasons, and I didn\u2019t give it much thought. If anything, I was a bit surprised that the current king had only one wife.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI see. But do you know how many?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c…I don\u2019t. Sorry,\u201d I apologized for my ignorance. Maybe I\u2019d heard about it before entering society as an adult and then forgot it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jeord shook his head. \u201cNo, it is expected that you would not know that. The royal family has tried to keep that embarrassing number hidden from public knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cDid he have so many that it\u2019d be embarrassing?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYes. He felt five official concubines, but in truth he had so many that it would be impossible to count. And, as if that was not enough, he also had an incredible number of lovers,\u201d he said with disgust on his face. \u201cThat information is supposed to be a royal secret, but all nobles at least as old as my parents know about it. Indeed, your father probably knows too, but elected not to tell you \u2014 this is no topic a young lady would want to hear about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Knowing that your king \u2014 well, former<\/em> king, but still \u2014 had so many concubines and lovers wasn\u2019t exactly pleasant. Much more so because my parents were so tenderly in love with each other that the idea of having a concubine just sounded unfaithful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou can imagine that such a large number of concubines would lead to a large number of children. As you know, in our kingdom the king personally selects his successor from amongst his sons, but the former king left this world before he had the chance to do so. Obviously, this resulted in a heated battle for the throne.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The king had died before deciding who would get his crown, and left behind several children. Jeord went on to explain that the queen had no children of her own, and the concubines\u2019 children joined the race, either supported by the high-ranked families of their mothers or by unrelated nobles who hoped to raise their social status. I was too young to have any direct memories of it, but most of the candidates either lost their lives or were exiled during this dispute, which lasted almost two whole years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I already knew about this battle for succession, but I didn\u2019t know that it had been this extreme. According to Jeord, that was because the details had been kept hidden as much as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMy father was the son of one of the official concubines, a woman of high rank, but he did not care much for the crown. He says that he entered the conflict because he could not stand how unsightly the whole affair had become, but I do not know the truth about it. I only know that my uncle was the king\u2019s youngest son, so his life was spared and he was left to live inside the castle. However, he has not left his room since,\u201d he said, looking sad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even if his life had been spared, he had probably suffered tremendously at the hand of the other competitors. Now, Jeord said, the former queen was taking care of him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With Sorci\u00e9 as peaceful as it was now, this was hard to believe. And the fact that it hadn\u2019t happened that long ago made it even scarier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am far from proud of these circumstances, and I was anything but eager to talk about them, but I also did not want to hide the truth from you,\u201d Jeord said, dropping his gaze. \u201cMy grandfather\u2019s licentiousness disgusts me, and I have no intention of becoming like him. However, I cannot deny that I am his grandson.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jeord sighed, then went on. \u201cKatarina, do you hate me now that you know what kind of promiscuous blood flows in my veins?\u201d As he asked this, he had neither his shady smile nor his usual confident expression. I had never seen him look like this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So that was why he didn\u2019t want to talk about it. It was true that I couldn\u2019t think well of a man who surrounded himself with dozens of women like that, but… \u201cThe former king and you are two different people. Something like this would never change my opinion of you, Prince Jeord,\u201d I told him with a smile. \u201cI also know for sure that you\u2019re not the kind of person to be unfaithful or play around with women.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n I had known him for around ten years now, so I had a pretty good idea of the kind of person he was. \u201cSo don\u2019t worry about your granddad, and… Prince Jeord? What\u2019s wrong?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He was looking down even lower than before, hiding his face. I made to get up and move towards him, worried that he may be feeling sick, but he gestured for me to stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI am sorry. Please… wait for a while. I cannot… show you my face right now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why couldn\u2019t he show me his face? I took a good look at him and noticed that his ears were turning red. Maybe he had gotten a nosebleed from the heat! It was a very hot day, he had been running around looking for me, and to top it all off, he had been drinking this hot tea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The handsome, perfect prince with a nosebleed… of course he wouldn\u2019t want to show that to anyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Understanding the situation, I went back to eating pastries, trying as much as possible not to look at him, waiting for his nosebleed to stop. Look at me. I\u2019ve grown into such a thoughtful lady.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n After a while, presumably after his nosebleed stopped, he turned his beautiful face back up. \u201cThank you, Katarina,\u201d he said with a smile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Pretending not to see a nosebleed was expected of a noblewoman such as myself. Taking care not to look at his nose, I smiled back, saying, \u201cYou\u2019re welcome.\u201d After chatting about unrelated things for some time, I remembered why I\u2019d come here in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAh, Prince Jeord, I meant to ask you something. Did you see the book that was inside the bag I forgot here at the castle?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBook? Oh, you mean that kind of book which you and your friends like reading. I saw the cover, but I did not open it. Why do you ask?\u201d he asked suspiciously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s nothing. It\u2019s just not the kind of book that I\u2019d like boys to see,\u201d I said, making up a random excuse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIs that so?\u201d he asked with a smile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That meant that Jeord probably didn\u2019t know about the note. My investigation had been fruitless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI have work tomorrow, so I\u2019d better go,\u201d I said after a while, and he saw me off to the gate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI will go to visit you the next time I have a free day,\u201d he said, smiling at me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI know how busy you are, so don\u2019t worry if you can\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNot being able to see you is what worries me the most,\u201d he whispered sensually in my ear, making my whole body go limp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So little time after having a nosebleed, he had already got his cool back, and his mannerisms were as sexy as usual. I didn\u2019t expect anything less from FL1\u2019s main love interest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I let the breeze coming into the carriage\u2019s window cool off my blushing face and eventually reached home. Once there, I worked in the fields for the first time in a long while.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ah, farming is awesome. I feel so relaxed the second I take my trusty hoe in my hands. And the weather\u2019s so good! This is the perfect day off.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n However I had learned nothing new about the note, and had no more leads left to follow. Unsure of what I should do next, I stared at the blue sky, waiting for a good idea to come to me. None came.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I stayed in the fields until it was time for dinner. Both my parents and Keith had already come back home, so we all ate together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The fact that I had run around in the castle while pulling up my dress had already been reported to Mother, who ignored the fact that it had been an emergency and got mad at me, giving me a lecture so long and tiresome that, when I finally went back to my room, I ended up falling asleep before I could worry about any of the many things that I had to think about regarding my future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605\u2605<\/p>\n\n\n\n After finishing what little official business I was required to attend to in the morning, I returned to the office that was adjacent to my room to begin work on some documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That morning\u2019s matters had taken less time than I had expected, so as soon as I was done with this paperwork, I would be free. Since my fianc\u00e9e Katarina was not working that day, I could visit her house to see her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just when I was done and preparing to leave, I heard that Anne, Katarina\u2019s maid, had lost sight of her inside the castle. I had been intending to visit her, but to think that she had already come here \u2014 and that she was lost, at that…<\/p>\n\n\n\n I met with the maid and asked her for details. It turned out that Katarina had been chasing around her dog, who had run away. Losing sight of one\u2019s mistress inside the castle would normally be worthy of reprehension, but, considering that her mistress was Katarina, if anything I felt pity for the poor maid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My lovely fianc\u00e9e was not quite like any other noblewoman. When she ran, she did not hold anything back. If she was wearing a dress, she would just pull it up and go off at such a speed that no normal woman could hope to catch up to her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I thanked the maid for her efforts and helped her look for her mistress, deducing where Katarina could be based on the direction she had been running towards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cKatarina!\u201d I called out again and again while making my way through the hallways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After a while, I finally heard her carefree voice, replying casually from deep within the castle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYes?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She came towards us, and I made sure to sternly tell her not to do weird things on her own, and to think before running off. After I had scolded her, and she had realized that her maid had requested my help in looking for her, she apologized to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI\u2019m very sorry. I heard that you were very busy with work today, and I made you lose time looking for me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That was most curious. My official work for the day was a simple greeting, and my schedule was no secret. I asked her who had told her that, and she said that it was her brother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My rival in love had lied to her so that she would interact with me as little as possible. I made a mental note to give him a piece of my mind at the next opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We eventually reached the guest room, where the servants had prepared tea, and I asked Katarina something that I had been wondering about \u2014 namely, how far into the castle she had gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She had run towards me and her maid from deep inside the hallway. It was not that there was anything dangerous in the building, but I could not control the whole place at once. I needed to know how far she had wandered in order to properly admonish her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With her usual casual, endearing expression, she gave me the most surprising answer: she had reached that place,<\/em> the one where we normally did not go, and there she had met the former queen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That room, hidden in a corner that people rarely approached, was surrounded on the outside by trees, covering it in darkness even during the day. I remembered thinking of it as a somewhat frightening place as a child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While I tried to recall at what age I first found out about my recluse uncle, who was not himself much older than my older brothers, Katarina suddenly frowned and apologized about not knowing the former queen. I told her that it was not a problem at all \u2014 Katarina certainly was far from good at remembering people, but, in this case, it was not her fault.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI see! So, what\u2019s the problem?\u201d she asked, looking even more troubled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As it turned out, she had seen my expression grow concerned, although I had not noticed it myself. That would normally never happen to me, but my self-control was not as steady when I was with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I should just tell her the whole truth,<\/em> I thought. After knowing her for all these years, I understood that Katarina was completely immune to subtlety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I honestly told her that I was embarrassed that she had found out about the unfortunate circumstances of one of my relatives. She cocked her head to one side, looking genuinely confused. I told her that the man refusing to leave his room was my uncle, and she remarked that she had heard there were serious reasons for why he was doing so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Of course,<\/em> I thought to myself, surprised. How could I forget that my fianc\u00e9e is such a person? She would never despise someone because of something so superficial. She always gets to know people before judging them.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n That is why I decided to tell her what I had not planned to reveal until after our marriage \u2014 the truth about my despicable grandfather…<\/p>\n\n\n\n I told her about him, his promiscuity, the way he used his power to gather women around him, and the terrible battle for the throne that ensued because of him. She listened to my explanation without ever averting her gaze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Finally, I mustered my courage and told her my opinion of him. \u201cMy grandfather\u2019s licentiousness disgusts me, and I have no intention of becoming like him. However, I cannot deny that I am his grandson,\u201d I said, unable to contain a sigh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I then asked her, \u201cDo you hate me now that you know what kind of promiscuous blood flows into my veins?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n If I may say so myself, I had always been an extremely gifted prince, without any noticeable flaw. I was good at reading people and well-liked within noble society. But, even then, there was nothing I could do about this heritage of mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n No matter what I thought of him, I could not change the fact that the former king, a man whose mere mention was enough to upset many people, was my grandfather. That was why I had hesitated to speak about him to Katarina before our wedding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I was worried that she would despise him, and, by extension, his grandson \u2014 me. I knew that Katarina was not like other people. I knew that she likely would not care, but still, I could not shake this fear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I waited for the answer like a criminal waiting for judgment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe former king and you are two different people. Something like this would never change my opinion of you, Prince Jeord. I also know for sure that you\u2019re not the kind of person to be unfaithful or play around with women.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n That was even more than I could have hoped for. Not only did she not think less of me, but she also said that she knew that I was not the kind of person to act like my grandfather.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I once again felt that Katarina Claes was the greatest person I had ever met, and meeting her was, in fact, the happiest thing to have ever happened to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I could not keep my face from turning red as my composure fell apart, but I did not want Katarina to see me like that. I hid my face and thanked her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When I finally regained enough self-composure to look back at her, she was smiling at me. We chatted some more about other trivial matters, and then I escorted her to the carriage that took her home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I promised to visit her as soon as I had the time. Missing the point, she said not to worry if I could not make it. I whispered, \u201cNot being able to see you is what worries me the most,\u201d in her ear, and the way she blushed was so lovely that my expression risked falling apart once more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I could sleep longer the next day since I had no work, and I woke up feeling nice and refreshed. The weather was good too \u2014 a perfect day for going outside. Keith would usually come with me whenever I went to the castle, but today he was busy helping Father with his work, so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tak-berkategori"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3457"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3458,"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3457\/revisions\/3458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/novel.mdtaal-aminii.my.id\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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