Haa, Minchan-ah, Lee Minchan-ah, you really did well not to draw <Three Crowns>. There’s no way you could draw 19+. At least it’s fortunate you didn’t cause trouble at the end.
“I’m sorry.”
I bowed my head deeply in self-reproach.
“Since I gave you bizarre food yesterday, I was determined to let you feast properly today…”
“Puhup.”
Why is he laughing? I raised my head questioningly. Then Hereis’s cold hand lightly touched my cheek. Huh? What? When I looked up startled, Hereis’s hand brushed past my cheek and tucked the fallen hair behind my ear. The touch on my cheek must have been a mistake.
“It’s alright. Don’t overdo it.”
“But still…”
I was relieved that Hereis didn’t seem to be in a bad mood, but his complexion was still poor. Of course it can’t be good after starving day and night. At this rate, I’m going to end up mourning a person—no, an incubus. And it’ll be death by starvation.
“Um, is there no other way? I’ve been abstaining lately because of the long-term marriage preparations…”
Eldon, sorry for using you as an excuse only at times like this. I’ve been selling your name continuously lately, so forgive me for deceiving you with Forti instead. Of course, only for deceiving me. You still need to apologize separately for using Forti to make me a laughingstock.
As I bowed my head while telling a clumsy lie, Hereis slowly opened his mouth.
“…Direct physical contact is also possible.”
Ah, there was that method. He definitely said it at first too. That doing it directly would work. But that wasn’t courteous to either me or Hereis.
I didn’t want to force an act with someone who didn’t even want it just for a meal. But I couldn’t let him starve either…
As I pondered unable to find a proper answer, Hereis added lightly.
“Actually, what I ate yesterday is sufficient.”
“Pardon?”
“Since I’m a half, you see. Now that I’ve actually experienced it, I don’t need as much energy as a pureblooded incubus.”
“Really?”
“Yes. There’s no reason to deceive you, is there?”
Of course he had no reason to lie. But his face seems quite damaged…
“Um, if it’s because of me…”
“It’s sufficient.”
Hereis said firmly. With him coming out so strongly, I had nothing more to say. I closed my mouth while feeling somewhat uneasy.
***
I headed to the central garden of the imperial palace with Hereis. To tie up one important matter before Eldon returned.
I’d written to Arleigh yesterday asking to meet here, and he accepted at once.
The central garden was the busiest place in the imperial palace. Here, even if I met Arleigh, it wouldn’t give the image of a secret rendezvous.
“Rosenthal, I’ve been waiting.”
As soon as I stepped into the garden, Arleigh rushed at me with blazing eyes. But before Arleigh could embrace me, Hereis swatted his hand away.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
Arleigh raised his arrogant eyes. But despite a stranger touching his body, his reaction was surprisingly mild.
“Rozen, is this fellow your newly arrived butler?”
“Yes.”
Where did he hear that information? As I nodded, Arleigh looked Hereis up and down.
“Quite decent. Though not as good as you, of course. How about it, Rozen? Shall we try a threesome with that fellow?”
This bastard Arleigh likes Hereis. Well, Hereis is exceptionally handsome. But don’t tell me this bastard will fall for Hereis instead of Seha?
Arleigh clings to Hereis, Hereis receives my erotic dreams, and if Arleigh appears in those dreams… Ugh, it’s horrifying just to think about.
I smoothly moved my body to block between Hereis and Arleigh. I decline forming a messy love triangle between my contractual companion and ex-boyfriend.
“I have something to say to Your Highness the 3rd Prince.”
“What is it?”
“Congratulations on receiving the Imperial Glory Medal.”
“The news reached the separate palace too.”
Arleigh arrogantly tilted his head. He seems to think I’ve changed my mind after smelling power.
But that will absolutely never happen. The moment of receiving the Imperial Glory Medal and having a celebration party is the last golden age of Arleigh’s life. When Eldon and Seha appear at today’s party to reveal all the evidence and Grand Duke Curtis is executed, Arleigh will receive an insurmountable blow.
“Yes.”
“How shameless.”
As Arleigh reached his hand toward me, Hereis swatted it away again.
“Thank you, Harry.”
I made it clear that Hereis’s action was my order, and firmly expressed my intention to refuse Arleigh’s physical contact.
Then the 3rd Prince’s eyes rose with interest.
“Rosenthal, is this really okay? Playing hard to get is good, but you’ve chosen the wrong strategy. Playing coy won’t change my heart.”
“Change your heart?”
“Don’t you know what the Imperial Glory Medal means?”
“I know. His Majesty the Emperor intends to invest Your Highness the 3rd Prince as Crown Prince.”
As I elevated Arleigh’s status to the fullest, his lips curved with satisfaction.
“Then what must Rozen do to become Crown Princess?”
“I’d have to marry Your Highness Arleigh.”
“You know well.”
As our bold conversation continued, the gazes of palace servants and noblewomen in the garden focused on us. Look more. Look openly. Gather everyone who knows!
“But you’ll have to make a lot of effort to change my heart, Rosenthal. Shall we go to the secret garden we couldn’t reach that night?”
Arleigh tirelessly reached out his hand. I swatted his hand away before Hereis could.
“Let’s break up.”
At that moment, Arleigh’s face distorted sharply.
“What did you say?”
“Ah, that’s right. I made a mistake.”
“Right, Rosenthal, playing coy should be moderate…”
“We’ve already broken up. So please refrain from seeking me out or making unnecessary contact again.”
I planned to clear things up with Arleigh, the original work’s sub-male lead, before Eldon returned.
Originally, the love line should have been cleanly resolved when Arleigh realized his love for Seha and dumped Rosenthal, but as the situation got twisted, his feelings still remained with me.
At this rate, as soon as I’m broken off from the engagement, he might be waiting right in front of the imperial palace gates. So I had to forcibly cut the thread of fate that I’d left alone thinking it would be severed anyway.
And right now was the optimal timing.
Due to the secret ledger, all of Grand Duke Curtis’s crimes committed thus far are revealed in detail, and on top of that, the fact that he tried to frame a vassal family is exposed, so the nobles turn their backs on Arleigh. The realistic fear that they might just be used as chess pieces after attaching themselves to the 3rd Prince and then abandoned takes effect.
After this incident, Arleigh, who kept being pushed back by Eldon, eventually raises a rebellion. Love for Seha was important, but the inferiority complex of being pushed back by Eldon, whom he always thought was beneath him, must have been great too.
I only managed to read up to the part where Arleigh raises a rebellion. Because I was murdered by Kim Jigwang…
But the result is obvious without seeing it. Naturally Eldon won.
In the original work, Eldon commits the unprecedented act of beheading his companion’s neck, but the vassals don’t utter a single word of criticism about this. Rather, they’re busy blessing his relationship with Seha as if they’d been waiting for it.
Arleigh probably experienced a similar path. Because that’s the fate of a ‘sub.’
Anyway, if I give notice of the breakup after the balance of power has tilted toward Eldon, Arleigh might turn dark saying ‘Did you like the Crown Princess’s crown that Eldon gives so much?’ and then raise a rebellion, or express all kinds of anger like whether I dated him ultimately because of status.
So I must confess the breakup right now, at this moment when Eldon is in a pinch and Arleigh stands at the pinnacle of power.
“What nonsense are you spouting right now!”
At the words of breaking up, Arleigh raged and tried to grab my shoulder. I tried to swat it away this time too, but Hereis was faster. He blocked Arleigh and then pulled me to his side.
I thanked Hereis, then glared at Arleigh.
“If you lay a hand on my body one more time, I’ll leave immediately.”
“You said you loved me! I stopped your wedding for you! I tried to become Crown Prince to bring you! And now you want to break up!”
So that’s why no new wedding date was set—I thought it was strange, but Arleigh had pulled strings. He speaks so desperately that I feel sorry… But I couldn’t waver indecisively here.
I’m not abandoning Arleigh because of status, but because I’m fed up with him as a person. I must firmly imprint this fact on Arleigh.
“Yes. That’s right. Until then it was sincere. But the one who betrayed me first was Your Highness the Prince.”
“What?”
“When you visited the separate palace, you said you’d break off my engagement. But in the end you failed. And even though you knew I was suffering all kinds of humiliation because of that, you ignored it.”
“That…! It’s because Eldon despicably set a trap!”
“At the slave auction, you gave up on me too.”
“If I’d brought you, there would have been a huge problem! Not only the nobles but even Eldon’s confidants were all there!”
“Should I understand even those circumstances?”
The more I heard Arleigh’s excuses, the colder my face hardened. I came planning to act, but this wasn’t acting. Watching him make excuses overlapped with Kim Jigwang. No matter what Kim Jigwang said, I would empathize with his position and understand everything. The result was betrayal and death.
“In the end, you couldn’t break off the engagement, and I became that person’s slave. I am now His Highness the Crown Prince’s person.”
I looked straight into Arleigh’s eyes and delivered the declaration I’d prepared in advance. Then Arleigh opened and closed his mouth ridiculously before bursting into a yell.
“You enjoyed it too at Her Majesty the Consort’s birthday party!”
“Did that look like enjoyment to you? I felt so distressed and humiliated I wanted to die!”
“Rozen, but you like that kind of thing…”
“Is when I was a mere noble young master the same as now? Originally, I should have already become His Highness the Crown Prince’s companion. Even now when I think of that incident, my body trembles with shame!”
At the strong rebuke, Arleigh lost his words. He kept his mouth shut then opened it blankly.
“You don’t mean… you’ve become sincere about Eldon?”
