“Ah, understood.”
Though Raki stammered slightly, he bowed with a composed face befitting a professional attendant. I was the one who felt so embarrassed I didn’t know what to do with myself.
“And, and those training tools too. The full set.”
“…Yes.”
“Then I’ll be checking out the clock tower with Forti.”
I turned around as if fleeing. I was practically running with quick steps like I was on alert when Forti grabbed my hand.
“Rosenthal, let’s go together!”
I must have passed by Forti in my embarrassment.
“Don’t leave me behind.”
Forti looked at me with large eyes and squeezed my hand tighter. As if telling me not to run away. I’d only walked quickly because I was embarrassed, but when he looked at me with such sad eyes, I felt like I’d committed some great wrong. I gently placed my hand over the back of his.
“Forti, let’s go see the clock tower!”
“Clock tower?”
“That one!”
I pointed to the tall building rising prominently beyond the Serian River. The clock tower was the tallest building in the Keltan Empire and a symbol of the imperial capital.
“Yeah! Let’s go.”
Forti smiled brightly, then suddenly lifted me up. In a princess carry, no less!
“Kyaa! What are you doing! Put me down!”
“It’s punishment for leaving alone!”
Forti laughed cheerfully and ran toward the clock tower. Good grief. I never dreamed I’d be parading through the city streets in a princess carry that I’d never even experienced as a child. I wrapped my arms around his neck and buried my face.
So, so embarrassing…. Is today the day of humiliation? My dark history keeps piling up without end.
But then again, a werewolf was a werewolf. No matter how small and thin I was as an omega, I was still a man. I should weigh more than women, yet Forti ran lightly as if holding a feather. No, he was frighteningly fast. I hugged his neck tighter. I could feel his heartbeat directly.
While clinging to Forti, we arrived at the clock tower in no time.
“You wish to climb the clock tower? I’m sorry, but you cannot enter.”
The clock tower gatekeeper guessed I was a noble and politely but firmly refused while showing respect.
It was like this in Greedy Rose’s novel too. In <The Young Grand Duke and the Tower of Training>, it was written that it was a tower only the imperial family could enter. The fiancé who was the guard captain tracked the young duke’s whereabouts to the clock tower, but was refused because he wasn’t imperial family.
I recalled the novel’s content and removed the robe I’d been wearing pulled down low.
“I am Rosenthal Chendewden, the Crown Princess.”
“Your Highness the Crown Princess!”
The gatekeeper startled and straightened his legs, bowing at a right angle. Then he immediately opened the clock tower door.
This is my first time properly using my status as Crown Princess. If I look for facilities only imperial family can access like this, there would be quite a few, and I suddenly felt regretful I couldn’t use them.
I entered the clock tower with Forti. And thought to myself.
‘Did I come here for nothing?’
Just looking at it made my head spin—stairs that spiraled along the walls like a whirlwind. There couldn’t possibly be an elevator in this world, and I’d overlooked that point. How am I supposed to climb this?
Did the prince in the novel carry the young duke on his back up these tall stairs?
As I looked on helplessly, Forti lifted me up again. Don’t tell me he’s going to carry me up the stairs?
“No! Don’t! Your knees will give out!”
I’d read countless books, but there was no information saying the Wolf Tribe’s cartilage was made of iron. I frantically stopped him, but Forti grinned and lightly jumped.
“Huh?”
Forti flew up just like that. He rose lightly as if he had wings.
Can he use magic too? Swordsmanship and magic both—just what is his identity? As we flew toward the top of the tower, his hood naturally slipped off and fell. Forti’s large ears came into view.
I stroked his ears. Then Forti bit my earlobe.
“Kyaa!”
“Don’t move. You’ll fall.”
“Why, why…?!”
I hugged his neck tightly and let out a bewildered question. Forti kept ascending, then when the ceiling blocked us, he set me down on the stairs beside it.
There was no railing and just standing there was dizzying. I quickly climbed the stairs. When I opened the small door and climbed up, a cozy room appeared. Just like Greedy Rose’s novel. This was a space one floor below the top of the tower, the clock tower’s only room. And it was also where the young duke was imprisoned.
Before I could even appreciate the room, Forti bit my ear again and backed me toward the wall.
“Wh-what!”
“Why?”
Forti asked back with an innocent face as if wondering what the problem was.
“Why, why are you biting my ear?”
“Rosenthal keeps touching my ears all the time. So I’m doing it too?”
Is this revenge?
“Did you dislike it when I touched your ears?”
“No. I like it. I bit you because I like it too!”
Forti approached with the momentum to bite again. I pressed myself against the wall. But the top of the clock tower was a space of barely 5 pyeong, and there was no corner to escape to.
“You can’t bite!”
“You said I can’t lick…”
“Biting is even more not allowed!”
“Tch.”
He can do martial arts and magic, has excellent memory and mental calculation abilities—why does he so utterly lack basic common sense!
Even though I shouted firmly, Forti didn’t stop walking. I’d planned to look around the novel’s setting, but I unexpectedly ended up experiencing imprisonment vicariously. As I backed into a corner of the room, Forti extended his head.
“Then pat me.”
“Huh?”
“Tell me I did well. Because I used magic for Rosenthal.”
“O-okay. You did well. You did well. Our Forti.”
“Hehe.”
When I stroked his blue hair, Forti grinned widely. Experiencing imprisonment vicariously, really. What was I thinking about such an innocent child! Being tormented by the sense of duty to feed Hereis must have possessed me with a lewd demon.
“Fo-Forti, the clock tower is upstairs!”
“Yeah.”
I scolded myself and climbed the stairs, and Forti followed.
Though it was just one floor difference, the presence was different. The sound of the second hand ticking rang in my ears, and the great bell hanging overhead was both intricate and beautiful. But the delicate appearance of the clock tower was pushed back in an instant.
“Wow.”
From here, the imperial capital could be seen at a glance. I let out an exclamation and admired the view. The real ‘world’ that wasn’t described in <Three Crowns> spread out widely.
“Forti, that’s the Chendewden ducal residence.”
I pointed out the only building I knew to Forti.
“So that’s Rosenthal’s home.”
Forti, who had been looking down at the scenery surprisingly indifferently, had his eyes sparkle. He seemed more curious about the house I lived in than the beautiful scenery.
“You can only see the main gate of the imperial palace.”
“It’s for security. There’s a protective barrier.”
Hm? Does Forti know such things? I looked at him questioningly. How does a child lacking even basic common sense know about the imperial palace’s magic?
“I heard the knights talking.”
He answered before I could even ask, scratching his head.
“I see.”
Forti had spent a long time as a wolf in a corner of the Crown Prince’s Palace. Everyone thought Forti was a beast, so they must have freely exchanged private conversations and such even with him nearby.
“Rosenthal, will Rosenthal become the Crown Princess?”
“…I probably won’t?”
“Why?”
“His Highness the Crown Prince dislikes me.”
“…If the Crown Prince said he liked you, would you do it?”
“……”
It was a question I’d never even thought about. Eldon liking me? As if. He took Seha to Viscount Bellos’s territory. He must already be head over heels for Seha. Plus, he was a one-true-love character. Once he gave his heart, he wouldn’t waver.
“You should say ‘His Highness the Crown Prince.’ You must attach titles, right?”
“If His Highness said he liked you, would you do it?”
Though I’d tried to deflect, it didn’t work. Forti looked straight at me with clear eyes. Seeing those transparent and pure eyes, I felt pressure like I had to tell only the truth.
“He doesn’t like me.”
“Who?”
“That person doesn’t like me.”
My goal is a safe breakup. There won’t be any occasion to grow close with Eldon.
“…Rosenthal?”
“Me? I’m not in the mood for romance yet.”
As the hour struck, the clock tower’s bell began to ring. The bell sound that spread throughout the imperial capital was incredibly resonant, and I touched my throat as I felt my ears go numb.
The memory of being murdered by a lover I’d passionately loved for a year is still vivid.
Right now my goal is not to be killed by a man who cheated leaving behind his companion—no, fiancée—not to be betrayed and to live an intact life. Finding someone to love and building a harmonious family is a problem for after that.
“…ma.”
“Hm?”
Forti said something to me, but I couldn’t hear it at all because of the bell sound.
I took his hand for now and went back down to the lower floor.
Though it was just one floor difference, the bell sound felt quite distant. This was also the same as Greedy Rose’s novel content.
The young duke imprisoned in a room without even a window hears the distant-feeling clock bell and thinks he’s been imprisoned in a prison near the clock tower. There was that much of a sense of distance.
“What did you say?”
“…That Rosenthal sometimes says strange things.”
The expression ‘not in the mood for romance’ must have felt unfamiliar. Well, it’s not something a Crown Princess facing marriage would say.
“Marriage blues.”
“Marriage blues?”
Now that I’d said it, it wasn’t a very good excuse.
“Uh, so it means feeling restless and depressed before getting married.”
“Ah, it’s like that. Mar.riage. Blues.”
Forti spoke distinctly as if inputting it into his head and rolled his eyes. My hands trembled watching that.
So cute! I’m not really the type with intense emotions, but this is too much! An impulse welled up to grab Forti’s ears and bury my face in his long hair. But there was still a damp afterglow on the ear that had just been bitten. I barely came to my senses and looked around the room.
Red bricks and a temperature even colder than outside, the bell sound heard faintly.
Though it’s empty now, in the novel this space was filled with a white bed and dining table. The prince firmly blocks the passage upstairs and uses illusion magic so the young duke won’t notice. And he brings high-grade heating equipment for him. A firm chain is attached to the young duke’s foot, and with a large dildo stuck in his anus…
“Rosenthal, what are you thinking about?”
“Huh?”
I emerged from my brief reverie at Forti’s clear voice.
“Your face looks lewd…”
