The Crown Prince answered my question immediately.

“I… It's not like that. “

I almost laughed out loud.

Why do you want to deny it now?

This conversation itself was like a thorn to my side.

Talking to the man who will kill me in the future.

“What do you mean by that? I feel like talking to your majesty is very inconvenient for me right now.”

“Just now… Did you say that I am an inconvenience?”

“Yes, inconvenient.”

When he looked at me with incredulous eyes, I emphasized once again and more firmly.

“In, convenience.”

The original events would have been flowing fine at this point.

 But why do the main characters seem to never tire of me, unlike in the original?

“I have no intention of being in your fishery*.”  (*t/n: you would know if you read miss not so sidekick cuz that's where i got the definition from, but it's the same thing as a harem.)

“Fishery? What do you mean?”

I wanted to explain it to him, but I couldn't come up with a replacement word for it.

“Just think of it as a fish tank with no food.”

“No… food?”

If this is all, please leave me alone now. But the crown prince had no intention of letting me go.

“I don't get what you're trying to say. All right, just be honest about what you want.”

“Honest?”

“Yes, tell me honestly.”

It was a blunt proposal.

“If I tell you, will you do as I say?”

“Yes. Do you want to go out on a date?

Do you want me to write you a letter?”

“What I want.”

The corners of his mouth lifted up into a smile, probably because he thought that he would finally be able to confirm that I was head over heels in love with him.

I looked at that smile and held my breath, hoping that the Crown Prince would keep his word before saying.

“Please don't bother me!”

The exclamation caused a few n.o.bles to look over. But that wasn't what was important to me.

‘Please understand!'

I gathered my hands into a prayer. The second it took for his mouth to open felt like years.

(Crown Prince) “… I can't do that.”

“No, why!”

Isn't there a saying in this world that goes “A man never goes back on his word”?

My chest pounded like a man who had to eat a biscuit together with a hardboiled egg that had clumps of yolk inside*. (*t/n: I have nooo idea. Maybe it's a punishment in one of those kr gameshows? Or a tl-ing error.)

"……"

At my question, he turned away silently and avoided my gaze. I just wanted to punch or slap him, disregarding the fact that it was someone from the imperial family or whatever.

‘Let's calm down.'

This man is the person who will execute me. I mumbled to myself three times in a row. Then to my surprise, my heart calmed down.

(Albury) “Well, why are you doing this to me?”

“I do not know either.”

The shamelessness was indescribable. If you were going to do this, you should have accepted Albury's love.

“No matter, because it won't change my mind about your majesty.”

“I know you don't like me anymore. I got it.” That remark was even more shocking.

He had finally realized but was still being disagreeable.

“I don't know why I'm doing this.”

“Ha….”

“But you're repeated actions feel as if you're a different person.”

It was hot. But she masked her expression.

“It's only natural since this is your first time seeing me in six months.”

“It's not like that.”

“I'm done. I don't want to talk anymore so please excuse me for leaving first.”

I quickly turned away. My att.i.tude did a 180 so of course he had rationalized things and found out the truth, my heart throbbed.

'Is there a place for me to refute him?'

Before the crown prince could speak to me again, I snuck in to where the young n.o.bles were sharing a lively chat.

(different pov)

“Princess Val…entine? What are you doing here……?”

Laura sincerely thought that Princess Valentine was crazy. There was no reason for her brazen actions otherwise.

“I was wondering if we could talk together.”

A stream of nonsense came out from the princess' lips.

Laura glanced at the count, Kaira. As expected, she was looking at the princess as if she were looking at a disgusting worm.

‘Ack, what the h.e.l.l is going on?”

It was only half a year ago that Kaira had said that she didn't like having red eyes like the prince… She would never forget that Albury had almost ripped her eyes out.

Fortunately, she had failed, but Kaira had to wear an eye patch for a while.

‘Besides……?'

Kaira's eyes were never red. Rather, it was an orange tint that was close to yellow.

That's right. It was clear that the princess was just out of her mind.

“Are you sure you want to talk with me?”

Kaira could not stand her disgust. The princess was smiling as if she couldn't feel the chilly atmosphere.

“Yes, what's your name?”

“Haha… It's Kaira. “

This is a way of saying f*ck you to me, huh.

Kaira was convinced.

‘If you're going to do that, I'll do the same.'

Kaira straightened out her frown and asked a pa.s.sing-by servant for a drink. They replied with a nod and came back with two gla.s.ses of fruit juice.

‘Orange juice and grape juice.'

The princess would choose grape juice without hesitation. She didn't eat oranges.

Kaira smiled wickedly and secretly slipped laxatives into the juice gla.s.ses that the servant had brought.

‘I made sure to take care of these for this day.'

Kaira couldn't resist laughing!

She smiled a little, thinking of Albury rus.h.i.+ng out to go to the bathroom with a hand held to her stomach.

‘I can finally get revenge. You'll be in some trouble.'

It was a drug that prevented one from leaving the toilet all day, but she didn't feel guilty.

She did something to me, and it was more than just a simple prank.

“My lady, I've brought you some juice. Take it.”

“Oh, thank you."

Kaira smiled and said in a coercive voice. Then, the princess smiled back and received the grape juice that she gave her.

‘I've succeeded! Come on, drink it, and lose your grasp on it.'

Ah, wouldn't it be nice to see her hurting without knowing the source of the problem?

Kaira was going crazy with excitement.

“By any chance, does Ms. Kaira like orange juice?”

“Me? I hate it. “

She was so excited that she gave her an answer straight away. But somehow, she felt an ominous energy climb up her spine.

“Oh, then can I drink the orange juice?”

“…Excuse me?”

“I like orange juice.”

The princess smiled with her eyes arched beautifully. Kaira stiffened in embarra.s.sment.

“Oh, I want to drink orange juice too-“

“Hm? But you said you hated orange juice a while ago. Didn't you?”

The princess was smiling with a face that said, ‘I don't know anything'.

Kaira's hands trembled. It was evident that she was completely ignorant of her trash-talking.

“Thanks for switching with me.”

She inevitably had to hand over the orange juice and received the grape juice. She was only carrying one dose of laxatives so she couldn't tamper with the drinks again.

“It's delicious.”

The princess, who said she didn't eat oranges, swallowed a whole gulp of orange juice.

“Why aren't you drinking yours?”

“Haha–Drink!”

In Kaira's eyes, the princess was evil incarnate. She had already noticed that she had tampered with the juice, and was now forcing her to drink it.

“One sip……'

Is going to be fine. The princess knew anyways so she just had to save face at this point.

She just had to hold it in her mouth,

“Your ladys.h.i.+p, the grape juice looks to have poison!”

 “…Urk.”

The liquid which she was trying to keep in her mouth traveled down her esophagus at the princess' sudden movement.

She paled completely.

“You sc.u.mbag devil!”

Kaira covered her mouth and quickly ran away. Laura had saw all of this happen and so had a sense of what was going on.

‘She's a scary woman. . .'

The princess was drinking her orange juice with a face full of smiles as if she was unaware of the terrible thing she had just done.

In reality, ‘the princess' didn't know the inside story of Kaira and Albury's relations.h.i.+p and wore a long face.

In the spirit of Kaira, who she had exchanged drinks with, Albury conceptualized that she had already made friends with her.

When most people have things that they don't like, but the other likes, they encourage the person who likes it to take it off their hands.

So she thought that those were Kaira's intentions with the drinks, that's why she deliberately offered to exchange drinks.

But saying ‘sc.u.mbag devil'…..

Her heart cracked like a pane of gla.s.s.

‘I thought she was going to be my first friend.'

But she flat out rushed out of the ballroom without giving her the chance to pa.s.s her any refreshments.

Too fast for her to catch up to. She emptied out all of the remaining orange juice.

“Did I make that big of a mistake?”

I asked Laura who was still accompanying me but she was unresponsive and had all of the color drained from her face.

‘What, for real.'

She soon went to leave, and I was alone again.

However, that technically wasn't the case. The fuss a little while ago must have been quite interesting as I felt the eyes of many n.o.bles staring in my direction, which made my skin tingle.

 In addition,

“Sister, you were here. I was surprised to see that you had disappeared all of a sudden.”

Why are these novel protagonists so anxious to catch me?