Layla jerked her hand with an “Ah” as she felt a sharp sting on her fingertip. She had pricked herself on a thorn while trimming the garden shrubs in the rear garden of the Crown Prince’s palace.

Layla put her slightly bleeding finger in her mouth. As she paused her work, memories she had momentarily forgotten came rushing back.

“Then why did you sleep with me?”

That was already two days ago.

Adrian, who had come to her room on the top floor of the Crown Prince’s palace at dawn to watch over her treatment, had rushed out of the room with that final question.

“Your Highness… wanted it, didn’t you?”

The expression that flashed across Adrian’s face after hearing her answer simply wouldn’t leave her mind.

His trembling lower lip and dilated pupils.

It was the face of someone who had tasted despair in an instant.

That emotion had resonated particularly strongly with her, as she must have worn such an expression herself at some point.

‘Why on earth did he make that face…’

For two days straight, his face would appear in her mind whenever she was still. Along with the sight of his back as he turned and left immediately after.

Shortly after Adrian left, Maeve had opened the door and carefully asked what kind of conversation they had. But for some reason, Layla couldn’t bring herself to be honest.

Seeing Layla hesitate to speak freely, Maeve seemed to sense something and wore a sympathetic expression.

“Did His Highness get very angry…?”

To Layla, who asked timidly while shrinking back.

“Not at all.”

Maeve answered thus, but she didn’t tell everything either, just as Layla hadn’t been fully honest.

Confirming that the bleeding had stopped, Layla began snipping at the garden shrubs again with her shears.

The places where the 4th Prince’s servant had lashed her still ached with every movement. But thanks to Adrian calling for a doctor to treat her, it had been limited to this extent.

‘I should have said thank you.’

Ruminating on their conversation from that day, Layla found something to correct. She thought that if she had started by expressing gratitude, perhaps the atmosphere wouldn’t have soured so much.

But that was already in the past.

Though Maeve said he hadn’t been angry, Adrian hadn’t sought her out at all for two days.

“If you’re alright with it, come to my room every day from now on.”

He had said that on the second day, and yet.

Recalling these various things made her mouth feel parched.

Snip!

As she cut the final branch, Layla finished trimming the thorn bushes, a task she had now grown somewhat accustomed to.

Then she quietly entered the Crown Prince’s palace through a passage used only by servants, to avoid being noticed by others.

However, the usually quite quiet Crown Prince’s palace seemed unusually noisy today. Layla hid in the shadow behind a pillar and peeked slightly at the situation in the hall.

She saw someone in a dress walking across the hall. Though she could only see their back, the elegant gait and the number of maids following suggested a person of high status.

‘…A noblewoman perhaps.’

The Crown Prince was rare in still being unmarried, so many families must be seeking to propose marriage.

As she absently thought this while observing the white fur ornament in the woman’s hair, Layla judged that any further observation would be dangerous. She used the stairs in a secluded corner to go up to the upper floor and entered her room.

Inside the narrow room with no furniture and only a thin blanket spread out, Layla, now accustomed to this place, sat on the floor and rested for a moment.

Scattered on the floor were the medicinal herbs that Maeve had brought when she came back. Layla swallowed some chewable medicine from a small bottle among them, furrowing her brow slightly at the bitter taste. It was then that she heard it.

The sound of someone’s footsteps approaching her door. Though she thought it couldn’t possibly be her room, contrary to expectations, there came a rough knock. Knock, knock, knock.

“Are you in there?”

“Y-Yes!”

At the sharp voice of the maid, Layla sprang up and opened the door. She saw a maid she often encountered for work standing with her hands on her hips.

Though her eyes were fierce as usual, she somehow seemed even more irritated today, causing Layla to lower her gaze to the floor. Soon the maid’s sharp voice rang out.

“His Highness has ordered me to bring you.”

In the middle of the day like this?

Since becoming a slave, she had always been summoned by Adrian in the evening.

As Layla was questioning this exceptional situation, the maid simply turned around as if to say “just follow me” after that one statement.

Layla closed her room door and followed after her. Then, just as when entering his bedroom in the evening, maids washed her.

However, there was a difference from usual. The clothes she wore were a bit more proper. Layla wondered what was going on, but was then hurriedly dragged along.

The place the maids ultimately took Layla to was the first floor. It was a startling moment for Layla, who had never set foot in the bright hall of the first floor before.

The Crown Prince’s attendants appeared before her.

“Follow us.”

“Y-Yes…”

Though not as lofty as the Crown Prince, even attendants were like heaven to Layla. Attendants of the Crown Prince’s palace would be nobles from influential families.

Layla followed carefully behind them, suddenly tense and unsure of what was happening. They walked through a corridor inside the palace and stopped in front of a certain door.

The attendant who had confirmed that Layla had followed well looked down at her with a slightly displeased expression, then cleared his throat and spoke towards the inside.

“Your Highness, we have brought the child you were looking for.”

Immediately Adrian’s voice flowed out.

“Bring her in.”

Having received permission, they opened the double doors. Then a spacious interior bathed in soft daylight was revealed.

A small chandelier hung from the ceiling, and the walls were adorned with still life paintings and portraits, as if boasting the discerning eye of the room’s owner.

And then there were the plush chairs and table that seemed to match the luxurious red that dominated the wallpaper and curtains.

It was the typical appearance of a reception room.

Moreover, inside was not only Adrian, but another guest had already arrived.

Spotting the white fur ornament in her hair, Layla realized she was the woman who had been walking through the hall of the Crown Prince’s palace earlier, and stiffened her shoulders.

At that moment, a calm and elegant voice resounded through the reception room.

“Who have you called, Crown Prince?”

Adrian answered while gazing intently at Layla who had just entered.

“Someone essential to our conversation, Mother.”

Mother…?

The Crown Prince’s mother would of course be the Empress. Surprised, Layla hurriedly prostrated herself and bowed her head before the Empress could turn to look at her.

Of course, this was not the proper way for nobles to greet, so the Empress, who had turned her head and spotted Layla, furrowed her fine brows.

“…”

When the Empress, who had roughly guessed who the other party was from the clue “someone essential to our conversation” and her cowering posture, looked at Adrian with sharp eyes, it was then that Adrian spoke to Layla, paying no mind.

“Layla, you may rise now.”

But as Layla hesitated out of fear, the Empress’s voice thundered out first.

“Crown Prince, what rudeness is this? How dare you summon a slave to a place where I am present!”

The Empress, having suffered a great insult, struck the armrest of her chair in anger. However, Adrian merely gave a relaxed eye-smile.

“Didn’t I say she was essential to our conversation?”

“‘Person,’ you say?”

Adrian would be the only royal to refer to a slave as a person.

Though the Empress seemed to be nitpicking his statement, Adrian responded calmly.

“Well, she’s not an object or an animal, is she?”

“Crown Prince.”

“Stand up now, Layla. It’s an order.”

Though she thought she should be cautious due to the hostile atmosphere, Layla slowly rose as he said. However, she kept her head bowed, when Adrian’s command continued.

“Raise your head and walk over here.”

“…”

Though she felt afraid, she followed his words for now.

The Empress was still furrowing her brow, but Adrian began speaking as Layla stopped walking.

“Your Majesty the Empress, let us speak again. What did you just say?”

“…”

“You said I insulted Your Majesty, when I merely reclaimed what was originally mine. They say when kindness continues it becomes a right, but it seems you thought it originally belonged to that family.”

Layla found it difficult to follow the conversation, but she could clearly tell that Adrian was pressuring the Empress in some way.

“Even those trading rights, I recall that I had negotiated with that country and obtained them three years ago.”

“Crown Prince… let’s send this one out first and then talk.”

The Empress spoke thus, perhaps embarrassed to be countered by the Crown Prince in front of Layla. However, Adrian leaned back in his chair and tilted his head.

“There are no objects here to send out.”