“……Huh? Are you mocking him?”

“Yes. My father. It’s the first time I’ve seen him so helpless.”

“It seems you’re not much of a filial daughter. Enjoying seeing your own father squirm.”

“I suppose so.”

Sesenia placed two cups in front of her and calmly poured the tea. The tea was poured so quietly that not even the trickling sound could be heard. After filling the snow-white teacups with tea, Sesenia placed one in front of the Crown Prince.

“Among those who’ve met this prince for the first time, you’re the most composed I’ve seen.”

“Do I look composed? I’m actually incredibly nervous.”

“Is that so.”

The Crown Prince’s gaze swept over Sesenia. Indeed, Sesenia’s hands were trembling. It wasn’t nervousness from meeting him for the first time. It was anger. Anger at herself for not being able to kill this man right away.

She thought it was a thing of the past, that revenge would make it better, but it wasn’t.

It was different from when she saw Elzere. Rage welled up inside her. Even his curious expression as he looked at her was disgusting.

‘He didn’t act like this in the past.’

Thanks to Elzere’s hunger strike to avoid engagement with the Crown Prince, Sesenia was forced to become engaged to him instead. At that time, they became engaged without even seeing each other’s faces. An engagement without love, affection, or interest.

Afterwards, whenever Sesenia met the Crown Prince as his fiancée, she was always stiff. The Crown Prince was quite displeased with this behavior.

Moreover, when Elzere, who was originally supposed to be engaged to him, made a splendid debut in society and gained people’s attention, the Crown Prince often became irritated.

The fact that such a fine woman was set aside, while a useless woman was by his side, bothered him.

People even called the Crown Prince foolish for taking Sesenia as his fiancée instead of the wise Elzere. All the repercussions fell on Sesenia.

Given such a start, neither the middle nor the end could be good.

But now it was different.

Unlike in the past when he disliked Sesenia from the moment he saw her, the current Crown Prince looked at her with interest.

‘It’s nauseating.’

Just receiving that gaze made her feel like bugs were crawling all over her body. She hated a man like him who thought of women as mere playthings, who considered others outside the royal family as mere pebbles on the street just because of his noble bloodline and the name of royalty.

‘Endure. I must endure.’

Sesenia suppressed her rising emotions and raised her head.

“Do you have something to say?”

To dispel that unpleasant gaze on her, Sesenia forced a smile and changed the subject.

“Something to say……”

“You were staring quite intently.”

“Ah. It’s because you’re different from what I heard in the rumors.”

“Was I the kind of person rumors would spread about?”

“Interesting. Are you saying you don’t even know the rumors about yourself?”

“I don’t particularly care about such things. What kind of rumors were there about me?”

As Sesenia continued speaking out of sudden curiosity, he nodded as if amused.

“No need to be curious. The rumors are incomprehensible because your appearance is so charming.”

The Crown Prince licked his lips and interestingly scanned various parts of her body, as if looking at prey. She felt like scrubbing her entire body with salt right away.

How could someone’s gaze be so chilling? Sesenia forced a smile.

“How bad were they for you to say that? I thought they’d be quite favorable lately because of what I’ve done.”

“Well. It seems someone spread some nasty rumors. That you’re incredibly stupid and greedy. That unlike your elder sister, you look wicked, and that you don’t come out in society because of your many shortcomings. Those kinds of rumors?”

“Are these recent rumors?”

“Yes. No one cared about your existence before, so they’re recent rumors. But strangely, they spread unusually fast. So I thought they were true. I didn’t have much expectation even until I came here, but……”

“It seems you quite like me.”

Sesenia looked at him with a smirk.

“Of course.”

“But Your Highness. Don’t you like many people?”

Helbert the Crown Prince’s expression hardened at these words that hit the mark.

“What? Are you saying that I flirt with all sorts of women? You dare say this to me, the Crown Prince?”

“Is that not the case?”

“Ha. Really, the more I look at you, it’s not that you’re charming, but that you’re stupid. Or is it that you don’t realize your position? Or perhaps you think you’ve become royalty just because you’re to be engaged to the Crown Prince?”

As if his sore spot had been touched, Crown Prince Helbert bellowed. It was loud enough that the knights, who had been keeping their distance because the Crown Prince had told them to step back, hurriedly moved.

“You’re truly arrogant.”

“Your Highness.”

“What.”

“Aren’t you the one who will become the Emperor of the Empire? That’s why I asked, but why are you reacting so sensitively?”

Sesenia tilted her head with an expression of genuine ignorance.

“What nonsense is that?”

“It’s not nonsense. I’m saying this because you seem to have misunderstood a bit. I was just asking if, as the future Emperor, you don’t have many people you like.”

“Are… are you playing games with me? The tone of your words didn’t sound like that!”

“That was my intention.”

“……”

What could he say when she insisted that was her meaning? No matter how much he argued that Sesenia was wrong here, it was clear that he would only end up looking strange. In the end, the Crown Prince snorted as if nothing had happened.

“It seems I overreacted a bit.”

“It happens. You must have been having a hard time lately, Your Highness. Because of strange people.”

“Yes, that’s right. Ahem.”

In the meantime, the knights had approached them. Seeing them come over wondering if something had happened, the Crown Prince raised his hand, and thanks to that, a space for just Sesenia and the Crown Prince was created once again.

“But Your Highness, do you really want to be engaged to me? We just met today……”

“Why, do you dislike it?”

“How could I have likes or dislikes? If it means becoming part of the royal family, I should do anything. I’m just curious if you might be doing this even though you dislike it. And there’s also my elder sister. You’re of precious royal blood, shouldn’t you have a choice? Not being forced by someone……”

“Now that I hear it, you’re right.”

“I want so badly to become part of the royal family… but I’ll follow Your Highness’s will.”

He stroked his chin.

“You speak quite intelligently.”

“But we should get engaged first, right? It’s a promise between the Bestel ducal family and the royal family. But how about we make a way out for ourselves too, Your Highness?”

“So you wanted to meet me to do something behind the scenes?”

Sesenia brought the parchment and quill pen that had been prepared on the side to the center.

“Of course not. I’m just suggesting we make a small agreement between us. We’re getting engaged due to various circumstances of the adults, but we should have freedom in any case, right?”

The Crown Prince valued freedom above all else.

The Empress was always busy trying to tie him down. Even without that, the Crown Prince was already doing whatever he wanted. Especially recently, the Empress was busy monitoring the Crown Prince’s every move. So the word freedom must have sounded quite sweet and attractive, like a poisoned apple.

Sesenia might not know about others, but she knew. What kind of words this man liked best in what era.

“Freedom……”

And right now, the Crown Prince liked the word freedom best.

“You might not like me, Your Highness. It would be great if we make it to marriage safely, but just in case, one in a thousand, one in ten thousand chance… what if someone who seems like destiny appears one day? So I’m suggesting we do this. It would be… too sad to end up in an ugly situation then.”

“……You’re really unique and incomprehensible. Well. If we do as you say, I have nothing to lose. After all, this engagement with you is only what my mother wants. Your offer of guaranteeing freedom is very alluring. But I don’t understand. Why you’re doing this.”

Sesenia was a bit surprised that he wasn’t a fool.

She hadn’t thought he would fall for it to this extent, but to think he was capable of suspicion.

Sesenia smiled again.

“I like you, Your Highness. So I was actually happy. When my elder sister refused you without even meeting you properly.”

“Your elder sister…… The one who was originally supposed to be my fiancée refused me?”

The Crown Prince who could have everything. On the contrary, people like Sesenia were all too common to him. In contrast, there weren’t many people in the world who had refused him.

“Yes. She refused without knowing what a good person you are.”

Curiosity. Among human emotions, curiosity was what Sesenia thought was the most useless.

She had seen many people risk their lives due to shallow curiosity. And just now, Sesenia had firmly pressed the curiosity button of the Crown Prince, the man who had been her husband.

“A woman who refused me. Very interesting.”

“Yes. So actually, I don’t want to write something like this. I just hope it continues all the way to marriage.”

“Then why not just do that instead of suggesting we write this?”

‘He’s not completely stupid after all.’

Sesenia straightened her back.

“Um… that’s……”