I Pretended To Be Dead And Ran Away - Chapter 57

Reniel had come to the imperial palace for the first time. So she was very tense from the main gate of the palace.

Thanasis smiled with satisfaction when he saw her tensing up with her shoulders stiff as she looked out the window.

Her appearance seemed like a nervous rabbit to him.

He was also confident that once she entered here, she would not be able to run away as she pleased.

Thanasis’ expression was improving, as if he was rather relaxed.

Terison, who was carefully observing Thanasis’ expression, doubted whether the person before him was really the crown prince he knew.

It was strange that he suddenly disappeared and brought someone to be a lady-in-waiting.

While male servants were understandable, he rarely encountered female servants even when hired. Maids were only needed for cleaning.

Even then, the cleaning in the crown prince’s palace was mostly done by male servants.

Because Thanasis tended to keep women at a distance.

It was easy to guess that the reason he kept women at a distance was because of his mother and sisters.

Thanasis’ sisters were indeed remarkable people.

Remarkably infamous and wicked people.

Terison often thought that perhaps Thanasis’ twisted nature was due to the empress and princesses.

Of course, the extravagant and arrogant emperor also played a big role in that.

“What’s so fascinating?”

Thanasis said that as he watched Reniel lost in thought looking out the window.

Then Reniel’s clear purple eyes turned to Thanasis.

“Well… it’s my first time at the imperial palace.”

Reniel grew up as a commoner. From the age of 10, she only had memories of hardship.

How amazing it was for someone like her to be able to come to the imperial palace where the royal family lived.

She doubted for a moment if all of this was real.

Passing through the gate, she was amazed to see such a vast scale, as if there was another village inside.

“Is there another village inside the imperial palace?”

“What we just passed was the middle gate. It’s deliberately divided for regional reasons. Pass through one more and you’ll reach the main gate where the imperial palace is.”

Reniel nodded at those words. She had only heard about it, but it was her first time actually entering inside the middle gate.

She felt her heart beating strangely.

“I’m so nervous.”

“What is there to be nervous about?”

“Well, Your Highness must be more nervous.”

“I…”

Rather than nervous, Thanasis was feeling disillusionment.

He often forgot when talking with Reniel, but he didn’t want to return to this tiresome imperial palace even though he knew he had to.

Like having to perform a necessary evil.

“Let’s say it’s like that.”

As Thanasis’ expression worsened, Terison believed that he couldn’t have been kidnapped and must have left on his own as he said.

He was someone who would explode everything if he sensed a threat nearby.

Although he couldn’t fully control his abilities, it was better to instinctively unleash his magic power in dangerous situations.

Who would dare kidnap someone like that?

The moment they tried to kidnap him at knifepoint, he would have exploded, leaving only smoke behind.

Terison nodded to himself, thinking that.

“Hey. Aren’t you managing your expression?”

“I’ll be careful.”

“Tsk.”

Thanasis frowned and warned like that when he saw Terison’s strange smiling expression.

Thanasis didn’t trust Terison.

And he didn’t like that Reniel seemed to be subtly paying attention to Terison.

“Are you going to keep looking out the window?”

“It’s fascinating. Will you let me come out with you later, Your Highness?”

“…Alright.”

Thanasis gently held her hand. Reniel thought he seemed to be doing this because he was still anxious.

The incident at the Le Pelique ducal residence must still remain like a nightmare for Thanasis.

And in the original work she had seen, he was a very lonely person who was kidnapped. So even that small kindness Felix gave affected him.

She wanted to build a strong relationship of trust with her new master.

So she didn’t find it strange that Thanasis kept holding her hand.

Although Thanasis denied it, it was clear to her that he preferred men.

Felix and Thanasis were clearly people who could not like women.

So she didn’t mind touching him.

“You grab first.”

“Okay, I will.”

“Do that often.”

“Yes.”

At Thanasis’ words, she thought that maybe he was like this because he grew up in a place without many people he could trust.

She wanted to get along well under Thanasis and stay for a long time if possible.

At first, she had planned to leave this city entirely and live moderately. But she wanted to save up more money for retirement and retire when she got older.

If she retired early now, there were too many things to worry about.

But at the Le Pelique ducal residence, she had to risk death, and she also wanted to live as a woman.

Moreover, she had to stay in the capital for a while to go back to the bank to withdraw money again.

If she withdrew it right away and left, there would be people who would be suspicious, so she planned to lay low for a few years before withdrawing it.

“What’s that?”

Reniel tried to change the atmosphere by pointing to a large white pillar visible inside the middle gate.

“That’s a magic stone.”

“Such a big one?”

“To be precise, it’s a nullification magic stone. All items containing magic power lose their power in here.”

“But in the imperial family…”

“It can be used within the imperial family. It blocks from the middle gate to the main gate.”

“Why? Wouldn’t it be safer to block inside the imperial family too if you’re going to block it?”

Reniel was looking at Thanasis with shining eyes at this interesting fact she was hearing for the first time.

Although Thanasis didn’t know why he had to answer her insignificant story.

He rationalized that he could answer this much since he would be getting a lot of help from her with magic purification in the future.

“It’s to prepare for when enemies invade.”

“Pardon?”

“If magic can only be used inside the main gate, it’s effective for defense. Enemies who reach the middle gate outside have to fight with only human strength.”

“Ah, I see.”

Then Terison said with a friendly smile. Thanasis frowned and turned his head to the opposite side.

“And once you pass the middle gate, the tracking devices attached to the knights also become unusable.”

“Tracking devices?”

“Knights who go out on business outside the middle gate sometimes wear such things.”

“Can they be caught again when entering the imperial palace?”

“They can’t be caught even inside the imperial palace. Because of the nullification magic stone in the middle gate.”

“Ah.”

It seemed like a system created because they couldn’t fully trust even the imperial knights.

“Occasionally, things like wiretapping devices come in too. However, if the eavesdropper is inside the middle gate or completely outside, that’s also blocked.”

“That’s interesting. What if they’re together in the imperial palace?”

“Then it can be detected.”

Reniel just smiled as if fascinated.

At the same time, she was reminded of the ruby earrings that were said to share dreams that she and Felix didn’t wear together.

“What if, say, there were earrings that shared dreams?”

She continued speaking while looking at Terison.

“If we wore them separately and I entered the imperial palace, would someone living in the capital outside the middle gate not be able to share dreams with me?”

“Yes. However, if the person wearing the other one enters the imperial palace, you can share dreams.”

Terison thought that those earrings visible on her ear might be some kind of magic stone for sharing dreams. He did sense a strange magical power from them.

But even so, it would become useless once entering the imperial palace anyway.

So he deliberately ignored it and didn’t ask.

In reality, he didn’t know that it was a tracking device, and if Felix entered the palace like this, it could work again.

“The imperial palace has so many fascinating things.”

She said that, and when Thanasis gripped her hand tightly, she met his eyes.

He soon loosened his grip and sighed, turning his head in a different direction from her.

He felt good about the magic being purified, but he was still dissatisfied with her talking to Terison.

****

Although Thanasis disliked being separated from Reniel, he knew that once she entered the main gate and came into the imperial palace, she wouldn’t be able to leave freely, so he had to hand her over to the lady-in-waiting instructor.

“Is this person really brought by His Highness the Crown Prince?”

Reniel was sitting alone in an overwhelmingly large and luxurious reception room, but she could hear the apprentice maids talking beyond the door.

“I heard she’s a bedchamber maid.”

“What? Wasn’t His Highness the Crown Prince a eunuch?”

“What are you saying? He was fine during the physical examination.”

“No, I don’t mean that. For someone who hates women, why would he have a bedchamber maid…”

“Shh.”

Reniel wasn’t very surprised that Thanasis’ reputation was exactly as she had read in the book.

She was just worried that if she had to work in the crown prince’s palace without any fellow maids, the work might be harder than expected.

And that she must check how much the salary is and how much the severance pay is before signing the contract.

And she sighed, hoping that they would give good vacation time too, while waiting for the head lady-in-waiting of the empress’ palace who oversees the crown prince’s maids to arrive.

Originally, the reason Thanasis the Crown Prince didn’t have maids was because attaching maids to him was the best pretext for the empress to place her people.

But the person who actually came to see her was…

“I greet the Moon of the Empire!”

It was the empress herself. Whether she came to see Reniel in person or not, she arrived with a large entourage.

Even the empress was guessing the reason her son kept women at a distance, not much differently from the apprentice maids’ speculation.