Benjamin lazily swallowed a breath.

“Do you like wine?”

A languid question fell. A gentle, murmuring voice continued.

“In the Windsor family, everyone, young and old, liked wine. What about you?”

“I take after my mother and like it too. My late mother often enjoyed it as well.”

“…Charlotte, was it?”

Charlotte nodded.

“That blood runs very deep. You even share the same taste preferences.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. The presence is evident. Just as I recognized you as a Windsor at first sight.”

It was as he said. The Windsor blood runs deep.

From appearance to minor taste preferences, the Windsor blood that her biological father extremely detested was deeply mixed in Charlotte as well.

“Do you have any recommendations?”

“For what?”

“You asked if I like wine.”

“Do you have a place you usually go?”

Benjamin put on his shirt neatly and buttoned it up. His gaze slowly followed.

Charlotte held her breath once more. Something seemed to be tightly constricting her breath.

Was it due to his clean movements? She almost forgot the fact that Benjamin was injured.

Charlotte waited for Benjamin to finish putting on his jacket and answered.

“There’s a place called Rosquella’s Tavern, famous for its wine.”

Wasn’t that managed by your subordinate in your past life?

Benjamin’s hand movements stopped. He raised his head to look into her eyes, then neatly adjusted his jacket sleeve.

It was clearly different from when he first set foot in the Windsor mansion. He looked neatly groomed.

“…Have you been there?”

“No. I was planning to go today.”

Benjamin silently looked at her for a few seconds before turning his back.

“The Ailia wine there is delicious. A 30-year vintage should be good enough to satisfy the Windsor palate.”

Benjamin fell silent after those words. Why? That gaze looking down blankly seems particularly deep.

Charlotte answered with a smile in her eyes. Benjamin left with a light farewell.

As Charlotte followed his retreating figure with her eyes, Benjamin seemed to sense her gaze and turned around slowly.

“See you again.”

We sensed it. This wasn’t the end.

“See you again, Your Highness.”

That day, Benjamin left after only treating his wounds. The Windsor mansion became quiet again.

As if forgetting Benjamin’s existence, people didn’t even mention his name. They were already used to this routine.

“Charlotte.”

After Benjamin left, Aster called Charlotte and spoke.

“Did His Highness not say anything else?”

“He only said to see me again.”

“What, see you again? What does he mean by seeing again! Who does he think he is now…!”

“Pardon?”

“No, it’s nothing. I was just worrying unnecessarily.”

When asked what he meant, Aster simply dismissed it, saying, “It’s just that he has a bad personality, so don’t associate with him.”

* * *

“Miss!”

Someone knocked on the carriage door. The coachman made his presence known from outside.

“What are you thinking about that you don’t hear me calling?”

Charlotte cast her gaze far beyond the carriage window. She seemed to have dozed off for a moment.

“We’ve arrived.”

Charlotte opened the carriage door and got out. There was no need to look around as it was a familiar street.

It was in front of the street she had visited once before.

The horse shook its head once with a flutter. The coachman calmed the horse and asked her,

“Are you really coming back alone?”

“Probably. At least that’s the plan…”

That’s why she had gone out alone wearing a beret.

“I won’t be late, so you can go ahead.”

Charlotte answered with a nod. After confirming the coachman had left, she fumbled with her lips.

“Is this the right place?”

The narrow street was familiar. It was the street where she had encountered Benjamin.

The person her biological father despised the most, and the future ruler who would become the master of the imperial family.

That person is here right now.

The person whose mere existence made her biological father foam at the mouth, become extremely sensitive, and curse to just die.

‘He’ who was called a degenerate due to moral defects.

Even if he is a degenerate, it’s fine. So what? It’s fine even if he has moral defects.

As long as those moral defects don’t affect me alone. What does it matter even if they do affect me?

It’s enough reason for my biological father to detest him.

That’s enough reason to stick my head into the snake’s mouth.

‘Rosquella’s Tavern’

It was an agency where Benjamin handled information outside the imperial palace, managed by his advisor.

The place where she bumped into Benjamin was also around here.

‘I think I bumped into him around here…’

Then this must be the right place.

She took a deep breath carefully. Her chest slowly settled as if driving out the chill that had seeped deep into her lungs.

The narrow street was barely wide enough for one adult man to pass through. After passing through that street, a tavern appeared. Although her memory was vague as she was retracing faint memories, it seemed to be around this part of the street.

Charlotte took off her beret and looked up at the sign.

‘Rosquella’s Tavern.’

It was a modest tavern. When she opened the door, a small bell rang.

-Ding

The scent of wine wafted pleasantly from inside the tavern. A man wiping wine glasses turned his head at the sound of the entrance bell.

“Oh. So you’re a customer?”

Charlotte stood at the threshold and looked around the interior.

“Yes, I’m a customer. Can I sit here?”

She put her beret on the table and brought a chair to sit at one end of the island table.

“The menu is over there. Look and choose what you want to eat…”

“I’d like a glass of wine made from Ailia grapes. It must be a 30-year vintage.”

The man wiping the wine glasses was Franz, the bartender.

“A customer looking for Ailia wine? What’s this? Is this young lady a rare wine enthusiast? Are you alone?”

“For now, yes.”

“We also have fantastic fruit cheese that goes well with wine. Shall I bring that too?”

“If it has raisins in the cheese, please leave those out.”

“What, why leave out the raisins? Raisins are the most important part! Are you saying you’ll drink Ailia wine but skip the fruit cheese with raisins?”

Franz brought out the Ailia wine and fruit cheese. When she asked to leave out the raisins, he brought fruit cheese made with dried apples.

When she put the fruit cheese in her mouth, it melted slowly. She gently swirled the wine in her hand and held it in her mouth.

“Where’s the owner?”

“Oh, do you know Master Rosquella?”

“I don’t know him personally. But the tavern is named after a person, right?”

“Ah, yes! I almost forgot!”

“The quality of the wine is good. I didn’t expect much since it’s in such a secluded place.”

She drank another glass of wine. Around that time, a shadow fell behind her. He put a robe over her head as if he knew who she was.

“Charlotte.”

Benjamin leaned over, resting his hand on the edge of the table.

“We meet again.”

The person who will ruin me.

“I said we’d see each other again. Did I come too early?”

“It was earlier than expected.”

We quietly observed each other. And immediately recognized. We need each other.

He calculated Charlotte’s value. His gaze, touching thoroughly, dissected her completely.

Yes. You must have felt it then too.

That we would roll together in the mire.

I will gladly roll into that mire.

Charlotte took a sip of wine and rolled only her eyes. Her breath fogged the wine glass.

“Did you tell Aster?”

“My uncle doesn’t know I came here.”

“So you came alone.”

“I plan to return alone as well.”

As Charlotte emptied her wine glass, Benjamin snatched it away.

“The Windsor bloodline is uniformly obsessed with wine.”

Benjamin clicked his tongue.

“How did you find this place?”

“Isn’t it a fairly famous establishment?”

“That Rosquella fellow is good at collecting wine.”

“Yes. The wine quality was very good. I drank the Ailia wine you recommended.”

Benjamin stared at her intently. He’s punching numbers on a calculator now. What should I do with you? That’s the look in his eyes.

As she brushed back her curling hair, the entrance door opened again. Franz called out the name.

“Master Rosquella, you’re here?”

“Tsk. Why is it raining when I’m almost here?”

Rosquella grumbled, shaking off the water clinging to his clothes.

“Employer, why did you use the umbrella alone when it’s so big? You don’t want to share an umbrella with a man, right? Geez! I’m soaked to the skin! You really have no pity! Have you forgotten the day I stitched up your mangled forearm?”

“Master Rosquella, there’s a guest in front.”

Rosquella’s eyes widened as if he had just noticed Charlotte.

“Franz, prepare a seat in the back.”

She turned her gaze towards the entrance. The faint sound of rain could be heard.

* * *

“This is a hangover remedy. Drink it all.”

Rosquella handed over a hangover remedy in a green bottle.

“If you talk to His Highness while drunk, you’ll be swayed this way and that.”

Charlotte received the hangover remedy and just lightly dipped the tip of her tongue in it. A bitter mint flavor spread. There was no need to drink a hangover remedy for just a few glasses of wine, but thinking the close aide might not be recommending it for no reason, she drank it all anyway.

“Oh my. It’s hard enough to keep your wits about you when talking to this person sober, our young lady is being careless…”

Rosquella clicked his tongue, gesturing towards Benjamin.

“Your Highness. You shouldn’t treat her like you do other men.”

“That’s enough from you. Go out.”

“Oh! Can’t you be a little kinder to me?”

She put down the empty hangover remedy and gestured to Rosquella.

“You seem to be quite close. Your Highness, aren’t you mistreating someone who stitched up your mangled forearm?”

Rosquella complained to his superior with an overwhelmed expression.

“Your Highness? Did you hear that? Even this person I’m seeing for the first time is considering me, isn’t this too much? Do you not remember when I personally stitched up your forearm, and even the inside of your thigh…!”

“Rosquella, you’re noisy.”

Benjamin ordered Rosquella to leave. Charlotte glanced at Rosquella with a fresh gaze.

‘He’s different from what I expected.’

The Rosquella from her past life was a cruel and resolute person.

‘He was the one who made the death list beside the deposed crown prince.’

The current emperor had been bedridden for a long time due to his deep illness, and the interior was in disarray. Apart from the empress, it was impossible to even approach the emperor.

The deposed crown prince killing his family and relatives and succeeding to the throne would happen a few years from now.

Benjamin would purge the opposition to elevate imperial authority, and Rosquella was the advisor who held that death list and rooted out the opposition at that time.

“Then rest well, Miss Charlotte.”

After Rosquella left, Benjamin sat with his fingers interlocked.

“Charlotte.”

Is that nickname sounding this pleasant because I’ve become that familiar with him?

“Aren’t you moving around too fearlessly?”

“Was I?”

“You lack caution too much.”

Charlotte shrugged her shoulders. It’s true that she let her guard down in front of him. She lowered her guard in front of the person she should be most wary of, so it was natural that Benjamin noticed it first.

“You.”

Benjamin drawled slowly.

“It would be better if you were a bit more cautious.”

I think I understand a little why Aster said his personality was bad.

“I see why that person gave me the hangover remedy before leaving.”

It’s perfect for being swayed if you let your guard down.