It seems Etienne’s hope for an uneventful journey was just wishful thinking. They faced difficulties right from the start, mainly because they departed later than originally planned.
“Sleeping outdoors in the middle of the mountains… isn’t it romantic?” Lehart said excitedly, but everyone else’s reaction was cold.
“Is it?” Even the good-natured Heishi responded, but that was it.
“What are we going to do?” Alex asked, prompting Lehart to momentarily pretend to ponder. The answer was already clear, though.
‘The Crown Prince will sleep in the carriage, and the rest of us will sleep outside.’
Thankfully, they had sleeping bags. Etienne looked around, considering that they could gather around a fire in a circle to sleep, as the terrain seemed flat enough without the need for specific ground selection.
“No need to worry about where to sleep, Etienne.”
Lehart noticed Etienne’s survey and shook his head.
“The ladies can sleep inside the carriage. I’ll sleep outside.”
“But, Your Highness,” Alex protested.
“You can’t sleep outside, Your Highness. It’s unacceptable.”
“What’s the problem if it makes the three ladies more comfortable?”
“Even so, how can we let Your Highness sleep on the bare ground? It’s absolutely not possible.”
Alex strongly opposed, leaving Lehart with a troubled expression.
“Why keep insisting when I’m fine with it…”
“Your Highness, it’s absolutely not acceptable. Don’t worry about others sleeping outside.”
After firmly stating his point again, Alex looked at the others.
“As you can see, there’s no room for anyone to sleep in the luggage carriage, so everyone has to sleep outside tonight. Please understand, it’s just for one night. I know you are all from noble families, but given the circumstances, we have no choice.”
Since Alex was the only one with a title besides Lehart, he softened his speech for everyone.
“Let’s prepare our spots before it gets darker. How about we split into groups to gather branches? What do you all think?”
No one could object to Alex’s smooth proposal, spoken as if he had planned it all along.
“Then, Sola, Nick, and Heishi will be one group, Bazon and Hana another, and Etienne and Fernando the last. Please also check for any dangers around.”
With Alex assigning everyone their tasks, there was no reason for anyone to linger any longer.
After sending off the seven in three different directions, Alex relaxed his tense expression only once they were out of sight.
“What is this?”
“What?”
“Now… with these kids…,” Alex sighed deeply.
“Why did you make me do that?”
“What?”
As Alex spoke in disbelief, Lehart replied nonchalantly.
“About sleeping in the carriage. If you hadn’t said anything, everyone would have assumed you’d sleep there. Why did you insist on pretending to offer it to the ladies and then tell me to refuse?”
Lehart had orchestrated the entire situation. As Alex looked baffled, Lehart spoke softly.
“You know I have to find someone.”
“So?”
What does sleeping arrangements have to do with finding someone?
“To rule out who’s not the one, we need to put them in distressing situations. The more troubled they are, the more their thoughts will reveal.”
“Why do we have to do that?”
“It’s necessary for them to ponder deeply.”
Lehart responded as if it were the most obvious thing.
“I never liked this trip from the start,” Sola whined, and Nick quickly expressed his agreement.
“I can’t understand the Crown Prince’s thoughts. Is he trying to trouble us on purpose?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. I was excited at first about traveling with the Crown Prince, but what is all this? It’s going to be like this the whole time, isn’t it? I’ve never experienced such hardship before.”
Sola expressed her displeasure openly. At sixteen, she was a delicately raised daughter of a count’s family. She had always had everything she wanted, and everything had always gone her way.
But ever since her parents started supporting the Crown Prince, things seemed to go less her way.
“I haven’t even recovered from the rose thorn wounds, and now sleeping on the ground…”
Sola, who hadn’t even properly touched the roses that day, complained, and Nick joined in, agreeing with her.
“I should have refused to come if I knew it would be like this.”
Nick muttered his lingering complaints and then turned to Heishi, who had been quiet.
“Heishi, do you still think the same? That the Crown Prince is doing all this for a reason?”
“We need branches to start a fire,” replied Heishi, still seemingly on the Crown Prince’s side. Nick scoffed at his response.
“That’s just like you.”
Heishi smiled foolishly, picking up branches. Noticing Nick and Sola still empty-handed, he asked, “Aren’t you two collecting?”
“I can’t do such things,” Sola turned her head away, and Nick pretended to look around.
“I need to check for danger.”
“Right,” Heishi resigned to their lack of help and continued gathering branches alone, thinking that whatever he collected would suffice when combined with what the other groups brought.
When scheming men desperately battle for her favor in the male harem
This one’s also on my reread list! The rivalry, scheming between the men in the imperial harem are just as intense and thrilling as in classic palace drama novels, where concubines fight to the death. Give it a read, girls! I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Synopsis:
“I am not worthy of her… but I still want to be by her side, even if only as a loyal dog…”
Those were the painful whispers of Yue Guanyi – the proud Crown Prince of the Great Qi, who was torn between deep love and a guilty conscience. Despite holding the supreme power of the Imperial Guard, he still could not forget the dark past when he was sold into a brothel.
Fate played a cruel twist when Qiu Shuzhi – a young female official who had just passed the imperial examinations with top honors – stepped into his life. She did not know that she was the one who had saved him from a tragic fate many years ago. And now, her heart was the target of pursuit for both Yue Guanyi and the powerful Empress Dowager Qin Qing.
While Yue Guanyi only dared to silently care for and protect the one he loved from afar, the Empress Dowager Qin Qing openly expressed his feelings and did not hesitate to take advantage of his power to approach Qiu Shuzhi. The covert struggle between the two most powerful forces in the imperial court began…
Trigger warning: All men in this novel are yandere style.
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