“I greet Your Highness, the 7th Prince.”

Why did I have to run into the 7th Prince out of all the many princes?

Givnen and Rivne’s advice to avoid contact with the 7th Prince as much as possible had become meaningless. He approached like this while I was away for just a moment.

“I was just on my way to see you, and we ran into each other here.”

Ah, if he came looking for me on purpose, would it have made much difference even if I had stayed by Rivne’s side?

“Are you coming back from seeing Givnen?”

“No.”

“Then?”

“…I was going to cool my head for a moment due to a headache.”

“Is that so? That’s a shame, I wanted to talk to you alone.”

Riley was flustered by the 7th Prince’s words. It would be a great discourtesy to refuse when a prince was requesting a conversation.

“As much as possible, try not to run into the 7th Prince”

Givnen’s words echoed in her mind, but there was nothing she could do. She had already encountered the 7th Prince, and he wanted to talk.

Refusing or backing away tactlessly here would be no different from falling out of the 7th Prince’s favor, so Riley had no choice but to straighten her posture and show proper etiquette.

“How could I refuse a conversation with Your Highness?”

“It’s an honor.”

“The honor is mine, Your Highness the 7th Prince.”

The 7th Prince smiled, gently furrowing his beautiful eyes.

Like the smile he showed earlier at their first meeting, he seemed to have a habit of furrowing his brows when he smiled.

“I was curious what kind of woman Givnen Rianster decided to marry. As you know, that rascal even rejected my lovely sister’s proposal.”

From the start, words that were difficult to respond to poured out. Riley didn’t know how to react, so she rolled her eyes around, watching the prince’s expression. The prince smiled mischievously at Riley’s reaction.

“Everyone says you’re too ordinary. That’s because the lineup of those he’s kept by his side so far has been so flashy. Most of them were famous people whose names were widely known, but you have no recognition to the point that the people here don’t know any information about you.”

“Ah, I see…”

“So I was curious. What aspect of you appealed to Givnen Rianster’s taste?”

“…”

“You look innocent, but perhaps unlike your appearance, you have excellent skills in bed?”

At the 7th Prince’s words, Riley felt her head suddenly go cold.

She could understand why he had requested this conversation, and why Givnen had told her not to get close to him. She was well aware of the rudeness of nobles from Blestage from her countless experiences at the academy, but she thought royalty would be different, but it wasn’t.

In the end, the attitude of looking down on and disregarding others seemed to be no different even for noble royalty.

“Well, I’m not sure.”

“Then shall I tell you?”

“…”

“I can judge your level for you. I’m quite accurate in judging women in bed, you see.”

“No, I’ll pass.”

“Is that so? That’s too bad.”

Riley tried not to be swayed at all by the 7th Prince’s words. She judged there was no need to respond emotionally to a conversation that clearly had some ulterior motive.

His sexually harassing remarks really made her feel disgusted, but she couldn’t confront him directly about why he was saying such filthy things. If she caused a commotion like that, this party would instantly become a mess.

Moreover, even if she tried to make an issue of this, if the prince’s side brushed it off with feigned ignorance, that would be the end of it. She might even be accused of slandering an innocent prince.

“You’re not as naive as you look.”

The 7th Prince made a deflated expression when Riley showed no particular reaction. Then he scrutinized Riley carefully and changed the subject.

“Givnen Rianster, you see, is like a snake.”

He said the same thing about Givnen. Givnen also described the 7th Prince as ‘like a snake’.

“He desperately keeps what he needs by his side, and when it becomes useless, he discards it without mercy. To him, people are all just consumables. But would it be any different for a lover?”

“It seems Your Highness wishes for me to be Givnen’s consumable.”

“I don’t wish for you to be a consumable, I want to tell you that you are nothing but a consumable.”

“…Well, I’m not sure about that.”

At Riley’s response, the prince smiled and tucked her hair behind her ear.

“That guy even devoured his own wife. Did you know this?”

“…”

“Seems you didn’t know. Everyone who should know does. That he’s the world’s greatest scoundrel and a defective person who’s been mentally unstable since birth.”

Riley couldn’t believe her ears. She doubted whether the nonsense she just heard really came from the mouth of someone calling himself a prince. And it wasn’t just at a level of insults that could be laughed off lightly.

Scoundrel, mentally ill, defective person. The level of each word was too high. How could someone use such words unless they utterly despised the other person?

“Many people around that guy have died. All those he was close to and cherished ended up dead. In public, they say it was the work of assassins targeting him, but who knows? There were even jokes that maybe he has mental problems and goes around killing people around him.”

“…Your Highness.”

“He was even isolated in a different region when he was young. Even the Rianster family considered him a hopeless case. Fortunately, it seemed the mental reconditioning worked well, as he looked normal when he returned to the capital, but shouldn’t you be careful since you never know when he might go crazy again?”

“…Why are you insulting my husband like this?”

“Don’t misunderstand, I’m telling you this because it seems you don’t know these ‘facts’.”

“…”

“Everyone knows it, even though they keep quiet about it.”

Riley felt a heat rising from the top of her head. Her face felt like it was about to burst from the heat.

When he made sexual remarks about the bedroom earlier, it was shameful but somewhat bearable. Such verbal abuse wasn’t something she had only experienced once or twice.

To be honest, she had grown up hearing even worse things.

Dirty child of a prostitute, of impure origins… She had even grown up hearing that she was actually her father’s illegitimate child, so she could endure and get past remarks at that level of severity, even if they made her angry.

But the words he used to insult Givnen crossed the line by far.

She was really angry. Her head was filled with rage, and she felt the urge to immediately punch the prince’s smug face hard. She even thought she’d like to sew up that mouth spewing nonsense.

No, why should she have to listen to such contemptuous slander against him from the prince’s mouth on a good day like today in the first place?

“You seem very angry.”

“…”

“Don’t get too angry, I’m saying all this out of concern for you. I’m just offering words to a young lamb who doesn’t even realize she’s in a wolf’s den. I have no ill intentions.”

She was so upset that tears welled up in her eyes. Tears don’t only come when you’re sad, do they? They rose to her eyelids at an inopportune moment.

How should she respond? Should she retort that the Givnen she knows is neither mentally ill, nor defective, nor a scoundrel? No, this is something she shouldn’t react to.

But should she just endure it then?

Riley took a long deep breath, trying to suppress the anger rising to the top of her head. However, such a deep breath wasn’t enough to quell these boiling emotions.

“You look like you’re dying to hit me, how interesting. Why? I don’t understand why you’re making such an expression. Givnen wouldn’t bat an eye at words like these. He must have heard them often. Maybe he even admits that he’s mentally defective somewhere.”

Riley grabbed the champagne glass next to her. She couldn’t bear it any longer, and she didn’t want to hear any more of that nonsense.

So she poured the champagne with all her might. Not on his face, but on her own dress.

The spilled champagne soaked the area connecting from her abdomen to her legs.

“Oh my.”

As the 7th Prince’s eyes lit up with interest, Riley put down the champagne glass and said,

“…My hand slipped and my dress is ruined. I think I’ll have to go change.”

“My, you should have been more careful. How clumsy.”

“I’m sorry. May I withdraw now?”

“Of course, I can’t keep detaining a lady whose dress has been ruined.”

Riley curled up the corners of her mouth with the most nonchalant expression she could muster, hiding her trembling fingers in her sleeves.

“Then have a pleasant time, Your Highness.”

She heard people around whispering, but Riley ignored it and hurriedly left the party venue.

The 7th Prince watched Riley leave with an amused smile, then turned his head to look where Givnen was.

Givnen was staring directly at this spot. It was quite amusing to see him talking to someone else with his mouth while his eyes were fixed here.

‘I had expectations, but what a bland ending.’

He had been expecting some level of commotion, but she used her wits quite well.

If she had lost control of her anger and lashed out, quite an interesting situation would have unfolded. This way, there’s no satisfaction in deliberately provoking and grating on her nerves.

It’s a shame he couldn’t create a situation where Givnen would have to step in and mediate.

‘So she’s not completely stupid, I suppose.’

The 7th Prince’s eyes lit up with interest as he watched Givnen’s back leaving the party venue.

Seeing him chase after her immediately, it seemed he cared for her quite deeply. For someone who treated women he used to keep around as if they were complete strangers even when subjected to such treatment, to abandon the party and leave his post to this extent.

Thanks to this, all his interest in this party had been ruined.

The 7th Prince stretched and quietly slipped out of the party venue.

She left the party venue abruptly, but had nowhere to go.

She had made the excuse of changing clothes to escape the situation, but since she hadn’t prepared a spare outfit, she was in a predicament where she couldn’t change clothes or return to the party venue looking like this.

But when she thought about going somewhere to cool her head for a moment, she didn’t know the geography of the imperial palace well enough to find a suitable place to rest.

She had ended up in a situation where she could neither do this nor that.

‘…You did well to endure it.’

In her heart, she wanted to pour the champagne on the prince’s face.

Honestly, that was her intention when she grabbed the champagne glass. It was because she still had enough reason left to recognize that she shouldn’t act on this impulse that she poured it on her dress instead.

She just needed to create a situation to avoid that conversation, so she ruined her dress with champagne.

She succeeded in escaping from the prince, but… there was no one to compensate for the feelings that had been hurt beyond repair because of the prince. The situation of having to endure this dirty feeling alone made her feel worse.

‘Hah, what should I do now? Should I go back to the party venue?’

Riley sighed as she looked at her ruined dress.

Not only was the dress reeking of a strong champagne smell, but it was also sticky. So it felt unpleasant. She wanted to take off the dress immediately and wash her body with clean water.

Just as she was stuck unable to do anything, at that moment.

Someone grabbed her wrist.

“…Givnen?”

“Follow me.”

His closed lips were stiff. His expression was also cold.

Seeing his appearance that clearly seemed angry, Riley felt deflated.

Was he angry because she came out recklessly when he told her not to leave the party venue? Or was he angry because she showed such an unsightly appearance in front of the prince?

Still, that situation wasn’t one she could have done anything about. She tried her best to defuse that situation…

While Riley was contemplating excuses, Givnen passed by marble pillars and opened a door. Then he took Riley inside.

“Everyone out.”

He chased out all the servants waiting in the room. The servants, frightened by the chilling aura, hurriedly left the room.

Riley wondered if it was okay to just enter any room like this in the imperial palace, but Givnen’s expression was so cold that she swallowed her questions and just opened and closed her mouth.

“What happened?”

Givnen roughly ran his hand through his neatly arranged hair. He seemed unconcerned about his hairstyle becoming a mess, despite the care that must have been taken to style it.

His sharply extended eyebrows were visible between the disheveled strands of hair. His raised eyebrows, more than usual, showed how angry he was.

“What did that bastard do?”

“…”

“Why do you look like this?”

His breathing was rough.

Perhaps frustrated that Riley couldn’t even open her mouth, he pushed her body against the wall.

The cold, hard wall touched her back, and Givnen blocked the front with his body so Riley couldn’t escape.

“…Did that bastard make you like this?”

Did ‘that bastard’ refer to the 7th Prince? Riley was flustered looking at Givnen’s hardened face. It seemed calming his anger should come first.

“It’s not like that, just calm down first…”

Riley grabbed his arm tightly, trying to reassure him.

However, he showed no signs of calming down. He who was breathing roughly examined every corner of Riley’s body. Checking if there were any torn parts in the dress, or if there were any injuries.

“I’m fine, I just spilled champagne on myself.”

“…”

“I wanted to splash it on that guy’s face, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it… So I just poured it on my dress.”

“What did he say?”

“Just… He said bad things about you. I knew it was best not to react, but. I got angry for a moment…”

“…”

“That was the best I could do. I just wanted to get out of that situation as quickly as possible without causing a scene.”

Givnen didn’t say anything. Only his rough breathing could be felt gradually calming down.

Riley watched his expression dejectedly.

“I’m sorry… for ruining your party.”

At Riley’s apology, Givnen glared at her with a displeased look before letting out a short sigh. He rubbed his dry face and then brought his face close to Riley’s.

“That guy.”

“…”

“He only spoke ill of me?”

Riley stared at him blankly before slowly nodding her head.

“Yes.”

Only then did the fierce flickering in Givnen’s eyes subside.

“It’s fine as long as you’re not hurt.”

A smile of relief spread across his face, which had been stained with anger and anxiety. He slowly reached out and caressed Riley’s face. It was a careful and gentle touch, as if touching something extremely precious.

“I was worried.”