Chapter 23

I felt my vision swaying and the world spinning as I thought to myself.

How on earth, how on earth did it come to this?

My plan should have been foolproof?!

I trembled with indignation and bit my lip hard.

“Heh, is that really all you’ve got, Your High-and-Mighty Prince?”

“Kha-ha-ha, how laughable, Armier. Shouldn’t you be the one thinking about giving up soon? Hic.”

“It’s Ar… Mienne. You really ought to properly pronounce other people’s names. Hic. Seriously!”

I forcibly shoved down whatever was threatening to rise from my stomach up my throat and struggled to focus my eyes on what was right in front of me.

There sat Prince Fren, his face so flushed that I couldn’t help but worry he might cook himself right then and there, glaring daggers at me through tightly clenched teeth.

He radiated a stubborn, unyielding will never to surrender.

And the moment I saw that, a fresh wave of irritation flared up inside me. I reached out toward the wine that had been with us from start to finish. Without a shred of hesitation, I filled both my glass and Prince Fren’s to the brim with the reddish wine.

Just looking at the wine, which reminded me of a sea of crimson blood, made the world spin. Yet I squeezed my eyes shut and shouted.

“One more glass!”

Prince Fren hesitated for a moment at my words, then lifted his glass as if refusing to lose, though the hand holding it was trembling violently.

“Ugh, f-fine. Bring it on.”

Just two bottles.

That was the number of wine bottles we had consumed. Of course, this beverage, also called grape wine, had an alcohol content between six and ten percent—not particularly high, acting almost like a soft drink that not only adults but sometimes curious adolescents in puberty might try out.

Compared to the amount of liquor Carusien used to drink, its alcohol content was so weak it could practically be compared to pouring a single cup of water into the Pacific Ocean.

Even after drinking two bottles of such wine, ordinary people wouldn’t get this drunk.

However, according to my prior investigation, Prince Fren had an extremely low tolerance for alcohol.

If someone were to ask me when a person becomes most defenseless, I could answer with absolute certainty.

It is when they are drunk.

Not when they are dumped by a lover, not when they are frustrated over ruined exam grades, and not when they realize their life has hit a dead end.

When people are drunk, they inevitably expose the weaknesses they usually keep hidden.

That was why I had chosen alcohol as the means to secure my blackmail photos. Indeed, Prince Fren had easily fallen for my provocation, tipping back glass after glass of wine with me. Seeing his tongue quickly tangle and his footing wobble, I had assumed the operation was as good as a success.

‘Damn it, I miscalculated.’

The operation had been flawless, and the intelligence that Prince Fren had a weak constitution for alcohol wasn’t wrong either. The one thing I miscalculated was none other than my own alcohol tolerance.

During the festival I went to with Carusien, I must have drunk quite a bit while wandering around. Although I couldn’t remember the latter half of the night, remembering that I woke up the next day without any issues had made me think I might be surprisingly good at holding my liquor—which turned out to be entirely my own delusion.

I realized something was amiss right around the time we poured our third glasses of grape wine together. When I saw Prince Fren’s face reddening and him shaking his head to clear it, thinking the operation was nearly complete, a sudden, burning hiccup escaped me and gave away my condition.

“Hic.”

Feeling that something was wrong at that exact moment, I spoke carefully to Prince Fren.

“I need to step away to take care of a brief matter.”

Perhaps already drunk, Prince Fren nodded with a flushed face.

“D-do whatever you want.”

When I walked straight to the bathroom and looked in the mirror, I was startled. Standing there wasn’t a girl whose entire face was flushed like Prince Fren’s, but a woman with cheeks far redder than usual and a gaze that was hot and moist. For a split second, the girl in the mirror looked so incredibly sexy to me that I reached out a hand before abruptly flinching and pulling it back.

“Hah….”

As I let out a small sigh, a rich scent of wine drifted from my lips. I glared at the reflection in the mirror.

“I’m not drunk. I’m not drunk. I can do this. I can do this.”

Just a little bit more. If I could hold out just a little longer, I would be able to create a weakness on that annoying jerk who practically had a sign plastered across his forehead reading, ‘I am the male lead.’

“That’s right, heh-heh, I can do it.”

Somehow, confidence swelled up within me. Thinking about it, there was no way I could possibly lose to Prince Fren. It was at that moment I should have realized I was already drunk.

Operating under the thought that I was still fine, I kept chugging drinks alongside the prince,

And that was how we ended up in this current situation.

“Ugh, ugh-ugh.”

“Uleuk, u-uleuk.”

It felt exactly like having two zombies sitting side by side at a dining table.

Three bottles of wine—that was the absolute limit of the grape wine the two of us had consumed together. My stomach felt bloated, and my vision was spinning. I was now so drunk that if I tried to stand up, I couldn’t maintain my balance and was forced right back down into my seat.

And the same went for my opponent.

Where on earth had he discarded his dignity as a prince? With his arms propped openly on the dining table and his head resting on top of them, Prince Fren was nodding off ever so slightly, making it clear that he was completely finished.

At that sight, I pulled a tiny orb out of my pocket. My hand holding the orb was trembling violently.

‘First, one shot.’

That was hardly going to count as a major weakness, but just in case, I decided to snap a picture.

After managing to take the photo through various twists and turns, I carefully slipped the orb back into my pocket.

Now was the chance.

Right now, I could capture humiliating photos of the prince or create compromising images by taking advantage of his drunken state.

Yet I couldn’t move an inch from my seat.

If I stood up, the thread-thin, precarious fuse keeping my sanity intact felt like it was going to snap right then and there.

In the end, I decided to buy time, trusting that I would sober up faster than he would.

“Your Highness.”

“……….”

Seeing Prince Fren continue to nod off without answering even when called stirred up my irritation all over again.

Perhaps owing to the buff of being the male lead paired with Miel, he gave off an impression of being even more handsome than Carusien. From his sparkling, shimmering golden hair, something an ordinary Korean could never naturally possess, to his thick eyebrows and pink lips that instantly drew a person’s gaze.

On top of all that, he possessed superior social standing and extraordinary talent.

What a damn jerk.

Realizing that he was actually much younger than me made him seem all the more insolent.

“Hey, hey-hey.”

Dragging my heavy body and barely managing to stretch out a hand, I was doing something I could never have dared to do under normal circumstances. Namely, tapping the cheek of Prince Fren, who was destined to become the king of this country, and launching formal speech far away into the Andromeda galaxy.

“Wake up, you bastard!”

Since he showed no signs of waking up, I called out a bit more firmly. Only then did Fren half-open his eyes, gaze right at my face as I slapped his cheek, and blurted out the first words that came to mind.

“Crazy bitch.”

Huh?

Damn it, what did this punk just say?

Wondering if I had misheard, I asked,

“Say that again.”

At my words, Prince Fren chuckled dryly before suddenly flying into a rage and spitting out words like a machine gun.

“I said you’re a crazy bitch, bastard. Want me to say it again? Crazy bitch. Damn it! Stop following me around like a leech. I feel like I’m going out of my mind from the stress because of you. Especially you, stop asking your mom for favors like this every single time. Please? Your mom is fucking terrifying, you crazy bitch. Is it right for a prince to be shaking in his boots over a duchess and forced into a setting like this? What kind of nonsense is that.”

Though he was just ranting, his words were laced with genuine sincerity, grievance, and desperation. Instead of making me angry, they oddly struck a chord of empathy within me. Perhaps due to the alcohol, my brain simply wasn’t functioning properly.

“Hey, hey-hey. My mom scares me too. There’s nothing I can do even if you complain to me a hundred times.”

“Crap, I know she’s at least warm toward you. I know. Though… I suppose she’d still be terrifying, yeah.”

Maybe because of the alcohol, it felt like we were slowly finding some strange common ground.

“Anyway, just stop following me around! Please!”

At his plea, I shouted back.

“I will! To begin with, I don’t even like you anymore.”

At my declaration, Fren opened his eyes wide in absolute disbelief.

“What? Damn it. Even a lie needs to have limits. You expect me to believe you don’t like me?”

What is wrong with this guy? He complains even when I give him what he wants. Sensing that he still didn’t believe my words, something I shouldn’t have said slipped right past my lips.

“The truth is… I like Miel. No, I love her.”

“Miel? Who the hell is Miel…? Wait, you don’t mean Lady Harmiel, do you?”

Phew.

Having blurted it out in a fit of stubbornness, I suddenly felt a wave of embarrassment wash over me and instinctively did something I never should have done. Looking back now, this was the root of the problem.

“Ah, whatever. Shut up and pour another round!”

“M-madness. No more…”

“A man has to show resolve. Resolve! Or is the prince of this country a softie who loses to a woman in a drinking contest?”

At my provocation, Prince Fren gnashed his teeth, and in the end, we chugged one more glass together. Like a lie, from that exact moment onward, my memory went completely blank.

And the next thing I knew, I came to the following morning, woken up early by the chirping of birds.

Since it was the top-grade wine consumed by me, a ducal princess, and the prince of this realm, there were no lingering hangovers or splitting headaches, but the reek of alcohol every time I opened my mouth made me frown involuntarily.

“Hoo-aah, where am I? What is this? My bed? But… Ah-choo!”

Thinking with a sense of familiar comfort that at least I was safe, I scratched my head, then felt a slight chill and coughed.

Huh?

It was the height of summer right now; no matter how early in the dawn it might be, it shouldn’t feel chilly.

Growing unnecessarily anxious, I checked my own condition and was instantly startled.

I was stark naked. To put it another way, I was in a state of complete nudity, resembling a human returned to the dawn of creation.

And right beside me, truly like a cruel joke, Prince Fren was lying there just as naked, covered loosely by a shared blanket as he snored away in deep sleep.

Faced with this sudden situation, I clutched my forehead and muttered.

“C-calm down for a second, Armienne. Calm down and try to recall yesterday’s memories.”

Yet nothing came to mind. Even the tiniest fragments of memory seemed to have been washed away down the drain alongside the alcohol.

Right beside me, standing there as a wave of dizziness threatened to overwhelm me from the terrifying thought that I was in deep trouble, a familiar voice rang out.

“You took a wonderful picture, Young Lady. I shall cherish it as my number one treasure for the rest of my life.”

“……….”

Just what on earth are you doing there, Yul?

I stared blankly, utterly speechless, at Yul, who was gazing right back at me with an entirely blank expression while holding up the orb even in a situation like this.

Looking at me, Yul asked.

“Shall you be using this as blackmail material?”

No.

Could you please just delete all of them? I’m begging you.

“Uhm, snort-snore!”

And you, shut up for a second, damn it.