Chapter 24

I took a slow, deep breath to steady my mind. In a situation this disorganized, the most important thing was not to panic and to sort out the events step by step.

First and foremost was the crucial question of whether or not I had actually done that with the guy sleeping soundly right next to me in bed.

Unable to hide my trembling heart, I carefully checked my body, and my tension melted away instantly, releasing a wave of relief.

Even I, who had never once managed to date a girl or even hold hands properly throughout my life, knew roughly from knowledge available not just on the internet but even through smartphones that my current state was definitely not the aftermath of that.

Since it was still summer, it must have been hot, and combined with the lingering heat of the alcohol, I must have carelessly tossed my clothes away in my sleep.

In short, my hands were clean.

If I had done something irreversible with this damn jerk and even confessed to Miel afterward, the outcome would be crystal clear without needing to look.

[Armienne, after doing something like that with Prince Fren, you come and confess to me? I’m disappointed. I hope you never talk to me again.]

Yikes, not only being disappointed in me, but refusing to even speak to me!

Just imagining it made my heart feel like it was being torn apart. I’d rather tear apart the guy lying right next to me if I could. This bastard was sleeping and snoring away, completely oblivious to the emotional torment I was going through.

“Hmm?”

Feeling a sudden sense of absurdity, I reached out with my bare hand and pinched Fren’s cheek. No matter how lightly I pinched, any normal human being would feel a slight sting and snap their eyes open instantly—and I even toyed with the thought of poking him right in the eye in self-defense, but Fren this rascal showed no signs of waking up, as if he’d eaten something strange.

Could something have actually happened yesterday? Perhaps my deep-seated hatred for this jerk had gone berserk under the influence of alcohol, causing me to slip him some fatal poison that would make him sleep forever.

I grew needlessly anxious. If he didn’t wake up like this, I might end up becoming the talk of the guillotine, branded with the infamous moniker of the villainess Armienne who poisoned and assassinated a prince simply because he wouldn’t accept her love.

“Hey, hey-hey. Wake up.”

“…Zzz! Honk-shoo.”

Though I shook him vigorously, Fren continued to snore away without showing a single reaction.

Crazy.

My heart plummeted into my stomach, and just as I started wondering whether I needed to bury this guy somewhere out of sight, Yul quietly handed me a pair of cute, pink pajamas covered in little bunnies—the ones I usually wore to bed—and spoke.

“Rest assured. Just in case, I went ahead and injected the Prince with a special, highly potent sleeping draught. For now, please put on your clothes, Young Lady.”

At her words, I broke into a bright smile and nodded.

“Ah, I see. Yul. Good job. As expected, Yul is the best.”

…Not. Yul!!!!

He’s the prince of this country, for crying out loud. What on earth did you do? And why on earth are you handing me pajamas when I’m not planning to go back to sleep, I didn’t even know where I should start complaining. Lately, feeling like Yul had changed wasn’t just my imagination after all. She seemed to be playing mischievous tricks on me way too often.

No, this wasn’t the time for that. Was my hangover still lingering or something? My mind felt completely scattered today.

With no other choice, I decided to put on the pajamas Yul had handed me. If I asked her to fetch a different set of clothes, I was afraid of what other thoughts might cross her mind.

“So when is he supposed to wake up?”

“I have a stimulant on hand, so he can be awakened at any time.”

Why on earth!

I wanted to ask why she walked around carrying both sleeping pills and stimulants, but clutching my throbbing head, I forced myself to organize the situation once more.

Since the most pressing concern was temporarily resolved, the next important thing to figure out was why this guy was sleeping in our estate—and specifically, in my bedroom, no less.

Prince Fren was neither a genius of swordsmanship nor a genius of magic, but he was proficient enough in both to protect his own skin. Yet, considering his position, he was certainly not someone who wandered around all by himself.

Surely there were plenty of knights back at the royal palace who should have been assigned to guard him, so why on earth was he sleeping here?

Anyway, while I was the one who got him drunk and made him lose his senses, I had been drunk myself, and Prince Fren hadn’t been in a state where his intoxication was unnoticeable—they could have just hauled him back to the royal castle instead.

What on earth were his guards doing?

“Phew, seriously. What on earth are the knights who are supposed to be guarding their lord even doing?”

I muttered to myself in mounting irritation, and at my words, Yul—who was fetching clothes for the prince to wear—tilted her head and spoke.

“Didn’t the Young Lady chase all of them away?”

“………….”

Ah, my head.

I felt like I was going insane. All because I had made a single mistake with alcohol and suffered a blackout, just what kind of disaster had I brought upon myself? Wanting to spare me any further agonizing curiosity, Yul explained in detail, seemingly assuming I was frustrated because I had no memory of what happened.

“The knights fought with fierce, unwavering determination to the very end.”

My conscience suddenly began to ache. It felt as though an invisible spear was piercing straight through my soul.

“However, the Young Lady declared that sleeping with a man was nothing to you, that you were quite used to it in fact, and dragged the Prince away by force. When they tried every possible way to stop you, the Young Lady shouted and body-slamm….”

I quickly cut her off.

“Stop. Phew.”

If I heard any more, I felt like I wouldn’t be able to show my face outside ever again. Stopping Yul in her tracks, I clutched my head and let out a silent wail. Perhaps when I drank heavily and got drunk, my old self as a man bled through just a little bit. Was it because I had spent far more years living as a man than as a woman, after all?

Anyway, I simply couldn’t handle this current situation.

Hearing Yul’s explanation made me feel even more terrified.

The knights knew perfectly well that I had dragged Prince Fren into my bedroom, and that information would undoubtedly make its way back to the royal castle—where the king, this guy’s father, resided.

And I knew full well that information reaching the king was always delivered first to two specific people.

Namely, the dukes of the two ducal houses, who could be called the dual pillars of the kingdom.

“The only saving grace is that absolutely no one knows I slept right beside him in the buff.”

“I see.”

I began to think of a quick self-consolation alongside a potential way out of this mess.

“So as long as we both walk out fully dressed and claim nothing happened at all, there won’t be a problem. Of course, there might be a slight room for misunderstanding, but I can just stubbornly insist otherwise and be done with it. Hah—! Who on earth would dare argue against my word when I say nothing happened?”

“Yes.”

The more I spoke about it, the more I felt a genuine surge of confidence that I could actually pull this off. Come to think of it, I was the princess of the highest-ranking ducal house in this kingdom, and my notoriety was terrifying enough that people shuddered just hearing my name.

Good, I can do this.

However, since I had no idea how time might further complicate things, I gave Yul a prompt order.

“Yul, administer the stimulant!”

“Understood, Young Lady.”

At my command, Yul pulled a tiny syringe from her robes, strode over without a single shred of hesitation, and plunged it straight into Prince Fren’s arm. Watching that happen brought something else back to mind—Yul.

That girl… she might not look the part right now, but he’s a prince. A prince.

Shouldn’t she treat him with a little more restraint?

Yet I didn’t voice those thoughts aloud. Because, frankly, I detested this jerk.

“Ugh, ugh… Where am I?”

Perhaps because he had slept soundly for a long time, his throat sounded raspy as he cleared it briefly. Soon snapping completely awake, he looked around his surroundings, and upon realizing he was stark naked, he hastily covered himself with the blanket.

Tsk, even that action looked like a picture out of a magazine, which only confirmed just how ridiculously handsome he really was. Thinking that, I quickly tossed his clothes over to him and shouted.

“Hey! Snap out of it and get dressed already.”

Strangely enough, speaking to him informally came completely naturally to my tongue. Trying to use formal speech instead felt like it would cause my tongue to tie itself in knots. No matter what happened yesterday, I simply decided to leave everything to that natural flow.

“Hah! Not only do you dare speak to me informally, but you’re giving me orders now? Must you have a death wish?”

“Oh, come on, you’re speaking informally to me too, aren’t you? Just hurry up and put them on. We’re in serious trouble here, for real.”

Even though we were desperately pressed for time, Prince Fren frowned as he caught the clothes thrown at him and snapped at me.

“You didn’t pull any weird stunts while I was out, did you?”

I was so utterly dumbfounded by his words that I couldn’t even reply. Mistaking my silence for guilt or a confirmation that something untoward had indeed happened, the prince’s face flushed red as he raised his voice.

“You really did something, didn’t you, you crazy bitch? And to think you told me you had no interest in me yesterday!”

Watching the guy openly start swearing at me now, I let out a soft sigh.

“Phew, I really don’t care about you, so hurry up and get dressed and get out. Your loyal knights must be waiting outside.”

Despite my words, fully convinced in his own mind that he had been subjected to some unspeakable outrage, Fren shouted as he finished putting on his clothes.

“If you did anything to me, I will never forgive you, Armienne.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

Seriously, I didn’t even want to look at his face anymore, so could he please just leave already. Please.

I told Fren, who was nearly finished dressing.

“Oh, and listen up. You need to watch what you say too. A bit of a misunderstanding might have broken out just now. And by that, I mean that… Got it?”

I explained to him that I had accidentally dragged him into my room, that other people might misunderstand the situation, and that this news might not only reach the royal family but could even leak all the way to the two ducal houses.

“And just what kind of misunderstanding is supposed to arise from that?”

I honestly couldn’t fathom how this guy was supposed to be a brilliant, clever prince. Watching him blindly question me without even grasping a basic situation like this made me utter words I felt deeply embarrassed to speak out loud.

“People might start spreading rumors that you and I did, well… that. So you better have a good excuse ready. Let me make it clear one more time: nothing happened between us yesterday. We really just got drunk and fell asleep.”

“Hmph, even if you didn’t explicitly warn me, there’s no way I would ever acknowledge a rumor like that. If anyone ever dares to utter such nonsense in front of my face, I’ll slice their throat right on the spot.”

Hearing at least that much reliable assurance, I nodded with a satisfied smile. With a stance like that, I figured rumors wouldn’t dare spread or circulate further. I slowly walked toward the door alongside Prince Fren to see him off.

At any rate, this whole incident felt like it was finally coming to a close. Vowing to never touch a single drop of alcohol again for the rest of my life, I smiled and said to Prince Fren,

“Let’s make sure our paths never cross again from here on out, Your Highness.”

“Hmph, you’re the one who needs to finally give up on me once and for all.”

“And stop harassing Lady Harmiel, too.”

“That’s my own business. It’s none of your concern.”

Seeing him refuse to give up on Miel right to the very end made me want to knock him flat on his back right then and there, but I held myself back. Today had dealt me far too many heavy shocks, so after seeing this jerk off, I planned to apologize, plead illness, and spend the rest of the day sleeping comfortably in my bed. Perhaps Yul had read my mind ahead of time when she handed me those pajamas earlier.

“Then I shall take my leave.”

“Just hurry up and go.”

With a faint smirk, I slowly unlocked and opened my bedroom door. And what greeted the two of us wasn’t a quiet, empty hallway, but…

Pop-pop-pop!

Bang-bang-bang!

“Congratulations, Your Highness Prince Fren!”

“Congratulations, Lady Armienne!”

“May blessings be upon the prosperity of the kingdom!”

“Infinite glory to the birth of a new bond!”

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Standing right there was an enormous crowd of nobles—including Miel, who wore a bright, beaming smile, and Carusien, who stood with an expression even stiffer than usual—alongside what looked like key figures from the Magic Tower, led by Grandfather Capeldeor, all clapping and showering us with blessings.

And right in the center of it all stood my mother, an extraordinarily beautiful woman wearing the brightest smile of them all.

“Congratulations, Armienne. My daughter. You’ve finally pulled it off.”

Unable to utter a single word in response to Mother’s declaration, I forcefully poked Fren in the ribs as he stood frozen like a stone statue beside me.

Hey, I thought you were going to slice their throats.

What are you going to do now? Damn it.