Chapter 22

Inside the greenhouse, a multitude of flowers bloomed in riotous splendor. From familiar blossoms to species I had never seen before. Water channels were laid out here and there, likely to spare the effort of watering.

The greenhouse was made entirely of glass, with the moonlight seemingly serving in place of artificial lighting. Combined with the nighttime hour, it cast a sacred, otherworldly atmosphere. I decided to take a short walk, relying on the moonlight… but.

“Hey, is someone there?”

A sudden voice made my shoulders jump in alarm.

Eh, eh? Who is it this time?!

Even though I hadn’t done anything wrong, why did I feel this instinctive dread of being found? Was it because of the sheer intimidation in this person’s voice?

“Will you not answer?”

After another shiver ran down my spine at the quiet, reproaching tone, I hurriedly revealed my identity.

“I-I am Bertia Tybus, eldest daughter of the Tybus family.”

Being here meant I wasn’t just some suspicious intruder, at least. I must have been facing a noble or royalty. No, royalty was surely out of the question—or so I thought.

“Tybus… Ah, his fiancée, are you?”

The sound of shuffling sand told me the speaker was drawing closer. He must have been standing right behind me.

Wait, no. To hear the name “Tybus” and remain this calm meant the person in front of me ranked higher than I did. Having never met such a figure before, I couldn’t help but feel genuinely surprised and panicked. Mentioning the Tybus name usually made people deferential right off the bat.

Besides, his fiancée? Calling the second prince “him.” Could it be…

“For this pint-sized squirt to be called a beauty—truly, the world is coming to an end.”

Accompanied by that rude remark, the figure stepping into the moonlight revealed striking green eyes burning with strong willpower and beautiful gold hair. Standing tall with his hands on his hips was the crown prince of our nation. The future king. His name was… right.

Gilvalt Vermelio.

The second prince Dylan’s half-brother, and the primary culprit behind the prince’s mistreatment.

This is bad. Why did I have to run into him here?

I clenched my palms, which had grown slick with nervous sweat. The crown prince standing before me furrowed his brows in displeasure.

“You’re the eldest daughter of the Tybus family, aren’t you? Do you intend to just stand there gaping in front of the crown prince?”

Prompted by the crown prince, I hurriedly dropped to one knee.

Every flaw of mine reflected directly upon my family. I had just lectured Ciel about it earlier, only to fail at it myself. I was the worst.

“My sincerest apologies. Please forgive my discourtesy, Your Imperial Highness.”

“Hmph.”

The crown prince let out an arrogant snort and stared down at me intently. A heavy, pinning silence fell over us. What was I supposed to do now…

“You—did you say your name was Bertia?”

“Y-Yes!”

The moment I tried to quietly slip away, he addressed me again. The sound of his voice close by suggested the crown prince had stepped nearer. With my head bowed, I had no way of knowing his exact position.

“They claimed his fiancée was some great beauty, so I came to see what kind of creature she was… Turns out to be nothing special at all.”

I kept my mouth shut and stayed silent. He didn’t sound like he was expecting an answer, anyway. Had he just come over to hurl insults? If so, that made things easy.

I was well aware that rumors whispered behind my back claimed I wasn’t fit to be a crown princess. Such envy was inevitable whenever someone achieved success. I had even received threatening letters resembling death threats, though I had naturally tossed them straight into the fire to be reduced to ash.

“Well, though… not bad, I suppose.”

My lowered chin was suddenly gripped and forced upward.

Surprised by the crown prince’s abrupt move, I found his handsome face twisted into a mocking, mischievous grin.

“Bertia Tybus. I’ll make you my concubine.”

“…C-Concubine?”

“That’s right. You should be honored.”

I-I have no idea what he’s talking about…

Was his head completely broken, trying to take his own younger brother’s fiancée as a concubine? Concubines were said to be a privilege reserved exclusively for the reigning monarch as a system to produce numerous heirs. Apparently, the royal family, blessed with heavy magic, rarely ever bore children.

“With all due respect, Your Imperial Highness, I am Lord Dylan’s fiancée.”

“So what? What’s his is mine.”

That sounded like a line straight out of a cliché villain’s playbook.

Wasn’t this guy way too tyrannical?!

“I hardly think someone like me holds any value to begin with.”

“True enough, you have no value. At least, not to me.”

He pulled my chin up further, closing the distance until our faces were nearly touching. I tried pulling back to reclaim my chin, but his grip was far too strong to shake off.

When I involuntarily scowled, the crown prince let out a dark chuckle from deep in his throat.

“I’ve heard tales. They say he dotes on you to an extraordinary degree, frequently visiting the Tybus household. It makes me utterly, thoroughly sick to my stomach.”

Unable to endure it any longer as he began squeezing not just my chin anymore, but practically my entire cheek, I glared straight up at the crown prince. Why was he so obsessively fixated on the prince?

“Why do you despise the prince… Lord Dylan to such an extreme degree?”

The question slipped out before I could stop it, and the crown prince’s wicked smile only deepened.

“If I had to give a reason, it’s called education.”

“…Education…?”

“To ensure he never disobeys me, the future king. To ensure he never dreams of rebelling against me. To ensure he never harbors petty thoughts of trying to surpass me. To make him move precisely as I desire. His magical power has the potential to ruin the country. That is why I am educating him.”

Education?

Then everything done to the prince when he was five years old—that was all education, too?

“He belongs entirely by himself. No one must ever appear around him to tame him. No one must ever appear to validate him. If such a person were to emerge and he became fixated on them, a king would become a mere decoration. Do you understand what I’m trying to say?”

The crown prince’s face practically read you’re in my way. In other words, my presence alongside the prince was an obstacle. Granted, anyone capable of managing the prince might indeed be treated as a dangerous entity.

Honestly, I doubted anyone could truly “manage” the prince, but he still wanted to nip potential threats in the bud.

“Above all, someone like him has no business having a fiancée. I have no use for children carrying his tainted blood.”

I found myself utterly repulsed by the crown prince as he muttered these unhinged statements.

True enough, this crown prince had clearly received proper training as the future ruler. Unlike the prince, he used the royal watashi for himself, and he possessed full awareness that the prince was a threat to his position. It might have been unconscious, but I could sense a deep-seated fear of the prince lurking within him. The crown prince seemed to harbor a massive complex regarding his younger brother.

Even so, he was running far too wild with his own selfish desires for a king. His inferiority complex toward his younger brother was overpowering his self-control, leading him to abuse his authority under the arrogant delusion that his status as crown prince excused everything.

If this was his mindset, the future looked bleak.

“That is why I will make you my concubine. I won’t treat you poorly. Just get away from him.”

He applied extra pressure to my cheek, making me nearly cry out from the pain. It was definitely going to leave a red mark.

To dare leave a blemish upon my pearl-like skin… Unforgivable! As I shot a fierce glare at the crown prince, he faltered slightly, his grip loosening.

“Your Imperial Highness. Please take what I am about to say as the opinion of a humble subject. If you consider it meddlesome interference, you are entirely free to ignore it.”

Though it would be nice if this crown prince actually had the capacity to brush off advice like that.

My rebellious attitude caused the crown prince’s mood to plummet into an abyss. The air grew tense and prickly. He possessed the raw qualifications to be a king, which made it all the more wasteful.

“With all due respect, Your Imperial Highness, that mindset of yours is far too childish.”

“——!”

“I understand that the prince is frightening. They say he can effortlessly wield magic passed down exclusively through the royal bloodline. Yet, if you let fear dictate you, you are unfit to wear the crown. Simply keeping your subjects chained down will only bring you grief later.”

Subjects were human beings, too.

Even those who swore absolute loyalty to the crown would accumulate resentment if everything they did or accomplished was constantly denied and trampled upon. Especially when stripped of the things precious to them.

“You cannot command true loyalty through mere plunder.”

“You…!”

His face flushing a furious crimson, the crown prince raised his arm. Expecting a blow, I squeezed my eyes shut.

“……?”

Bracing my teeth against the impact, the expected pain never arrived. When I cautiously pried my eyes open, I saw the crown prince standing there with his arm still raised, trembling violently with a flushed face.

As I wondered what on earth was happening internally, his raised arm slowly lowered, and the hand gripping my cheek fell away limply.

The crown prince remained silent for a moment before letting out a short breath, as if trying to calm himself down.

“No, you’re… right. You’re… innocent.”

Wondering what had brought about this sudden reformation, I mentally interpreted it as him checking his own impulse after realizing he was about to strike a child—mostly because he had muttered to think I’d raise a hand against a brat… under his breath.

“…Do you believe a king requires that sort of mindset?”

The crown prince asked abruptly, muttering to himself. His voice was so soft I could barely tell if he was speaking aloud, but I answered without a single moment of hesitation.

“I do.”

“Then…!”

I jumped in shock as the crown prince suddenly raised his voice and grabbed both my shoulders in a tight grip. Ah, terrifying.

“Then… do you believe I can become a king?”

His green eyes pleaded with me.

Since you’re already called the crown prince, aren’t you practically the only one lined up for the throne anyway?

The exact moment I parted my lips to speak, a streak of lightning-like energy cut horizontally through the space between the crown prince and me.

A brief pause later, a deafening BOOOOM blasted the flower bed to pieces. Unlike me, who stood frozen and voiceless, utterly bewildered by the sudden turn of events, the crown prince narrowed his eyes into a glare sharper than I had ever seen before.

“Elder Brother, did you require something of my fiancée?”

Following the subsidence of the blast, the voice that rang out was one I knew intimately well.