“Is it because of my mood? I definitely saw it somewhere.”

“Your Highness?”

The servant asked with a puzzled face.

“It’s nothing.”

The Crown Prince moved the steps he had stopped with with an uneasy face. After walking for a while, he entered the parlor where Claire was waiting. She sat on the sofa and waited with an anxious expression.

“Your Highness!”

Claire, who found the Crown Prince, got up immediately. As she was coming closer, she then stopped, weeping with tears in her eyes. She was a lot more cautious than before. Seeing that, the Crown Prince’s heart weakened.

“I’ve been working, so I’m a little late. I’m sorry.”

Lately, the Crown Prince had been neglecting her and sometimes seemed to try to keep his distance.

Even at the Princess’s birthday banquet, he didn’t even give her a single glance, even though they were in the same room.

But now his voice was as sweet as before.

Eventually, Claire dropped the tears she had been holding back.

“I missed you.”

Claire approached and gave him a soft hug, and the Crown Prince stroked her hair.

“Crying like a child. You’ve become more childish since we haven’t seen each other.”

“But I’m worried that Your Highness hasn’t been looking for me for a while…”

“Stop crying.”

The Crown Prince took out his handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to her.

Claire accepted it and wiped her eyes.

“Sit down for now.”

The two soon sat down.

The tea cups on the table and the tea in the teapot had long since cooled down.

“The tea is cold. I’ll get a new one. Are there any snacks you want to eat?”

“It’s okay. I don’t have an appetite these days.”

Claire shook her head and responded helplessly.

“Is something wrong?”

“These days, my parents keep talking about marriage.”

“Well, Claire, you’re old enough.”

The Crown Prince was more calm than expected.

Claire’s eyes widened in surprise at his reaction.

She bit her lip.

She then came down to the floor and knelt down on her knees.

“Help me, Your Highness. I don’t want to.”

The Crown Prince looked startled as Claire suddenly knelt on the floor.

Large tears fell from her eyes.

“My father wants me to marry an older man who is almost twenty years older than me. Young master Percy has already sent me a bunch of gifts a few days ago.”

The Percy was not so great, but it was an influential family.

The Count was an old man over sixty, and he had a son who was not married until he was forty years old.

Count Percy’s son suffered burns in an accident when he was a child, which burned one side of his face, which resulted in blindness in one of his eyes.

Even if it wasn’t because of the big difference in age, she didn’t want to marry a one-eyed man with a hideously distorted face.

“I only have Your Highness. I don’t like anyone else. I begged that I really didn’t want it, but I think my father has already made up his mind. If it goes on like this… it’s really irreversible.”

Claire’s voice was very desperate and terrified.

Naturally, she looked very sad and afraid. The Prince looked down at Claire with a complicated face.

“Baron Dana? That’s awful.” (*Baron Dana is Claire’s father.)

Claire lifted her head slightly and looked at the Crown Prince’s expression. He was calmer than expected.

Claire was upset, but instead of expressing it, she bowed her head again and hid her expression.

“Don’t worry. You’ll never marry Young Master Percy.”

The Crown Prince said firmly.

“Thank you.”

“Okay, get up. If this happens again, let me know.”

“Yes.”

“Now stop crying and have a snack and relax.”

The Crown Prince summoned a servant and had the imperial chef prepare new refreshments.

His demeanor was as kind and friendly as before.

The atmosphere after that was soft.

It was like going back in time.

However, during the conversation, the Crown Prince seemed to be thinking differently at times.

“Your Highness?”

Claire did not eat the refreshments brought by the maid, but looked towards the Crown Prince, who did not answer.

He sat still, bringing the teacup to his lips.

He seemed to be thinking of something.

Claire called the Crown Prince once more.

“Your Highness, are you okay? If you’re tired, should I leave?”

At that moment, the focus returned to the Crown Prince’s eyes.

He shook his head as if it was okay.

“It’s nothing, you don’t have to worry about it.”

The Crown Prince answered without sincerity and put down the teacup.

The half-remaining tea in the teacup was reddish.

Like the jewel embedded in Elvin’s brooch he saw earlier.

In an instant, the memory from a while ago flashed into his mind.

On the day of Claire’s birthday banquet, he went to the jeweler with Roxana.

Then the Crown Prince remembered where he had seen the brooch before and opened his eyes wide.

“Is this a gift for someone?” (CP)

“I received an excessive gift and prepared it as a gift in return.” (Roxana)

“Can I ask who you’re giving it to?” (CP)

“I’m going to send it to someone I’m grateful for…” (Roxana)

He recalled the conversation he had with the Princess, his fiancée, that same day.

She did not answer his question to whom she would give the gift to.

Now he knew why.

It wasn’t that Roxana didn’t have an answer, it’s that she couldn’t.

‘Ha! Was it like that?!’

The Crown Prince laughed.

Claire looked at him with a puzzled face.

“I have a place to go, so I need to leave first.”

The Crown Prince raised his lips sullenly.

Claire tried to smile instead of holding onto him, as he looked very upset.

“Yes.”

The Crown Prince rose from his seat without any regrets.

Then he quietly left the room.

Claire, who was left alone, looked at the empty seat opposite.

Then she distorted her expression and bit her lip.

***

I was enjoying tea time leisurely.

The moment I took a bite of the macaron from the famous bakery that Tien had bought, the door opened and Joan, who had gone to run an errand, returned.

She gave the bad news with a dark face.

“Lady, the Crown Prince has come to visit.”

Suddenly, my appetite dropped, and I put down the snack I was holding in my hand.

“I’ve never heard of His Majesty’s visit, but he said that he came again this time without contact…”

I went to the window and looked out.

Indeed, as Joan said, I saw a carriage with the seal of the imperial family parked near the front door on the first floor.

“What’s going on again this time?”

“Lady, the Crown Prince’s expression didn’t look very good. And His Excellency is away…..” *(His Excellency is Roxana’s father)

Joan was worried that the atmosphere on the first floor wasn’t very good.

There were a few things that came to my mind.

One of the things that I had instructed Stephen not long ago.

“Did you know by any chance that we stopped sponsoring the business?”

If the astronomical subsidy that came in periodically was suddenly cut off, it would certainly be difficult for the Crown Prince.

However, I was the first to change the plans and proceed with the work without telling him.

From an investor’s point of view, it was impossible to pour wasted money into something that has a clear outcome.

Of course, it wasn’t just for that reason that the sponsorship was cut off.

“Lady, what should I do?”

Joan asked with an anxious face.

“Tell him that I won’t see him today because I’m not feeling well.”

“Yes? But…”

Joan cried at my words.

When I didn’t say anything more, she left the room with a helpless face.

I wasn’t too worried.

I had no reason to warmly welcome an uninvited guest who had come without an invitation.

Besides, no matter if he was the Crown Prince, at this point when the Duke was back in the capital, he wouldn’t make a fuss in the Duke’s residence.

Joan, who had gone down to deliver the news, returned shortly thereafter.

“The Crown Prince said that he can’t leave even more because of that. He’s worried about his sick fiancée. So he won’t go until he sees the Lady’s face and check your condition ….”

Joan said in a crawling voice as she looked at me.

“I don’t know what this is about.”

“Lady, what should I do?”

Joan asked with a frightened bunny face.

“Tell him I have a highly contagious flu and can’t see anyone. I have already taken medicine and fell asleep, so come back another day.”

If I said that, he should understand and leave.

But I soon realized that I had underestimated the Crown Prince.

“Roxana.”

The door to my room opened and the Crown Prince entered.

He seemed quite angry.

“Annie, go tell my father that His Highness had come.”

I quietly instructed Annie, who was next to me.

She nodded her head slightly with a serious face.

I put down the book I was reading and got up from my seat to face the Crown Prince.

“Your Highness, what’s going on? You came to the unmarried Lady’s room and opened the door without permission.”

“I was told you slept early after taking the medicine… Did I receive the wrong message?”

The Crown Prince looked at me alternately and the seat I had been sitting in for a while.

“I just woke up.”

When I responded calmly, the Crown Prince looked at me with an absurd gaze.

“Is this really like this?”

“Didn’t Your Highness visit without a notice first? If you wish for hospitality, make an official appointment and come another day. I’m a little tired today.”

“No. Talk to me today. I’m trying not to misunderstand. So say anything.”

The Crown Prince said in a firm voice.

“I can understand roughly why you are doing this. But my decision doesn’t change.”

“You know what I’m doing? And yet you’re coming out so blatantly?”

“…”

“Isn’t this because I cut off the sponsorship of your business?”

“What?”

The Crown Prince frowned.

“Your Highness is forcing me to make sacrifices. Why should I invest such a huge sum in an impossible task?”

The Crown Prince didn’t say anything as if my words were poignant.

“If things go well, all the credit go to you, and if things go wrong, I’ll lose all thhe money.”

“Why are you doing this all of a sudden? It seems like you’ve become a different person since last time.”

The Crown Prince asked me in a dismayed voice.

“Because there was a change of heart.”

“It’s not that you have a change of heart. Isn’t it because you got another man?”

“I beg your pardon?”

I doubted my ears for a moment.

He had no interest in Roxana and he was the most arrogant Crown Prince.

Then he acted as if he was a husband suffering from his wife’s betrayal.

But the dog with the dung scolds the dog with the chaff.

Of course I didn’t have another man.

Even if there were, the Crown Prince had no right to criticize me.

“I don’t know on what grounds Your Hignhess is insulting me so much. To mention one more thing, the reason the Duke helped you because you were my fiancé.”

The atmosphere became more and more sharp.

The maids protected me from the Crown Prince with their bloodless faces.

Annie’s face was nowhere to be seen.

It seemed that she had gone out to carry out the order I had given her to summon the Duke.

I moved forward slowly, leaving them behind.

“Because Your Highness seems to have forgotten about it for a while.”

“Are you threatening me now?”

“Did my words sound like a threat? If Your Highness felt that way, that’s it.”

“What do you want from me?”

“I’m not going to ask anything from Your Highness. I’m not begging for love.”

The Crown Prince looked at me with a puzzled face.

‘I’d rather Your Highness beg me for something.’

I swallowed the back words.

Even if Roxana had the upper hand now, if she said these words, she would not be able to avoid the charge of contempt of the imperial family.

“From now on, like before, I will not force my family to suffer damages for Your Highness’s sake. Even if the engagement is broken, there is nothing I can do about it.”

The Crown Prince’s eyes widened as if they were about to pop out.

I looked at him coldly.