Chapter 41
Chapter 41
"Even if he's a court count, isn't that reckless? Their family's shame could be exposed."
"Wrong. It means he has that much confidence."
The corner of Louis's mouth twisted.
Corinth's strategy was clear.
Our family is willing to make this public with complete transparency, hiding not even a speck.
The meaning behind that intention was brutally obvious.
'If you want any further investigation, then unless you're prepared to disregard our family's honor, please let them investigate every matter related to the incident without exception, including His Highness, the Crown Prince himself.'
In other words, to prove my son's innocence, they'll investigate in a way that also proves you weren't the one who caused it.
The moment Louis ordered, 'Keep digging into your son.'
that would become a declaration of all-out war on the House of Farne, as well as consent to 'go ahead and expose every last bit of my private life too.'
"Shrewd. Very shrewd."
Louis murmured, looking up at the ceiling.
Hector set down the documents with a grave expression and asked.
"What would you like to do, Your Highness? Should we proceed with an independent investigation, even without the Intelligence Division's cooperation?"
"No."
Louis shook his head decisively.
"We'll put it on hold for the time being."
"…On hold, Your Highness?"
"Yes. Not closed—just on hold."
Louis's red eyes cooled.
His instincts were warning him.
Cassian, that barbarian from some backwater.
There was no clear evidence yet.
Even so.
'...Something stinks.'
There is something.
But for now, he had to bury it.
"…Understood."
Hector bowed and withdrew without another word.
* * *
Louis rose from the sofa and walked to the window.
The imperial palace garden, draped in darkness, came into view.
Even though the stillness of the imperial palace garden was obvious at a glance, Louis's mind was as noisy as if he were at the center of a monster hunt.
'I need to let this sit.'
It wasn't intuition, but a judgment made by reason.
Louis had a fatal weakness.
What if, as Corinth suggested, the Intelligence Division began a full-scale investigation?
'My movements will be exposed.'
If there were nothing to worry about, he might even have gone at them head-on, without holding anything back, to seize the initiative.
But in Louis's mind, the pink-haired saintess surfaced.
If his trail were traced and she surfaced, a lot of things would go wrong.
Not only would the image he had built up so carefully collapse, but the House of Rosenberg might also grow hostile toward the imperial family.
If that happened, public opinion would worsen beyond control.
Rumors like the crown prince being so taken with a saintess from a fallen noble house that he neglected his fiancée, or that the fiancée's change of heart was entirely because of the crown prince's affair.
Every one of those arrows would be aimed at him.
Politically, it would make Louis the one who had to shoulder all the blame.
"Damn it!"
Thwack!
Louis slammed his fist into the window frame.
His head was a racket.
"…Lily."
The name lingered on his tongue.
Saintess Lily.
She was the most irritating presence in Louis's life lately, and at the same time the one most vividly stuck in his mind.
The position of imperial crown prince.
For Louis, born with the fate of becoming emperor, that position was no different from shackles.
Because the emperor's crown was as heavy as it was splendid.
The complicated power games of high society.
Blades hidden behind smiles.
Pretentious speech that never allowed even a moment's carelessness.
As the crown prince, Louis stood at the summit and held on there, more relentless and more perfect than anyone else.
Thus, life for him was a continuous stretch of enormous fatigue and burden.
For him, happiness was simple.
'Standing above someone else.'
The envy that came from being better than someone else. The looks of people gazing up at him.
The overwhelming sense of superiority and self-satisfaction built on that was the only pleasure and solace he could feel.
That was why his eyes went to Lily.
A saintess from a fallen noble family.
A woman who had nothing, someone looking toward the lowest place of all.
When he faced her, Louis felt an intense pull.
'It's comfortable.'
The feeling of something tightly blocked up inside him slowly loosening.
The only refuge that loosened the knots stacked up inside him, layer by layer.
So he had no choice but to pursue her.
Louis toyed with the empty glass.
The more she ran, the more curious he became.
Why she was avoiding him.
What that frightened look really meant.
Her refusal of him stirred his arrogant desire to conquer.
Before he knew it, that feeling had gone beyond ordinary curiosity and become a definite interest.
It felt as though only by putting her in his hands could he escape this wretched boredom and fatigue.
But today, something inexplicable happened.
Louis narrowed his brows and replayed it in his head.
This evening, Elysia at the restaurant.
And her face as she bid farewell in front of the carriage.
"…Ha."
It was absurd.
From today's Elysia,
'I saw Lily.'
Louis had originally disliked Elysia.
To put it that way, it was close to contempt.
A princess above all others. A woman who had everything from birth.
He thought it was greedy for her, burdened with heavy duties like him, to demand petty feelings like love or attention.
A life where he had to agonize over the empire's safety from the moment he opened his eyes until the moment he slept.
A girl who had become a woman, constantly whining beside him to look at her, to love her.
Her obsession suffocated him.
He was fed up.
So he pushed her away.
He deliberately treated her coldly, insulted her, and used Hector to trample her pride.
He thought that would tire her out until she fell away.
But today.
that hateful obsession and craving had vanished from Elysia.
She no longer begged for love.
She simply smiled calmly and politely.
But that appearance gave off a strange sense of discord.
From her indifferent gaze and soulless smile, he felt the same peculiar comfort and distance he had felt from Lily.
'What is this feeling?'
She looks at me, but she doesn't see me.
She is holding my hand, but I can't feel any warmth.
A hollowness like grasping at empty air.
And that irritated him to no end.
Clunk!
Louis irritably set the glass down on the table.
"Tsk."
He was annoyed.
He couldn't understand his own behavior.
Wasn't that what he had wanted so badly? For Elysia to lose interest in him.
Then why did he feel a sense of defeat instead of relief?
An uncomfortable feeling, as though watching his own possession dare to leap out of the display case on its own.
His insides twisted.
"Pathetic."
Louis let out a self-mocking laugh.
Even Hector had judged this to be in the realm of private life, not official business, and had backed away.
The crown prince, who should have been the most composed of all, had lost his calm and was showing his emotions over nothing more than a change in his fiancée's attitude.
The days when he had to give himself a failing grade like this could be counted on one hand in his whole life.
He had to admit it.
He was wavering now.
Between the illusion called Saintess Lily and the reality called Elysia.
And because of the unidentified variable named Cassian del Farne that had wedged itself into that gap.
"…No wonder Iveline was worried."
Louis muttered bitterly.
He had just brushed it off, thinking his younger sister was worrying too much without much thought.
But his younger sister had already noticed it.
The crack that had begun somewhere.
* * *
The next morning.
I grasped the laboratory doorknob.
'Ah, this is the life.'
Just breathing felt like bliss.
I wondered if a person could really become this relaxed.
The world looked beautiful. I felt a surge of mercy so great I thought I could avoid stepping on even a passing ant.
I opened the door wide in a refreshingly good mood.
Bang!
I stopped dead the moment I opened the door and went in.
'Huh?'
The scene in the laboratory was outrageous.
The pink-haired saintess was sweeping the floor diligently with a broom, and beside her, a brown squirrel, a white rabbit, and even a sparrow perched by the window were all trailing after Lily, watching her clean.
The tension they had when they were being scolded and punished by me last Friday was gone, and now everyone was in full-on flower-brain mode.
If it were my usual self, I would have frowned first and thought, 'These guys loosened up in just one day? Should I crack down on them again?'
But today was different.
Why?
Because my heart already held 40 billion, future pay included.
My heart's floor space had expanded by 40 billion pyeong.
I stepped inside with a deliberately benevolent smile.
"You're here?"
Lily jumped and greeted me, gripping the broom tightly.
"Oh, yeah. You're early, huh?"
"Yes, yes..."
"You worked hard cleaning. You're very diligent."
A warm compliment.
Even I thought it was the line of an ideal roommate—very gentlemanly and kind.
But.
The reaction was catastrophic.
"…!!"
Lily's shoulders shot up like popcorn.
The little beast trio sprawled on the floor also perked up their ears and looked up at me with terrified eyes.
Gulp!
Lily swallowed hard.
Her pastel-colored eyes shook violently as if in an earthquake, and then tears welled up in them.
"Um... excuse me, Lord Cassian."
"Yes?"
"Am I... going to be thrown out in the end...?"
"…?"
What?
Lily, on the verge of tears, hugged the broom to her chest.
I lost my words for a moment and stood there blankly.
A deep sigh rose from inside me.
'...Fuck.'
Even when I try to be nice, she gets under my skin.
Seriously, cramming 40 billion pyeong full of frustration in one shot is a real talent.
What the hell was so wrong with my usual behavior that she'd hear even a compliment as a dismissal notice?
"No, hold on."
In frustration, I loosened my tie.
"When was I ever that evil to you? Huh? I fed you, gave you a room, even made sure you were disciplined. Why are you taking my kindness the wrong way?"
"Th-then... because you're so different from usual..."
"You're really saying some nasty things."
I let out a stunned laugh.
When had I?
…Hmm.
Actually, thinking about it, my words to Lily hadn't exactly been kind very often.
Every time we met, I just kept saying go away, you're annoying, don't come.
Still, admitting it would mean losing, so I kept my mouth shut.
"Hehe. I'm relieved."
Lily smiled bashfully, still holding the broom.
That smile looked harmless, pure, and utterly free of worldly worries.
A chill ran down my spine in an instant.
That, that.
That 'I want to take home a stray puppy' moment.
With a coin worth 30 billion on the line, if I start getting attached here, I'm really in trouble.
"I don't want us getting any closer, so let's not smile so carelessly. Getting attached is exhausting."
We'll be seeing each other for a long time anyway.
"Yes..."
Lily pouted, the corners of her mouth turning down.
It was as if I could see puppy ears drooping.