Chapter 3. Where Exactly Is My Body Touching You?!

Where exactly is my body touching you?!

Suppressing what she wanted to ask, Lottie concentrated all her nerves on what was behind her.

First, a man. He seemed like a young man with a smooth baritone voice, and though his voice carried a hint of amusement, he appeared to be as tense as she was.

Understandably so. This place was unknown to anyone who wasn’t part of the royal family……

‘Then who is this man?’

As Lottie was sorting through the young men of the royal family who fit the criteria, she belatedly realized her situation and swallowed a curse.

‘In this situation, the most suspicious one isn’t him but me.’

How would she explain this situation where a noble lady from the countryside had boldly entered a secret space known only to the royal family?

Although Lottie had learned that fleeing was the winning strategy in hopeless situations, she couldn’t escape because the man behind her grabbed her arm.

“I told you not to move.”

The man who had coldly snapped at her hesitated, seemingly surprised that the arm in his grip was thinner than expected.

When he released her arm, Lottie moved away from him as if burned.

Lottie, now pressed against the doorway, faced the other person.

Their gazes busily searched for each other in the darkness.

“This is a place that only members of the royal family would know exists.”

It was frustrating that while the man in the darkness spoke so confidently, she couldn’t offer a single word in her defense.

I was (used to be) the queen! And who are you? She couldn’t say that either.

“If you can’t provide a proper explanation, I’ll have no choice but to turn you over to the guards.”

“I-I’ll explain later. For now, just let me stay here briefly,”

“Explanation first.”

Though it irritated her that he was steering the conversation after already deciding the outcome, what could she do?

To avoid being dragged away by guards, Lottie wracked her brain for a clumsy excuse.

Since it was too dark to see faces anyway, perhaps she could pretend to be a distant branch of the royal family.

“I am……”

Her speech stopped abruptly.

— What if, after I let you go alive, you run to him and confess everything you’ve seen and heard?

The forceful conversation as if the answer was predetermined. The low, middle-toned voice.

A voice that seemed mixed with laughter but was actually cold to the core.

Things she had dismissed as coincidences came together to point at the man standing a few steps in front of her.

Light leaking through the slightly open door and eyes now somewhat accustomed to the darkness allowed her to make out the man before her, albeit hazily.

‘Calyx Valdea.’

The appearance of the beautiful tyrant, as cold as when he shot and killed her.

* * *

At that time, as the ball in the grand hall was reaching its peak.

Patrick, the crown prince of Matila and Lottie’s ex-husband, had stepped back to the landing and was watching the dance floor filled with excitement.

Dressed impeccably in formal attire, with neatly combed brown hair, thick eyebrows, grayish-blue eyes, and a firmly set jaw when his mouth was closed, he gave an impression of both purity and refinement.

“Your Highness.”

Philip Mons, who had danced the first dance with Lottie, carefully approached Patrick, who was watching the dance floor with a subtle smile.

When Patrick merely shifted his eyes to look at him, Philip quickly bowed his head.

“I apologize. I tried to find an opportunity to steal the feather, but she disappeared as soon as the first dance ended……”

“You failed.”

Patrick finished Philip’s sentence. Philip couldn’t respond and lowered his head even more with a dismayed expression.

After silently turning his empty champagne glass this way and that, Patrick suddenly burst into laughter.

“Baron.”

A servant who appeared to be in his late thirties approached Patrick and Philip. He was holding a small box in his hand.

When the servant opened the box, a familiar feather emerged. It was the peculiar purple hair decoration that Patrick had ordered Philip to steal.

“Preparing second and third alternatives for contingencies is a virtue of a king, isn’t it?”

“Y-yes! Most certainly, Your Highness!”

Philip quickly agreed with Patrick, who was looking at the feather in the box as if it were something precious.

Philip wondered why he had been put through such trouble if they could have forged an identical feather, but he didn’t dare voice his doubts.

“Your Highness. About the title you promised me……”

Philip, who had been continuing with a servile expression, suddenly closed his mouth. It was because he read the look in Patrick’s eyes directed at him.

Philip felt his face flush at that gaze, which barely concealed contempt and mockery.

“Go back. I will send someone to the Mons family soon.”

Such a thing would probably never happen.

Philip retreated hesitantly, suppressing his burning face. Patrick didn’t spare him a single glance until he had completely disappeared.

“Charlotte Ebenscher has disappeared……”

Patrick smirked as he recalled Philip’s words. He gestured to the servant, who quickly disappeared somewhere, clutching the box to his chest. Patrick turned his gaze to the dance floor with a smile.

The seventh dance was about to begin.

* * *

“I, I am……”

“……”

“I-I apologize for the intrusion.”

Though she knew he had neither a gun to pierce her heart nor an army to devastate her village at this moment, the sensation of dying from a gunshot felt as vivid as if it were happening right before her eyes.

So, like prey fleeing from a predator by instinct, Lottie abandoned even the explanation he demanded and grabbed the doorknob.

‘Knock knock. Knock.’

“……!”

And she froze again at the subsequent knocking sound.

Two knocks followed by one. The visitor outside the door repeated the meaningful knock at regular intervals.

Perhaps the title of a secret space known only to the royal family should be revoked by now.

Even as her heart pounded wildly, such a joke crossed her mind. She was too tense to even recognize it.

A sigh was heard from the darkness, and then Calyx, who had been facing her, began approaching the door.

Calyx knew whose knock this was. The prearranged time and place, the pre-agreed knock signal.

It was an accomplice who had helped the uninvited deposed crown prince safely enter the capital.

“I have a guest.”

Calyx said, looking down at Lottie who had her back turned to him. His voice was a pleasant baritone, but his tone was thoroughly indifferent.

When Lottie, standing firmly in front of the door, flinched, Calyx slowly leaned forward without changing his expression.

“Weren’t you on your way out?”

“……!”

“If you want, I’ll open it for you.”

“……! W-wait.”

Calyx reached over Lottie’s shoulder without hesitation.

His large hand covered Lottie’s gloved hand that was gripping the doorknob.

His firm fingers intertwined between her slender fingers, and the doorknob slowly twisted.

“……!”

Calyx stopped abruptly because of the small hand firmly gripping his arm.

“I just need a moment. After some time passes, I’ll leave quietly. I’ll forget everything I’ve seen and heard here, so……”

The woman’s hand, which had been pressed under his large hand, slowly slipped out.

Soon after, the slender body turned halfway under his extended arm.

“……”

Now she was facing him with her back to the door.

At a distance close enough to feel each other’s breath, Lottie whispered.

“Don’t open it, please……”

Lottie didn’t know that the uninvited visitor outside the door was someone who had come on Calyx’s orders. So she thought another royal family member had arrived.

Amusingly, only one name came to mind in Lottie’s now-blanched thoughts.

Patrick.

Seeing how she was asking for help from the madman who had driven her to death because she didn’t want to be entangled with her ex-husband, it seemed she hated marriage more than death.

Lottie’s hand clutching Calyx’s clothes trembled desperately with that realization.

To use a metaphor, it was like a strangled young animal clutching the hand that was choking it with its small paws.

“……”

After watching this scene for a moment, Calyx finally let out a low chuckle.

‘This woman is not a spy sent by Patrick.’

With that certainty, the thin tension that had settled over his entire body relaxed. He laughed hollowly again at the realization that it was a sensation he hadn’t even been aware of.

‘Well.’

If the secret meeting between him and his accomplice had leaked to the royal family and this woman were an interferer sent by them, she would have deployed seduction rather than pleading with tears like this.

That would have been the best strategy that could come from his cousin’s mind.

‘But.’

Just because she wasn’t an interferer didn’t mean he had any reason to help her.

Calyx knew the temperament of his accomplice outside the door well. He would choose to silently dispose of the woman before him, whoever she might be, rather than risk exposing his identity.

Calyx, who had chosen to open the door, felt no guilt whatsoever. Just as no one feels guilty about a hungry baby mouse that has crawled into the kitchen.

It was at the moment his merciless hand twisted the doorknob.

“……”

A stream of light somehow seeped into the sealed room of darkness. It was a bluish light imbued with moonlight.

At its end was the woman.

In the place where the pitch-black darkness had slightly receded, the woman’s face, which had been only faintly visible before, appeared clearly.

The eyes of the woman seeking salvation were a light green that would be insufficient to compare with any jewel.

A color that would make even a man without aesthetic sensibility hesitate momentarily about what expression to attach to it.

“……”

Before her, Calyx belatedly realized that he had been holding his breath.

At the end of this realization came bewilderment, and at the end of bewilderment, once again, the light green color.

Even in the darkness as black as spilled ink, there was a woman looking only at him.

“Do you want to live?”

The opposite of what he had thought came out of his mouth.

“If I save you…… what benefit would I get?”

Calyx took a step closer. As if it wasn’t enough despite already being at a distance where not even a sheet of paper could fit between them.

Standing as if to devour her, he slowly lifted Lottie’s chin. The light green eyes he faced trembled beautifully.

“Think carefully. So that you can’t manage without my help.”