Chapter 38. Side Story: Master’s Night (1)

 

 

An unhappy parent’s marriage was not a reason not to get married, but it was as good a reason as any to postpone it.

 

Marriage was not much of an interest to Alec. Unlike other children of the nobility, he was not interested in marriage, even though he was old enough to marry, and he was not interested in women, either. Then there was his preference for wandering off to strange places rather than establishing and settling down in a stable family, which also pushed him further away from marriage.

 

He stopped in the alleyways of Astina again today. And there he met a woman he was now quite familiar with.

 

“Will you not marry, Count?”

 

Rose Dior. She was the princess of this country.

 

But she was in a pitiful situation, locked up alone in a secluded room, under the watch of her father, the king. She usually lived a quiet, breathless life, but sneaking out of the castle under her father’s watchful eye was her only pleasure.

 

“I’m going to have to get married soon….”

 

She seemed to have something to say…

 

When Alec first saw Rose, she was dressed as a commoner in a remote alley. And she suddenly asked Alec to give her some money. It was typical of a naive princess, even though she was locked up in a castle. There was nothing commoner-like about her, from her clean hands and the way she spoke with her fearless demeanor, so he quickly realized that Rose was not of ordinary status.

 

When he asked what her name was, she replied.

 

“Rose Dior. My name is Rose Dior.”

 

Alec, who had been thinking ahead for a while, suddenly asked.

 

“Rose. Is that a common name?”

 

She pondered for a moment before quickly answering.

 

“Wouldn’t the most common names used for women be Roseena, Rosie, and if not that, then at least Rose? If your hair color and eye color is red like mine, they’ll give you a name to grow beautiful like roses. It’s just a meaningless name.”

 

Her mother’s eye color was red.

 

And she had the same name.

 

Rose…

 

Alec quietly pondered the name.

 

“I hate my name. I’m not an easy rose to break…”

 

She threw him a look and continued speaking in a bitter voice.

 

“My mother told me. Women naturally suffer because of the men they love. Just like their fathers and husbands.”

 

Rose’s father, the king of Astina, hated his wife, the queen and Rose’s mother. He also didn’t like Rose, who looked just like her, and after his wife died, he hid her from his view, as if she was also his wife.

 

“So I don’t love men, and I’m going to use them.”

 

So…

 

“Will you marry me?”

 

Rose laughed as she spoke flatly, as if to say, “Have you had tea or dinner?” Gasping, Alec could only chuckle .

 

“If you don’t love a man ….What happens to the Princess’s lover?”

 

“That’s the exception.”

 

The princess had a man she loved. She said he was an escort knight who had stayed by her side since she was a child. Even if it was a love that she could not fulfill because of her status. For Rose, that was.

 

“I loved him with a passion. He said he didn’t care if I didn’t love him. He just wants to give me love.”

 

“I’ll have to decline. I don’t want to be swayed too much by your childish word games. I’m not really interested in your proposal either.”

 

When Alec flatly refused, Rose complained as if she didn’t like it.

 

“…… Stop being cheap and marry me. It’s hard to get a bride as good as me. I may be a naughty girl, but I’m a princess.”

 

Rose spoke, blinking her eyes. Her impudence was not offensive to him.There wasn’t a shred of rational emotion in it either, but he didn’t hate Rose. In fact, he liked her. When everyone was scared of him, but Rose wasn’t. He didn’t hate the princess who was alone and pitifully abandoned.

 

That didn’t mean that he felt enough to help her, though.

 

“You don’t care about marriage anyway. You don’t have any women, you don’t know any women, and you’re moving from one battlefield to another every day.”

 

“I don’t think that’s the reason I should marry you. I’m not in the least bit interested in doing something that will cost me.”

 

“I will surely be sold as a political scapegoat to an old and ugly nobleman. And then one day I’ll try to escape with Leopold, and I’ll be trapped forever in my husband’s hands. I will end my life in misery and pity.”

 

Rose deliberately tried to sound as pathetic as possible.

 

At that moment, he remembered his mother. The mother who had thought she was trapped in that big, fancy castle. His father could not understand her and blamed her even more, and they fought every day. The end result was a catastrophe.

 

“Is there anything you want from me? You can have everything but me.”

 

Alec asked, staring at the princess in a mischievous voice.

 

“Can you give me Astina’s military secrets?”

 

There was a small wobble in Rose’s throat, as if she didn’t expect the words. …

 

“In exchange for handing them over, you will help me escape all of this.”

 

It was the smallest, most covert, but clearest voice he had ever heard.

 

* * *

 

With the help of the princess, the war ended easier than he thought it would.

 

The princess, who was bullied at the castle, had probably worked tirelessly to steal the secrets. He sought the princess as a trophy and they were able to marry without incident.

 

The plan they had put together was simple. Alec would marry Rose, and they would act like a loving couple so as not to arouse suspicion. Then, as time went on and interest in this marriage died down, the princess would run away with her lover.

 

Astina, a conservative country, handed Rose over to Alec.

 

Everything went smoothly.

 

Except for one thing.

 

It was the first night after returning back to the castle.

 

 

Alec was nonchalant. It was only a fake marriage anyway, and he had no intention of touching the Princess’s body. He just wanted to pass the time.

 

But when he arrived in front of the bedroom, he noticed something strange. The expression on the face of the Princess’s maid was awkward like she was scared.

 

“The Princess is sleeping. She seemed to have a slight fever…why don’t you come back tomorrow?”

 

 

Ignoring the maid’s words, Alec went inside and removed the canopy of the bed and found it empty, as if it had been empty all along. Outside the open window, only the curtains were fluttering.

 

“…… What is the meaning of this?”

 

He asked irritably.

 

“………She has gone out….through the window.”

 

Alec couldn’t believe Rose just ran off to see her lover on the first day.

 

Rose could not abandon her habit of sneaking out of the castle from Astina. Alec knew the princess was blinded by love, but he didn’t know she was this blinded. She should have waited until some time passed, but she left quickly on her wedding night when people were watching.

 

As he was thinking he would handle this situation, he saw a little girl looking at him seriously. She was shivering like a little bird in the rain.

 

As he looked at her, he remembered.

 

“Thank God, thank you so much. Thank you.”

 

Oh, that time.

 

He remembered that her eyes were clear as they stared at him while the girl was lying on the floor with her chest fully exposed. Even though she was shaking, his golden eyes were as clear as light.

 

He looked down at Evely.

 

She was quite an impressive opponent.

 

For a moment, he was intrigued.

 

No, perhaps he needed a little entertainment to ease his irritation.

 

“I am tired from the long war and need something to soothe my travel fatigue. So I’m gonna hold you instead.”

 

Instantly the eyes of the girl in front of him began to shake relentlessly.

 

“Don’t you like it?”

 

Thinking nothing of it as he said it to tease her, but the girl boldly began to take off her clothes. He always thought he was indifferent to women, but at that moment, his desire crept up like a raging storm.

 

That was the first night they spent together.

 

It was the beginning of everything.

 

Evely looked around the whole time. From that night, or rather, from that first moment, like she was trying to survive. It was the same when the slave market, when she broke the vase, and the night the princess ran away. There was an instinctive gesture, like a herbivore was being alert.

 

But the irony was, at the same time, tactless.

 

Then the next day he called Evely over to give her something if she wished because he thought he had held her too much the day before, but Evely suddenly mentioned the princess.

 

He didn’t know if it was about him or not, and the way she was talking about the Princess was funny to him, so he just let her be the Princess’s maid.

 

Until then, he had a bit of fun in this boring and dull place.

 

Of course, he was also attracted to her body. He was so absorbed in her body he was crazy about her.There was no doubt in his mind that the little maid struggling underneath him was quite cute, and that he liked her enough to return again and again, using the Princess as an excuse to visit her.

 

However, with time, his thinking slowly shifted. While everything was going according to plan, there was only one thing that he could not have predicted.

 

It was only his mind.

 

***