En Travesti - I Became a Fake Prince - Chapter 17

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***

Hot flames and blurred vision. The screams of her siblings. And the cold water poured only over Leticia’s head.

“…!”

Leticia awoke with a start from the familiar nightmare of that day.

At the same time, she met the blue glowing eyes of a beast in the pitch-black darkness.

“…Tan?”

The silver mass of fur heavily lying on top of her wagged its tail.

Leticia rubbed her eyes and raised her upper body. As she sat up on the bed, she could see the bedroom door half-open.

“Why are you here? You should be with your master.”

Even when she gently pushed him away, he wouldn’t budge. Rather, thinking it was a game, Tan licked her hand.

Seeing his energetic appearance that made her wonder if he really was nocturnal, Leticia finally got up.

When she got down from the bed, Tan jumped down and circled around her. While doing so, he bounced and bumped his body against Leticia.

Unable to handle the wolf-dog’s bulk, which was as big as herself, Leticia stumbled.

“Stop, stop! Why are you so strong? Okay, okay. Let’s go out.”

Almost being dragged by Tan, who was pulling at her clothes with his teeth, Leticia hurriedly went outside the bedroom with just a blanket wrapped around her.

When they went out into the castle corridor, dim lights were on.

In the chilly night air, Leticia crouched down in front of Tan and said.

“You should go back to your home now. Your master must be waiting.”

Though she wasn’t sure which floor Chamuka was on, since this was Basilinte’s main castle, his room must be somewhere here.

“Thank you for waking me from the nightmare, Tan. Though you might have actually caused the nightmare by being so heavy… Well, anyway, thanks for waking me up.”

Leticia tried to go back into the room, leaving Tan in the corridor.

However, Tan insisted on following Leticia back into the room, and after several attempts, Leticia failed to separate herself from him.

“What’s wrong with you?”

Though she tried pleading with Tan, there was no way she could communicate with a beast.

Leticia gave up on sending Tan away and lay down on the bed. Tan followed her up and curled his body beside her, but she ignored it and just closed her eyes.

She was more tired because of the nightmare.

‘He’ll go back on his own later…’

Leticia thought as she instantly fell into sleep.

***

Next to the golden-haired child sleeping curled up in a ball, a snow-white wolf-dog was sleeping similarly curled up.

Chamuka stared down at the bed where only the sound of peaceful breathing could be heard.

After searching everywhere when he heard Tan had disappeared in the middle of the night, he finally found him after discovering silver fur on the first floor.

Unlike Chamuka’s still uneven breathing from walking around everywhere, the bed was completely peaceful.

Chamuka felt annoyed. It had been a while since he’d felt emotional.

Controlling a beast that couldn’t even communicate required tremendous patience. If Chamuka had been an ordinary child, it would have been unbearable.

“Haah…”

He sighed and lifted Tan, who was buried in the bed, placing him on the floor.

Perhaps feeling cold from the empty space left by Tan, the sleeping prince shivered.

When he carefully covered him with the blanket up to his neck, the prince’s head tilted and touched the back of his hand.

“…”

Setting aside questions of beauty, when they first met, the prince had looked so sickly that one might have questioned if he was truly alive, but now…

‘They say the Herta Imperial family is known for their beautiful bloodline.’

This random piece of imperial trivia, which he had dutifully memorized despite its seeming irrelevance, suddenly surfaced in his mind.

‘I suppose this kind of face meets the standard of what’s generally considered pretty.’

Chamuka studied the prince’s face one more time, mentally comparing his textbook knowledge with what he saw before him, then pulled his hand away.

Then he picked up Tan and expressionlessly left the prince’s bedroom.

Leticia slept soundly until morning, unaware that anyone had entered her room.

However, as they say, a long tail gets stepped on.

On the dawn of the third day since Tan’s nightly bedroom invasions began, Leticia met Chamuka’s golden eyes staring down at her.

“Huh…?”

Blinking her still drowsy eyes, Leticia suddenly sat up when she saw the sleeping Tan in Chamuka’s arms.

“Lord Chamuka?!”

“Go back to sleep. I just came to take this one back.”

Though he wasn’t particularly careful in holding him, Tan was deeply asleep.

Seeing how naturally he carried Tan, Leticia asked with a sinking feeling.

“Could it be, every time Tan came here until now…”

“I’ve been coming to get him.”

It meant he had been seeing her sleeping all this time for the past three days.

“Don’t worry about it. Did you think I came to kill you in the middle of the night? I could kill you in broad daylight without anyone saying anything, why bother at night?”

Chamuka threw out harsh words just like when they first met.

He looked tired. Even though he was bigger than others his age, he was still just a 10-year-old child. It couldn’t have been easy taking away a large dog every night.

Leticia had observed that Chamuka usually maintained a rational attitude. However, occasionally, when under stress, his true nature seemed to come out…

‘Wait, could this be his original personality? Without the curse?’

Leticia thought that far before shaking her head, dismissing the idea.

Anyone could become irritable when stressed.

“…Should I block the door from now on?”

Since this was the room Chamuka used as a child, it didn’t have any locks. That’s why she couldn’t lock it, but she thought maybe she could pull a chair to block the door.

“It would have been better if you’d thought of that earlier.”

“You’re right.”

“…”

When she calmly agreed to Chamuka’s sarcasm, he fell silent.

Leticia opened her mouth while looking at Tan in Chamuka’s arms, but closed it again without saying anything.

She wanted to ask if it wouldn’t be better to just put him on a leash since he had to find him every night…

Somehow, it felt like that wasn’t something she should say.

There must be a reason why he wasn’t implementing such an obvious solution.

“If you could tell me where to take him, I could bring him there when he comes to me.”

“Aren’t you curious why I don’t tie him up?”

“No.”

Chamuka, who was about to leave the bedroom with Tan, paused. After that brief hesitation, he immediately left Leticia’s bedroom.

Leaving behind just a few words.

“Third floor, central room.”

***

Having gone through such an ordeal at dawn, Leticia ate breakfast while half-dozing.

Still, Emma had become somewhat more docile since they arrived at Basilinte’s main castle.

It seemed she was being mindful of others around her. Leticia wished she would maintain that attitude just until her death.

Emma even served meals in her own way.

Though it was just placing the tray with food on the table and leaving, but that was something.

…or so Leticia was thinking.

“Y-Your Highness! Don’t eat that. I-I saw Your Highness’s nurse putting poison in the meal!”

At the urgent words of the maid who suddenly entered the room, Leticia realized she had been evaluating Emma too positively and reflected on her judgment.

Leticia looked down at the soup she had been eating until just now.

The silver utensils in the soup were gleaming, but there could be poisons that silver couldn’t detect.