Chapter 6 (Part 2)

After the Crown Prince left, Amelia attended her next class with a troubled mind. The discomfort she felt from him still lingered.

When she touched Edwin, she never felt repulsed, but touching the Crown Prince felt extremely unpleasant, and she wondered why.

She had a vague idea but couldn’t be certain, so she couldn’t come to a clear answer. However, she knew one thing for sure. If she married the Crown Prince like this, she would never be happy.

If he had chosen one of the ladies who adored him, at least one person would have been happy…. She resented him so much because his choice resulted in an unhappy marriage for both the Crown Prince and herself.

“Lady Hamilton, you need to focus.”

Madame Lowden’s voice snapped Amelia out of her thoughts. She replied that she would be careful, but in reality, she couldn’t. The earlier incident kept bothering her, making it impossible to concentrate on the class.

Even after moving to the study, she couldn’t focus. There was a mountain of documents to review, but she couldn’t concentrate. She tried to pull herself together and pick up a document when a royal attendant approached and greeted her politely.

“His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has sent a gift.”

‘A gift? What on earth is he up to?’

His behavior seemed suspicious, sending a gift after showing no interest earlier. It seemed like he had a purpose, making the gift unappealing.

She wasn’t interested in whatever he sent, but Eri naturally opened the boxes piled up on the floor and showed her.

“Look at this. His Royal Highness sent… oh my goodness!”

Eri, who was proudly opening a box, was so shocked that she dropped it, and the box and the tattered dress inside fell to the floor.

Amelia, who had been looking at Eri with an uninterested expression, widened her eyes. She immediately got up and checked the other gifts sent by the Crown Prince.

The necklaces, earrings, and other accessories were fine, but all the dresses were slashed with a knife.

“What on earth is going on?”

Even though it hadn’t been officially announced, no one could act recklessly towards Amelia, who had been chosen as the Crown Princess, so she couldn’t understand the situation.

‘Who would dare to tamper with the gift sent by the Crown Prince?’

Only a high-ranking noble who was displeased with her being chosen as the Crown Princess could act this way.

As Eri put the fallen dress back into the box, she asked.

“What should we do?”

“Just pretend you don’t know. Tell His Royal Highness that I received the gift well.”

She couldn’t tell if this was a one-time occurrence or the beginning of something, so Amelia decided it was better to quietly observe the situation for now.

She concluded this by thinking of the worst-case scenario. She had to consider the possibility that the Crown Prince did this on purpose to see her reaction.

Eri hesitated for a moment, asking with her eyes if this was really okay, but Amelia nodded firmly.

“Understood.”

After hesitating for a moment, Eri bowed deeply and left the study.

After ensuring that today’s incident wouldn’t spread, Amelia reopened the box containing the torn dress and examined it.

“They really do everything, don’t they?”

Until now, it had been fine, but this time, she felt sorry for herself. She was already unhappy about being in this unwanted position, and now she had to endure such harassment as well.

Although she felt disgusted, Amelia decided to ignore it for now and focus on her work.

As nothing else unusual happened after that, Amelia, being busy, gradually forgot about the incident with the slashed dress.

* * *

“Have some tea while you work.”

As Amelia was concentrating on her work in the study, Eri came in with her favorite black tea as usual.

“Just leave it here.”

Amelia, being extremely busy, gestured for her to leave it and didn’t take her eyes off the documents. After finishing an urgent task, she picked up the teacup and took a sip.

“Ugh!”

It didn’t taste like the usual black tea. The moment it entered her mouth, it was so bitter that her face scrunched up, and she spat it back into the teacup.

‘What is this taste!’

“Are you alright?”

“I-I’m fine.”

She had to push away Eri’s hand, who ran over with concern.

“What if it’s poisoned? I’ll call the royal physician immediately.”

“No, it’s fine.”

If it were poisoned, she would have either died immediately or felt something wrong with her body, but there was nothing. It seemed like someone had played a minor prank.

However, Eri hurried out of the study and returned with the royal physician, an elderly man with a full white beard.

Despite her insistence that she was fine, the physician forced Amelia to sit on the sofa and checked her for any abnormalities.

“Fortunately, there are no issues. It seems someone just played a mischievous prank.”

As expected, there was no poison in the tea. Someone had simply added a bitter substance to it.

“Since it’s nothing serious, please don’t tell anyone about what happened today.”

Since her life wasn’t in danger, Amelia requested the physician not to inform anyone about what had happened.

Though he looked like he couldn’t believe it, he agreed not to make a big deal of it and left the study.

Amelia stared at the teacup she had been drinking from. She had ordered Eri not to clear it away as she wanted to investigate further.

‘Who could it be?’

Once could be a coincidence, but twice was not.

It was clear that someone among those who served her was acting on someone’s orders.

Amelia recalled the faces of the ladies who looked at her with disapproval. They were the only ones she suspected at the moment.

It had to be someone with enough power to mess with a gift from the Crown Prince or the tea that the future Crown Princess would drink.

‘Could it be that they were trying to torment me because they didn’t like me becoming the Crown Princess?’

As she pondered who the culprit might be, she noticed Eri’s particularly anxious expression. Eri looked so suspicious that Amelia ordered all the other attendants to leave the study, leaving only Eri behind.

Once everyone had left and it was just the two of them, Amelia got up and approached her.

“You, you know something, don’t you?”

“Huh? N-no, I don’t.”

Her startled and stuttering response made her look even more suspicious.

“Tell me the truth. If you don’t, I’ll say you put something strange in the teacup.”

“Eek! No, I didn’t do it. I’m not the culprit.”

With just a light threat, Eri frantically denied her involvement, waving her hands.

“Then why are you trembling so much? Anyone would think you were the culprit.”

“Well, actually….”

After hesitating for a moment, Eri closed her eyes tightly and shouted as if she didn’t care anymore.

“L-Lady Limerick also experienced something similar before.”

“Lady Limerick experienced something similar to me?”

“Yes. Actually, there was an order to keep it a secret….”

“Don’t worry. I’ll pretend I don’t know.”

Amelia raised the corners of her mouth deliberately, trying to reassure the terrified Eri. Only then did Eri relax and start talking about what had happened to Lady Limerick.

Before leaving the palace, Lady Limerick too had been subjected to mischievous pranks.

“The Crown Prince didn’t do anything while she was being harassed?”

“No, it wasn’t like that. Lady Limerick wanted to keep it a secret. So, His Royal Highness only found out after she left.”

‘Why did she keep the harassment a secret?’

The more Amelia heard about Lady Limerick, the more incomprehensible things seemed.

“Do you know why Lady Limerick left the palace?”

“I, I don’t really know. From what I saw, she was always perfectly dignified, so I was very surprised when I heard she suddenly disappeared.”

“….”

Looking at Eri’s face, it didn’t seem like she was lying. However, she couldn’t be completely trusted.

Since it was impossible to know who her collaborator was, Amelia couldn’t afford to let her guard down and trust anyone in the royal palace.

‘Why are these things happening to me?’

Amelia didn’t know how to accept the things happening to her. She couldn’t calm her confused emotions but forced herself to sit at the desk and think deeply.

‘Is there anyone I can ask for help?’

Without the people of the Hamilton family by her side, she couldn’t trust anyone in the royal palace. So, finding the culprit alone was impossible.

Since there was a possibility that the Crown Prince was the culprit, she couldn’t ask him for help. It would be fortunate if he wasn’t, but she couldn’t rule out the possibility.

While thinking about who might be trustworthy in the royal palace, someone came to Amelia’s mind.

“Edwin….”

She called his name but then swallowed it back.

‘Can I ask him for help?’

Suddenly, she remembered the suggestion made by the Duke of Hamilton. He had told her to use him to escape this situation.

‘Instead of asking him to help find the culprit, should I ask him to help me avoid becoming the Crown Princess?’

At this moment, Amelia wanted more to avoid becoming the Crown Princess than to find the culprit. If she didn’t become the Crown Princess, the harassment would stop, and there would be no need to go through the trouble of finding the culprit.

So, she wanted to ask Edwin to persuade the Crown Prince to change his mind.

Thinking about it, no matter how much he avoided her, he couldn’t refuse if she called him. He couldn’t refuse the order of the future Crown Princess.

If Edwin came to see her, she could explain the situation and ask for his help. She could do that….

Recalling the look on his face the last time she saw him, her impulsive urge subsided again.

Having seen his painfully contorted face, how could she ask for his help?

Amelia shook her head and picked up one of the documents in front of her. Her hands were trembling slightly as her mind was still unsettled.