3. Captured by the Tyrant

Time passed quickly and it was finally the day of the victory banquet.

Having lived as a count’s daughter for two years, she thought she had become accustomed to splendor. But the banquet hosted by the imperial family far exceeded Erna’s imagination.

Dozens of crystal chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and sculptures inlaid with jewels. There were countless other things to list, but unfortunately now was not the time to leisurely admire them.

Her two eyes moved busily as if searching for someone among the crowded people.

‘Zenon doesn’t seem to have come. Violet is…… there she is.’

Violet stood beside Marchioness Plessen with an expression as if she had resigned herself to everything. But something was strange. Nowhere in this vast hall could she see the crown prince, who was the protagonist of the banquet.

“His Highness the crown prince doesn’t seem to have arrived yet.”

“Indeed.”

Listening to the nobles’ murmuring, Erna quietly slipped out of the banquet hall.

It was an unexpectedly good opportunity. If the crown prince appeared, the empress would immediately announce the engagement in front of the nobles. She planned to find the crown prince first before that happened.

In her urgency, as Erna wandered around the imperial palace randomly, a place suddenly came to mind. The lily garden that the former empress Celestine, the crown prince’s deceased birth mother, had personally tended to with care during her lifetime.

As expected, the crown prince was there.

Standing in the middle of the garden filled with pure white lilies on all sides, he had a face that seemed lost in thought. His jet-black hair and the handsome features beneath it clearly revealed that he was the male lead of this world. But……

What should she say to approach him?

The crown prince would probably regard Violet as a spy planted by the current empress Vanessa, and accept the engagement to strike back at the empress. From then on, Violet’s life would truly be hell just like in the original story.

“What are you?”

At the ominous voice that settled by her ear, Erna gasped and inhaled sharply. She had been hiding behind a pillar for a moment to think, but had no idea the crown prince had approached right in front of her.

“What are you doing here?”

Erna, who quickly came to her senses, hurriedly greeted him with proper etiquette.

“Erna Lizbeth greets the small sun of the empire.”

The crown prince, who lightly ignored Erna’s greeting, looked her up and down with a cold gaze.

“Answer.”

“Pardon?”

“What were you doing hiding like a little rat? You’ll need to give a proper answer for daring to spy on the imperial family without permission.”

He placed his hand on the sword sheath at his waist. As if proving the six years spent on bloody battlefields, the crown prince’s eyes looking at her were filled with murderous intent. One wrong move and her head would fly off before she could even think about completing the quest.

“I came here despite the rudeness because I have something urgent to ask Your Highness. I swear it was not my intention to spy.”

Her hand gripping the dress hem was damp with sweat. There was no point in thinking more anyway since no clever solution would come. Erna took a slow deep breath and opened her mouth.

“Your engagement with the daughter of Marquis Plessen, are you really going to do it?”

“……What?”

Did she ask too directly?

But she had always been spontaneous and impulsive by nature, far from being a planning type of person. Just because she had possessed someone else’s body didn’t mean her true nature could change overnight.

“I don’t know where you picked up information about a matter that hasn’t even been officially announced yet. But what’s the young lady’s purpose in asking about it?”

“I was hoping you wouldn’t go through with that engagement……”

“Why.”

“That, that’s because……”

Her downcast eyelashes trembled. At Erna’s hesitant attitude, the crown prince drew his sword from its sheath with a scraping sound, as if he had no intention of waiting any longer.

“I clearly warned you to give a proper answer. You’re the one who threw away the opportunity.”

Feeling a threat to her life from the sharp blade that was half-drawn, Erna shouted in desperation.

“Because I’m in love with Your Highness the crown prince!”

Ah, I don’t know anymore.

When she opened her tightly closed eyes, the crown prince was looking down at her with an incredulous expression. It was a natural reaction. Even she herself found it this absurd.

“You like me……”

He chuckled and tilted his head sideways.

“You and I are meeting for the first time today. Above all, living in the empire, you must have heard rumors about me at least once.”

Alexion von Reinhardt. Erna was well aware of the rumors about him.

A ruthless nature that earned him the modifier of iron-blooded tyrant. Mercy and forgiveness didn’t exist in his dictionary, and battlefields he swept through didn’t leave even a single blade of grass. The rumors that his heart was made of iron were so widespread for good reason.

“And yet you babble nonsense about love and such? You expect me to believe such words.”

“Rather, those rumors made my heart grow! I’ve been hearing about your brilliant achievements on the battlefield from my parents since I was young. How could my heart not flutter hearing that?”

When the desire to live is desperate, even lies she wouldn’t normally tell seem to flow out so smoothly. Of course, the crown prince didn’t seem to believe her at all.

“Is your goal the position of crown princess?”

The crown prince murmured lowly, still keeping his hand on his sword. At his silver-gray eyes that had grown colder than before, Erna’s heart sank with a thud.

Just as she was breaking out in cold sweat from being cornered.

“The banquet is in full swing, yet the main character doesn’t even show his face and leisurely loiters around.”

With the sound of pointed shoes, someone walked out from under the deep shadows cast in the corridor. The woman in a red dress that revealed her body lines without reservation and adorned with gold was none other than Empress Vanessa.

“Knowing that engagement talks are going around, you embrace a woman as soon as you return? That attitude of taking imperial duties lightly hasn’t changed at all from six years ago, Crown Prince.”

Vanessa, who completely ignored Erna, clicked her tongue at the crown prince with a contemptuous gaze. But the crown prince didn’t care at all and rather chuckled as he replied.

“Oh my, does it look that way? If that’s what you want to see……”

The crown prince, who had meaningfully drawn out his words, suddenly pulled Erna’s waist toward him.

“I should meet your expectations.”

The crown prince slowly rubbed Erna’s lower lip with his finger as if showing off in front of the watching empress. His touch, which had been fiddling with her soft lips and parting the gap, slowly moved downward.

There was no time to grasp the situation. At the hot touch sliding down her slender nape and deeply carved collarbone, Erna struggled in shock, but it was impossible to escape from the crown prince’s embrace with her weak strength.

“Crown Prince!”

Vanessa’s angry shout rang out sharply. The atmosphere rapidly turned menacing.

“Your, Your Highness……!”

Just before being swallowed by the crown prince’s lips, Erna pushed his shoulder with all her might.

Before her ragged breathing could even settle, Erna panted and said she would withdraw first. If she stayed like this, it was obvious only she would be hurt. The crown prince caught her as she tried to hurriedly run away without even getting permission in her panic.

“There’s still something left to discuss, so wait outside.”

Erna, who had raised her head to refuse, hesitated and closed her mouth again. This was because the crown prince’s expression with his back to the empress was distorted quite differently from before. In the end, her steps couldn’t pass the banquet hall.

Whether it was unfortunate or fortunate, the waiting time wasn’t as long as expected. She couldn’t hear the content of their conversation, but just seeing the crown prince’s swollen red cheek and the blood on his lips was enough to guess.

The empress, who had been looking over Erna standing in the corridor, suddenly turned her head.

“Oh, Crown Prince. Did you hear by any chance? We’ve decided to remove all the lilies in this garden within a few days.”

“……”

“I don’t like the fragrance at all. I’m thinking of making a pond instead.”

“By whose authority.”

“His Majesty granted this place to me. Whether I burn this place down or plow it up, it’s all within my authority.”

At the crown prince’s hardening expression, Vanessa whispered with elation.

“When the swelling on your cheek goes down a bit, attend the banquet. Don’t be too late.”

After Vanessa left, it was the crown prince who broke the suffocating silence that had been flowing for a while.

“As you wish, I’ll make the engagement with the daughter of Marquis Plessen as if it never happened.”

At the unexpected words, Erna’s eyes widened. For someone who had drawn his sword and made murderous threats, he was granting her request too readily, which made her uneasy.

“And that vacant position can be filled by the young lady who loves me.”

“……What? Me?”

“Why are you so surprised? If I cancel the engagement at the young lady’s request, flies will swarm around me from now on, and naturally it should be your job to deal with the pests.”

“That may be so, but……”

“Exactly one year. During that time, as my fiancée, follow whatever I tell you to do.”

Looking at Erna who was blinking blankly in bewilderment, he added leisurely.

“You said you like me, right? Then it shouldn’t be difficult.”