Lin repeated soulless apologies with a face that said she had no choice. Finding this annoying, Mel looked at Lin even more resentfully.

“Even if Your Highness causes a bit of trouble, the Duke won’t kick you out, but I could be cut off immediately.”

“Do you think I would let that happen to you, Lin?”

“How long do you think Your Highness will stay here? You’ll leave the Ivanstein mansion and return to Reibritton, won’t you?”

“……”

Mel’s face, which had been full of disappointment at Lin’s words, stiffened slightly. But before Lin could notice that expression, Mel smiled and said,

“Even if you incur hatred, I’ll take responsibility until the end. I have a lot of money. Duke Ivanstein said I could take any leftover money given to me.”

“Oh my. Then give me half.”

“If you’re going to take half, shouldn’t you be responsible for me?”

“Hahaha.”

While Mel smiled back at Lin who burst into laughter, her mouth tasted bitter. In front of Lin, Mel put aside all the dignity and grace of a princess. Nevertheless, to Lin, Mel was ultimately a princess. A princess who would someday return to her kingdom.

“I want to rest now. You go do your work too, Lin.”

“Yes, call me if you need anything.”

“Okay.”

As soon as Lin left and closed the door, Mel flopped down on the bed.

“What would happen to me if they found out I was a slave?”

From her conversation with Genoa today, she could know for certain. Genoa thoroughly hated Mel, who was a slave back then.

Even though she knew that what Genoa wanted was the princess of Reibritton, as they talked about this and that and felt like they could communicate like before, she seemed to have unknowingly forgotten that fact. It was shocking to suddenly realize that Genoa found comfort in Mel, who showed the appearance of a princess.

Even wounds have their proper place. This was a presumptuous pain. Mel had no right to it. She shouldn’t have been hurt by them not recognizing her true self while standing before them as the Reibritton princess.

Moreover, wasn’t she in a position where she must not be discovered as the slave ‘Mel’? It was a pain she couldn’t understand herself.

“It’s better than dying.”

Mel moistened her dry mouth, which felt like bitter water was about to rise. Only after forcing down cold water did her mind seem to clear a little. Her situation was too precarious, pushed to the edge of a cliff with nowhere to retreat, to indulge in useless sentiments.

It was when Mel had just steeled her resolve.

“Your Highness, are you there?”

Just then, along with a neat knocking sound on the door, the butler’s voice was heard. “Come in,” Mel answered, unconsciously clearing her throat. The butler carefully opened the door and revealed himself. He bowed his head to Mel, who was sitting on the bed, and then opened his mouth.

“The master wishes to visit your bedroom tonight.”

Feeling her heart strangely thump, Mel hesitated to answer for a moment. But under the butler’s steady gaze, she finally nodded as if giving in.

“…I suppose so.”

“Then.”

The butler tried to turn around and leave after simply delivering the message. Watching his back, Mel suddenly remembered something and stopped him.

“I have a question.”

“Please speak.”

“How long have you been serving Duke Ivanstein?”

“Me?”

When Mel nodded, the butler’s face changed subtly. It was a face that didn’t understand why the princess was curious about such a thing.

“I’ve been serving the master since before he became Duke.”

“……”

This time, Mel’s face changed subtly at the butler’s answer. Did he mean he had been serving since Genoa survived the testing ground and became the heir to the Ivanstein ducal family?

As far as she knew, the current butler was not seen in the Ivanstein mansion until Genoa was dragged into the testing ground. At that time, the only person by Genoa’s side was Bane.

“You mean you’ve served Duke Ivanstein since he was young?”

“…Yes, but why are you asking that?”

The butler asked, narrowing his brows. Mel hurriedly added before he could become suspicious of anything else.

“I wanted to know when Duke Ivanstein’s severe insomnia started. You’ve served him for a long time, so you might know.”

“……”

The butler was one of the people who knew that she was acting as a sleeping pill for Duke Ivanstein. It was unexplainable by medicine or theology that the Duke, who abnormally couldn’t sleep, was able to fall asleep because of her. So it was quite natural for Mel to ask such a question. The butler seemed to think so too, as he relaxed his suspicious face and said,

“Even when I first started serving the master, he was still suffering from insomnia. Lord Bane was worried about many things.”

“I see.”

Mel nodded at the butler’s words. When she didn’t ask any more questions, the butler said he would leave and opened the door.

“……”

For a while, Mel thought about the conversation she had with the butler.

‘His insomnia must have started in that terrible place.’

Mel could vaguely understand what Genoa might have gone through there. She too had been in ‘that place’.

The butler clearly said he had served Genoa since he was young. That meant he had become Genoa’s man at an age when he could be called young, before becoming an adult. It probably wouldn’t be much different in timing from when Mel last saw Genoa.

That meant that the period Genoa was in that place wasn’t very long either.

‘Did his insomnia develop because of his sense of betrayal towards me?’

If Genoa’s insomnia was caused by resentment towards her, what was the reason he could sleep again in front of her?

Mel thought for a moment. But no matter how much she thought and racked her brain, she couldn’t come up with a reason.

‘Why did he come to misunderstand that I ran away?’

Mel’s question always circled around the same place. Until she found the answer to this question, she couldn’t spit out the stifling truth that always resided somewhere in her chest.

“…How many times am I going to have to worry about this?”

In the end, shaking her head, Mel tried to soothe her own heart. But even after this, if she faced Genoa and saw him trying to find the image of the Reibritton princess in her in any way, Mel would inevitably keep recalling some moment from the past.

“……”

Mel was now at a point where she didn’t even know what she wanted to do herself.

* * *

“Yes. You might be curious.”

“Yes.”

“You didn’t say anything else, did you?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Alright, you may leave.”

“Yes.”

Genoa dismissed everyone after hearing the butler’s report about his conversation with the princess.

He was lying in bed for the first time in a while. Though fatigue from the memorial service weighed heavily on his entire body, his eyes burned fiercely with no intention of closing.

“Haah……”

Genoa let out a deep sigh as he placed his arm over his eyes. He felt a pain he hadn’t known before meeting the princess, back when severe insomnia was just a part of daily life.

His body, having once tasted deep sleep, now craved her presence throughout his entire stay at the imperial palace away from her. He could briefly doze off while recalling the princess’s face, voice, and the subtle movements she made beside him, but it was only for a fleeting moment.

His body, which used to forget fatigue with just those brief moments of rest, now thirsted desperately for more.

‘If this insomnia doesn’t improve before the princess truly gains her freedom and flies away…’

The princess would likely obtain her freedom from him with high probability. She had shown a face that wouldn’t regret throwing away all the honor built upon Reibritton’s treasures. It wasn’t difficult to predict what path she would take once she gained the freedom she so desperately wanted.

She would surely hide her identity and disappear somewhere where no one could recognize her. Genoa’s lips twisted into a crooked smile as he recalled the princess’s face looking up at him earlier, covered in dirt.

If he could never cure his insomnia, Genoa had no intention of letting the princess go so easily. No matter how much she yearned for freedom.

“Though I do have a card to hold onto her……”

Genoa recalled the personal favor she had asked of him. She said a runaway maid took something precious with her. From what he had experienced of the princess, he didn’t think she was the type to seek revenge just because a maid had run away. He couldn’t find any trace of hatred in the princess’s face when she spoke about the runaway maid.

What the princess truly wanted was that precious thing in the runaway maid’s possession. If he could find out what that was, Genoa could negotiate with the princess once more.

‘Whether she’ll voluntarily be my sleeping pill forever, or be forced to do so.’

He didn’t plan to give her a choice then, but this was only if his insomnia persisted. After all, Genoa himself had no intention of relying on the princess forever.

Well, it wouldn’t be boring to keep her by his side.

If he had to forcefully clip the wings of the freedom-craving princess to keep her, he would surely lose such small amusements. That would be quite regrettable.

“I’m coming in.”

Genoa smiled as he watched the princess carefully open the bedroom door and enter.

“You’re late, Princess.”

“I came right after hearing from the butler though……”

“I don’t think it was right away.”

The princess’s plump, tempting pink lips parted at Genoa’s unreasonable words. He enjoyed watching that expression which made no attempt to hide her bewilderment. After dealing with cunning nobles who always concealed their true nature and probed others, seeing such a transparent princess helped relieve some of his accumulated fatigue.

“I really hurried though.”

“But you were still late.”

“……Was I late?”