Chapter 44

However, despite Giselle being a Princess, Erhen had consistently ignored her in front of Charlotte. Anger was anger, but one must choose carefully whom to vent it on. 

Charlotte, still with her arms crossed, slightly raised her chin and spoke as if the matter had nothing to do with her.

“I’m not misunderstanding.”

Yet, she couldn’t stop her lips from pouting. Seeing her reaction, Erhen lowered his gaze and let out a brief chuckle before leaning in to kiss her.

Caught off guard by Erhen’s sudden move, Charlotte stumbled backward, covering her mouth with both hands. However, she couldn’t retreat far as the wall of the building was right behind her. Erhen quickly placed his hand behind her head to prevent her from hitting the wall.

As a result, Charlotte ended up standing even closer to him. Her wide, round eyes glared at him, filled with reproach for his unexpected action.

“What are you doing? I said I wasn’t misunderstanding, but who asked for a kiss?”

“Oh. I thought you were asking for one.”

Erhen mimicked Charlotte’s earlier pout, sticking out his lips and tapping them with his fingers. 

Seeing this side of Erhen reminded Charlotte of their time in Hamern. It felt… a little awkward. Or maybe a lot awkward. 

Perhaps it was because the location had changed, but meeting him again here, where they had once dated and fallen in love, brought back memories. Even during their married life in the capital, Erhen hadn’t changed much. 

He still kept his swept-back hairstyle, which made him look slightly different from before. Yet, when dealing with others, he was unmistakably the same indifferent and stoic Duke of Rosenheim.

Charlotte, still wary, looked up at him.

“Anyway, she’s still a Princess. Is it really okay for you to treat her so carelessly?”

“Hm.”

“What if something bad happens to you later because of it?”

Erhen frowned slightly at her words. It seemed he didn’t like the concern hidden in Charlotte’s tone. 

He asked in a low voice, 

“Are you saying I should’ve had tea with the Princess?”

How did it come to that?

Charlotte, exasperated by Erhen’s absurd question, grabbed his collar with both hands.

“No! If you had, you’d be dead to me.”

Erhen might have laughed at her response. He lowered his head and gently pressed his lips to hers. 

Startled, Charlotte tried to pull her head back, but his hand was already cradling the back of her head. There was no way out. Resigned, Charlotte whispered softly, her lips still against his.

“Duke, we’re in the palace.”

“Do you think I would’ve come all the way here for no reason?”

Erhen murmured back, his lips never leaving hers. Each word he spoke sent a tingling sensation through her lips, causing her cheeks to flush with heat.

“I don’t want to die just yet, Charlotte.”

Playfully, he tapped her lips with his own. The ticklish sensation made her giggle, and she finally responded to the question he had swallowed.

“I wasn’t saying you needed to humiliate her so publicly. That’s all I meant.”

“Hm.”

“But still, it’s because you’re handsome, my Duke.”

Erhen’s persistent teasing eventually made Charlotte surrender. 

It wasn’t that she didn’t trust him. What she didn’t trust was his face, which seemed to charm people without him even realizing it.

“Still, she’s a Princess, so I can’t help but feel uneasy… Ah!”

Erhen interrupted her by lightly biting her lower lip. 

It didn’t hurt, but it felt as though he had stirred something deep within her, making her let out a small gasp.

“Charlotte.”

Erhen spoke in a mock-angry tone.

“Are you going to keep talking about pointless things?”

“It’s not pointless…”

“We’re seeing each other for the first time in three days.”

He grumbled, as if annoyed that she was wasting their precious time together talking about someone else. Unable to hold back, Charlotte burst into laughter.

Their shared breaths warmed the space between them. When Charlotte fell silent, Erhen leaned in for another quick peck before pulling back.

“Did you miss me?”

His gaze, full of affection, bore into her. It was clear he already knew the answer.

It felt oddly humiliating to answer such an obvious question, so instead, Charlotte tilted her head slightly and bit his lower lip, just as he had done to her.

Erhen froze at her playful provocation. Satisfied with his reaction, Charlotte giggled and asked in return, 

“Did you miss me?”

“Miss you? That’s an understatement.”

I thought I’d go crazy. 

Erhen swallowed his unspoken words and gently parted her lips with his own. 

Though the initial contact had been cautious, his kisses gradually became more intense. 

Oh, whatever. 

Closing her eyes, Charlotte wrapped her arms around his neck and stood on tiptoe, pressing herself closer to him. Erhen, in turn, placed his hands around her waist, pulling her even closer.

It was a moment of pure bliss, so overwhelming that it made her forget her anxieties. 

***

At that same time, in the Princess’s Palace.

Having postponed her schedule to have tea with Erhen, Giselle found herself with some free time. She entered the drawing room.

“Honestly, is the Duke of Rosenheim insane, Your Highness?!”

Her maid, Meles, who had entered with her, burst out in anger.

“What does he think he is? How could he treat you, our kind and beautiful Princess, like that?”

“Enough.”

But Meles, as if she herself had been wronged, began to tear up. Though Giselle spoke in a firm voice, Meles’s anger showed no signs of subsiding.

“He’ll regret it, Your Highness. Don’t be disheartened. Men are truly clueless creatures.”

“…Please, stop.”

“How could the Duke of Rosenheim act like this? After all the devotion you’ve shown him!”

Giselle, who had been quietly listening to Meles’s words, finally cracked. Normally, she would have held back, but today, she couldn’t.

She couldn’t erase the image of the Duke’s cold gaze, nor the sight of him holding someone else’s hand.

“Hey.”

“……?”

“Get out.”

“Pardon?”

“I said, get out!”

Crash. A vase shattered on the floor next to Giselle. Shocked, Meles turned to look at her. This was not the warm and gentle Princess she knew.

Giselle met Meles’s gaze and spoke again.

“Get out.”

“Y-yes, Your Highness!”

Meles, terrified by the sight of the princess losing her composure—a sight he had never witnessed before—hurriedly fled the room in a panic. 

Giselle harshly tore off her gloves. Even if it was just an act, pretending to love the Duke of Rosenheim was utterly revolting. No, the look in the Duke’s eyes as he gazed at her seemed to reflect nothing but disgust toward her. 

It was as if his cold, blue eyes were telling her that someone like her didn’t belong in the palace.

It was on that day that she began to hate the Duke of Rosenheim.

“Miss, your biological father… is Rufus.”

Could a dying wish be so trivial?

The nanny, who had only revealed herself as Giselle’s mother right before her death, had dropped the truth about Giselle’s birth like a bombshell, leaving her in a state of shock.

Perhaps hiding the truth, even if it was more painful than a lie, was also a form of maternal love. If she was going to die, why couldn’t she have just done so quietly?

For Giselle, who had lived her entire life respecting and loving Drianne, Michael’s mother and the former Grand Duchess of Düsseldorf, as her own mother, the nanny’s revelation was akin to a death sentence.

The illegitimate child of Rufus, the infamous tyrant.

Rufus had taken Giselle’s mother by force and then tried to kill her, but Drianne had saved her from his hands.

“I’m not your daughter, Rufus!”

On the day Michael defeated Rufus and entered the palace, Giselle thought she had finally escaped the shadows. She had never felt such catharsis as when she cursed her biological father’s name in the palace garden.

However, there were eyes watching her that day. The Duke of Rosenheim, who had been inspecting the protective wards around the royal palace, happened to encounter her by chance. To Giselle, he became a new shackle, replacing the presence of Rufus.

In an instant, the man she had once admired turned into someone she despised. From that moment on, the thought of killing him, no matter what, began to consume her mind. It felt as though it was her destined mission.

Her plan to feign love, to watch and monitor him, started then. Her secret should have been buried deep in the ground forever.

“The Duke of Rosenheim is alive.”

Hearing the report of Erhen’s failed assassination attempt, Giselle bit her lip silently in front of the woman delivering the news.

Ah, even the Gods are indifferent.

He had survived, and the shackles she had placed upon herself grew even tighter. Erhen Rosenheim, alive and unharmed, walking freely through the palace once again, provoked her mercilessly.

What she couldn’t understand even more was the moment when the Duke of Rosenheim took Viscountess Lintz’s hand. Her emotions spiraled out of control, making it impossible to maintain her composure—then and even now.

Her tightly clenched fists dug her long nails into her palms.

“…I apologize, Your Highness.”

The woman who had entered unnoticed spoke softly. It was Malena, dressed in a maid’s uniform.