She thought she would be told to go down to her domain or stay in confinement at the mansion.

Isn’t confinement a common punishment?

Her following words were also quite different from the usual punishment.

“Go around and spread the rumor. Say that the future crown princess and the imperial family dine together every evening, occasionally have tea times, talk about marriage, and that the Ruth Castle is being renovated, so soon it will be granted to her. Something like that.”

“But lying is…”

“If it really happens, it’s not a lie. You won’t be harmed. I can’t guarantee that I won’t harm your reputation or the honor of the royal family. How about it? Can you do it?”

“Of course, I must!”

Lily nodded vigorously.

Whatever happened, as long as her head remained attached to her body.

She seemed so hateful during the day, but now she seemed to have a halo behind her.

Being chased out of her position as a maid was a disgrace to her family. She was thankful just to be able to walk out on her own.

Tears stopped in her eyes as she looked at Adelia with sparkling admiration.

‘Why… are you looking at me like that?’

Adelia, who didn’t know her intentions, only felt burdened by that look.

She touched her throbbing forehead and sighed.

Leaving Lily, who still had sparkling eyes, behind, she approached the window.

She lifted herself onto the windowsill with levitation magic.

Turning around, she looked at Lily, who was clasping her hands tightly.

“Don’t ever disclose what happened today. Otherwise, I might start taking your life lightly.”

“Yes! Of course.”

After receiving her answer, Adelia smiled slightly and jumped out of the window.

Even after she disappeared, Lily looked out of the window.

“Merciful and elegant… Indeed, to become the crown princess, one must be like that.”

The existence of the crown prince was erased from Lily’s heart.

The jealousy and hatred she felt for Adelia disappeared completely.

The empty space started to fill with respect.

Perhaps that’s why the rumor spread better than expected.

* * *

“What… Creepy.”

Adelia, who had just stepped outside, suddenly felt a chill and shivered.

Even though the wind was calm, it seemed like the air was cold.

Since white magic is based on light, Adelia had a higher body temperature. Thanks to this, she could keenly notice even a slight drop in the surrounding temperature.

Adelia hurried back to her room. This time, too, she entered through a window.

The window was wide open, but the curtain was tightly closed, so the inside was not visible.

She gently climbed onto the windowsill, released the invisibility magic, and straightened her clothes.

While dusting off her dress. The curtain that was blocking her view suddenly disappeared. To be more specific, it was torn away and rolled on the floor.

And then her eyes met a pair of red pupils.

“Ahh!”

Adelia screamed in surprise without realizing it.

She belatedly covered her mouth and stepped back hesitantly.

The windowsill was not wide enough to take a few steps on.

It was natural for her to fall into thin air.

Before using magic, Lucian caught her and wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her into the room.

‘I was surprised…’

Although she often used the window to enter and exit and was familiar with flying magic, falling by mistake was still scary.

Adelia closed her eyes tightly and took a breath before feeling around in front of her.

‘Something hard…’

Adelia blinked her eyes.

The view was dim, and she could feel the texture of the soft yet hard fabric in her hand.

Something slightly warm that wasn’t a wall…

‘I’m sure I saw His Highness before falling over. Could it be…’

Only then did she realize that what she was holding was clothing.

Her eyes widened as she saw a uniform made of very high-quality fabric with gold trim designs, a symbol of the imperial family…

Adelia swallowed hard. As she slowly raised her head, a familiar face came into view.

A height difference of more than a span. Black hair covered his forehead. Intensely burning red pupils.

“Where have you been?”

Lucian looked down at Adelia in his arms tenderly.

His tone was unusually gentle, but his gaze remained cold.

Thump thump. Her heart pounded fiercely.

It seems she hasn’t calmed down from the shock yet. Definitely.

* * *

“She’s gone?”

Power was fully present in Lucian’s voice.

His sunken red pupils emitted coldness towards Deon, who had his head deeply bowed down below.

With one knee on the ground, he was bowing deeply enough for his forehead to touch the floor, sweat dripping down from it.

Deon’s voice barely came out with a slight tremble.

“I knocked on the door because the presence felt different…”

“No one was there?”

“Yes. It’s my fault.”

Thud. Deon’s head hit the ground.

Despite the loud noise, Lucian’s gaze remained unshaken.

The room, ruffled by the cold night breeze that entered through the wide-open window, was silent.

In the room, decorated with refreshing colors, there were only two dark men; the room’s owner was absent.

“Needlessly thorough.”

Lucian slowly walked to the bed.

Lifting the bulging blanket revealed no one, only a strange afterimage remained.

When he touched it, it crumbled into the air and disappeared.

All that was left was a bit of warmth.

“Did she run away?”

“I’ll look for her.”

“No need.”

“I’ll search secretly… What?”

At Lucian’s firm words, Deon slightly lifted his head.

He had a dumbfounded face, as if he had heard something unbelievable.

The crown prince had no mercy for words that left his hand, whether it was betrayal or incompetence, he made sure to see the end of it.

Of course, there were few with such courage.

“She’s someone who can use magic without being hindered by the defensive magic cast over the imperial palace. If she wanted to, she could disappear without a trace.”

“But isn’t there a contract?”

“…I’ll have to add a clause when we revise the contract next year.”

Lucian muttered quietly.

The contract had no clause about running away. It meant that even if she disappeared suddenly, it would be fine if she appeared when renewing the contract.

Thinking she wouldn’t disappear because she was the one who requested the position of the crown princess consort was a mistake.

Then. Lucian’s eyebrows twitched.

Frowning, he walked heavily toward the window.

“She didn’t run away.”

Lucian spoke quietly as he laid his hand on the firmly closed curtain.

The curtain that meticulously covered the window as tall as a person, in an instant, rolled on the floor.

In the brightly revealed spot was.

“Kyaa—”

Adele, who screamed in surprise, was standing there.

Her blue eyes widened.

The blue eyes looking down at Lucian, who was tilting his head, were filled with perplexity.

Adelia stepped back unexpectedly from the encounter, though she was still standing on the windowsill.

Her body lost balance and fell backward.

Lucian hurriedly wrapped his arms around Adelia’s waist and pulled her into the room.

Because of the height difference of more than one head, her face ended up leaning against his chest.

Suddenly in his embrace, Adelia stumbled for a moment before silently lifting her head.

This time, his red eyes were looking down at her.

“Where have you been?”

Lucian pressed on in a low tone, as though he was interrogating her.

Adelia, as if broken, couldn’t bring herself to speak and rolled her eyes around. Wherever she looked, Lucian in his black uniform covered her view.

‘Too close.’

It was her first time seeing his face this close.

His face under the moonlight was dangerously charming.

“Please step back a little!”

Adelia squeezed her eyes shut and pushed Lucian away.

Or at least, she tried to.

With pure strength, she couldn’t beat him.

‘If I let go, she might run away again.’

Lucian wrapped his arms even tighter around her waist.

It was an action he took to prevent her from escaping from his embrace.

Thanks to that, they were very intimately pressed against each other.

Lucian whispered in her ear with his head slightly lowered.

“Are you trying to run away again? Even if there’s no clause about it in the contract, where do you plan to go?”

“It’s not that… You’re too close.”

Adelia covered her face with both hands.

If she couldn’t push him away, it was better to cover her own eyes instead.

Even a white mage with immunity to swords and poison had a fatal weakness.

‘Handsome faces are not allowed!’

Beauty was a fatal weakness that made her heart race.

To her, who’s particularly vulnerable to beautiful things, Lucian’s beauty was his greatest weapon.

Even his cool demeanor blended too well with the moonlight, becoming overly lethal.

The chest she accidentally touched earlier was also quite firm…

‘Dangerous!’

Her earlobes heated up slightly, and her face flushed hotly.

Shaking her head with her face covered, there was nothing to hide from, but this was dizzying in many ways.

“Let’s sit down and talk. The two of us!”

Despite Adelia’s cry to escape from his embrace, Lucian still had his arms wrapped around her waist.

Her reason screamed at her to escape quickly by magic, but her instinct whispered to enjoy this moment.

The long-dormant instinct was indeed powerful.

Then a chuckle sounded above her head.

“It seems you quite like my face.”

Since it wasn’t a wrong statement, Adelia could only lower her head further.

‘Ugh, your noble face is dangerous.’

Hearing his voice soften peculiarly made her want to cry.

Adelia shook her head, denying it, but the truth was already apparent.

Her uncovered neck flushed red.

“Hmm…”

Lucian sighed languidly.

His breath brought back some sense to her.

Eventually, Adelia used magic to escape from his embrace and caught her breath by the window in the cold air to calm her flushed face.