“But the previous attendant sent letters written in Atleta too.”

“That man simply wasn’t doing his job properly.”

“And looking at the other letters in this basket, they don’t seem to have been inspected either.”

“They were inspected and resealed, that’s all.”

“But…”

“I already told you it’s not allowed!”

As Rowen kept pressing her point, the attendant lost his patience and shouted. Though she meant to keep arguing, his outburst made her flinch and shrink back.

An attendant shouting at a prince. This was only possible because Rowen was the child of a dancer.

“Ha, hahaha!”

Just then, someone burst into cheerful laughter behind Rowen. Both the attendant and Rowen turned toward the sound at once.

A tall blond man approached from behind Rowen, laughing and holding his stomach.

“P-Prince Michael.”

The attendant, who had just been shouting at Rowen, quickly bowed his head to greet him. Rowen bowed just as servilely, no different from the attendant.

The man closed the distance and threw his arm roughly around Rowen’s shoulders. Then, smiling with crinkled eyes, he said, “Ah, I came out for a walk and saw something hilarious. Are you an idiot? A prince getting scolded by an attendant.”

“Y-Your Highness. Scolded? That’s not what… I wasn’t doing anything like that…”

“If that wasn’t scolding, then what was it? You’re not trying to say my ears are broken, are you?”

“No, not at all! How could I possibly…!”

“What should I do, then? Should I punish him severely? Or let it go this time?”

Why don’t you tell me what I should do?

The man tapped Rowen’s cheek with the fingers of the hand slung over her shoulder.

“…..”

This man, again.

For the record, sweat was pouring down Rowen’s back right now. Because the man acting so friendly toward her wasn’t just some ordinary prince.

“I told you to speak.”

The man pressed her, his tone gentle. Rowen fought to hide her trembling as she opened her mouth.

“…I don’t think the offense is serious enough to warrant harsh punishment.”

“Is that so?”

Hmm. The man tapped his chin as though thinking it over, then broke into a wide smile and said,

“Then I’ll let it go this time.”

The moment those words left his mouth, the attendant let out an audible sigh of relief.

Watching the same attendant who’d been so imposing and full of bluster while shouting at her moments ago suddenly look this nervous left her with an oddly unpleasant feeling. Maybe she should have pushed for harsh punishment instead.

But she quickly decided that drawing the attention of other princes wouldn’t do her any good, so she let that thought go.

“And you, don’t be so harsh either. Go easy on her. What’s she going to do if you skip inspecting some silly letter? Look at her, she looks dopey anyway.”

“Y-Yes. Understood. I’ll keep that in mind.”

“…..”

Rowen bristled at being called dopey, but showing her displeasure felt like it could cost her her head, so she kept quiet. Just then, the man, who’d been scolding the attendant at length, suddenly turned around and started lecturing her too.

“And you’re a problem in your own right… An imperial prince speaking so politely to a mere attendant, what a fool.”

The man spat out one biting remark after another with a smiling face. Somehow, hearing such sharp words delivered with such a bright, cheerful expression made them sting even more.

Rowen kept a faint smile and simply repeated, “Thank you for the advice,” over and over.

Still, in the end, the man did help her. The attendant who’d firmly refused to send her letter ended up accepting it after all.

When Rowen said her farewell, the man waved carelessly and turned to leave as well. She planned to keep her head bowed until he was out of sight. But after walking about three steps, he suddenly turned back around.

“By the way, what was your name again?”

“Rowen Erin Hydra, Brother.”

“Ah, right, right. Rowen.”

Rowen’s goal was to avoid drawing the attention of other princes as much as possible, but telling this particular man her name freely didn’t matter much. That was because he had no real interest in other princes at all, so telling him her name was pointless. He’d never remember it.

This wasn’t even the first time she’d told him her name. It was already the fifth. But even so, he’d surely forget again by their next meeting and ask what her name was once more.

Rowen watched the back of the blond prince, Michael Louisa Hydra, and only started walking again once he disappeared from sight.

* * *

From Rowen’s room, pulling back the curtain revealed the training grounds right outside. Since it was a converted storage closet, the room sat in an out-of-the-way corner.

At first, she thought it was nice that no one could see her there. But after a few days, she realized that people occupied the training grounds all day, so she couldn’t pull the curtain back.

D*mn it. The air’s so stuffy right now, I want to air the room out…

Rowen pulled back the curtain slightly, then immediately closed it again. She’d nearly made eye contact with a prince training outside.

In the brief glimpse she caught, the training grounds were packed with people. Nearly every prince except Rowen seemed to be devoted to training.

Among them was a towering red-haired prince with an unsettlingly thick build, and the blond prince Michael, who forgot her name every single time no matter how often she told him.

It was still early, and the people at the training grounds didn’t look like they’d be leaving anytime soon. Rowen eventually gave up on airing out the room and lay down on her bed.

It had been four years now since Rowen entered the Crystal Palace.

Even before she arrived, the leading heir candidates were more or less already settled. And now, four years later, the lineup had become even clearer.

About three men currently held the emperor’s favor and made a name for themselves within the palace.

The first was Michael Louisa Hydra, the one who’d asked Rowen her name.

He was the son of a duke’s daughter from a powerful ducal house in the empire. She’d heard he possessed above-average magical ability and showed remarkable talent in swordsmanship as well.

Based on what Rowen had seen and heard over four years in the Crystal Palace, Michael was the most sociable of the three candidates. That much was clear from how, while everyone else cursed Rowen as someone shameless and spineless, only Michael spoke to her in a friendly manner.

Of course, given that he’d also called her dopey and a fool, it seemed his sociability didn’t necessarily mean he had a good personality. And rumors claimed several princes who’d fallen out of his favor ended up poisoned, so it seemed wise to stay cautious around him.

The next candidate was the red-haired man with the terrifying build she’d just glimpsed through the window.

His name was Tehern Freya Hydra. He was the son of a princess from one of the kingdoms the Hydra Empire had subjugated.

Rumors spread throughout the Crystal Palace that Tehern possessed monstrous strength beyond what any human should have. According to the rumors, he could supposedly tear a person apart with his bare hands…

But Rowen didn’t believe that rumor. No matter how strong someone was, how could bare hands tear a person apart? It had to be some baseless story someone made up for entertainment.

Still, that his strength was extraordinary remained an undeniable, clear fact.

Rowen once saw Tehern, while walking somewhere, beating a prince nearly to death behind a building. Every time his fist connected, the flesh caved in. Seeing that, Rowen’s face went pale and she hurried away from the scene at once.

She didn’t know what happened, but beating someone like that suggested his personality wasn’t particularly good. He seemed twice as dangerous as Prince Michael, who spat out biting remarks but wandered around laughing carelessly.

Rowen figured that if she ever fell out of favor with Prince Tehern, her life would be over that very day.