One prince needled Rowen, and beside him the other jumped in eagerly to help. What in the world did these damned fools even want from her? And how did they even know they were her older brothers, anyway?

The commotion in the hallway drew glances from passersby. Rowen’s whole goal was to live without catching anyone’s attention. But right now, the situation looked far from good.

To smooth things over, she forced a soft, pleading smile.

“I’m sorry, Brothers. You grabbed me so suddenly that I got startled without meaning to. I promise I won’t flinch like that again, even if you do the same thing. So could you please forgive me, just this once? Please?”

“…..”

Something shifted strangely in the air. The two delinquent princes exchanged a glance, then broke into sly snickers. Their eyes slid over her, up and down, with unmistakable intent.

The look on their faces disgusted her so much she nearly let her carefully maintained smile crumble.

“Fine, we’ll forgive you. But take this.”

“What? What do you mean, take…”

Before Rowen could even finish asking, the delinquent prince dumped about five thick books into her arms. Each book alone was massive, so holding five of them at once felt unbearably heavy.

“Ugh…!”

“Next class is statecraft, you know? Carry these to the lecture hall for us instead.”

“Come on, let’s go!”

Without waiting for Rowen to say yes or no, they grabbed her by the shoulders and dragged her along forcefully. Pulled by their hands, Rowen kept her head down and grimaced.

D*mn it. Something told her that living quietly, the way she used to, was no longer an option because of these two.

* * *

The princes who dragged Rowen off that day kept picking fights with her afterward, passing by often just to stir up trouble.

If it had only been a petty provocation, that would have been manageable. Instead, they made her run errands like before and pressured her to come running the instant they called for her. After being mocked so many times, Rowen ended up learning their names whether she wanted to or not.

The one with sharply upturned eyes was named Jun. The one with sleepy eyes was named Kyle. Both wore human skin, but what they did was hardly different from the work of devils.

Still, there was one small comfort.

Over two weeks of enduring their mockery, she hadn’t crossed paths with Tehern once. If Tehern had ever joined in on this twisted little game, the severity of the bullying would have been an entirely different story.

“…..”

Just then, Rowen let out a deep sigh. Her situation these days must be pretty bad, she thought, if she was calling something like this a comfort.

Enough with the negative thoughts. She needed to pull herself together and hurry to class. Rowen adjusted her grip on the thick book tucked under her arm.

“Rowen!”

Just then, an ominous voice called her name from a distance. She debated whether to turn around. In the end, she decided to pretend she hadn’t heard and make a run for the lecture hall.

“Hey, I know you can hear me. Get over here.”

But hearing that, she couldn’t keep pretending anymore. Ignoring him now felt like it would only bring worse consequences later.

In the end, Rowen turned around. Jun was beckoning her closer with a crooked finger. She let out a quiet sigh and walked over to him.

“You were just deciding whether to turn around, weren’t you?”

“No, Brother. I wasn’t doing that.”

“Now you’re lying to your own brother?”

Jun smirked and slapped her shoulder. It didn’t look like he hit hard, yet her shoulder throbbed. If someone had that much strength, they should at least lack awareness, but this guy had both strength and sharp instincts.

“Anyway, where were you headed?”

“I was on my way to class, Brother.”

“You actually take classes? Someone who looks as dopey as you?”

“…..”

Kyle cut in from the side with that unpleasant remark.

Prince Michael had once told her she looked dopey too. She’d let that comment slide since Michael said it in a teasing tone, but if even this guy was calling her dopey, maybe she genuinely did look that way. Rowen felt a little gloomy.

“You’re taking the Culture and History of Atleta class, right?”

“What? Yes, that’s right.”

“Did you hear? They moved that class to a different lecture hall today.”

The lecture hall got moved? That doesn’t even make sense.

If someone else had told her this, she might have believed it. But days ago, Rowen decided never to trust a single word these two said.

“But the attendant who handles the announcements never mentioned anything…”

“You live in such a corner that the attendant probably doesn’t even know you exist, so of course he couldn’t tell you.”

Rowen tried to reason her way out of it, but Jun and Kyle kept pushing their nonsense harder and harder. Normally, she would have gone along with it just enough to avoid trouble, but something about this felt different, and not in a good way.

Just as she was about to make a run for it, the sharp-eyed Jun caught her by the shoulder.

“You don’t know where to go, right? Follow us. We’ll take you there.”

He said it like he was doing her a favor, but laughter kept slipping between his words. As they dragged her toward the lecture hall, the ominous feeling in Rowen’s chest kept growing.

They led her to a lecture hall tucked away in a quiet, isolated spot, rarely used because of how out of the way it was.

“T-This isn’t the new lecture hall. There’s no one inside.”

“Dunno. Probably right.”

Kyle answered carelessly and shoved her back hard. Rowen couldn’t resist and went tumbling into the lecture hall with a crash.

Jun and Kyle grinned and shut the door. Rowen scrambled up and tried to force the door open, but of course, it wouldn’t budge.

“Brothers, I have class soon. Please, open the door.”

She pounded on the door with her fist, pleading. But if they were the type to open it for a polite request, they wouldn’t have locked her in here in the first place. She sighed and stepped back a couple of paces from the door.

What should I do? Guess I have no choice but to skip class today…

Still, she wasn’t ready to give up just yet. Being a little late beat missing class entirely, so she needed to look for another way out.

Rowen picked up the book that fell to the floor and brushed off the dust.

Dust floating in the air tickled her nose. She covered her mouth with a handkerchief and coughed.

The lecture hall sat thick with a haze of dust. As expected, not a single word Jun and Kyle said held any truth. Nobody was preparing to teach class in a place like this.

Let’s find another way out, she thought, taking a step forward. That’s when Rowen noticed something strange in the room. Smoke curled up thickly from one corner.

“…..”

Rowen followed the smoke drifting toward the ceiling and lowered her gaze.

The first thing she saw was the red-haired prince, Tehern. And in his arms sat a maid. Whatever they’d been doing, the maid was nearly undressed.

“…..”

Cold sweat began trickling down Rowen’s cheek.

This… This is really, truly over.

Rowen had heard rumors before about certain princes confined to the Crystal Palace relieving their urges with maids. But she never imagined a prince would do something like this even in an unused lecture hall. And of all people, that prince turned out to be Tehern Freya Hydra…

Tehern didn’t even bother telling her to get lost. He simply fixed his gaze on her, those pale yellow eyes like a predator’s, steady and unblinking.

His chin tilted up while his eyes stayed lowered. Even sitting on the floor, his gaze somehow felt like it was looking down on her from far above, oppressive and commanding.

“S-Sorry…”

Rowen apologized first, before anything else.

She wanted to finish the sentence, but fear choked off the rest of her words. She wished she could just faint right there. And honestly, she hoped she’d never wake up again.