The Male Lead Is Trying To Tame Me With Money - Chapter 19

It’s not like I wouldn’t return to this position.

“If you appreciate my kindness, please prepare a very spicy stew for dinner tonight.”

Although the food Alexis prepares is very good, it’s too honorable, so right now I wanted something spicy for my insides.

It seems the Korean palate is unavoidable even if the body changes.

Thinking that, just as I was about to start moving my hands in earnest,

Click.

Cassian lifted my left arm and fastened a bracelet.

It was a beautiful bracelet with multiple strands delicately crafted in gold. And the purple gem in the center….

‘It’s imbued with magic.’

Why on earth would he give me something like this?

“I’ll tell them to prepare a spicy stew, so go home after eating that. Rose.”

What did I just hear?

This workaholic.

He’s… letting me go?

Did the sun rise in the west today?

In a situation that shouldn’t happen, I asked Cassian with a sour expression.

“Why?”

For someone telling me to go home, the skin on your cheek is a bit rough, Your Highness?

As I asked with a puzzled look, Cassian looked at me with bitter eyes.

“I’m too heartbroken because you seem too indifferent to yourself, Rose.”

A moment of silence passed.

Cassian’s eyes were too serious to be considered a joke as usual.

“Is there something I haven’t noticed?”

So I decided to ask honestly.

“Yes.”

Cassian spoke while slowly inserting his fingers between the bracelet he had put on.

“Why are you so dull to malice directed at yourself?”

A low sigh escaped from his lips.

“You’re so sensitive to others’ affairs, but even now you’re probably just thinking that my face looks bad.”

How did he know?

When I looked up at him without hiding my expression, somehow, a smile appeared on his lips.

“So how can I not worry, I have to take care of my precious assistant.”

With a softened face, Cassian slid his hand from the bracelet and held my hand.

“When you were with Princess Alexis, wasn’t there someone who showed malice?”

I rolled my eyes for a moment.

There was someone who grumbled and showed territorial behavior…

“Do you perhaps mean the Lord Gache?”

“That’s somewhat of a relief.”

Cassian interlaced his fingers with mine, seemingly relieved.

“It’s not that you’re dull, but that you really let it slide.”

“Uh, well… But he seemed like someone who would at most spill ink on the documents I wrote.”

He seemed to have the guts of a bird, but for Cassian to worry this much about what he might plot…?

Cassian quickly answered my reasonable inner question.

“What if I say Lord Gache had a short tea time with the Empress three days ago?”

“Then that’s a different story.”

I opened my mouth, meeting Cassian’s gaze.

“Among the royal guests, Lord Gache has the least reason to meet with the Empress. He wants to become Alexis’s consort.”

Meeting with the mother of the Third Prince who will become the legal husband?

Even a fool would know it’s best to avoid it as he could be caught on a technicality or be blackmailed.

I pushed aside my carefree thoughts and spoke to Cassian.

“The Lord Gache will fall for the Empress’s shallow scheme.”

“Yes, unfortunately.”

The Empress is using Lord Gache to plan some attack on me or Cassian.

And she’ll calmly pin the crime on him, naturally allowing her to eliminate the young count who will become the Third Prince’s love rival.

From what I’ve seen these past few days, I already noticed that the young count isn’t of a subtle character.

That’s why I didn’t guard against him much either.

“The Empress used his impatience.”

“Yes, whether in the Empire or the Kingdom, to become a consort, you need either to catch the ruler’s eye or get permission from the legal spouse.”

“She must have said she’d persuade the Third Prince to give him the position of First Concubine.”

“Yes, so now you understand why I’m worried about you.”

Cassian said this as he lifted my hand and briefly kissed it.

“But… leaving early today is only a temporary measure, isn’t it?”

The Empress probably knows that I visit Cassian’s office regularly, and she can roughly guess my return time.

There was a high possibility that the young count would try to interfere with my way home at a late hour.

But would avoiding it today solve the problem?

As I looked at Cassian with a questioning face, he nodded with a faint smile as if he understood.

“I’m hoping he’ll give up with that.”

“Because it could cause diplomatic issues?”

“Yes, Princess Alexis said she likes slightly stupid and pretty younger men.”

“It’s not good for us if the Third Prince monopolizes all of Alexis’s love either.”

If anything, it would be perfect if the Third Prince stirred up the royal family with jealousy and distracted the Empress.

I nodded to Cassian in understanding.

“I understand, I’ll avoid it today. And I’ll try to sweet-talk Lord Gache too.”

“Alright.”

Although he nodded as if that was the best option, Cassian had an uncharacteristically apologetic face.

I didn’t quite like that face, so.

“More than that, Your Highness.”

“Yes?”

“Even if you hadn’t been engaged to me originally, wouldn’t you have broken it off anyway?”

I blurted out a mischievous question.

“You don’t fit her type except for the fact that you’re younger, but.”

The apologetic look disappeared from Cassian’s face and was replaced by a strange smile.

“Am I not pretty to you, Rose?”

“…What?”

Shouldn’t you be more concerned about not being stupid?

As I looked at him with a dumbfounded face, his face came so close that our noses almost touched.

“Am I really… not pretty?”

Don’t you look in the mirror?

My breath suddenly caught. Isn’t it cheating to bring that face so close?

When I caught my breath, I tried to slightly avert my gaze.

Then Cassian gently cupped my face, making our eyes meet again, and whispered in a low voice.

“Hm? Rose, answer me. It’s a very important matter to me.”

Why did I show kindness to Cassian and end up like this…

To prevent my oxygen deprivation, I barely managed to open my mouth.

“How… could that be. Of course.”

Cassian’s purple eyes curved gently.

Although I didn’t want to give the answer he really wanted to hear, his eyes urged me as if asking me to speak quickly.

“You’re always… pretty.”

As if I could win against him.

Even after I answered, he didn’t let me go and looked at me as if he was craving something.

“…Your Highness.”

I barely moved my eyelids, closing my eyes that had become stiff from forgetting to blink.

A shallow sigh was heard beside my blocked vision.

Tap.

Eventually, a soft touch brushed against my forehead and disappeared, and even the sensation cradling my cheek vanished.

As I slowly opened my eyes, Cassian spoke in his usual melancholic voice, as if telling me to listen.

“Since my fiancée says I’m not pretty enough, I’ll have to work harder.”

“What?”

Didn’t I say you were pretty?

As I stared at him with a dumbfounded expression, his face was filled with mischief, while a sudden flutter stirred in my heart.

“You like pretty things very, very much, don’t you, Rose?”

Cassian grabbed my hand and pulled me up swiftly.

“The same goes for delicious things.”

“…Your Highness!”

“I can’t lose my precious assistant, so I’ll have to make an effort.”

Ah, really, this terrible employer.

I worried for nothing. He was just teasing me again.

I felt like I had suffered a great loss.

*

The spicy stew I ate that day was absolutely amazing.

Somehow he knew I would crave it, and he even told the chef to prepare it in advance.

This ghostly human…

He’s reading all my patterns.

Anyway, thanks to Cassian’s prediction and protection, as well as being able to leave work early, I was able to return home without incident.

He even assigned two skilled knights to accompany me, just in case.

They were the ones known as Cassian’s swords in the original story, so even if things had gone wrong, there was a high chance I would have been safe.

I could tell that what he said was true as soon as I entered Her Highness Alexis’s office on the next workday.

Lord Gache, who usually ignored or glared at me, blocked the entrance.

“I think it’s about time you stopped coming, Assistant Saliche.”

“Has Her Highness Alexis dismissed me, Sir Attendant?”

I asked him with a calm smile.

Having to placate someone like this…

Since I’ve been dealing with people like him through methods like tax audits every time, it’s hard for me to choose a friendly approach, isn’t it?

“If that’s the case, I’ll gladly return to His Highness Cassian.”

I deliberately started to sneer.

“I’ve been feeling quite lonely after being apart from His Highness for a week.”

“Apart…?”

Lord Gache spoke as if he couldn’t believe what I was saying.

“You’re talking nonsense, do you think I don’t know?”

“Yes?”

I looked at him with an intentionally stupid expression.

Everyone gets irritated when I put on this clueless face.

“You should know that it’s already too much for Her Highness Alexis to keep someone like you by her side!”

“I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

“Don’t play dumb, do you think I don’t know that you report all sorts of confidential information to His Highness Prince Cassian every evening?”

His rather pretty face was tinged with a sardonic smile.