A soldier, no less, posing with his muscles on display and chasing women like some Casanova. That was the character they had aimed at him.

The sheer pettiness of his enemies’ scheme was almost enough to make him laugh.

He ended up riding longer than usual just to work the irritation out of his system.

Back at the palace, Andrea dismissed all the attendants trailing after him and stepped into his room.

Raul, who had been standing by, came forward to take his blazer.

“You’re back early today.”

He was approaching with the same cheerful tone as always, completely oblivious to Andrea’s sour mood, and for no particular reason that was annoying. Andrea stared at him.

But Raul simply went on mechanically loosening his tie.

Andrea tilted his head further and kept staring, and only then did Raul look up with a puzzled expression.

“What? Should I leave it? Are you going out again after dinner?”

Andrea let out a sigh, gave Raul a light tap on the shoulder as he passed, and grumbled.

“Do I really look like someone who goes out every single night.”

Raul blinked his round eyes with an expression that said ‘well, yes, actually,’ and Andrea dropped onto the sofa and crooked a finger.

“Something to drink.”

At the command, Raul moved quickly and poured a stream of already-prepared warm herbal tea into a cup. Then a long-fingered hand came up and flicked him squarely on the forehead.

“Ow.”

“You always manage to be clueless at the worst moments. Warm tea for someone who just came back from riding and is parched.”

Raul rubbed his forehead and trotted back to the cabinet.

He pulled out the brandy bottle Andrea favored from the grand crystal display case and began pouring it over a glass of ice.

“You really should be drinking less.”

The nagging came with it.

“You really should be nagging less.”

Watching Raul’s lips immediately jut out in a pout, Andrea thought there was something deeply satisfying about teasing him.

He was not a talkative person by nature, but he always found himself talking more the moment he returned to his own palace.

More precisely, the moment he returned to this room where Raul was waiting.

Somewhere along the way, bickering aimlessly with this one after a long day had become the thing that unwound the fatigue and frustration of it all.

‘Come to think of it, we were bickering from the very beginning.’

The kid had arrived at Eli Palace at sixteen, scrawny and looking far smaller than his peers.

Even so, his movements were quick and nimble, and he had a way of hovering nearby without ever being irritating.

Andrea had kept him close, and the boy had turned out to have a knack for making himself present when needed and invisible when not.

‘Then at some point he started talking back.’

The little thing had a surprising amount of nerve, and Andrea found it funny enough to respond, and before he knew it, he was always getting pulled into the kid’s rhythm.

Clinking the ice in his glass, Andrea sat lost in thought while Raul picked up his jacket and folded it. Then the nagging started again.

“Good grief, if you’re going to ride, at least change into your riding clothes first. The shoulder seam has torn again. This is an expensive piece, tailored by designer Demarin.”

Andrea, in the middle of loosening the buttons at his collar, replied with indifference.

“Keep it if you want.”

“You’ve given me so many clothes I don’t need any more. Besides, I have nowhere to wear them.”

“Nowhere to wear them. You go out every single weekend.”

“Am I supposed to just stay locked up in here? I have my own personal business to attend to……”

Andrea let out a small, amused smile at his attendant talking back with such unabashed persistence.

That’s just how it is.

Bickering with this one somehow unknotted the day’s irritations. More than that, it was actually enjoyable.

The reason Andrea kept tossing Raul pieces of clothing and accessories he claimed not to like was that watching the boy put them together cleverly and step out looking charming was, frankly, endearing.

He himself was an extreme pragmatist at heart and preferred clean, simple dress.

Outside of the royal crest, he had a deep aversion to excessive embroidery, brooches, leather, or fur on his clothing.

But this one’s eyes would light up the moment he laid eyes on anything of that sort, completely helpless against it.

The boy clearly had a gift for putting himself together, and on the occasional days he went out, he would step out looking quite the young gentleman. Andrea had stopped him more than once just to give him a hard time about it.

‘Look at you, all dressed up. Where are you going. Who are you meeting.’

‘Oh come on, Jayden will attend to Your Highness in my place.’

The nerve of him, making no effort to hide that he found the whole thing a nuisance. Andrea had grabbed him by the wrist and refused to let go, just to torment him a little longer.

‘You’ve got a girl outside the palace, haven’t you.’

‘No, nothing like that, let me go.’

It had been half teasing, but then his gaze had drifted to the jacket the boy was wearing.

It was one Andrea had tossed aside not long ago, saying the sheen was too much for his taste.

The boy had apparently had it altered to fit, and with a belt cinched over it, the whole thing suited him remarkably well. Which made it all the funnier and more endearing.

Walking around outside the palace looking like that, with that pretty face of his, he was liable to get himself into trouble.

The idle worry had crept up on him, and Andrea had found himself reaching over to brush the hair off the boy’s forehead and offering unsolicited advice.

‘Take Jayden with you when you go.’

The boy had practically jumped.

‘W, why would I do that! Jayden is covering for me so Your Highness is attended to.’

‘Walking around dressed like that, you’ll get robbed. Want to take a pistol?’

‘I’m fine, thank you.’

The memory surfaced, and Andrea’s eyes narrowed slightly.

‘Does this one actually have someone?’

That overblown reaction was starting to seem suspicious all over again.

Meanwhile, Riley had been examining the torn seam of the jacket to see if it could be mended, and now she was making noise about something else.

“Oh, good heavens. A button’s gone missing too. Oh no. Why on earth would you go riding in something this delicate…!”

It was a small silver button, but one set with a sapphire at its center, worth a considerable sum.

She had fastened it herself just that morning, snug and secure, and now—!

He must have been riding hard enough to send it flying off mid-gallop.

Riley’s face cycled through shades of red and pale as she spiraled over the missing button, and Andrea suddenly started laughing.

That only made Riley more irritated.

If the button couldn’t be found, all the others would have to be replaced to match, and that would be her job.

‘Ugh, and that button was so expensive.’

She began feeling around the nearby floor on the off chance it had fallen somewhere close.

Before she knew it, she was pressing her face near Andrea’s chest and patting around it without any sense of propriety.

Andrea startled and went rigid, holding his breath.

He stayed frozen for a moment, then pressed his index finger to Raul’s forehead and pushed him back.

“Get away from me. That’s unsettling.”

Riley stood up, still consumed by the loss of the button, and Andrea crossed his arms and pulled his shirt off over his head.

“I’m going to have a bath.”

Riley stared at his retreating back with a sullen expression, thinking the crown prince had no consideration for his attendant’s feelings whatsoever.

He was walking toward the bathroom entrance, his back muscles shifting lazily with each step.

˗ˋˏ ♡ ˎˊ˗

A short while later, settled into the wide bathtub, Andrea turned down Raul’s attendance for once.

“It’s fine, not today. Go set out something light to eat and wait.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Andrea watched Raul’s retreating figure bounce out of the room, then scooped up a handful of water and dragged it down his face.

His brow furrowed slightly.

What was that?

Had he just been rattled?

When the boy had been rummaging around practically with his nose buried in Andrea’s chest, searching for that button…… what had that strange feeling been?

For a moment it had felt like some odd current passing over his skin.

Andrea clicked his tongue and swept his wet hair back.

‘It’s because he looks like a girl.’

When that pretty face had been pressed in close, the curling hair had brushed against his chest and tickled, and something that smelled faintly of poplar had reached him, and all at once heat had rushed straight to his face.