Chapter 2. Myr Renat

At Ophelia’s sharp gaze, Samuel flinched without thinking.

But he quickly seemed to grow angry at himself for having felt even a moment of fear toward that stupid girl, and raised his voice sharply.

“Without the master’s permission, you absolutely cannot leave Naris. I, Samuel, will not allow it.”

At the butler’s objection, Nea grew restless, afraid Ophelia might go back on her promise.

“My father said if we don’t leave now, things will only get worse. We plan to hire several mercenaries and go before it becomes even more dangerous.”

“That still won’t do. Without the master’s permission, you cannot leave.”

In her past life too, the butler had used her father as an excuse and insisted on waiting.

Once Nea and all her other acquaintances had left Naris, there would be no one left in this city to help Ophelia.

Samuel was clearly biding his time, waiting for that moment to make off with what little remained of the baronial household’s assets.

So he uses the same excuse in this life too.

Ophelia laughed coldly to herself. Just as Nea was about to speak up, Ophelia’s voice came first.

“Butler. No matter how small and remote a baronial household this may be, I am a noble. And a commoner must show proper courtesy to a noble.”

The butler, who had been scolding Ophelia just moments before, stiffened.

“Have you forgotten to knock before entering a room? Do I need to retrain you as though you were a new servant? Go back out right now, knock, and enter only when I give you permission.”

Her firm, commanding tone made Samuel’s face contort.

But noble was noble, however lowly the rank. Samuel bit down on his lip. If he, a commoner, pushed back against Ophelia in front of Nea, his plans could fall apart.

The butler turned with a rigid face, stepped outside, closed the door, and knocked again. Ophelia did not answer right away. She let the silence stretch for a long moment before she spoke.

“Come in.”

This time the butler bowed his head and waited politely for Ophelia to continue.

“Father and Brother have almost certainly arrived in the capital long ago. They simply haven’t been able to send word given the circumstances…… If we delay any longer, it will only become harder to get out of Naris. We are going to the capital where Father is.”

“I apologize. Without the master’s orders, I cannot leave. I follow only the master’s commands.”

At Samuel’s words, Ophelia clasped her slowly trembling hands tightly together and spoke with deliberate calm.

“Is that so? Fine. Then I’ll leave ahead with Nea, and you can stay here and watch the house until word comes from Father. Once the order comes, make your way to the capital and join us.”

“Miss!”

“If you don’t like that, then come along quietly. I will not tolerate any further objections.”

Samuel pressed his lips shut and bowed his head lower.

Nea stared at Ophelia in surprise, too stunned to do anything but watch.

Ophelia had always seemed somehow diminished, perhaps because of her father’s illegitimate birth. She rarely pushed her own thoughts forward with force, and more often than not she yielded or compromised to the other party.

But today’s Ophelia was different. A little, no, quite a lot more impressive.

Samuel turned and left the room with a rough shove of the door, which slammed shut behind him.

“Hahaha, Lia! That was three years’ worth of frustration gone in one breath.”

Nea continued with an animated face.

“Honestly, I always hated the way Samuel treated you like a child. He seemed to forget his own place entirely. But you treated the butler like family, so I couldn’t say anything, and it drove me absolutely mad, you know?”

“Did it?”

“Yes! Just now you were really impressive. That was what a noble lady looks like.”

“Was it? Hehe, thank you, Nea.”

Ophelia took Nea’s hand and squeezed it.

“By the way, Nea. I think I’m going to need your help again today.”

“Sure. Tell me.”

“Could you lend me one of the viscountal knights? I have a feeling they’ll be making their move tonight.”

“Making their move? Who?”

Nea’s eyes sparkled as she looked at Ophelia’s lips.

“I’ll tell you the details once it’s done.”

Ophelia smiled with quiet meaning.

“Understood. I’ll speak to Father. Don’t worry.”

❀❀❀

After Nea returned home, Ophelia called for Bisha.

“Bisha. We’ll be leaving Naris in two days.”

Surprise and sorrow crossed Bisha’s face in quick succession.

“Miss. I don’t know if I should say this, but…… would you be able to take us with you? I say this knowing it’s forward of me. Given all the years I’ve spent looking after you…… If that’s truly too much to ask, then please, at least take Jonathan. I beg you. Huu……”

Bisha’s tearful face overlapped with a memory from her past life.

In that life, Ophelia had not been able to grant Bisha’s request. She had ultimately surrendered to the butler’s fierce opposition.

Ophelia had first met Bisha the year she turned six.

Coming out of a dress shop with her mother after having winter clothes fitted, they had found a shabbily dressed boy on the street, cradling a collapsed woman and sobbing. It was young Jonathan and his mother, Bisha.

“Please save my mother! Help us. Please……!”

People walked past, deliberately ignoring the boy’s desperate cries.

Then Ophelia’s mother had reached out her hand to young Jonathan.

Thanks to the baroness, Bisha had not frozen to death on the street and had recovered her health.

Ophelia’s mother had taken pity on her circumstances, a widow struggling to raise a young son alone, and arranged for Bisha to help with cleaning and kitchen work at the baronial household.

Jonathan was two years older than Ophelia. He had become quite close not only with Ophelia but with her brother Leo as well.

On the night her father and Leo were executed, when Ophelia’s tears had long since run dry, Jonathan appeared before her, someone she had not heard from in years, and collapsed to his knees in grief.

I heard the news about the master and the young lord too late. I pushed myself to get here as fast as I could…… but in the end I was too late. Forgive me, forgive me. Miss……

Ophelia had held the weeping Jonathan, who cried like a child, and wept silently with him through the night.

Miss, come with me. My mother has been very worried about you.

Jonathan had said he had joined a bandit gang to survive. He had apparently risen to a fairly high rank.

Ophelia had hesitated at his offer but ultimately could not bring herself to go. She had clung to her lingering feelings for Albus until the very end, resolving to give him one last chance.

What had become of Jonathan and Bisha after that, Ophelia did not know. Having joined a bandit gang, their end had likely not been a good one.

Looking at Bisha crying before her now, Ophelia said what she had never been able to say in her past life.

“Of course you’re coming with me. You and Jonathan are my family.”

“Oh…… Miss, thank you. Thank you so much.”

Bisha wiped the corners of her eyes with rough hands and bowed again and again in gratitude.

“We leave in two days, so tell Jonathan to come home today. I may need his help tonight.”

A sudden tension crept across Bisha’s tear-stained face.

“I’ll go bring Jonathan right away. Miss, please don’t worry. No matter what happens, the two of us will protect you.”

“Thank you, Bisha.”

Watching Bisha hurry out of the room, Ophelia felt a quiet warmth spread through her chest.

I had so many people on my side all along. I really was a fool. The love I was searching for was right here, this close to me. This time I’ll protect everyone. I promise.

❀❀❀

“Father! Father!”

The quiet Viscount Deys household erupted the moment Nea arrived.

At his daughter’s booming voice from far down the hall, the viscount gave a displeased cough. He glanced over at the silver-haired young man sitting across from him, who appeared to be in his early to mid-twenties.

“My daughter is a bit of a handful…… My apologies, Your Highness.”

A faint smile touched the young, beautiful face, which could only be described as perfect, framed by eyes deep as a blue lake.

“Please don’t call me that here.”

The voice that flowed from those finely shaped lips was as soft as a spring breeze.

“I would prefer that no one besides the viscount know my identity.”

“Understood.”

His face was the kind that made one instinctively lower one’s guard, but Viscount Deys did not relax his vigilance.

Still, in keeping with Myr’s wish to conceal his identity, he was careful not to appear overly formal, allowing himself to ease up just slightly.

Crown Prince Myr Renat of the Apollos Empire.

A remarkable figure who, despite having a mother of lowly common birth, had surpassed the second prince born of the Empress to claim the position of Crown Prince.

He had read at three and composed poetry at four.

At fifteen, he had accompanied the Emperor on a battlefield inspection and devised a strategy that reversed the tide of war, playing a decisive role in the Apollos Empire’s overwhelming victory.

That was likely when it had begun. The people’s fervor for the first prince, Myr, whose mother had been a commoner.

Even among the noble faction centered on the Empress, the newer nobles had turned their backs on the second prince, the Empress’s own son, and thrown their full support behind the first prince.

The world praised Myr, saying that the gods had looked upon the Apollos Empire with favor and bestowed upon it a once-in-a-generation genius.

The door burst open and Nea came running in.

“Father, you won’t believe it, Lia said she’ll come with us! Isn’t that wonderful!”

The viscount clicked his tongue inwardly at the sight of his daughter, flushed and speaking at full volume.

Nea’s cheerful voice faded, and the sitting room fell abruptly quiet.

It was because of the breathtakingly beautiful man sitting with her father.

Myr’s brow furrowed slightly at Nea’s stare. The gaze of others still unsettled him.

“Nea! What kind of behavior is this in front of a guest?”

The viscount, who usually let his daughter’s impulsive ways pass with fondness, rarely raised his voice like this. The unusual scolding snapped Nea back to her senses.

“I…… I have been rude. I am Nea Renat.”

Nea greeted him first, spreading her skirt wide on both sides with proper decorum.

“I am Rud Wells. A pleasure to meet you.”

“Rud?”

Her eyes lighting up, Nea slipped back into her natural self for a moment and started chattering again.

“You mean the Crown Prince’s cousin? The Empire’s greatest woma…… Hup, I’m so sorry!”

Nea clapped her hands over her mouth and shot a pained look at Viscount Deys.

The viscount kept his expression calm despite his daughter’s blunder, but his hands were damp with cold sweat.

He quietly studied the reaction of Rud, no, Crown Prince Myr Renat of the Apollos Empire. Myr’s expression did not change.

None of them know what lies beneath the Crown Prince’s gentle, beautiful face.

The reason Myr, whose mother was a commoner, had been able to claim the position of Crown Prince was not only due to his exceptional talent. It was also because the second prince had taken a serious fall from his horse during a hunting competition, badly injuring his left arm and leaving him disabled.

That the second prince’s fall was something Myr had orchestrated was a secret known only to a very few.

Myr had not done it simply to seize the position of Crown Prince. It was a cruel act of revenge and punishment directed at the Empress, the woman who had driven his mother to her death.

The imperial family always had to be perfect and superior, and one who bore a disability that prevented him from leading an army on the battlefield could not become Emperor.

In the end, Myr Renat ascended to the position of Crown Prince of the Apollos Empire.

“Count Wells, I apologize. Please forgive my daughter’s reckless behavior and careless words.”

“Hahaha, not at all. I had already heard of Miss Nea’s frankness by reputation. I was simply caught off guard hearing it said to my face. More importantly, Miss, didn’t you have something to tell the viscount? Please don’t mind me and carry on.”

Nea glanced over at her father. Strictly speaking, it could be considered rude for a third party to listen in on a family conversation.

But Viscount Deys nodded at Nea, signaling her to continue.

Since her father accepted the situation without question, Nea picked up where she had left off.

“Father, to say it again. Ophelia has agreed to leave with us.”

“Good, that is a relief. She’ll be able to reach the capital more safely with us.”

“But Ophelia asked if we could send her one knight.”

“A knight? Of course. I’ll arrange it. By the way, her father and brother are staying at the Lares household now, you said?”

The Lares household? Crown Prince Myr, who had been listening to the father and daughter’s conversation with idle detachment, raised an eyebrow.