ATPL 38

Now I know why I did it. But back then, I had no idea why I behaved that way.

So I took a step closer to you. I knew it was rude, but I couldn’t stop myself. I wanted to see you up close.

You looked frightened when I approached.

Yes, I am quite large…

But back then, it never occurred to me that you might be scared. In your surprise… you slapped my cheek.

Oh, please don’t cover your face. And don’t tear at the sofa like that, Miss Fleur. What if your hand wounds reopen? I truly didn’t mind.

In fact… I was happy.

It felt like I’d finally understood the shadow that had haunted me for so long.

As I touched my stinging cheek, it clicked. Maybe the tingling of first love feels just like this sharp pain.

Yes, I had fallen in love.

Then someone called me from a distance. “Lord Rezaie,” they said. And Miss Fleur, your expression in that moment was truly… Yes. You had the same eyes as now. Those startled eyes…

I understand why you’re acting this way, Miss Fleur. But please, don’t worry. I told you, didn’t I? That was the moment I fell in love.

Ah, and it didn’t turn into a diplomatic issue. No one saw what happened.

Don’t worry.

I said to Miss Fleur:

‘Please make me your servant.’

Miss Fleur didn’t understand what I meant. Just like now.

It’s funny how the you from then and the you now wear the same expression.

I’m not teasing. It’s endearing. Lovely, even. Ah! Really! Don’t make that mortified face.

Anyway, I bowed and said:

‘I want you to despise me.’

Then Miss Fleur exclaimed in shock,

‘Are you crazy or what.’

That’s right. I was insane to you. Ah, Lord Resaloniki, I see that look in your eyes. Someone like you would never understand someone like me.

But think about it. All my life, I’ve been treated like precious trash.

Ironically, I lived nineteen years as both a prince and worthless garbage, despite my talents.

I know how twisted that is.

I know some people would never forgive me for revealing this.

But still—

“…ITry calling me… master.”

Though startled, you carefully… said that to me.

And your eyes then, yes, I saw how you were thinking. How you were plotting to use me.

I exposed a weakness, and you didn’t miss it.

Those cunning, calculating eyes.

I couldn’t look away from them.

Yes. From that moment, Miss Fleur became my master.

* * *

Anais suddenly wanted to climb Mount Fortuna, the highest peak on the continent.

So she could jump off it.

Meanwhile, Elliot calmly questioned the prince about the madness he had just heard.

“So when you seemed to accept our explanation about Miss Fleur’s memory loss earlier, you didn’t believe it at all?”

“Correct.”

Cesar answered, glancing at her with a trace of regret.

“I thought the memory loss… was part of some kind of role-play.”

Anais couldn’t meet Cesar’s eyes anymore. More accurately, she was completely stunned.

Compared to Elliot’s relative composure, she was on the verge of a mental collapse.

“Miss Fleur said she knew people like me very well. At first, I wondered if there was a place where people like me gathered… but no, she said she’d read records about such people.”

I’ve never seen anything like that!

Anais wanted to scream, but barely held herself back.

She still clung to the last shreds of her social status and pride.

Don’t shout in front of others. That was the etiquette Anais had been taught since childhood.

But then a realization hit her.

…To these people, Anais’s social standing and honor were already meaningless.

Especially given who these two men were.

Cesar Rezaie, the Guild Master. Elliot Resaloniki, the Commander of the Dragon Knights.

Losing one’s composure in front of a passing dog might be excused. But to lose everything, status, dignity, sanity before two of the most powerful men in the empire?

Anais felt like her mind was slipping.

Just hold on a little longer. Just a bit more, and I’ll find a clue to my memories… no, a clue to my jewel…

“And so Miss Fleur allowed me to call her master.”

“…So that’s what the ‘master-servant relationship’ in the complaint meant. Then you didn’t actually treat the Duke like a servant or abuse or harass him? It was just a figure of speech?”

Anais looked at Cesar with a flicker of hope.

Cesar blinked, then smiled brightly.

“I don’t consider it harassment.”

Anais’s hope flickered brighter.

“So there was no abuse.”

“I’ll keep that a secret for Miss Fleur’s sake.”

That’s when the two men noticed the young lady beside them making strange noises.

She was covering and uncovering her ears with both palms while groaning monotonously.

“Aaaaaaaah.”

“…Miss Fleur?”

Elliot called out, suspicious.

But Anais, pretending not to hear, groaned even louder.

“Aaaaah. I can’t hear anything, aaaaaaah.”

Yes. Anais Fleur had decided to deny reality. Her social status was already in tatters. What was there to preserve?

The two men fell silent. But Anais couldn’t care less.

There was no more hope left in the world.

She wondered why the world didn’t just end already.

Aaaah. Maybe if she just kept pretending not to hear, there was a magic that could undo everything?

Why was she the only one who lost her memories? Couldn’t there be a miraculous event where everyone in the world lost theirs?

Anais kept pretending not to hear, for a long time, under the watchful eyes of two men who stood at the peak of society.

Twenty-year-old me! You can’t lose to nineteen-year-old me! You should lose your memories too! You can do it, Anais Fleur!

Unfortunately, Anais would not lose any more memories.

It was truly tragic.

* * *

Meanwhile, Abelard was walking down the corridor when he spotted something interesting.

“Why are you taking mountains of snacks?”

A maid was muttering and rummaging through things in the small maid’s room attached to her mistress’s quarters.

Normally, or more precisely, if Abelard Brochhart were still strutting around the imperial palace as His Highness the Crown Prince he would’ve never noticed this place.

But now, he was just Sir Abelard. And worse, he was annoyed at having missed an interesting story.

That lunatic magician who wastes precious mana scattering flower petals, how did he end up tangled with that scatterbrained girl? And some possession thing, too? I’m the only one who didn’t hear the story!

‘Besides, does a ‘secret engagement’ even count as official?′

Given all that, it wasn’t strange that Anais’s maid caught his attention.

Especially since the cookies she was carelessly tossing around and stuffing into her apron were ones his mother, the Empress, had specially prepared.

Something about poor Anais traveling with two ominous men and needing at least some comfort.

But to think a mere maid would treat those cookies like that.

Is that girl with the princess complex just soft, or is she too generous?

“Those are from my mother.”

“Eek!”

The maid jumped and let out a tiny shriek.

“You scared me!”

“Yes, yes.”

Abelard stepped in with a pleasant smile. The maid backed away, watching him warily.

But Abelard casually patted her on the shoulder like it was the most natural thing.

“Those cookies are delicious. Since your lady doesn’t seem to eat them, you go ahead. They’re made with the finest ingredients.”

“…Does Sir Knight’s mother bake cookies herself?”

“Of course. It’s her only hobby.”

…Yeah, right. As if the Empress of the Empire baked anything herself. That would be truly shocking.

The palace chefs had probably baked them until their hands went numb. But at least the ingredients were top-notch. Since it was half true, it wasn’t really a lie, right?

Abelard thought so as he gently brushed his hand along the maid’s cheek.

Judy’s eyes widened, then flushed red.

Yes, Abelard had a real knack for this kind of mischief.

Flirting and fishing for information from a maid carelessly rifling through her mistress’s things? That was nothing for him.