PRKE 14

Posted by zahid, Released on December 1, 2025

CHAPTER 14…………………………….

Today, I only meant to deliver a letter.

Since he was bound to have certain prejudices about me, I wanted to explain the situation before meeting him at the banquet hall.

Of course, rambling on in writing alone wouldn’t solve anything. So I resorted to the help of a “magic potion.”

On the dark streets of Amtein—where all sorts of shady figures lived—there was a pharmacy run by a quack pharmacist named Kay. That place sold special potions.

Love potions that bewitched people’s hearts, tonics that supposedly made the dead spring back to life, beauty serums that claimed to make ugly women beautiful, and so on—every one of them suspicious just by name alone.

What I bought was a “warm potion that makes even people who dislike you look at you again”—which, to put it simply, was a sedative.

I’d used it often back when I lived on the streets; if I sprayed it before starting a job, people’s wariness tended to loosen. Out of all of Kay’s products, it was one of the few whose effects were at least somewhat proven.

His claim that he inherited the abilities of a desert shaman was obviously bluff, but he unquestionably had a real knack for identifying herbs.

If I gave the prince a letter sprayed with that potion, it would at least slightly ease his distrust toward me.

My plan was this:

I would secure an alibi using Jenny disguised as me, then sneak into the prince’s room.

I would leave the pre-treated letter on the prince’s bedside.

When he casually picked it up and read it, the sedative would kick in, softening his guard against me.

I would leave him shocked and curious about the woman who appeared and vanished without anyone noticing.

Simple, yet absolutely perfect.

A plan where I could use all my skills as a former thief to their fullest.

“But how on earth did he know I was here?”

Had I gotten rusty?

Back in my prime, I’d infiltrated a vault owned by a merchant notorious for his villainy.

Sure, I was smaller back then so moving around had been easier, but I had far more tools and tricks at my disposal now—this should have been even easier.

And I had slipped into this place easily enough, hiding inside the gift box prepared for the prince. No one had discovered me.

The only variable was this man’s beast-like senses.

I looked at the prince again.

In a room lit only by a single large candle casting a dim light, he emanated an overwhelming presence.

From his massive body—far larger than anything commonly seen in Liorsa—it almost seemed as if black heat haze rose.

Thump, thump.

A memory brushed past.

“Then rest if you want, do whatever you like.”

A disinterested back, as if he had no intention of touching me. His fierce eyes and huge frame should have been terrifying, but for some reason, they had calmed me instead.

His low, resonant voice had left an impression as well. The resolve to run at any moment had dissolved in an instant.

Among everyone I’d ever met, he had the most overwhelming presence by far.

Most criminals wandering the streets believed in superstition. Some trusted superstition more than Martha, the god of Liorsa.

I had a friend who believed that spitting in the morning guaranteed bad luck for the day.

I, too, trusted my instincts. Even when I lived with my father, if I felt something was off, I’d stop him from going out to work.

Without fail, something always happened—investigators patrolling the streets, pickpockets getting arrested one after another, things like that.

When I first met this man, I’d felt something as well—a flash of gold before my eyes.

What else could that mean but a golden future?

Anyway, I decided to bet on him.

“At the very least, he’s better than clinging to a rotten branch like Hubert Lorenst.”

I rose to my feet. The sharp tip of the rough-looking weapon followed me like a shadow.

Its point jabbed between my chest and navel.

I met the man’s eyes. Beast-like eyes that narrowed ever so slightly.

Gulp.

I swallowed hard.

“Did King Hermannon send you?”

“You might think so, but this was entirely my decision.”

People are most receptive to low-pitched voices!

I deliberately lowered my tone, but the prince didn’t even blink.

Fair enough—not everything works on the first try.

“I haven’t even introduced myself yet.”

I cleared my throat and continued.

“I am—”

“Egrain Lorenst?”

“So you do know me!”

I clapped my hands in delight—and immediately froze. The prince had raised that terrifying weapon high.

“Wait, wait, waaaait!”

I reached out in a panic.

Come to think of it, him knowing my name is not a good thing at all!

If he’d heard rumors about me, then he already had his prejudices. It was precisely to erase those prejudices that I was taking this reckless gamble—there was no turning back now.

“I know how you feel, Your Highness, but please, just hear me out! At the very least, you won’t lose anything!”

Begging was my only option.

“You won’t lose anything?”

His black eyes swept over me from head to toe.

“The new princess of Liorsa.”

His voice was terribly low, yet deeply resonant.

Completely out of place for the situation, I found myself thinking how nice it sounded.

I stared blankly at him.

“So why did you come to me looking like that?”

“…Pardon?”

“What’s your intention?”

Following the direction of his gaze, heat rushed to my face.

I had borrowed the outfit from Chui when I stopped by Amtein for the first time in a while. Chui, once the youngest at the brothel, had somehow become its owner.

When I asked for something “appropriate” to wear, she’d given me this with an odd laugh, saying it was the current trend.

In any case, the translucent slip that showed everything underneath did indeed look like something perverted nobles would lose their minds over.

I’d worn it in case a servant caught me—I wanted them to think I was a woman the prince had summoned.

I hadn’t expected the prince to see it.

There wasn’t a glimmer of lust on his face, and somehow, that made shame flood over me even more.

“Amazing. You’re bolder than the desert women.”

My face was probably red, but I lifted my chin proudly on purpose.

“I have… personal circumstances.”

“Oh? Circumstances?”

“Yes. I do. Would you like to hear them?”

“…Me?”

His reply came a beat late. When I nodded, he stayed silent, as if deciding whether to swing his weapon. I quickly redirected the topic.

“The reason I took the liberty of visiting you like this is, of course, to talk. A conversation that benefits both of us—constructive conversation.”

In truth, I had never planned to speak to him directly, let alone face-to-face—but things had turned out this way, so I acted as though it had been my intention from the start.

“So this is how the kingdom asks for conversation?”

Ignore the troublesome remarks.

“For this meeting to benefit both sides, honesty is necessary.”

“……”

“Your Highness desires something from the kingdom, doesn’t he?”

“And if I do, can you provide it?”

I opened my mouth, but his dry voice cut in swiftly:

“Did you ever have the right to ask such a thing? Fake princess?”

“Normally, I wouldn’t. But if I’m the fake princess who can marry you… wouldn’t that change things?”

“……”

“If His Majesty wants it, and the imperial crown prince wants it.”

Prepared to get stabbed, I met his eyes head-on.

“Can you refuse?”

He laughed. His thin lips stretched into a sharp curve. Shadows deepened in his dimples, making him look like a wicked figure carved at the gates of hell.

My heart pounded violently as I asked again.

“Why are you laughing?”

“If my brother truly wished it… yes, it would be troublesome. So what are you trying to say? That you want me to break off this marriage?”

“I would never dare, since I became a princess because of this marriage. But if you wanted it…”

“……”

“I could consider it for you.”

For the first time, the prince’s brow twitched.

Even to my own ears, it sounded like I was saying, ‘If you want it, I’ll do it for you.’ Which was partly intentional.

“But trivial matters aside, what I’m curious about is your purpose.”

“……”

“You didn’t come all the way here just to marry the princess of Liorsa, did you?”

His eyebrows rose further. His look seemed to challenge me to continue. I was scared, but I’d already come too far.

“For a marriage that might not even happen.”

“……”

“Shall I guess?”

The prince’s true purpose.

Hubert had wondered why the empire had really sent him. For the marriage? Impossible.

I lived my whole life in the kingdom, never set foot in the empire; there was no way I’d know their politics—but I remembered clearly the prince who had crossed our border.

Even after the marriage talks fell through, he hadn’t returned to the empire. And he had taken only one thing from the kingdom.

A person.

It would have made for a cheap romance novel if a stoic barbarian warrior had fallen for a beautiful maiden and whisked her away, but unfortunately, that wasn’t it.

The person he took was a bearded, middle-aged man.

A geologist—someone who could locate groundwater beneath thick layers of earth.

The empire needs water.

What the prince truly wanted was water.

“You want to make the desert flow with water, don’t you?”

The gaze that had been looking down on me mockingly froze.

Silence fell. A silence so dry it parched my throat.

“At first I thought you were just a deranged woman…”

“……”

“But you’re gutsy too.”

My hands trembled slightly.

My heartbeat roared in my ears. I forced myself not to cower.