Chapter 17

Chapter 17

A moment of silence stretched between us, and I waited for him to answer nervously.

“Before I answer that question, Rosé.”

Albert spoke in a low voice, stroking his chin. Then, he narrowed his eyes.”

“I have an order for you.”

“…Pardon?”

“Answer my question first.”

Just like that, he switched the focus of the conversation from him to me.

Albert suddenly wielded his authority, which he usually didn’t, so naturally. This would have been the way it should be if our lives were as they were normally.

“Rosé, what about you?”

Albert stood up and walked towards me.

“What do you think of me?”

And now that he was right in front of me, he was looking down to meet my eyes.

“To me, your facial expression is unfamiliar right now.”

“……”

“Because your expression and your attitude right now are different from the usual, it makes me feel like what we’re talking about is ‘wrong’.”

He really catches on quickly.

Without any time for me to think, Albert urged me to speak.

“Don’t even think to hide it. I can read you better than you think.”

Albert’s eyes shone under the dim room. He was like a beast hunting for prey, prowling to bite my neck.

“I want to hear what you think first.”

He whispered in a low voice.

My body trembled. It felt like we were filming a romance movie earlier, but the genre suddenly became horror.

…Above all, it was like Albert was ready to kill me if I can’t come up with the answer he wants.

People instinctively like pretty things, and I heard it’s part of how evolution works—something about increasing the chances of survival by gravitating towards good things.

Obviously, I think Albert is handsome. His face is perfect, as though God himself sculpted him. And it’s not that I don’t like him.

But to ‘like’ someone and to ‘love’ them were two separate things.

Humans are complex beings. First impressions and physical appearances matter a lot, but you don’t know what’s beneath the façade.

Albert is someone like that to me.

His obvious arrogant tone and elegant gestures show how he lived his life as a nobleman, and this always reminded me of how he’s someone who lives in a whole different world.

And I might even be more relieved because he’s someone out of my league. This makes me care less about what I do in front of him.

In fact, Albert also didn’t prohibit me from acting silly or naïve.

At the end of the day, this is my conclusion: I don’t like Albert… but.

“Prince?”

I think I’m going to die if I say that.

“Rosé, you haven’t answered yet.”

But at that moment, the wand lit up to rescue me. It’s my savior now.

The wand’s light pulsed like a police car’s flashers, however, Albert just glanced at me and continued to stare.

Standing before me with his arms crossed, he seemed to have no intention to take one step away until he heard my answer.

…I have eyes. It would be weirder not to notice.

Albert likes me. I don’t know how much he does, but it’s deeper than my own feelings towards him.

As I recalled all the shameful things I did in front of him, I just stayed silent.

If I were him, I would have thought, ‘Wow. There are people like this in the world, too,’ all the while looking at me as though I were some kind of alien.

What in the world made him like me?

I take back what I said about the wand being my savior. In the first place, it was supposed to be rescuing me from Albert, but Albert himself didn’t care about the signal, so it was useless.

I think I’ll die if I answer the way I’m thinking, but I couldn’t avoid it. Albert surely wouldn’t move an inch until I answered.

Should I just say I like him?

But more problems would arise after today’s conversation. After all, I’ll have to stay with him for quite a long time.

Even if I tell him, ‘Prince, I don’t like you that way,’ it wouldn’t end just like that. He and I will have to continue seeing each other’s faces while living under one roof.

For the first time, I regretted asking him to eat together and to do physical training with Blanc every morning.

Then again, avoiding the problem won’t mean it’ll be gone either. And if I say that I do like him, that’s also another problem altogether.

Love between a maid and a prince only happens in romance novels. If a real prince were to say, “I’m dating a maid now~” the country’s vassals who follow that prince would just go, “What the hell is he thinking?!”

And Albert couldn’t have thought of this, too.

In the end, I decided to answer honestly.

Carefully, I opened my lips to speak.

“Prince, do you remember when we first signed the contract?”

I reminded Albert of the memory. My tone was half-serious and half-joking—this is the kind of answer you’ll get after pressuring me like this.

And he nodded, agreeing without hesitation.

”I will not love you, Rosé.”

He spoke so confidently then. Where on earth did that person go?

“You said you won’t fall for me.”

“……”

“Your Highness also said that I should not fall in love with you.”

“……”

“I am only following your order, Prince.”

I turned the arrow and deflected the question back to him.

If I simply said that I didn’t like him that way, I really feel like I’ll die from Albert’s brutal glare.

Truthfully, the core of the problem lies with Albert.

“At that time I knew very well about what you thought of me, Prince. So I never dared to build on any feelings for Your Highness.”

Albert didn’t like Rosé. And I understand why he didn’t. Although I’m mentally a different person, I respected his opinion.

I deflected it moderately so it should be okay! I tried to look at his reaction furtively. Ba-dump, ba-dump.

However, Albert’s expression was as cold as before. As he scoffed quietly, he swept back his hair.

“Is that your answer, Rosé?”

“It’s not that I don’t like you! I personally think that the Prince is very cool and handsome…”

“In short, you don’t like me.”

My excuse was immediately decimated by Albert’s iron wall.

I tried to alleviate his mood, but I just felt miserable by myself as I failed.

Albert smiled, then he asked with a softer expression.

“If you really don’t, then let me ask one more question. Why did you kiss back?”

“…Can I be honest? I feel like you’re going to kill me right now…”

“……”

Albert was silent for a moment. And that silence scared me. It really looks like he’s thinking hard about what he’s about to do with me.

…Were those going to be my last words?

I blurted out quickly.

“Prince, you remember that you signed the contract with a clause saying you can’t kill me, right? I’m going to get out of here for my peaceful retirement!”

Beep-beep-beep! Beeeep-beeeep-beeeep! Beep-beep-beep!

As if sending a signal for help in morse code frantically, I shouted urgently.

Then Albert, whose hand was on his chin, spoke slowly.

“…I won’t kill you, Rosé. I was just thinking why you’ve been fostering such a misunderstanding.”

What kind of excuse is that when you’re making a scary expression! But I didn’t dare refute what he just said.

“Of course, I knew that the Prince wouldn’t do that.”

Albert’s eyes glimmered.

“Then, you understand very well that I won’t. So answer me.”

I was just crying while eating mustard seeds.¹ It’s all too clear that Albert’s the kind of person who only listens to what he wants to hear.

“…At that moment, you made it so that I can’t resist.”

I mean, Albert knew it best. He knew how much he affected people and just how much influence he had on them.

But Albert smiled as though he was dejected. After touching his forehead, he approached me.

Then, he whispered with an expressionless face.

“Rosé. You really have a talent for making people miserable.”

“……”

“You’re quite good at it.”

“…I’m sorry, Prince.”

Even if I had ten mouths, I had nothing to say after that non-rejection. But I’m still sorry that he misunderstood because of the kiss.

But I don’t know what Albert’s thinking while he’s asking me like this. I doubt that his feelings were pure from the start in the first place.

As I already told him, this tower is an enclosed space. Perhaps Albert was just being fixated on these feelings that he’s having for the first time, but it’s not like we’ll live here all our lives.

And I’m not the only woman in the world. Unlike the Rosé of the novel, I’m a normal person with common sense.

…Well, I’m hoping that I am.

Albert’s expression continued to be unreadable as he stared at me.

I thought I already knew him pretty well, but it’s a mistake to think that way. Right now, his expression was completely wiped off, as if all his emotions had completely disappeared.

As my breathing was tense, Albert’s voice rang in my ears.

“Right. I have to answer, too.”

…What?

No wait, are you just obstinately going to say it honestly?

I really wanted to turn him down.

But my liver has already shrunk so much that I couldn’t say it frankly. Eventually, I had no choice but to wait for Albert to finish speaking.

He looked at me as I stayed silent, his gaze soft as though he really did have feelings for me, and he whispered in a sweet voice.

“I care for you.”

I received a confession.

From the prince of this country.

A sudden fast ball!

It was said so straightforwardly that I can’t even ignore it by acting tactless.

“I think about you. I wish to touch you. Rosé, this is the kind of care I feel for you. Do you understand?”

Like a kindergarten teacher teaching children new words for the first time, Albert repeated it again.

“And I can’t kill you. I need to find another way.”

So I really was about to die…?

The genre transformed once more and became a life or death survival thriller. And the female lead was me, Rosé Artius… No, Yoo Jung-in.

“But what should I do. The first person who falls is the one who loses. I’m not used to unrequited love.”

Albert leaned down and our eyes met, our faces close.

I could hear the same sound of his breathing, the same sound that I hear before we kiss.

Then, Albert whispered.

“What I’m saying is, Rosé, I’ll make you fall in love with me.”

It was just like him, this arrogant yet sweet confession.

I was rendered speechless. My face turned red in an instant.

Albert’s lips curled up into a smirk.

“And I’m spelling it out for you because I know you’ll pretend that you didn’t understand what I said if I bring it up again.”

He continued to hit the bull’s eye, and at this point, I should just throw my tongue out because I can’t say anything.

“Now you’ve heard my side.”

He said that he understood me, and this was true. I was like an open book to him now, and he saw how I tried to pretend to be tactless.

There was no touch between us. He soon moved away.

Albert glanced at the wand, which was now flashing at an even faster rate than earlier to express how urgent it was.

Sighing, Albert finally picked up the wand.

——

¹ crying while eating mustard seed – it is when someone is forced to do something he or she would rather not do, but pretends to enjoy it anyway. (Mustard seed is hot and spicy and is used for seasoning.)