RAMHM Chapter 90

You. Punk. Your brother. Lunatic.

Despite it being midwinter, only the chirping of insects circled the garden. Epero watched my face as I seemed to be forcibly suppressing my humiliation, then dropped his eyebrows teasingly and smirked.

"Can't you hear me? Your face, my lady..."

"Your Highness."

I hardened my expression somewhat menacingly. I must have looked like a governess.

"Do I look like someone who'll just let Your Highness's rudeness slide?"

"What?"

I straightened from the posture I'd briefly bent to examine the fireflies. And I looked directly up at his face.

"What can you do about it?"

He mocked me brightly. I immediately raised my eyes sharply and opened my mouth.

"Of course, I can't do anything right now. Your Highness, I want to become close with you."

"So?"

"So I'm giving you an opportunity."

"Ha, an opportunity?"

"You actually want to stay in Ronteaux, don't you?"

The bright face that had always been confidently beaming instantly turned ashen. Epero trembled his long eyelashes, then pulled his lips up even higher than before.

"You don't actually want to return to Ellaconia, do you?"

The affectionate mother-son relationship between Empress Grace and Epero was famous. Moreover, the fact that he could come this quickly at just one letter from Novian meant it was impossible without his own will.

"Who do I have in Ronteaux? What would I gain by staying in Ronteaux?"

Epero's complexion flushed slightly.

"Why wouldn't you have anything? Aren't you third in this nation's line of succession? With Empress Grace holding her position so firmly, if you set your mind to it, what couldn't you obtain?"

"You're more naive than you look, my lady."

Even as he said this, Epero's face looked stricken with terror the moment I mentioned the throne succession.

"No, you might really be naive. Come to think of it, everyone you're entangled with are all in the line of succession. Seems like you're sniffing around here and there trying to make a fresh start with that palm-sized Acacia estate as collateral, but wake up from your dream."

"What could I possibly do with that palm-sized Acacia estate?"

"You think I don't know there's a mana stone mine on that land? That's why you couldn't even capture Novian Trovika's heart. Him elevating someone to Grand Duchess just because he dragged them to bed? Absurd."

Epero rambled somewhat as the earrings dangling from his ears jingled each time he shook his head while speaking. I shifted my gaze to the sparkling earrings, then suddenly pressed my mouth firmly shut to suppress the gasp that wanted to escape. Something... I felt as though I'd inadvertently learned something surprisingly important.

If there was a precious mana stone mine on Acacia territory, that would be truly remarkable. Because it wasn't an exaggeration to say that the power of Ellaconia, also called the nation of mines, came from mana stones. Though those who could freely use magic only descended in legends, mana stones could be used as an energy source to develop various industries. Even the Empire of Ronteaux had mana stone mines scattered across this vast land as rarely as beans in a drought, making them precious enough that only the imperial family or the Royal Academy could use them.

"...You know more than I expected."

To hear more information about the mana stone mine, I pretended to have known and acknowledged his words.

"People like you are so predictable. Marrying an old man to cleanse your status, then when he dies, stealing his title to use that as leverage to find a better man—that sort. Ronteaux is a good country for doing such things right now. Coincidentally, first the Grand Duke, second Brother Rhoan, third... presumptuously Crown Prince Bardenaldo. Good grief."

Epero ostentatiously smacked his own forehead with his long hand laden with jeweled rings.

"Could I be the fourth? I suppose you cast out multiple fishing lines and pray for just one to bite. Did you plan to send a letter to make me suspect you, then reel me in? But what will you do if I report to Crown Prince Bardenaldo that you sent the letter summoning me?"

I wanted to punch Epero's grinning face. Patience. I'm the adult, and Epero is a minor who's just about to come of age.

"Then I'll report that Empress Grace ordered me to do it."

It hit home properly. Epero's mouth, which had been letting out deflating laughter, hardened like stone.

"Does it anger you to mention an innocent person who's done nothing? Then you understand my feelings exactly right now. Why would I bother summoning 'young' Prince Epero who hasn't even come of age? According to Your Highness's logic, even without you, those who'd want to get close to me for Acacia territory are overflowing. And wasn't it you who asked to have me as an attendant?"

Bianca had said that boys, no matter how young, could never tolerate being treated like children. Epero, who had been stiffly frozen just staring at my moving mouth, began to move only after I continued speaking.

"Rather than insulting me while barking up the wrong tree, how about trying to seduce me instead? According to Your Highness's words, whoever obtains Acacia territory would gain some great benefit unknown to others."

"Ha."

The spirited young prince's face flushed with a strange light. He couldn't dare accuse me of being rude. It was Epero himself who'd been rude first. He was glaring at me, but the emotion in his eyes was interest, not contempt. I found it equally interesting. A mana stone mine on Count Acacia's territory. Then I could understand why Novian had searched so desperately for Count Acacia's will. If he found the will, couldn't he have Gaspar manipulate the handwriting? Goosebumps rose in a wave, but I received Epero's gaze fully while lifting my chin higher and smiling. If he became interested in me and babbled even one more word about Count Acacia's territory, nothing could be better.

"If Your Highness apologizes for the rudeness you showed me and asks to become true friends, who knows?"

"..."

"I might share some of the interests in Count Acacia's territory with you."

If you pressure the Crown Prince, making him want to keep me closer to use me more, that would be perfect.

"I might even help you stay in Ronteaux continuously instead of that foreign country."

I could even build up power and use you to bring down the Crown Prince when it's revealed he's my enemy.

"You asked what I could do earlier? I may look like this, but I'm not to be taken lightly."

As my voice grew more and more intimate, Epero leaned his ear closer, drawing nearer to me.

"Do you think I aimed for the Grand Duchess position by seducing Novian Trovika, who didn't want to let you into Ronteaux?"

When he bent his body slightly to match my height and drew close enough that the distance between our faces was less than a span, I spoke in a voice tinged with laughter.

"Not at all. It was I who stuck that man in the north."

Curling red hair. Blue eyes whose light had simultaneously faded with the disappearing fireflies. Things of exactly the same color as Crown Prince Bardenaldo's flickered before me.

"Are you feeling even slightly like becoming friends?"

I saw in those verdant eyes the shadow of desire he'd been forcibly concealing. Those who overdecorate themselves and act brightly have correspondingly dark parts.

"...What do you want?"

Finally, a somewhat courteous answer returned. I smiled benevolently while stroking his curling hair with my gaze as though praising a dog that had fetched a disc.

"It's simple."

And I narrowed the gap between our faces from barely two spans to press my lips right against his ear and whispered.

"I only want to distinguish between my enemies and allies."

"...What's your purpose?"

Ah. What was my purpose? What I wanted was to distinguish between my enemies and friends, but what did I ultimately want by making such distinctions? Without realizing it, I turned my head toward where Rhodness was, from whom conversation sounds could no longer be heard. But neither Rhodness nor Viktor was there.

"?"

Instead, I recognized that a thick shadow had already fallen over my head. The deep night garden without fireflies. The person with lightless eyes was not only Epero but Rhodness as well. Seeing Rhodness looking down at Epero and me from right beside us with sunken eyes, I hesitated briefly.

"When did. You two. Become close?"

Viktor's short Imperial speech pierced through the chilling silence. I glanced at Epero.

"Ah, the conversation one has with a beautiful lady in such a dark place is obvious."

Epero concealed the conversations we'd just had as though covering them with black cloth.

"The lady's face is so much my taste that I..."

The wavering blue eyes relaxed languidly as though nothing had happened and spewed lies without care. About how the lady's face seen at night was so excessively beautiful he couldn't help but approach, and so on. He'd smoothly rattled off such charming words.

"Epero."

But Epero's quick wit to get through the moment ended there.

"Shut your mouth."

It wasn't the usual terse insults he tossed out. Rhodness was 'ordering' Epero to close his mouth with utmost sincerity. I'd seen this face before. The face he'd only shown to 'Bliea' who had insulted Adrienne. Epero looked at Rhodness with a bewildered expression. Having intended to smoothly slip past as usual, he only worked his mouth at the unexpectedly serious and grave warning.

"She is the Crown Prince's assistant and a proper acting Count Acacia. And..."

Rhodness, who had been staring at Epero intensely as though to pierce through him, turned his gaze to me. I quietly received that gaze. It was a bit overwhelming.

"My irreplaceable... dear friend. If you continue such worthless harassment and I hear words like I just heard again in my ears."

"Brother?"

"I'll smash your skull without warning."

It was too brutal for a warning on behalf of a dear friend. His face looked as though it wouldn't get a scratch even if someone stabbed it with a sword. The atmosphere here, which had maintained at least superficial warmth, became thin ice. Viktor, whose speech had been too fast to follow and who'd been grasping the situation, stealthily approached me, the easier target.

"My lady."

But Rhodness's deeply sunken voice came first.

"It's late. It would be best to report to Crown Prince Bardenaldo and withdraw from the palace."

The words came just before Viktor's arm extended to offer me an escort.

In the end, what remained alone in the garden were just Epero and Viktor. Viktor watched for a long time the backs of Rhodness swiftly leaving this place and the lady practically being dragged along with him, then turned his gaze. Epero too had his eyes fixed on the same spot. Because Viktor knew how much Epero usually respected and admired his half-brother Rhodness, he understood the expression he was making. Deflated and dumbfounded—that sort of expression.

"More than you. Temper. F*cking awful."

At Viktor's consoling follow-up, Epero laughed shortly. Though his own brother, he was damn terrifying.

"When you whispered. Earlier with lady. Your brother. Lost it. Eyes."

"I imagine so."

Epero had never seen anyone capture his brother's attention like that. Generally, Rhodness had no interest in anyone except Crown Prince Bardenaldo or the late Empress Letina. Both were people not particularly welcome to Epero either.

'Then I'll report that Empress Grace ordered me to do it.'

A woman like the Crown Prince who casually mentioned others' weaknesses without care. Epero easily found the common thread among the people Rhodness was interested in and blew at his curling bangs with a deflated puff.

"That woman. You fell for her?"

"What if I did?"

Though he hadn't fallen for her at all, Epero answered irritably. He wanted to separate this foolish friend of his before he gave that woman unnecessary affection. Viktor's thick eyebrows crumpled sharply at Epero's words, as though he'd already given her affection.

"You. Punk. Your brother. Lunatic."

"And you're a f*cking idiot, you bastard."

To this stupid pink bear who didn't know his caring heart, Epero poured out curses without hesitation.