"...."
I focused on breathing evenly and turned my head towards the door.
"What is it?"
"Your Highness. His Grace, Grand Duke Rodias, has requested a visit." The head chamberlain announced from outside the door in a mechanical voice.
"Hmm? Grand Duke Rodias?" I muttered in a strange tone, then called out, "Why would he be here? ...Alright. Let him in."
"Yes, Your Highness."
With trembling hands, I tidied myself. I kept checking the mirror. The reflection of myself in the mirror, always so shabby.
A moment later.
I saw the man standing by the reception room window like a painting.
"Do you know? The curse we were under required the 'consent' of two or more half-demons who shared the same blood."
The Grand Duke, still heartbreakingly beautiful, continued speaking. "So when I realized you weren't the foolish person I knew, this was the first thing I thought."
"Ersen Meyer. What if he wasn’t a foolish child who unknowingly followed the half-demon, but a conspirator who knew everything and acted accordingly?”
"Doesn't he deserve to be ruined?"
That person, painful just to look at.
***
I remember my first encounter with him.
Before regression, while I was visiting the Crown Prince's palace daily to resolve the misunderstanding between Sercil and Crown Prince Theodore, I felt someone brush past me.
Brother Marcus. He didn't even show me his face, passing by quickly as if he hadn't seen anything.
And the person next to him spoke.
"I greet Your Highness, the Second Prince."
It took me a moment to realize he was addressing me, and then I reacted. It wasn't because I hadn't adapted to the body I had possessed. It was simply because I had never seen such a beautiful person before.
Sercil and Brother Theodore were also as beautiful as paintings, but the Grand Duke was different from them.
He—.
"I greet Your Highness, the Second Prince."
He turned to look at me, with a beauty as if a god had painted him in a fit of happiness. Greeting me just like that time.
"Your Highness?"
Even while he was torturing me, the brilliance of that first encounter hadn't faded. That's why my insides felt even more tattered.
Because your appearance, having lost the light of life, was compared to the brilliance of that first day.
"Ah, ahh."
I only expected my body to tremble at seeing him again, not my heart.
'How dare I.'
I inwardly scolded myself, then cleared my throat. And playfully ruffled my hair, trying to sound casual with him.
"Wow, so, Grand Duke? Is that right?"
"...Yes, Your Highness."
He blinked calmly, then tilted his head slightly as he answered. I felt his observing gaze. Normally, someone seeing him for the first time would be too overwhelmed to even think, let alone respond properly.
'He must think I'm like that too, right?'
What was it like before? I recalled what he said with an angelic smile after seeing me speechless and unable to properly form words.
"I didn't expect to see you here, perhaps you've lost your way?"
"Ah, no, no, I...!"
"Oh dear. I hadn't heard rumors of Your Highness, the Second Prince, having a chronic illness. If you need it, please say so. I'll call a veterinarian for you."
It was only after he gracefully passed me by that I realized I had been treated like an animal by the angel I first met.
'But how will it be today?'
This time, I must safely bring him as a witness to "that incident."
I now know why he spoke so dismissively to me back then. It was because I didn't hold anything they didn't know. I was literally no different from livestock, with no reason to be wary of me.
But now, it's a little different.
'I know how to make you focus more on me.'
I need to move in an unexpected direction. Not overly threatening, but maintaining an aura that warrants a reasonable degree of caution.
I pretended not to notice his overt scrutiny, then shook my head and said in a drawling voice, "Grand Duke... are you perhaps not human?"
"—Pardon?"
Perhaps it's because no one seeing him for the first time opens their mouth so quickly? A fleeting surprise crossed his eyes.
"No, I just thought God would prefer people to bow to you rather than to the temple's statues."
Expressing his beauty directly was something I wouldn't have dared, but for Ersen, who was approaching them as a villain, this would be more natural.
His blue eyes, like the summer sky or crystals from the deep sea, subtly distorted for a moment. I watched him intently and smiled wryly.
"You look like you're sculpted from the jewels of heaven, the most noble of them all."
I hummed this, casually approaching him. He watched me approach silently with that peculiar look in his eyes.
"Grand Duke, you are a beautiful person."
"..."
The peculiar look deepened.
I didn't wait for his answer. I merely hummed to myself like that, then stopped at a distance that wouldn't make him wary. And, as if this had been my intention all along, I naturally skipped over to the reception room sofa and sat down. With light, noiseless movements.
"One can't leave such a person standing. Sit, Grand Duke!"
I gestured to him, smiling mysteriously. For a fleeting moment, a flicker of interest seemed to cross his eyes, which were always indifferent to me.
...It must be my imagination.
He continued to smile silently, then after a moment, he slowly moved.
"To receive such a welcome, I don't know how to conduct myself."
"Will I ever get to see someone as beautiful as you in my lifetime again? Of course, I have to welcome you. And it seems I'm not the only one welcoming you, am I? Look, the head chamberlain prepared warm tea. The aroma is lovely."
"Haha."
His elegant and serene appearance, which I hadn't seen in a very long time. Watching him move, he seemed infinitely calm, yet I felt as if I could hear a rustling sound from somewhere.
When I smiled like a fox and blurted out random words, a laugh escaped him. A laugh that sounded amused but contained nothing of genuine amusement.
"Your Highness, you are more interesting than I thought."
"Oh, I made you laugh? What an honor."
I rested my chin on my hand and replied with a peculiar glint in my eyes.
"An honor, you say."
He mumbled in a light tone, as if passing by. I gazed at him, as he subtly expressed hostility, unlike before.
It was truly a discreet expression.
He gently brushed the warm teacup a couple of times with his pale fingertips, then withdrew his hand. The look in his eyes as he gazed at the tea was very peculiar.
'It was like—a look one would reserve for someone offering meager scraps.'
He drew a faint smile and lifted his gaze from the teacup to look at me.
"I heard you frequently visit the temple."
"Mm-hmm, so you heard from Priest Yuan?"
The task of guiding the imperial family formally requires sending a high-ranking priest.
Priest Yuan was the priest who was in charge of guiding me at the temple.
And among the high-ranking priests, there were those who admired Grand Duke Skye, the great mage of light.
“He is a faithful man. He often sends me invitations…”
He had probably received thousands of letters from priests who admired him, politely asking him to become a believer. He wouldn't specifically check only those sent by Priest Yuan.
But the Grand Duke, with a very gentle smile, created an atmosphere as if he truly had a small acquaintance with that priest.
"Anyway, Priest Yuan said he felt too inadequate to continue being solely responsible for a noble person like you. He apologetically asked me to take over."
"Oh, really?"
"Yes, what do you think about me accompanying you when you visit the temple from now on?"
"But the Grand Duke isn't a priest...?"
"The temple is also part of the Empire. My position is slightly higher than a high-ranking priest's."
This country acknowledges the temple, but not its autonomy. He was making that point. And in other words, he was indirectly letting me know that harming Archbishop Bormir would be harming a subject of the Empire. Perhaps he was putting up a safety net just in case, even though he didn't think I could do anything.
'...The old me wouldn't have understood this at this point.'
He usually doesn't show his displeasure openly. But I was an exception. He might have thought I wouldn't understand, but truly, right after I was possessed, I lacked such perceptiveness.
"No matter what I say, you don't understand, what should I do? Your Highness, what I mean is not that you are noble, but that you are utterly lowly."
Looking at him as he said that with a cold smile, I felt embarrassment for the first time.
'And I started studying hard to somehow fit in.’
I answered with a peculiar smile, delaying my reply.
"Hmm. Is that so?"
Then I asked him meaningfully, "Alright, Grand Duke. Then, do you want to make a deal with me?"
"Suddenly, a deal? ...Your Highness, with me?"
He replied in a strange tone. It meant, "How dare you, with me?"
"Grand Duke, please speak well to my brother so he'll reduce my confinement by one day. Then I'll tell you a fact that you would absolutely never know. Of course, I'll also accept accompanying you to the temple."
Brother Marcus, who would be listening to our conversation hidden somewhere, would have eagerly accepted the offer. No matter how lowly the opponent, if it was interesting, he would bite.
But the Grand Duke, as expected, didn't answer immediately. He remained with his neat smile, looking down at me haughtily. He was contemplating whether to kill this insect before his eyes, which was behaving unexpectedly, or to let it be for a while longer.
"It means you can monitor me!"
I grinned and said it openly.
His eyebrow stiffened slightly.
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