Chapter 8

After fleeing from the princess’s room, I wandered aimlessly around the Valencia Duchy Mansion. The servants of the Valencia Duchy occasionally gave me strange looks as I roamed around with a dazed expression, but their stares made me uncomfortable, so I sat down for a moment. Then, the events from earlier vividly came back to me.

The image of those pink lips, moving messily as she ate the cake I fed her, kept popping into my head, making it impossible for me to sit still. After wandering around for a while, a thought suddenly struck me.

“Why couldn’t she speak? Did she really fall for me?”

The words the princess had provocatively said to me this morning. At the time, I hadn’t thought much of it, but why was it resurfacing now? Could it be…?

“Did I really fall for her?”

No matter how much I thought about it, the only answer that came to mind was this: I had truly fallen for Princess Rebecca. Even now, when I wasn’t facing her, Rebecca’s image kept appearing in my mind, and my thoughts were completely consumed by her.

This was an undeniable situation. Even though I was trying to deny it, saying it couldn’t be true, any normal man would have no reason not to fall for Princess Rebecca. Her beauty was described in the original novel as the most beautiful in the empire, and her background as the daughter of the Valencia Duchy, one of only two ducal families in the empire, was impeccable. Even her personal abilities were outstanding, leaving no room for criticism.

What man wouldn’t fall for such a princess?

Yet, the reason I didn’t want to admit I had fallen for her was simple.

‘If she realizes I’ve fallen for her…’

If Rebecca found out I had feelings for her, I could already predict what would happen next.

“Do you like me? Really?”

I could already see Princess Rebecca smirking smugly after hearing my confession. In love and relationships, the one who likes the other is always at a disadvantage, and someone as sharp and mischievous as Rebecca would undoubtedly take full advantage of that. I would be at her mercy forever.

The thought of being dragged around by Rebecca sent shivers down my spine, and I quickly shook my head.

“That absolutely cannot happen.”

It was something that must never come to pass. Even on the first day we met, I couldn’t resist provoking her and ended up winning an apology through a staring contest. The idea of spending the rest of my life dealing with that smug face was too horrifying.

So, I racked my brain for a solution, but nothing good came to mind. No matter how much I thought, no brilliant ideas surfaced. I let out a deep sigh.

“This is a disaster.”

It was no ordinary problem. In *[The Crown Prince Wields the Sword]*, Rebecca Valencia was known for her sharp intuition. If I didn’t come up with a plan, it was only a matter of time before she figured out my feelings. Of course, I would try my best to hide it, but humans are prone to slip-ups, and if I made even one mistake, Rebecca would catch on. And then, the future I desperately wanted to avoid would become inevitable.

Just imagining it was terrifying.

As I walked, trying to shake off the dreadful thoughts, I found myself back in front of Rebecca’s room.

“…”

I stood there, holding the doorknob, lost in silence.

Should I go in? Or not?

I was afraid that if I went back in, my newly realized feelings would be exposed. But if I didn’t go in, there was no reason for me to have walked all the way back here. After agonizing for a while, I decided it was better to go in.

‘I should at least apologize for running out earlier.’

I had left the room without the princess’s permission, overwhelmed by the strange atmosphere and my rapidly beating heart, as if I had caught some terrible illness. Apologizing for that rude behavior seemed like the right thing to do. Avoiding her now wouldn’t make sense since we were engaged and would inevitably meet again.

Creak—

Finally making up my mind, I opened the door to the princess’s room without even knocking.

“Ah.”

What greeted me was Rebecca, about to eat the last piece of the strawberry cake I had brought.

***

The awkward silence between the person sitting on the bed, about to eat the last piece of cake, and the person who had just entered the room hung heavily in the air.

“Did you eat all of it?”

“…”

The silence was broken by my exclamation of surprise. It wasn’t accusatory or angry, just pure astonishment.

‘That was a lot for one person.’

In the novel, Rebecca Valencia wasn’t described as someone with a big appetite. Had I misremembered, or did her love for strawberries override that setting? I couldn’t be sure, but one thing was clear.

“…”

Rebecca was extremely embarrassed.

Whether it was because she had eaten all the cake by herself or because she had cream smeared all over her face, I couldn’t tell. But her increasingly red face made it obvious that she was mortified.

And seeing her flustered like that…

“Did you enjoy it?”

I couldn’t help but tease her again.

All the worries about how to hide my feelings were forgotten. At this point, I seriously wondered if I had some sadistic streak in me.

‘How could I resist?’

That smug face, the face I wanted to punch, was now blushing furiously because she had eaten all the strawberry cake. Even the author of the novel wouldn’t have been able to resist this situation.

“…”

At my question, Rebecca’s face turned even redder.

“Come to think of it, I did say you should only eat it if I fed it to you…”

“You were the one who suddenly left…”

Rebecca tried to logically counter by pointing out that I was the one who had left abruptly. It was a decent attempt, but I wasn’t the type to lose an argument over something so trivial.

“So you ate it all in secret?”

“Well…”

“With cream all over your face, too.”

“…”

Rebecca, who hadn’t realized she had cream on her face, frantically started looking for her hand mirror. I watched her flail around for a moment before pulling out a tissue I had prepared along with the cake.

“What would you have done if I hadn’t been here?”

I wiped the cream off the princess’s mouth.

“…”

Rebecca seemed either ashamed that I had wiped her mouth or embarrassed by the strange atmosphere that had developed.

But one thing was clear.

Rebecca’s face was now so red it was indistinguishable from her hair color.

‘Found it.’

Looking at her, I realized the solution I had been racking my brain for.

My feelings for Rebecca were undeniable, and keeping them hidden from her was a tough mission. But what if I just didn’t give her the chance to notice?

If I kept teasing her and making her embarrassed, she would probably think I just enjoyed messing with her, not that I actually liked her. Given her personality, she would be too focused on winning against me to consider the real reason behind my actions.

Princess Rebecca was sharp, but her competitive spirit was far stronger than her intuition.

‘If I get caught, it’s game over.’

Of course, if I ever lost to her and she found out, I would face retribution ten, a hundred, maybe even a thousand times worse than what I had dished out. But…

‘I won’t lose.’

I was confident.

Confident that I wouldn’t lose to Rebecca.

Because the princess before me, Rebecca Valencia, was the character I had loved the longest while reading the novel, and now she was the person I had fallen for in real life.

“I’ll feed you the rest as promised.”

“…Okay.”

And so.

The princess would always lose to me.

***

Three years had passed.