**Stalker Duchess Episode 16**
**Stalker Duchess Episode 16**
Moreover, for some reason, the Crown Prince saying those words was in an extremely angry state.
He acted as if he was sulking because I was only looking at the Elf Child.
This almost made it seem like the Crown Prince was jealous.
No way, it had to be my overactive imagination.
But if not that, how on earth was I supposed to interpret those meaningful words?
To begin with, there was no reason for the Crown Prince to be jealous of an elf...
Ah, no way.
I thought of the one and only reason the Crown Prince might feel jealous toward an elf.
"Lord Raven is plenty beautiful too."
"What?"
The Crown Prince turned to me as if asking what nonsense I was spouting, letting out a deflating sound.
But from my perspective, this was the only conclusion I could draw about why he was angry.
How many times in his life so far had the Crown Prince ever had someone else's gaze stolen from him?
I'd just realized it, but the Crown Prince undoubtedly had tremendous pride in his own appearance.
I could tell just from the content of the question he'd grilled me with.
-Can't get enough if the face is pretty, huh?
The Crown Prince's words sounded exactly like,
'How dare you look away from someone as pretty as me?'
It was a bit ridiculous, but having lived his whole life with that face, it was only natural for him to have some pride in it.
No, thinking about it, the Crown Prince was actually quite humble compared to what he possessed.
Anyway, the Crown Prince, who had immense pride in his face, couldn't tolerate seeing me entranced by someone else right in front of him, no matter who the other person was—even if it was Serabi.
...That was my conclusion.
The elf's appearance and pheromones far surpassed human limits, so it was unavoidable that I was captivated, but separately from that, the Crown Prince's anger wasn't entirely incomprehensible.
Even after giving him the answer he wanted, the Crown Prince looked at me with an incredulous expression, so I quickly added,
"I've never really felt emotions like calling someone pretty or beautiful upon seeing them until now, but Lord Raven struck me as beautiful from the first moment I saw you."
"......"
Raven, the Crown Prince, stared at me intently with a strange expression upon hearing my honeyed compliment.
He usually got angry at whatever I said, so I'd thought he'd dismiss it with something like 'Don't spout nonsense' this time too.
But he quietly kept his mouth shut, listening without interrupting me at all.
On the contrary, he stared only at my lips, as if waiting for me to say more.
What should I call the emotion in those eyes? A kind of anticipation?
Just how much more was I supposed to compliment him here?
I was sure the Crown Prince hated flattery and sycophancy the most in the world, but now it didn't seem entirely that way.
After staring at me for a long while with eyes full of that strange anticipation, the Crown Prince opened his mouth as if resolved.
"That means......"
At that moment, the Elf Child, who had been quietly gazing at my hair with sparkling eyes, suddenly yanked my hair from below.
"Ah."
The force made my head tilt sharply downward.
Aah, so cute. It felt just like watching a curious little animal.
After seeing someone like the Crown Prince, who looked like a child on the outside but was worldly and materialistic inside, encountering such a pure being felt healing somehow.
I squatted down to make it easier for the child to play with my hair and met the Elf Child's eyes.
Up close, it was even more beautiful.
Ah, come to think of it, I still hadn't heard the rest of what the Crown Prince was about to say.
I slightly lifted my head to look at the Crown Prince again and asked,
"What were you about to say?"
"No. It's nothing."
Facing me again, he wore a somewhat deflated expression.
I had been so entranced by the elf's pheromones that I'd nearly lost my reason for a moment, but the Crown Prince seemed utterly unaffected.
On the contrary, he looked annoyed, as if a nuisance had attached itself to him.
Despite being destined to marry the Elf Queen in the future, he showed no reaction to an elf.
Aah, if even this tiny Elf Child, who seemed freshly born, was this beautiful, just how stunning must the Elf Queen be?
The Crown Prince, who would claim the Elf Queen, was truly a thief.
The Elf Child playing with my hair burst into clear, bright laughter.
I nearly lost myself in the child's appearance again, but thanks to the Crown Prince glaring at me with fierce, murderous eyes every time I tried, I didn't lose my reason.
It seemed like his own way of looking out for me.
Preventing me from committing the crime of laying a hand on the child while out of my mind.
It was behavior befitting the icon of consideration from the novel. How grateful.
At that moment, the Elf Child, who had been excitedly playing with my hair, suddenly touched my injured shoulder.
It wasn't a strong touch, but it directly hit the wound as if targeted, startling me into letting out a slightly loud yelp.
"Ow!"
"Serabi!"
The Crown Prince, who had been watching us with arms crossed, came rushing over in a single bound at my scream.
Then he outright hurled the frozen, startled Elf Child away.
There was no other way to describe it but 'hurled.'
"Are you okay? Has the wound reopened?"
He urgently reached out to check my injury but flinched and pulled back his hand.
He was anxious, unable to even touch for fear of aggravating my wound.
But I was frozen for a different reason.
"Wh-what did you do that for, throwing a child?!"
I cried out in horrified shock toward the Crown Prince.
The Elf Child, who had rolled several times before tumbling away, stared blankly in bewilderment.
I rushed over and scooped up the startled Elf Child.
The Crown Prince had thrown it with genuine force. I'd thought surely something would be broken, but fortunately, aside from being a bit startled, the Elf Child showed no external injuries.
I let out a sigh of relief.
What was that? He didn't used to have a personality like this.
In the original story, the Crown Prince was described as more rational and kind-hearted than anyone, yet here he was casually hurling a child.
Based on the Crown Prince's personality in the novel, this was absolutely something that would never happen.
I subtly glared at the Crown Prince while hugging the child, and he looked troubled as he glanced our way.
Having regained his reason, he seemed shocked by his own actions and frozen.
As I glared with a look asking if he knew he'd done wrong, he flinched.
"I-I just... thought that heterorace might do something to you and got worried... And heteroraces have tougher bodies than humans, so that much impact wouldn't... Well, that is... Damn it."
Mumbling excuses incoherently, the Crown Prince trailed off, spat out a curse like he was chewing on it, and hung his head.
After staring intently at the innocent ground for a long while, he suddenly seemed to realize something and asked with an urgent face,
"You, your wound?"
"Pardon?"
Come to think of it, I was still holding the Elf Child with both arms.
The Elf Child wasn't heavy, but not light enough to hold with one arm either.
I looked down at the Elf Child nestled quietly in my arms.
Meeting my slightly startled expression, the Elf Child blinked innocently.
"......"
I quietly lifted and lowered the child about ten times.
"......"
The Crown Prince stared at me like I was some bizarre creature.
The child, thinking I was playing airplane or something, kept bursting into bright, innocent laughter.
"Ah, it doesn't hurt."
"......?"
I muttered to myself in shock.
Hearing my mutter, the Crown Prince furrowed his brow in confusion, tilting his head as if he couldn't comprehend.
The needle-like stabbing pain I'd felt just moments ago had vanished completely, as if it were a lie.
As for why my shoulder had suddenly healed, there was only one possible cause.
This Elf Child in front of me, smiling purely with a beaming face.
Come to think of it, in the novel, the Elf Queen had often used her Healing Power to swiftly heal the Crown Prince whenever he was injured.
I'd thought only the Elf Queen had Healing Power, but even this little child could use it.
My wound was severe enough to make even temple priests click their tongues, yet it healed instantly with a single touch from the elf.
Was this the difference between humans and heteroraces?
Unaware of my thoughts, the Elf Child simply looked up at me with a 'Did I do well?' expression.
"......Explain."
As I silently exchanged strange glances with the Elf Child, the momentarily forgotten Crown Prince interjected with a slightly annoyed voice.
Ordinary humans didn't know elves possessed Healing Power.
They were timid and lived in deep forest packs, always avoiding notice—many never even emerged their whole lives.
Thus, it was natural that the Crown Prince was meeting an elf for the first time too.
"It doesn't hurt. It's healed."
"What nonsense is that?"
As expected, he asked skeptically, unable to believe it.
"It's true. Want to see?"
With a slightly excited face, I turned my back to him like in the cave last night, pretending to pull down my clothes to show him, and he yelled in horrified shock, stopping me.
"What are you doing?!"
"Huh? Just showing you."
At my words, the Crown Prince hardened his face in disbelief before speaking angrily.
"So you just strip like that in front of anyone, huh?"
"......"
Who was it that said he'd seen my naked body since childhood and felt no thrill anyway?
Yesterday he got mad when I refused to show it, and today he's mad when I offer to show it.
It's the exact same act of showing the wound—why react like that?
