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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 19
Chapter Title: A Counterfeit Smile
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“I'm terribly sorry to ask, but due to my circumstances, I haven't been able to open an account there yet. Would Your Highness be able to open one for me?”
“Young Lady.”
“As you well know, the Central Bank of Kelmir operates on a principle of strict confidentiality. As long as I know the account holder's name and the password, there would be no problem for me to use it after Your Highness opens it…”
“Wait a moment.”
Raynerd raised a hand, stopping me mid-sentence.
“Goodness. I should write this down somewhere.”
Only then did I realize my mistake and glance at him nervously. Did I go too far, just because he gave me an opening?
“Oh, dear. Was I talking too much?”
“For someone who said she didn't want a reward. What would you have done if I hadn't asked again?”
“Haha…”
I was only pretending to refuse out of courtesy.
“In any case, you seem to have a rather specific plan.”
Raynerd stroked his chin. Fortunately, he didn't seem offended by my detailed demands.
“The Central Bank of Kelmir. You sound like a criminal hiding illicitly acquired black money.”
“It’s just my needlessly cautious nature…”
My heart twinged with guilt, since I really was planning to flee if things went from bad to worse and ended in the worst-case scenario.
In the novel, the ending for the Charlotte who was cast out by the Lindsi family was a prison sentence.
It was a hundred, a thousand times better to run away than be locked up in a prison here, which was said to be an even worse environment than the world I came from.
Of course, the best thing would be to not commit a crime worthy of prison in the first place, but there was no harm in preparing for the one-in-a-million chance.
‘After all, I’ve read plenty of stories where the transmigrated protagonist finds events unfolding just like the original novel, thanks to some kind of narrative force.’
I nodded, recalling the countless transmigration stories I had read before.
“How peculiar.”
His clear voice brought my focus back to the man lounging on the bed.
“I'm talking about you, Young Lady. I was too exhausted to realize it when we last met.”
He fixed his gaze on me and lightly licked his lower lip.
‘Oh, that’s sexy… no, wait, this is bad!’
I knew the hidden meaning behind that action, one that anyone else would have dismissed as a simple habit.
Because in the novel, that was what made Raynerd see the heroine, Aila, in a new light!
Raynerd is a thoroughly calculating person.
To someone like him, Grand Duke Cedric Hiklrid, with his immense authority, was a figure to be both respected and kept in check.
That's why, upon noticing Cedric's love for Aila, Raynerd approached her, wondering if she could become Cedric's weakness.
But the laws of romance novels, shall we say, were not on his side.
‘The male lead, or second male lead, who approaches the heroine with an ulterior motive is bound to fall for her for real!’
One day, while Raynerd was inwardly flustered by Aila, who constantly defied his expectations.
“Did you know? Your Highness often licks your lower lip when you're with me. It happens in just a fleeting moment.”
While dealing with Raynerd, who invariably visited her, jokingly claiming he would become a candidate for her husband, Aila uttered something unexpected.
Raynerd, who hadn't even been aware he had such a habit, felt a sense of bewilderment but replied nonchalantly.
“Is that so? Perhaps it's because I'm nervous, being in front of someone I'm fond of.”
“You're wrong.”
“What?”
“The emotions I glimpse from Your Highness are not those of a man toward a woman he adores.”
“...Then what are they?”
“It was a wariness, sharp as a blade, a desire to dig into every facet of the other person.”
Raynerd fell silent. Because Aila's guess was correct.
‘I don't remember it word for word, but that was the gist of it.’
Raynerd had just licked his lip. In other words, he was starting to become wary of me.
Objectively speaking, there were plenty of reasons for him to be suspicious of me.
First, there was the problem of the bed's curse. As long as the curse led the second male leads to my bed, it was self-evident that I was deeply involved with it.
Meeting Raynerd's gaze, which felt like a sting, I broke out in a cold sweat.
‘In fact, considering Raynerd's distrustful and wary personality, it's only natural for him to suspect me…’
The last time, when he let it slide without much comment, was a special case.
At the time, he wasn't in his right mind after suffering from severe insomnia for months, so he wouldn't have had the luxury of questioning things.
But the Raynerd of today, having had at least a week of sound sleep, was different.
“You're also very different from the rumors I've heard.”
Raynerd spoke in a low voice, his eyes downcast.
“Charlotte Lindsi, who forced her obsessive love on Grand Duke Hiklrid. She caused a major incident about half a year ago and has been lying low ever since.”
Feeling as if the room's temperature had dropped by three degrees, I stiffened my back.
“That's why I thought you would naturally ask for something related to Grand Duke Hiklrid as your reward. For instance, asking me to arrange a meeting with him.”
“...I have given up on him.”
“Strange. When we met last time, didn't you say you still liked the Grand Duke?”
The memory from half a month ago flashed through my mind.
Back then, I'd made that excuse because I was worried Raynerd would misunderstand and think I had feelings for him.
“How can a person's feelings just disappear so easily? But it has been a long time since I abandoned the foolish hope that I might become Grand Duke Hiklrid's bride.”
Ooh. My faintly trembling voice sounded quite wistful and pathetic, even to my own ears.
The excuse I'd come up with on the spot was plausible, too… After all, how many romance fantasy novels have I read!
A crisis of this level is nothing.
“I see, so that's how it is.”
Raynerd didn't take his eyes off me, as if trying to discern my true intentions.
But having gained a strange confidence, I met his gaze without turning away at all. With (probably) the most innocent eyes imaginable.
“…”
“…”
Time passed. Raynerd said nothing. He just continued to stare at me intently.
Huh? As I thought, a lie of this caliber isn't enough to fool this man?
“Young Lady, did you know?”
Just as my baseless confidence was about to crumble to dust, Raynerd finally spoke.
“When I was young, someone I truly trusted betrayed me. It's a well-known fact, so perhaps you've heard of it, Young Lady.”
At his words, a memory I had buried in the back of my mind flashed and came back to life.
‘Come to think of it.’
There was a backstory element that Raynerd had trouble trusting people because he was betrayed as a child by a nanny he'd trusted without a doubt.
It's a rule of thumb that it's hard to find a male lead in a romance novel without a tragic past.
‘If I remember correctly, the one who instigated Raynerd's nanny was Empress Rosaline, right?’
“Perhaps that's why I have a hard time trusting others. Especially those I haven't known for long.”
In contrast to his soft voice, Raynerd's icy gaze was aimed at me.
As the tension mounted, I tried my best to look at the situation positively.
‘The Crown Prince can't do anything to me.’
As long as the curse exists, he has to lie in my bed, and ‘my bed’ only works if I'm lying in it.
But…
‘There's no rule that says I have to be in one piece!’
The ominous thought, ‘Do I just need to be breathing?’ welled up, and my eyes kept darting to Raynerd's sword.
The sinister object was leaning against the bedside table, where Raynerd could pick it up at any moment!
My head told me this was too far-fetched, but my heart pounded regardless.
“For that reason, I… Young Lady…”
Finally, his outstretched hand lightly tapped my shoulder.
“I couldn't bring myself to trust you easily, so I ended up asking all sorts of questions. I apologize. You should get some rest.”
My vision filled with Raynerd's face, wearing a picture-perfect smile.
The same smile that Aila, in the novel, had found flawlessly beautiful but felt was a counterfeit.
“No, it's quite all right.”
I managed to smile back in response.
“Please feel free to ask me anything, anytime.”
“It's late, so that's enough for tonight. Ah, about the reward—write it down on a piece of paper and give it to Joseph.”
Joseph was the name of the hawk that had delivered his note to me.
“If you have any more conditions to add, feel free to write them down. I'll grant them as best I can, within my power.”
“I am deeply, deeply grateful for your kindness.”
“It's nothing.”
He gently lifted my chin, stopping me from bowing my head repeatedly.
“You are an important person to me, Young Lady, so I want to treat you accordingly.”
Wearing that perfect smile, Raynerd licked his lower lip once more.
‘…I can't sleep.’
After turning off the lights and lying down in bed, what felt like at least an hour had passed, but my eyes were wide awake.
There was no way I was going to fall asleep like this, so I decided to get some fresh air.
Of course, if I left the bed for too long, Raynerd might wake up due to the curse's influence, so I decided to only stay on the terrace for five minutes.
I watched the soundly sleeping Raynerd as I carefully placed my feet on the floor.
Thankfully, he didn't stir at all by the time I reached the terrace.
“Haaa.”
The terrace. I stretched, feeling the slightly cool breeze against my whole body.
But it didn't particularly improve my mood. A mountain of problems was piled up before me.
‘For one, that man who hasn't let go of his suspicions about me is a problem…’
Thump. Just then, a small wooden fruit rolled to my feet.
I reflexively looked down from the terrace.
“Hello.”
One of the many problems tormenting me, Yugen Mont, greeted me in a tiny voice.
