CHAPTER 38………………………………………
Because I Want to Get to Know You Better (3)
‘So prickly.’
It wasn’t exactly the kind of thought you should have while listening to words bristling with thorns—poisonous thorns that could kill if they pierced you wrong—but it was the truth.
Look at him. Even now. It would’ve been perfectly natural for him to draw his sword and point it at my throat again.
‘Then why only words?’
“……”
Maybe teaching Enrique has broken the part of my brain that senses fear.
Otherwise, there’s no way I’d be thinking things like this while facing him.
Meeting his chillingly cold gaze head-on, trying not to avoid anything, I spoke.
“Your Highness, then please tell me.”
“What?”
Enrique’s expression immediately twisted into a deeper frown, but I continued without minding it.
“You said I still don’t know anything about you. You’re right. Humans can’t easily understand one another. …But if Your Highness tells me, then it’s different.”
I carefully took hold of the firm, slightly warm hand resting on the table and said clearly,
“So please tell me about your life. I want to know you better.”
Don’t act so expensive.
Using both hands, I wrapped his palm tightly and rolled the tea seed I had been toying with into his grasp. The seed disappeared into his large, rough hand.
Something encased in a hard shell, with a coarse exterior.
Holding an astonishingly alluring fragrance, yet offering its true flavor only if cultivated with wholehearted sincerity.
The tea he said he liked—it resembled him exactly.
And I happened to know quite a bit about not just tea ceremonies, but tea cultivation as well.
“……”
Enrique blinked slowly.
His statue-like, beautiful and impassive expression didn’t change—but he didn’t shove my hand away, nor did he frown.
In a flat voice, he said,
“You speak as if knowing would change something.”
He had switched back to that artificial politeness.
I nodded as if it were nothing.
“Yes.”
Until now, I’d left whenever he told me to. But not today.
He might be an expert at driving people away, but I, too, am fairly skilled at holding my ground.
“Your Highness must have lived a life different from ordinary people. That seems to be what’s isolating you.”
Enrique sneered.
“Then leave me isolated. Must I beg you to get lost before you’ll listen?”
I cut him off firmly.
“No. I won’t leave you alone.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m your tutor.”
“……Ha.”
A short laugh, close to a scoff, escaped him.
He asked slowly,
“There will be no reward for such devotion. Won’t you regret it?”
Regret it?
‘…I’ve been regretting it every single day since the day I signed that contract!’
But regretting something every day also means I never reversed that decision.
No matter how much I regret it, as long as I don’t quit, then that decision must have been worth it.
So I nodded without hesitation.
“Yes. If Your Highness trusts me, that will be enough of a reward.”
And then I’ll wipe the smirk off Rondel Rubens’ face—that damned headmaster who sneered and asked how long I thought I could endure teaching a murderous crown prince.
As that thought crossed my mind, a blue window flashed before my eyes.
Ding!
+: Additional Buff for “Enrique Luchein Ignos” Activated! +:
[Enrique Luchein Ignos has deeply acknowledged you as his teacher. The True Teacher skill effect when targeting Enrique Luchein Ignos increases by 100%.]
“……”
Huh. Really?
I quickly looked up at his face, but there was no visible change.
Enrique merely blinked slowly, then raised his hand and gently removed mine from his fingers.
Tap.
Our hands separated. But somehow, it felt like our hearts had grown closer.
I followed the tilt of his head with my eyes.
“Teacher, I don’t trust humans. Especially those who call themselves teachers.”
Then what was that notification just now?
It said you trust me.
Suppressing the urge for my lips to twitch upward, I nodded.
“I see. Then what about me?”
“Teacher… I suppose I am a little curious.”
And then he smiled faintly.
The chilling expressionlessness receded, and the corners of his lips curled up slightly.
The smile drawn across his handsome face was so beautiful it made me momentarily forget how to speak.
“You said we should get to know each other better. I have many things I’m curious about.”
…Wait. What? Who’s getting to know whom?
“…Excuse me? Why me?”
“What do you mean, ‘Why me?’ Let’s get to know each other. You practically begged for it.”
He answered as if it were obvious.
Hey. I said I’d get to know you. When did I tell you to study me?
His calm gaze left me dumbfounded.
“That’s not what I meant—”
I was so flustered I couldn’t even finish my sentence.
But in contrast, Enrique spoke smoothly, as though he’d never been cold at all.
“You said a student and teacher teach each other.”
“……”
“Then I should have the chance to learn about the young lady called Lillian Crimson as well.”
“……Your Highness.”
Fine. I get it.
“Yes?”
“Not ‘young lady.’ It’s ‘teacher.’”
Let’s make that clear at least.
“Honestly….”
Enrique slowly lifted a brow, then propped his chin on his hand and said,
“Yes. Teacher.”
It’s ridiculously hard to be acknowledged as the tutor of a murderous crown prince.
And with that, Enrique’s refusal to attend lessons finally came to an end.
“Teacher.”
“Yes?”
Thud, thud.
Enrique, sleeves rolled up, paused mid-dig with his shovel and asked,
“Come to think of it, that night. You returned quite late.”
“That night?”
“The day you dragged that upright young grand duke to the auction house.”
“Ah. Yes.”
When will I ever clear up that misunderstanding?
As I was thinking that, he reached out and brushed dirt off my cheek.
“Did you run into anyone strange?”
Anyone strange…
More importantly, his hand was just as dirty, so the act of wiping accomplished absolutely nothing. Is he messing with me?
The thought slipped out of my mouth before I could stop it.
“You’re the strangest person I know, Your Highness—”
“What?”
Enrique’s voice changed abruptly as his brow twitched.
“What did you say, Teacher?”
A gentle, smooth voice. Red alert.
“……Hmm.”
I slowly wiped the dirt from my cheek and turned my attention back to the ground we were digging together.
“More importantly! You’ll need to plant that a bit deeper. It needs to grow deep roots. Could you dig just a little more?”
Enrique looked at me as if I were unbelievable, clearly seeing through my clumsy attempt to change the subject.
“……”
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
So I tilted my head innocently while meeting his gaze.
What are you going to do about it?
Ever since Enrique officially registered as my student, my sense of fear has been steadily disappearing.
And right now, we were digging a hole together to bury someone.
Which, of course, we weren’t.
It was officially recorded as lesson time and unofficially called a leisure activity.
The broken greenhouse in the Crown Prince’s palace garden had the perfect coolness for cultivating tea trees from the Kingdom of Hamel.
So, in order to give that tea the “proper devotion” it required, I suggested we grow it ourselves—as both leisure and lesson.
“…Is this deep enough, Teacher?”
And unexpectedly, he had readily agreed.
The hole looked about right.
“You dug it well. I’ll finish up.”
I crouched down and pressed the damp soil firmly with my hands.
Though the greenhouse hadn’t been used for a long time, the soil was surprisingly good.
Thanks to the scattered holes in the roof, it must have received rain evenly and avoided rotting.
“I’ve come to the Crown Prince’s palace garden often, but I never knew there was a greenhouse like this. Is it not used these days?”
“It used to be.”
Used to?
I glanced at him while planting the tea seed.
“What did you grow?”
“Various things. My mother liked landscaping.”
As he said that, Enrique looked at a small green sprout by his feet.
His expression was noticeably softer than usual.
The damp scent of soil, the warm sunlight, the quiet surroundings—they all contributed to the peaceful atmosphere.
“Hmm.”
But that was probably a weed.
…Better not say anything.
