Chapter 70 …
“I’ll walk you to the carriage, Daphne.”
Apparently satisfied that I had called him by his name, he quickly approached me with his hands clasped behind his back and offered his arm as if telling me to link arms with him.
For now, I decided to go along with him. Without saying anything, I linked arms with him and began walking.
Then a shop sign suddenly caught my eye.
Without realizing it, I stopped in front of it and stared blankly at the sign.
Lucius, who had also noticed that something about my behavior was strange, stopped walking as well. He alternated his gaze between me and the sign before asking with a completely puzzled expression.
“Do you want dessert?”
“Pardon?”
“Is it time for you to be hungry already? I thought I fed you quite well this morning. Perhaps I underestimated you.”
“No… that’s not it…”
“I’ll buy it for you. Let’s go in.”
With that, Lucius abruptly grabbed my hand and practically dragged me into the shop.
The shop was none other than the place that sold the strawberry-filled donuts—another victim of the infamous donut incident, the one whose strawberry filling had tragically splattered onto the floor.
The moment we entered the shop, everyone’s attention naturally turned toward Lucius and me.
Even outside the social season, nobles who occasionally met for social gatherings would find it irresistible gossip: the Crown Prince and the Grand Duke of Steren choosing desserts together at a donut shop at this hour.
But Lucius boldly led me to the glass display case and asked,
“What flavor should I buy you?”
“No. It’s not that I want to eat—”
“Alright, I get it. So what flavor do you want? You were staring so intensely. Wasn’t it because you wanted one?”
“Well…”
It wasn’t because I wanted one.
It was simply because this was the shop that sold the strawberry-filled donut Puppy had regretted losing so much last night when he ran off.
But there was no way I could say that, even if it killed me.
“No, it’s fine. Let’s just leave.”
“It’s fine. You won’t stay the night at the hotel, you say you don’t have time for dinner—so at least take this. You can eat it on the way. I invited you out but didn’t really do anything for you.”
Since when did this man become so considerate?
In the end, with no other choice, I pointed to a single donut.
Then Lucius, as if he had been waiting for that moment, ordered a whole box of strawberry-filled donuts from the shop owner.
After hesitating for a moment, I quietly ordered another box from the owner.
Lucius, standing beside me, looked at me with rather surprised eyes.
“You must really like donuts.”
“I’ll pay for the one I just ordered.”
“Why? I’ll buy it.”
“No. There’s someone I want to give them to. It’s for a personal reason. I can’t very well buy that with Your Highness’s money as well.”
“Someone you want to give them to, huh. I wonder who that might be.”
Lucius said with a faint smile.
I quietly avoided his gaze.
If the word Puppy happened to come out of his mouth, I wasn’t confident I could calmly deny it.
Perhaps realizing he wouldn’t get a very satisfying answer, Lucius didn’t press the matter further.
“Well, if you insist that much, I suppose I can’t help it. Then you pay for that one. But the one I bought—you must eat it yourself. Don’t give it to someone else.”
He spoke as if giving a warning.
I quickly nodded.
Lucius personally carried the packaged box and walked me all the way to my carriage.
Looking at his very satisfied expression, I wasn’t quite sure what to say.
“…Thank you, Your Highness.”
“Lucius.”
At his correction, I changed how I addressed him and thanked him again.
“Thank you, Lucius.”
He grinned, handed the box to the maid waiting beside the carriage, and even escorted me up the carriage steps.
It didn’t feel like we had really done much today, yet he seemed extremely pleased.
“Why are you making that face?” I asked.
“Seeing someone with such a cold face enjoy sweet desserts is rather cute. It’s an unexpected charm.”
I tried to come up with some kind of excuse, but before I could speak, the carriage door closed.
* * *
After the carriage carrying Daphne disappeared from sight, the smile vanished from Lucius’s face.
He slowly began walking and entered the building where his own carriage was waiting.
By the time he reached it, the shadows who had appeared at some point without notice were kneeling behind him on one knee, waiting for his orders.
Lucius casually removed his white silk gloves and tossed them aside before turning around slowly.
The gaze he now wore was completely different from the one he had shown Daphne.
This was his true nature.
He didn’t say a single word.
He merely raised a hand and waved it in a few quick gestures, like someone giving commands while training a dog.
As if even speaking was too much trouble for him.
The shadows immediately replied, “We will carry out your orders,” in short, efficient voices.
Then, like mist dispersing, they vanished.
No one knew exactly who they were.
They had no official name either.
Because they existed silently beside Lucius like shadows, they were simply called “Shadows.”
Their duties weren’t strictly defined.
But there was one absolute rule:
Whether it was murder or anything else, they must obey Lucius’s orders without question.
Lucius and the Shadows did not converse.
They communicated only through coded hand signals.
As if determined to leave behind not even the slightest trace.
“Your Highness, shall I cancel the hotel reservation?”
The aide waiting inside the carriage opened the door and asked.
“No, it’s fine. It’s a shame, but I’ll enjoy it alone. Why bother returning to the imperial palace so late?”
After saying that, Lucius sat down and nodded for the carriage to depart.
The aide opened the window and instructed the coachman to head for the hotel.
* * *
When Lucius arrived at the hotel, the manager and numerous staff members were already lined up neatly at the front entrance, prepared to welcome him.
“His Highness the Crown Prince’s expression doesn’t look ordinary today, so everyone stay sharp. Tonight the fate of our hotel is on the line.”
Perhaps because of the manager’s dramatic warning, the staff bowed deeply as Lucius stepped out of the carriage and began moving briskly like toy soldiers, careful not to irritate him.
In the largest and most luxurious room of the hotel, Lucius sat alone after dismissing everyone else, wearing only a robe.
He slowly swirled the wine in his glass, lost in thought.
A tapping sound against the window made him look over.
Heavy raindrops had begun striking the glass.
“I wonder if she’s getting home safely. That’s why it would’ve been better if she had just stayed here tonight.”
Lucius muttered before frowning.
It wasn’t as if he were so desperate that he would book a room on a first date just to indulge himself.
He had simply thought Daphne—who had likely traveled down from the North early that morning—might rest a little longer if she stayed.
“After all, the first button is always the most important.”
Lucius opened the documents lying on the table and began slowly reading through them.
They were lists of people who shared even the slightest similarity with Eden:
-
unidentified blond men brought into morgues
-
the bodies of blond mercenaries discovered in foreign lands
-
slaves with blond hair sold in slave markets
His mother had said that since the body hadn’t been found, Eden might still be alive.
Lucius had thought that was simply excessive worry, but there was no harm in being cautious.
What bothered him most, however, was the existence of that person called Puppy who stayed beside Daphne.
“A slave… a slave of unknown origin brought from another country… Does Daphne Steren even realize what she’s trying to do?”
Daphne had said she could not kill Puppy.
It had been rather bold of her.
Even the way she had casually dangled the Caleb ducal family as bait and subtly changed the topic.
It looked as if she were protecting nothing more than a trivial night-serving slave in front of the Crown Prince.
“So she doesn’t trust Duke Caleb and plans to control the social world using Puppy? Well… a woman like her might bring in a man for such purposes. But does that mean I need to see this so-called Puppy myself?”
If that Puppy happened to be Eden, the man Lucius had been desperately searching for…
Then it would be better to deal with the problem cleanly before Daphne brought him into high society.
“If Eden really returned alive, there’s no way Daphne wouldn’t recognize him… though I suppose it’s not entirely impossible.”
Lucius slowly stroked his smooth jaw as if thinking deeply.
His red tongue slid across his lips like a snake disappointed to have lost its prey.
“Maybe I should have just killed her back then… I should have pushed her into the well so she could never meet Eden.”
What was the point of regretting it now?
Lucius clicked his tongue and shook his head.
Still, no matter how he thought about it, he regretted not killing Daphne that day.
If he had killed her then, things would never have dragged on like this.
“If I had pushed Daphne into the well on her eighth birthday… someone like Eden might never have existed at all.”
When Daphne and Eden first met, someone had been secretly listening to their conversation without daring to interrupt.
That person was Lucius.
“Stop lying! There’s no such thing as a second prince!”
“I am the second prince!”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I know the original story!”
“…Original story?”
“Let’s see… Right. You don’t even have a name, do you?”
“How did you know…?”
“Because I’m the author who created this world!”
It was the day she promised to give a name and a story to someone who should never have been born in the first place.
