Chapter : 04
A woman, presumably a noble, was locked in a scuffle with a balding man. A young boy clinging tightly to her hand caught Axel’s eye.
The atmosphere looked quite grim.
The woman wore a flashy dress, though the hemline didn’t seem to fit her frame properly.
Based on her attire alone, the odds were she was a commoner, but since this was a shopping district frequented only by nobles, the possibility of her being high-born couldn’t be ruled out.
She possessed a strikingly brilliant beauty—surprising, given he had never seen her face before—and appeared to be of prime marriageable age.
There were no marks of a ring on her fingers. Likely unmarried.
The child was leaning on her excessively.
The boy’s clothes didn’t look like those of a family that could afford a tutor, so the woman was likely a relative.
If he played this right…
“This might be a big catch.”
Axel let out a dry laugh and quietly observed the situation outside the door.
“It’s the Royal Carriage. Who could it be?”
At the appearance of the royal golden carriage, passing nobles began to swarm.
Khalid couldn’t understand why he was the one mediating this.
In a state of “where am I and who am I,” he calmly listened to the situation.
“So, let me summarize. Count Roman, you are claiming that this lady defrauded you. Is that correct?”
“I’m telling you, it is! This is marriage fraud! I was played by this cunning woman! If I hadn’t bumped into her today by chance, I never would have known! Oh, my money!”
Of course, it was only Count Roman screaming fraud; the woman remained silent, busy hiding the child, who looked terrified, behind her.
“Please listen to my unfair story. Baron Langston asked me for an investment. But for an investment to go smoothly, shouldn’t there be something to build trust? As a sign of that trust, we promised a union between our families.”
“You mean a marriage with that lady—the daughter of Baron Langston.”
“Exactly! But then this wicked woman insulted me with such vulgar language!”
The Roman family was a fringe noble house that had grown wealthy through a business similar to private moneylending. The Count in particular was famous for having five marriages and five divorces, despite his talk of “trust and union.”
Khalid was able to sum up the situation clearly.
So, Baron Langston tried to sell his daughter off to Count Roman. And that woman is the daughter of that Baron. The Prince was right.
Before hearing the story, Khalid hadn’t been certain that she was a noble lady given her somewhat shabby attire. Since her face was pretty enough, he’d assumed she was just a woman wandering the noble shopping district trying to catch a nobleman’s eye.
To think she was a Baron’s daughter. Then who was the child beside her?
“As a gentleman! I tried to be patient, but I couldn’t take it anymore, so I withdrew my investment. Even then, out of the goodness of my heart, I didn’t even ask for the deposit back.”
It wasn’t a story Khalid was particularly curious about, and there didn’t seem to be anything truly “unfair” about it, but he exercised his patience.
“No, but then I happened to see her passing by today! The woman who claimed to be unmarried is walking around with a child! Look at that face. Doesn’t the boy look exactly like her?”
Khalid shifted his gaze toward the child hiding behind the woman.
Feeling his gaze, the woman glared at Khalid and wrapped her skirts around the child.
“So I grabbed her and asked! What on earth is this child? Is it your brother? I pressed her, but she wouldn’t say a word!”
Khalid thought that despite his appearance, Count Roman’s experience with five marriages had given him a decent eye for people.
“I asked myself, ‘Could a noble lady really?’ and then I asked her. Is he your son? She couldn’t even say no, and then she suddenly shoved me! If that isn’t an admission that he’s her child, what is?”
“Don’t lie! You grabbed the child first, Count! That was self-defense!”
Ha! Gasps broke out from the surroundings.
While Count Roman’s reputation was bottom-tier among the nobility, there wasn’t a single noble here who would look kindly upon an “unmarried noble lady with a child.”
No matter how much of a lecherous, dirty-money-grubbing Count he was, his status was still better than hers.
Khalid was inwardly startled.
Truly unmarried? A noble lady with a child? Such a woman exists?
In the midst of all this, things like “fraud” or “self-defense” weren’t important in Hailey’s mind. She was only worried about Theo, who must have been terrified to experience this on his first outing.
She had mapped out their route in advance; when the Baron and his wife were away from the mansion, the secret outing had gone smoothly.
It had been delightful to hear Theo, fascinated by everything in the outside world, chattering even more than usual.
She hadn’t intended to come as far as the noble shopping district. She knew it was dangerous, but she didn’t want to go back empty-handed on Theo’s birthday, so she ended up here while looking for a gift.
She simply wanted to give Theo the delicious candies she couldn’t usually buy because they were considered luxury goods.
She had planned to buy them and head straight home.
Of all things, she had run right into the Count she had been set up with previously.
The Count had marched up to Hailey and Theo, shouting about whether she had been hiding a child, calling it fraud, and demanding his deposit back.
When Hailey tried to ignore him and leave, the Count had snatched Theo’s arm.
Unable to overpower Hailey, who was taller than him, he had targeted the relatively small and fragile child instead.
The moment he attacked Theo, Hailey lost her temper and violently shoved the Count’s shoulder.
Hailey didn’t care how anyone looked at her. She never had.
But when it came to Theo, it was a different story. She would never let anyone dare to hurt him.
“Look at this! An unmarried maiden has a child this size—how can she be so bold? If I’d known she had a kid, I wouldn’t have invested in the first place! This is fraud! I must get my deposit back!”
It was then. The door of the golden carriage engraved with the royal crest opened. Someone emerged from within.
The murmurs of the surrounding onlookers reached Hailey’s ears.
“Oh my, it’s the Prince! Heavens!”
The Prince lived his life on the battlefield, and Hailey had been too busy raising Theo to attend banquets, so this was her first time seeing him.
As soon as Hailey saw the Prince, she was stunned.
…He’s huge. It was the first time Hailey had ever looked at someone and thought they were “big.” Most people she had met were either her height or shorter. She had never had to look up so far that her neck ached.
Axel stood well over 190 cm. His solid, survival-honed muscles from the battlefield and his sun-bronzed skin made him look even more massive.
His jet-black hair and deep, large red eyes that seemed to pierce right through a person were intimidating enough to make anyone shrink back.
Even to the 175 cm tall Hailey, there were no words to describe Axel other than “big” and “enormous.”
“We greet the Little Sun of Zenobia.”
As soon as the Prince stepped out of the carriage, everyone bowed their heads.
Hailey offered a polite greeting according to etiquette, though she felt uneasy, wondering just how much free time the Prince had to be meddling in something like this.
Only Theo, who hadn’t learned etiquette yet, remained hidden behind Hailey, poking his head out to stare up at the giant Axel.
To Theo, Axel looked large enough to rival the giants he had seen in fairy tales. He knew in his head that he shouldn’t stare at adults, but the man was so fascinating he couldn’t help it.
“…A villain?”
Hailey, standing right beside him, flinched at Theo’s tiny mumble.
She desperately hoped she was the only one who had heard him.
Bold little brat. Contrary to Hailey’s hopes, Axel’s hearing was excellent.
Most people couldn’t even meet Axel’s eyes due to his overwhelming presence. Children, in particular, usually burst into tears the moment they saw him.
So, for this chestnut-sized kid to stare him down without flinching and label him a “villain” was a refreshing bit of fun for Axel.
“Unmarried?”
The Prince’s first words, which everyone had been straining to hear, were a bizarre question that no one expected.
Hailey felt offended, having no idea why the Prince was involving himself or why he was asking such a strange question.
And Khalid, watching the scene unfold, let out a long internal groan.
He’s being too blunt. I knew he sometimes speaks without a filter, but this crazy Prince is being excessively direct. Khalid wanted to faint right then and there.
Axel didn’t care for conversations or etiquette that displayed royal dignity. Only the things he was curious about mattered.
Even as a Prince, he had no justification for meddling in a petty dispute between nobles. In fact, the very situation of him stepping in to mediate such a trivial matter was bizarre.
Khalid sighed inwardly and spoke to the woman with the defiant eyes.
“Lady Langston, regardless of how uncomfortable the situation is, please show proper courtesy to the Prince.”
It was a command to answer the question he had asked.
End Of Chapter : 04
