Chapter – 35….
In just a few strides, the crown prince stood before her — his face inexplicably radiant with emotion.
Ludwig moved as if to step between the crown prince and Asili, but she tugged at his sleeve and shook her head.
Whatever nonsense he was about to spout, it was better to hear it quickly and be done with it.
“What’s the result?”
Asili’s voice was as cold as the northern wind, stripped of all pleasantries. But the crown prince paid it no mind.
“Amazing! The garden… my mother’s garden has come back to life!”
His eyes seemed to look not at the present but at some distant, half-forgotten past.
Asili, however, had no intention whatsoever of joining him on his sentimental journey.
“Thank you. Then we’re done here, aren’t we? You must be busy, so you should ret—”
The crown prince cut her off, once again saying only what he wanted to say.
“You really listened to me… when I asked you to take care of it…”
His wistful words were severed by Asili’s sharp and utterly resolute voice.
“I didn’t do it for you, Your Highness.”
“What?”
Startled by such a firm denial, he looked at her in disbelief, but her next words silenced him.
“This is a competition to select the Grand Duchess — obviously. Let me make it absolutely clear, since it seems important — obviously! I tended this garden for Ludwig.”
The crown prince, still overwhelmed by the near-perfect restoration of the garden, suddenly felt that same sense of awe turn bitter — as if the very emotion had been denied.
“Well, yes, but this is my mother’s garden.”
If Asili had simply bowed her head and accepted his words with humility, that would have been the end of it.
But Asili knew the crown prince — knew him as someone who would shout “No!” just for the sake of it whenever everyone else said “Yes.”
And yet, this time, she wanted to make things unmistakably clear.
“I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.”
As she took Ludwig’s hand, he gently closed his fingers around hers.
“Even if this weren’t a competition, I would have done it for this man alone.”
In Asili’s clear blue eyes, there was room for only one person.
And strangely, though she looked at him, it felt as if she was seeping into him.
“I would have made this garden bloom for him, and him alone.”
Like the midday moon, like a vanishing dream, Asili became lodged deep in Ludwig’s heart.
Her voice, her expression — her sincerity, all saying I did it for you and you alone.
Ludwig knew, somehow, that this moment — here in the misty garden — he would never, ever forget.
And, by some cruel twist of fate, neither would the crown prince.
He couldn’t tear his gaze away from Asili, whose eyes reflected only Ludwig.
A strange, unfamiliar emotion welled up inside him.
“For one person only. For you alone.”
He had heard such words countless times before.
Born as the empire’s crown prince, all his life people had bowed to him, ready to offer their hearts, their loyalty — even their lives — for his sake.
Even beside the Grand Duke, it was always him who came first.
Because he was the crown prince.
But Asili… she was different.
From the start, she had never once looked his way. Her gaze had always been fixed on his brother.
He had known that. It hadn’t bothered him — not really.
Their first meeting had been dull, their second awkward. But with every encounter, that suspicion — that she was merely a strange woman trying to approach his brother — had begun to fade.
It should have ended there.
Yet, the instant Asili chose Ludwig — and not him — something inside him flared.
He couldn’t define it, but a prickling heat began to boil within him.
Jealousy.
For something he could not have.
Perhaps it was too early, too fleeting, to even call it first love — but jealousy was the only word that fit this seething feeling.
Not understanding his own heart, the crown prince let his emotion spill out harshly.
“This garden was my mother’s. And since she’s gone, it’s mine.”
Driven by that tangled emotion, he took a step toward Asili, his glare hot enough to burn.
“Yes, well — you can’t just use my garden for the Grand Duke. That’s not your decision.”
It was an immature, childish statement — the kind a spoiled three-year-old might make.
But, technically, not untrue.
Asili met his blazing eyes, and her lips froze into a cold line.
That look. That expression.
Impossible to overlook.
Unlike the prince, Asili sensed the jealousy beneath his words — and with a dry, desert-like expression, turned her gaze away.
Ludwig’s brow twitched as he saw the prince’s hand reach toward her shoulder.
Then—
“Ugh—!”
The crown prince gasped as a hand, stronger than iron, clamped around his neck.
It didn’t hurt — but the threat in that grip was unmistakable.
A low growl rumbled from Ludwig’s chest, sending chills down the prince’s spine.
“I told you, that was your last warning.”
“Ludwig…!”
Before Asili could finish his name, the crown prince crumpled to the ground.
She then carefully took Ludwig’s hand — the one that had touched the prince — and wiped it clean with her handkerchief before asking,
“What did you do?”
“Prevented him from ever coming near you again.”
Ludwig’s answer was calm as he lifted her effortlessly, carrying her a few steps away from the fallen prince.
Blinking, then smiling brightly, Asili said,
“That’s the best thing I’ve heard all day.”
“If you don’t want something, it won’t happen.”
He didn’t say the rest — that he’d make sure of it — but she didn’t need him to.
A soft laugh escaped her lips before she frowned again.
“‘It was my mother’s, so it’s mine’? Seriously, how old is he? No, don’t answer.”
She waved her hands and shook her head, but Ludwig caught her chin gently to still her movement.
“It doesn’t matter. Those memories are enough for me — because they led me to you.”
There was not a shred of falsehood in his quiet voice, and Asili found herself speechless.
Those radiant memories — and she was enough to fill them.
She shook her head harder this time.
Right. She was the only one who could share such memories with Ludwig.
If she relaxed even a little, her heart would fall straight from the sky to the ground with a crash.
She needed a distraction — anything — and then her eyes fell on the crown prince’s prone figure.
“Come to think of it,” she said.
Something he had said earlier nagged at her.
“He said none of the gardens pleased him. And none of the ladies either.”
“He said they were disappointing.”
“Did he actually visit them all?”
“I’ll have to check, but he doesn’t usually lie about such things. So probably.”
“And still didn’t like a single one? How picky can he be?”
“He’s never shown much interest in gardens.”
“So he was forced into something he didn’t want, and now he’s being a brat about it? Typical. What an infuriating brat.”
“He’s too old to be called a child.”
“Age doesn’t make you an adult. If it did, the world would be much simpler. Anyway—”
She pointed her chin toward the crown prince with an exasperated sigh.
“Can he even choose a crown princess this way? I mean, if it’s some ancient imperial tradition, fine, but…”
She shrugged.
“Even if the perfect woman stood before him, I bet he’d reject her just because everyone else likes her.”
“To prevent that, they made it a contest for the Grand Duchess instead of Crown Princess. But you’re right. And unlike His Majesty’s hopes, what the crown prince truly wants is far simpler.”
“Simple?”
“Yes. He said he just wants a woman who makes his heart race.”
Asili blinked, at a rare loss for words.
“‘Makes his heart race,’ meaning… someone he loves?”
“Yes.”
Her disbelief barely fit into her voice.
“He said that? The crown prince?”
“Yes.”
“But… he’s the crown prince.”
That single sentence captured the astonishment everyone had felt upon hearing his words.
The crown prince — heir to the empire, bearer of the people’s lives upon his shoulders.
The crown princess, his lifelong partner in duty.
Even the children of minor nobles knew that marriage was about responsibility, not romance — that love was a fairy tale for commoners.
Asili’s voice came out stuffy with incredulity.
“So if he meets some woman on the street who makes his heart flutter, he’d make her crown princess?”
She didn’t even need Ludwig’s answer.
Because, knowing that idiot prince… yes. He absolutely would.
