“Your voice is… pleasant.”

Feeling she had to say something, Carinne racked her brain and managed to utter two words.

“What is your name?”

Iris’ fanboy, the narcissistic psychopath Ian, asked.

Carinne curled her lips up, forcing a cheerful expression. If she was suddenly nervous, Ian might suspect something. As far as she knew, Ian was very observant.

“I’m Carinne. And this person here…”

“Archenas.”

Archen noticed how tense she was. As if to tell her not to worry, he gently patted the back of her hand with his interlaced fingers. It gave her a little strength.

…Yes, she wasn’t alone. Archen was right beside her.

Of course, he didn’t know that the man before them was the Crown Prince of Saraha, and he would never know, but he was still there for her now. Realizing this, her mind relaxed a little, although not completely. If anything happened, she would be able to get through it with him.

Ian let out a small exclamation when he saw the hands the two of them were holding. Then he laughed silently, which made Carinne look like he was mocking her.

“You two seem close.”

“Hahaha…”

Carinne smiled awkwardly, her lips twitching. It was quite difficult not to show her displeasure, knowing that he didn’t mean it.

Ian looked at Carinne and Archen alternately, never losing his smile, and she tried to keep the corners of her lips up, waiting only for the carriage to arrive at the palace. She felt like she was sitting on a bed of thorns.

“You said you weren’t from Esmeril earlier. May I ask where you are from?”

Archen spoke up when the silence had become too long and the atmosphere awkward. He was providing backup.

“I am from Irita. A beautiful island nation,” Ian said.

Ah, so he hadn’t abandoned the idea of being from Irita?

She thought he would give up and go to another country if he couldn’t enter Esmeril as a prince since he seemed to like being treated like royalty. However, he must have taken an interest in Esmeril. He came here even after giving up his fake identity as a prince.

“We have arrived!”

Finally, the long-awaited cry of the coachman was heard. Carinne erased her forced smile and replaced it with a genuine one.

“We’re here already.”

“Ah, yes. I will not forget this favor. You said your name was Carinne?”

“Yes.”

Why was he asking her name again? Was he trying to remember it? It was scary.

“Thank you for today.”

Ian smiled brightly at Carinne and got out of the carriage. As his robed figure disappeared into the crowd, Archen asked immediately.

“Who was that?”

“I can’t tell you.”

Avoiding his worried gaze, Carinne answered dejectedly.

She couldn’t help it. Even if Archen’s grandfather came, she couldn’t tell him that the man who had just gotten out of the carriage was the Crown Prince of Saraha. She didn’t want to explain how she knew the Crown Prince of Saraha, and she didn’t want to worry him unnecessarily.

“Don’t think of anything strange. He’s not an ex-lover or a mortal enemy.”

She then laid down a safety net in case he started digging.

“He doesn’t know me, but I know him. And I want him to stay that way.”

She sighed after saying that much.

In fact, to be completely honest, she wanted to tell him everything. She wanted to start by telling him that she wasn’t Carinne, that this was actually the world of a book, that he was just a passing extra, and that the man was the Crown Prince of Saraha, that Duke Lucas was Iris’s destined partner, and so on and so forth.

However, telling him the truth was something she shouldn’t do, even in her dreams.

Just as she didn’t want to worry him, she didn’t want to confuse him. Even if she told him the truth, he wouldn’t be able to understand that this was a book, and he wouldn’t try to understand. She would be lucky if he didn’t think she was crazy.

She imagined him putting his hand on her forehead and asking, ‘Are you sick?’

Carinne sighed again.

“That’s all I can tell you.”

“…I understand.”

With that, Archen stopped asking.

He could have pressed her for not believing him, but he showed no signs of blaming her. He had been staring at the floor of the carriage, lost in thought when he lifted his head and looked up at the sky. It was noon, and the sun was shining brightly. It was the perfect time for a date.

However, he thought otherwise.

“Let’s go back.”

She pondered for a moment before agreeing. It seemed like neither the carriage ride nor the tea would lift her spirits.

The carriage rattled as it headed toward the Duchy’s mansion.

Their first date, which should have been filled with happiness, ended in gloom.

* * *

It was only right for them to spend quality time together, as her boyfriend had taken a whole week off for her. However, they didn’t have much time to chat.

Why? Well, because…

‘There’s so much to do!’

There was more than one thing that had come up. First, she had to rehire the servants, find Duke Tricia, who had gone missing, deal with the pile of documents he had left behind without a word, and send a letter to Iris asking to meet.

Especially the pile of documents.

Since he had been gone for a long time, there was a mountain of work to do, and as she started to work on one thing, she naturally started to work on another, and before she knew it, she was stuck in the office, wrestling with the documents.

Since she could read and write and had some knowledge of arithmetic, and as a modern twenty-first-century person, she had a lot of knowledge, it wasn’t difficult to do the work, even though it was unfamiliar.

It was just that there was so much of it.

Archen saw her struggling and offered to help. With the addition of a talented and efficient person, the speed at which the documents were processed increased exponentially.

However, no matter how smart and intelligent he was, it was impossible to process several years’ worth of documents in a few days. No matter how much he cleared away, more documents kept pouring out of the desk drawers and bookshelves.

She sat in the office with him and worked from morning till night. Before they knew it, a week had passed.

As the last day of the week approached, she realized that the only date they had been on was the carriage ride last time, and she felt very sorry for him. What was more, he always woke up earlier than her.

When she woke up, rubbed her eyes, ate breakfast, and went to the office, he was already reading documents with his eyes wide open.

It was the same on the last day of his vacation.

Carinne had woken up early, but he was already sitting up straight, stamping tax payment receipts. Judging from the number of cups on the desk, it seemed like he had been working for quite some time. He was so engrossed in his work that he didn’t notice Carinne looking at him.

She lowered her posture and crept up behind him, wrapping her arms around his neck.

“—!”

Mission accomplished. He was so surprised that he started hiccuping. She hadn’t expected him to be this surprised. Carinne patted his back, and he calmed down after finishing his coffee.

“Is there something you wanted to say?”

“Let’s talk while we rest.”

“I’ll finish this and then rest.”

“Really? You promise?”

“Of course.”

They both knew that it was a promise he couldn’t keep.

When he finished one task, another would come up. When he finished that, another one would come up, and so on. And Archen, as she had realized while working with him this time, couldn’t stand having things piling up. He was the type of person who had to finish what he had to do, no matter what.

A perfectionist who felt better if he held onto something he couldn’t finish.

A typical model student type.

That was why she felt bad. It seemed like she was making his already difficult life even more difficult. She had to tell him not to work today and to play with her instead. Having made up her mind, she put on a bright and cheerful voice, keeping her arms around his neck.

“Would you like to have lunch with me later? I know a great shrimp restaurant.”

He put down the stamp after hearing her suggestion and tilted his head up.

“But don’t you have an appointment today, Princess?”

“What appointment… Oh.”

Today was the day she was supposed to meet Iris. He had remembered what she had casually mentioned when she wrote to Iris last time. What was she going to do? It was difficult to postpone or cancel, as it was related to the Crown Prince.

A solution came to her mind after a while.

“Then, what about dinner?”

There was only one thing she had to do when she met Iris: to warn her. She wouldn’t be meeting the Crown Prince in person, so it shouldn’t take long. She whispered softly in his ear, vowing to part ways with Iris before dinner.

“Let’s have dinner together.”

Archen readily agreed. Carinne made an appointment with him to meet outside before sunset, then called a maid and ordered her to prepare the carriage. She had to finish her work quickly and spend some happy time with him.

She walked out of the office with a spring in her step, her mind racing with plans.

Ah, she was blissfully unaware.

She had no idea that the day would be one of the most tiring and troublesome days of her life. She had no idea that things would get so twisted and tangled up that she would get a splitting headache.

—