Chapter 70

“Archen!”

As Carinne pushed him away and rushed forward while Giles turned his back, Archen pulled her behind him. Unconcealed hostility seeped from his blue eyes.

“I asked you. What were you trying to do?”

“Who are you… Why are you here?”

However, Giles’s reaction was strange.

‘…Why are you here?’

It sounded as if they knew each other. What business could Giles and Archen have?

Carinne had learned while sightseeing in the palace earlier that Giles had only recently come to the capital. He had lived on his estate in the provinces until then.

Only after hearing this did Carinne realize why she didn’t know who Giles was.

She had always been in the capital, so she wouldn’t have known Giles, who had been stuck in the provinces. She was curious about why he had suddenly come to the capital when he hadn’t appeared in the original story, but she had let it go since the original story had changed in more ways than one since she had possessed Carinne.

Anyway, how did they know each other? Carinne momentarily forgot the situation she was in.

“Do you know each other?”

“Of course. We were classmates at the academy.”

Giles replied, half-mockingly.

The academy again.

Carinne’s teeth chattered just hearing the word ‘academy’ now. Giles had emphasized the word ‘classmates,’ but they must have been a perpetrator and a victim.

Just think of what had happened before in the palace. Archen had been calm, saying that what he had just experienced was nothing compared to his time at the academy. That alone gave an idea of how badly he had been bullied in the past.

They had made him wait outside for ages, deliberately knocked his papers over, and even pushed his shoulder. If that was how the adults behaved, imagine how the immature children must have acted. Especially someone like Giles, who would have bullied Archen relentlessly rather than befriending him.

Her heart ached at the thought.

She couldn’t even imagine how deeply Archen, who had had to endure it all alone without his parents, had been wounded. If she could, she would go back in time and trample on the children who had bullied him.

Giles, who had been sneering nastily, furrowed his brow as if he had thought of something.

“Wait a minute. I heard you became the aide to the Second Duchy?”

“….”

“Hahaha! Why do you keep going downhill? Was your heyday when you were at the academy? You were always acting superior, but look at you now! You’re pathetic!”

Giles doubled over in laughter, clutching his stomach.

Maybe she didn’t need to go back in time. Maybe she could just trample on this jerk herself.

Carinne was about to retort when she suddenly had a thought and glanced at Archen’s face. She remembered the mustache guy and Archen, who had remained impassive until the guy said that he hadn’t been able to become an Imperial Mage.

Judging from that, it seemed that not being able to become an Imperial Mage was a sore spot for him, and what Giles had just said was more than enough to remind him of that.

Carinne placed her hand on his chest as if to tell him not to mind.

As she had expected, his heart was pounding. Despite her attempts to dissuade him, Archen took her hand off and stepped forward, never taking his eyes off Giles.

“So, is Sir Giles’s heyday right now when you’re flirting with a woman who doesn’t like you? It’s unwise to waste the prime of your life like that.”

As she had feared, it had started. Archen’s ultimate weapon—also known as ‘turning the tables.’

Nonetheless, the point at which he had gotten angry was a little different from what she had thought. He hadn’t cared much that Giles had mentioned his past. Rather, he was angry that Giles had hit on Carinne.

“What did you say?”

There was a loud noise. Giles stomped towards Archen, and in that moment, Carinne saw a white flash from the hand Archen had hidden behind his back. He was preparing to use magic.

“What are you doing?”

Carinne rushed forward and grabbed Archen’s wrist. Then, she whispered to him so that only he could hear.

“Don’t use magic.”

Archen roughly pulled his wrist away as if to shake Carinne’s hand off, but she wasn’t the type to back down.

No matter what, she had to stop him from using magic.

In the original story’s worldview, mages were extremely rare, so aside from the fact that he would be identified as the culprit, wasn’t he someone who shouldn’t be using magic?

Carinne gripped his wrist with more force.

However, since the flash of light still didn’t disappear, she placed her hand over his hand that was emitting the light. As soon as the white light touched her palm, a tingling sensation spread, and the light immediately turned off.

At the same time, the blue veins that had been bulging on the back of his hand vanished as if they had never been there.

He gritted his teeth, but he barely managed to swallow his anger when her hand reached his shoulder. Carinne patted his shoulder as if to say well done before she stepped in front of him and spoke resolutely.

“Sir Giles, please stop. Are you going to embarrass yourself any further here?”

At the words ’embarrass yourself,’ Giles stopped his foot, which was about to move.

‘End it here for your own sake.’

That was what she meant by those words. Was it necessary for a candidate for the next king to get angry over such a trivial matter?

Fortunately, Giles understood her words. He lifted his chin and looked down at Carinne with a condescending attitude. It seemed like he was gauging what kind of position she was in. Then, he opened his mouth, breaking the deadly silence.

“Hmph, I’ll let it go today because I see the Princess. Princess, next time, you should be more honest.”

What did she mean by more honest? Should she have kicked his shin and said no?

Giles snorted and turned his head away. Like a petulant child, he stomped his feet nervously and stormed out of the alley.

When the sound of his stomping footsteps could no longer be heard, Archen released his bitten lip and let out a deep breath. His face, which had been hardened with a mixture of anger and irritation to the point of being frightening, melted like snow when he saw her.

It was the same for Carinne.

She relaxed her body and slumped her shoulders. Fatigue washed over her like a broken dam. It was partly because she had been walking for a long time, but it was also because she had been mentally exhausted from dealing with Ian and Giles.

The best way to recover her HP quickly would be that method.

At the thought, she jumped into his arms without warning. She wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her cheek in his chest. He froze, his arms raised awkwardly. She was embarrassed even though she had done worse than this.

She grumbled as she buried her face in his chest.

“Aren’t you going to hug me?”

Then came a reaction.

He brought his hands to her back, and his strong arms wrapped around her upper body. She closed her eyes as she felt his lips touch her forehead. His large, warm hands caressed and patted her head and back repeatedly.

Her whole body felt tired, as if it were being supported from below. It felt like she was being compensated for all the terrible things that had happened throughout the day.

“What on earth happened?”

Archen whispered softly as he stroked her head.

“I think I made a strange misunderstanding. I can’t even guess what part he misunderstood.”

Carinne thought back to what had happened today. She had smiled a few times while walking around the palace with him. She complimented him in between so that he wouldn’t get annoyed if she kept interrupting him.

Did he think that was an expression of interest? If so, she had nothing to say. She would just ignore him the next time she saw him.

“I’ll explain what happened over dinner later. I probably won’t be able to finish the story even after we finish dinner.”

“You must have had a hard time.”

“You have no idea. It was no joke. I barely hung on with the thought of seeing you at dinner.”

Carinne said coquettishly as she burrowed into his arms.

His embrace was so warm that her body felt like it was melting. She tilted her head back to look at him, feeling like she would turn into ice cream under the hot sun if this continued.

Her face was reflected in his eyes, which were as calm as a lake. His gaze was warm, like sunlight pouring down on her. It wasn’t something that was deliberately made up or faked. Only pure, heartfelt affection could produce such a gaze.

His half-folded eyelids as he looked down at her, the round sapphire eyes beneath them, and the gently curved eyes proved it.

At that moment, she felt that she was being loved more than she deserved.

Of course, she liked him a lot and poured out her love for him, but she couldn’t say that she thought of him as much as he thought of her. When she thought of love as a size, hers felt so shabby compared to his.

His gaze was deep and warm.

She stared at him in a daze, then came to her senses at the sound of her stomach growling. The sun had set long ago, and the sky was a dark blue. It would be a late dinner. Still, where could she eat dinner?

Carinne swallowed her saliva as she thought of the colorful shrimp dishes.

“Let’s go eat dinner. Oh, and don’t use magic without my permission from now on.”

The doctor said that he felt pain when he used magic. Whether or not the pain subsided after taking the medicine, she wanted to nip the cause of his pain in the bud.

“I got it. I understand, so let’s go.”

Carinne slipped out of Archen’s arms and poked his cheek with her index finger. When he didn’t answer, she stretched out both hands and pressed them on both sides of his face, repeatedly pressing and releasing them.

His wide eyes from being flustered and his face that had become like a goldfish were so cute.

“Got it?”

“…I got it.”

He smiled when she let go of his hands. It was a helpless smile.

She took his hand and arrived at the shrimp dish restaurant that they had walked by together. Unfortunately, it seemed that her bad luck hadn’t run out yet. She felt like she wanted to collapse on the floor when the waiter told her that the waiting time was at least two hours.

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