Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Shouldn’t the prince be in the royal palace? Why is he here at the Lombardi estate?

I was so shocked that I froze in place. Then the prince walked toward me, his footsteps echoing off the floor. I hadn’t realized from a distance, but he was quite tall.

“Do you recognize me now?”

Was he saying, “Now that you know who I am, come crawl over?”

The smug look on the prince’s face was truly unbearable.

I looked at him and said, “I don’t know.”

“What?”

“I said I don’t know.”

What are you going to do if I don’t know who you are?

I shrugged my shoulders feigning ignorance.

“Then let me tell you. I am the first-born prince of the Lehmbruck Empire…”

“Oh? It’s rolling away,” I interrupted

I pointed at his hat, which was rolling on the ground again due to another gust of wind.

The prince stomped his foot and shouted, “Eeek! Go and get it right now!”

I really don’t get it.

Even though he clearly wanted his hat back, the idea of picking it up himself didn’t even cross his mind. I gave a few tsks and shook my head.

“Augh...”

Oh well.

I walked slowly across the lawn where the hat was rolling around.

“Hmph! Should have done it in the first place!” I heard the prince snort in disdain.

The grass under my feet was soft, thanks to the diligent work of the gardeners.

After walking a bit further, I saw the prince’s hat lying right in front of me. When I picked it up, I realized it was a high-quality hat, soft and plush, as if it were made from animal fur.

I then looked back at the prince, who was now standing some distance away.

“Good! Now bring it to me!”

I gave him a big smile. Then…

“What are you doing!”

I threw the hat even farther away.

Run, run!

Even with my short legs, I ran as fast as I could.

“Mwahaha!”

Oh that feels so good!

“You! Stop right there!”

Would you stop if you were me?

I laughed and ran even faster.

“Ackk! I’m going to kill you when I catch you!”

I could hear the prince’s furious threats behind me, but I didn’t look back. I knew he had a bad temper, but I hadn’t realized that it started when he was a child. No wonder he got along so well with Bellezac.

I didn’t think the prince, who was lazy enough not to pick up his own hat, would actually chase after me. I raced around a corner and hid from his view.

His final outburst did worry me a little, but what could he really do?

With that thought, I headed towards the main building to look for the twins.

***

The first-born prince Astana was trembling with rage.

“How... how dare she…?”

He had never experienced such humiliation in his life.

Born the legitimate heir of the emperor and empress, Astana had been able to get anything he wanted with just a simple gesture from the moment he took his first breath. He never needed to voice his desires.

He had always been surrounded by nannies and bodyguards, growing up in constant adoration. The only thing Astana ever had to do, even if he didn’t want to, was to endure seeing Bellezac’s stupid face.

The empress, who usually indulged Astana in everything else, was particularly strict when it came to anything related to the Lombardi family.

Bellezac, who was always trying desperately to gain Astana’s favor, was an extremely annoying presence. Having to visit the Lombardi estate had already put Astana in a particularly foul mood.

To add fuel to the fire, he had gotten lost.

According to the old agreement between the royal family and the Lombardi family, royal knights were not allowed to enter the estate. This had led to a scuffle between the prince’s attendants and the Lombardi soldiers. In his impatience, the prince had entered the estate alone.

Though it had been his own doing, Astana did not see it that way. He was furious that his attendants had left him alone. He was also annoyed that a non-royal family owned an estate that was as grand as the royal palace.

Firentia coming out of nowhere to make a fool of him had provoked Astana’s already sour temper.

“My Prince! There you are!”

Astana’s nanny, who had been with him since his infancy, had finally arrived.

“Oh, I was so worried about you! You ran off alone…”

“Come here,” the prince beckoned to the nanny, who was catching her breath. The nanny closed her eyes tightly and bowed with a hardened expression on her face.

*Slap*

The prince’s hand struck the nanny’s cheek.

“You dare leave me by myself?”

“I… I’m so sorry…”

“Where are the knights?” Astana asked the nanny and pair of servants.

“Outside the gates…”

“Tell them to come in.”

“Umm? B-but sir. The rules don’t…”

*Slap*

The prince’s sharp hand struck the nanny’s cheek again, leaving another mark on her face.

“Everything in the empire belongs to His Mastery the Emperor, and I am his rightful heir. Why should I be following Lombardi family rules?”

The nanny could not say a word.

“Bring the knights here immediately. If you don’t, you will pay a price.”

Finally, the nanny replied in a trembling voice. “Yes, Your Highness.”

Astana’s anger subsided only after he saw her pale, tearful face running towards the estate’s main gate.

“Just you wait until the knights arrive,” Astana muttered with a twisted smile as he recalled the sight of the copper-haired girl who had run away.

***

“How did you find us so fast? We hid so well!”

“Yeah! Tia, you were spying on us when we were hiding, right?”

Giliou and Mayron pouted and puffed out their cheeks as they spoke.

The twins, who had been hiding behind a broom closet under some stairs in a quiet hallway, were quite upset that they had been discovered so quickly.

“Who told you to hide so poorly?”

“We worked hard!”

The twins expressed their frustration with their whole bodies.

“This is boring!”

“Same!”

“Really? Then let’s go read some books.”

“B-books?”

The two exchanged frantic glances.

“No. This is fun, Tia.”

“Yeah. Let’s keep playing hide-and-seek.”

Simpletons.

However, despite their clear likes and dislikes, Giliou and Mayron weren’t bad kids. Compared to Bellezac and the first-born prince, they were angels, absolute angels.

“The library would be perfect.”

There was no way those evil souls would ever walk into the library to read a book. Either way, the Lombardi estate was so large, there was little chance I would accidentally come across them.

Remembering that the prince had been in the annex a little while ago, I took Giliou and Mayron to the lower floor of the main building.

“There should be plenty of places to hide here, okay?”

“Okay, sure!”

Unlike the floor above, the main floor’s layout was more like a maze and quite confusing. The twins consulted each other in whispers about where to hide and chuckled to themselves.

Looks like they have a good idea.

“Okay, I’ll stand here and count to one hundred…”

That’s when I saw two men approaching from the opposite side of the hallway. The swords attached to their sides seemed to indicate they were knights, but they weren’t from the Lombardi house.

If they were knights of a particular family, the emblem would have to appear somewhere. Unless they needed to conceal their affiliation…

At that moment, a thought occurred to me.

The prince’s bodyguards.

The prince deliberately behaved like an ordinary noble for safety reasons when he was outside the royal palace. Therefore, the knights who guarded him also took off their royal uniforms and wore plain clothes.

Behind them, I saw three Lombardi guards. With stiff expressions, they followed the prince’s knights, constantly looking back as if waiting for their superior to arrive.

“Are they playing hide-and-seek with us?” asked Giliou as he stared at the knights as well.

A chill ran down my spine.

The knights, as Giliou noticed, were looking under tables as if they were searching for someone.

“Oh no.”

I understood the situation.

The prince had recklessly brought his knights into the estate to find me. The Lombardi guards, unable to use force on the royal knights, were likely waiting for the Lombardi knights to arrive on the scene.

Who could fault them? Regular soldiers were no match for knights. On top of that, if the situation escalated to fighting between the Lombardis and the imperial families, things would get out of hand.

I had heard that the first-born prince was a spoiled brat, but I didn’t think it would be quite so bad.

Did he really send people after me because of some teasing? And within the Lombardi estate?

Royal forces were not allowed within the Lombardi estate. That was an agreement made between the Durelli and Lombardi families when the empire was first founded.

“Giliou. Mayron. Run!”

Even if we were in the confines of the Lombardi estate, getting caught by those knights would be a pain in the butt.

I grabbed the twins’ hands and started running in the opposite direction of the knights.

Startled, Mayron asked, “T-Tia! What’s going on?”

But I didn’t have time to reply. I glanced back and saw that the knights had clearly recognized me and begun to give chase.

“We need to run to Grandfather’s office!”

“O-okay.”

The twins, frightened to see adults chasing after us, followed my lead well, but we didn’t get far. As soon as we got near Grandfather’s office, we saw another group in the long hallway.

The prince’s entourage.

“I told you I’d kill you,” the prince said.

A twisted smile spread across his face as he noticed I was trapped.

He’s a monster!

It was my fault for underestimating his madness. I hid the twins behind me and spoke up.

“Is all this really necessary?”

I hadn’t even hit him. He was coming after me because I had tossed his hat.

“You dared to disobey me, and you insulted me. Killing you is the least I could do.”

I realized at that moment, the first-born prince had no clue about the relationship dynamic between the imperial family and the Lombardis. Even the emperor had to be mindful of the Lombardi patriarch. And yet, this young prince—not even the crown prince—was acting so arrogantly.

It was unheard of.

At that moment, however, it was just us three children and the three guards who didn’t know what to do.

“Kneel,” Astana commanded, crossing his arms and looking down on me. “Kneel in front of me and beg for your life.”

“Why should Tia kneel?” Mayron shouted.

“Who are you?” Giliou added.

The twins stepped in front of me.

“Move these two aside,” the first-born prince commanded his knights.

At that, even the knights showed reluctance. They had surely been briefed about the agreement between the two families.

While they might’ve gotten away with trespassing, laying a hand on the Lombardi patriarch’s grandchildren was a different matter entirely.

“Don’t touch these two!” I cried, moving the twins behind me.

The situation was my responsibility. I couldn’t let them get swept up in it.

“Then you should kneel,” Astana sneered.

Do I really have to kneel?

Desperate to come up with a plan in such a hopeless situation, I noticed a group of people behind the prince’s entourage hurrying towards.

Ah, whew.

I felt a sense of relief as my mind started working again and lowered my head. A few seconds later, I lifted it again.

*Drip, drip*

Tears fell down my cheeks like chicken droppings.

“What, do you think crying will solve everything?” Astana asked in disbelief.

Well, everything has been solved.

“What on earth is happening here?”

The wrathful patriarch of the Lombardi family, my grandfather, was striding towards us at a frightening speed.