Chapter 56

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter: 56

Chapter Title: Shallow Loyalty

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The woman bowed her head and sniffled.

"It was me... I did it."

"The reason."

Johann's eyes, sleepless from the night before, gleamed sharply.

"I hated that woman. She had the audacity to wear the necklace that Her Highness the Princess had worn, and brazenly stole away the marquis who was the princess's lover..."

The woman choked up and couldn't continue.

"Go on."

"And now even the tennis tournament. It was agony watching Her Highness suffer. That woman needs to know her place. So..."

"So that's why you did it."

The woman hung her head deeply, blew her nose into her handkerchief, and nodded.

Angela Birkin.

The second daughter of the unremarkable Birkin Barony and a lowly maid to Princess Annblin.

Unfortunately, the woman didn't seem like someone who could be bought off by exploiting her predicament after kidnapping and confining her until she was mentally and physically weakened.

Genteelly put, she was naive; bluntly put, she was stupid.

Unwilling to waste words, Johann got straight to the point in a flat tone.

"How much did you get paid."

"I've told you already. I did it alone. For Her Highness the Princess, my benefactor."

'Angela. You're the only maid I trust. You're the only one.'

Angela clenched her hands tightly under the table.

She was someone who had earned the noble princess's trust.

Whenever fear gripped her, recalling the princess's whispers made it all feel like a noble sacrifice, something she could endure.

"Coachman from the MacDowell family, grocery store clerk, hotel staff. Ten thousand francs each. Not in the Birkin Barony's financial records."

"...I sold my jewels."

Jewels from the princess, no doubt. If the barony had that kind of liquidity, why take out high-interest loans?

If she'd come up with a more plausible excuse, he might have pretended to buy it.

"Where. That jeweler."

"Cartina."

Johann glanced at Morris. Morris gave a brief bow and left the study.

She's sending someone to check, Angela thought. Pointless. The jeweler was already bought by the princess.

"It's no use. I planned it alone. So stop threatening Her Highness with this."

Naivety was as dangerous as greed. Unaware she was being used and discarded, the woman's life was about to end.

Johann lit the end of his cigar. He took a draw, leaned back against the sofa, and exhaled slowly.

"Was it worth it."

He murmured softly as the smoke trailed long.

"I don't know how much you pocketed."

The woman's eyes twisted.

"But does that make it a reason for you to rot in prison for life."

His face was utterly impassive. Angela's legs trembled.

The sunlight pouring through the study's large window was surely warm, yet Johann Leopold, seated in its midst, felt stark and cold.

The man with bright blond hair that evoked only night and dawn spoke lowly and firmly.

"I don't think so."

"......"

For life?

No.

'Even if things go wrong, it'll be three years at most. Of course, I'll get you out before then. I'll assign a royal lawyer. Just trust me, Angela.'

I have to trust the princess. Don't waver.

Angela repeated the princess's words once more. As if piercing straight through her thoughts, Johann stated flatly.

"The princess won't come to your rescue."

"That's not true! Never. Her Highness would never abandon me..."

"Because I have to put someone in prison to end this."

"!"

"And the princess."

Johann stared at the woman coldly.

"Threw you to me as that someone."

"......"

Cruel words. Trembling with anger, Angela cried out.

"......No. That's not it. It's a lie... Who would believe such a lie?"

"Would they."

The woman blinked rapidly. Her lips, which had defended the princess like a devoted loyalist, clamped shut.

She looked like a beast tucking its tail. Tears welled in her eyes again.

"From today, you'll be in holding. If you change your mind after experiencing it, anytime."

Holding.

Angela gritted her teeth.

She couldn't betray Princess Annblin's faith over such a threat.

Even if she was doing menial tasks that senior maids wouldn't touch.

The princess needs me. I'm fine.

...Am I really fine?

Angela asked herself.

The princess said she was the only one, but how often had they even spoken? How many important events had she attended at the princess's side?

How many times had she smiled at her?

Still, even if that's true, I can't betray her...

"If I were you, I'd make a deal."

Angela lifted her downcast eyes at the arrogant, resonant baritone.

The man making an irresistible offer looked like the devil.

Even in this bright morning sunlight, it felt like inky darkness enveloped him.

An temptation from the devil she couldn't shake off.

She was definitely awake. She even remembered seeing the dim sky turning bluish in the hazy light.

Yet when she opened her eyes, the wide guest room was bright. She must have dozed off while trying to figure out who was behind the kidnapping.

If it was all a nightmare from last night, a dream, that would be fine.

As if. The light piercing through the white lace curtains was too vivid for that.

Olivia shook her head to clear it and got out of bed.

Her diligent hands tidied the bedding meticulously, as if erasing her traces.

Only after checking that not a single hair had fallen, that the sheets were smooth without a wrinkle, and even the carpet around the bed was spotless, did Olivia straighten her back.

'Reporters are swarming outside.'

Were there still reporters?

Olivia crept to the window, muffling her footsteps, and peeked through a gap in the curtains down below.

Unfortunately, from Johann's bedroom, all that was visible was a garden bursting with roses.

Olivia wanted to leave this place immediately. Not just because of Johann, but to avoid the disaster of running into his fiancée.

For that, she needed clothes to wear out. Underwear alone wouldn't do.

But she hit a snag right from the start.

As expected.

"Ah..."

Olivia let out a small sigh of dismay.

After mistakenly opening two doors in this vast, luxurious room that dwarfed even the Lancelot Hotel suite she'd stayed in, she finally found the dressing room—and there wasn't a single woman's garment.

The clothes neatly hung on three walls were all men's attire. Even for cross-dressing, Johann's clothes were all too long and large.

What now.

Olivia's brows drooped.

She couldn't act rashly. No matter how much she wanted to avoid Johann Leopold, she had to admit she needed his help in this situation.

As she stood biting her lip out of habit in the grim reality, someone knocked on the guest room door. Startled, Olivia hurriedly shut the dressing room door.

The knock sounded again.

In that brief moment, countless scenarios flashed through her mind.

The thought that it might be the Krantz princess made her pulse race unusually fast.

What should she say if it was her?

Sorry didn't feel sincere enough; she wanted to think of more heartfelt, plausible words of apology, but her mind froze.

Please, just go away.

As pale-faced Olivia prayed fervently inside, the guest room door opened without mercy.

Her heart plummeted.

Fearing a scream might escape, Olivia clamped her hand over her mouth and tiptoed closer, grabbing whatever clothes were at hand to throw over herself.

This had to be better than nothing.

Even as she fumbled into the clothes, her taut nerves were fixed on the door.

Doors opening and closing echoed in sequence: the bathroom door, the one to the inner room, and footsteps drawing nearer.

Please...

Olivia stood on tiptoe, pressing herself flat against the wall beside the door. At that moment, it swung wide open.

Her breath caught; Olivia squeezed her eyes shut.

A long shadow fell first across the red-carpeted dressing room.

Then, with the light from the open door came a crisp skin scent that tickled her nose—the scent of that man from last night.

And the toe of a black shoe poked in.

"!"

Olivia sprang out from behind the door.

"It's you?"

At this moment, no one else could have been more welcome than him.

He hadn't meant to startle her, but his gray eyes widened slightly in surprise.

Johann gazed steadily down at Olivia.

"Ah! Sorry. I put it on without permission."

She stood swathed in a beige max coat that reached her ankles, looking up at him with sparkling blue eyes.

It felt strange.

A first, seeing her like this.

No different from a child in oversized adult clothes.

Was this so stimulating?

An emotion unfit for feeling toward his wife in his clothes—no, his ex-wife—stirred from the depths.

You're insane.

Realizing she was still as she'd risen from bed, Olivia tucked her tousled hair behind her ear and asked.

"What's the situation outside right now?"

A ray of clear sunlight streamed through the small square window in the dressing room, illuminating her delicate, translucent white ear with faint blue veins.

His lingering gaze on her face paused there.

"The reporters."

If she was asking if reporters were still camped out, not anymore.

They were all rushing to the Britt Palace now.

Only a couple from the newspapers bought by Princess Annblin remained.

"Worse."

Johann paused briefly before smoothly continuing.

"Than yesterday."

Pathetic.

Johann himself couldn't fathom his own thoughts.

The only clear thing was he didn't want to let her go—the woman who no longer loved him.

It was an unfamiliar yet oddly natural sensation he'd never felt before.

"Come out and eat."

His casual words sounded like a command.