I Was Hired by the Black-Minded Prince for My Life's Ransom - Chapter 16

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Episode 16. I just want to put one chestnut down…!
I couldn’t breathe properly, just blinking rapidly.
My heart was pounding far too loudly.
Thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump….
It sounded less like a heartbeat and more like someone was beating a drum inside my chest.
But what could I do?
This was the first time I’d been held like this by a man since my brother…!
“Uh….”
I was frozen, unable to move in either direction.
Completely frozen solid, like a block of ice.
The moment I tried to shift even slightly, his arms tightened around me, and my head began to swim.
His body was so solid.
His warmth seeped through steadily.
Even the faint scent of sunlight clinging to his clothes.
Very, terribly, intensely…!
Embarrassing….
“Sniff….”
This is too much, really and truly….
I need to escape, I need to escape.
My mind screamed it, but my body refused to listen.
And even when I tried to twist slightly to create some space, he wouldn’t budge an inch.
What is he, a stone statue…?
“Your Majesty….”
I opened my mouth, my voice wavering with distress.
My words came out thin and trembling.
“Your Majesty, please wake up. All right?”
At this rate, something was going to break—my heart or my mind, one or the other.
I called to him urgently, my hands folded demurely against his chest.
“Your Majesty.”
“…….”
“Your Majesty….”
…….
“Yurian, you fool…!”
You’re too heavy!
I can’t breathe!
Please, just wake up…!
Perhaps that desperate plea got through to him.
“Mmm….”
“……!”
A low sound escaped from Yurian’s lips.
I immediately pressed my mouth shut.
‘Did he hear that…?’
He couldn’t have, right?
The timing just seemed a bit… suspiciously convenient.
‘I shouldn’t have said that last part….’
Yurian opened his eyes slowly, very gradually.
Between his curled lashes, jewel-like eyes emerged.
And….
“…Vanillin?”
Blink.
Our eyes met directly.
I reflexively pulled my lips up into a smile.
The sweetest, most harmless smile I could manage.
“Good morning, Your Majesty….”
Then, with tears glistening in my eyes, I pleaded.
“Could you please let go of me?”
“Ah.”
Yurian’s eyes widened slightly.
Only then did he seem to realize that his arms were wrapped firmly around my waist.
“My apologies.”
The arms that had held me as if refusing to let go released me without hesitation.
“Sigh….”
Only then could I breathe properly again.
I rose unsteadily from the bed and straightened my clothes.
I smoothed the wrinkles and tidied the disheveled parts.
‘This is quite the mess.’
Even as I did, I felt his gaze on me.
Fixed and steady.
Those pale yellow eyes regarded me with unwavering intensity.
“Did I hold you captive?”
“…Pardon?”
“Whether I kept you from returning and made you sleep here instead.”
Informal speech again.
But that wasn’t what mattered.
I pressed my lips together and nodded slightly.
“Yes… that’s right.”
It wasn’t a lie.
My wrist had been held fast, leaving me unable to move either way, and I’d simply fallen asleep like that.
Yurian exhaled softly.
Then he sat up.
“I see. My apologies.”
A clean, spare apology.
“I thought I had no troublesome sleep habits — though it seems I was mistaken.”
Perhaps it was the scent.
At his murmured aside, I blinked.
…Wait? Scent?
Tilting my head in confusion, I lifted my collar and sniffed, but detected nothing.
“What are you doing?”
“I was wondering what scent you meant.”
“…Sharp ears indeed.”
Ah. That wasn’t meant for me to hear.
I felt oddly embarrassed.
I scratched my cheek and poured him a cup of water.
“Will you have some?”
“Yes.”
Yurian accepted the cup naturally.
After taking a sip, he spoke without affectation.
“Vanillin carries a warm, comforting scent.”
Oh.
I blinked.
“A comforting scent…?”
“With a hint of sweetness as well.”
Sweetness, he said.
“If I had to name it, I’d say it smells of vanilla.”
…Does it?
I lifted my arm again to smell it, but I couldn’t quite tell.
If anything, his scent was the one I preferred.
Even trying not to think of it, my mind drifted naturally to the memory.
How close we’d been.
The warmth that had touched me.
A scent somehow grounding and safe.
‘Stop it, stop it.’
I shouldn’t keep dwelling on this.
It’s making me feel strange….
“In any case, I slept wonderfully because of you.”
At his words, I lifted my gaze.
“You slept well?”
“Yes. Remarkably so, in fact.”
His eyes curved softly as he smiled.
Now I think I might be beginning to read the intention behind that smile.
A smile brimming with satisfaction, the kind that comes from deep contentment.
He’d clearly slept well.
“I’m glad,” I said.
I nodded with a broad smile.
The way he’d been standing these past few days had seemed so worn, but now his condition looked remarkably improved.
“What will you be doing today?” I asked.
“Ah, that’s right.”
His eyes crinkled.
His smile grew even more radiant.
“I’m planning to visit my second brother.”
“…Oh.”
Second brother meant the Second Prince.
The very man who persistently sent women to tarnish Yurian’s reputation.
Ding—
A bell chimed from the ceiling.
Yurian had pulled the cord.
The servants rushed in as though they’d been waiting.
They tidied the bedding, straightened the room, and prepared Yurian’s appearance.
The chamber quickly fell into bustling activity.
“Vanillin will be coming too.”
“Oh, me as well?”
“Go back to your quarters and wait until I call for you.”
A terse, concise order.
I found myself nodding obediently.
“…Yes.”
Then came a sharp sound.
The door closed with a click.
“I suppose… I should prepare something…?”
But what was I supposed to bring?
I moved with a vague sense of unease.
* * *
‘So he’s going to see the Second Prince, and it turns out to be a state council meeting….’
I found myself nervous, fiddling with the hem of my dress with my fingertips.
I’d thought we were heading to the Second Prince’s residence, but a state council meeting?
“Am I really allowed to go to a place like that?” I asked.
“Why would it matter? Vanillin is my person.”
Yurian spoke as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
My person.
No matter how many times I heard it, I still couldn’t get used to it….
Feeling an odd flutter in one corner of my heart, I simply nodded.
“Everyone brings their personal attendants, so there’s nothing to worry about.”
“I… see….”
Truth be told, I didn’t fully understand my own position.
Was I a dedicated servant? Or a personal attendant?
The Imperial Palace’s customs were so complicated that I simply nodded along with whatever Yurian told me to do.
“This way,” he said.
He was radiant and composed as always today.
Dressed in white formal robes and a coat befitting his title as the Empire’s Saint, his appearance was dazzlingly beautiful.
I fussed with my own clothing once more.
It was neatly pressed, so why did it feel so wrinkled….
I’d ironed it so carefully earlier.
“The Empire’s Saint, His Highness Yurian Ozbalt, the Third Prince!”
A servant announced our arrival and opened the heavy, ornate doors.
Inside, a marble table stretched across the spacious hall, and people sat around it.
‘Wow.’
My eyes sparkled involuntarily.
No matter how many times I saw it, the beauty of the Imperial Palace never stopped taking my breath away.
Intricate pillars, decorative pieces that gleamed with obvious value, light streaming through the expansive windows—
Everything was truly beautiful….
[Stop gawking and pay attention.]
Ahem.
By now I’d grown accustomed to that voice, the way it carved into my ears, and I straightened my posture.
Apparently my mouth had fallen open at some point.
Yurian’s smile deepened.
A laugh suffused with palpable displeasure.
Though not directed at me.
“Have you arrived, Second Brother?”
“Ah, Yurian.”
A mouth twisted to one side.
Murky blonde hair and eyes the deep blue of a sea swallowed by darkness.
A man dressed in black formal wear so stark it threw Yurian’s appearance into sharp relief lowered himself into the second seat of honor with a heavy thud.
“I’ve heard the rumors. Too busy these days with your hot nights to spare the time?”
Kee-kee-kee.
A laugh like metal scraped across stone echoed through the hall.
In every way, he was the opposite of Yurian.
Yurian smiled gently.
“Surely not. Why, I overslept just this morning.”
“Is that so?”
“I was so occupied with prayers for your well-being that the hours simply slipped away.”
Translated into Yurian’s dialect, that meant he’d spent the night cursing him dead.
Soft words on the surface, but a blade lay concealed beneath the tongue.
And yet.
This fool before me is Kiton, the Second Prince.
I lifted my head quietly.
And fixed my gaze upon him.
The one who’d tormented Yurian for ten straight days, and who’d robbed me of sleep last night.
I clenched my small fists.
Really… so then.
‘I want to give him just one knuckle sandwich…!’

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————