It’s Trouble Because Unrequited Love Is So Fun - Chapter 88
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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***
I entered my room and locked the door.
The moment the door clicked shut, I threw myself onto the bed without even changing clothes.
‘What, what, what?’
What did I just see and hear?
Clearly, I mean, Raphael definitely…
I rolled my eyes around.
“Don’t do things you can’t handle in the first place.”
His voice was incredibly low…
Those lips that came down on me…
I pressed my hand firmly against my pounding heart and muttered.
“I’m going crazy. We kissed…”
My broad daylight soliloquy spread throughout the bedroom.
“Then isn’t that really great?”
And somehow, my soliloquy got a response.
It was Squirrel, appearing after a long time.
‘Of course it’s great! It’s totally a win!’
The man I like is starting to take interest in me!
This is the perfect time to keep pulling him in!
But suddenly realizing our positions had switched made me feel…
Squirrel’s mouth fell wide open.
What, never seen someone who’s only ever had one-sided crushes before?
I’ve only ever been the one making moves, so this feels so strange.
I heard the sound of an acorn dropping from Squirrel’s hand with a thud.
I picked up that acorn and held it up, muttering.
“Oh my…”
There’s nothing written on the acorn.
“That’s my daily bread.”
Squirrel put away his exasperated expression and acted coy. Then he swished his glossy tail and opened his mouth.
“So, what are you going to do from now on?”
I only moved my lips slightly.
‘So, what should I do?’
Right now, I mean, has my love come true…?
But right then, I heard the sound of footsteps walking down the corridor.
And shortly after, that sound reached right in front of my door.
“Meet me when you wake up tomorrow.”
It was Raphael.
…With a gasp, my face instantly turned red like someone who’d had a drink.
I couldn’t give any response to his words.
Squirrel’s eyes narrowed as if looking at a ‘pitiful romantic failure.’
***
“…Your expression doesn’t look good, Archduchess Serenthia. Is something wrong?”
The next morning, inside the Princess’s Palace.
After tossing and turning in bed all dawn, I ran away.
Where to? To the Imperial Palace…
Raphael did say ‘Meet me when you wake up tomorrow,’ but…
‘Ah, throwing out all that flirting then running away embarrassed makes me look like a complete amateur.’
I have absolutely no idea what kind of face I should make when meeting him.
This was the limitation of someone who had only done the flirting, never been on the receiving end…
I answered with a tired expression, blinking my eyes.
“No, nothing’s wrong…”
The Crown Prince casually spoke to me.
“Then take a look at this. According to the blueprint, this should be a door, but it’s a wall.”
“I wonder if there’s a reason it was finished as a wall instead of following the blueprint.”
I made a puzzled expression and lowered my eyes before opening them again.
“Let me check it out.”
Right when I was carefully checking whether it was originally a door and if there were any traces of it being sealed up again.
I was able to discover a very small tuft of fur in the floor crack.
When I bent down to pick up the fur, a familiar texture greeted me. This fur is…
‘Why on earth is there squirrel tail fur here?’
This is clearly ‘inside the Princess’s Palace.’
I stared down at the fur intently before saying.
“Animals aren’t allowed in here, right?”
“We don’t let animals or anything like that enter.”
“But there’s fur here.”
When I showed him the squirrel fur with a puzzled expression, he shrugged his shoulders.
“As you know, the Princess’s Palace structure keeps changing.”
“Ah.”
“It seems wild animals have appeared from time to time.”
But this squirrel fur, strangely…
‘It resembles the fur of the squirrel I know.’
Just in case, I put the fur into a small pouch for now.
‘I’ve secured one clue for now, I should ask the Divine Squirrel about it.’
After carefully storing the pouch with the fur.
As we walked around the Princess’s Palace, the Crown Prince spoke up.
“Ah, come to think of it, it’s about time to send the Archduchess back to the manor.”
“Oh, is, is that so?”
I didn’t realize that much time had passed already.
Normally I would have been excited at the thought of going home.
But right now…!
‘…No way. If I go home, Raphael will be there.’
I still haven’t decided what kind of face to show Raphael.
A heart-fluttering face? An excited face? A seductive…
‘No, forget it.’
…Right now, with my ears turning red every time I think of him, any seductive look would be impossible.
I muttered with a face that had unknowingly become a bit sullen.
“Yes, I should return to the Capital Mansion, I suppose.”
When I said that, the person in front of me spoke up.
“I don’t know what’s going on, but you look like you don’t want to go home.”
“Ah.”
Right, the person in front of me was someone who could distinguish ‘truth and lies.’
He put down the blueprint and smiled slyly.
“There’s a small pavilion in the Imperial Palace, how about having a meal before you go? What do you think?”
***
Tick, tick.
Inside the drawing room of the Kairozen Estate.
This place somehow had a desolate atmosphere.
Raphael, with an indifferent expression, crossed his long legs to one side and looked toward the window.
His wife, who went to the Imperial Palace, isn’t coming back.
Pretending not to hear his words about meeting in the morning, she left early…
There was no sign of the carriage returning.
Raphael chuckled softly.
“Can’t see it anywhere.”
Going off to meet some other man and not returning until this late hour…
Raphael tapped the table with his fingertips a few times halfheartedly.
“Should I go catch her?”
How should I throw the bait to catch her quickly?
I thought some quite interesting things would happen from now on, but to think she’d run away.
‘…Surely she didn’t tell that damn Saxony guy that his ‘facade is wonderful’ or something… did she?’
This emotion was clearly jealousy, and Raphael had no intention of denying his feelings.
Therefore, Raphael stood up. After properly adjusting the tie that had been hanging loosely around his neck, he opened the door.
“I should go catch her.”
He had no specific plan for exactly how to catch her.
She’d be at the Imperial Palace.
Then all he had to do was search thoroughly.
…Up to this point, he was only thinking ‘rationally.’
***
“This is certainly a first for the Imperial Palace.”
At the same time, the interior of the Imperial Palace was still bustling with people working.
It was quite late at night.
However, the Emperor, excited by the hope of finding traces of the Princess, had been driving people relentlessly for 24 hours straight, resulting in the Imperial Palace operating in a 24-hour emergency state.
“This pavilion was also built by His Late Majesty to honor my missing younger sister.”
Sitting across from the Crown Prince in the pavilion over the small lake at the entrance of the Imperial Palace, Serenthia nodded.
“Well then, shall we start talking business now?”
Then she said while fumbling to pull out the blueprints.
With so many watching eyes around, work talk would be better than personal conversation.
It was something that needed to be done anyway.
“Very good.”
Serenthia pointed to a small room drawn on the blueprint and said.
“There’s a master room here. This structure itself is a bit unusual, but I didn’t see this master room at the Princess’s Palace earlier.”
“Right, I couldn’t find a corresponding place either. I think this ‘master room’ might just be something like a MacGuffin.”
But I shook my head.
“About Her Highness the Princess. Even though she was young, she was called a genius, wasn’t she? Such a person wouldn’t have put a meaningless space in the blueprints. Assuming the construction blueprints were completed perfectly according to the plans.”
“Hmm…”
“And usually the most important things are kept in the master room. If we can figure out exactly how this master room was created, we might be able to find it.”
“…Oh, really? That’s an interesting story.”
The Crown Prince answered with a curved smile.
“Yes, what do you think Her Highness the Princess valued most?”
A brief silence flowed between us. Since the Princess wasn’t here now, it was a question no one could answer.
It was right when the narrator and the Crown Prince were looking at each other and pondering deeply.
A knight approached and called for Saxony.
“Um, Your Highness the Crown Prince.”
“What is it? I told you not to disturb us as we’re discussing important matters.”
Then the knight carefully opened his mouth.
“Well, that is…”
“Don’t beat around the bush.”
“…Near the pavilion, uh, um…”
But it was right at that moment.
From behind the knight, some large shadow approached with big strides.
A man with a completely different presence from the cowering knight stepped right into the lakeside pavilion.
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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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