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“Your Highness, Prince Achilleon sent you a message.”

“…who?”

Hazel’s eyes widened.

“Who did you say just now?”

“Achilleon… His Highness the Crown Prince.”

The maid looked at Hazel anxiously as she watched her superior’s reaction, wondering if she had done something unpleasant.

“H-Have I done something wrong…”

Hazel managed to regain her composure when she saw the maid had a terrified expression.

“…No. So, what was the Crown Prince calling me for?”

Hazel asked as she sat gracefully again.

“We’ve never met each other before.”

Achilleon acted as if he already knew everything about her. Nonetheless, it was strange that he has been quiet until now. That was why he didn’t miss even a faint gleam of hope to get her.

“I-I think Your Highness has something precious that she just lost recently.”

“Something precious…”

Hazel asked while tilting her head.

“What is it?”

“The Crown Prince told Your Highness to come and check it out by yourself.”

Hazel barely breathed out a harsh sigh when she looked at the maid who was talking while feeling diffident inside.

“What kind of nonsense is that?”

“Pardon me?”

Hazel managed to hold back her laughter when Mary and her maid looked frightened at the same time.

“Nothing.”

Hazel struggled to regain her composure.

“What is that precious thing? Tell him I didn’t lose anything.”

Did he think she would be fooled easily with this kind of trick? Hazel was soothing her rising anger when the maid spoke again.

“With that being said, I was told to deliver this for you.”

The maid held out something she held in her hands.

“…….”

Hazel’s expression hardened after she examined the thing brought by the maid in her hands.

“Did Prince Achilleon have this?”

Tity’s name was embroidered roughly on one side of the broken ribbon.

“This belongs to Tity.”

Hazel’s expression stiffened when she saw the end of the bluntly cutted ribbon.

“How did- how did this happen?”

“Maybe Tity escaped and managed to enter the Crown Prince’s quarters?”

“Why did Tity go to that place…”

Why did she go to the place where Achilleon was staying, out of all places here? Moreover, that place was far from the Rose Palace, why did she go there?

“I-I’m not sure.”

“Go get her right now.”

“That …Your Highness must have to come by yourself to get it… If I do that…”

“How dare you.”

Hazel shouted while trembling.

“Even though he’s a Crown Prince, how rude of him to ask me to go there!”

“According to His Highness the Crown Prince, Your Highness should make sure you are indeed the owner of the cat.”

“Everyone knows that I am Tity’s owner!”

“But if you let go of the cat without much thought and choose to retaliate, you can cause serious harm to the cat’s safety, so you have to be careful, Your Highness…”

“What did you say?”

Hazel bursted into anger at the continuous words of the maid.

Looking at the maid’s panic look reminded her of the way Achilleon treated Tity.

“This?”

Also, his gesture when he pointed at the cat. The fact that Tity even bit and stratched his hand mercilessly which then caused him a lot of injuries.

Moreover, she went as far as to get him trapped in a mousetrap. Seeing that he even mentioned it at the masquerade ball, she thought it must’ve hurt his pride quite badly.

Achilleon was a man who held a grudge. In the past when she knew him, also in the days when she lived as his empress.

He was a man who definitely paid back others’ deeds. Whether it’s because he was indebted or because he bore a grudge against others.

Having experienced that tenacity, she knew he was not the type of man who gave up until his spite disappeared completely.

“…Let’s go.”

Hazel murmured.

“If you are looking for the cat owner, I’ll go there.”

There was nothing to fear, Hazel muttered repeatedly inside her mind to reassure herself.

She was just going to find her lost cat. That would be all.

‘This is for the better.’

It was something she couldn’t avoid forever. This was her chance to make a clear decision.

***

“It’s an honor for the Princess to see me.”

Achilleon greeted Hazel with a provokingly friendly face. Sitting obliquely with his long legs crossed on the wing chair, the man was so perfect that he nearly felt unreal which made her feel even more annoyed than before. And in his big hand….

“…….”

Her white cat lay languidly in the man’s arms.

All this time, she was wondering where the cat might have been and feeling nervous about her whereabouts, or whether Mrs. Pais might’ve taken her and done something right away, but her cat turned out to be fine. She even looked delightful. She seemed to not realize her actual owner.

“I’m so grateful and surprised that you were the one who saved my cat.”

Hazel just wanted to get her Tity back and get out of here.

“Tity.”

Tity snuggled more in Achilleon’s arms as if it was entirely her own place, whether acknowledging her owner’s worried heart or not.

Achilleon also caressed the cat’s nape as if he was pleased to do that. She was aghast by the sight before her which was completely different from what she had seen that night.

“Tity, come here.”

Meow.

“I said come here.”

Meow.

Contrary to the impatient feeling of her owner, Tity seemed unwilling to come near her no matter how many times she urged the cat to do as she said. She looked so comfortable and happy in his arms, as if she was staying in paradise.

“Now that I think about it, we’ve never met before.”

Achilleon said while caressing the cat in his arms. His slight smile was so impudent that she wanted to slap it off his face, however she tried to suppress her anger while speaking with a friendly tone.

“…I wasn’t able to participate in the previous event with the delegates because I was feeling unwell. But I didn’t expect we’re going to meet each other like this.”

“What a meaningful fate which led me to see the Princess, all thanks to this cat.”

Contrary to his relaxed tone, his eyes were watching her keenly. Her skin felt like they were stinging in the places where he rested his gaze.

“No, perhaps we had met before this?”

“…….”

Hazel paused for a moment to think about what she was supposed to say. She had many thoughts while walking on the way here from the Rose Palace.

What should she say the moment she faced Achilleon? Should she pretend to not know everything about that night? Or…

Achilleon was testing her as if a cat playing with a mouse. Unless someone hit him on the head which caused his memory to vanish, he would’ve known that the person who saw him was her on that night.

Besides, it was also her whom he met at the masquerade ball.

If he was going to test her here, she was thinking of answering him willingly.

Achilleon would pry and burrow deeper if his opponent ran away and avoided him, he was the man who would not give up until he got what he wanted.

She had expected that the more she tried to deny and avoid this, the more likely she would provoke him.

At times like this, she reckoned that admitting it frankly would be a better way to reduce his interest toward her.

“I am sorry for that night.”

“Which night?”

Achilles asked her as if to irritate her furtively.

“It’s the night you remember, Your Highness.”

She intentionally chose to use comprehensive words.

Achilleon stared at her as if his eyes could pierce her. Hazel seemed unaware that her mouth had gone dry, but she managed to open her mouth again.

“That night I had no choice but to do so. I was in a lot of trouble when they found out that the sick Princess who was supposed to rest in her palace, had wandered around, you would do that if you were in my place, right? I didn’t even attend the welcoming event for the delegates.”

Hazel said as she met his gaze.

“We’re in the situation where we’ve been making up white lies.”

A small smile spread across Achilleon’s mouth when he listened to Hazel.

“I thought so.”

“…….”

A brief silence passed over between the two of them.

“I came here by myself like you wanted, so I’d like you to return her.”

Hazel said while pointing to the cat in his arms.

“But, are you really the owner of this cat?”

Achilles said while chuckling.

“What do you mean?”

“This cat follows others so well.”

Achilleon said while stroking Tity’s back.

“The cat was very clever. She knows how to repay the favor to me.”

Achilleon said, easily ignoring what Hazel had said earlier.

“Unlike somebody else.”

An evil smile was shown on Achilleon’s lips.

“She had paid back the favor to you?”

Hazel asked with a suspicious look.

“She requited the favor with a very cute reward.”

“Cute…”

Achilleon pointed toward the white side table next to the armrest using his eye gesture. The cloth seemed to hide something under it because it was protruding out.

“What’s that?”

The servant approached the side table and carefully removed the white cloth once Achilleon beckoned them to do so.

“Gasp…”

Hazel covered her mouth when she finally saw what was wrapped inside the white cloth.

“This, what is this…”

“The cat brought it here. Unfortunately, it had lost its breath.”

“……..”

“From what I know, that bird seems to be owned by Lady Pais. He must have hunted something that he flew from his owner’s enormous cage.”

Hazel looked at the silver ring on the bird’s ankle. Needless to say, that jewellery was clearly inserted by Lady Pais onto her birds.

“Don’t you think the owner of that bird should know this?”

“No.”

Hazel said quickly. Achilleon lifted his head and looked at her with his chin resting in his hands.

“Why?”

Hazel bit her lips with his persistent questioning voice.

“It’s…”

When Lady Pais found out that Tity had hurt her bird, she would be in full force and nearly scream for the cat to be taken out right away.

There was no proof that Tity was the one who had done that. The other cat might have hurted the birds….

It didn’t seem to make sense to her, however she had no choice but to persist with the truth stubbornly.

“I don’t agree with this. Tity is so gentle and nice. She can’t even catch a mouse.”

Not long ago, she recalled having seen Tity bit a mouse which scared her to death, but she tried to erase it from her memory while saying the opposite.

“Lady Pais’ birds died because of another reason.”

“…….”

Achilleon stared at her with his blue eyes piercingly quietly.

“So, shall we talk about that?”

There was a pleased smile spread across his mouth when he began to talk after being quiet for a moment.

“But I think it’s a bit harsh for me to ask about this.”

Hazel bit her lips softly while listening to his next words.