# 34 - 34
This was a top secret matter that not even the Emperor and Empress knew about. Something that only Ferdinand knew about.
Who would welcome a situation in which their important weakness might be discovered?
Moreover, that despicable heir was visibly getting angrier in real time.
At times like these, wouldn't you want to kick even an innocent tin can in front of you just because it's annoying?
Bribe, bribe...
Suddenly I remembered the handkerchief I brought. I was about to put it in Ferdinand's hand when I hesitated.
“With this character, he might throw away a handkerchief like that.”
Given my circumstances, I couldn't afford the best tissue yet, so what I had was just a regular cotton handkerchief.
As the rain fell suddenly and without warning, the Crown Prince couldn't hear it.
To the person who was watching me carefully, worried that his weakness would be discovered.
“Wipe the blood.”
She spoke clearly on purpose and squeezed the handkerchief in his hand.
As she expected, she sensed the hesitation of Ferdinand, who was about to get rid of her.
I immediately grabbed the sides of my skirt and bent over.
“It was an honor to meet you, Your Highness the Crown Prince.”
Originally, the nobles' greetings ended here.
But knowing that Ferdinand, the novel's hero, has never had a restful night, I added briefly:
I wish you a peaceful evening.
Even in that brief moment when she pressed the handkerchief into his hand, she felt that the boy's hand was ice cold.
* * *
“Wipe the blood.”
Ferdinand could not understand Tullia's words.
Of course he couldn't.
His ears were blocked by the rain.
Because of the enormous, cursed divine power flowing through this body.
But Tulia held out the handkerchief while also making a gesture of wiping her mouth.
Ferdinand, like a little bird following his mother, slowly wiped his lips with the handkerchief exactly as she had shown it to him.
Red blood that had just started to dry spilled onto the napkin.
Being publicly slapped by Empress Karmi was an extremely rare occurrence.
She established her public image as a pure and compassionate Empress.
The cunning Empress Carme rarely did anything that would leave traces on Ferdinand's face.
Instead, she killed Ferdinand's governess, extracted the tongues of the servants who had taken pity on him, and stuck several needles in his clothes.
He gradually poisoned his food when he was young.
“She probably expected that I wouldn't die from just poison anyway.”
As long as the divine power flowing through this body was not exhausted.
But even though he did not die, the poisoning easily tormented the boy's body.
The burning fever and pain as if his internal organs were being torn apart aroused extreme terror in the heart of young Ferdinand.
No matter how much he cried, no matter how much he begged for medicine even once, not a single palace doctor came to the Crown Prince's Palace.
The cold servants in the Crown Prince's Palace, full of the Empress's men, repeatedly tricked Ferdinand with words like “You'll feel better if you sleep.”
He was now old enough to be indifferent to such pain.
Ferdinand looked at the bloodstained handkerchief.
“It's just a rag.”
He was used to not hearing his stuttering voice.
He simply remembered the young woman from the house of the Grand Duke Fraser who was trembling like an aspen leaf as she offered him the handkerchief.
Plain cotton handkerchief.
Noble young ladies who had perfect love usually owned even these simple possessions made of luxurious materials decorated with lace and ribbons.
Although this was the first time he had seen her face directly, he already knew that Tulia Fraser of the Grand Duke Fraser's House was a lady with pink hair and light green eyes.
When he saw a girl from a prominent family using this type of handkerchief, he could roughly guess her circumstances.
She may have had kind servants who dressed her appropriately, but apparently she had no close family who carefully selected even her handkerchiefs for her.
He thought she looked like him, but only briefly.
Even having the former made her situation much better than his.
“It was an honor to meet you, Your Highness the Crown Prince.”
Up until that moment, this was something he had heard from countless nobles, so he could understand it just by reading lips.
I wish you a peaceful evening.
What did she add right before she left?
He tried to remember the shape of Tulia's lips, but as expected, he couldn't place it.
The rain continued to fall.
He had to quickly subside the swelling in his cheek before he could leave.
He placed the ragged handkerchief soaked in cold rain water on his cheek. Although he was too humble to be worthy of a king, it was also the most important thing he had at that moment.
Ferdinand slowly closed his eyes as he looked at the pouring rain.
* * *
Oh, my God. Seeing him in person, his presence is no joke.
You understood why you had to meet him as a child to see the end of the Crown Prince.
Even at this young age, his gaze was so fierce that it looked like it could devour someone – I wondered if I would be able to get close to him when he got older without my legs betraying me.
“It is not called the concept of a tyrant for nothing.”
I thought as I quickly looked for a shortcut to escape. My wet dress was bothering me.
Since I was going to the Imperial Palace with the Grand Duke, Adel had specially chosen the most beautiful dress for me to wear.
But she got completely soaked in the rain like that. It will take a lot of effort to dry and care for it properly.
As I was finding my way out easily, I was thinking again about what I would say to the soldiers who would be looking for me.
jingle!
'Huh?'
My foot got stuck on something and I fell.
The shadow of the umbrella fell over me.
I raised my head.
A boy was looking at me from above.
“They say the White Tower is clean and noble, but there are all kinds of dirty things here.”
Then came an arrogant voice.
“What is this wet mouse doing here?”
A dark-colored silk uniform, clearly showing his noble status. And the silver badge on his shoulder.
And most of all, those arrogant and arrogant eyes that looked like they had never encountered anything scary in the world.
Regardless of all these facts, I knew who this person was.
“Is he the second prince?”
The second prince was Dev, the biological son of Empress Karmi.
Did this bastard trip me with his foot?
“Tsk.”
Second Prince Dave made a clicking sound with his tongue with an arrogant look.
Fearing that he might have discovered my handing over the handkerchief to Crown Prince Ferdinand and my conversation with him, but it seemed that was not the case.
Oh, he's starting a fight because he's bored.
Since I looked in such a miserable state now, he probably thought I was a low-ranking noble.
He seemed to want to see me beg him to have mercy on me.
“Well, that was where his damned bread novel was set too.”
A member of the imperial family who never tolerates boredom and grew up spoiled.
However, he is greedy and acts as he pleases, relying on the support of his mother, Empress Karme.
I tried to get up slowly and carefully.
But then.
“…!”
Shatter!
I gasped hard.
Dave kicked me to the ground as I tried to get up.
I was completely amazed.
It was the kind of despicable behavior that not even that arrogant bastard Tedric would do.
Has this bastard lost his mind?
“How rude!”
But rudely, it was Second Prince Dave who shouted angrily.
“How dare you lay your hands on me, the Second Prince, without even asking for forgiveness!”
So he's saying he kicked me because I tried to get up without apologizing first?
After Dave pushed me and I apparently twisted my foot a little, I looked at him in disbelief.
“Oh my God, unbelievable.”
Second Prince Dave.
Even back then, he was portrayed as a member of the imperial family with a selfish temper, so I wasn't too surprised.
But he had never acted so arrogant before.
Was it because of Kuriko?
Am I being subjected to this level of severe bullying since our first meeting because I am now Tulia?
But still, to this extent?
No, wait.
That bastard Dave doesn't seem to know who I am at all now.
Is it because I'm Tullia, the villain who dies every day?
“This damned worldview...”
But I still need to survive somehow.
I swallowed down the anger and injustice that I couldn't express to anyone, and pretended to be afraid and trembling.
“Have I laid hands on Your Highness?”
Of course, I had no intention of apologizing at all.
"That's right! What if I got hurt?"
“But… Your Highness.”
My voice was still shaking. In such situations, the other party believes that it has won, and its feeling of victory increases.
"You are wrong."
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