Chapter 17 (1/2)

Chapter 17

A moment of silence stretched between us, and I waited for him to answer nervously.

“Before I answer that question, Rosé.”

Albert spoke in a low voice, stroking his chin. Then, he narrowed his eyes.”

“I have an order for you.”

“…Pardon?”

“Answer my question first.”

Just like that, he switched the focus of the conversation from him to me.

Albert suddenly wielded his authority, which he usually didn’t, so naturally. This would have been the way it should be if our lives were as they were normally.

“Rosé, what about you?”

Albert stood up and walked towards me.

“What do you think of me?”

And now that he was right in front of me, he was looking down to meet my eyes.

“To me, your facial expression is unfamiliar right now.”

“……”

“Because your expression and your attitude right now are different from the usual, it makes me feel like what we’re talking about is ‘wrong’.”

He really catches on quickly.

Without any time for me to think, Albert urged me to speak.

“Don’t even think to hide it. I can read you better than you think.”

Albert’s eyes shone under the dim room. He was like a beast hunting for prey, prowling to bite my neck.

“I want to hear what you think first.”

He whispered in a low voice.

My body trembled. It felt like we were filming a romance movie earlier, but the genre suddenly became horror.

…Above all, it was like Albert was ready to kill me if I can’t come up with the answer he wants.

People instinctively like pretty things, and I heard it’s part of how evolution works—something about increasing the chances of survival by gravitating towards good things.

Obviously, I think Albert is handsome. His face is perfect, as though God himself sculpted him. And it’s not that I don’t like him.

But to ‘like’ someone and to ‘love’ them were two separate things.

Humans are complex beings. First impressions and physical appearances matter a lot, but you don’t know what’s beneath the façade.

Albert is someone like that to me.

His obvious arrogant tone and elegant gestures show how he lived his life as a nobleman, and this always reminded me of how he’s someone who lives in a whole different world.

And I might even be more relieved because he’s someone out of my league. This makes me care less about what I do in front of him.

In fact, Albert also didn’t prohibit me from acting silly or naïve.

At the end of the day, this is my conclusion: I don’t like Albert… but.

“Prince?”

I think I’m going to die if I say that.

“Rosé, you haven’t answered yet.”

But at that moment, the wand lit up to rescue me. It’s my savior now.

The wand’s light pulsed like a police car’s flashers, however, Albert just glanced at me and continued to stare.

Standing before me with his arms crossed, he seemed to have no intention to take one step away until he heard my answer.

…I have eyes. It would be weirder not to notice.

Albert likes me. I don’t know how much he does, but it’s deeper than my own feelings towards him.

As I recalled all the shameful things I did in front of him, I just stayed silent.

If I were him, I would have thought, ‘Wow. There are people like this in the world, too,’ all the while looking at me as though I were some kind of alien.

What in the world made him like me?

I take back what I said about the wand being my savior. In the first place, it was supposed to be rescuing me from Albert, but Albert himself didn’t care about the signal, so it was useless.

I think I’ll die if I answer the way I’m thinking, but I couldn’t avoid it. Albert surely wouldn’t move an inch until I answered.

Should I just say I like him?

But more problems would arise after today’s conversation. After all, I’ll have to stay with him for quite a long time.

Even if I tell him, ‘Prince, I don’t like you that way,’ it wouldn’t end just like that. He and I will have to continue seeing each other’s faces while living under one roof.

For the first time, I regretted asking him to eat together and to do physical training with Blanc every morning.

Then again, avoiding the problem won’t mean it’ll be gone either. And if I say that I do like him, that’s also another problem altogether.

Love between a maid and a prince only happens in romance novels. If a real prince were to say, “I’m dating a maid now~” the country’s vassals who follow that prince would just go, “What the hell is he thinking?!”

And Albert couldn’t have thought of this, too.

In the end, I decided to answer honestly.

Carefully, I opened my lips to speak.

“Prince, do you remember when we first signed the contract?”

I reminded Albert of the memory. My tone was half-serious and half-joking—this is the kind of answer you’ll get after pressuring me like this.

And he nodded, agreeing without hesitation.

”I will not love you, Rosé.”

He spoke so confidently then. Where on earth did that person go?

“You said you won’t fall for me.”

“……”

“Your Highness also said that I should not fall in love with you.”

“……”

“I am only following your order, Prince.”

I turned the arrow and deflected the question back to him.

If I simply said that I didn’t like him that way, I really feel like I’ll die from Albert’s brutal glare.

Truthfully, the core of the problem lies with Albert.

“At that time I knew very well about what you thought of me, Prince. So I never dared to build on any feelings for Your Highness.”

Albert didn’t like Rosé. And I understand why he didn’t. Although I’m mentally a different person, I respected his opinion.

I deflected it moderately so it should be okay! I tried to look at his reaction furtively. Ba-dump, ba-dump.

However, Albert’s expression was as cold as before. As he scoffed quietly, he swept back his hair.