Secrets with the Crown Prince Chapter 2
To tell you the story of how I met my current adoptive father, Count Lubiche, I have to go five years into the past.
Five years ago, I fell asleep while riding a bus and found myself in a completely different world. Could there be a more ridiculous tale? I didn’t know if I got into a traffic accident or something else had happened to me.
But if I had gotten into a car crash while I was asleep, I probably wouldn’t remember what happened.
I mean, who knew that PD Cha Do-Hyuk would also reincarnate into a completely different person in another world while trying to save a child from a car crash? I reasoned that I might have traveled into another dimension in a likewise manner.
“Ena, be careful.”
My adopted father pulled my arm backward. Thanks to him, I could see the locomotive passing by.
The train went across the station’s railroads and stopped in front of us. Then, after coming to a complete halt, the door opened, and a stream of people got off. I took that moment to shove my money at the station attendant disembarking the train. The station attendant took out a bundle of cash and handed me my change and ticket.
If I thought about how even little things such as this had confused me in the beginning, I was an unrecognizably different person now. I took a seat in our assigned spots with my adoptive father and stared at the scenery outside from my window. Many things have changed in the past five years. I didn’t think that I could have such a peaceful life like this, especially in this world.
With the industrial revolution and a series of innovations, created by a collaboration of magic and science, this world had developed at an extreme speed. On a surface level, this place didn’t look different from 19th century Europe, but the fact that magic and divine power existed in this world made all the difference.
My adoptive father opened his mouth, “It’s been a while since I was in Nayden.”
It has been a while. In its Kirks mountain, our neighboring country, Nayden, was where I fell into this world five years ago.
“Yes, it’s been a year.”
I tried to appear indifferent as I didn’t want my adoptive father to become concerned for me.
Count Lubiche’s wife had accidentally died in this Kirks mountain, and the count had been clinging onto his dear life when I found him and barely nursed him back to better health. To tell you the truth, it was hard to say that I saved his life when all I did was stay by his side for ten-day and call the medics. If magician Erin had not helped me at that deserted house, perhaps, count Lubiche would’ve been dead. Regardless, that was how I was able to get adopted into the Lubiche family.
“We come here every year, but it feels different every time. I think I will never get used to it.”
My adoptive father smiled at my words. Even just last year, he got depressed whenever the countess’s death anniversary approached closer, but this year, he seemed finer than usual.
“And you still can’t remember your past…?” At his question, I made a worried expression and nodded my head.
When I first met my adoptive father, I couldn’t speak the country’s language properly. So, he came to this assumption that I had lost my memories by himself, and because this misunderstanding was rather convenient for me, I didn’t say anything to refute that, and to this day, he believed it.
“If you remember anything someday, please tell me first.” My adoptive father sat in front of me and smiled at me warmly while patting my head.
It was pure luck that I was able to meet him. I was thankful for his kindness. “But what happened at the party? Did you do anything that could offend the crown prince?” My adoptive father asked me with a look full of worry. He must have been concerned that the crown prince, Reynold, had communicated that he would visit our residence all along.
“Don’t worry. I didn’t do anything wrong. I can guess the reason for his visit.” My adoptive father looked relieved at my answer and held both of my hands.
A middle-aged man, who had the same shade of brown hair as Rioel in a sleek hairdo, warned me, “You must not do anything that could offend the crown prince. You must not make any mistakes.” I was a bit surprised at such stern words.
I did hear the rumors that he was a madman, but was it that bad? Was he really that much of a crazy sociopath?
“At a single mishap, your head could roll-off. It’s not an exaggeration, but he is…” He murmured the last words so softly that I couldn’t hear him. But I still smiled sweetly for my father.
“Don’t worry too much. He won’t do any harm to me.” If crown prince Reynolds was really Cha Do-Hyuk, that is. Hearing this, my father looked like he was filled with more worries.
But because I had nothing to prove my words at the moment, I just smiled.
“Yes, I know that since you are an adult now, you will be able to figure it out by yourself.”
“Yes, I am already twenty-two.”
Of course, my age was actually thirty-two, but five years ago, my father had assumed that I was around 18 and registered me as such.
So, it was only after becoming Ena Knox Lubiche that I learned my age. But I didn’t think I had to really fix that.
I mean, I became ten years younger- did I really have to correct them that my age was actually thirty-two?
* * *
Count Lubiche’s headquarters were at Alpha Kingdom, but whenever it was the countess’s death anniversary, we visited the Nayden kingdom and gave our condolences. Rioel usually accompanied us, but this time, he had to join the Order of Knights to subjugate evil spirits or whatever else they had to do.
“I think this, every time. I think you came in place of Violence.” He told me this as we were coming down the road after leaving a flower for countess Lubiche at the mountain where she had died.
I couldn’t find the right words to comfort him and didn’t say anything. At the time I found my adoptive father, the countess had already been dead. I thought that shocking scene would play in my head again and squeezed my eyes shut. The event wasn’t as shocking as losing my own parents or sibling, but it still pained me.
After coming down from the mountain, we saw the village’s entrance, and my adoptive father called me. “Ena.”
“Whatever anybody else says, you are my daughter.” My adoptive father softly smoothed my hair. He must have known that I was always in hot water with the other ladies at social gatherings. It was ridiculous to think that I would be able to naturally get along with those prideful aristocratic ladies who had lived in this world since birth in the first place.
But I had never been sad because I couldn’t get along with them easily.
Those things weren’t that important to me, and I wasn’t such a weak person that my adoptive father had to worry about me.
I made a smile big enough to reassure my father and answered him, “Of course, father. I will always be your daughter.” Hearing this, my adoptive father let out a sigh of relief.
If my father became reassured because of these words, I could say them countless more times.
* * *
I could see the maids stealing glances at the crown prince in the living room. Although he was supposed to be crazy, did they still want to see him because he was handsome? Like I had learned from my etiquette master, I made sure my plates didn’t clack and slowly lifted my teacup to my face and savored the tea smell before I sipped my drink.
Seeing that, the crown prince let out a burst of laughter from the other side of the room. His gaze shook, and his expression was like that of somebody who was looking at something adorable and small. I admitted that I was funny, but I was far from adorable.
“You are good at adjusting. Did you say that it has been five years since you came here?” I stared at his restricted clothes that were buttoned all the way to his beautiful neck. If he was called a madman, shouldn’t he at least unbutton at least the first two buttons? His sharp, uncrumpled outfit gave him a much different impression than his nickname.
“Yes. Even though I had learned the etiquette rules, I can only still only do this much, so please excuse me.”
At my words, he laughed again. “Isn’t it hard to adjust?” He looked as if he understood all my struggles and asked me warmly.
It felt strange.
No matter which way I looked at him, he looked like a foreigner. Shining silver hair, dark and sharp brows, and the golden eyes right below them. How could he talk to me about Korea with that kind of appearance? How could I ever get used to this?
But I might be the weirder one here. I let out a sigh after giving up.
“How could it not be hard for me, who came from modern society, to learn the stuffy etiquettes of the aristocrats?”
At my words, the crown prince burst out in laughter again. “Yes, they are so stuffy.”
“The sexism is also too harsh. It’s a hard world for a woman to live in.”
“It is a world that enforces a lot of things and has many contradictory rules.”
The crown prince rolled his fingers against the teacup and suddenly stood up. Then, he reached his hands out at me. “It’s suffocating only to stay inside. Let’s talk outside since the day is also good.
I knew the reason behind these words. It was because of the maids that loitered in front of the living room’s entrance. There were people eavesdropping. He must have decided to go out to escape from their prying ears.
As I walked with the crown prince in the garden at Lubiche’s residence, I saw people stick out their heads out of the windows to stare.
“Is it because he is the crown prince? He is so popular.” The crown prince heard my mutterings and corrected me.
“It’s curiosity rather than popularity and I thought I told you before to call my name.”
“Cha Do-Hyuk?”
“That’s right.”
“But are you really Cha Do-Hyuk? Couldn’t you be a dimension traveler who is pretending to be Cha Do-Hyuk?”
“You don’t believe me after calling you ‘Mouse Bell’? Well, that was true. There wasn’t a better proof. Besides that, there was something that I wanted to hear.
“So then, Cha Do-Hyuk-ssi. Um, do I call you PD-nim? I had actually never called PD-nim by name before.”
“Don’t call me PD-nim. Just call me Cha Do-Hyuk. Before I died, I was already going to tell you to call me by name instead of PD.” What was I hearing?
Why would I have called him by name when there was a perfectly good title called PD to call him by? We hadn’t even been that close.
But now that I thought about it, a month after Cha Do-Hyuk had unexpectedly died of a car crash, I fell into this world – inside a bus at that.
How surprising that had been.
After traveling through dimensions, I had been sure I was in a dream for almost a year.
“Then what about this? Instead of Cha Do-Hyuk, how does crazy bast**d sound…?”
“…do you want to die instead?”
I was planning to ask him if I could call him a crazy bast**d with a bright smile on my face, but he cut me off instantly and told me his murderous intentions.
“Ah, no! No! You can’t! Ena is my daughter!” My adoptive father suddenly came out from a big tree and kneeled in front of Cha Do-Hyuk.
“P-Please have mercy. This child is not used to the rules of this land yet.” My adoptive father said with tears in his eyes.
Then, without even wiping the tears off his face, he assured me with his smile.
“I am fine, Ena.”
After saying this, my father told me the shape of his mouth. Escape now. Leave everything to your father.
F-father…! What a sudden turn of events! It seemed that my father must have seriously misunderstood the situation.
