The sound of pages flipping across one another lingered around my ears and grew further apart.
Flip, flip. Then, I heard a pen scratch on a surface and a piece of fabric slide past my chair. Then, someone stomped across the floor and pondered in front of a bookshelf for a time until -swish-they finally took out a thick book.
They were all peaceful noises, but to me, they were distracting and even agitating.
I pushed back the hair, falling down my shoulders, backward and sighed.
I couldn’t concentrate at all.
I kept thinking about a certain someone who had stood in the training ground while covered from head to toe in blood.
I didn’t have time for this.
My mind should only be occupied with the royal academy exam that I had to soon take.
Unlike other people in this room, I had to study another language on top of what I had to learn.
If an ordinary person could read a technical article in an hour, it took me three hours to read it.
For a moment, I placed my pen into the ink bottle and rubbed my wrists.
I should ask my adoptive father to buy me a fountain pen.
“Did you hear? I heard that there was a huge commotion at the Selection Process for Royal Guards.”
I had come out to the lounge to drink a cup of water when I heard two men whisper to each other by the window seat.
I had been trying to push this topic out of my mind.
It had happened a week ago, but it seemed that people couldn’t stop talking about it.
The news didn’t spread in favor of the madman.
Why was that the case?
I studied the men, who were whispering to each other. The lounge was large, and many others were talking. So, it seemed like the men weren’t concerned about other people hearing them, and nobody but me seemed interested in their conversation.
“You know his majesty, Reynold? Isn’t he kind of pitiful? How could the crown prince act as an examiner for guards at a training ground? Even if his swordsmanship is impressive, it lacks class.”
“How is he pitiful? He killed so many people just like that.”
“Well… that is true. I just feel bad for the innocent knights, who hadn’t done anything wrong.”
Innocent Knights?
While pretending to drink my water, my expression crumpled.
The madman might have hurt the knights involved in this incident, but his actions were in the realm of self-defense.
I didn’t want to side with the madman, but it was strange that the narrative was spreading like this.
No, didn’t people think it was stranger that the knights at the training guard had charged at the crown prince with the intent to kill him?
Even more so, the madman was royalty- the royal next in line of succession, the crown prince.
It felt as if someone had controlled the rumors by purposefully taking out the main part of the story.
“If someone like his majesty, Reynold, became the emperor, he will be an oppressive tyrant instead of a wise ruler.”
I scowled even more at the men’s gossiping.
It made me think that the madman had gained his title as the Alpine empire’s ‘Lunatic Crown Prince’ through an event similar to this one.
In other words, his image had been purposefully fabricated, because the power he and the empress had was too weak.
As I was thinking this, a long shadow casted my head.
I turned around in surprise and heard a pleasant, low voice right into my ear.
“Shouldn’t we wait a bit longer before we decide if the crown prince is going to be a wise ruler or a tyrant? You all are judging too harshly.”
A silver-haired man wearing a yellowish-green formal dress languidly looked to the men at the window seat.
While looking a bit bored, he slightly loosened his cravat and smiled at the men’s surprised faces.
The expression on his face was like that of a merciful predator letting go of his prey.
“My apologies, your majesty!”
“Spare us! Please have mercy…!”
The pale-stricken men bowed their backs after catching on a bit too late.
A suffocating atmosphere filled the lounge.
I saw everyone in the lounge or those, who were trying to come inside, turn around and run away. I sighed.
Of course, I knew that PD Cha Do-Hyuk was a scary person, but this was no way to treat someone. At least, this was what I, who had worked four years under him, thought.
“That’s enough. Let’s go out, Bell.”
The madman turned his attention away from the men at the windows seat and grabbed my hand.
And so, I saw people breathe a sigh of relief and express intense shock from seeing him grab onto my hand.
The rumors that had formed in the charity event for flood victims had not calmed down, but it seemed that it would only grow bigger.
The headline for a newspaper had been hilarious at the time. It was something like this:
[What charms does this outsider, who the crazy crown prince had hopelessly fallen for, have?]
After that weird article, there was an interview with lady Serene, who supposedly went to the same royal academy as me.
The writer of the interview article was reporter Eleanor, who always wrote about the crown prince, Reynold, every chance she could.
Under the headline that stated, “Everything about Lady Lubiche from her academy classmate!”, there were all kinds of ridiculous and false stories.
To summarize it, it was something about a small fish shaking up an ocean with some gossips mixed in.
But if I thought about it, it wasn’t only lady Serene who didn’t look well upon an outsider who had suddenly become part of the Alpine aristocratic world.
Right now, I was in a similar position as the madman.
While thinking such thoughts, I quietly followed the madman.
We got out of the building’s library and headed toward the royal academy’s garden.
Because it was examination season, there was no one in the garden.
I didn’t ask the madman about the knights’ screening ceremony, and he didn’t bring it up either.
We also didn’t mention the incident that had just happened at the library.
He just sat me down at a bench that shone as if it was completely new.
“What did you come here for?”
I dropped the question while looking up at him.
He hesitated a bit, twitching his lips before he finally opened his mouth.
“I wanted to see you.”
The words he spat out seemed so sincere that I became a bit taken back.
Even he seemed surprised at his own words and covered the sides of his mouth with his hand and became stiff.
“Is that really the reason?”
The madman roughly took off the cravat that was sloppily hanging around his neck.
Then, he swiped his silver hair behind his forehead and stared at me expectedly.
“Why? Can that not be the reason? I have to keep checking if this world is reality, because I still can’t believe it.”
He kept touching his neck; each of his movements had a sense of unrefined rawness.
He was the one of those men who unconsciously showcased their overwhelming presence without even meaning to.
It felt like I was a rabbit in front of a gigantic beast.
And like that, he pressed his lips shut and stared at me with a face that was impossible to read.
His eyes were looking at me with so many complicated emotions.
“PD-nim, it’s like you are a completely different person. If I didn’t talk to you about Korea like this, I would have never dreamed that you were a Korean person in your past life.”
He made a bitter smile at my words, and at that moment, a gentle breeze swept by us and messed up his hair.
His rumpled clothes, loosened expression, and messy hair made him look like he was all over the place, and it looked like they were all reflecting his current state of mind.
“So, I am really shocked by all of this, you know?”
“I completely understand how you feel.”
I wasn’t sure about that. Like how I didn’t understand the madman perfectly, I doubted that he understood me perfectly either.
If I met a fellow Korean in a foreign place, I would have been glad to see them, and maybe we could’ve even been best friends.
But this situation was different.
I met a Korean in another world, and this was someone who I used to know.
Of course, I was beyond happy and felt a sense of fellowship with this man, but I was still a bit hesitant.
I didn’t even know everything about PD Cha Do-Hyuk- and this was PD Cha Do-Hyuk, who had become the crown prince, Reynold.
I didn’t know.
“My heart is at peace when I am with you.”
I couldn’t respond to the madman’s words at all. Well, I couldn’t even think of a response.
I did feel a similar feeling, but not nearly to the level that he did.
“I want to keep being with you. I hope you will permit it.”
With his calm, gold eyes, he was staring straight into my eyes. He was sincere.
Well, has he ever not been sincere before?
Even in the past, although he liked to joke, he wasn’t the type to say empty words.
I moved my eyes elsewhere and scratched my cheeks at his words.
“Uh… I think that will be a bit difficult.”
“Can I ask you why?”
“I have my own schedule and…”
“You can move according to your schedule. I won’t bother you.”
After saying that, the madman wiped his face with his hands and tried to read my reaction.
He looked so much like a dog searching for his owner’s reaction that I couldn’t help but let out a laugh.
“You also can’t look at me like that. It’s troubling.”
He took a step backward and looked at me like he was lost in thought.
“Then, what about this? I will help you adjust in this world. I heard that you are preparing for the Alpine University entrance exam.”
At this, I finally began to think about his proposal seriously.
Although prince Reynold was most famous for his swordsmanship skills, he had been a prodigy, called a genius since his youth.
That could be expected since an adult had gone inside a child’s body, but if I thought about how Cha Do-Hyuk had also been called a genius in Korea, this really wasn’t a bad proposal.
After thinking about this for a bit, I finally nodded.
“If that is the case, that is not a bad proposal. Ok, I accept.”
At my words, he laughed like that was what he had wanted to hear.
* * *
After that happened, the madman came to the Lubiche mansion every day as if he was marking his attendance for work.
Then, after around a month, he moved his living space to the special guest room at Lubiche’s mansion.
And whenever I went out, he followed me and didn’t leave my side at all times.
One day, he stayed stuck inside the Lubiche mansion from morning to night time like a piece of gum that an aide had to drag him out.
He even followed me to social parties where only ladies attended.
Even when the madman didn’t do anything and stayed seated in his spot, all the delicately brought-up ladies felt intimidated by him. After all, he was the so-called ‘Lunatic Crown Prince’, so it was understandable why his presence alone was enough to scare them.
I felt like I was going crazy; I couldn’t even just tie him up somewhere since the man was a royal and all.
“Is this what you meant when you said that you wanted to be by my side? You are bothering me too much.”
I asked him while pulling my hair.
But the madman just shrugged his shoulders calmly.
“All I did was just sit next to you. I didn’t do anything for you to say that I bothered you.”
I became speechless because this was true.
The problem was the ladies who feared and fussed over the madman whenever they saw him.
I sighed deeply. I didn’t know whether or not the madman realized my feelings as he leaned his arms on the carriage’s window and looked outside.
He looked so sorrowful. I placed my hands on my chin and admired his appearance.
The view inside the carriage was excellent.
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