CH 96

“I have to burn the letter first.”

I rolled around in bed and got my upper body up.

All the situations were tying me up.

Alan, who was cruel like a villain, Michael, who was imprisoned even though he was innocent, and Benny, who I could not understand what was inside.

But even putting all those issues aside, there was something that had to be done quickly.

‘A letter to Alan before the awakening ceremony.’

Everything about me was written there.

Now that I couldn’t trust Benny completely, I had to retrieve the letter as soon as possible and burn it.

‘If other people find the letter first, there will be big trouble.’

The frame in which the letter was hidden was the safest sanctuary in the world.

Alan never opened the back of the frame again, fearing that my drawing would be damaged by accident, and he warned Pedro and Hugo not to touch it, let alone the servants.

But now the story was different. The frame was safe until 3 days ago.

There was a huge incident — the attempted poisoning of the princess, so the castle could be overturned in order to investigate the incident.

‘If my letter is found by someone who doesn’t know anything, it is more catastrophic than if Alan reads it himself.’

I jumped out of bed. It had to be dealt with before it was too late.

‘How can I sneak into the office?’

It didn’t seem easy to get the letter out.

Due to this incident, the surveillance inside the Duke’s Castle had become even more severe.

There was no one in the bedroom because I asked them to take a break, but there were elite knights in the hallway and outside the window, as well as on the roof of the building.

It seemed almost impossible to sneak out through such a guard.

Tick, tock. The constant sound of the clock’s second hand bothered me.

After contemplating, I finally took a gamble and opened the door.

The knights guarding the front door quickly turned to look at me.

Swish, Roxy wagged her wolf’s tail that was protruding through the armor.

“Princess, what’s going on? Are you bored? Can Roxy play with you?”

“Sister, where is my Dad?”

I asked with a stupid expression on my face.

Roxy froze at my words.

Was my expression strange?

“Woohoo, the Princess called me ‘Sister’!”

…Is that such a happy thing?

Roxy had a smile on her face like she had received a great gift.

“The Duke is having a brief meeting in the office. Shall I call him?”

Alan was in the office…

It was the worst, but it could not be delayed. Outside the window, the sun was already setting.

I carefully tapped her armor.

“I miss my dad, but I don’t want to disturb him… Can’t I just go in secretly to see his face?”

I was 13-years-old, pretending to be 14-years-old, and I still had baby fat on my cheeks because I ate well. The knights of the Duke’s Castle were very fond of me.

As expected, Roxy’s eyes shone brightly as if looking at a lovely sugar cookie.

“There’s nothing you can’t do! Come on!”

“Hey, Roxy. Didn’t you hear the order to protect the Princess?”

At that time, the black-haired knight intervened as if he was dumbfounded.

It was the man who was said to be Roxy’s fiancé.

Roxy snorted before I could squeal any further.

“There was no order not to leave the room. We’re not going anywhere else, we’re going to see the Duke, what’s the problem?”

“What if something happens on the way?”

“Are we going on a trip in a carriage? We’ll just go all the way to the office together.”

“But still…”

“You’re so stubborn! If you imprison her like this, the Princess will get frustrated and go out secretly and roam the streets at night!”

No, I didn’t mean to do that.

The knights around us seemed puzzled, but no one came forward as if Roxy had the loudest voice.

Only the knight with black hair sighed and stopped her.

“Roxy… That’s what you’d do. The Princess isn’t an idiot like you.”

“Are you going to go with me or not?”

Roxy quickly raised her chin and pushed the black-haired knight.

Then his face turned red.

“Are you going?”

“Hey. Calm down a bit…”

“Are you going?”

“Ugh…!”

In the end, the knight with black hair lost.

I headed to the office with the sassy knights.

***

Unlike my room, there were no guards in front of Alan’s office.

As I gently turned the knob, a terrifying voice leaked through the crack in the door.

“Are you sure?”

I peeked inside the office.

Alan was sitting in the office chair, and in front of him stood Pedro in armor and the gardener.

The gardener nodded, sweating profusely.

“Yes, I, I saw Michael go out at dawn to dig poison.”

“Is it possible that you were mistaken?”

“It, it could be, but… he has blond hair and red eyes, so it’s hard to say that I saw it wrong.”

Apparently, they seemed to be collecting evidence that Michael poisoned me.

Just peeking in gave me goosebumps.

There was a real criminal, but a completely innocent person was accused of being the culprit.

‘He’s been taking care of the greenhouse since 4 years ago… In a situation like this, anything would be suspicious.’

The gardener went out the opposite door and Pedro scratched his curly hair. Unlike him, he looked worried.

“Father, what do you think?”

“…….”

“To be honest, I still can’t believe it. It’s unbelievable that Michael, that brat did such a stupid thing…”

“Lily is in danger.”

Alan spoke sternly and gestured towards the side.

“Get out.”

Pedro got up and walked over to the door with a dissatisfied expression on his face.

The knights who had been spying on the office from behind me retreated.

“Princess, come this way!”

“You’ll get caught!”

Everyone shuddered, but I just stood in front of the door.

Anyway, my existence would have been discovered already.

Roxy knew it too, so as soon as the door opened, she calmly saluted.

“The Princess said that she misses the Duke very, very much!”

Even before hearing the complaints, she made a valid excuse first and blocked the opponent’s words.

Pedro patted my head as if he knew this, and turned to Alan.

“That’s what she said, Father.”

Alan also leaned his back on the backrest and gestured to me as if it was natural.

“Come on, Lily.”

A soft smile spread across Alan’s tired face.

I walked over to him and sat down next to Alan.

Ever since I was at an awkward age to sit on his lap, there was always a chair in his office that was just right for me.

Pedro still wanted to be with me, but when Alan glared, he took the knights with him and quietly retreated.

The office door closed and silence came.

Alan moved the cookie plate that was always ready in front of me and lowered the tip of his eyebrows at an angle.

“I’m sorry for leaving you alone in this situation.”

“It’s okay.”

I smiled brightly and glanced at the picture frame on the desk.

In a frame adorned with jewels, a drawing of me and Alan was stored.

There seemed to be no difference from when I left the letter hidden.

Even though I wanted to peek at the frame, Alan’s gaze did not leave me at all.

‘…Now that this has happened, I can’t do it boldly.’

I couldn’t go back to my room without any harvest.

I picked up the frame and smiled at Alan.

“I really like Dad’s drawings.”

Alan smiled sweetly and stroked my hair.

“…It’s not as good as yours.”

He placed a hand over mine, large enough to cover half the frame.

“I am thinking about making a new order because the frame seems to be modest.”

This is modest? If you sold all the jewels in the frame, I think you can buy a hut on the beach.

Normally, I would have told Alan that it was pretty enough, but not now.

I slowly got up from my seat and walked to the corner of the office.

“If you’re going to change it, I think a picture frame on the wall would be great too! Either here or there.”

I turned my back to Alan and looked at the picture frame against the wall.

It was too glamorous to hang anywhere, so it didn’t match the old-fashioned office atmosphere, but that didn’t matter now.

“I still don’t know exactly where to hang it. Hmm…”

I hid the frame with my body and gently opened the back plate.

The ‘click’ sound was a little too loud.

I covered the noise with a cough, but my heart was still pounding.

‘”Let’s just quickly take out the letter!’

Thinking like that, I froze on the spot.

And I stood there until Alan came behind me without a word.

“If you want, hanging frames would be good, too. I’ll tell them to bring them by kind right away.”

Alan put his hand on my shoulder and looked down at the frame with the back panel open.

The back of the painting, which was full of handprints, fluttered in front of me.

But the letter I had hidden was nowhere to be found.

“What’s wrong, Lily?”

Alan slowly tilted his head, as if he felt the silent me was strange.

I grabbed the frame and muttered.

“Dad. My letter… Did you read it?”

Alan must have read the letter. If so, the situation must be that Alan discovered my power of the demons that time.

Alan still wanted a fake princess, so he immediately removed the letter…

“What letter?”

My heart sank at the unexpected reply.

I licked my lips and smiled.

“The, the letter I wrote to Dad. I left it here…”

‘Please return the letter and pretend you don’t know.’

I prayed for that, but Alan shook his head in disappointment.

“I’ve never seen anything like that. This is the first time I have been to the office since your debutante.”