CH 16.2

“Don’t you think both you and I should just forget about living like a normal child?”

My effort to keep the atmosphere bright in response to Cassion’s bitter comment came to nothing.

I lightly swept up my messy hair.

“Sure. Both Your Highness who wishes to take your revenge or I who want to protect my family shouldn’t think like a child. But still, if you are sick, you can just say that you do and rest. That’s why please take a rest today.”

This little kid.

I pressed Cassion’s forehead with my finger. He frowned and raised his eyes to look at me.

“Lay down. Or should I lie down with you? Do you want me to sing a lullaby for you?”

“No!”

Cassion freaked out and went under the blanket. He looked older, but he acted like a child in times like this.

“His Majesty came.”

Cassion finally talked after considering whether he should tell me about it.

“Sure.”

I pretended to be indifferent and answered back.

If I showed too much interest, Cassion wouldn’t talk further. I didn’t want him to dig into his painful memories.

I was afraid he would lose consciousness again after he finally managed to get better if he recalled his bad memories.

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to. Please focus on resting, Your Highness.”

“Can you give it to me?”

Cassion cut me off.

“What?”

A tiny voice came out from under the blankets.

“Can you buy me a house?”

“…!”

Cassion said something hard to believe.

He asked me to buy him a house! This was an opportunity.

I wanted to hear in detail what made him ask me for a favor, but I had to take this opportunity first.

Even if it was difficult, I must do it for him. I clenched the hem of my dress and smiled refreshingly.

“I could even buy you ten of them.”

***

I told Cassion confidently, but the house he wanted couldn’t be obtained easily.

The mansion that Cassion asked me to buy was the house where he and the late Queen lived together.

That place was also called the twilight mansion.

The mansion, neglected after Cassion entered the palace, was auctioned off for some reason.

“I heard the Queen is eyeing it.”

And the mansion was targeted by Julia and Dyson’s mother, who was also the current Queen.

They said they hated Cassion, but why would they buy the twilight mansion where he lived when he was young?

“The process of the twilight mansion being put up for auction is also suspicious.”

Zoe continued to talk to me while looking at me, who was flipping the documents.

The document contained information related to the twilight mansion that she had been investigating.

“And you too. Why do you want to buy the twilight mansion?”

According to Zoe’s report, the twilight mansion was a historic building, but it didn’t bring any profit even if it was being sold.

The location wasn’t good either.

“It’s a proposal gift.”

“What?”

“I told you. I’m going to marry His Highness Cassion. His Highness Cassion wants the mansion.”

Zoe made a long groan and sat on a chair in front of my desk.

She looked at me while crossing her legs.

I ignored her judging gaze and looked at the details of the auction house.

Cassion automatically inherited the twilight mansion left by Queen Violeta after he became an adult. But somehow, it was suddenly being put into auction.

“Did Queen Violeta owe a lot of money to the bank? Even though the royal palace kept supporting her living expenses?”

The late Queen Violeta was abandoned because she couldn’t have children.

It happened less than a year after King Carmine got Dyson from Julia.

Violeta’s mother ignored her abandoned daughter, and Violeta, who was left, was on the verge of being banished without any parental support.

When Violeta’s life began to fall into the abyss of poverty, King Carmine stepped up.

He revised the law to make a dethroned queen’s living expenses to be supported.

‘Did His Majesty love Her Majesty, Violeta?’

Soon after the banishment and the law were changed, Cassion was born.

There was enough evidence to suggest that King Carmine loved Queen Violeta.

‘Then why did he have a relationship with Julia?’

But I still didn’t understand King Carmine’s decision. I put aside the question with no answer and went through the report again.

“She wasn’t even someone who liked to indulge herself in luxury…”

“She wasn’t. There were only a few maids, and she would save the living expenses from the palace.”

“Why did she need such a large sum of money?”

“The price of her son’s medicine?”

That wasn’t the answer either.

The cost of Cassion’s medicine was spent separately from the living expenses they received from the palace.

Cassion was a prince born by the dethroned queen, but he was still cared for because he had the King’s blood.

“She must have been using the money somewhere else.”

Zoe didn’t think much of it. On the other hand, I had a feeling that I had to dig more about this.

“This is weird, auntie. For now, you should find more information about this.”

“Are you really going to buy a twilight mansion?”

“Of course.”

“The Queen won’t stay still. Didn’t I tell you what kind of person Queen Julia is?”

She did.

She told me on the night I said that I seriously wanted to marry Cassion.

Zoe hinted at how it would be if I married Dyson. If I planned to get married to protect the Irenberg family, it would be much better to marry Julia’s son, Dyson, who currently has a more prominent political power.

I refused.

Zoe brought up Julia’s story even though I didn’t ask her to. Her personality wasn’t normal, but she really doted on Dyson.

Dyson was acting as if he were already being appointed as the crown prince.

There were people around her who disappeared for no reason. In short, she was a beautiful yet poisonous flower.

From reliable to false rumors, the facts that the stories point to were one.

Julia was a cunning woman, and I would be the one who would end up crushed.

Of course, I knew about that.

I have experienced it; therefore, I knew it much better than Zoe did.

And because I knew them well, Dyson and Julia could not even be nominated as my alternative solution.