CH 12

“What can I do to help you?”

I’ll do whatever he wants.

If Heineken pulls out now, besides me, what about Lindbergh?

When I closed and opened my eyes, the Crown Prince was making a strange expression.

“I’ve been wanting to ask this for a while, but why is the prince doing this?”

“Yes?”

“Is it really for Lindbergh’s future that the prince left behind the things he enjoyed in Lindbergh and came over to Heineken? If the prince says he did it because he felt uncomfortable living in Lindbergh, we’ll take care of you two even if you don’t give us the Magic Stones of the Mochu Mountains.”

The Crown Prince paused at a tempo, and then continued.

“Actually, I was wondering if you’re hiding the real reason.”

I was not ignorant of the Crown Prince’s suspicions.

When the prince, who had been out of his mind until the age of 20, suddenly asked for help from the people, if it were me, I would have just snorted and ignored it.

But our righteous protagonist was willing to move.

I wish you and my sister to prosper, I also want to be saved and to help the pitiful people of Lindbergh.

As the Crown Prince said, there was only one mining right that I can put forward right now, but I don’t know about anything else.

I recalled the things I had researched for half a year. Among them, what else could I put forward to the Crown Prince?

In fact, what comes to mind is why this was done rather than what to bring to the negotiating table.

When I blinked, the Crown Prince stared at me quietly.

“In Lindbergh, when comparing stupid behavior, it is expressed as tying a horse outside.”

At the words that came out with a sigh, the Crown Prince looked puzzled.

“People who lacked food ate the horses tied up outside, resulting in that expression. The residents who are subjected to intense labor all day, get a fist of wheat and a pinch of salt when they go back.”

Only then did the Crown Prince, who noticed what I was going to say, fixed his posture.

Even though I didn’t know the development of this novel, and I didn’t know when or how Lindbergh’s situation would change, that was the one thing I wanted to change while I was living in Carl Lindbergh’s body.

“Medicine and pharmacy are all held by those in power. That’s why absurd folk remedies are so prevalent that they grow very minor illnesses that are irreversible. Lindbergh Castle consumes dozens of magic stones a day, but they don’t even have crumbs.”

My fingertips got colder as I spoke.

It’s because fragments of the past came to mind one after another.

After my parents died before my middle school graduation, I and Jae-young lived with my relatives and moved from house to house.

My father and mother both didn’t have many siblings, so it was difficult, but fortunately, my uncle offered to adopt us siblings, so Jae-young spent all of her school days there.

When Jae-young was in middle school, I was already a member of society and saved money like crazy by doing whatever I could.

The only reason I was able to endure the world’s disregard and prejudice was to protect our only inheritance, our parents’ house, and reunite with Jae-young.

After I found out that my uncle had robbed it all, I lived with Jae-young in a tenement building where there was mold from leaking rain in the summer and frost in the wind in the winter.

Still, I was very grateful that the two of us were able to live even without anyone else’s help, and my younger sister silently endured it.

When Jae-young entered college, we finally escaped the loathsome underground basement and made it to the surface.

It’s a common thing to be honest. It was hard, but it was a shadow of life that everyone had.

The inside of my eyelids was hot.

I got emotional thinking about the days when I walked on eggshells and had nothing to wear and eat.

But the reason I didn’t give up on my life was because of one hope: to make my little sister happy.

“…… Even when they are poor now, they can’t expect to get better someday. All power is concentrated upwards, and the person above has forgotten to look down.”

It could have been better, but both of us were living a poor life.

Just because my whole life ended in poverty doesn’t mean that others should live that way.

The people of Lindbergh were not supposed to live like that.

At least while I was Carl Lindbergh.

The crown prince’s face was badly distorted.

There were dotted spots on my trousers.

Before I knew it, I found myself crying alone and my whole body was tinged with embarrassment.

“Ah, that, this.”

If I cried now, the atmosphere would be strange.

While I was holding the tip of my nose and trying to explain to the crown prince that I was allergic to pollen, the crown prince held out his handkerchief.

“Carl Lindbergh.”

He called me quietly.

“I didn’t know that you, like a flower in a greenhouse, could sympathize so much with the people’s poverty. There are so many things I want to ask, but that’s it for today.”

He was stiff like an angry man, but his touch that wiped away my tears was as soft as castella.

“…… So are you now going to help me?”

“No.”

What?

The fragrant handkerchief was crushed in my hand.

Tears welled up in my eyes.

The crown prince’s left dimple was deep.

“I know how you feel, but promise me a reward other than bringing political gains to Heineken.”

I didn’t think you, the main character, would be like that.

But his self-interest was surprisingly understandable? That’s right, this was how the Crown Prince should be.

I sighed and tried to return the handkerchief, but he didn’t want to accept the damp handkerchief, so I put it in my pocket.

“What do you want? As you know, I have nothing to give but this body of mine.”

I tried to add, half-jokingly and half-seriously, that I would at least clean the stairs in the castle if he wanted to, but at that moment, the crown prince’s eyes glowed in a strange color and I kept my mouth shut.

His green eyes turned pale green, and he raised his eyebrows like an angry person.

My heart pounded for no reason.

Not because I was excited, but because I was scared.

The other person was a 20-year-old young man. But I was so scared that I wanted to run away.

I shouldn’t make jokes like this in Heineken.

The crown prince raised one corner of his mouth.

“Then that’s better. Because I want you, Carl Lindbergh.”

“What?”

“Do you know what kind of country Heineken is? Even though I am the crown prince, in order to help Lindbergh and the prince, I have to seek understanding from many lords.”

It seemed to mean that although the imperial family was strong, it was based only on respect and trust, so it could not be decided at will.

“The Prince requested me to seize a justification directly. Things like national marriage and the child that will be born between us.”

I pondered for a few seconds because I couldn’t understand what he was saying at once.

“But isn’t it too early to talk about children? It hasn’t been long since you’ve met,” the Crown Prince gave me an even stranger expression when I asked again.

“Then how long should we meet before we can talk about this?”

“Well, I don’t know the right age for imperial marriages, but shouldn’t you still get to know each other for a year?”

“What?”

The Crown Prince made more and more incomprehensible expressions, and I felt like I was sinking into a pit while I was talking.

As for the national marriage, it was also what I wanted most, but I was reluctant to do this kind of thing.

It should naturally lead to marriage and childbirth based on love. It was too uncomfortable for me to put Princess Leia on the negotiating table in the first place.

“That’s right. Princess Leia, no, my sister had just left Lindbergh Castle. She had never met a man before. She’s still young. And most of all, you two don’t know each other very well.”

The Crown Prince’s eyes turned even colder than before.

Let me open your eyes[1] a little. If you insist on getting married with such vicious momentum, the romance you had will run away.

“Ah, of course, I’m not saying that Your Highness is not good enough for my sister, but that the progress is too fast.”

At the words I added as if to make excuses, the crown prince gave a fake laugh.

Is this not it? Am I so ignorant of the culture of Heineken that I am now committing a tremendous disrespect?

“Carl, what are you talking about?”

The Crown Prince said softly and took my hand.

I had felt it before, but the Crown Prince’s body temperature was unnecessarily high.

Every time I touched him, the skin he touched felt like it was burning, and I felt uncomfortable, but when I tried to pull my hand away, he held my hand even stronger.

“How can I marry the princess who is an alpha like me?”

What?

Suddenly, my fingertips felt cold, and my eyes trembled.

“The man who will marry me and have a child with me is Carl Lindbergh, the dominant Omega. It’s you.”

TL Notes:

[1] Opening your eyes means enlightening someone about certain realities or causing someone to realize or discover something.