TBKBS 21

Chapter 21 

I had hoped that if I asked him plainly whether he liked me, he’d back off — but, as I should’ve expected, Eiden wasn’t an easy one to fool.

To my astonishment, he met my gaze squarely and, with an even more serious face than mine, said, “I’ll do as you wish.”

This was getting ridiculous.

They called him a playboy, but apparently he spoke whatever came to his lips without a filter.

It seemed sarcasm, grim faces, nothing at all worked on this guy.

In the end I had no choice but to answer bluntly and plainly.

“I’ll pass, Your Highness. My head is a total mess right now.”

My mind was full — tangled up with Leon who was trying to get involved with me, and Calix who would be in trouble if he didn’t get involved with me. I didn’t even have space to think about an unexpected romance with the neighboring empire’s crown prince.

“Hahaha. You’re cold. Honestly, Lin, you’re my type from head to toe — even your taste in books is completely to my liking.”

“Sigh…”

A long, involuntary sigh escaped me.

“Thank you for saying that, Your Highness.”

Do you know what irony is?

“Hahaha. Not at all.”

He laughed cheerfully.

Pretending not to know irony now?

Hotshot handsome men are so infuriating.

His laugh made me jumpy again, so I turned my head toward the window.

Ah!

Outside the window, a pair of beautiful eyes were watching me.

Calix?

It really was Calix!

Rajif was beside him too.

Oh dear!

My face flushed so quickly I could feel it burning.

It seemed he had been passing by the café and we’d caught each other’s gaze.

There was glass between him and me, but it was my first time running into him face-to-face since I’d realized how many stupid things I’d done to him.

“Ka—ra… Ragun.”

I was so flustered I couldn’t take my eyes off Calix, and someone’s voice reached me.

Huh?

What was that?

Who was speaking?

Then….

!!!!

Ah! Eiden — of course.

Because I’d been so conscious of Calix, I’d momentarily forgotten Eiden sitting in front of me.

Only then did I come back to myself and look at Eiden again.

“What did you say?” I asked.

He looked puzzled. “I said Crown Prince Calix.”

“Oh…! Right. Your Highness the Crown Prince.”

At my stunned answer, Eiden muttered as he glanced again toward Calix.

“How strange. Since when has he been standing there?”

What’s strange about that.

He must’ve just passed by.

Following Eiden’s line of sight, I looked back out the window.

Calix was now looking at Eiden.

I suddenly wondered whether Calix knew Eiden was in Everlen.

Eiden had said he came to the Everletian Empire for sightseeing rather than an official visit, so maybe Calix had just noticed his presence in Everlen.

Eiden stood up suddenly.

Only then did I awkwardly rise and bow toward Calix outside.

I debated briefly whether I should go out and greet him properly, but I figured Calix wouldn’t welcome me anyway.

But to my surprise, Calix spoke to Rajif beside him and then began to come into the café.

I was utterly flustered.

Why is he coming in?

Luckily, Eiden also started walking toward the café entrance almost at the same time Calix came in.

On second thought, setting aside me, once crown princes lock eyes with each other they probably couldn’t just pass without a greeting.

Phew…

Anyway, thank goodness.

Meet each other halfway, you two.

Before Calix got close, I felt a sudden surge of gratitude toward Eiden for being the one to step out first.

Of course Eiden probably couldn’t just stand idly by and wait, which is why he went over.

Eiden and Calix talked for a short while.

I couldn’t hear their voices from my seat, so I guessed it was only a brief greeting.

After a short conversation, Calix left the café and Eiden returned to me.

I watched Eiden sit down opposite me, and without meaning to, I turned my head back toward the window.

I saw Calix leaving, moving farther away. At the exact moment I looked at his back, he happened to turn his head — and our eyes met again.

Oh, come on!

I turned my head quickly and looked at Eiden.

“Why’s your face so red, Lin?” he asked.

“Oh… it’s nothing. Just… something happened.”

“Was it something to do with Crown Prince Calix?”

Wow, Eiden’s perceptive.

“No. I just embarrassed myself a little….”

I mumbled, vague and evasive.

“Embarrassed yourself? You do things like that?”

“Yes, I do.”

Don’t ask. It’s a total dark chapter.

Eiden looked over my face for a moment and then shifted the subject.

“Lin, it’s nice going out like this with you. Where should we go tomorrow?”

“Huh? You want to go out together again?”

No thanks!

“Well, I didn’t mean to at first, but my plans suddenly changed.”

“???”

Plans changed?

How could your plans have anything to do with my walk?

I looked at him as if to ask what he meant.

“Crown Prince Calix asked why I came to Everlen.”

What does that have to do with changing your plans?

A bad feeling crept up on me again.

I asked in an uneasy voice, “And what did you tell him?”

“I said I came here to date you.”

“What????”

What the heck!

Are you serious?

“Did you really say that?”

“Yes. I couldn’t think of anything else to say.”

Oh, dear God.

Please calm the murderous intent inside me.

I wanted to slap Eiden’s face raw.

How dare he pull me into that when he had no answer!

Who gave him the right to say that!

How would Calix see me after that?

If Calix thought I confessed my love and was rejected, then immediately started dating the crown prince of another empire, what would he think of me?

He’d assume I jumped to the next man right after being rejected—like I’m some royal man-hunter.

Besides, people had made marriage talk with Leon and then turned to Eiden — Calix might already think I’d been flirting around.

Next guy the moment I’m rejected?

Am I some kind of royal-male maniac?

Ugh! I’m going to lose my mind.

That reckless scoundrel Eiden.

“There are limits to lying! How can you say something so recklessly!” I managed, keeping my impulse to scream under control.

“If you hate lies so much, shall we start dating right now?”

Wow…!

That ridiculously handsome jerk was a total lunatic.

“No! I don’t want to!”

I didn’t even want to talk to him anymore; I spun away.

I heard his smug chuckle across from me.

That guy is utterly unhinged! What a joke.

I refused to meet Eiden’s eyes until we left the café.

All night my irritation wouldn’t settle.

The thought that Calix would remember me as someone who craved obsessive, possessive love, with a blatantly sexual taste and no sense of propriety — a royal who liked women promiscuously — made my mouth go dry.

If he ever decided to kill me later, he’d do it with a lighter, more joyful heart.

Things were already bad, and now they felt even worse.

Was I fated to be met with his blade with no way to do anything about it?

Should I really run away from Everletian and seek asylum somewhere?

So many thoughts crowded my head as I looked for any way to survive.

Ha! Asylum…

A hollow laugh escaped me.

I’m not a political criminal.

Wait! Asylum?

Asylum….

Suddenly, my head spun like a washing machine drum.

Asylum.

It was a word I had tossed off in a self-mocking way.

But then I realized: if there were any option left, this might be it.

Until now I had only thought about surviving inside the Everletian Empire — somehow staying alive within these borders.

But with Calix not loving me, and my father having no thought of stopping his plans for rebellion, perhaps the only way to survive was to escape this empire.

Of course, I hoped my father and brother could survive too.

But if they could not be persuaded, I couldn’t just sit passively like fate’s puppet in front of the death that was clearly approaching.

If persuasion failed, I at least wanted to survive.

Even if it was only me…

Once the idea of “asylum” flashed into my mind, it gradually became the single, clear answer.

And soon I began to consider it as a given, and started thinking about specifics.

The first and last question was: where should I seek asylum?

There were many small kingdoms around the Everletian Empire.

To one of those small kingdoms?

No, no!

A small kingdom would not take the trouble of accepting the daughter of the Everletian Empire’s powerful prime minister as a refugee.

Even if they did take me in, if my status later shifted to the daughter of a rebel, they would probably hand me over to the empire before Calix even asked, to show loyalty.

If I were to seek asylum within an empire, it would have to be one with comparable power.

The closest empire was Dakus.

The Dakus Empire shared a border with Everletian. Their power was comparable.

Eiden’s country, the Dakus Empire.

But I had to consider more.

Unlike small kingdoms, Dakus would likely have systems and the capability to guarantee an asylum seeker’s status and safety.

So how would Dakus accept me — the daughter of the rival empire’s prime minister?

Symbolically or practically, Dakus would have no reason to reject me.

But what would my status be a year and a half later, after my father met death?

If Calix, who would be emperor then, demanded my extradition as the daughter of a rebel, would Dakus protect me?

Would I be worth protecting?

No — Dakus would have no reason to risk refusing Calix’s demand for the sake of protecting someone who had no utility to them.

Moreover, a year and a half from now, shortly before my father died, the two empires would engage in small-scale border skirmishes.

The result would be Everletian’s victory.

Of course, a defeat in localized battles would weaken Dakus’s standing against Everletian.

Then in the end, did that mean there would be nowhere to seek asylum…?

That night I wrestled with the problem again and again.

I stayed up late, calculating countless variables; my head became unbearably tangled.