Her heart felt like it might leap out of her chest, but Abel tried to stay rational.
“If His Highness had seen me hurt, he would’ve treated me without hesitation! Right?”
Round black eyes met green ones briefly.
But the gaze quickly dropped. It wasn’t long enough to gauge the prince’s mood.
“Abel, you shouldn’t interrupt His Majesty without permission…”
“Leave her be. Perhaps because she’s your child, she has inherited your kindness.”
The lips that were puffed up in anger moments ago curved into a smile.
The king didn’t take offense at the child who dared block his path.
“But child, matters within the palace must be dealt with by its master.”
Abel’s plea didn’t move him at all.
With a mere glance, the king had Dane Delaphion quickly lead his daughter back to the sofa.
In the meantime, the king turned his cold gaze once more to his son.
“Any objections, Prince?”
“None.”
“A lowly birth can’t be hidden.”
The deep green eyes twisted in contempt.
The king’s raised hand fell back onto his knee.
“That’s enough. We have guests. Tsk. You may leave now.”
“…Then I’ll take my leave.”
The young prince’s eyes, green and muddied, looked like they’d been dragged through the dirt.
With dried blood still clinging to him, the boy slowly walked away just as he had arrived.
Tap, tap, tap.
Just before opening the door, his straight back tilted slightly.
Abel, who had been watching the first prince closely, immediately caught the look in his eyes.
‘Wait, did he just glare at me?’
The green eyes, filled with anger, reminded her of a snake from her younger brother’s animal encyclopedia.
A venomous snake with a pointed head, one that would bite into even large prey without hesitation.
* * *
“So from now on, don’t ever do something like that again. Understand?”
“Yep.”
“Really? I can trust you, right? Daddy’s little girl?”
“Of course, of course. Naturally.”
Only after two hours of scolding did Abel get to return to her room.
Naturally, her father’s teary-eyed warnings had long since been forgotten.
“Should I have followed him back then?”
She could disobey her father for a moment if it mattered.
Abel frowned, reflecting in a completely different direction than Dane had hoped.
‘No. If I hadn’t been there, he wouldn’t have been hit either. Maybe I just made it worse.’
As far as the situation went, the villain wasn’t the prince — it was the king.
He was clearly the bad guy, beating someone weaker than himself.
‘Damn it, does he think he owns the whole kingdom?’
Her chubby fingers raked through her hair again and again.
This kind of unethical behavior from the king was exactly the fuel that would feed a future villain.
A villain who had grown up with violence and neglect would see human life as more worthless than roadside flowers.
“Crazy bastard…”
Ruined.
The bad feeling she had from the first meeting had come true. Thanks to the king, everything was ruined.
“Maybe I should’ve just followed him.”
Should she have pushed aside the adults and clung to him like a brave knight?
But then what?
She would’ve ended up right back where she started.
Even if she knocked out everyone in the room and followed him, there was nothing she could’ve done.
“Ugh, Dad…”
Her only dream was to live happily with her family, but reality wasn’t so kind.
“Should I go with Plan B?”
Abel didn’t have just one plan.
After all, they say never put all your eggs in one basket.
She wasn’t the deepest thinker, but not without ideas — she had at least three ways to avoid a doomed fate.
One: stay by the villain’s side and instill a sound sense of ethics.
Two…
‘Running away would be easier.’
Taking all the money she could and defecting to another country.
The first was about solving the root problem. The second, active avoidance.
‘But that’s more complicated.’
The first plan only required Abel to do her job — smartly, neatly, and with finesse.
The second one required family cooperation.
Dane was soft only toward Abel, but suggesting they leave the country? Hmm…
“How about living in another country?”
“Sounds good.”
“Would Dad agree?”
“Do you think he would?”
Clever Sananet shrugged and shook his head.
A large encyclopedia rested on the little boy’s knees.
As he turned a couple pages, he leaned his torso toward his sister.
“What happened? Did you offend His Majesty or something?”
“It’s not that simple, Sana.”
“What did you do that you’re talking about moving to another country? Did you yank out the king’s hair or something?”
“My clever little brother. What would Dad say if I told him we should move to another country?”
Sananet, who was swinging his legs, answered smoothly:
“He’d say we were blessed beyond our station by His Majesty and couldn’t possibly do that.”
“Damn it, figured as much.”
“And besides, we don’t have the money to request asylum anyway.”
“That too.”
A knight’s salary barely kept up their unnecessarily large house and few servants.
‘We can’t exactly sell the house either.’
The king was useless in every way.
‘Other people get to live well using story knowledge…’
Abel clicked her tongue and sighed.
“What’s going on?”
“I made a huge mistake with someone.”
“How huge?”
“So big that they’ll grind their teeth just remembering it 10 years later? So bad it’ll show up in nightmares 20 years from now?”
“You did something that bad? You?”
“To be exact, it’s not really my fault… but I’m the only one who can apologize.”
It was faster for the neglected prince to become a villain than for the king to realize his wrongdoing.
Sananet tilted his head in confusion, then asked in a quiet tone:
“Even if it’s not your fault, do you still have to apologize?”
“Yeah. It concerns our family’s safety.”
“Then you’d better apologize.”
Sananet reached a simple conclusion without more questions.
“But you’re not just going to say it, right?”
“Huh?”
“If words were enough, why would we need laws or guards?”
His gray eyes, usually calm like their father’s, glinted sharply.
He made a small circle with his thumb and index finger.
“You need to show sincerity.”
As he shook that circle like a loan shark, Sananet smirked.
Whoever’s little brother he was, he was sharp.
Abel completely agreed — an apology needed sincerity.
If there were trust, maybe words could suffice, but all that remained between them was animosity. If she tried to gloss it over, it would only backfire.
‘He might even think I’m mocking him.’
Sure, the king was the one who hit him, but from the boy’s perspective, Abel was the reason he got hit.
If she hadn’t been fooling around and gotten hurt, none of it would’ve happened.
‘Still, is that my fault? It’s the hitter’s fault, not mine.’
But she couldn’t just play dumb like the king.
It wasn’t the king’s image at stake — it was that of a minor baron’s daughter.
“What should I do…”
A gift. Yes.
Even if he was neglected, he was still a prince — she couldn’t give him something cheap.
‘He might think I’m belittling him.’
To Abel, a ribbon used by commoners or nobles was all the same — but that was her standard.
‘A gift worthy of a prince…’
Everything she thought of was far beyond what her meager allowance could buy.
“Hmm…”
Because of that, Abel, despite receiving her first allowance, was deeply troubled.
“Hey, sweetie, want a tasty candy?”
“Here alone? Feel free to look around!”
“This one? It’s a bit pricey — better ask your mom or dad!”
Colorful accessories and new items dazzled her eyes.
But she couldn’t be sure if the prince’s tastes would align.
‘A gift should be something useful.‘
And most likely, what the prince needed… was painfully expensive.
‘Should I ask for an advance?’
The image of her dad’s horrified face flashed in her mind — asking for an advance right after getting her first allowance — but there was no choice.
‘Yes, I’ll ask for it.’
Just as she was about to leave the shopping district, an old piece of paper caught on her foot.
“This is…”
