Chapter 19
“Huh…?”
The young prince blinked his large eyes and looked around. He seemed quite startled by the voice that had just reached him.
Then, as if ready to bolt at any moment, he started slowly backing away.
“Hey now. Don’t even think about running.”
“…!”
The prince, who had been timidly retreating with innocent eyes, froze in place.
“U… Uuuu… Alfred? Don’t mess around… sniff.”
So that attendant earlier must’ve been Alfred. Elshuna lowered her voice with a hint of menace.
“Quietly leave the palace.”
“S… Sid… Sir! My brother told me never to follow strangers…!”
“Do you want me to reveal your little business?”
“…!!”
The young prince, who had been trembling in fear, suddenly stopped. A sharp glint flickered in his previously naive eyes.
The whiny little boy from earlier was nowhere to be seen. He quickly calmed down and began walking slowly out of the palace.
‘Wow, he really knows how to avoid the attendants.’
He moved so naturally, like he was used to sneaking around them all the time.
Following him down a long corridor and exiting through an obscure door, they reached a small, secluded garden.
“Sniff… I came like you asked…”
Even though Elshuna had clearly hinted that she knew all about him, the prince still hadn’t given up the act and wiped his tears with a sniffle.
Elshuna mentally mapped the route out of the palace from the garden and scoffed.
“You can drop the act in front of me. We’re going to be close business partners, after all.”
“…?”
At her abrupt statement about being business friends, the prince’s expression briefly twisted in confusion.
“W-What do you mean…?”
“What I mean is, I know the truth. That you’re not actually cursed to live as a child forever, but rather pretending to be cursed.”
“…”
“Or more accurately… you’re deliberately stunting your own growth, aren’t you?”
“…!”
The prince’s golden eyes widened in shock. With his fluffy white cotton-candy-like hair and innocent round eyes, he looked so startled that Elshuna almost felt like the villain.
She squared her shoulders and continued.
“Who… are you?”
This time, the voice was clear and serious, a complete shift from the earlier childish whining. Elshuna saw his gaze had changed and silently chanted the spell to lift her disguise.
Chak!
With the sound of something breaking, Elshuna’s previously invisible appearance was revealed. The prince exclaimed.
“…You’re—!”
Had news of her spread so widely through the imperial palace already?
Well, she had come in the exact outfit that had appeared prominently in the newspaper not long ago, hoping to be recognized. Still, it felt odd being treated like a celebrity.
Straightening her posture, she casually adjusted her white mask.
The prince opened his mouth again, his voice slightly trembling.
“…Who were you again?”
“….”
“Have we met somewhere before?”
Her hand, which had been fixing the mask, twitched awkwardly. Then the prince clapped his small hands, suddenly recalling something.
“Oh! The person from the paper a few days ago! That was you, right?!”
Elshuna’s expression twisted as she stared at him still acting cutesy.
“…Yeah. That was me.”
“But a business friend? What’s that mean?”
As he tilted his head innocently, Elshuna crossed her arms confidently.
“A business partner. Someone who’ll help you make your business a success.”
“…How?”
The prince asked in an adorably sweet voice, but Elshuna didn’t miss the subtle twitch of his brows.
‘He won’t be able to resist this offer.’
In the original story, this prince was a tragic character. To survive the cruelty of the Crown Prince, he pretended to be cursed and stopped his physical growth, secretly building his own power base.
That power base? A trading company.
‘Oddly enough, it was in the food ingredient business.’
He was clever, but managing the business alone was impossible. He had limited time and had to work in secret.
‘He was just a narrative tool to highlight how villainous the Crown Prince was.’
The boy blinking up at her was that very prince.
‘And because he was money-hungry and not that kind-hearted, readers didn’t really feel sorry for him.’
Still, to Elshuna, he was the perfect card to play.
“Hmph. You’re asking how we’ll succeed in business?”
The prince puffed up his cheeks and asked with a sulky look.
Even now, he was still acting like a child. Maybe he had gotten so used to the role that he couldn’t fully control it anymore.
“Even if I told you how, you wouldn’t be able to pull it off alone.”
“….”
“And the reason you can’t do it alone—”
Elshuna reached into her robe. Her fingers wrapped around the item she’d received from the Golden Tower. It was heavy.
With a swift motion, she pulled it out. A pouch enchanted with weight-reducing magic fell to the ground with a heavy thud.
“—is because of money.”
“…!”
The impact knocked a few coins out of the pouch.
Platinum coins—some of the most valuable currency.
Gulp.
The prince’s eyes darted rapidly, likely calculating how much was in the pouch.
“W-What is this?”
“What do you mean what? It’s money. My investment in you.”
The prince’s mouth dropped open.
Elshuna casually twirled her blue hair around a finger and tilted her head smugly.
“What, you don’t want it?”
The prince hesitated, then his mouth burst open like a fruit cracking under pressure.
“No! I love it. It’s fantastic.”
His childish act vanished in an instant, replaced by a very polite, serious tone.
“I’ll serve you with utmost sincerity, ma’am.”
“Oh come on, don’t call me that.”
She waved him off, but her heart wasn’t really in it. The cute way he looked up at her with sparkling eyes was just too much.
‘Even if there’s a 22-year-old man inside, still—he’s cute.’
That was good enough.
“Command me however you wish, ma’am!”
Watching the cotton-candy prince bow deeply, Elshuna scratched her head.
“Didn’t you say earlier that you don’t follow strangers? And now you’re just accepting my offer? This is our first time meeting.”
“Huh? When did I say that?”
The prince tilted his head again—so cute. But the way he rubbed his hands together like a merchant was far less charming.
“Even if we just met today, you feel so familiar, ma’am! The moment I heard your voice in the hallway, I thought: Ah, this is someone I can entrust my heart to!”
“….”
Geez, this guy was even more of a money-chaser than she expected.
* * *
The reason the prince quickly accepted Elshuna’s offer and started calling her “ma’am” was simple.
He had chosen financial power as his path to freedom from the Crown Prince, but due to many obstacles, his business was in trouble.
He was in debt—enough to buy two castles.
‘And I handed him a bunch of platinum coins on top of that.’
There was no way he wouldn’t bite.
‘Once he pays off the debt, I’ll have to pull him fully into my business and ditch that ingredient trade nonsense.’
Satisfied with how easily she had brought him over to her side, Elshuna hummed a tune.
She sprawled out in the private room the prince had secretly prepared for her in the imperial palace.
‘That bundle of platinum coins is enough to buy five castles.’
Dragon scales, now extinct, weren’t legendary for nothing. And a Gold Master wasn’t called that without reason.
She had made the front page of the paper not just for auctioning rare goods, but for the colossal sum she received for them.
‘What I gave him today was only about a third of it.’
She’d need the rest for other ventures.
‘After the New Year Festival, I’ll have to visit my piggy bank—no, I mean Gold.’
Since she had rushed out for the New Year event, other plans had been on hold. Thinking of her next steps, Elshuna slowly drifted off to sleep.
A few days later.
The long-awaited day arrived.
The real reason she had come to the New Year Festival. The day something major would happen to Killian.
That morning, Elshuna chewed her breakfast thoroughly, drank her coffee, adjusted her outfit, and left her room.
She had already drawn the blueprint. Now, it was time to see if the next person could color it in properly.
Waaaaah—!
Cheers and music echoed everywhere, welcoming the festival.
“Today, His Holiness the Holy Emperor will grace us with his presence!”
Messengers from the palace roamed the streets early in the morning, spreading the news.
Newspapers, tipped off in advance, used mages to print the Holy Emperor’s face and distributed them far and wide.
“Good heavens, His Holiness is appearing?”
“Finally! We’ll receive the Emperor’s blessing in person!”
In Aeterna, a holy empire, the blessing of the Holy Emperor—head of both church and empire—was priceless.
That’s why it could only be given during the New Year. People from all over the empire flocked to the capital with their children to receive it.
For the past few years, the Emperor had been bedridden and unable to perform the blessing, so the citizens were overjoyed.
‘But that joy won’t last long.’
It would soon turn to rage and fear.
Because the Emperor would be assassinated—or nearly so—by none other than the protector, Killian Haunbert.
Elshuna walked the corridor with a grim expression.
She was heading straight toward the location where the event would take place.
