Chapter 150
Morning dawned at the imperial palace. The detached palace wasn’t exactly a comfortable place, yet strangely, whenever I returned after being out and about, it felt like home.
The reason I’d enjoyed such a deep sleep after so long was probably because we’d traveled all night without stopping anywhere on the way back to the palace, letting the fatigue pile up. I’d thought we might stay at Duke Bells’s castle, but the Crown Prince ordered us to pass it by.
I knew why.
Inside the carriage, he kissed me endlessly. It felt like he did it on purpose—if we stopped anywhere else, we wouldn’t be able to be alone.
On the way back, I checked through the carriage window to see how the others were doing. The Sky Knights looked perfectly fine, as if staying up all night for a day or two was nothing unusual. Magnum in particular startled me—I saw him riding his horse in exactly the same posture I’d seen the night before.
That’s how we returned to the imperial palace, arriving the next evening. The Crown Prince suggested we have dinner together, but I was too exhausted, so I washed up and went straight to bed.
And now, after opening my eyes today, staring at the ceiling of the detached palace, reality finally sank in.
“Am I really dating the Crown Prince?”
I spaced out for a moment at the dreamlike reality, then met eyes with Nancy, who had brought in some wash water.
“Oh? You’re awake?”
“Yes. Aren’t you tired? Riding in the carriage must have been exhausting.”
“The carriage I rode in was a transport one, so I could stretch out my legs and sleep. If anything, Lady Shanael must’ve had it harder.”
“I slept lying on my side, at least.”
To be precise, I’d slept with my head on the Crown Prince’s lap. While I slept, Jereon stayed perfectly upright the entire time, yet somehow he showed no sign of fatigue.
Still, since he’d overexerted himself, I wondered if he’d go late to the office today. With that thought, I threw off the covers and got up.
After washing my face with the water Nancy brought and getting ready to change clothes, I grabbed the hem of my one-piece nightgown and pulled it up when a knock sounded.
Knock, knock—
Who could it be so early in the morning? I paused mid-change, puzzled. Nancy opened the bedroom door slightly and spoke to the visitor.
“Who’s—ah! Your Highness, the Crown Prince.”
Nancy immediately let go of the doorknob and bowed deeply.
‘The Crown Prince?’
My nightgown was made of a sheer fabric that practically showed through, so I hurriedly grabbed the shawl draped over a nearby chair and wrapped it around my shoulders.
Just in time, Jereon stepped into my bedroom.
“You’re awake, Shanael?”
“Yes, just now. But what brings you here so early…?”
“I came to walk to work with you.”
“……”
I glanced at the grandfather clock standing beside him to check the time. It was 7 a.m.—exactly when I usually woke up.
“I literally just woke up.”
“Really? Then I’ll just wait here.”
As if it were the most natural thing in the world, he sat down on a nearby chair. I stared at him in disbelief and said,
“Your Highness, I still need to change. Are you planning to watch?”
“Ah… can I?”
“Of course not!”
Nancy looked back and forth between me shouting and the Crown Prince who’d shown up early in the morning, her eyes full of confusion.
Thinking I needed to defuse the situation, I quickly spoke in a bright tone.
“Your Highness, I’d appreciate it if you refrained from visiting so early in the morning. Even if you have urgent business, this is a bit much, haha. You could give me work in the office later, haha.”
I made it sound, for Nancy’s sake, as though the Crown Prince had come early simply to assign work to a subordinate.
It had only been two days since we decided to date secretly. And now, the moment we returned to the palace, we were about to be found out first thing in the morning.
Honestly, I wouldn’t worry too much if Nancy found out, but I was afraid she might feel uncomfortable. For now, I wanted to keep it from her.
‘How confused would she be if she knew I was dating the Crown Prince? Even back at Duke Bells’s castle, she didn’t know what to do when she saw us.’
I remembered Nancy’s hand comforting me when I was crying that day. She said it would be fine as she patted me, but she knew too—why I had no choice but to cry. That’s why I didn’t want to worry her anymore.
If it was going to be a secret, I wanted to keep it thoroughly hidden from everyone around us.
“Shall we talk outside for a moment?”
When I gestured toward the hallway, the Crown Prince read the room and quietly got up, following me out. After closing the door, I scolded him in a low voice.
“Your Highness, you’re being way too obvious. Please act like you usually do.”
“How am I supposed to act the same when we’re da—”
I hurriedly covered his mouth with my hand. In the palace, there were too many ears everywhere. After glancing left and right down the hallway to make sure no one was around, I finally removed my hand.
“I’m sorry. I was afraid someone might hear….”
“If you’re going to cover my mouth, you could at least do it with your lips instead of your hand.”
“Please, Your Highness.”
“Alright. I’ll restrain myself.”
I was about to tell him to stop waiting here and either go to his office or have breakfast, when I noticed something odd—despite having woken up early, Jereon’s eyes looked a bit hollow.
Had he been short on sleep, unlike me, who’d passed out from exhaustion? If so, why come here so early instead of resting more? His unusually tired look worried me.
“Did you not sleep well last night?”
“Huh? How could you tell?”
“You woke up early, and… you look kind of tired.”
“I actually couldn’t sleep at all.”
“Why? You must’ve been exhausted.”
“I was thinking.”
“About what? Do you have something on your mind?”
Without answering, Jereon simply pointed at me.
Ah—so he’d been thinking about me. Since dating me meant a lot of things to deal with in the future, he must’ve been worrying about that and couldn’t fall asleep.
“Your Highness, don’t worry too much. If we’re careful, we won’t get caught, and if we live quietly like this, nothing major will happen.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about, though….”
“Then what on earth were you thinking about all night?”
“What we’re going to do next.”
“Is there something specific we need to do? I honestly don’t understand what you mean.”
He hummed softly, “Hmm…,” dragging it out for a moment before finally confessing what he’d been pondering.
“What I mean is, from now on, we’ll be doing more than just kissing, right? So I was reviewing what I learned before in my head, and I lost track of time. When I imagine applying it to you, I keep wondering what would feel natural for me to do. Of course, I’ll fully respect your wishes, and I’m confident about everything, so don’t worry too much. You trust me, right?”
What exactly was I supposed to trust? What was he even talking about…? The most important part was missing.
“Your Highness, what exactly did you learn back then that made you think like this?”
Jereon scoffed as if my question were absurd.
“You already forgot? With a memory like that, how do you expect to survive in this world? You make me worry.”
“I’m more worried about you. You came all the way here in the morning just to say strange things.”
“Strange? We learned it together.”
“Learned what? Dancing?”
“Not dancing. That… the lesson from Instructor Vanessa.”
“Oh. That.”
“Yeah, that. The thing you and I are going to do.”
“Ah….”
I never imagined that, just one day into dating, he’d already be reviewing what we learned back then. The pace was so fast it was like roasting beans over lightning.
‘Is this really his first relationship? And he’s like this?’
Embarrassment hit me belatedly, and even in my thin nightgown, my face grew so hot I had to fan myself with my hand.
Then again, there had been signs all along that he’d be like this.
For instance, when I resumed serializing my novel after returning to the palace, hadn’t he told me to make the main characters kiss already? I’d thought he was just impatient back then—I never expected his real dating style to be the same.
As I floundered, a frightening thought crossed my mind—that tomorrow morning we might wake up in the same bed. Panicking, I reached out to stop his train of thought.
“Your Highness, wait. Please, clear your head for a moment and listen to me.”
“Alright.”
“First of all, I don’t want to think that far yet! You know, right? That very last illustration used as an example during the lessons. That’s the final—no, the real final, truly, absolutely final thing I’ll consider.”
“So when is this ‘truly, absolutely final’ supposed to be?”
“I don’t know that myself. After a lot of time has passed, I suppose I’ll figure it out.”
“So it could be a year from now? Or three years?”
“I can’t really give you a definite answer.”
Jereon looked down at me with a gloomy, resentful expression. It was clearly a look of disagreement, but since it was his first relationship, he was being unusually accommodating.
“Fine, I get it. Then be specific—how far is okay? After kissing, anything else is fine, right?”
“After that is….”
I didn’t know either, since I’d never gone beyond kissing myself. Once, I’d secretly watched another couple’s intimate moments in the garden with Magnum, but even then, what came after kissing was so embarrassing I couldn’t bring myself to say it out loud.
As I fidgeted and met his gaze, Jereon’s eyes slowly traveled downward—until they stopped on my chest. That was when I suddenly became aware of what I was wearing.
‘Ah! I didn’t fasten this properly.’
I was wearing a shawl, but as we talked, my clothes had loosened without me realizing it. I hastily adjusted it, afraid my skin might show—when he suddenly asked something else.
“By the way… do you take off your necklace when you sleep?”
