The Grand Duchess Is Defeated Again Today

113 – [Abduction] The prince is tired today too.(3)

Time passed slowly but surely.

A month has passed since I forcibly became friends with Albert Xernias.

“····.”

“Gongnyeo. If you have any complaints, I’d like you to talk to me instead of looking at me badly.”

By the way, Rebecca Valencia was staring at him with a very dissatisfied expression in front of him.

“What do you mean?”

“You mean?”

“Why do you, the Crown Prince, approach my fiancé?”

It seems that he noticed that he and his fiancé were in regular contact.

He tried to hide it, but it seems that it was impossible to completely shake off the Duke of Valencia.

He looked very unhappy.

“Gongnyeo, can’t I make friends?”

“Don’t talk nonsense. A sneaky person like you wouldn’t approach my fiancé just because he wanted to be friends.”

“······No matter how insidious it is.”

“In the empire, there is no one more sinister than you, the crown prince.”

“····.”

I always felt that way.

He had a knack for spoiling people’s mood beyond imagination with the vicious words he spat out with that pretty face.

‘······Only Prince Albert has become pitiful.’

Sending sympathy once again to his friend, he quietly opened his mouth.

“You don’t care much anyway, do you?”

“Yes?”

“You don’t really care if I make friends with your fiancé.”

“What does that mean…”

“Anyone who would be interested in such a thing wouldn’t be so far away from his fiancée.”

“····.”

“Isn’t that right?”

As if there was nothing to say about it, Rebecca’s lips fell shut.

“If you were interested in Prince Albert, I wouldn’t have become a friend of Prince Albert in the first place.”

“····.”

“If I hadn’t become a friend of Young master, there would be no reason for you and me to be arguing now.”

“······What is your intention?”

“I’ve said it before, but I don’t have any special ulterior motives…”

“Be honest. I won’t tell anyone else.”

“······Hooo.”

It was the first time.

The arrogant princess slightly bends her opinion.

“You also have a conscience.”

“······It’s noisy.”

“If that’s the case, wouldn’t it just be nice to start with? Why did you mess up the relationship?”

But I still didn’t understand.

If it weren’t for not being interested at all, I would have been able to keep a reasonable distance even if it wasn’t a really comfortable relationship.

Why did the princess treat Albert so coldly?

“I couldn’t believe it.”

“Huh?”

“I couldn’t believe that a fiancé I had never seen before was a good person.”

“Isn’t it that you treated Prince Albert the same as the people who clung to you based only on your background?”

“… Maybe.”

Summarizing, it was like this.

It means that Albert was treated the same as the trash named nobles who were trying to build friendships based only on the background of the Valencian ducal family.

“I don’t know if I’m going to say it, but you’re too much.”

“······I know.”

It was a situation that made me laugh out loud.

She even pushed her own fiancée to the prejudice she developed because of the people who approached her.

Of course, it wasn’t that she couldn’t understand the feelings of the princess.

Because of her position as the crown prince, she had to meet a lot of people.

Everyone in the world is different.

In other words, there are not only good people in the world.

There were countless nobles who were obsessed with and manipulated by the two words of power.

He looked straight at the princess in front of him.

“So, what do you want to do?”

“What does that mean?”

“First of all, Prince Albert is my friend. I wonder what my friend’s fiancée is thinking.”

“······I don’t know either.”

Rebecca pulled her red hair out in confusion.

“The relationship has already become this way. What can I do?”

“······So you asked me? To watch your fiancé from behind like this?”

“Yes.”

“······It’s just dizzy.”

Rebecca, who had been organizing in her head, felt that she needed to revise her evaluation of Valencia.

Although she excels in all fields, she is a poor person when it comes to human relationships.

“Whoa.”

She felt like a sigh came out of her mouth.

“Do you know that your fiancé’s body is weak?”

“Yes. I know. Sometimes when I look at her face, she always looks sick.”

“That she periodically receives divine power treatment from the church?”

“······What?”

Rebecca’s expression hardens in real time.

It was natural not to know.

She hadn’t even found out about it.

When she first heard the story, she was very surprised.

She meant that if she needed regular treatment from the Order, it would be really serious.

“That bad?”

“Well, he says it’s fine. Actually, there’s no way it’s fine.”

“····.”

“Because I heard that she had been receiving treatment periodically since she was very young.”

“······I had no idea.”

That word that I couldn’t imagine would not have been a lie.

If you put together the story of Rebecca you’ve heard so far, the relationship between the two will be nothing more than an engagement relationship.

She is virtually no different from a complete stranger, so how could she know these details?

“So, what do you want to do?”

“······What does that mean?”

“Relationship with Prince Albert. Are you going to continue this way?”

Really like this?

In a relationship that is no different from seeing someone for the first time?

The form of the sentence was a question, but even a little peek inside it was no different from a scolding.

Are you still the heir to the Duke of Valencia?

Does it make sense that the heir, who is supposed to take care of everyone as the next duke, can’t take care of just one fiancé?

With a scolding called a question, she asked the princess in front of her.

At that question, Rebecca shook her head slightly.

“······No. It has to change.”

“Is there a way?”

“I don’t have it right now, but if you think about it, there’s definitely a good way…”

“But what if Gongja’s condition worsens and he cannot even see your face?”

“······That’s it.”

“There is a saying, ‘Always assume the worst and act.’ How will you act when the worst happens?”

“····.”

“Well, you who have been dragging your time up until now couldn’t have assumed the worst.”

Humans always try to think of good things.

When I think of bad things, it’s because I’m not in a good mood.

Assuming the worst and acting.

That was easier said than done.

With that in mind, he proposed to her princess.

“It seems like you need a lot of time to come up with a method. Why don’t you listen to me this time?”

“······What kind of method?”

“There is one thing I learned after living close to Prince Albert for about a month.”

“What did you find out?”

“The fact that Prince Albert is very competitive unlike his usual personality.”

“······The desire to compete?”

I heard a suspicious voice from Rebecca.

Honestly, it was worth it.

He was surprised when he first experienced Albert’s competitive spirit.

– Prince Albert. He backed off just once…

– Your Highness.

– Huh?

– The world of competition is a cold law.

– ···.

He was even a little shocked when he realized that he was the kind of person who would do it with just a game of chess.

“So, how about doing it this way? Every time you and Gongja meet, we play a simple game.”

“······Simple game? Are you talking about chess or something like that?”

“Yeah. That kind of game. Isn’t it bad?”

“Are you serious about that?”

I expected it, but as expected, I noticed that I was suspicious right away.

Since it was a proposal that came out of nowhere, it was only natural to be suspicious.

“Very sincere. Maybe this could be the key to changing your relationship with Young master.”

It was his role as Albert’s friend to turn doubt into certainty.

“Anything like this…”

“There is no special reason for people to become friends.”

“····.”

“That’s what I said when I proposed a friend to Prince Albert. What do you think?”

If you’re serious, you don’t need a reason.

It was a wrong assumption to have a reason in a relationship with a person.

Because if you really want to get close, you won’t have a reason to get close.

“People’s relationships change from the smallest incident. So, why don’t you think it’s just a small thing and give it a try.”

“····.”

“A match between you and Gongja that might change the relationship.”

At least Mikhail thought so.

And, I was pretty sure this was probably the sure way.

“I don’t know. You could be terribly defeated by Gongja.”

“Do you think I’m going to lose to someone else?”

“First of all, I’m saying this after I’ve been horribly defeated, so don’t worry about it.”

“······Couldn’t you have said that since you lost, I should try to lose too?”

“How could that be? Do I look like such a narrow-minded person?”

“Yes.”

“You got the answer right. After all, I can’t be defeated horribly, so shouldn’t you have the same experience?”

“····.”

“Anyway. We’d better start tomorrow.”

As he wished, news came the next day that Princess Rebecca had invited her fiancé to her mansion.

The next day, and the day after that.

As time passed, news continued to come that Albert and Rebecca seemed to be getting along better.