Chapter 18

“Don’t be a ‘normal girl’ all of a sudden.”

Lucas blurted out as he gently laid the petite maid on her bunk.

In the maid’s dormitory in the late afternoon.

This was Elma’s own room.

Fortunately, after she passed out, she regained consciousness quickly, drinking and vomiting copious amounts of alcohol while being assisted by a young knight who was used to dealing with that sort of thing.

Then, when the symptoms seemed to have lessened, she fell asleep from exhaustion.

“You can see a medical guide, but unless your organs are damaged, etc., “drunkenness” is not a disease.”

The only thing that could be done is to have an “ordinary doctor” examine her. Still, since first aid had already been administered and most of the alcohol had been expelled, the only thing left to do was to let her sleep.

In the end, it was decided to let her rest in her own room. Still, since it was impossible to have a fellow maidservant carry the sleeping Elma up to the fourth floor of the dormitory, Lucas himself came forward to carry her.

‘I’ve raided the maid’s dormitory before I could talk to the head maid.’

‘Well, things are what they are, and the other person is Elma, so I can’t be blamed in terms of mistakes between men and women or anything else.’

Lucas looked at the girl who lay limp, and then he looked at the girl with relief.

Elma.

A girl born and raised in prison.

At first, he thought she was just a pathetic weakling.

But when you open Pandora’s Box, she’ll read your micro-expressions, she’ll fish for tuna, and then she’ll perform surgery.

Lucas would like to go into prison and investigate what kind of education would be needed to achieve such a result.

But the fact that “there are people in the prison who are capable of providing extremely advanced education” could lead to a conspiracy – for example, the existence of a conspiracy, which could lead to an inconvenient truth.

He was somewhat hesitant that he, who had so far protected his position and security by being a hedonistic second prince, would be willing to shirk it and reveal the conspiracy.

The other circumstance is purely the fact that he has thoroughly erased her origins as a prisoner, so he can’t look into it openly.

But Lucas did get a whiff of something fishy about that prison.

‘It’s uncomfortable and snarky.’

It could be people on this side of the border who are distorting the real picture – or it could be people on the prison side.

Lucas had a feeling that in the not too distant future, he would be forced to intervene in the situation.

One way or another.

He shook his head loosely and changed his train of thought.

The reality in front of him was that lying on the bunk was a young, petite girl.

Her background was squeaky clean, yet he understood that she was not a malicious person from her previous association.

‘It’s an outrageous thing to do, but I’m starting to think of her as some kind of unknown organism, whereas in fact, she’s merely 15 years old.’

“I’m sorry.”

He apologized.

The girl, with a surprisingly petite body, just kept on sleeping.

Lucas looked at the relaxed collar with no desire to do anything about it -because he couldn’t bring himself to do anything about a dull-looking, characterless, mime-like girl without a cute personality – and suddenly, he realized something.

‘….. From below the collarbone area, her skin color is different ……?’

Usually hidden by the collar of her maid’s uniform. Her skin seemed to be surprisingly white.

‘No, wait. Speaking of which, her hand…’

Ever since she did the surgery, he had thought her arms were oddly white.

He didn’t pursue it at the time, though, because he had too much to worry about beyond that.

Lucas silently raised his eyebrows.

The arms that were now bare were so beautiful, with their veins so blue and translucent, that it was hard to believe they weren’t fake.

Then, this is more “bare” skin.

‘So that’s……’

Impulsively, Lucas tipped the water bottle by the pillow onto his sleeve and wiped her cheek hard with the wet clothing.

Instantly, beautiful, pearly white skin appeared.

His eyes widened.

Elma.

A girl with dull skin, a constant nonchalant expression is supposed to be “not so normal.”

But yes.

The shape of those lips had once struck him as beautiful.

Lucas slowly reached for her glasses.

The two glass pieces that make up the bulk of the impression no longer seem to be integrated with the face.

He wondered what was going on underneath – what was going on?

‘It’s sort of transparent.’

He chuckled in the corner of his mind at himself as he let his heart flutter somewhat and gently remove her glasses.

Then he gasped.

………

There was an overwhelmingly beautiful face beneath the dirt. He would have believed it if someone had told him if it belonged to a fairy or an apostle.

Underneath her glossy black bangs, her eyebrows are fluffy and naturally peaked.

He realized the glasses had been distorted to make them look most cruel as if it had been calculated.

‘……A rabbit?’

Just then, her eyelids lifted, and Lucas snapped back to himself.

The first time he saw her eyes, they were the color of the dawn.

The color was neither blue, nor dark blue, nor purple, but a deep, deep color that made him want to keep staring at it forever.

Elma let her eyes wander vaguely and eventually looked at Lucas’s dark hair as she stroked it with her gaze and muttered to herself.

“Oops!”

Then, softly, he gave a smile that made the buds break out.

……………

Apparently, in her half-conscious state, she had thought he was her father.

That expression of complete heartfelt forgiveness had a destructive power that silenced even the womanizer Lucas.

“Hey…”

“I will. I’ll be here.”

He was about to say something but was interrupted by Elma.

She continued with a smooth, dreamy look on her face.

“I need to….. understand what a normal girl being is all about and…… quickly.”

Her eyelids began drooping again.

“Come on, let’s go home.”

Then she fell asleep again.

Silence filled the room. The only sound in the quiet space was the sound of a young sleeper breathing.

“You’re kidding me.”

He couldn’t help but let out in exasperation.

Lucas unconsciously covered the lower half of his face with his right hand.

A girl who was not quick, abrupt, or cute.

A being who was approaching the realm of the impersonal in many ways, knocking people into a mess.

And yet, he was caught off guard.

“That’s cute.”

He liked it, it seemed.

Just then, Lucas looked up with a gasp as he heard footsteps running up the stairs at a brisk pace from downstairs.

He left the room in a hurry for no reason.

It was Irene, who was coming towards them, shaking her hair on her head.

“Elma! What the hell happened to you when you collapsed– what? His Royal Highness Prince Lucas!”

Irene, who mistook the door opening for her own, almost screamed and choked on her words.

Before the situation was pursued, Lucas was straightforward.

“She fainted. We took care of her. She’s just sleeping. I’ll go and give my best to Gerda.”

After telling her that, he left the place in a hurry.

Irene seemed bewildered at the door for a while, but soon, the sound of the door being re-opened was heard–

“–…… There’s an angel on earth, whoa, whoa, whoa!”

Just as Lucas reached downstairs, she let out a scream that shook the entire dormitory.