Chapter 32 – Hidden Right Under the Enemy’s Nose

“You didn’t ask anymore about my secret, so I won’t ask anymore about yours,” Levisia replied softly. She wanted to leave it at that but Pel was more persistent than she had previously thought.

“I don’t think I can do that. You’ve looked in here without my consent and you’re saying you’re about to pretend like you saw nothing without asking right now?”

“It’s not that I wanted to see it.” 

Her weak excuse soon shriveled away when Pel came a step closer. He slowly pushed her back into his room and in his usual brisk tone he spoke.

“I can’t take your word for it, what will you do?”

“What would you have us do then?” 

At her question, Pel opened his drawer and pulled out a piece of paper, pushing it towards her. 

“Let’s write a contract.”

‘That thorough bastard.’ 

Not long later, Levisia found herself with a pen in her hand, writing a contract that was more like a memorandum.

[No one’s secrets shall be disclosed nor inquired any further.] 

His voice then interrupted her as she was about to sign her name.

“If it has been disclosed or inquired…” Pel’s fingers swept his damp hair, and for the first time, a smile was painted on his lips. A very scheming smile. “Whatever the other wishes, one must grant.”

“Wait, that’s—”

“You simply have to not disclose or ask anymore of it. Do you plan to do either?”

He had her in the palm of his hand! But just as he that would eat the fruit must climb the tree, she quickly added the clause to the contract with no further protest to get away from him.

“Is it good now?”

“Hmm.”

Normally, he would get things finished without delay; however, he took his sweet time inspecting the contract. His eyes skimmed the paper one more time, then its gaze shifted toward her as she clutched the contract. He then brought his finger to his mouth and dug his teeth on his finger to draw blood. He stamped his blooded finger on the contract. 

When she stared at him out of confusion, Pel opened her hand and smeared his blood on her thumb.

“Wait, then… Wouldn’t it be your blood then?” When she looked at him with the inquiry, he calmly spoke. “It doesn’t matter. The fingerprint will be Your Highness’.”

Levisia looked down at the blood on her hand, and having nothing more she could do, she stamped my finger on the contract just like his.

“The contract is established, right?”

“I’ll keep this with me.”

“Then I’ll just write up another one.”

“Do you want Sheila to find out about this?” 

He meant whether she wanted Sheila to discover the contract while cleaning. For lack of anything better, though she wasn’t quite satisfied, Levisia had to agree with him.

“So why did you come all the way here looking for me? Surely that isn’t a secret?”

“Oh. I went out to the field and some of the support rods were broken.”

“Simply because of that.” 

She could tell what words he swallowed when she saw where his eyes turned to. A contract was written because his secret was seen merely because of support rods.

“We will probably need five more support rods.”

“I will get them.”

“Well then… I shall be off.” She continued to pretend not to notice the wig’s glaring existence on the table and walked away. As soon as she left the room and shut the door, her heart began to uncontrollably pound out of her chest. 

‘No way.’ She covered her mouth lest a sound slipped and hurried off. Numerous thoughts erupted in her mind as she went on her way back to my room. One of which was about the novel this world originates from. It described the main lead as one with reddish black hair and golden eyes.

From what she could recall, due to the genre of the novel, it was not very descriptive when it came to the characters. For that reason, it was hard to determine Pel’s identity by the few times the description appears in the novel.

‘But…’

The main lead who has become the fallen kingdom’s prince was said to have spent his youth years in this kingdom.

‘I didn’t know that meant that he spent it in the royal ground, the heart of this kingdom!’

And adding to that the fact that he kept himself hidden from Kraiden…

Levisia’s heartbeat pounded along to the beat of her steps. Even if one easily missed what was under their nose, it was utterly ridiculous. To hide and work as a servant in the palace where your enemies are all living? ‘Or perhaps, to observe the enemies in close quarters…’ How calculating! All this time, she thought the one person she had to be most wary of until she could flee this place was Kraiden, but now Kraiden was not the problem.

‘The most dangerous person was right next to me!’

Farid Roycal—the one who is going to leave the royal grounds in ruins!

‘Damn it.’