Chapter 36
“…Ah, yes. I wanted to thank you for what you did yesterday. And… well, I couldn’t sleep, so I wanted to talk with someone for a bit.”
Maeve stared straight at the prince for a moment, her expression unreadable.
“I’ll enjoy it then. I thought it was a bribe.”
“…A bribe? Why? Do you… want to quit too?”
Prince Declan’s face stiffened strangely as he sat in the chair, nibbling on the remaining cookie.
He looked genuinely surprised, his eyes widening.
“The mercenaries, sure… but you? You’re—”
For a moment, Declan couldn’t quite finish his sentence. The idea was difficult for him to grasp.
It had seemed only natural to him that Maeve, of all people, would stay by his side until the end.
As far as he was concerned, she was kind. Even when he behaved arrogantly, she never showed offense, and afterward, she had gone so far as to extend kindness to him.
Besides, he liked her. He had even thought of treating her better than the others.
Of course, there was no way the maid could have known any of that.
Declan finally realized this obvious truth — and his eyes widened in dawning understanding.
“Oh. Right. Is there somewhere you have to go in such a hurry? I heard last time that you live alone with your grandmother, didn’t you?”
In Declan’s eyes, Maeve was the only one among his hires who had shown him genuine goodwill. She was someone he thought he could trust. A good person was someone he could trust.
Declan, judging her as he pleased, spoke as though it were obvious.
“…You must be worried, leaving your grandmother alone. Aren’t you? Listen, Maeve. What I said earlier wasn’t a lie. If you stay with me until the end of this journey and return safely, I’ll make sure that you and your grandmother can live in comfort for the rest of your lives without ever needing to work again.”
Naïve and kind are not the same.
Maeve thought so as she quietly looked at the prince.
Seeing how poorly he hid his thoughts, he was both naïve and clumsy. And yet, watching him calmly bring up her grandmother to stir her sense of conscience and duty — she wondered if that part came naturally to him.
Maeve asked with an indifferent expression.
“Will you do the same to me?”
“To you? What do you mean?”
“Maeve, massage my shoulders. Maeve, tell me something funny. Maeve…”
The prince jumped up, his face turning red.
“No, I won’t! That was only because of Craig. Don’t pretend you don’t know. I did that to punish him on purpose. I’m not usually that kind of brute. I’m a kind person. I try to treat people like you— my employees— kindly.”
Realizing that he had said far more than necessary, Declan shut his mouth with a stiff expression.
Soon after, his face clouded with irritation, and he bit his lower lip.
“Fine. If you want to leave, then leave.”
“If you promise not to order me around unnecessarily, then I won’t leave.”
Maeve said this as she looked at Declan, whose expressions shifted visibly with every thought, as though finding it faintly amusing.
At her words, Declan’s eyes lit up at once, as if delighted, and he looked at her.
How could he be like that? In an instant, the prince had come to trust her.
“Just one condition.”
“Say anything. If it’s something I can do…”
“I’d prefer if you didn’t touch me.”
For a moment, the prince said nothing and only blinked.
Maeve repeated herself, as if checking whether he had heard her properly.
“I’d prefer if you didn’t touch me.”
“I heard you. Wait. Right. Of course, I won’t. What do you take me for? And besides, you were the one who touched me last time. You even looked at me when I was completely naked.”
“All right, then next time I’ll just let you drown.”
“Don’t joke like that!”
Declan shouted, then laughed in disbelief.
“I’ve never heard anyone say that to me before. Don’t touch me? That’s what I should be saying to you, normally. Got it?”
“Why?”
“I mean, usually any woman would want to touch me!”
“…”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake. Every time I talk to you, I start feeling strange. Do you know that? I sound like someone with a prince complex— though I am a prince. But you make me talk like some idiot who only thinks about how great he is.”
Maeve gave no response, and Declan grew even more self-conscious.
“Anyway, fine. I won’t touch you without permission. Even if I fall and it looks like I might bump into you, I’ll just go ahead and fall.”
“Yes.”
Declan looked at Maeve with an expression full of words he wanted to say.
But instead of blurting out something like, Do you even have any friends? — he restrained himself.
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