Chapter 54
“Why…?”
“Despite all the effort I’ve put in, Marcella is the only one I’ve managed to place inside the Crown Prince’s palace. There are too many of Killian’s eyes here. If it were discovered that Your Highness possessed letters from your family, it would end badly for all of us.”
He added that letters could always be exchanged through Marcella. The way Fabian spoke made him seem utterly sincere.
Adelaide slowly nodded. Without realizing it, her impression of him had already shifted.
When she first saw him, perhaps because he was Killian’s cousin, he had seemed just as dangerous.
But now, he felt like an angel who had come to save her.
“I don’t know how to thank you for this…”
Flustered, Adelaide expressed her gratitude over and over again. Fabian simply smiled gently in response.
* * *
As Fabian left the room, Marcella followed behind, pushing a trolley. Walking through the corridor, the two spoke in hushed tones.
“From now on, act in a way that earns the Crown Princess’s trust.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Marcella addressed him without hesitation.
It was almost amusing—being called Your Highness while walking through the Crown Prince’s palace. Fabian let out a quiet chuckle as Adelaide came to mind.
“Too much protection isn’t good either.”
The woman had been quite pretty, but just as Marcella had reported, years under Killian’s control had left her with the face of someone who had already given up on everything.
Fabian knew well how desperately one clung to even the faintest glimmer of light in total darkness.
Even so—
“She fell for something as simple as a few letters.”
Forging handwriting was no difficult task with the right experts. Among Fabian’s people were several skilled enough to replicate another’s script perfectly.
He had kept them for future use, but they had proven useful far sooner than expected. Humming softly, Fabian walked down the corridor with light, satisfied steps.
“Make sure you find a way to be alone with the Crown Princess and obtain a reply.”
The letters would never reach her real family, but Adelaide would still receive replies.
He had extended a single hand of salvation to someone who could trust no one. Before long, all her private thoughts—things that could never be learned by proper means—would pile up neatly at his feet.
“Yes, understood, Your Highness.”
“Everything that happened today must remain a secret. Once you return, help the Crown Princess bathe. Her makeup was a mess, if that perceptive snake starts to suspect something, it’ll become troublesome.”
“Yes.”
Marcella nodded. The corridor soon came to an end. At the entrance, Fabian paused and glanced back, his eyes filled with a trace of longing.
Sixteen years since he had last been here. The visit had been far too brief to indulge in nostalgia.
“Well. Next time, I’ll be able to stay longer.”
After all, this would soon be the place he would remain forever. If he had waited sixteen years already, what was a little longer? If anything, it made him look forward to it.
Smacking his lips lightly, Fabian smiled to himself.
As he had suspected, the Crown Princess was Killian’s weakness. Now all that remained was to wait and see how far Killian would fall because of her… and to laugh at his ruin when the time came.
With a light heart, Fabian left the Crown Prince’s palace without looking back. If he kept moving forward, he would one day return here again. Thinking that, he continued on his way.
* * *
“Was there anything unusual?”
After hearing from the head maid that Adelaide had gone straight to bathe after meeting Fabian, Killian raised an eyebrow.
“She met a guest and immediately bathed? There must have been a reason.”
“According to Marcella, who was present, she accidentally spilled tea on her dress when her hands gave out. We confirmed—it appears to be true.”
“Hmm. How long did he stay?”
“Perhaps because of the spill, he left quite quickly. It couldn’t have been more than five minutes.”
“I suppose what I said this morning got to her.”
So the mention of inviting the Count and Countess had shaken her, he thought.
Killian let out a quiet, amused chuckle.
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