* * *
On the night the Crown Prince disappeared, not a single person among the Fourth Knights suspected that there was a secret passage to the basement in Joel’s bedroom.
Because of this, they were busy simply guarding the bedroom door while Lord Bennett carried the sleeping Crown Prince on his back and slipped out of the room.
Meanwhile, about an hour earlier, the Crown Prince had consumed the refreshments sent by Lord Bennett without suspicion.
As a result, he was reduced to being carried away on Lord Bennett’s back without being able to put up any proper resistance.
The tea Lord Bennett had prepared was actually mixed with a drug specially formulated by preacher John.
In addition to inducing sleep, John’s medicine had one more effect: it brought back forgotten memories.
Thus, locked in a secluded room of the vast underground mansion, Crown Prince Carlyle fell into a very long dream.
The timeline in the dream flowed similarly to reality.
However, unlike the reality where he was busy knocking on the gates of Count Lucas’s estate every morning to meet Joel—who wouldn’t even show his face—in the dream, he had already finished his engagement to Joel and was nearing their wedding.
In the dream, he was spending busy days preparing for a grand celebration.
This festival was going to be a very special time for both Joel and himself, so Carlyle was extremely excited during the preparations.
On the final night of the grand week-long celebration, he planned to finally announce his marriage to Joel, which had been delayed until then.
This was a decision made after a full month and a half of deep agonizing.
The Crown Prince’s decision turned the capital upside down, and the nobles who had been despising Joel began frequenting the Crown Prince’s palace, trying desperately to get on Joel’s good side.
Naturally, the Emperor, who did not approve of Joel, was not pleased with his son’s decision.
Several times, the Emperor summoned the Crown Prince quietly to convey his wish for him to reconsider the marriage.
“My son, remember the rebellion of Heath Hales that occurred 25 years ago. It was such a massive event that a quarter of the noble families were executed after the suppression.
At that time, Count Lucas’s family suffered no damage, but there wasn’t a single person who didn’t know that Count Lucas frequented Heath Hales’s mansion every day before the rebellion broke out in the capital.”
“But isn’t that just circumstantial? I know that even after the rebellion was settled, you personally investigated Count Lucas several times, Father. In the end, no evidence ever surfaced that the Count participated in the rebellion.”
However, the Crown Prince, who was already deeply infatuated with Joel, did not listen to his father’s advice.
“I will keep your teaching to be wary of Count Lucas in mind, but I believe it is unfair to ask me to cancel my marriage to Joel based on unproven crimes. Furthermore, your grandson is growing inside Joel’s womb.”
Perhaps because of the fact that Joel was pregnant, the Emperor seemed to back down for the time being.
The Imperial Palace was more vibrant than ever ahead of the marriage announcement.
In particular, the Crown Prince’s palace, where Joel resided, was crowded with guests every day.
It was shortly after the Crown Prince had punished a noble who acted rudely in front of Joel as an example, so no one dared to behave disrespectfully toward him anymore.
Count Lucas, who used to be pointed at as a greedy old pig, was now walking through the palace with his shoulders back as if he were a member of the Imperial family himself.
Curiously, however, Joel did not seem to welcome these changes.
Far from being happy, he began to suffer from increasing anxiety as the announcement drew near, unable to hide a guilty expression.
Then one day, it happened during dinner with Joel as usual.
The Crown Prince asked a worried question when he saw that Joel could barely swallow his food.
“Are you feeling uncomfortable somewhere? Your complexion is very poor.”
“Ah… no, it’s not.”
“How can you say that? Your face is so pale. I must call a physician.”
The Crown Prince soothed Joel, who tried to stop him by saying,
“Your Highness, I’m really okay. It’s just… because of morning sickness,” and called for a doctor.
The physician who examined Joel diagnosed it as indigestion and prescribed medicine, but even after taking it, Joel’s symptoms showed no sign of improving.
Around that time, Joel was suffering from extreme indigestion even though he was practically abstaining from food and drink.
Joel, who had once become plump while eating and living well in the palace, returned to being nothing but skin and bones as the mysterious symptoms continued.
The physician dismissed Joel’s illness as ordinary morning sickness and was not greatly concerned. However, the observant Crown Prince suspected that Joel’s illness stemmed from anxiety.
Several times, he coaxed Joel.
“Joel, is something worrying you? I will solve any problem for you, so please tell me honestly,” but Joel remained silent.
Since he couldn’t just watch Joel wither away, the Crown Prince secretly ordered an investigation into what was bothering him.
If the Crown Prince had been the first to find out the cause of Joel’s distress, the situation might have ended in a positive direction.
Unfortunately, it was the Emperor who first obtained the information that Joel and Count Lucas had conspired to stage a fraud.
Late at night, just before the eve of the festival, the Crown Prince was looking at documents in his office when he received an urgent summons to the Emperor’s bedroom.
There, he encountered his father accompanied by a triumphant investigator.
“This man is the Imperial physician who diagnosed Young Master Joel’s pregnancy three months ago. However, after interrogating him, we obtained a confession that he manipulated the results after receiving a substantial financial reward from Count Lucas.”
“What… what on earth are you talking about? I don’t understand.”
“Your Highness. It may be hard to believe, but Young Master Joel is not pregnant. After spending a night with you by chance, he committed this enormous act with the intention of seizing the position of Crown Princess by not letting the opportunity slip away.”
The investigator handed a bundle of letters to the frozen Crown Prince.
Carlyle hurriedly took the papers and opened them, discovering they were secret letters exchanged between Count Lucas and Joel over the past three months.
“Father, I have tried in my own way, but the Crown Prince always refuses. He says we must be careful because it’s early in the pregnancy…”
Letters expressing anxiety about the lack of opportunity were clearly written in Joel’s handwriting.
To those, Count Lucas replied, “What do you think pheromones are for? Isn’t it a simple matter to get the Crown Prince moderately drunk and then seduce him using your dominant pheromones? What’s the use of being born a dominant if you’re no better than a fool?”
The twenty or so letters were all filled with that kind of dialogue.
In some letters, Count Lucas even openly asked Joel if he had tried using the aphrodisiac he provided last time and how the effect was.
The Crown Prince’s hands trembled more and more as he turned the pages.
Finally, after reading all the letters, he looked at the Emperor with a dazed face.
Unable to speak for a long time, he finally managed to say, “This cannot be true. I will ask Joel myself,” and ran out of the bedroom. However, the Emperor, watching his son’s staggering back, already sensed victory.
During the investigator’s process, the fact that Joel had been abused by his stepfather or that he had been forced by him to stage the pregnancy fraud did not come to light.
And even if those facts had surfaced, the Emperor would not have cared.
To the Emperor, Joel was nothing more than an eyesore clinging to his precious only son, and Joel’s unfair situation was not something to be considered.
“I heard an interesting story from the Imperial investigator today. That you have never been pregnant…”
When the Crown Prince staggered into the bedroom and asked abruptly with a dazed face, Joel, who was about to welcome him, froze awkwardly.
“…Your Highness.”
“The investigator must have been mistaken, right? Or perhaps he lied to me under my father’s orders. Yes, that must be it. My father never approved of our marriage.”
Joel, who was not good at lying, was already admitting that the investigator’s report was true through his expression.
The Crown Prince had also read Joel’s face, but he simply could not believe that the Joel who was so lovely and pure in front of him had been deceiving him behind his back, even plotting to feed him aphrodisiacs.
Joel did not even attempt to deny his crime.
Without any excuse, he simply approached the soldiers who followed the Crown Prince and held out his hands.
As his hands were tied with rope, Joel looked as if he were actually relieved to have been caught.
* * *
YAYYYYYTRTF UPDATEEEE
My hands are really tired but like I’m really starting b to like what’s happening