Chapter 13
Chapter 13
Is This a Declaration of War?
“Annoying.”
Luang’s slight frown froze Angela in place, her forced smile disappearing instantly.
Not all handsome faces are the same.
Luang’s was sharp, fierce, and dangerous. When someone like that openly showed displeasure, cold sweat ran down Angela’s spine. And they were alone here. There was no one to help. The awareness made her fear grow.
‘Is he really angry?’
Angela suddenly remembered.
Luang was a mad prince.
Until now, he had just seemed like a handsome, well-built man. But recalling him wandering the banquet hall with a sword in hand, it was clear—he really was insane.
And he still held that sword now. She had no idea why he hadn’t put it away.
‘Is he going to stab someone?’
Here, there was no one else but Angela. If Luang swung that sword, she wouldn’t be able to resist and would surely get hurt.
Angela instinctively straightened her posture and softened her tone.
“Why… are you doing this?”
“You’re the strange one here.”
Luang said with a mocking tone.
“Where did that boldness from just a moment ago go?”
Angela wanted to retort—everyone becomes polite in front of a sword—but the words wouldn’t come out. The threat of the glinting sword and the glinting abs were two completely different things.
“Whatever. Forget it.”
Luang spoke as if it were nothing.
“You’ll soon know that I already have a fiancée.”
“Oh, the Rosefield family, right?”
The words slipped out naturally, and Angela thought it was obvious. At the start of the story, they were already engaged. But Luang’s reaction was not what she expected.
His eyes narrowed.
“How do you know that?”
“Uh… what?”
Seeing Luang’s sharp gaze and lowered voice, Angela immediately realized she was completely doomed.
She was right.
Rumors about the royal family contacting Rosefield might circulate, but the engagement hadn’t actually been decided yet. That information shouldn’t have been known outside the emperor’s announcement.
Moreover, the royal family was in contact with several houses, only notifying Luang about the most advantageous option.
This meant it was confidential royal information.
The Goldrun family had been loyal under the previous emperor? So what. They were not necessarily loyal to the current one.
Unless the royal family leaked it directly, there was no way Angela should know.
Yet she did. This meant there could be a spy in the royal family, or they might even capture Angela to find out her source.
But Luang didn’t particularly care about the royal family itself. What mattered was Angela’s uniqueness.
‘Interesting.’
She wasn’t an ordinary noblewoman. From the moment she let slip that she was “first-class,” she was unusual, and now she even hinted at knowledge of the future.
Very intriguing.
However, knowing that Angela was a transmigrator didn’t mean Luang would reveal his own identity. Transmigrators who admit their past lives die quickly.
Angela, on the other hand, was pale with shock.
‘What? What? The Rosefield engagement isn’t known yet? Or… if even the engagement hasn’t happened, then when exactly is it?’
The novel starts after the engagement. Thinking that this was before the engagement completely scrambled her sense of the timeline.
At that moment, the bell rang.
-Ding-
The end of the banquet approached, signaling it was time to leave.
Luang let out a short sigh.
“Do not tell anyone about this, understood?”
“Yes!”
Angela almost screamed in response, urgency in her voice. She wanted to get away quickly and think clearly.
“The same goes for your head of the family.”
“Yes, yes!”
“You answer well,” Luang said, his lips twitching ever so slightly.
Then he added words that froze Angela again.
“Your head will likely send me a letter first, but you should also send me a personal letter.”
“…What?”
“You must explain exactly where you got that information.”
Angela’s face went pale.
A letter. How could she possibly explain? Other than reading the novel and transmigrating, how could she know about the engagement beforehand?
Watching Angela panic, Luang inwardly anticipated a bit of amusement.
What kind of excuse would she make? Surely she wouldn’t honestly write that she was a transmigrator…
…hopefully not that stupid.
After parting ways with Luang, Angela completely panicked.
‘What? What? What? If he hasn’t even met the villainess yet, then what timing is this?’
Her mind raced uncontrollably. The maid sitting beside her carriage stared strangely, but Angela had no time to care.
‘At least he met the villainess before the heroine, that’s certain.’
The flow of romance novels usually followed the same pattern:
The male lead gets entangled with the villainess first, gets tired, hurt, and then the heroine appears to save him. Only then is there a comparison, and only then is the switch satisfying.
But now?
‘The engagement news isn’t even public yet.’
Angela’s face went pale.
‘The story hasn’t even started!’
It wasn’t even the heroine meeting the male lead yet. Nor had the male lead and the villainess started their real conflict.
He had only heard about the villainess at this point.
Metaphorically, it was like having bought the pork, eggs, and breadcrumbs to make tonkatsu—but not even frying it yet.
And she had just…
‘What did I just do with Luang?’
Angela started realizing the gravity of her situation.
Luang seemed relatively sane. Not completely normal—no one sane would wander a banquet hall with a sword—but compared to the male lead at the start of the original story after being tormented by the villainess, he looked fairly intact.
Still…
‘He’s not entirely sane. No sane person walks around with a sword in hand.’
Chapter 13
Even royal guards wear their swords—they don’t hold them. And at a banquet, the host usually keeps it.
But Luang held it. He even swung it.
And she…
‘Made him laugh.’
Angela’s eyes widened.
She had comforted the mentally tormented male lead, made him laugh, and stayed by his side.
Who does that in the story?
The heroine. The saintly heroine.
But the saint wasn’t here.
Instead, it was Angela, the perfume shop owner.
“Eekkkk!”
“Milady?! Calm down!”
Angela finally screamed. If the maid hadn’t grabbed her, she might have collapsed right there.
“How… how… what do I do…”
“Why are you like this?”
“I-I-I… to Prince Luang…!”
“Calm down. You must first report this to your head of the family.”
The maid didn’t think Angela was weird. She had made enough mistakes today that people could talk. It was natural to fear the consequences.
But Angela wasn’t afraid of that.
‘This is… really… hell-level difficulty.’
Her lips trembled.