Chapter 67
The next day, around noon, Alice set out from the duchy with Sienna.
Having perfectly completed all preparations.
Alice, who had been racking her brain thinking about Sienna and the Third Prince’s meeting, suddenly turned her head towards the carriage window as the outside became noisy.
The scene outside was dramatically different from what she had just been seeing.
Houses with low roofs, the bustling voices of people.
And street vendors scattered throughout.
Alice’s golden eyes widened at the sight that closely resembled the markets of the world before her possession.
“Is this…”
“This is the Rocfen district, the commoners’ residential area. It’s… a bit different from Vicente Street.”
Sienna said.
“Indeed…”
Alice responded quietly to Sienna as she pressed herself close to the window.
She put her face near the window.
Like a child seeing the outside world for the first time.
Although she hadn’t been confined to the duchy until now, Alice hadn’t been to many places.
The temple and the imperial palace were all.
And those places were all in Vicente, the nobles’ residential area.
Vicente Street, flowing with neat and elegant charm.
It wasn’t that it was bad, but being a place where nobles gathered, it was more static than Rocfen.
Even though it was clearly a place where people lived, there was a strange sense of alienation, as if walking through a street in a painting.
Perhaps because her original life was far from high society, Alice welcomed the bustle of Rocfen.
“Wow, that fish is really big.”
Alice exclaimed in admiration at the person-sized fish placed in front of a fish shop.
I want to get out and look around.
As Alice was looking around with sparkling eyes at Rocfen’s friendly atmosphere, Sienna carefully asked:
“…Aren’t you uncomfortable?”
Alice turned her head from the window at the sudden question.
“Uncomfortable? About what?”
“Well, this place. I… I’m used to mingling with commoners in my territory, so I don’t have any aversion, but most nobles don’t like Rocfen. After all… it’s not clean or quiet. Plus, I thought you’d be more uncomfortable without your maid to attend to you today.”
As Sienna said, Aileen wasn’t by her side today.
Normally, she should have been with her, but today was an exception.
Alice had something she needed to do alone today.
She needed to reduce the number of people around her as much as possible.
“Ah, I deliberately told Aileen to take the day off, you know.”
“Still, it’s not a clean place and it’s unfamiliar, so… I’m surprised you seem to like it more than I expected.”
At Sienna’s surprised look, Alice smiled broadly and said:
“…I grew up in the countryside. The Fordley Earldom wasn’t very wealthy, so I’m used to commoners’ markets like this.”
In fact, the original Alice Fordley was a noble lady who rarely mingled with commoners, staying mostly at home… but fortunately, Sienna believed her without much suspicion.
“Right. That’s true.”
She didn’t seem to find it strange, probably because she already knew that the Fordley Earldom was desperately poor.
“Yes. It feels like… I’ve come back to my hometown after a long time.”
“Although it’s my first time in Rocfen, the bustle does remind me of home.”
Sienna also looked out the window as she spoke to Alice.
“Since you don’t dislike Rocfen, shall we come out for outings often?”
“Oh my, I’d love that!”
Alice smiled brightly.
She had been planning to suggest frequent visits to Rocfen today.
Although the book said the Third Prince visited the bookshop daily, there was a chance they might not encounter him today if they were unlucky.
So if they didn’t see the prince today, she was going to suggest to Sienna that they come to Rocfen again.
Until they encountered the Third Prince.
But for Sienna to suggest coming often first.
Alice felt good as things seemed to be going smoothly.
Sienna hesitated at Alice’s more intense reaction than expected, but soon curved her lips into a pretty smile.
Then Sienna’s gaze lowered slightly.
“I’ve been thinking… that brooch is really unique.”
“Ah, this…”
Sienna’s gaze was directed at the brooch pinned on the left side of her chest.
Alice’s chin twitched with surprise.
Sienna, not noticing this, spoke as if intrigued:
“It looks like a butterfly shape, or maybe just wings. Especially the pillar in the middle is unusual.”
“It is a butterfly shape.”
Alice answered, glancing down at the brooch.
A butterfly brooch made of bronze, without any beautiful jewels set in it.
While it was clearly a butterfly, most people would have a reaction similar to Sienna’s when first seeing it.
It had a somewhat strange shape for a butterfly.
While it clearly had two wings and a middle body, there was only one antenna extending from the end of the body.
And that antenna, unlike other butterfly shapes, took the form of a sharp needle.
The tip of the antenna was sharp enough to burrow deep into flesh if pricked once.
In fact, this brooch was a gift given to Alice by Earl Fordley on the day she left for the duchy.
Just hearing this, one might think it was a meaningful gift, but as mentioned earlier, this brooch is a bronze one without any jewels.
Brooches worn by nobles often had expensive jewels set in them.
A bronze brooch is a very cheap one usually worn by commoners.
So Earl Fordley, who gave only a bronze brooch to his daughter being sold off for the family’s sake, was truly trash.
Especially after he had received and squandered the price of a mansion from Lady Quillian.
Anyway, because it was such a brooch, she hadn’t paid any attention to it before… but today, she needed this brooch.
Especially the sharp needle of the brooch.
There was one problem that had given Alice a headache while planning the chance encounter between Sienna and the Third Prince.
How to make the Third Prince fall into an unconscious state.
In the book, the Third Prince met Sienna while he was unconscious.
And Sienna saved him, and as the Third Prince opened his eyes, their fate began.
At first, she thought it would be enough to just make the two meet, but suddenly a question arose.
What if the Third Prince doesn’t fall for Sienna at first sight?
There was a setting that the Third Prince fell in love at first sight with Sienna, but it wasn’t just from passing by on the street.
The Third Prince was on the verge of death from accidentally eating a poisonous herb when Sienna found him collapsed on the street and saved him.
So their beginning wasn’t a simple encounter.
But if Alice just made them meet face to face… would they still be fatefully intertwined?
Alice couldn’t be sure.
Especially now that the book’s settings had started to twist.
Moreover, unlike the prince, Sienna didn’t have a setting of falling in love at first sight.
She developed feelings for him after going through events together and spending time with him.
So if the Third Prince was in a normal state… there was a high probability that Sienna would pass by him like a stranger.
As these anxious questions started to chain together, there was only one solution Alice could come up with.
To make their first meeting as similar to the book as possible.
That way, other variables wouldn’t come into play.
And to make it similar to the book… she had to make the Third Prince collapse.
That way, Sienna would take interest, and they could somehow bring the Third Prince to the duchy.
A method to make a perfectly fine Third Prince collapse.
Since she couldn’t make him eat poisonous herbs like in the book, Alice came up with a second-best option after much deliberation.
To use a strong sleeping drug.
And that powerful sleeping drug was thickly applied to the tip of the needle on the bronze brooch.
That’s why she wore this bronze brooch that didn’t even match her dress today.
If she stabbed him from behind in one go, he would collapse without even knowing who had stabbed him.
This wasn’t just any sleeping drug, but one made by the eccentric Doctor Helkin.
He had said it would make one sleep like the dead for 3-4 hours even if a bomb went off outside.
Having not just applied such a sleeping drug thickly, but having soaked the brooch in it for a whole day… the effect would surely be certain.
Of course, Alice wasn’t entirely comfortable with having to do this to the Third Prince.
But what could she do, this was the safest method.
And if you think about it, since she was advancing their meeting, the incident of the Third Prince eating poisonous herbs wouldn’t happen.
A sleeping drug is a hundred times better than poisonous herbs, right?
Even while thinking this way, she couldn’t deny the prick of conscience.
“Maybe because it’s an uncommon design, my eyes keep being drawn to it.”
Sienna said, still unable to take her eyes off the brooch.
It’s not even that pretty… does Sienna like bronze?
Alice felt burdened by Sienna’s interest.
If Sienna tried to touch the brooch saying she liked it and got pricked by the needle…
A situation she didn’t even want to imagine would unfold.
Alice racked her brain to divert Sienna’s attention.
Just as she was trying to think of another topic of conversation, luckily, the carriage stopped.
“I think we’ve arrived.”
As soon as Sienna’s words ended, the carriage door opened and Ruyd appeared.
“My Lady, Young Lady. We’ve arrived at the bookshop alley.”
Sienna got out of the carriage first, followed by Alice.
The bustle they had first encountered upon entering Rocfen was nowhere to be found; the bookshop alley was surprisingly quiet.
It wasn’t that there were no people, but everyone here was conversing quietly with each other.
Like a library.
Alice looked around the bookshop alley and her eyes widened at the bookshops stretching to the end of the street.
