Chapter 59
The answer that came out so simply and easily was completely nonsensical to anyone who heard it.
Simply walking to see Riina and then meeting her? What kind of nonsense was that?
But Riina understood immediately.
“I see.”
It sounded absurd to anyone else, but if it was Einar doing it, it was possible. If he wished for something, it happened. Even if he didn’t wish for it, it happened. That was precisely the heaven-sent luck he possessed, or rather, the burden he carried.
Riina, who had been nodding, suddenly paused.
“Did something happen?”
“Something happen?”
“You said you wanted to see me.”
If Einar had personally come to meet her, those small fry in front of her wouldn’t be an issue.
Seriousness crept into Riina’s previously indifferent eyes, but no answer came.
“Einar?”
When there was no response for a while, Riina’s face grew even more serious.
Something so significant that Einar found it difficult to speak?
“Has something happened to His Majesty?”
“No.”
If it wasn’t related to the Emperor…
Tilting her head, Riina asked, “Then what is it?”
Again, Einar didn’t answer. Or rather, he couldn’t answer.
Even he couldn’t precisely pinpoint and articulate why he had wanted to see her.
If there had been some issue, as she had asked, he could have given a simple and clear answer.
But there was nothing. Literally nothing had happened.
He had truly just left the palace on a whim because he wanted to see her.
Come to think of it, hadn’t his aide asked a similar question when he was leaving the palace?
“Your Highness? Where are you going again?”
The aide with a gaunt face blocked his path, but Einar easily sidestepped him and continued walking.
“To meet Riina.”
The aide’s hand, which had been reaching out to stop him, hesitated and then withdrew.
“I didn’t realize you had an appointment. My mistake.”
“There was no appointment.”
The aide’s dry voice scattered behind Einar as he turned the doorknob.
“You’re going to meet her without any particular reason…”
Recalling up to that point, Einar met the blue eyes staring up at him and tilted his head in the same direction as her.
Why had he suddenly decided to go see Riina?
A feeling that Riina might be in trouble?
But her getting into awkward situations wasn’t exactly rare, was it?
Rather, it was almost a daily occurrence for her to experience countless incidents and accidents…
How long had they been staring at each other with their heads tilted in the same direction?
Riina briskly shrugged her shoulders.
“Well, if nothing’s wrong, that’s good.”
Having very simply settled Einar’s concern, Riina immediately pointed towards the inner part of the alley.
“Since it’s come to this, why don’t we go together?”
* * *
Rewinding time slightly to when Einar was suppressing his laughter at Riina’s “idiot” comment.
In a reception room used for meeting less important individuals in the Third Prince’s palace, Smith was facing Jane.
Or rather, Smith was pretending not to be himself while facing Jane.
“The Third Prince is not here. Come back another time.”
The Third Prince, dressed as a palace servant, didn’t even try to hide the fact that he was openly looking down on Jane, emphasizing it with a deliberate jerk of his chin.
Jane might be a commoner, but she was the shadow of the Bolshevik heir and officially a guest invited by the Third Prince.
For a servant to treat such a person with disdain and chin gestures…
An ordinary person might have reacted in one of two ways:
Either become furiously angry on the spot, or simply leave without a word, overwhelmed by the Third Prince’s authority.
But Jane neither got angry nor left. She just stared blankly at Smith.
What is he doing?
Jane’s lips, which bore a faint smile, trembled slightly, but the smile never faded.
“Why are you standing there stupidly? Didn’t you hear? I said the Prince is busy, so go back.”
Even more rudely than before, bordering on outright insults, he called her stupid, but Jane remained standing there with the same faint smile.
She couldn’t understand why he was pretending to be someone else when the Third Prince was clearly right in front of her.
She had no way of knowing that this was Smith’s shallow attempt at testing her.
Because she looked down on him just as much as he looked down on her.
How many people would think that someone they considered far beneath them would dare to “test” them?
“I said go back right now!”
Smith shouted at Jane, who showed no reaction, but Jane didn’t flinch at all and slowly bent her knees.
“I greet the Third Prince.”
Smith’s eyebrows twitched at Jane’s flawless etiquette.
Not bad for a commoner.
As expected of a Bolshevik. Even though she was brought in as a shadow, to educate her so perfectly in such a short time…
Smith’s eyes gleamed like a snake’s as he looked down at Jane, who kept her eyes lowered while kneeling.
However, he didn’t immediately acknowledge Jane’s greeting and left her there for a long time, as if punishing her.
Usually, there are two reactions in such cases as well.
First, unable to endure, one might rudely end the greeting without being acknowledged.
Second, one might impatiently withdraw the greeting, asking why it wasn’t being acknowledged.
Both cases would be disqualifying.
“Hmm.”
Smith just tilted his head while looking down at Jane.
How much more time passed like that?
Smith’s cheek twitched as he watched Jane, who showed no signs of wavering.
He had been testing her continuously, but none of her responses fell within his expected range.
In contrast, Jane, who had gracefully bent her knees and lowered her head like a deer, remained utterly calm.
For Jane, who was born and raised as a commoner but had polished her outward appearance through gritted teeth to appear no less than any noble young lady, merely kneeling for a long time was nothing.
Isn’t it truly ridiculous?
The Third Prince must know that she is of common birth.
There had been no attempt to hide it, after all.
And yet, this Third Prince, who was born and raised delicately in the palace, thought that simply kneeling for a long time and straining one’s back would be difficult and was trying to punish her.
What a fool.
Indeed, the Bolshevik’s eye for talent and information gathering were flawless.
Of course, it wasn’t a punishment but a test, but either way, it didn’t change the fact that what Smith was doing was unsightly and stupid.
After a long while, Smith, who had been waiting for Jane to break down out of stubbornness or whatever reason, finally spoke.
“I didn’t reveal who I was.”
He deliberately didn’t show his dissatisfaction. Even in front of something like this, revealing his own failure would be a foolish thing to do.
Pretending to be a servant and insulting her, not acknowledging her greeting for a long time – it was all a kind of test.
To determine whether the Bolshevik’s shadow was a useful tool or not.
But neither went as expected.
Originally, even servants from other households, let alone palace servants, often never see a member of the imperial bloodline in their entire lives.
A mere commoner who had just entered the Bolshevik household as a shadow might have seen a portrait at most.
But if he had disguised his face to some extent, even that would be unrecognizable.
So the first test was prepared to observe two things:
The discernment to recognize people and the ability to improvise in sudden situations.
If she couldn’t even handle these basics properly, she would be useless no matter if she was the Bolshevik’s shadow.
In that respect, the shadow who recognized him at once and handled the situation quite well had passed for now.
And the next test was…
But Jane’s following words quickly shattered Smith’s plausible conclusion.
“I beg your pardon, but this is not the first time I’ve met Your Highness.”
“Not the first time?”
“Yes.”
Smith frowned and then nodded.
There had been opportunities for the imperial family to appear before the people of the empire, so she might have seen him from afar then.
Of course, the meaning of what Jane said was not what he thought and understood.
Jane had met the Third Prince twice.
At the temple where the suicide disguised as murder took place, and in the forest where the hunting competition was held.
Well, at the hunting competition, it was more that Jane unilaterally saw the Third Prince and witnessed his reckless act of drawing his bow towards the black tiger.
In any case, Jane remembered exactly who the Third Prince was.
But this fool doesn’t remember me even though he’s seen me twice.
Although this fool didn’t say it outright, judging by the contempt he openly displayed, it seemed he didn’t even consider commoners as people.
He couldn’t even remember meeting her as a witness during the suicide incident where they had spoken directly, so there was no way he could remember the appearance of a mere commoner.
Both Jane and Smith, busy sizing each other up with similar, or rather identical, eyes, had only read information about each other on paper.
No, in this case, wouldn’t Jane, who had already met him, have an advantage?
After all, as the saying goes, seeing once is better than hearing a hundred times. Meeting once would be more effective in understanding each other than reading a hundred pages of documents.
Finally, Smith grabbed the top part of his shirt that was choking his Adam’s apple and tore it off as if ripping it, then opened his mouth.
