Life as a Tower Maid: Locked up with the Prince

Actually, the place I asked Crowell about earlier was the store where she had bought her fountain pen.

Crowell’s work relied on her sketches, and it’s not just a day or two that she’d been using that pen.

It must be the good kind, if Crowell was continuing to use the same fountain pen.
It also had a luxurious feel to it.

And it was something that Albert was bound to use frequently as well.
I’d been trying to think of a gift I could give him that was something that could be useful to him and at the same time something that was high-quality, and in that sense, giving him a fountain pen as a gift was perfect.

Mercy and I entered the fountain pen shop, then I picked out a handcrafted, customized pen for Albert.
It would take about a day or two to prepare.

And since I was already out, I also want to get him another simple gift.
So, I bought a platinum bracelet at the jeweler’s next to the fountain pen shop.

 

Before I transmigrated, I wouldn’t have been able to afford any of this.
But right now, the story was different.

It’s quite exhilarating to spend money.

Everything that happened until now was well worth the trouble—as long as I’d be able to spend this much every time.

Oh, the joys of life when it’s finally possible to buy things without looking at the price tag!

After a satisfactory round of shopping, we went out for a short walk.

There were many shops along the avenue that had posters of Albert’s face hanging on their windows.
People everywhere were praising Albert’s might.

The business district was abuzz with voices.

After such a long time, I met many people and was able to talk to them.
Even if I do miss the tower, I realized that—naturally—people should meet other people, communicate with them in order to live.

As expected, humans should be able to meet other humans.

While walking down the avenue, I heard a lot of people talking.

The most common topic was Albert.

There had been a purge of Rosteratu-allied nobles, and it already ended smoothly.
Most of the country’s people were starting to accept Albert as king.

A lot of talk also involved how he had a grasp over the lord of the magic tower and the other nobles.

Mercy smirked when she heard that she was being talked about as well.
Of course, they didn’t seem to know that Mercy was the one and only lord of the magic tower.

Listening to the showering praises directed at Albert, I felt satisfied for no reason.
And as I walked down the avenue, my ears sharpened more as I listened out for what else they were going to say.

“Gosh, he’s truly a great man.
After overcoming such a time in his life…”

Such a time, huh.
Well, it’s only natural to say something like that if you know what happened during Albert’s childhood.

“You know, my son went out to volunteer this time.
My son also said that he’s a great man.”

It wouldn’t have been an easy task to reverse the rumors that Rosteratu had first spread beforehand.
But, as expected, Albert was born to be king.

I nodded my head along with satisfaction as I heard them complimenting him.

“Still, he had been truly unfortunate.
But he finally returned to his rightful place.
Who knew that he had tried to take his own life in the past.”

I halted where I was.
That last part struck me right then.
All I could think about was that I shouldn’t just pass by like this.

“Isn’t that what made His Royal Highness who he is now? I’ll be loyal to him for the rest of my life.”

“I can’t believe that even someone as perfect as him had such an arduous life.
I couldn’t even dare to say that I can sympathize with him, given his hardships.”

“And I heard it wasn’t just one instance, too.”

…This is the first time I’m hearing about any of this.

Blinking dazedly, I turned to Mercy.

What I was aware of was about how unhappy Albert’s childhood had been, but…

I had never heard about him trying to take his own life.
I didn’t even read anything about it in the original novel.
Never once did it even cross my mind.

“What are they talking about?”

“You didn’t know?”

Mercy blinked back in surprise.
Rather, it looked as if it was weird that I didn’t know about it in the first place.
I’m going to need a more detailed explanation.

Seeing the sudden fervor in my gaze, Mercy scratched her chin for a second, then she let out a deep sigh.

“It’s a rumor that His Royal Highness had spread himself.
It played a part in calming down the false rumors that Rosteratu had spread before.”

When she mentioned that Albert had spread this rumor personally, I was able to put two and two together.

I recalled the conversation I had with Albert back when we were at Liam’s residence.

 

“I will buy their sympathy.”

 

His confident gaze was straightforward, shining with certainty, and his voice rang clear.
He was the very image of the male lead.

Back then, I was under the impression that Albert would be talking about his unhappy family history.

About how he barely survived from the attacks of his very own blood relatives, who all had killed each other.
A story like that was enough to win people’s sympathy and favor.

Albert was wise enough to make good use of his irrevocably tragic past.

That’s what I thought.

I knew that he’d be able to jump over that hurdle in no time.
And looking at the Albert of the present, no one would be able to imagine him suffering in any way in the past.

He was the main character who could fully overcome all his childhood wounds.
Every main character had such a backstory.

It was a scar from the past that would make it impossible for others to completely be able to understand him.
This was a cliché that’s often used in novels.

I had already seen Albert up close—touched him with my own hands.
I thought that he had already put his past behind him.

 

“People will be quite sympathetic once they realize that the person who is all the way up there is, in fact, not so different from themselves.”

 

I already knew about how brutal his family history was before even being taken under Rosteratu’s custody.
However, I never thought about whether he had been able to overcome those experiences already, emotionally and mentally.

Seeing the present Albert, such things didn’t seem important to him.
Everything was part of the past—just a required trial in order to make who he was today.

Of course, what had been mentioned just now could be just another publicity stunt.
It might have just been a lie so that he could further manipulate public opinion towards him.
After all, it aligned with what he said about buying the people’s sympathy.

It did not fit Albert’s personality to make up such a lie—about taking his own life—just for the sake of fueling rumors.
But still, I would rather that it was, truly, just a lie.

Something like that, happening to him.
Wasn’t it just too cruel of a story?

 

“I want to remain the perfect man in your eyes, even if only a little longer.”

 

…What he said to me back then rang in my ears.
And my face flamed up.
I couldn’t stand the shame that was surging within me.

I had feelings for Albert, and yet all this time, I had been putting him on a pedestal.

As I had always fixated on his perfect appearance, I hadn’t been keen about getting to know him more.

What I told myself was that I was still too afraid of getting to know him more—for fear that it’s impossible that he would love me.

Even if it was Albert, who was more accustomed to others relying on him rather than the other way around.

Even if it was him, who was more used to listening to other people talk rather than letting his own thoughts known.

There was a time when I wanted to let go of everything.

I didn’t dare to try and see the true extent of his scars.

I had lost my entire family, too.
But even then, I couldn’t bear to think about ending my own life.

Because I was afraid to die.
Even as I was being bogged down by a heavy swamp of emotions, which seemed to contain all the most depressing things in the world, I couldn’t bear the thought of leaving the world.

Death was something that I feared greatly.

But Albert was different.
Now, I had become aware about how he tried to end it all… several times.

With this realization, it felt as if I had come face to face with a huge sin that I had committed.

You said that you like him.
You said that you love him.
But before all that, you didn’t even know about such an important part of him.

I had been turning a blind eye to him all this time, ignoring all the opportunities to better understand and get to know him.

But there lay the question.

…Do I have the right to ask him about it?

If it was something that he didn’t want to tell me about, then I also didn’t want to force him into telling me.

Back when Albert briefly mentioned it to me, he talked as if he didn’t want me to know.
That he wanted to continue being perfect for me.

So, would it be better to pretend not to know? But how long could such a story be covered up?

“Rosé, do you know why His Royal Highness became such a strong mage?”

As Mercy watched my expressions change in real time, she suddenly asked me.
I shook my head in response.

“If a mage uses up their magic to the point that they’d run out of mana in a short span of time, it’s like a near brush with death.
Truthfully, it’s an opportunity to obtain a bigger pool of magical power, but many people who attempted such a thing died in the process.
The younger the mage is, the higher the chance of, you know…”

Mercy pretended to slit her own throat.
When she had trailed off, Albert’s face immediately came to my mind.

Our escape from the tower had involved a considerable amount of mana.
And at that time, he even treated me from black magic.

Albert only said that he was going to be sick.
He never said anything about teetering between life and death.

I could feel myself getting upset at Albert.
I knew that he just didn’t want me to know because I’d feel this guilty.

And Mercy likely didn’t know that what she’s saying would affect me to this extent.

If I had known about such a thing earlier, I would have endured any amount of pain that I had been given.
No matter how painful it had been for me, I never wished for him to risk his life.

“But not many mages know about this.
Usually, it’s considered suicide to use up your mana to the point of mana exhaustion.”

“…Then, to know the truth about it…”

“Yeah.
Even when His Royal Highness had been so young back then, he came to the conclusion that it was better to just die than to continue on.
So he tried to take his own life through this method, but he survived, and that’s how he came to know about that fact.
He’s never one to do things half-heartedly.”

I didn’t want this to be the reason behind why he had been able to become the strong mage that he was.

Neither did I want him to be the perfect male lead from a novel who had everything from birth.

Even if everything had come from his abilities, everything else would have been fine.

I bit my lower lip.
Hard.

Still, I wanted to hear more from Mercy.
Anything that she knew.

“It’s a fact that’s known amongst mages who have gone through the same thing.
There’s nothing more I can say about it beyond that.”

But I wanted to know more about the rumor.

“Mercy, can we walk a little more?”

However, if Albert didn’t want me to know, then I didn’t want to ask.

Being aware of this side of him wouldn’t dent his perfection in any way, but I still wanted to protect his intention of not letting me know about it.

“Sure, alright.”

As soon as Mercy grasped what I wanted to do, she gave me a nod.
As I carried a bag that contained his gifts, we continued to walk.

While going down the avenue, I listened to what other people were saying.

“I heard that His Royal Highness threw himself down a lake.
He died and came back to life.”

“…When he came back from that near death experience and made up his mind, it wasn’t long after that he was taken under the former king’s custody.”

“And then he was used.
What a rotten f*cker, that former king.”

The people made a great deal of noise.
And depictions of Albert’s face could be seen everywhere.

As more of Rosteratu’s evildoings were revealed, the rumors that Albert had spread took more hold in the people’s minds.

And, inevitably, if the stories about Albert were just merely rumors, then they wouldn’t have been able to get such detailed anecdotes.

In the end, there were witnesses, and this added credibility to those stories.

Most of what I was hearing now were things that I had already read in the original novel, but it was still so painful to listen to them.

These were my thoughts, but I wonder what people felt about these stories.
It couldn’t even be certain if respecting Albert was a natural progression for them.

What was flashing through my mind now was the look on his face when he said that it was fine, as long as I was the only one who didn’t know about it.

Old wounds were bound to leave scars.
Time could solve many things, but that didn’t mean that scars wouldn’t remain.

There’s no way that I didn’t actually wish to talk to him about it, to check whether he was alright now or not.
But with that expression on his face, I wouldn’t have been able to bring it up.

Albert found a way to break through the malicious rumors that Rosteratu left behind, but in the process, it had dug through his old wounds.

But truly.
Albert had decided to continue living after those horrific days—and that Albert was amazing.

“We’ll be able to see a restaurant at the end of this road.”

Mercy leaned in close to me and said this in a whisper.
She was looking straight ahead.

Now that she mentioned it, it was almost dinnertime.

To get rid of these gloomy thoughts, even for a moment, we should get something delicious to eat.
I tried to walk forward with a lighter mood.

“You know, His Royal Highness is waiting for you, Rosé.”

Until I heard what Mercy said.