Get caught? (Francis POV)

The class for that day ended smoothly; nothing bad happened, everything went as usual. "Your highness, can we have a talk privately?" Olivia approached me after the class ended.

"I told you not to call me 'your highness'." I complained. I wanted her to try to be closer to me and show her true nature.

I stood up from my seat. "Follow me." I walked to a garden near my palace, followed by Olivia and Noah. Not many people came to this garden, so it was safe for us to have a private conversation.

Once we arrived there, I sat on the chair. "What do you want to say?" I asked her right to the point.

Olivia sat next to me and whispered, "yesterday. You were at street xx, right?" I flinched as I heard her question. "His grace, Duke Ashford has noticed." She continued. Did she see me there and reported it? How about Charlize? Did she see her as well? A lot of thoughts burst into my mind, making me feel anxious.

"How can you know that? You're the one who reported it to him right?" I asked her. My face got stiff and my brain kept thinking of any possible way.

Suddenly, Olivia let out a small laugh. I frowned, didn't understand why she laughed. "You make it so obvious, Francis. Without hearing your answer, I can guess that you really do it." My face got more stiffened that I didn't have anything to deny her statement. She caught me off guard.

"Don't worry, it's not me who saw you. Someone reported to the duke that he saw you there. His grace asked me to check if that report is true or not." Somehow, I couldn't trust her words, but I couldn't find any sign of a lie either.

"You better not do it again in the future. I won't report you to them, I promised it in my name. But there's still a probability that he will place some of his men to check the report." I just nodded as I responded to her explanation. After that, only silence appeared between us, no one spoke.

"Can I, can I really trust you?" I asked her, breaking the silence. I knew that my question had an almost certain answer. Olivia came from the Whitley family that supports the Ashford family. How can I trust her? It's easier to trust Charlize that have a grudge against that family

Olivia let out a small laugh once again. "Trust me or not is up to you. It depends on how you think about me anyway." What a hanging answer she had. I didn't give any response. I just thought too much that I didn't know how to respond to her answer.

"But I want you to trust me." She continued. "As I said, I will help you and the only way I am able to help you is, you give me your trust."

"Why do you want to help me?" I still couldn't understand why she wanted to help me. She's the daughter of the Whitley family. Based on what Charlize said, she was a good researcher there. Was she betraying her own family? But why? It's quite weird for someone that great like her to betray her own family.

Olivia just smiled. "You'll figure it out in the future. Ah, it's quite late already." She stood up and extended her hand with a book in it. "Here's a book for you. You better hide it well so no one knows you learn from this book. Tell me if you can't find a place to hide it."

I accepted her book, even though I was confused. "Thank you, Olivia." I faked a smile to be polite.

"Here are some cookies, you like it." She gave me a bag of cookies. "Now, I will return to my mansion, Francis." She bowed to me and left.

Noah came and approached me. "Your highness." I looked at him, giving a sign to him to continue talking. "The book given by Lady Whitley… Isn't it the same as the last book you read with 'her'?"

Noah's question triggered me. I checked the book by reflex. "Yeah, you're right. It's strange doesn't it?"

"It's quite suspicious to me, but it still can be called a coincidence."

I agreed to what Noah said. It may be a coincidence that Olivia gave me the last book I read with Charlize. The problem was, Olivia knew I hadn't reached the level to read this kind of book yet.

Did she know I learned something else silently? But how can it be this exact same? Did Charlize betray me? There must be a reason right? It's really confusing my mind.

"Huh?" I realized that there was something inside the book. The book felt thicker than it should be, like something tucked inside it. I opened the book, and found a piece of paper inside it.

'Read chapter 3, 5 and 7. It will help you a lot for the annual evaluation. I will update you with the information for the annual test. Burn this paper after you read this.'

That was what was written on the paper. I showed the paper to Noah, let him read the content. "What do you think? Whose side is she actually on? Her father is in charge for the annual evaluation right?" I asked him when he finished reading it.

Noah put the paper inside his shirt. "Your highness, don't push yourself too hard. We will find the answer soon enough." Noah tried to comfort me. He was right. I could figure out about Olivia when we got closer. I only had to make sure not to fall into her trap.

....

Hi, so this is the seventh chapter for this novel. First of all I want to say thank you to all of you who have read this novel from the begining.

There're two announcement for you all. First, I found that, there's some grammatical errors in my novel and I'm thinking of fix it. Also, I have some exams in this week and next week.

Based on those two reason, this novel's update will slowed down a bit for two weeks. After I finished with some issues in my side, I will update everyday like before.

Second, I want to know about your opinion about this story. It can be plot wise or writing wise. For plot wise, you can tell you theory for this, and for writting wise, you can tell me the error in my writing.

Thank you all for supporting me. see you in next chapter.