CHAPTER 12

‘Hmm…they all look so pretty. But these desserts are too common. It is so easy to find them in every dessert shop. My soon-to-be dessert café will be very popular later.’ She chuckled.

BRUK

CLANG!

PYAR!

“Ouch…” Althea groaned.

Someone has bumped into her very hard. Because of the sudden push, Althea’s body hit the display table. Unfortunately, she stood right in front of the pyramid display table which was made from a super-thin aluminum plate and it was enough to injure human flesh. She saw her glass of wine broken on the floor and some desserts scattered all over the table.

“I…I beg your pardon, Lady Althea. I don’t mean to harm you. I…I accidentally bumped into you. Please forgive me.” A lady’s voice rang behind Althea.

The lady’s voice was sounded similar to Althea’s memory. She was Lady Priscila. She intentionally bumped herself on Althea and fell on the floor by herself. The Crown Prince who saw Lady Priscila on the floor ran to her.

“Althea! I thought you’d changed. But in fact, you are still this cruel to my lover, huh?!” The Crown Prince shouted sarcastically to Althea from behind.

All the guests stopped their chatter and fell into silence. Althea was still facing the table, back-to-back with the commotion behind her. According to the current condition, she concluded that the one who bumped her hardly was Lady Priscila and she intentionally fell on the floor by herself but the Crown Prince accused her of hurting his lover.

Althea closed her eyes tightly to control her anger. She senses a liquid flowing on her forehead. Then, she touched it and saw blood on her fingers. ‘Damn!’ She cursed inwardly.

The Crown Prince was still nagging sarcastically while Lady Priscila acted as if she was innocent. Althea clenched her fists and turned her body to face the two. The Crown Prince who saw Althea’s forehead bleeding stopped his nag and Lady Priscila whose action went too far covered her mouth in shock.

“Do I look like someone who is guilty of the ruckus?” Althea spoke indifferently.

“Althea…your forehead is injured…” The Crown Prince tried to touch Althea’s head.

Althea quickly stepped back to avoid his touch, “Don’t touch me.”

“Althea, let’s treat your injury first.” The Crown Prince’s voice turned soft.

“Your Highness, instead of treating my injury, you better take very good care of your lover. She bumped into me and was careless. I didn't even lay a hand on her but she acted as if I slapped her in the face. And you, you deliberately accuse me of my innocence, huh?” Althea spoke sarcastically.

“I…I don’t mean to harm you, Lady Althea.” Lady Priscila sobbed.

“Althea, you heard Lady Priscila said she didn’t mean to harm you. You just make everything worse in the name of jealousy.” The Crown Prince said.

“Huh? Jealousy? Hahaha…if you think that way, you’re totally wrong, Your Highness. What I meant is, your lover is too weak to hold her own body to keep steady. She bumped into me that hard and made me injured. You better hold her hands wherever you go or even carry her in your arms.” Althea said sarcastically.

“Lady Althea, what are you talking about? I won’t let the Crown Prince do anything to me as he pleased!” Lady Priscila shouted at Althea.

“Eh? Don’t you two a lover? Or is it just a one-sided love? Well, whatever. I don’t care about your relationship status after all. Do anything you want, just never try to approach me in the future.” Althea’s statements were surely addressed to Lady Priscila, but her glance sharply addressed to the Crown Prince.

“Althea, how dare you act that way in front of me, the Crown Prince?!” The Crown Prince shouted.

“And how dare your lover harm me in the very first place? Just take care of your lover, I don’t need your concern at all.” Althea remained calm and shook her hand to stop the conversation.

Went down the stairs after an important talk with other nobles, the duke saw Althea with red blood spread all over her forehead to her neck. He widened his eyes with anger.

“My dear!” The duke’s voice rang all over the hall. Everyone was bewildered hearing the duke shout, “Who dares treat my daughter this way?!” He shouted again as he walked approached his daughter. The duke’s tension made everyone tremble.

“Duke, this is just a misunderstanding. Please let me treat Lady Althea’s injury first.” The Crown Prince’s said with concern.

“Hurting the sole successor of Harrigan Duchy means death, Your Highness. I believe you understand this, yet you still call this just a misunderstanding?” The duke said indifferently. “I ask this for the second time, who dares hurt my daughter?!”

“Y…Your Grace. I don’t…I” Lady Priscila trembled.

“Are you the one who did this to my daughter? Who are you? Speak now!” The duke asked with his cold gaze.

“I…I…”

“The daughter of Baron Jenn, the Crown Prince’s lover, Priscila Jenn” Althea interrupted indifferently. Hearing Althea’s answer, the duke’s tension became worsened. He looked straight into the Crown Prince’s eyes.

“Evan.” The Duke called

“Yes, Your Grace.”

“Command the escort knights to call Baron Jenn to the duchy right now. If he doesn’t come to me within 2 hours, I’ll make sure his lineage regrets their stupidity.”

“I heed your command, Your Grace.”

“Y…Your Grace, my family has nothing to do with this. P…Please, Y...Your Grace.” Lady Priscila kneeled regretting her action of offending the Harrigan. She looked up to the Crown Prince, wishing great help from the royal family.

“Duke…”

“Let’s get home my dear.” The duke ignored the Crown Prince who was about to say something.

Since the gown made Althea hard to walk faster, the duke carried Althea in his arms. Before he walked away, he threw a murderous gaze to the Crown Prince. He shook his head, which means that he was more disappointed at how foolish he was. All the guests were in silence to the heavy tension that the duke made in the hall.

“Y…Your Highness...” Lady Priscila called. The Crown Prince dragged Lady Priscila out of the hall to avoid the nobles’ gaze.

“What the hell did happen?!”

“Your Highness, are you mad at me? Everything that Lady Althea said is wrong!” Lady Priscila denied.

“Tell me what you did to her?!”

“I don’t mean to harm her. I saw you were captivated by Lady Althea’s beauty and ignored me. It makes me jealous, Your Highness.”

“I’ll ask my attendance to send you home. Let’s not meet each other for the time being.” The Crown Prince said in a flat tone after hearing Lady Priscila’s reason. He thought that the reason was so stupid that made his anger worsen.

Lady Priscila was sent home by one of the Crown Prince’s attendances. The Crown Prince was also headed back to the Imperial Palace. With the left of the two, all the guests could breathe comfortably at last and they started gossiping.

“Oh my God! What was happening?”

“Lady Althea has just recovered and now she got another injury!”

“How careless Lady Priscila is. She harmed Lady Althea and ruined this party!”