Act 13. Let's Break Up

When I arrived home, I washed up and changed into something comfortable. Finally feeling like I was able to breathe again, I threw myself onto my bed and wrapped myself up in fluffy sheets. As I was about to close my eyes from the comfort, today's events suddenly flashed through my mind like a panorama. Among them, the most prominent memory was the crown prince's appearance, the man who I had been so afraid of.

Frankly, the crown prince was not as horrible as I thought he would be. In fact, I felt comfortable when I had walked with him down the dark corridor. The way he had gently held my hand and matched my pace was surprisingly very considerate of him. It was true that I had not committed any notorious crimes yet, and perhaps that's why he was treating me with courtesy. I decided to change my opinion on the crown prince from a frightening psychopath to someone who was still evil, but didn't matter to me as long as I didn't cause trouble. I began to think about the royal princess this time. I had a feeling that the banquet for Her Highness' coming of age ceremony would go smoothly as well if I remained quiet.

At that moment, I heard a tapping sound coming from my window. Max had said he would come visit me after the banquet, so I stood up and walked towards the window. I however ended up sighing when I recalled my bizarre thoughts during the time I had spent with the crown prince—I had continuously compared Max with the royal prince. I decided that I probably made such a comparison unconsciously because Geraldine and Max were the only men around me.

The tapping noise sounded again, prompting me to hurry towards the window. Without much thought, I unlocked the latch and pulled the door slightly open. I peeked outside, then froze in shock. It was another pigeon that was even worse than the previous one. The former had been white, but this one was gray, like the one that had flown into the convenience store and acaused rampage. Terrified, I quickly slammed my window and backed away from it. The bird glared at me as it continued to peck at the window. There was no way it should have been able to enter the room, except that I had left the latch unlocked. I tried to approach the window again, but it was too late. In no time, the pigeon had entered my room and was staring at me.

Although it was customary for one to send letters the day after the banquet, Max couldn't wait through the night. He wanted to tell Jubelian as soon as possible that the crown prince was not a figure to be feared, and for this reason, he was staring at the brightly lit window on the second floor of the Floyen mansion from under a large tree in the garden.

Feeling nervous, Max thought back to what he had written in the letter. As it was through pigeongram, he had not composed a lengthy one and instead had opted for a rather straightforward message. Nevertheless, he was confident that his letter alone would put Jubelian more at ease. As such thoughts circulated in his mind, he began to look forward to a life filled with sunshine and rainbows. Deeming he would be able to reveal his identity to Jubelian once this message reached her, he began to daydream of the day he would exterminate the emperor and the empress and welcome Jubelian as the queen.

For such dreams to be fulfilled, the pigeon resting on his hand had to carry out its duties without fail. Although Fresia had said the bird was the smartest she had raised and had never fallen through, Max couldn't help but recall what had happened the last time he had tried out this method.

"This is an important letter, alright? You'll be in big trouble if you fail."

Although the bird couldn't understand human words, it could feel that the man blabbering nonsense in front of him was something like an enemy. Realizing the intimidating aura, the poor creature began to coo.

"Off you go," Max said, ignoring the pigeon's desperate cry for help. He watched as the flying messenger made its way to Jubelian's window and decided that the animal was clever enough to deserve Fresia's praises.

Just then, Max narrowed his eyes to see that a hawk was flying toward his pigeon. It was indeed a rare sight as hawks usually lived in the mountainous countryside rather than near the capital.

Frightened, his little messenger hastily flapped its wings to return to him. Afraid that his letter might get ruined, Max crouched down to gain momentum and jumped up to catch the pigeon into the safety of his hand. Irritated by the unforeseen obstacle, he tried to grab the hawk's neck with one hand while holding the pigeon in the other. That was when he saw the Floyen household's seal at the hawk's tail.

'…Jubelian won't like it if I kill this.'