By the time Kane returned to his room, it was already after 5:00 PM.
The original plan to explore the rest of the palace had been scrapped because the measurements had taken far longer than expected.
Naturally, Kane was somewhat dissatisfied, but seeing how excited and happy Edwina was, he could only tell himself to let it go.
In any case, he did not plan to live in the palace for a long time. Since the mother and daughter were providing such excellent treatment, he could endure a little while living under someone else’s roof.
Although today’s plan had been delayed, he didn’t intend to continue his tour immediately. Instead, he planned to head to the palace library first to properly supplement his knowledge of this world. He would wander around only once he grew tired of reading.
To better survive in this world, knowledge was indispensable.
As for today, he felt strangely exhausted, so he planned to rest early.
And so, after finishing dinner at around 6:30 PM and taking a bath at 7:00 PM, Kane went to bed right on time at 8:00 PM.
Kane slept very well that night. The next morning, as the sun rose at 5:00 AM, the well-rested Kane woke up naturally.
Stretching as he pulled back the curtains, Kane looked at the wonderful view of the garden outside his window and felt a sudden surge of hope for the day.
It was indeed a bit early, but he had already decided to get up, wash, and wait for breakfast at 7:00 AM before heading to the library.
Just as Kane was feeling hopeful, reality dealt him a harsh blow.
“…Huh? No, this… this isn’t right. Why is this happening?”
Seeing the reflection in the mirror, the startled Kane unconsciously widened his eyes, nearly wanting to slap himself.
It wasn’t that Kane had completely transformed into Corellia’s form or truly become the Queen herself upon waking.
While that situation would also be troublesome, compared to the current circumstance, it might have been easier to solve.
After all, waking up and preparing to groom oneself in front of the mirror, only to suddenly find a lip print—an ice-blue lip print, no less—on one’s neck and collarbone was simply too bizarre.
After the initial shock, Kane seemed to remember something. He quickly took off his button-down white shirt and repeatedly checked himself in the mirror, fearing there might be other lip prints.
Fortunately, apart from the one on his collarbone, Kane didn’t find any others on his body.
‘…Phew, that’s a relief.’
Looking at his body in the mirror—which was reasonably well-toned—Kane let out a heavy breath.
If his entire body had been covered, there would basically be only one possibility.
But if there was only this one spot on the collarbone, then other possibilities existed.
Thinking like a normal person, a woman wearing ice-blue lipstick must have broken into his room in the middle of the night and left the mark.
In the entire palace, the only person who usually wore such striking lipstick was Queen Corellia herself.
Therefore, the conclusion was that Queen Corellia had snuck into his room in the middle of the night and done this to him.
However, given Corellia’s personality—one that refused any unnecessary communication with others—the probability of this was infinitely close to zero.
Since everyone knew Corellia normally wore ice-blue lipstick, the possibility of someone impersonating her naturally existed.
The goal would be to make Kane mistakenly believe it was the Queen who had kissed him.
Furthermore, the fact that it could have been wiped away but was deliberately left as a print proved this point.
Otherwise, why leave it intentionally if not for Kane to find it when he woke up the next morning?
Thus, a new question followed: who did this, and for what purpose?
All things considered, Kane had only been in this world for two days. He hadn’t communicated with many people at all.
Queen Corellia was the first to be ruled out; no matter how one looked at it, she was a victim here.
The Queen’s sister, Vita, was also ruled out. She had no reason to do something that would tarnish the Queen’s reputation.
Princess Edwina was excluded as well. As someone who deeply admired and respected the Queen, she wouldn’t do such a thing.
The same applied to the cold-blooded noble daughter, Artina, so she could also be ruled out.
So, if it wasn’t one of them who knew Kane’s true identity, then who was it?
Standing before the mirror, Kane fell into deep thought. After a period of reflection, he finally arrived at a deduction that was logically consistent.
That is, the person who did this did not know he was a tragic prince from another world.
The culprit was very likely an opposition member who simply couldn’t stand the Queen.
They wanted to make the Queen look foolish to achieve some political goal.
If Kane were naive enough to believe the icy Queen had graced him in the dead of night, he might have become incredibly conceited.
He might have either pridefully told others about it, eventually reaching the Queen’s ears, or he might have become self-important, assuming the Queen had feelings for him and actively approaching her—only to expose the matter under her suspicious interrogation.
This also indirectly proved the other party didn’t know Kane was actually Corellia from another world.
Because Kane’s personality dictated that he certainly wouldn’t be flashy about it.
He didn’t even think this was a good thing; he only felt he had been caught in some sort of conspiracy.
This wasn’t just some conspiracy theory. In the original work, the kingdom’s interior was not a monolith. There were those who leaned toward the Church, those who wanted independence, and those who wanted to merge into the neighboring Empire.
Adding in Corellia’s attitude, it was only natural for people to oppose her.
‘…They say being the King isn’t as comfortable as being a Prince. If it were the second prince from the original story, he probably would have dealt with those opposition factions long ago. Even if he couldn’t get rid of them, he wouldn’t have let them dare to do something this ridiculous. Corellia is still too naive.’
Having reached this conclusion, Kane sighed helplessly while quickly wiping away the conspicuous lip print in the mirror.
In short, he planned to act as if this hadn’t happened, and tonight he would try to fake sleep to see if he could catch the culprit.
If this matter only involved Corellia, Kane might not necessarily help her—and even if he did, he would have to hide his identity.
But being dragged into it himself was another matter entirely.
After repeatedly wiping to ensure no traces were left, Kane slowly buttoned up his white shirt.
In his view, since such a thing had happened, it meant Corellia herself had issues. She probably thought she had everything under control because she was too cold and arrogant.
It was also because of her that Kane had been dragged into this mess.
Seriously, when he first saw that lip print on his collarbone in the mirror, his heart had almost stopped.
Fortunately, there was only that one on his upper body… wait, upper body?
Kane, who suddenly thought of something, stopped his hand just as he was fastening the last button.
Gradually, fine beads of cold sweat began to emerge on his forehead.
He repeatedly told himself he was just scaring himself. He abandoned the shirt buttons and slowly unfastened his trousers…
There, his familiar “little guy” looked as if it had just suffered a massive humiliation. It was covered from top to bottom in a terrifying, ghostly ice-blue. Not just the “little guy” itself, but the surrounding area as well. It was a mess, looking like a literal battlefield.
“——————”
Seeing this scene, Kane’s vision went dark, and he nearly fainted.
Wait, what!? Who on earth did this! Was it really necessary to go this far! Are they really not afraid of the Queen settling the score later!
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