Home/I Didn't Want a Honeymoon Like This/ch33

Chapter 33

"Are you—are you joking?"

Franz started to raise his voice, then caught himself and lowered it.

"It's true."

Alexei remained calm.

"Still, it couldn't have been that long ago, could it? You played recently, right?"

"I wonder. About three years ago, perhaps."

Franz's jaw dropped.

"And you stepped forward with such confidence?"

"I remember the rules."

"Should I take over, even now?"

"No. I don't want to entrust Angelina's fate to someone else."

Franz suppressed his frustration and spoke.

"Don't forget that my fate is also on the line."

"I'll do my best."

The butler, who had left on the duke's orders, returned. In his hand was a telescope. He placed it in the center of the table.

"Since the stakes are on the table, we're ready."

The Duke of Lyon smiled with satisfaction.

"Sit."

Alexei took a seat across from the duke. The butler pulled out his chair and stood between them.

"You keep score yourselves."

"Fine."

The butler handed over a score sheet and fountain pen, then left the room.

A strange tension hung in the air with the table between them. The Duke of Lyon's mouth was smiling, but his eyes were not.

"Shuffle the cards."

The duke raised his hand with composure. Alexei swallowed once and took the deck.

Whenever he saw nobles enjoying card games in salons, he had always avoided them like the plague. Those places were overflowing with alcohol, crude jokes, and laughter—all things Alexei detested.

"The world doesn't exist only in books, Your Highness."

It was at the urging of the eldest son of Count Gerdie that Alexei had reluctantly joined a table, only to taste his first defeat. That wretched memory of the count's drunken son laughing crudely and mocking him—who knew it would become a useful experience.

I can't show any weakness.

Alexei shuffled, dealt twelve cards each, and placed the remaining deck face down in the center. The Duke of Lyon nodded as if to say, You go first.

Alexei shielded his cards with his hand and looked at them.

Twelve numbered cards.

"…Carte Blanche."

The Duke of Lyon raised an eyebrow once. He discarded his cards and drew three, just as Alexei had done.

Franz watched the game from a step back. From their expressions alone, he couldn't tell who held the better hand.

"Set of four."

"Point of five."

"Point of three."

The game flowed smoothly. At least that was a relief.

He had worried the Crown Prince might fumble over the rules. They said he had a sharp mind—it seemed true.

Franz remembered what the passengers on the Aurora had said.

Some had called him a blockhead who only knew books, but still.

"This is the final round."

By rough calculation, the Duke of Lyon was ahead by ten points.

Alexei held his cards and wished.

The fate of three people hangs on this round.

At the start, it was a fifty-fifty chance, but now it had tilted to seventy-thirty.

"Point of three."

"Equal."

"Set of three."

"Not good."

"Sequence of five."

"Good."

At first, Alexei seemed to be losing to the duke, but from the moment he declared the sequence of five, the momentum shifted. The Duke of Lyon answered "good" consecutively, and Alexei's score sheet filled up.

"Repiqué."

All the cards in his hand had disappeared. The Duke of Lyon smiled bitterly and closed his score sheet. Even a rough calculation made it clear who the winner was.

"I've lost handsomely."

"It was a good game."

The Duke of Lyon looked at Alexei, who wore a victorious smile.

"Then, as promised, I'll take the telescope."

"Of course."

Following Alexei, the Duke of Lyon rose. Alexei picked up the telescope.

Once I hand this over to the pirates—

"Wait."

Franz grabbed Alexei's arm.

"This isn't the right one."

"What?"

"It's not the telescope we had."

The pattern did look similar, but…

As Alexei examined the telescope, puzzled, the Duke of Lyon took down a decorative sword and pointed it at the two of them.

"Who are you?"

"……"

"Why is a Latrian here?"

His sharp gaze ensnared them. Alexei answered calmly.

"I don't know what misunderstanding you have, but we're from the Leo Republic."

The Duke of Lyon smiled coldly.

"Piquet scoring varies slightly by region, but recently Tordi and its neighboring countries joined the Piquet League and use unified rules."

Alexei's fists grew sweaty.

"I've stayed in Latria before. You used that distinctive scoring method I saw there. And you couldn't even tell the telescope was a fake."

"……"

"What is your reason for entering my house, posing as the telescope's owner?"

So this was the duke's scheme.

He had used a similar-looking telescope as the first test, and the card game as the second.

It was only now that Alexei understood why the duke had refused their request outright, only to propose a game afterward.

A trap to uncover the identity and purpose of suspicious strangers.

I was so fixated on getting the telescope that I failed to judge coldly.

"What the duke says is true."

With the lie exposed, there was only one way forward.

To meet it with the truth.

"We are not from the Leo Republic. Nor are we the owners of the telescope. We have no intention of harming you. Let me introduce myself formally—so please lower that sword."

Alexei spoke with firm eyes. The Duke of Lyon lowered his sword.

"I am Alexei Werner, Crown Prince of the Latria Empire."

"You are the Crown Prince of Latria?"

Duke Eberhard of Lyon was astonished. He had suspected that the Latrian royal house might be involved in the background of those who dared set foot on this dangerous land—but the Crown Prince himself?

Unable to believe it, he stared at the man before him again.

His upright gaze carried no lie.

"Do you have proof?"

"I cannot reveal Latrian imperial secrets to prove my identity."

It didn't seem like a bluff. Now that he knew who they were, the question was why they had come.

"Why are you in Tordi?"

"We were attacked by the Devlon in the Esti Strait."

"If it's the Devlon—"

"The ship commanded by Captain Jin Blasquez. Our passenger liner was seized. We barely escaped and transferred to another ship, only to find its final destination was the Tordi continent."

The duke had heard from the navy that pirates had been running rampant lately. Jin Blasquez's Devlon had been raiding every merchant ship crossing the Westin Sea, forcing many to take longer detours. With Captain Blasquez dominating the seas, other pirate ships had grown bolder.

The Duke of Lyon had urged a large-scale pirate suppression, but the Tordi Emperor had been indifferent.

No matter how bold they were, seizing a passenger ship carrying a crown prince was clearly crossing the line.

The question was whether it was done knowingly or not.

"What about the telescope?"

"The telescope belonged to that pirate. If we don't return it, my people's lives are in danger."

"That's impossible."

"……"

"Because that telescope was originally mine."

Alexei's eyes widened.

"And if you truly are the Crown Prince of Latria—"

The Duke of Lyon raised the sword he had lowered.

"I have a duty to report this to His Majesty the Emperor."

"Duke Eberhard of Lyon, I want a quiet return to my country. I believe you can help me."

"No. A subject's duty comes before entertaining foreign guests."

"But surely you don't want war either."

The Duke of Lyon's eyes wavered.

Alexei had heard the name of Duke Eberhard of Lyon in conversations between his father, Emperor Werner, and his ministers. There was a faction within the imperial court that argued for stopping the war and maintaining the previous emperor's peace policy—and at its forefront was Duke Eberhard of Lyon.

"If I and the Crown Princess fall into Emperor Raoul Garcia's hands, the current peace will be shattered."

"The Crown Princess?"

"The hostage the pirates hold is my princess."

Even the Crown Princess of Latria is in Tordi?

The Duke of Lyon was deeply shocked, but he kept a composed face and said,

"Tordi's history may be rewritten—according to the Emperor's will. I have no reason to stop it. It could become a different form of peace."

"Even if pirates are involved in that matter?"

The Duke of Lyon's eyes widened in an instant.

Back   Next