“Can you please stop? I am truly getting angry before.”

Continued nonsense seemed unbearable, as Antes angrily snapped.

Luna found Callion’s words ridiculous too, but she wasn’t in a position to scold him back.

Worried that they might actually get into a fight with the knights, Luna with a pale face grabbed Antes’s arm.

“W-w-what are you saying…!”

It appeared Antes was losing his fear. No, of course, that was his character setup, but she thought he had been somewhat sane recently.

It seems he was truly a mad psychopath.

“If you had introduced me earlier, I wouldn’t have had to come like this.”

However, the Crown Prince’s following answer was strange.

“Why should I introduce young lady Luna to you?”

Antes’s answer was also strange.

Wait a minute, what is this? The Crown Prince casually brushing off Antes’s rudeness left Luna momentarily confused.

“Because we’re friends.”

“You must be truly crazy. Why would I be your friend? If you came here to say such things, leave now.”

“I did you a favor with the gold trade.”

“It wasn’t your favor, it was just the good quality of the gold.”

“Is that the only high-quality gold?”

“The only gold that the imperial family couldn’t have was that one.”

As Luna, hanging onto Antes’s arm, blinked trying to understand the situation, the two men’s conversation smoothly continued.

Antes daring to rudely tell off the Crown Prince, and the Crown Prince whining at him.

Anyone could see it was a strange pairing, and Luna couldn’t add anything to the conversation.

“It’s too cold to talk here, so let’s go inside. You wouldn’t dare leave the Crown Prince of a country standing outside, would you?”

“So, if you didn’t want to end up like this, you shouldn’t have turned down my request to visit yesterday. Why come and suffer this?”

Despite trying to break through, the impenetrable Antes made Callion look for another way.

“I apologize, but I wasn’t asking you, I was asking Lady Luna Peils. I came to see the oyn lady.”

Callion extended his hand towards the petrified Luna. If she didn’t take it, the look in his eyes threatened to make up some charge to punish her.

Before Luna could reach out her hand, Antes’s hand harshly slapped away Callion’s hand.

“…!”

Daring to slap away the Crown Prince’s hand, the imperial knights tensely moved their hands to their sword hilts.

Nonetheless, Antes didn’t falter at all. Rather, he was in a mood to bury not only the knights but also Callion.

“Wait a minute!”

Luna tried to calm the situation down, turning thoughtful, but unfortunately, no one listened to her. Among them, a knight with a strong sense of justice even drew his sword.

“Everyone seems to have a death wish.”

Antes, deeply upset by this, quickly snatched the knight’s sword and broke it.

“…Gasp!”

Other knights, at the display of this unbelievable strength, drew their swords as if they were ready.

“Your Highness! Please step back!”

They organized their ranks and seemed ready to charge at Antes immediately.

“Stop right now!”

Luna screamed unwittingly. All eyes of those gathered at the entrance turned to her.

“Everyone stop! Stop it! What are you doing in front of someone else’s house?! If you came to talk, then talk quietly. Why are you drawing swords and causing a scene?! If this continues, I’ll call the guards!”

“…”

The entrance fell silent momentarily at Luna’s intimidating outburst. One of the attendants unconsciously crossed themselves.

Only then did Luna slowly step back, realizing what she had just said.

She then ran up to her room, locked the door.

‘No, have I gone mad? Why did I do that?!’

Just a few days ago, she had made a mistake at the Imperial Palace, and now she’s done this ridiculous act.

Seeing herself continue to speak nonsense, she thought that the real strange one was not Antes but herself. She thought she needed to visit a hospital.

Feeling guilty, Luna hid under the blankets, suffering. Meanwhile, outside, Callion, who had maintained silence, chuckled. There was no sign of displeasure on his face, despite Luna telling him off.

“Your lover has permitted, so I’ll go in. If you want to be caught by the guards, stay here.”

Rather, he seemed quite pleased with the permission, tapped Antes on the shoulder, and leisurely entered the mansion.

For a moment, Antes clenched and unclenched his fists, trying to control his anger. From the beginning, he thought that it was his fault to have a relationship with him.

* * *

“Miss… how about coming down now?”

A while later, Laura’s voice came from outside the door. Unlike usual, she sounded a little cautious, apparently very worried about what had just happened.

It was the same for Luna too. Due to the big humiliating incident, bigger than what happened at the Imperial Palace, she wasn’t in her right mind.

“Miss…!”

Laura called her again.

“His Highness the Crown Prince is waiting…”

Upon hearing this, Luna reflexively kicked off her blankets and stood up. She had no idea what might happen if she was rude to the Crown Prince any longer.

“Ha…”

Eventually, with no choice left, Luna reluctantly left her room.

Laura, seeing her master finally appear, had tears welling up in her eyes.

“He’s in the glass greenhouse?”

“Yes!”

“…He’s not angry with me, right?”

“No, it wasn’t like that. After you disappeared, he burst into laughter. It seemed like he was amused rather than angry.”

It’s a relief, or perhaps not. At least there wasn’t a reason to feel threatened.

As soon as Luna gets there, she has to ask how the two of them know each other. If she gets angry about not being told earlier, the embarrassing moment that just happened won’t be brought up.

Thinking so, Luna, with her heavy steps, arrived at the glass greenhouse, only to be teased by Callion.

“What hurts this time? Oh! Is it a headache again?”

“…”

Why is this man completely different from the Crown Prince she imagined?

Shouldn’t a royal be a bit more serious, with a sense of gravitas, and somewhat intimidating?

But the man in front of her seemed as light as a feather. There was no weight to him, it seemed like he might float away.

How could such a character be friends with Antes? The moment she asks, it seems like he would get annoyed and discard the question.

While having such thoughts, Luna suddenly reached an unexpected conclusion. Antes initially said he had no friends…

“You’ve deceived me.”

As Luna gestured as if to say ‘what is this?’, Antes, understanding the meaning immediately, couldn’t hide his displeasure.

“That’s not a friend. I said I have no friends.”

“His Highness mentioned that young lord is his friend, didn’t he?”

“Not at all. From the beginning, there’s no way I would be friends with someone who makes fun of people for being scolded by their parents or kicked out of their homes.”

Antes, making an inexplicable excuse, caused Luna to frown.

Then Callion, who had been observing the situation with interest until now, interjected.

“You’re still bothered by that? It was a little tease, and you smacked me hard for it, it’s time to forget about it now.”

“If asking whether you are the madman from the rumors every time we meet is a ‘little’, your definition of ‘a little’ is quite interesting.”

“It was just affectionate curiosity. I was only six years old then.”

“You were dirty from the age of six. You were unworthy of the title of Crown Prince.”

“Stop!”

Luna reached out to prevent a second round of this. How is this a conversation between a Crown Prince and the eldest son of a Marquis?

It wasn’t a lie, it was enough to give Luna a headache, so she nodded as if to say  it was enough.

“I understand that both of you have an ambiguous relationship that seems like friends but not quite. Let’s stop this now.”

It was a very strange conclusion, but this was the only conclusion that could be drawn from such a nonsensical conversation.

“So, why did you want to meet me? Were you really eyeing the gold mine and came to intimidate me?”

Luna, who had completely lost her fear of Callion, hurriedly brought up the main point before they started fighting again.

“The word ‘intimidation’ is a bit harsh, but yeah, something like that.”

Oh my God, is he insane? She thought it was a joke. But it’s real.

Unable to respond, Antes grabbed Callion’s arm and lifted him from his seat.

“It seems the young lady is uncomfortable, stop with the nonsense and get out.”

At that, Callion hurriedly grabbed the edge of the table, spilling out his unspoken words.

“Wait! Hear me out completely. It certainly won’t be detrimental to Lady Peils. I’m interested not in the gold mines of the Peils territory but the gold mine you discovered recently. You won’t regret it. Really.”

With such a statement, it was impossible not to hear the proposal. Even if it’s nonsense, the conversation could be ended then.

Luna nodded, and Antes, who seemed dissatisfied, let go.

Even the small movements and gestures were understood, moving smoothly, better than a machine that requires pressing buttons.

The freed Callion, buttoning his jacket, went into the explanation with a rather serious face.

“I will invest in that mine, whose significance as a gold mine is still uncertain.”

Luna, with an unimpressed expression, was about to reply ‘not needed’, but Callion didn’t even let her open her mouth and continued speaking.

“If that mine turns out to be worthless, I’ll buy it. If it’s a meaningful mine and you’re willing to sell it, I’ll pay the commensurate amount.”

“And if I don’t want to sell?”

“Retrieve the invested amount in gold and withdraw. Of course, we can negotiate a fair price for the gold mine.”

That would indeed, as he said, ensure no loss and quickly verify the profitability of the gold mine… But there was one thing that was curious.