Royal Secret: I'm a Princess!

"WHEN IT comes to achievements, Lord Rubin can't hold a candle to me, Your Grace," Hanna said confidently. "I know I shouldn't judge a person by their educational background. But for someone who speaks so highly of his son, you'd think Lord Rubin graduated at the top of his class. But in reality, Your Grace bribed the academy to let him graduate on time."

Yes, there was corruption in the Royal Moon Academy.

But Nero took a blind eye to it because he didn't care, and he thought it wasn't a big deal. Apparently, as the Crown Prince, it was his duty to ignore the "small" misdeeds of his subjects.

[I'll tattle to Neoma later about Nero's corruption in the academy.]

"Young Lady Quinzel–"

"I'm not yet done talking, Your Grace," Hanna said in a calm yet firm voice, cutting off Duke Drayton quite rudely. "Ever since I entered the academy, I've always been the top female student. Overall, I'm only second to Prince Nero since our first year."

The old duke frowned, but she wasn't done talking yet.

"A person isn't defined by his educational background," Hanna continued even though Duke Drayton was glaring. "There are so many people out there, especially among the commoners, who are successful despite not attending a prestigious academy. On the other hand, there are nobles like Lord Rubin who graduated from the Royal Moon Academy. And what does your successor do to continue the legacy of your "great" household, Your Grace?"

Of course, Duke Drayton couldn't say anything.

Even though Rubin Drayton was the duke's official successor, the old duke hadn't handed any of his businesses to his only son yet. Duke Drayton was still in charge of everything related to House Drayton and their territory.

"I understand, Your Grace. If I were you, I wouldn't entrust my business to my incompetent son as well," Hanna said, smiling while insulting Rubin Drayton in front of the old duke's face. "Too bad Lord Rubin isn't even half as capable as I am, right? You must be fuming in envy that my father, a duke like you, has a very successful lady as a daughter AND SUCCESSOR."

Duke Drayton scoffed. "Have you forgotten that you're the future Crown Princess, Young Lady Quinzel? Once you marry the Crown Prince, you'll become an official member of the Royal Family. Since you are so smart, then you should also know that our law dictates a member of the Royal Family cannot manage large businesses."

Of course, she was aware of that matter.

However…

"I'm not yet married to Prince Nero, and we'll never know if I will really end up marrying His Royal Highness until it happens. Hence, at this moment, you're talking to the Quinzel Princess and not the Crown Princess, Your Grace," Hanna said confidently. If she was the old Hanna, she wouldn't dare speak arrogantly in front of an old and powerful duke. But thanks to Neoma's influence, here she was now. "Your Grace, if you can't entrust your business to your only son, then should I hire Lord Rubin? I could always use an extra errand boy. As Your Grace probably already knows, my father recently bought a land that happens to have a large iron mine in it. And my father is entrusting that mine to me."

The old duke's face turned ugly because his greed and envy were very clear now. "Duke Quinzel is handing the mine to you? He must be out of his mind. What does a lady know about weapon production?"

"I know enough to kick you out of business, Duke Drayton," Hanna declared coldly. "Aren't you here because you want to buy the iron mine from my father? After all, House Drayton is the biggest supplier of weapons in the empire. But that will change soon, Your Grace. The iron ores found in MY mine contain Mana. Hence, the weapons that we're going to produce using them will be much better in quality than the weapons you currently produce. I guess it's time for you to kiss your clients goodbye?"

Now Duke Drayton's face turned red from anger, his bloodlust oozing. "You're crossing the line, Young Lady Quinzel!"

When the old duke stepped forward as if he was about to attack Hanna, Vice-captain Jaxson Emmett stepped forward and stood in front of her protectively.

The other knights also surrounded her to keep her safe.

Of course, Hanna could defend herself from Duke Drayton. But she let the vice-captain and the family knights do their job.

[They take pride in protecting the Quinzels, after all.]

"Duke Drayton, please step back," Vice-captain Emmett said in a polite yet firm voice. "I'm afraid I have to ask you to leave the estate."

"You move aside, you lowly vice-captain–"

Hanna was about to be really rude to Duke Drayton when…

"What is this shameful behavior towards my fiancée, Duke Drayton?"

[What is he doing here…?]

Hanna was surprised, and mildly annoyed, to see Nero stepping out of the royal carriage while being assisted by Melvin Lucchesi.

***

"YOU SEEM to have some interesting guests, Hanna."

[Of course, he'd notice them.]

Hanna remained calm while sipping her tea.

Lewis and the others were currently hiding their presence.

But Nero, just like Neoma, had also grown strong the past five years. Hence, even the likes of Lewis couldn't completely hide his presence from the Crown Prince.

"Are they the reason why you didn't invite me inside the mansion?"

Hanna brought Nero to her favorite garden. To be precise, they were having tea in the beautiful pavilion.

Thanks to the efficiency of the maids working for them, the tea and snacks that were served on the table looked pristine. Nothing was lacking despite the limited time the servants had to prepare for the Crown Prince's sudden visit.

"You came unannounced, Nero," Hanna reminded the Crown Prince, addressing him casually since the knights and the servants were out of hearing range. "Aren't you going to apologize for that?"

"I see that you have no intention to talk about your guests."

She just sipped her tea.

"I'm aware that visiting unannounced is rude, hence I prepared an apology gift," the Crown Prince said, then his hand moved as if he was summoning someone.

Melvin Lucchesi, the Crown Prince's secretary, walked towards them while holding a medium-sized velvet box.

Then the secretary bowed to Hanna politely before putting the box on the table.

"You may open it now, Hanna."

"Alright," she said, putting her teacup down on the table. "But for the record, I appreciate a genuine apology over an expensive gift."

Nero just sipped his tea.

[Will he die if he apologized verbally?]

Her thoughts suddenly stopped when she opened the box and saw what Nero's present was.

It was a tiara, and it wasn't just any tiara.

Hanna looked at Nero in disbelief. "This is the tiara that Empress Juliet wore when she was officially introduced as the Crown Princess."

Of course, she was talking about the real Empress Juliet.

And she recognized the tiara immediately because she had been taking bridal lessons as the future Crown Princess for the past few years.

"You should wear that tiara to Calyx's birthday banquet."

"If I do that, then I'd steal the spotlight from Prince Calyx," Hanna said. "Are you sure it's okay for me to do that to your precious brother?"

"Calyx is my brother, but he's also a competition to the throne," Nero said casually. "There are still many nobles who aren't satisfied with me as the Crown Prince simply because I am Mona Roseheart's son. Those bastards who don't know their place are trying to get chummy with Calyx."

"So, you're going to use our engagement to keep them in check?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at the Crown Prince. "After all, everyone wants to get close to the Quinzels since our businesses have been thriving even more so than usual. Hence, if our engagement becomes official, you'll also gain a strong backing."

As expected, everything was politics for Nero.

[And yet…]

"I'll do you a favor in return," the Crown Prince offered without denying the things she said earlier. "I'll get Duke Drayton off your back. I know that he's bugging you recently because the Quinzels have been messing with his businesses."

Duke Drayton immediately excused himself when Nero arrived, hence she knew that the Crown Prince could do something about the old duke.

Even so…

"I can deal with Duke Drayton on my own."

"Pfft," Nero said, laughing softly. "You keep getting cuter day by day, Hanna."

She didn't want to admit this, but her heart fluttered.

"Wear the tiara to Calyx's to birthday banquet, hmm?" Nero asked in a gentle tone. Then he removed the glove in his right hand before extending it to her. "May I?"

Hanna automatically gave her hand to Nero.

[Ah, why am I so weak against him even though he annoys me half of the time?]

"Hanna, I'm glad that you've returned safely," Nero said, kissing the back of her hand without breaking eye contact. "I know that there are things you wanted to keep from me, so I'm not going to ask what happened. The fact that Duke and Duchess Quinzel were calm only means that you weren't really abducted."

She flinched a little.

[He's really Neoma's twin brother.]

"But the fact that Duke Quinzel is doing his best to destroy House Drayton while Duchess Quinzel is denying Regina Quinzel as a blood relative could only mean that the Draytons and that woman had hurt you."

"What is it that you're trying to say, Nero?"

He smiled charmingly at her. "Nothing."

She just scoffed at his response.

"Duke Hawthorne is your business partner, isn't he?"

"And what about it?"

"Duke Hawthorne is working for a woman who looks like my female version."

She tried to hide her surprise, but she wasn't confident that she hid it well.

[Nero already knows what happened in the North. Even so, I didn't expect him to confront me this directly.]

"Have you already met that woman?"

"What if I did?"

Nero smiled widely. "You already did, huh?"

She let out a long sigh.

There was no point hiding it anymore since Neoma wasn't hiding from Nero anyway.

"Then that means Calyx's birthday banquet is going to be interesting."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Your "friends" will crash the banquet, won't they?" Nero asked, smirking. Then he kissed the back of her hand again. "But I hope you pay attention to me the way you pay attention to them, my dear fiancée."

And the Crown Prince said that with that handsome face of his.

[I'm not that obsessed with looks, but Nero's face is really out of this world.]

Hanna definitely blushed, but she still hoped it wasn't that obvious. "Don't get cheeky with me, Nero."

***

"WE DON'T have to tighten the security during the banquet," Calyx said while sitting on the empress' throne lazily. Only he and his mother were in the throne room at the moment, so it didn't matter. "Actually, we don't need it."

The Empress Dowager, his mother, looked confused as she stood in front of him. "You don't need it when we're very certain that Princess Neoma would come and crash the banquet?"

"Exactly, Mother," he said, shrugging. "We know that Princess Neoma and her people would come to ruin my banquet. And we also know that we can't stop her, unless we wanted a full-on war."

"Ah, that's right. She already destroyed two of our units."

The Empress Dowager was talking about the unit that guarded the cave, and the unit that they sent to the North to gather Darkness.

Both units were annihilated by the royal princess.

"We can't sacrifice pawns more than we already had," he said. "Moreover, I don't want Princess Neoma to think that she's special if we put so much effort into stopping her from attending my banquet. I want to humiliate her by welcoming her to the celebration with open arms."

Because that would make Princess Neoma realize that he wasn't threatened by her presence.

[She can't ruin my special day.]

His mother nodded in agreement. "You have a point. And you have nothing to be scared of, even if Princess Neoma arrived at the banquet."

"Right, Mother?" Calyx agreed, smiling. "After all, I have the new saint with me."

[I can't wait to humiliate the arrogant princess~]

***

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