Life as a Tower Maid: Locked up with the Prince

Chapter 4

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It’s a shame that the joke flew over Albert’s head, but it’s understandable that he was left dumbfounded.
So, I changed my approach.

“It was a joke to change the mood.
It’s a kind of compensation, Your Highness, because you’ll guarantee my retirement.”

My arm was stiff now because I was still holding the tray up, so I stopped talking and put down the meal on his desk.

“Please don’t get me wrong, Prince.”

The phrase ‘I think you’re great’ was still something that he interpreted as having many hidden meanings.

If misunderstandings pile up like that, they’ll become sweet potatoes.* I needed to explain myself right away.

“Your Highness, I just look up to you and admire you.
Compliments make anyone feel good.
So if the Prince is in a great mood, then I’ll be as well.”

Praise made even whales dance.
And I’m sure Albert wouldn’t help but love hearing compliments.
I’m just being honest anyhow.

Everytime I fangirl over him, he mustn’t mistake my actions for love.

Fangirling and love are different—just as the ideal is different from the real deal.

This had to be clarified.

“Please don’t misunderstand all the actions I take as a sign of twisted love for Your Highness.
I’m sure you already knew this after you kissed me.”

“…”

“That I don’t love Your Highness.”

A kiss where neither closed their eyes.

I’m sure he was aware of it, too, because that should be the main reason why he signed a contract with me.
Even so, Albert remained silent instead of answering me.

Well, my actions were consistent with what I’d declared in our agreement, so there’s nothing he should say.

“And before you refute me, there’s something I must tell you first.”

“What?”

I wasn’t going to say this because Albert’s definitely going to think I’m being narcissistic and vain, but I needed to point it out.

“I’m saying this just in case.”

Albert raised his eyebrows.

“What is it?”

After I transmigrated here, I had all the clichés.
Especially a person like me who transmigrated into a novel.

Originally, if you change the flow of the narrative, you get involved with the male protagonist and fall in love with each other.
It’s a cliché that’s so obvious and overdone, but people can’t get enough of it.

But I don’t want to fall in love with Albert.

Apart from the time he suffered at this tower, he had an unusual childhood.

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The Count family he was born in had noble royal blood mixed in, but there was only superficial honor left.

He had no other relatives, and in that household he grew up with two older brothers.
While those brothers were fighting over succession and poisoning each other, Albert was neglected and left alone.
He even survived a poisoning attempt that his brothers orchestrated.

He was only eight years old that he had to endure the assassination attempt by his brothers.

Their parents were only interested in making the County successful, but they would dabble in business with the black market just to gain more.
However, they died from the epidemic that swept the back alleys.

Albert spent his twisted childhood there, then was adopted by Rosteratu.
Of course, Rosteratu never cared for Albert, so his unhappy childhood continued, which influenced his values and personality.

I don’t know what kind of love he’d eventually have for Seo Ina, but I knew that the road to him realizing this love wouldn’t be smooth.
And I lived a life similar to his.

When I had just graduated from college, my parents died in a car crash.

I lived without any time to grieve.
I cried a lot by myself when I was alone, even though I had to push through and survive in society.

I got used to looking cheerful whenever I was out, as though I could breathe easily.

Getting used to the sad reality I had might be the reason why I accepted this ridiculous incident right away, no matter how absurd it was to find yourself suddenly transmigrated into a novel.

The reason why I liked reading books was because I could forget my own reality for a while.
I felt comforted by seeing people live their own lives that were so different to mine, and in a sense, I felt their love for life as well.
Unlike me, those characters didn’t have such misfortunes in their lives.

Once I leave this tower, I’ll find the right man for myself.

I’ll feed you, so all you have to do is bring yourself.
Oh, but your face, body, and personality should all be good.

In short, my ideal type isn’t Albert.

I smiled broadly at him.

“Prince.
Don’t fall in love with me.”

“…Me?”

As if he heard something ludicrous, Albert burst into laughter.
Ha.
It kind of reassured me anyway.

“This is an enclosed space and we’re alone.
That’s very possible.
You tend to rely on each other in such cases.”

“You’d better be careful, then.”

Dear Beloved Prince, I’ve seen quite a few handsome guys in modern times.
I’ve never fallen in love with them even after seeing them all the time on television and books, so with you…

“Yes, I’ll be careful as well.
Then I understand that you agree? You won’t fall for me?”

Albert, looking at me sideways, touched his lips.

“I don’t need to state the obvious, Rosé.”

“These things shouldn’t just be implied.
Please say it out loud.”

If you say it out loud, you won’t forget it later.

He pressed his forefinger and thumb over his eyelids as though he was already tired of this conversation, then said curtly—

“Alright.”

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Albert made eye contact with me, his intense gaze entirely on mine.

“I will not love you, Rosé”

His low voice resonated pleasantly in my ears.

How satisfying.

“You must be tired after examining the wand.
Please eat this, I prepared it.”

Albert leaned back on his chair as he heard that I prepared a meal.
I wiped the desk neatly and stuck out the spoon to him.

He blinked, then alternately looked at the soup bowl and spoon.
Surely, it’s because the dish was unfamiliar to him.

“…What’s this?”

“Egg drop soup.
It’s my favorite soup, so I prepared it.
It’s very popular where I used to live.
Please remember that this is how I feel about your health!”

After that grand explanation… I coughed in embarrassment.

With bread at the side, the egg drop soup was made by stirring the eggs while boiling.
In my head were memories of a lot of other recipes that the original Rosé knew, but I preferred Korean food more.

But in fact, I prepared this for a bigger reason.

I was too lazy to make breakfast this morning.

Doesn’t this happen to everyone? That moment when you just really don’t want to do anything.

I couldn’t overcome modern laziness.

I’m a slave to inevitable laziness.

Albert stirred the egg drop soup and took a spoonful.

I sat in front of him and ate my own serving of soup as if it was the most delicious food in the world.

It was definitely not because I had a guilty conscience.
The egg drop soup was really that delicious.

 

* * * 

Albert’s day began at 5 AM.

He woke up in the morning and practiced his swordsmanship and spellcasting for three hours.

Well, he didn’t have a sword, so it was more like image training.
But he didn’t neglect it nonetheless.

Like an action star in a movie, he does fingertip push-ups and even handstands.
Somehow, it was great to see his body glistening with sweat.

I usually fell asleep at midnight and woke up at around 8 o’clock.
I was used to sleeping around that time.

If I had a computer or a cellphone here, I would have slept later in the night, but sadly, this was the tower.

In my spare time, I wrote my reports or drew pictures.
I also thought of what to eat the next day, or have some small talk with Albert.

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Albert and I had completely different lifestyles.
Except when I needed to go to work, I never got up early.
Sleep is really important, okay.

Of course, it’s definitely a divine healing experience to see a handsome man exercise, so sometimes I wake up early just to watch him.

I would get permission from Albert before watching him.

“Prince, watching you exercise and appreciating your absolutely perfect body just burns my will to exercise.
May I?”

Then he would just smile and nod.

I think he actually laughed that one time.
But anyway, the only exercise I did in the tower was breathing.

After waking up, I fold my bedsheets in the attic.
There’s a small window there, so there’s thankfully still sunlight streaming in.

If I go to the second floor, I’d eventually run into Albert after he’d washed his face.
After I handed over the wand to him, he was free to use the bathroom anytime he wanted.
However, the kitchen was still impossible for him to enter.

Whenever I ran into him, I would greet him warmly, hoping that his vigilance would soften.

“Did you sleep well, handsome Prince?”

After saying goodbye, I would go to the kitchen and prepare breakfast.

The Korean food ingredients finally arrived—the ones that I told the guards about that I’ll use as a torture device for the prince.

It seemed like the reports I wrote about Albert suffering through the spicy food was effective.
But of course, the Albert in my reports was fictional.

Since I ordered the ingredients diligently, I changed the main menu of the tower to Korean food.
Even while living in captivity, I should still eat whatever food I wanted.

When I served rice, I didn’t hear any complaints from Albert.
Actually, I never heard him complain about anything.

Yaaaawn. I stirred the soup one more time.

Today, I was cooking spicy potato soup with potatoes, rice, fried eggs and cabbage.

The potato soup was steaming now, and when I tasted it, it was just right.

After opening the lip of the pot, I transferred the white rice to a bowl.
A lot of rice for Albert, and just enough for me.

Then, I took out another bowl and put the fried eggs there.
Two for Albert, one for me.

Oh, I almost forgot.

I opened the simmering pot and took the boiled eggs and transferred them to a bowl.

Albert exercised a lot, so it’s good for him to eat more protein.

I don’t know anything about the right diet, but when it came to protein, boiled eggs were the best.

I placed six boiled eggs in one bowl.

Breakfast is ready~

“Your Highness, here’s our breakfast!”

As I held the tray, I spoke in a loud voice while climbing the steps.
When I got closer to the room, my hands suddenly felt lighter.

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“Rosé, that looks too heavy for you to lift.
I’m sure you called me on purpose.”

“I’ve been caught, dear Prince.
I believed that the kind Prince would help me.”

Hehe.
I followed Albert in, who took the tray from my hands.
He placed the tray on the table, then I pushed over one bowl to him.

This desk right next to the door was something he used for work, but when it was mealtime, he would use it as a table for eating.

Looking at the bowl in front of him, he raised his chin.

“You mentioned that this was a new type of torture method, but I’m not sure if it was the right decision to let you get ahold of these ingredients.”

“…Isn’t Your Highness eating too well for it to be considered a new type of torture?”

Albert stayed silent.

“I’ll ask you seriously, Rosé.
Just how many eggs do you have in front of you?”

“Eight, sire.”

“Do you think I’m a chicken?”

“Two eggs for rice and six boiled eggs for the muscles that the Prince exercises every morning.
Obviously it’s not enough.”

I spoke with confidence, but his gaze was still stabbing at me.

I quickly scooped up a spoon of rice.
Mmm, so yummy! After eating spicy potato soup with lots of red pepper powder, it felt like I could live.
As expected, Koreans should eat spicy food.

“Eat up, Your Highness.
I heard that spicy food is great, so I prepared some today.”

“It’s unusual that you like spicy food.”

“Everyone has different tastes.
Still, today’s potato soup is the best.
It’s really delicious.”

Albert took one spoon of potato soup.

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I waited for his reaction apprehensively.
Did chefs standing in front of a judge feel this way?

Then, he swallowed it down.

——
tl/n: Sweet potatoes is internet slang in Korea for ‘being frustrated or impatient’, the same way it’s hard to keep it down without drinking a beverage after eating it.

The other side of this is cider (what Koreans call Sprite) which emulates the opposite effect of ‘sweet potatoes’ in that cider is more refreshing right after eating sweet potatoes/seeing something incredibly frustrating in a novel.

(side note: y’all this is so funny in Korean, she literally talks to the Prince in a customer service voice like he’s a guest at a hotel or smth lol)