I Tamed the Monstrous Prince - Chapter 18
Chapter 18
He fidgeted with his fork, hesitant to take a bite, so I demonstrated. “Like this. Ahhh.”
He quickly mimicked me. “There, you’re doing well.”
“Mmm.”
Watching him eat, his mouth working diligently, felt less like observing a husband and more like watching a five-year-old. Cesar licked the sauce from his lips, then rubbed his face against the tablecloth.
Ah, correction. Not a child. He was like a large puppy. It was better for my sanity to think of him that way.
“Cesar.” I softly called his name. His eyes rolled to fix on me. “I’m Irenea.”
“……I…ren.” Seemingly understanding, he slowly pronounced my name. “Iren,” “Irene,” “Irenea.” He repeated it several times.
“Annalisa called me Ren.”
“Ren.” He immediately picked up the nickname.
“Ren,” “Ren.” He repeated it, then broke into a wide, innocent, and utterly charming smile. “We’re married now.”
“Married?”
“Yes, married.”
My position was already precarious. No one expected me to survive this marriage. The ladies-in-waiting who cursed me openly, believing I was doomed, this humble Emerald Palace we now occupied, and the Empress who scorned me—I had few allies in this palace. In fact, only one.
“I’m on your side, Cesar.”
“Side?”
“Yes, we’re on the same side.”
“Same.” I couldn’t stand by while people mistreated him, cursed prince or not. No one deserved such treatment.
“So, if anyone tries to hurt you like they did earlier…”
“Hurt…me?”
“Yes, like those…men…earlier.” I imitated the knights. Cesar’s face hardened. “No.”
Just the memory seemed to upset him; he shook his head vehemently. Negative words like ‘no’ and ‘bad’ were remarkably clear in his speech. It wasn’t hard to guess why.
I sighed and shook my head. Something had to be done about the staff’s abuse. “Tell me if they do it again.”
“…Okay.”
I wasn’t sure what power I held, but I couldn’t bear the thought of the muzzle, the chains… how could anyone do that to another human being? It meant they didn’t even see him as one.
“Promise?”
I held out my pinky finger. Cesar simply stared at it.
“This means ‘promise’.”
I looped my pinky around his.
“Promise…”
I couldn’t tell if my words were getting through. Cesar blinked slowly, his clear eyes seeming to convey some meaning.
“Understand?”
“Yes.” He smiled again, a guileless, sweet smile. He really did understand, right? A knock echoed, and the door creaked open.
“…Goodness!” A middle-aged woman, perhaps in her fifties, stood there. I tilted my head in question, and she approached us, her face alight with emotion.
“Your Highness…!”
“Who are you?”
“Oh dear, please forgive my intrusion. I am Mercedes Aroncho, in service to His Highness, Prince Cesar.”
Cesar looked at her with a gentle expression. Did he know her?
“Meche.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Mercedes’ eyes welled with tears, which she quickly wiped away with her sleeve.
“I heard you had moved to the Emerald Palace and rushed here. But…” Mercedes was Cesar’s nanny. She filled me in on his situation. “I was originally a lady-in-waiting to the late Empress Adelaide.”
After Empress Adelaide, Cesar’s mother, died, the current Empress Cornelia had dismissed and banished all of Adelaide’s staff. Mercedes remained only because she was Cesar’s nanny, the only person he had ever truly connected with.
It was unusual for an eighteen-year-old prince to still rely on his nanny, but Cesar’s circumstances were unique. He needed Mercedes, making her his sole confidante.
“His Highness has been… very sensitive lately…”
Lately, Cesar had become almost impossible to handle. Eventually, they resorted to medication and restraints. “But, how could they let it get to that point—”
I wanted to ask what they had done to him, but then I noticed her hands. Her knuckles were thick, her skin cracked and calloused. I recognized the marks of years of hard labor, a testament to her life in the palace.
