"No matter how you look at it, this situation is rather comical."
When the commoner suddenly pinned me to the floor, I perceived it as something funny.
And even her fierce expression at that moment seemed terribly amusing to me. With each passing moment spent together, the girl reminded me more and more of a child.
Her actions were clumsy due to the bandages, and her eyes widened when she saw me laughing.
It was because I remembered my past life.
The last creature that behaved towards me in a similar way was my dog. In my past life, my family had a pet. It was a large golden retriever. The problem was that this dog was also very strong. And every time I came home, he would jump on me and thus knock me down.
So, the current situation vividly reminded me of that.
"Oh, I hope Chuckie is doing well now."
Watching the commoner's face, which continued to be extremely indignant, I compared her even more to my dog. I couldn't help but laugh.
"Why are you laughing?"
The princess's face continued to darken, but Camilla couldn't control her laughter. She thought she wouldn't be able to stop unless the end of the world came to bring her to her senses.
Kaena, in turn, thought this woman had gone crazy. Fortunately, she didn't suspect that right now the duke's daughter was comparing her to a dog.
"Why can she still smile, being in such a situation?"
The princess slowly blinked, trying to understand the situation, when the woman beneath her didn't look the least bit alarmed.
"Maybe she doesn't fully realize the threat?.."
Since this girl continued to behave extremely disrespectfully towards her, Kaena thought that perhaps she should teach her a lesson. "She should know her place." However, at the moment Kaena was about to take some action, she suddenly realized that she was unable to do so.
The face of the woman smiling at her was as beautiful as a flower. The princess felt very strange. She couldn't even properly explain it to herself. As if under the influence of hypnosis, Kaena could only absently look at her.
This continued until the room door suddenly burst open.
"Oh."
It seems I completely forgot that we weren't alone in the house.
My father and brother stood in the doorway. Their jaws dropped when they witnessed this scene. Needless to say, my own smile slowly slid off my face.
"..."
The silence in the room grew more and more alarming. Then the Duke de Walte couldn't take it anymore. Clenching his fists, the man screamed throughout the mansion:
"Camilla de Walte, how dare you...!"
I swallowed. Oh damn.
Perfectly aware that my family inheritance was at stake, I reacted quickly. Taking advantage of the commoner's momentary confusion, I crawled out from under her and knelt before my father. Then I forced the girl next to me to do the same.
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When I made her kneel, the commoner's face reflected both anger and bewilderment simultaneously.
"Don't be afraid," I whispered barely audibly, "I will protect you."
"..."
Looking at me even more surprised, she finally gave in and didn't resist.
At first surprised by my actions, the Duke soon immediately demanded:
"Explain yourself immediately, what is going on here! Who is this woman? What were you doing?"
"I... I..." I stammered, desperately trying to find the right words.
Victor de Walte frowned.
"Speak more clearly. I can't hear anything."
Unfortunately, the Duke possessed great perceptiveness. Moreover, he was much more experienced and older than me. I hadn't yet learned to lie well enough to fool him.
Therefore, to avoid worsening the situation, I preferred to just tell the truth.
I took a deep breath.
"Oh, father, this is a commoner I saved yesterday afternoon..."
When I uttered these words, they both stared at me in surprise.
"What?"
I hastened to supplement my story with details:
"Yesterday, during an afternoon walk, I found this girl on our territory. She was fleeing from bandits and accidentally ended up here..."
Hearing this absurd excuse, my older brother laughed coldly.
" 'Accidentally ended up'? Are you kidding?! Do you even know how many people guard our home? It's impossible!"
Judging by the expression on the Duke's face, he thought the same.
Victor de Walte was a prudent and extremely cautious man. He would never allow a stranger to infiltrate his territory.
The Duchy de Walte was guarded around the clock. There were only a few ways to get here unnoticed, and even those were too risky. Therefore, I had to put in a lot of effort to explain the current situation.
Especially without inadvertently revealing that it happened during my illegal frost mushroom gathering...
"Where exactly, according to you, did you find her?" the Duke inquired.
"Uh... In the garden."
"What?" he raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"I was admiring the blooming hydrangeas in our greenhouse," I quickly caught on, "And when I bent down to smell a flower, I accidentally found this girl."
"So you found this commoner in the bushes...?"
"Yes."
"..."
Anyone listening to me at that moment would have thought I was talking complete nonsense. But it so happened that this was the excuse that came to mind then.
The Duke de Walte cast a skeptical glance at the commoner. In his opinion, this woman was very suspicious. Poor clothes, moreover stained with blood. Her facial features were not distinguished by nobility and were more suited to a criminal. For a moment, the Duke focused his attention on her eyes.
The girl also looked at him.
Involuntarily, something inside the Duke went cold.
Her golden irises seemed vaguely familiar to him... More precisely, the Duke had heard rumors that in the entire empire only the Crown Princess possessed the gaze of a predator. But the man didn't give this thought much importance. Thank the gods, the crazy heiress was already dead.
Surely there was simply another person in the empire with similar eyes.
Feeling my father's rapidly growing displeasure, I hastened to assure him:
"Father, I promise this girl won't cause you any trouble! She'll stay in my room the whole time!"
"Who is she?" the Duke stubbornly repeated his question.
"She... uh-uh..."
"You don't even know her background, and you intend to keep this person in my house?" the head of the family snorted.
I pursed my lips.
At the same time, Yufil didn't even consider this situation worthy of discussion. Not seeing the need to sort anything out, he immediately demanded:
"Our home is not a flophouse for just anyone to hang around! Father, throw her out!"
"I just saved her! She hasn't even recovered yet!"
"I don't care! If you care so much about this girl, you can get out with her! No one's keeping you."
"This is my home too!" I declared, "What right do you have to kick me out?"
"I am father's successor!" Yufil said arrogantly, "And you... You..."
Most likely, some insult was to follow, but in his father's presence, the guy didn't dare resort to rude expressions.
Meanwhile, listening to our squabble over the commoner, the Duke tiredly rubbed the bridge of his nose. It seemed he was beginning to lose patience.
"Silence!"
After these words, Yufil and I simultaneously shut up. And then we fell silent and turned away from each other.
A pause hung in the room.
"I will decide what to do with her myself. And you two... Don't interfere."
The guy was outraged, and I felt a fleeting hope.
While the Duke pondered what to do with us next, a crash suddenly sounded in the room.
I turned around in surprise, realizing it happened very close to me.
"!!!"
Unexpectedly, the commoner lost consciousness.