Chapter 11

As the larynx grows during puberty, the thyroid cartilage needs space to expand, so it pushes forward. That's what gives the visible bump on the throats of many men.

It's also called 'Adam's Apple'.

It's been 4 months.

And I've noticed this in Her Highness.

And she's got a flat chest...

I've never seen another woman with a flatter chest in the empire than her...

I put two and two and then found out she's a he.

Other than this, time went by without any problems. He didn't ask me any specific questions and wasn't mean to me anymore.

So, each day went by very quietly and peacefully.

In a short time, winter was over, and springtime is here. In Imperial Year 284, I'll turn fourteen, and he is already fourteen.

In contrast to what I heard, he is a very calm, well-behaved child. He spent most of his time idly; even when angry, he never bothered the maids.

I thought he would like hunting and martial arts, but he didn't do anything special except go for a walk or read a book at the library.

He doesn't hunt, so why does he buy so many guns? Except for his living expenses, all his allowance goes toward his excessive collection of firearms.

He didn't like it when any of the other maids followed him except for Tori. So he only called for me occasionally during dinner to taste-test his food. The food was safe enough that I didn't even need a silver spoon to check it. Having to manually check whether or not his food was poisoned or not was just a long-term prank to ridicule me.

He's the son of the Empress, but nobody knew about him. He couldn't be recognized as the Emperor's son and would be just a bother to kill him. If I accidentally touched the Emperor's 'daughter' and tried to kill her, they would blame me anyways. I'm not a dumb person who would risk that.

But it's okay because he would never know all the wicked ways I killed him off in my head.

I ate the food, but I sneaked in a look at him to see if he was watching me die or not.

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I did? I would never do that, Your Highness."

When Rupert asked me a direct question, I quickly shook my head and covered my food-filled cheeks.

He reads the room fast.

"Did you lose weight? Those clothes look like a big potato sack on you."

'I didn't lose weight; they're just a bigger size, you bastard.' I grunted inside and smiled. 'But I did lose some weight.'

"No..."

"It's impossible that you would lose weight because you're eating all my food."

I wanted to talk back to his murmuring, but there was nothing I could say. I really did eat a lot of his food because I had to. At the table of the royal family, there is more food than one person can eat. It's a way to show off how extravagantly rich they are by serving delicious food in such large amounts that they can't eat it all.

It would've been better if he had told me what he wanted to eat so I could test them out individually. But no, instead, he forces me to try everything, even though he won't eat it himself.

Even though I was so full after every meal, I still needed to gossip to obtain information from the other servants, so I also joined them for meals. I was afraid that if I kept eating like this, I would continue to get fatter, but I was sure I would lose weight just like I did when I was fifteen. I don't want to be as skinny as I was in the past, but it's better than it was before.

No matter how full I was, I always ate with the other maids so that I could hear the latest rumors and get information from them.

"Your Highness, is it good?"

"You already ate your dumplings. Do you want more?"

This little boy treats me like a pig all the time. Because he couldn't even remember my sweet name, he sometimes called me Dumplings. He wasn't doing it to tease me, but I was still offended. That's just the way he was, so I just smiled and internally scoffed at his joke.

"No... just watching Her Highness eat like that also fills me."

"After you ate like that earlier? Are you sure that you're full just watching me eat?"

This guy has no manners...

I put a small smile on as I watched Rupert's words make Tori laugh out loud.

"I'm glad you two are getting along just fine."

Does Tori think that we're being friendly?

I swallowed the disgust in my mouth along with the food that was still there and backed away slowly.

On Wednesday afternoon after His Highness eats lunch, his music teacher Alberto will stop by. I had to meet him because Tori didn't know how to speak the court language. He was a strict and bossy man.

"I'll greet Alberto."

He isn't a knight, and he doesn't have an inherited title, so he doesn't have a noble lineage.

So, I call him by that name.