Life as a Tower Maid: Locked up with the Prince - Chapter 7

TM has been completely translated on Patreon

Chapter 7

Translator: Yonnee

—

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, Your Highness.”

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.^[1] 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 were two different things—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 transmigrating 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.

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 he grew up with two older brothers. While those brothers were fighting over their household’s succession—poisoning each other, even—Albert was neglected and left alone. He even survived a poisoning attempt that his brothers orchestrated.

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

Their parents were only interested in making the countdom 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 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. People 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.”

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.

¹ Sweet potatoes – 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)