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Right after I parted with Letina, I stormed into Maxwell’s residence. This situation would soon reach the ears of Cortina, Lyell and Maria. But before that happened I first wanted to talk with this geezer.

“So what’s the big idea, huh?”

“What could you be talking about?”

“Don’t play dumb! I’m talking about putting Elliot on teacher duty!!!”

“Ohh, so he already approached you? He is quite passionate contrary to his appearance it seems.”

Maxwell continued playing dumb as he tried to entertain me with tea. But he wouldn’t be able to brush this off so easily. Since I was a guy on the inside, the current situation where a guy was trying to approach me could, in the extreme case, potentially get my identity busted.

No, let me stop beating around the bush and say it straight. What did I do to deserve getting picked up by guys? Marriage proposals would always get a straight no from me, I wouldn’t ever budge on that.

“Now now. I can see where you are coming from, Reid.”

“Like hell you do!”

“Calm down and think about it. Elliot is quite a pitiable boy despite the way he appears.”

Maxwell started to talk as if to persuade me.

He had lost his parents when he was too little to understand anything. Then he was used as a symbol of the country, almost like a puppet. Once he grew up, he had to get involved in politics, so he did not even have time left for his own self.

Then as Lyell talked on and on about her beloved daughter to him, the authorities around him suggested, Why not make her your wife? It was natural that his interest was piqued after all that.

“I am instead surprised that he endured it for so long.”

“Even so, I can’t possibly accept his proposal, you know?”

“That is something you can decide. But I wanted to give him some time to take a breather.”

“I understand your feelings… But dating a guy is impossible for me.”

“I know that. And if it got leaked, Cortina would kill me.”

Letting him stay in Raum as a breather was fine. But we had to make him give up on ‘getting close to me’.

“What should I do…”

“Can you not just flatly reject him?”

“But he’s a king, you know? If I do it poorly, his honor could get crushed. That would leave some lasting effects.”

Hero’s daughter I may be, I was still a commoner. Someone on the bottom of the social ladder rejecting the king that sat at the top could have people look down on him. And being looked down was a big demerit for someone that managed a country.

“And I can’t just become the trigger of that, you know?”

I was acquainted with Elliot. But this is back when he was still a cute kid. If possible, I wanted to avoid driving him into a disadvantage.

“Quite a troublesome situation you are in.”

“You are the one that caused it!”

“Such things are Cortina’s area of expertise. How about you tell her everything and ask her to cooperate?”

“You want me to be killed!?”

Ever since I’ve become Nicole, I’ve shared kisses with Cortina, and even seen her naked. We were like a family now, knowing all about each other’s embarrassing secrets. If she learned that the other part was a man she once rejected… was something I didn’t even want to imagine.

“Are you sure you are not making things worse?”

“Shut it.”

Either way, I had to do something about this. I racked my brains, but nothing good came to my mind.

“Hey, old man. What should I do…”

“Hmm? Well, there is one simple solution…”

“Really?”

I jumped to my feet and approached him. I couldn’t imagine a solution that would take care of the life affairs that involved a royalty.

“Yes, there is. A very simple one.”

“Stop putting on airs and just tell me already, will you?”

“You simply have to get rejected by him.”

Maxwell’s words caused me to stiffen in place. Me? Get rejected by a guy?

“In short, the problem is that he has an interest in you. If that interest is gone, he should stop clinging to you.”

“That’s fine and all… But how to get rejected is the problem.”

“I do not believe it would be a problem if you show him your current appearance.”

Certainly, it was hard to call me a beauty the way I looked now – sitting cross-legged on the sofa and gulping down the tea from the cup I held like a beer mug. If he saw me like this, he would surely be disillusioned.

But that would harm my own reputation too. It’s not like I wanted to become a lady, but I had a favorable impression and I didn’t want to damage it if I could help it.

“I can’t say I’m on board with that idea.”

“Then… Yes, that should work. You just have to make him fall for another woman.”

“Another woman?”

“Indeed. If he falls head over heels for someone else, he would naturally stop getting involved with you.”

I see. If he finds his ideal partner, he would reconsider a commoner like me. But I had no clues on where to look for his “ideal partner”.

“Besides, it’s not guaranteed that she would fall for Elliot either.”

“If you are going to seize the initiative for it, you might as well play that part too.”

“What?”

“In other words… You just have to make him fall for your transformed appearance!”

This old b̲a̲s̲t̲a̲r̲d̲ finally went and said something unbelievable.