Wrong Genre! - vanish into fiction

If that happened, he wouldn’t be able to earn money, and if he couldn’t earn money, he and the servants would end up on the streets. And if they ended up on the streets in this cold winter, they’d obviously freeze to death…!

‘I don’t want that!’

As Rueg made a desperate expression, the person who had been doubting his identity took a step back. Then, as if it was the most natural thing, they wiped the spot on their lips where Rueg’s hand had touched with their sleeve and spoke.

“If you were really Versha Verdic, you would have turned your back on me the moment you saw my face, without even saying a word.”

At the cold voice that fell like ice over his head, Rueg flinched and stepped back.

‘Damn Versha Verdic.’

Just what on earth did that girl do in the imperial palace for people to react like this?

‘What should I do?’

Rueg swallowed dryly and quickly checked the other person’s outfit.

On the left side of their chest was a medal symbolizing a knight of the imperial palace, and at their waist hung a long sword.

‘Huh? A longsword…?’

The moment he saw it, Rueg’s mind suddenly cleared.

For the past few days, as Felix’s aide, he had been coming and going from the palace, but he had never seen a knight carrying a sword as long as the one before him.

However, in the novel <Not a Lady, But a Power Behind the Throne>, there was a description of a person who carried a sword longer than anyone else’s.

Yuri Everton.

The female lead of the novel, and the one who, thanks to Versha Verdic’s bullying, had faced death multiple times.

“A… woman?”

Rueg muttered as he quietly looked at the person standing before him.

She looked at least five centimeters taller than himself, who barely cleared 170 cm. Broad shoulders, a slightly low voice, and a flat chest.

She wasn’t as large as Felix, but still, it was hard to think of her as a woman at first glance. That must be why he hadn’t recognized the female lead right away.

‘That’s right, in the early parts of the novel, Yuri disguised herself as a man. Then, thanks to Versha, her secret was exposed…’

Versha’s bullying of Yuri wasn’t just a one- or two-day thing, but there was only one reason Yuri began to see Versha as her enemy.

Versha had publicly spread the fact that Yuri was actually a woman inside the imperial palace, causing Yuri to be stripped of her knighthood.

“…So you see me as a woman, do you.”

As expected, in a voice that was practically growling with anger, Yuri spoke, and Rueg shook his head vigorously.

“N-No, that’s not it! S-Sir Everton, you’re so gallant, cool, and beautiful! I-I just…”

What could he say to calm Yuri down?

Sneaking a glance at her face, Rueg swallowed nervously. It didn’t seem like she would let him go easily without a proper answer.

“It’s just that, um, if I were a woman, I’d think it’d be nice to date someone like Sir Everton… That’s all…”

Rueg stammered out a jumbled mess of words.

He was so flustered, he even inadvertently hinted that he wasn’t really ‘Versha Verdic.’

But just as Rueg failed to notice what he had let slip—

“I didn’t know you had such tastes, Verdic.”

A heavy voice sounded from behind.

“…Your Highness?”

Felix was glaring at Rueg with an expression full of anger.

It was over.

Rueg, startled, tried to calm his pounding heart as he awkwardly edged toward Felix.

“Y-Your Highness… um, that is…”

No matter what he said, it wouldn’t change the fact that he’d slept in until noon, despite coming here to work.

And on top of that, not just anywhere but in the Crown Prince’s room! To make matters worse, instead of running straight to the office after waking up, he’d been caught chatting away in the corridor.

‘How ridiculous must this look…’

With his conscience pricked, Rueg hung his head low. Felix, in a voice sunk low, ordered,

“Raise your head.”