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“Come in,” he said after wiping the corners of his eyes.

Ruby pushed the door wide enough for her head, and as usual, she took a peek inside the room. When she saw the Crown Prince lying on the bed with just a blanket barely covering the lower half of his body, she instantly pulled the door shut.

Everard was used to stripping in front of his male servants. And he was also used to being seen half-naked by his maids. So, this was nothing new to him.

However, Ruby wasn’t used to seeing gorgeous men without their clothes on. She felt as if she had sinned just by taking a glimpse at Everard’s body.

Flustered, she asked from outside while stuttering, “Y-Your Highness, are you okay? I heard you scre- Um... So... I came here to check up on you.”

“You can come in and talk, Ruby,” was the only reply that she got, so she walked inside the room while keeping her eyes on her feet.

She stood in front of the door and asked again, “Did something happen, Your Highness?”

Everard stared blankly at the ceiling, and replied in a melancholic voice, “What’s there left to happen? Everything is already in shambles.”

.....

Ruby slowly lifted her gaze, careful not to look anywhere else but at his face. She could see that he was swallowed by sadness, understandably so. She quietly sighed and stood there without uttering another word because she had no words to console his heart.

Though she was feeling empathetic towards what her sire had been going through, she thought that she wouldn’t be able to fully understand him since it wasn’t her father who was on the deathbed. And she thought that she didn’t have any right to ask him not to worry when she wasn’t the one who was suffering.

Everard, however, was expecting a few kind words from Ruby. “Aren’t you going to say something?” he asked after finally turning his gaze on Ruby.

Ruby looked down at the rim of her beige gown and said in a low murmur, “I wish I could say that everything is going to be alright.”

Everard let out a gloomy chuckle. He turned to stare back at the ceiling and mumbled with a hint of contempt in his voice, “So, even you are saying that my father is going to die soon?”

“I wouldn’t dare to even think that, Your Highness.” Ruby denied Everard’s assumption with haste. “I am just not sure if it is my place to... offer consolation to you. And I often don’t know when it is appropriate to speak, or what is the appropriate thing to say.”

Everard recalled what Romulus had said to him earlier, about how everyone around him was purposely hiding information from him. He didn’t understand why they thought it was necessary to do so. It was his father who was ill. And he had full right to know what his father was going through, no matter how bizarre the whole thing sounded.

He glanced at Ruby again. And he said very painfully, “Right now, I think you are the only one whom I can fully rely on. Others just know how to sugarcoat things and hide important details from me. So, I want you to speak your mind, Ruby. You have full right to speak, and there’s no need to filter out anything or hide anything from me.”

Ruby’s heart was elated to hear how much Everard valued her opinions and thoughts. But at the same time, she felt saddened that there wasn’t anyone else in this huge castle in whom he could put his trust.

She felt the urge to comfort him because she was also in great discomfort seeing how down he looked. She quickly moved her feet, and when she reached beside Everard’s bed, she made herself comfortable on the floor.

Though he had asked her to speak her mind, she couldn’t think of anything to say to him to ease his heart.

So, she raised her hand and brought it near Everard’s silky hair so as to gently stroke him on the head. But she hesitated again and folded her stretched-out fingers.

Everard noticed her hesitation and he grabbed her arm before she could pull it away. He placed her palm on his head and said after closing his eyes, “Stay here for a while. I want to fall asleep.”

The corners of Ruby’s lips pulled up a little. She shifted even closer to the bed and then started to gently stroke the Prince’s raven-black hair. She even began humming in her melodious voice while caressing his hair.

That was how her mother used to console her whenever she used to feel down; that was the love language that she knew.

The subtle smile that had danced on her lips lasted for a brief moment only. The thought of her parents haunted her. ‘They must be worried sick about me...’ She felt a sudden twisting in her stomach.

She grimaced when a terrifying thought crossed her mind, ‘The vampires didn’t do anything to my parents, right?’

She gulped hard and furrowed. ‘No, they wouldn’t do that. They wouldn’t hurt a human unless they are criminals... But what if they did?’

Her breathing started to get irregular when she delved deeper into her thoughts, ‘What if they categorized my parents as criminals because of me and hurt them? They are the ones with power, their words are the law. And they are the damned monsters! They can do anything.’

Everard opened his eyes and looked at Ruby because her soft strokes were getting stiffer and stiffer by the second, and he could also hear her breathing noisily and her rising heartbeat. He saw fear in her eyes, and worried, he asked, “Is something bothering you? Or perhaps, someone? Jerome hasn’t been too harsh on you again, has he?”

Ruby immediately put a smile on her face when she saw Everard looking at her. She shook her head and said, “I haven’t crossed paths with Lord Jerome since our first meeting.”

She smiled brightly and then gratefully added, “The maids here are treating me like a valued guest. It’s a little awkward for me though since I am not used to being treated with such hospitality.”

Everard turned on his side while grabbing onto the blanket. His sculpted body was now right in front of Ruby’s eyes.

Ruby inhaled sharply and instantly looked down.

Everard gazed at her long eyelashes and asked again, “Then what is troubling you? You clearly look like something was up.”

Ruby smiled and tried to dodge the question. “What trouble would I possibly have when a lower-class woman like me is being treated like a guest in a castle? You don’t need to worry about me, my Prince.”

He had been addressed that way countless times, but for some reason, Everard felt something in his heart when Ruby addressed him as ‘my prince’.

However, he shook that feeling off and sternly said, “If you won’t tell me what’s troubling you, then you might as well get out.”

Ruby quickly gazed at the Prince with a scared look on her face. “I didn’t mean to hide anything from you, Your Highness. I just thought that my troubles aren’t worth mentioning when you already have more than enough on your plate.”

She was worried that the Prince would lose his trust in her as well. So, before he had to ask again, she answered truthfully, “I miss my parents... I am afraid that the vampires might have done something...”

Everard held Ruby’s hand which was now resting on his head. He brought it in front of his chest and made a promise to her, “I will send someone to fetch them here.”