The Loving Villainess Is A Ugly Duckling

Chapter 8: The First Prince Is A Loner

"Hup! Ugh!" Its been two weeks since I came to the Capital and today was a free day from work. I had planned on relaxing somewhere quiet but instead, had been dragged by Samson to watch a particular young boy with pale hair.

Sweat dripped from his furrowed brows as he raises his sword to take down his combatant. He strikes at the others sword with aggression and power, hitting at the right spots to make the other a bit panicked. The other raises his sword to swing at the pale boy but the boy dodges. The boy's quick on his feet and, in just seconds, his opponent is on the ground, defeated.

"He's good." I comment admiringly.

"I know." He says softly. My eyes flicker to him for just a second to see his solemn eyes watching his boy. A expression different than his usual ones, but not too surprising for me to see.

I turn back as the child holds his hand out to the teen he had beaten. His face still blank with his strands of hair sticking to his forehead head. The teen looks up to the hand given to him.

"Tch!" He slaps it away and gets up on his own. He sneers at the prince while dusting the dirt off his clothes, "You must think you're so special because you're a prince, huh?" The prince just stares with a blank look. Seeing this, the teen clenches his jaw and turns away from him, "White trash." He mutters underneath his breath and goes towards the crowd of soldiers. I frown when no one steps in to defend the prince. Instead, they ignore his victory and glare him down.

"This is what you wanted me to see?"

"Yes," Samson's voice is serious with no trace of laughter, causing my ears to perk up, "Evander, this is getting out of hand. I had tutors, teachers, trainers who all quit with one look at my son. I can't even control them because they're on the brink of rebellion. I don't know what to do, I've done everything that I could. One misstep and..."

"I get it," I cut him off. I watch as the soldiers leave the kid to his lonesome. My heart squeezed at the sight in front of me when it reminded me of a certain someone, "So what exactly do you want me to do?" I turn away to face Samson.

"I need you to look after him." I was taken back at the sudden straightforwardness.

"You're kidding, right? You want me to babysit?" I eye him for a while, waiting for him to break out into a his stupid grin and say 'Sike! gotcha there, didn't I?' but all he did was stare, waiting for an answer.

"Samson..." I frown, ready to reject.

His eyes grew wide with panic, "Wait!" He holds out his hand to stop me, "Before you say no, I just want you to think about it. You can give me an answer after a week has passed and if you still don't want to do it, then I'll stop bothering you about it." I pursed my lips together as I watched him turn to the boy. I then turn to watch his son who walks away into the forest, dejectedly.

I didn't want to spend more time in the Capital than necessary because I had my own family to worry about. I also didn't want to be weighed down by guilt because I brushed off something my best friend had to deal with himself. The idiot couldn't even remember to put some pants, so how could he take care of his own kid?

I don't need a week, I already had my answer.

I sigh, "Fine, I'll do it."

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I sat in front of my study table with a piece of paper and feathered ink in front of me. I wanted to take a break from practicing on my super secret methods to write a letter to father. There was this unsettling feeling I had since the duke left. It was fleeting the first few days but had increased tremendously. This feeling was a feeling I had experienced my whole past life, loneliness.