“An invitation?”

Ben handed Yelena a white card, but even then, Yelena could not take her eyes off the elderly butler’s pale complexion.

“Ben, you look really unwell. Are you having trouble getting up in the morning, or experiencing a loss in appetite, or do you feel your eyes growing weak…?” Yelena ended up asking carefully.

“My sickly appearance is not due to old age.”

Ben shook his head.

“I may not look like it, but I’m in relatively good health for my age, so you don’t need to worry about that.”

“Is that so?”

So then why did he look so pale?

Ben continued.

“Would you like to check the seal on the invitation?”

It was only then that Yelena studied the card in her hand closely.

“…What?” She blurted in disbelief with a frown.

If Yelena was seeing things correctly, then the seal on the card was unmistakably the crown prince’s. Yelena finally understood why she had felt a sense of deja vu when she had seen Ben’s pale face.

Crack.

The sound of Yelena’s peaceful daily life cracking echoed in her ears like an auditory hallucination.

Chapter 10 – Incompetence and Ill Will

The study in the crown prince’s palace.

There, the crown prince suddenly shrugged his shoulders after completing his work… well, to be precise, he had just sat there doing nothing.

His eyes shone with a nasty grin on his face.

‘Like I thought, I’m a genius.’

Ever since he had the Holy Sword stolen from him at the Morgana Countdom, Crown Prince Bartèze could not sleep at night because if he did, he dreamed about what had happened at the countdom.

“Shall we continue?”

The fire that burned unrealistically in the dense thicket in the middle of the mountains. The voice filled with victory.

The arrogant pink eyes that dared to face him head-on.

He couldn’t forget any of those things, nor did they fade from his memory. Whenever he encountered them again in his dreams, he relived the memories even more vividly, trampling his pride.

“Aghh! I’m going to kill them! They won’t get away with this!”

For quite some time, the crown prince would awake from his slumber and throw a fit, kicking and screaming, like someone with an anger management issue. Thanks to that, he went around the castle for several days sleep-deprived, eyes bloodshot.

‘Well, that’s all in the past now.’

The crown prince breezily rested his chin on his palm.

‘Now that I’ve figured out the perfect way to return that humiliation to that bitch and that bastard.’

He couldn’t stop laughing.

The crown prince couldn’t help but admire himself for coming up with such a flawless and perfect plan.

“Kek, kek… kek, kek, kek!”

“…”

Seated a short distance away from the crown prince was his aide, who busily reviewed all the documents and handled all the matters in place of a certain someone. The aide inconspicuously shot daggers at the crown prince whose shoulders shook as he laughed.

‘Why is that Triple U acting like that?’

Triple U.

That was the aide called Crown Prince Bartèze in his head.

He had no capabilities. Untalented.

He had no intelligence. Unintelligent.

Nor did he try to gain those things, which meant that he didn’t even think. Useless.

Hence, he was Triple U.

The aide was incredibly satisfied with the nickname he had come up with. He felt that there was no other term that described Crown Prince Bartèze more perfectly.

‘Though unfortunately, I can’t go and share this nickname with anyone.’

It would be off with the aide’s head the moment the crown prince found out about the existence of this nickname.

“Your Highness.”

The aide stood up after he finished organizing the documents.

“I’ve left a few documents that require your seal and have taken care of the rest. After giving these documents a quick read, all you need to do is stamp or sign your signature.”

“All right, good work. Leave them there and go.”

“Yes, then I will take my leave.”

The only good thing about having the crown prince as a boss was that he let his subordinates leave work right on time.

The aide, Patrick, was competent enough that he was able to leave work on time even with an incompetent boss, whom he had to do all the work for. He made his way to the door with light steps and then stopped.

The crown prince’s creepy laughter that he had just witnessed didn’t sit right with him.

‘…Well, it’s probably nothing.’

Although he was so untalented, unintelligent, and useless that he had been given the nickname Triple U, he was still human. Humans only caused as much trouble as they could handle.

‘Even if he does something crazy, it can just be fixed later on. Having authority makes everything easier.’