"So, you're just supposed to keep me from obstructing whatever plans this person has?"

Roy went back to twirling the knife. "Spot on."

"For how long?"

"For however long it takes." 

I tried throwing out some bait. “And you expect to keep me in here the entire time?”

Roy laughed sharply, but his eyes were admiring. “You won’t catch me with that, princess.”

A pity. Rixton or Marion might have accidentally revealed how long I would be in the warehouse in their responses. Roy was clever, for a “love interest.” I decided to change tactics.

“Why do you call me that? You do know that I am the daughter of an earl, not a king.” And he had no way of knowing my true form was that of a prince.

Roy rested his elbow on his knee and leaned forward, hand supporting his chin. “You are a princess. Maybe not by rank, but…I have never met a woman who carries herself like you do.” He gave a lopsided smile. “Although, I don’t know if an ordinary princess could thrash a man the way you did in the bar that night.”

Roy was referring to the night I saved him. I had made a trip to the city to investigate rumors of the rebellion in some local taverns, and inadvertently triggered a game "event."

According to the game’s storyline, Roy was supposed to save the heroine from a drunkard who stumbled out of the bar run by his mercenary group. Instead, I handled the drunk myself and then entered the bar, only to encounter a brawl between Roy’s group and a city gang. Roy would have gotten a knife in the gullet had I not intervened. I suppose the sight of a woman clad in a dark cloak pinning the aggressor to the ground with one arm had left an impression.

“It feels like you are standing on a high peak covered in ice, and everyone else around you is only dirt buried in the snow.” His eyes danced. “I like it.”

There was that tendency of his again. “You seem to like feeling inferior.”

“You’re untouchable.” He shrugged. “I guess I just like the idea that no matter what is done to you, you will still be above it all, pristine. This place is filthy, I know that best of all. I never escaped it.” He gestured towards the door while speaking, and I had to fight not to look triumphant. The warehouse must be located in the slums. “I grew up using any means I could to survive. I dirtied myself for the people I cared about, until I just stopped caring. Until there was nothing left to care about. And look at me now, kidnapping young girls for money.” He bit out the last phrase, jaw clenched.

He gripped his chin and ran a thumb over his mouth, contemplating. “But there are some people, like you. They have the strength of character to withstand it all. You carry that strength on your shoulders, as if you could hold up the entire world.” His eyes warmed over. “It’s beautiful.”

I couldn’t help but feel a little flattered. Most people would whisper behind the back of the “ice cold prince” in a derogatory manner, but this man seemed to admire the part of me that drew so much dislike.

However, now was not the time to be moved. I was still a prisoner.

“And yet,” I leaned forward slightly. My hands worked behind my back, loosening the rope. “Here you are, dragging me down to your level, in the muck.” I tilted my chin up in challenge and drew out the syllables slowly, deliberately. I just had to keep him distracted so I could disarm him and pull my own weapon. “It seems to me that what you want most is actually to pull me off that mountain peak.”

I leaned forward even further, so that my knees were almost touching his. The heroine's silver eyes were trained on his gold ones. “Do you want me, Roy?”

I could see the movement in his throat as he swallowed, and I inwardly chuckled. The hand that held the knife dropped to his side, and his other reached out as if to caress my neck.

"Princess…"

Before his tan fingers could graze my skin, the wooden door to the warehouse splintered inward with a crash.

Silhouetted in the doorway was a white halo of hair. Camellia's face was a blotchy mess of tears, but she looked incredibly angry. Behind her stood several guards outfitted in her family's colors, and I could glimpse the fallen bodies of Roy's mercenary friends at their feet.

Well, I guess that takes her off the list as the one behind the kidnapping.