Oh! My Empress

Now, the major problem for Kim Su Won was finding her way. She had planned to let Anna draw a map for her. She was still not familiar with the whole freaking castle. And because of the small brawl back in the room, she did not even know where exactly Alex was waiting for her. Anna said main gate, right?

Kim Su Won stealthily moved behind the pillars, in the darkness, to not be caught by the guards. She was thankful to all these big mansions and castles in ancient eras where there was such a leeway for her to move around.

Interestingly, she had observed that there was not much security inside the castle. It was not like there were guards standing all around. The knights' squad was around the duke and duchess and her two elder siblings. But she had not been assigned a knight and her wing was almost always empty.

Issue was how to go out of the building. There was a side gate from her wing which led directly to outside gardens but each gate was stations with two guards on each side of the huge wooden doors. Even if she managed to drive away attention of one person, the other one would still be there.

She peeked from one of the windows in the wall, as expected, both the guards were standing on each side of the door. What was she to do? How could she make them go away from their posts?

"What are you doing here?" she heard a voice whispering in her ear behind her. Her blood went cold with fear and her body froze. Had she already been caught by someone? But it was the east wing gate, there was supposed to be no one here! Who could it be? It was such a bizarre situation that her mind had stopped working too.

Whatever, this was not the time to look for identity of the person. With the whisper, she could not even tell the person's voice, only that it was a male. It was more important to not get kidnapped, she had finally become a rich daughter of someone in her life.

She was just short of screaming for help when a big hand covered her mouth. "Don't shout, it's me," the voice whispered again, sending shiver down her spine. Me? Someone she was familiar with?

She nodded her head to let this person know that she understood. Curiosity got over her and she turned around immediately the moment she felt the hand loosen. Seeing the red eyes glow in the faint light and the ever serious face, she knew it was the person she was looking for. What was he doing here though?

"You scared me so much Sir Laurent! What if I had screamed for help?" Kim Su Won pouted. This kid ah! He was going to give her a heart attack for sure!

"I believe you are much more intelligent that that Lady Whittemore," Alex Laurent replied, a confidence in his eyes for her that she did not have for herself.

What the! How did he know? What was wrong with this father son pair? Weren't they expecting too much from her without even knowing anything about her at all?

This almost reminded her of those relatives back in her original life who could not stop raving about to her parents how successful she was going to be in her adult life. Just because her grades were better than most of her cousins, her aunts would only throw jabs at her full of jealousy and mockery and her uncles would keep praising her for her talents. Wasn't that just hyping up her hardworking as her being genius?

Hah! That alone set her and her inflated ego up for failure. Right now, she so wished she had not listened to those 'well-meaning' relatives of hers, just because her own parents would not appreciate her. Kim Su Won had really took those words from her relatives as validation. If only she knew better at that time!

She was not going to fall for this trap a second time! Even if these two believed in her, she had to set realistic expectations for herself. She was operating on borrowed time here anyway.

"Oh well! I was on the way to meet you. What are you doing here?" she whispered. The whole point of asking this kid to wait in the garden was so that no one noticed that she met the son of her examiner. Why did this kid come here looking for her?

"Don't worry Lady Whittemore, I made sure no one saw me. I realized there was no way for you to leave the mansion discreetly. So, I decided to greet you here. Were you not going to ask me about my father?" Alex Laurent was as serious as his father.

He spoke with a straight face without a hint of smile. Kim Su Won rubbed her temples. This kid who could steal hearts of millions with his tall figure and handsome face wanted to pose as a mature adult? Even his demeanor was like his dad, straight back, hands clasped behind his back. Ugh, could he not act like a kid of his age? What made him act this way?

"That is amazingly perceptive and considerate of you, Sir Laurent. Also, I am so much younger than you. Could you please not call me by my name? Consider me as a younger sister?" Kim Su Won tried to appeal to the kid. She could not directly ask about his father from him without building any connection. That would be too business-like. She had to develop a relation with him, networking of sorts.

"H-How could I do that? You are the daughter of the duke!" Alex was finally flustered. From the novel, Kim Su Won knew that this kid was the only child of the earl. He had longed for a sibling but his father had decided not to have any more kids to avoid bloodbath between siblings for heirship.

And Alex Laurent had been groomed with him as the heir in mind since his childhood. He did not have any chance to be a kid throughout his life. But since he was in her good books, she could give him an opportunity to have a pretend-sibling and rope him in into her circle. Two birds with one stone!

"I-If that is too much, how about just in private? I could also call you brother Alex? What do you think?" she acted a bit cute, whining and grabbing the corner of his white sleeve. She so wished she could see his blushing face but it was too dark for that in this corner of east wing.

How did she know he was blushing? She could tell from the way his glowing red eyes had softened and were wavering left and right.

"A-Alright, E-E-Emmeline," the kid stuttered. Haha, so cute!

"Thanks brother Alex! I am sorry you had to come so secretly here. I wish I could host you in my guest room but I do not want you to get in trouble for meeting me alone," Kim Su Won grinned, finally having a small success. Cute guys acting tough was so adorable, this was the first time she was experiencing this!

Upon hearing her apology, Alex went back to his serious mode.. "I would not be the one in trouble here Emma, there are more chances of you getting in problem. Isn't that why you wanted to meet in secret?"