By Zephyria 
It was a reasonably ordinary, no, an incredibly perfect end to the day.
The steak served at dinner was cooked exactly to my taste, and the tangy dressing on the salad was perfect for stimulating my appetite. The soup that slid smoothly down my throat, the soft bread.
Having overcome the significant hurdle of meeting Lennox, which I had been determined to accomplish before the original story began, I finished my meal comfortably without thinking about what to do next. After finishing dinner, taking a short walk in the garden, and lying down in my room, everything felt peaceful. I was even humming a tune without realizing it.
I was just about to fall asleep comfortably, planning to spend tomorrow doing nothing but lazing around, when—why was this happening?
“Oh, you’ve arrived.”
On this deep night, with the moon shining brightly high in the sky.
“…Your Highness.”
By the time I came to my senses, I had already been dragged to the center of the Crown Prince’s palace.
“This is our second meeting at the imperial palace. This kind of thing is quite novel and not bad at all.”
It was an excessively shameless response from someone who had kidnapped a person who was about to fall asleep, but what could I do? His status was that of a gangster. I had to suppress my desire to grab the Crown Prince by the collar and just put on an awkward smile.
“Haha, ha… hahaha…”
“Why are you laughing like that? Don’t tell me you’re not happy about this meeting?”
“Haha, of course not… It’s just a bit sudden…”
Just a few dozen minutes ago, the Crown Prince’s subordinates, who had snuck in stealthily like assassins, had opened my bedroom window without a sound and skillfully covered my mouth first. Then they said we should leave without making a commotion, hoisted me up with my blanket, and jumped back out. If they hadn’t immediately shown the Crown Prince’s seal as proof, I would have thought the original game was being reset before it even began.
“I admit that. It was sudden. I’ll send you back before tomorrow morning, so don’t worry. No one at the Count’s residence will even know you were gone.”
No, since he brought me here without any explanation, that kind of cleanup was only natural! His tone was arrogant and proud as if he were bestowing some great favor. My clenched fists began to tremble the moment I heard those words, but somehow I managed to push down the rising anger inside me.
“But really, why did you call me so suddenly like this?”
Given that the Crown Prince was normally extremely busy with public and private affairs, our meetings only occurred during my heat cycle. Even then, he couldn’t spare a whole day, and would usually hurry back to the palace once I had somewhat regained my senses.
Moreover, it hadn’t been that long since he had raided my carriage as I was returning home from Mr. Seymour’s company. The Crown Prince I knew would never call me without good reason.
“As I was sifting through headache-inducing documents, your beautiful face naturally came to mind. Unable to resist the desire to see you, I called you here despite knowing it was sudden.”
“Ah… I see…”
For now, I had no choice but to pretend to believe him. I smiled, gently curving the corners of my eyes, and naturally nestled against the Crown Prince’s side. As I leaned my head slightly against his shoulder while linking arms, the Crown Prince pretended to embrace me while quietly turning over all the documents he had been looking at.
While verbally claiming he missed me and couldn’t think of anything but me, his actions showed he was careful not to let me know anything about his work. Whether this was an unconscious reflex or deliberate calculation, I wasn’t sure.
“How have you been lately?”
“Oh, much the same as always. I was visiting Mr. Seymour’s company often for a change of scenery, but now that he’s going abroad again, that’s become difficult.”
“My, how pitiful.”
“I was feeling bored, actually. I’m happy that Your Highness has sought me out like this.”
I decided to go with the latter of the two options. Despite my flirtatious behavior, wagging my tail so eagerly, the Crown Prince wasn’t giving me any particular response.
The Crown Prince neither thrust his hand into the fold of my robe, nor rudely claimed my lips that were close to his cheek. He merely patted my shoulder gently with a lukewarm touch.
“You missed me?”
“Of course. I’m always in a position of longing for you.”
Normally, I would have snapped back, telling him to at least wet his lips before lying like that, but instead I just responded mindlessly with things like “Really? I’m so happy,” while smiling vacantly. It was so obvious that he was scheming something, so I needed to approach this with a strategy different from my usual one.
“Let’s have a drink. I just got something good.”
As if prepared in advance, whiskey and glasses were brought in immediately after his words. What could he be plotting? Going so far as to order alcohol. While mentally calculating furiously, I outwardly pretended to be excited, even clapping my hands, saying I had never tried strong liquor like whiskey before.
“Wow! This is my first time trying such strong alcohol!”
“Even though it’s been quite a while since your coming-of-age ceremony?”
He’s pretending not to know when he probably already received reports about all of this.
“Yes, since I get drunk even with a few glasses of wine with meals, my parents never particularly encouraged it.”
In reality, I’m not particularly weak with alcohol, but in this playthrough, I had firmly established from the beginning that I couldn’t drink. This was to make use of one of Allen’s specialties, kissing while drunk and then pretending not to remember the next day, still acting like a good friend (though in Allen’s case, the setting is that he really is weak with alcohol and genuinely doesn’t remember).
“Wow, the aroma is interesting. It’s completely different from wine, isn’t it?”
Since I didn’t refuse and obediently took the glass he offered, but then just chatted away without actually intending to drink, the Crown Prince even went so far as to personally feed me some of the chocolate that had been served, subtly urging me to drink it down. As I brought the glass to my lips as if I was going to drink it right away without suspicion, the Crown Prince’s eyes noticeably narrowed. Hmm… definitely suspicious.
“Oh no, I’m sorry, I can’t do this. What if I get drunk and fall asleep? It’s obvious I’ll get drunk with just a sip or two!”
“What is there to worry about when I’m here? If you fall asleep, I’ll just return you gently to the mansion as you are, so don’t worry, okay?”
Although he showed no outward signs, the Crown Prince must have been quite impatient, as he now took the glass and brought it directly to my lips. Well, I don’t know what he’s thinking, but I might as well take a sip. If the situation gets weird, I can pretend to pass out as if drunk from just one sip. From the Crown Prince’s behavior, it didn’t seem like he was trying to do away with me or harm me in any other way.
“In that case, really just one, ONE sip.”
“Alright. I told you not to worry.”
I take the glass from the crown prince again and take a small sip with my own hand.
“……!”
Wow. This is real, motherfucker.
“Cough, cough. I, Your Highness, this…!”
“What’s wrong, what’s wrong with you?”
The crown prince’s eyes looked down at my coughing fit with concern, but the lips beneath his nose were curled into a sneaky smile. I bit the flesh on the inside of my cheek and tightened my grip on the reins of reason. Adrian Pearson, you unworthy son of a bitch.
It wasn’t just the spirit he was so eager to shove down my throat. It was the elixir of truth, lurking beneath the thick scent of whisky.
“This tastes so weird…! Why are you drinking this?”
“Hahaha. Perhaps it’s still a little too strong for you, wait and see. I’ll bring you another sweet juice.”
One sip would have been enough. Having achieved his goal, the crown prince coolly put away his drink and ordered the juice to be brought to him instead.
Ugh. If he had something to ask, he could have just asked. He’s already getting reports from behind, so why is he so curious that he secretly gave me a truth serum? I quickly drank the orange juice that was served in front of me and grumbled inwardly.
The Truth Potion had a peculiarly strange scent and taste, so mixing it with strong alcohol was the most efficient way to sneak it into someone’s system.
This time, the crown prince’s drink contained only a trace amount of the elixir. It was such a small amount that if it had been anyone else, they wouldn’t have even noticed. But unfortunately for the Crown Prince, he offered it to me.
In the numerous playthroughs I had experienced, I had spent quite a long time as a loafer drinking whiskey straight from the bottle instead of eating, and I had also lived as a prisoner in the underground prison, forced to swallow truth serum, so I knew the moment I took a sip. This has something in it, I thought.