Zach on the other hand would have easily believed it if Clara had told him that Luke wasn't a prince but a swordsman. His physique was off the charts. His muscles were quite toned and from the earlier confrontation he found them to be bursting with strength and vigor. They weren't just for looks like some body builders from his past world who were only in shape but were absolutely weaker than they looked.
This Prince had trained in the right direction and was more like a swordsman or a soldier than a Prince in his opinion.
"You aren't bad either. If you hadn't stopped, I might have gotten my ass beat by you today."
Clara found that the atmosphere had cooled down a bit after the earlier sparks so she pushed herself in between the two in an attempt to introduce Luke to Zach.
"Zach, you shouldn't judge Luke based on his earlier actions. It is just that he takes his military training quite seriously and thinks of himself as a hero of justice."
"Oyy…what do you mean by that?" Luke tried to interject when Clara attacked him with swords hidden in her words.
Clara merely threw her tongue out towards Luke and made a face at him before turning all her attention towards Zach once again. She clasped his arm once again so that she was practically leaning her petite frame on him completely.
"He has been in the military from a young age and has slowly but gradually built himself up from a common solider despite his royal upbringing. Many people admire him in this city and girls can't wait to offer themselves up to him just to get a second look from him. He might not look like it but he is not a bad person."
While Zach listened to Clara's words, he couldn't help but make an annoyed face as he looked down at Clara hugging his arm like it was the most precious thing in the world.
She was too clingy.
Clara dragged her face out of Zach's arm as if still unsatisfied and turned her face slightly in order to address Luke. Since she wasn't willing to let go of Zach's arm, she couldn't turn completely towards Luke. Instead she was facing nothing as the direction of her face was somewhere in between Zach and Luke. This was as far as her neck would go without releasing Zach's arm.
Zach sighed helplessly as he stared at the cute antics of the petite koala bear hanging on his arm. He could try to get his arm free but he couldn't be sure that she would rip it off with that monstrous strength of hers if he tried that. She was just too damn unpredictable.
"Luke this is Zach; my fiancée that father has chosen for me. As for what you saw earlier…w-we were just…pl-playing. That's right." Clara's face turned red by the end of the sentence. She felt like a newlywed who had been caught by her family as she played silly games with her brand new husband and whispered sweet nothings to him.
"I didn't know that the two of you were so close or I wouldn't have misunderstood Zach. Let me apologize once again. It is a smear on my royal honor that I used force on an innocent for which I can't forgive myself. I seek your forgiveness so I can forgive myself."
Zach felt a little uncomfortable with Luke's overly considerate words. He was like an honorable knight from the olden times with chivalry and knightly discipline. The regality in his tone could be seen as honorable by others; but to him it only made Luke look ludicrous and pretentious. From the time he came, chivalry was already dead and there was no such thing as honor or heroes of justice.
Luke didn't wait for Zach's reply this time and left without taking a second look at Zach or Clara who was still obsessed with Zach's arm. She was swinging it using both of her arms and looked like a little girl pestering her elder brother to play with her.
Only Zach knew that he couldn't get out of this situation even though he wanted to. It wasn't so easy to throw Clara off and escape.
He wondered how long it would take him this time to get rid of her or before she got tired.
Luke left Zach and Clara in order to fulfill his true purpose in coming to the Windsor family estate. He was here to visit Marico after hearing about the relapse of his disease from a common acquaintance.
Although he wasn't very close to the old man because he could be rarely seen in public due to his disease, it didn't mean that there was no connection between them at all.
Luke had been friends with Marico's daughters since young and was often a guest at the Windsor family estate even though he only occasionally managed to see the old master.
Despite the rare occasions where he met up with the old master, Luke considered him a benefactor and was concerned about his well being. That was the reason that he had come back especially to visit Marico after travelling a long distance upon hearing that his ailment had returned.
Violet saw her sister acting so intimately with Zach and couldn't help but sigh in her heart. She didn't want to deal with Luke alone but seeing as Clara was unwilling to separate from Zach or pay attention to anything other than him, the burden was definitely going to fall on her.
She whined in annoyance and ruefully looked at Clara one last time before following after the Prince.
As soon as she turned away from the intimate couple, Clara turned her face towards her elder sister's back and made a face with her tongue hanging out of her luscious lips.
Zach was the only one who witnessed her silly actions but he only smiled at her antics. She appeared especially cute when she acted like that. Whenever he saw her acting in such a manner, he couldn't help but compare it to the serious and fierce leader she had made herself to be when Zach first met her while she was making her escape from the Iron Mantises.
Zach pried his attention away from Clara and shifted it on to Luke. This was far from what a Prince should have been like. The image of the princes in Zach's mind was that of those overbearing, bratty and pampered greenhouse plants who hadn't seen much of the world; just like Prince Kolt. He was a typical example of the fools who brought down entire dynasties and kingdoms single handedly with their foolish arrogance and false ego. Prince Luke could not be further away from such fools. He was not only powerful on his own but also had the ability to understand and admit his weaknesses and faults which such pampered young masters with a golden spoon up their asses severely lacked.
Seeing the puzzled look on Zach's face, Clara could guess what he was thinking about. She knew how people usually reacted after meeting Prince Luke for the first time since she had witnessed it herself on several occasions.
"I know what you might be thinking from that confused look. Want me to tell you?" asked Clara playfully.
"Are you a bug in my stomach? Why would I need you to tell me what I am thinking? Don't I know it myself?" replied Zach with an equally playful smile. He knew that Clara didn't like bugs much.
As he expected, Clara wrinkled her little nose cutely as she showed him her disgust for being compared to a bug.
"Don't be mean. Tell me…do you want me to guess?" asked Clara expectantly with her eyes shining like the beautiful night stars.
Zach couldn't bear to disappoint her again considering her overflowing enthusiasm. He was worried that she might swing his arm off their socket if he dared to antagonize her any further.
"All right…tell me what am I thinking now?"
Clara nodded as she finally felt satisfied with Zach's query.
"You are definitely thinking that Prince Luke must be pretending to be nice. There is no way that a member of the Norman Royal family would do such a thing without a clear motive. Don't try to deny it now that I have caught on to you."
Zach truly had such thoughts so he didn't deny her the joy of being right this time.
"How did you know?"
"It's written all over your face."
Clara acted smug for a while before she explained Luke's situation to Zach so that he could better believe Luke's sincerity.
"Luke is one of the least noticed princes in the royal family. He is rated even below that Prince Kolt you encountered. He was sent to this place to be trained at a very young age at the request of the king himself. He has been here ever since and has barely ever returned. The amount of hardships he has suffered through isn't any different from a common soldier in the army despite his royal blood. Therefore, he is different from the royals you have encountered before. I wonder if anyone besides the royal family even remembers him after all this time. He has no power and no influence left in the capital after being exiled to this place for so long. He hasn't returned for a long time and none of the princes probably want him to return either which would only increase the competition between the princes further."
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