She Is a Daughter Raised As the Son of a Duke

That night, inside the knights’ lodging.

Midnight was approaching, but Diego couldn’t fall asleep. He wandered around the room.

‘How can I make her not push me away?’

It was the first time he had ever agonized over something he wanted. What he wanted was already in his hands quite easily.

However, when it came to May’s heart, he couldn’t easily figure out how to obtain it.

“Damn, what should I do…”

If there was one difficult thing in this world, it was breaking through May’s defenses.

No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t find an answer. Frustrated, Diego went outside to catch a breath.

The buildings were already dark, and the moonlight and scattered street lamps illuminated the streets. The streets were quiet with no one passing by.

Diego sat on a bench and thought about May.

When May jumped into the lake to save him, he had never been so desperate. He only had one thought in his mind: to save her. He didn’t care if he died in the process.

So he performed CPR with all his heart.

And…

Diego recalled the next scene and blushed.

“This is crazy. What am I thinking?”

To push away the memories of scenes he shouldn’t have seen, he stood up from the bench and walked aimlessly.

Then, as if fate, the platinum-haired girl came into his sight. She exuded an unadorned, pure beauty.

Seeing her heading towards a building with showers, it seemed like she was going to take a shower.

“It’s past 1 AM, why is she not sleeping until this late…”

In his heart, he wanted to approach her and strike up a conversation, but because of the memories that just resurfaced, he restrained himself, knowing that he couldn’t have a proper conversation with her.

Diego had no choice but to continue walking on her path.

About two minutes passed, and Diego abruptly stopped walking.

“Wait… If it’s on the left, it should be the men’s shower room, right?”

The shower building had different entrances for men and women. The entrance to the men’s shower room was on the left, and the entrance to the women’s shower room was on the right.

But at a glance, May seemed to be heading towards the leftmost entrance.

“Could it be that she…!”

Diego quickly turned around and rushed towards the men’s shower room. He forgot about his status as a prince, his only concern was May’s safety.

He roughly opened the door to the men’s shower room and found no one at the front desk. He hurriedly stepped inside and looked around, relieved to see May alone.

Diego ran towards her and grabbed her arm.

“What are you doing, wandering around without a clue!”

Startled by his voice, May looked at him with wide eyes.

“Your Highness…? Why are you here…”

“This is the men’s shower room.”

“Yes…?”

May looked around and was surprised to see the sign indicating it was the men’s shower room. She quickly tried to leave, buttoning up her clothes in a hurry.

At that moment, voices could be heard from the entrance.

“We might be the last ones, right?”

“Probably. Everyone seems to have showered right after dinner.”

“Yay! We’ve got the place to ourselves!”

Of all times, someone had come in to shower now!

May and Diego overheard their conversation and realized that three men had entered the shower room.

“Damn it…”

Diego muttered quietly and immediately pulled May’s arm, hiding her behind him.

He whispered softly to her.

“Anywhere is fine, just hide for now.”

“But, where do I hide? There’s no place to hide…”

The shower room had a linear structure with the entrance, changing room space, multiple shower spaces, and a hot spring bath in sequence.

Each space had large sliding doors, but all the doors were open, making it likely that they would be caught if they moved around.

‘Where should we hide? The changing rooms are too small to fit inside…’

In the sudden situation, his mind was not functioning properly.

Meanwhile, the voices of the men’s group grew closer.

“Hurry!”

Diego shouted, and May, thinking she should hide her body first, quickly moved towards the shower area. She closed the sliding door that had been open, making the inside of the shower area invisible.

Diego felt frustrated when he saw May enter the shower area.

“Fool… There’s nowhere to hide there!”

In the meantime, the group of men who had unknowingly entered noticed Diego standing awkwardly.

“Your Highness! Are you planning to shower too?”

“We thought we were the last ones.”

“W-well, I mean…”

With his mind filled with concern for May, Diego fumbled awkwardly with the buttons on his shirt.

Thanks to Diego stalling for time, May managed to escape to the shower area and quickly looked for a place to hide, feeling remorseful.

‘”I must be crazy, crazy… What if I enter the men’s section?’

She was lost in thought and unconsciously walked, eventually ending up in the men’s section.

‘Have I been cross-dressing for too long…? Because I thought I had to act like a man… No, even if that’s the case, how did I get into this confusion…?’

But now was not the time for self-reproach. She had to hide quickly to avoid being caught.

Unfortunately, the shower area had no individual booths, only small partitions on the sides, leaving the whole area open with no place to hide.

May had no choice but to move to the hot spring bath area.

Fortunately, there was a large rock twice the size of an adult next to the bath, and she could hide behind it.

May crouched behind the rock and let out a sigh of relief.

‘Phew… I’ll wait here until everyone leaves.’

Meanwhile, even though he had just showered, Diego ended up in the bath with the men’s group.

Seeing the large rock, Diego was sure.

‘She must be hiding there.’

He felt relieved, thinking there would be no chance of getting caught.

Diego entered the steam-filled bath with the men’s group. To avoid being discovered, he sat down on the rock first, in case they would head towards the rock.

“You seem to get into accidents quite often.”

At Diego’s words, May, who was hiding behind the rock, felt guilty.

‘He must be talking about me, right? There’s no one else here who could cause accidents…’

Resolving to be more careful from now on, she breathed a quiet sigh, trying not to be heard.

For a few minutes, they all enjoyed the hot spring water in silence. Then, one of the men in the group spoke to Diego.

“Your Highness, do you currently have someone you like?”

“Why do you ask?”

“There was someone who was known as a love expert in social circles for a while, but it seems like they’re not dating anyone lately.”

“M-me? When?”

Diego seemed flustered and even stumbled over his words. He couldn’t help but worry about May hiding behind the rock.

“Ah, don’t pretend. We know how well-connected we are in social circles. Have you already met everyone and decided not to date anyone?”

“Enough!”

Diego stood up abruptly and shouted, making the men flinch.

Diego felt anxious that May’s score might be affected. When the men fell silent, he composed himself and sat back down, trying to maintain his composure.

‘Darn it. It’s embarrassing, isn’t it?’

They quickly followed his lead, standing and bowing to apologize.

“We’re sorry…! We didn’t mean to upset Your Highness…! The truth is, I recently developed feelings for someone, and I’m struggling with how to pursue a relationship with her. I heard that Your Highness is good at dating, so I wanted to learn how to win a woman’s heart!”

Diego’s pupils cooled down sharply.

“It can’t be May Flotina, right?”

“No, it’s someone else.”

Finding out that she wasn’t his competition, Diego relaxed a bit and sat back down. The men also followed suit.

“A woman’s heart? It’s simple. Be sexy.”

As he said it, Diego himself realized the truth.

Sexy… Is the answer to being sexy?

“Thank you! I will definitely try to win Lady Nazret heart!”

“Thank you, you may leave now. I want to be alone.”

“Yes, Your Highness!”

“Close the door when you leave.”

“Yes!”

Perhaps because they were scared of the imperial order, or maybe they were genuinely grateful for the dating tips, they kindly closed the door as they left.

* * *

Thanks to them leaving, I could stretch my legs and find a comfortable position.

Diego brushed his hair that had fallen forward with his large hand.

“Come out.”

I stuck my head out from behind the rock and looked around, making sure no one was around except Diego.

“Make sure they are completely gone before you come out.”

“Yes.”

I thought I would have to wait a bit inside before they all left. While waiting, I explored the bath area out of boredom and was captivated by the warm hot spring water.

Maybe because the night breeze was chilly, I wanted to dip my body in the hot spring water.

Should I just dip my feet? I have to wait a little anyway…

After contemplating, I ended up sitting in the bath with just my feet in the water. Thanks to my shorts, my buttocks were safe from getting wet.

Ah… Even with just my feet in, it’s relaxing.

Diego crossed the hot spring water and came to my side. He was completely naked except for a towel around his lower body.

How many times have we seen each other’s bodies? It wasn’t particularly awkward to see his body.

“So, what made you not even realize that you entered the men’s section?”

“I was just… lost in thought.”

“Is it because of Duke Flotina?”