2. A Lunatic Man

With a little force, Grace managed to open the mansion's door and go inside. There, she was amazed by the beauty of its architecture. As an artist, Grace could tell how stunning the mansion was and how high the artistic value was.

However, the mansion's condition was poor; many roofs collapsed and wooden floors were damaged. The windows were also broken. Dry leaves, dust, and cobwebs were seen everywhere.

Suddenly, Grace wanted to explore the mansion out of curiosity. She might find the most beautiful room to be the place where she ended her life. Then, her pair of brown eyes spotted a magnificent staircase in the middle of the grand entrance.

'Let's see what the second floor has,' She thought.

Then Grace stepped on the wooden stairs slowly, just to hear the creaking sound. However, she paid no attention to it; She didn't care. All she wanted was to reach the second floor, and according to her, the stairs should be strong enough to support

her light body.

Grace continued to step into the middle of the stairs. Until ...

CRACK! BANG!

The last thing Grace remembered was that she fell down the stairs, and everything went dark.

'Maybe I'm dead. Well... it's not bad, though. I don't have to bear the sin of committing suicide, right?' Grace

thought, holding the pain all over her body. 'Soon … I'll leave. Yes, very soon ...'

Knock! Knock! Knock!

Grace's brow furrowed. 'What's that?'

Knock! Knock! Knock!

The knocking sound was heard again and continued on repeat. It grew louder and impatient.

Grace opened her eyes. Blurry, she saw wooden boards scattered on the floor and sunlight filtering through the cracks in the broken walls that were enough to reach the dark room.

Grace groaned as she tried to get up from his prone position. “Ouch… God…”

It turned out that Grace was not dead. She could stand up, but it looked like her ankle was sprained or even broken. She looked around and found herself in a strange room that looked like an old basement.

Grace's whole body was dirty because the floor was muddy after the heavy rain last night. Grace looked up and saw a big hole through the roof and the stairs.

'I actually fell from there? That high, but still alive? It looks like God is playing with me for real,' She thought.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

The knock came again, and Grace realized that it came from a door. It seemed like the person behind it was so desperate that he knocked that fast and hard.

'Maybe it’s someone who heard the sound of me falling just now,' Grace assumed. However, the wall that the door was attached to didn't seem to lead outside. Maybe there was another room behind it.

"Could it be someone’s trapped inside? Is she being kidnapped?" She muttered to herself.

The knocking came again. Without thinking any further, Grace opened the door.

Then, something hit her so hard that she fell on her buttocks. Her head, which was still aching from falling earlier, was getting worse, which made her vision blurry again.

In the haziness, Grace saw the person who hit her. It was a tall, dashing man in ivory clothes decorated with shiny golden accents. The man was closing the door in a hurry.

"My apologies for bumping you, Ms. I’ve been chased by a pack of monster wolves. Are you okay?" The man politely extended his hand.

Grace was flabbergasted. Once her vision was clear, she wondered whether she had survived the accident or was actually in heaven now.

A pair of sharp and deep eyes, a perfect-angle nose, and cherry, plump lips—all framed in a firm facial structure and thick, shiny brown hair. His crystal-blue irises twinkled amidst the darkness. Was there any man as handsome as him on this earth? He must be an angel!

"Ms, we have to leave this place immediately. I have to find a way to get back to the palace. My wedding ceremony will start in a few hours." The man said.

"W-what?" Grace hung her jaw down.

"We shall leave now. Seeing the fragile condition of this place, the wolves may break in. - Or at least, we should hide upstairs." The man looked up to find that the ceiling had collapsed. However, he was sure that upstairs was a safer place than this muddy room.

"W-wolves?" Grace repeated.

'For God’s sake! How could there be wolves in this area? Is he an actor or something?' She thought.

"Yes. They are monster-sized wolves. Let us move now." He helped Grace stand up.

However, Grace grimaced in pain while holding her ankle, which felt much more painful because she had fallen again when she was hit by the man.

"Oh, are you hurt?" The man looked at Grace's bleeding foot. He thought he didn’t hit her that hard to cause such damage.

"It-it seems so … I was going to call an ambulance, but I think I lost my phone. Can you help me call the ambulance, please?" Grace asked.

The man's brow furrowed. He didn't understand what the girl was talking about. Moreover, her way of speaking was rather disrespectful towards the crown prince of this kingdom. The way she dressed was also strange; even the brothel workers didn’t wear such revealing clothes.

"Eum... Are you listening?" Grace brought the man out of his reverie.

"I beg your pardon, but I’m not sure I understand what you're talking about, Ms. Incidentally, I didn't expect the condition inside your house to be dilapidated like this. It looked well-built and nice from the outside."

"This isn't my house. What are you talking about? This house looks ugly from the outside too.” Grace shook her head, then pointed to the door in front of them. “Ok, so you mean this door is the exit?"

The man nodded. "It is the way out, but there's a pack of wolves out there. Therefore, we should at least go to the second floor to hide. Do you understand?" He pointed upwards, starting to get impatient with the situation.

"No. There can't be any wolves here. We're not in the forest, sir," Grace answered.

'He seems to be crazy. He keeps talking nonsense like a drunk man.' She thought.

"Aren’t you aware of the way you speak to me? Sir? Don't you recognize me? As this kingdom’s people, you should be ashamed of being impudent to your future king. For this one, I forgive you. But after this, I won’t be lenient anymore. You will get a punishment according to the royal law." The man firmly said.

"What?" Grace stupefied. This angelic-faced guy indeed had a mental illness.