Conquering the Emperor - Chapter 82

The lesson continued without event and soon it was time for lunch break. Thankfully, the first lesson was over. I truly needed a break from this whole stressful and suffocating situation. Having Ren in the same room and observing me was truly distracting and unnerving.

“Are you hungry? Isn’t it about time for lunch?” Ren said with a gentle smile.

For some reason, Ren was being extra nice and caring towards me today; not that I had anything to complain regarding that matter.

“I guess…I am a little hungry,” I replied.

“Great. Let’s have lunch together. We haven’t had much time in private lately,” Ren suggested joyfully.

“Yea…isn’t that because someone here left for a full week and didn’t even bother to tell me…” I said, sulkily.

“Are you sulking?” Ren teased.

“Who’s sulking?” I muttered as I pouted at him.

“Well, I’ll find some way to make it up to you,” Ren said.

“Hmm…” I made an unconvinced sound.

“Please leave us. I’ll be having lunch with, Rin,” Ren ordered for Jeely to leave.

I saw a flash of surprise cross Jeely’s face and then for a split of a second, she seemed flustered; however, in the next instance her face was fully composed once more as she beamed a breathtakingly beautiful smile at Ren and nodded in acknowledgement.

“Yes, crown prince. Please enjoy your meal,” Jeely said in a sweet voice before bowing politely.

With graceful and practiced movement, Jeely headed for the door and left the room.

“Finally, we’re alone,” Ren said with satisfaction as soon as Jeely left the room.

“I couldn’t concentrate at all during the lesson…and it’s your fault!” I began complaining immediately.

“How is that my fault?” Ren asked coldly.

“You were always staring at me…” I said with dissatisfaction.

“You were supposed to be performing the art of serving tea, so yes, it’s something that we’re all supposed to watch,” Ren said with an exasperated sigh.

“Regardless! Having you watch me made it so much harder…” I continued with my protest.

“Don’t worry too much, Rin. Nobody starts out perfect,” Ren said before he grinned at me.

I felt like I was behind the learning curve for these sorts of things though. I bet if it was something to do with medicine or mathematics then I wouldn’t be this slow.

“I honestly…don’t think I have the talent for it,” I said bluntly.

“I agree,” Ren said emotionlessly.

I gasped in shock.

“Can’t you be a little nicer about it? Don’t just come out and say that I have no talent…” I said in disbelief at his lack of consideration.

“What’s wrong? I was just agreeing with your prior statement,” Ren said as he shrugged.

I rolled my eyes at him. We sat opposite each other as we waited for the maids to serve us lunch. Ren seemed to be in a very jovial mood as he patiently sipped at his tea. It wasn’t long before the maids entered the room and started serving us lunch. The lesson left me feeling very hungry and I appreciated the break. I didn’t want to sound like a lazy student but to be honest, I wasn’t look forward to my lessons in the afternoon at all.

I sighed silently to myself; however, Ren did not miss my sigh.

“Why the sigh?” Ren asked as he looked up at me from the rim of his teacup.

“No…I shouldn’t tell you…” I muttered. He would just make fun of me again.

“Just say it…” Ren said impatiently.

“I’m bored…of all the lessons…” I admitted.

“I have some work to do in the afternoon,” Ren replied.

“You should go then. There’s no need for you to hang around here all the time,” I said understandingly.

Actually, I would prefer if he left. Having Ren here was distracting me from my lessons. It wasn’t that I cared so much about my lessons but his presence put an immense pressure on me and it was starting to drain away all of my energy.

“I was thinking that you should come with me,” Ren said as if it was nothing.

“Come with you…where?” I asked, not quite following his line of thought.

“My palace, of course,” Ren replied like it was supposed to be obvious.

“Your palace?” I asked, intrigued.

I have never been to Ren’s palace before, and I didn’t even know where it is. Ren lived in his own palace separated from the area of his inner court and as far as I could figure out, women of his inner court were not allowed to go there unless they were invited by Ren.

“Are you tricking me to skip classes in the afternoon?” I asked, teasingly.

My joke was successful because Ren laughed quite loudly. It made me feel pleased to see him relax and enjoy himself. I’m sure that he’s been working very hard and he also mentioned that he had work to do in the afternoon, so I guess the emperor did not give Ren a holiday today either.

“Don’t you dare talk like you’re enjoying your classes…” Ren said, with a chuckle.

“Guess I can’t hide it from you, huh?” I said, faking an overly exaggerated sigh which just made Ren laugh some more. Of course, I hated my classes. I just told him that I found them boring.

“Messing up something simple like serving tea…that is so like you…” Ren teased.

“Yea yea…enough already!” I cried out in annoyance.

“Haha…you’ll get there one day, don’t worry…” Ren said reassuringly.

“I’m not going to get any better at it if I skip class,” I retorted.

“Then let’s skip class. I can live with you being unladylike,” Ren said as he started eating.

“You better keep your word and I better not hear any complaints later…” I muttered before I started eating as well.

Ren got up once we had finished eating our lunch and offered me a hand. I smiled as I took his hand and he led me out of the room.

Since I was afraid that Jeely would wonder where I had disappeared to, I asked one of the maids to tell her that I wouldn’t be attending the lessons in the afternoon because I had something to do with Ren. After leaving that message, Ren led me by the hand through the exit of his inner court.

–To be continued…