The Crown Prince’s Fiancée — Chapter 41
* * *
“……Phew.”
My heart was pounding wildly.
I glanced around, and only after confirming that Crown Prince Adrian was nowhere in sight did I slump to the ground.
At this rate, I’m really going to die young.
A whole week had already passed since I started avoiding the Crown Prince.
Avoiding him wasn’t going to solve anything at the root, but I had no idea what else to do.
“I did everything I was told, so why…….”
The more I thought about it, the more miserable and wronged I felt.
Nobody had realized I wasn’t the real fiancée, so why did he want to kill me?
I wasn’t such a bad actress that I deserved to die!
Leaning against a tree, I hugged my knees and buried my face in them. If I hid in the garden, surely no one would find me for a while.
Only a brief moment had passed when I noticed a shadow fall across the ground and looked up.
“What are you doing here?”
Golden hair, so vivid in the sunlight, was so dazzling that it stabbed at my eyes. The one who had spoken was a fairly familiar face.
I smiled faintly and greeted him.
“Hello, Michael.”
“Yes. It’s been a while. Um…….”
Watching Michael trail off, I realized he was struggling with what to call me.
I was about to give him the name Artienne, but then realized I wasn’t wearing my veil this time either.
Since he had already seen my face, it would be better to hide that I was the Crown Prince’s fiancée.
“Lara. Please call me that.”
“Lara…… is it?”
“Yes.”
Somehow Michael’s reaction seemed a bit dazed, so I stared up at him.
Then, as if he had never reacted that way at all, Michael smiled softly and nodded.
“It’s a pretty name, Lara.”
Ugh. Michael smiled so beautifully that my conscience suddenly began to ache.
I didn’t want to deceive Michael, who was so kind to me, but to survive I had no choice.
“Thank you, Michael.”
“So. When are you going to answer my question about what you’re doing here?”
“I just have a lot on my mind…….”
Greeting Michael had brought back the worries I had forgotten.
“Haah…….”
I want to live in a world where I don’t have to worry about my life.
When I leaned against the tree with a forlorn face, Michael sat down beside me.
“If you don’t mind, may I counsel you on your troubles?”
“You, Michael?”
“I may not look it, but I’m rather good at listening to other people.”
True enough. He did seem to be good at listening to other people’s confessions.
I glanced at Michael. He looked as kind and beautiful as an angel.
Since he was gentle and considerate, he might listen well to my troubles.
And above all, since he didn’t know who I was, I felt I could open up a little.
“Well, actually, I do have a worry.”
“What is it?”
“What does it mean to give someone a dagger as a gift?”
I already had a guess at the meaning, but it might just be my own wild assumption.
Michael pondered the meaning of a dagger with me, in earnest.
Perhaps because he was thinking it over carefully, his answer didn’t come right away.
“One doesn’t usually choose a dagger as a gift.”
“But I received one. ……Does it mean I’m supposed to die?”
Looking tearful, I buried my face in both hands. However kindly I tried to think of it, there was only one conclusion.
I’ll stab you with this blade.
Or: stab yourself to death with this blade.
Either way, I’m dead!
Michael patted my shoulder to comfort me.
“I don’t think that’s what it means…….”
Even with Michael’s warm comfort, my heart took no solace at all. The Crown Prince was definitely trying to kill me.
I cried out bitterly.
“No, it’s not! You don’t know him! If I die…… bury me somewhere sunny!”
“……Excuse me?”
Michael, who didn’t know my circumstances, made a baffled face, but I was in no state to care how anyone reacted.
“Sob…….”
I wept sorrowfully, and Michael stayed by my side, trying his best to console me.
“Feeling a bit better now?”
I accepted the handkerchief Michael held out.
“Thank you.”
“It was nothing. All I did was sit beside you.”
Michael called it ‘merely sitting beside me,’ but to me it was a greater comfort than anything else.
However much easier they had become to deal with than before, Terni and Diano were still uncomfortable people to be around, and I had nowhere to turn for support.
However kind they were to me, in the end they were the Crown Prince’s confidants.
Precisely because Michael knew nothing about me, being with him put me at ease.
It could hardly be called counseling, since all I did was lament my lot, but my heart felt much lighter.
I turned to Michael with a small smile.
“You’re really kind, Michael.”
“……Am I?”
“Yes. That must be why everyone likes you. You received a confession the other day, didn’t you? Do you get confessions often?”
Hesitating, Michael nodded.
Of course! The popular guy! Unlike the Crown Prince, he’s gentle and sweet, so no wonder he’s so popular. And handsome on top of that.
I spoke without thinking.
“I can see why the ladies like you, Michael.”
“…….”
“Michael?”
When I turned around, Michael hurriedly got to his feet.
His face was flushed, as if something had made him uncomfortable.
Huh, did I do something wrong?
“Let’s meet again next time, Lara.”
“Huh? Wait a moment!”
Why all of a sudden?
Before I could catch him, Michael vanished in a flash. I looked down at Michael’s handkerchief, still in my hand.
“Well, it can’t be helped.”
I’ll wash it and give it back when we meet again.
* * *
As the incomprehensible days dragged on, Adrian felt he would go mad with frustration.
Fuming alone had reached its limit.
While Terni was away with Arti, Adrian caught Diano and sat him down in front of him.
Thump. At His Highness’s forceful movement, Diano’s heart skipped a beat.
“I have something to ask.”
“Yes, just say the word! Whoever stands in Your Highness’s way, I’ll cut them down!”
“……?”
What’s with him all of a sudden?
For a moment he wavered over whether to ask this idiot at all, but there was no one else to ask.
“There’s no one to cut down.”
“……Oh.”
Diano was sharply disappointed.
“Really, no one?”
“No.”
Adrian paid no mind to Diano’s reaction and got to the point.
“About what I mentioned before. Something pretty and practical. I gave it just as you said, but it’s never carried around. Why is that?”
Reluctant, he didn’t say who he had given it to. Fortunately, Diano wasn’t particularly curious about who it was.
In truth, that was because he already knew, but Adrian was unaware of that.
“You gave a gift and it isn’t carried around……?”
Reasoning it out with a grave expression, Diano suddenly went wide-eyed.
“T-that’s……!”
“That’s?”
Adrian waited tensely for Diano’s answer. But.
“Could it be that they simply didn’t like the gift?”
The answer that came back was dismal…….
When Adrian scowled, Diano hastily added more.
“If the gift had been to their liking, they would have carried it. Or perhaps it’s such a fine gift that they don’t dare carry it.”
“Too good to carry? Why?”
Adrian couldn’t understand.
If it’s good, you carry it as it is, so why put it away for safekeeping?
“In any case, in such a situation, it’s best to ask directly why they don’t carry it. That’s better than agonizing over it alone.”
Nodding along to Diano’s words, Adrian sharpened his gaze at the last thing Diano had added.
“I haven’t been agonizing.”
“Ah, right.”
“I haven’t.”
Diano smiled amiably and scratched his head.
“Yes, sir…….”
Only he doesn’t realize it, it seems. That he had been tormenting those around him with his solitary brooding.
