The Crown Prince’s Fiancée — Chapter 42
* * *
Having taken Diano’s not-quite-advice to heart, Adrian immediately set out to find Arti.
But once again, there wasn’t a single hair of her to be seen.
Now that he knew she was avoiding him on purpose, he couldn’t give up so easily.
Adrian searched for Arti with patience. Yet even after wandering for hours, she was nowhere in sight.
“Where in the world does she keep running off to?”
Picturing Arti scurrying away to dodge him put him in a foul mood, yet she was as cute as a sparrow.
‘Damn it. Thinking she’s cute even at a time like this. I’m in a pretty bad way.’
He had searched everywhere she might be: her bedroom, the library, the office, and the rear garden.
Her range of movement wasn’t wide, so he had assumed that if he kept at it doggedly he would find her, but things hadn’t gone his way.
As Adrian tousled his hair and sighed, several knights approached him and saluted.
“Greetings to His Highness the Crown Prince! May Arcangelo’s blessing be with you.”
“Mm.”
Adrian nodded and passed the knights without a second thought. Then he stopped dead in his tracks.
“Wait.”
“?!”
At the Crown Prince’s command, the knights froze as if nailed to the spot.
The knights looked into one another’s eyes and began a silent conversation.
‘What’s going on? Did you do something wrong?’
‘Well, I haven’t washed my uniform, actually…….’
‘You filthy bastard.’
While they bickered, Adrian slowly walked over and stood in front of them.
His expression was so fearsome that they expected the Crown Prince to lose his temper.
But the words that followed were far from anger.
“Have you seen my fiancée?”
“??”
The Crown Prince’s fiancée was famous in more ways than one.
The veiled daughter of the Obiedo Marquisate. A beauty with the fragile air of a hothouse flower.
The way she had appeared out of nowhere and become engaged to the Crown Prince had even been talked about as the scandal of the century.
Her trademark was the translucent veil she wore over her face at every official event, yet even concealed, her beauty could not be hidden, and some of the knights secretly adored her.
Word had gone around lately that her demeanor had changed a great deal, but everyone preferred her that way.
If the former Lady Obiedo had seemed unapproachable, the current Lady Obiedo was much gentler.
While the knights exchanged bewildered looks and put off answering, Adrian’s expression grew steadily more menacing.
“I asked if you’ve seen her.”
“No, we haven’t!”
“You haven’t?”
“No, sir!”
Adrian pressed a hand to his forehead again and let out a deep sigh. It was the knights who fretted over that reaction.
Something seemed to have happened to his fiancée.
One of the knights, reading the mood, bowed his head to the Crown Prince.
“We’ll begin searching at once!”
He took a step to dash off immediately, but couldn’t go any farther.
“Stop.”
“Sir?”
Adrian stared at the knight with a look of displeasure.
“I’ll find her myself.”
“……Sir?”
Adrian walked past the knights with irritated strides.
It was no different from shouting with his whole body that he was in a rotten mood, so the knights held their breath.
Afraid the sparks might land on them.
They watched the Crown Prince’s back, and only after he had vanished completely did they breathe again.
“He gave me a real fright, calling out like that.”
“And here I thought he stopped because you stink.”
“If anyone stinks, it’s you!”
“But why is he looking for Lady Obiedo? Don’t tell me she’s disappeared?”
The Crown Prince’s fiancée had disappeared!
There was only one thing that could imply.
“They had a fight!”
Thinking it over that way, everything fit together perfectly.
Lady Obiedo, who could never simply vanish, had gone into hiding, and the Crown Prince was pursuing her with yearning (?).
It was definitely a chase of love!
Having grasped the situation, the knights cried out one after another.
“It must be the Crown Prince’s fault!”
“Hang in there, Lady Obiedo!”
And so Arti ended up receiving cheers she couldn’t make any sense of.
* * *
Adrian’s final stop was the garden near Lily Palace.
It was a place people passed through now and then, so he hadn’t expected Arti, who must not be seen, to be here, but it was the only place left that he hadn’t searched.
After a few minutes of walking without any hope, Adrian’s steps gradually slowed.
‘Why is she sleeping there?’
Leaning slantwise against a massive tree, Arti was fast asleep, hugging an enormously thick book.
Sunlight filtering through the lush leaves settled in scattered patches on her tiny face.
Whoosh―
When a breeze blew gently, the shadows of the leaves on her face swayed along with it.
Adrian held his breath and gazed at Arti in that peaceful scene.
A sudden bitterness washed over him.
‘……She never shows me a face like that.’
Beside Adrian, Arti said she was trying hard, but she could never hide her unease.
Whenever he felt that fear so plainly, Adrian grew frustrated.
But he had no idea what he could do to keep Arti from being afraid of him.
He had given the gift on Diano’s advice, and the result was this: she was running away from him.
Wearing a self-mocking smile that gnawed at his heart, Adrian admired Arti’s sleeping face.
‘She sleeps so soundly.’
It was the first time he had seen Arti asleep.
She was cute. At the same time, irritation welled up in him at the thought that she had fallen asleep in a garden so defenselessly.
‘Why is she so cute, damn it?’
On top of that, Arti wasn’t even wearing her veil.
‘Only I should be seeing this bare face.’
He ought to wake her, but her face as she slept, breathing softly, looked so happy and free of worry that Adrian couldn’t bring himself to wake her.
Even breaking this picture-perfect scene made him feel guilty.
So Adrian decided to enjoy this peaceful time a little longer. Because once she woke, they certainly wouldn’t be able to be like this.
After some time had passed, Arti began to stir. Adrian flinched and stepped back.
‘How long have I been standing here, anyway?’
With a belated realization, Adrian frowned. He had been so absorbed in watching Arti that he hadn’t noticed how much time had gone by.
“Mmm…….”
Arti rubbed her eyes and slowly opened them.
‘I fell asleep without even realizing it.’
It was all because the book was so boring.
After sleeping in an awkward position for so long, her whole body ached.
By now Adrian had probably gone back to Poinsettia Palace, so it was about time to get up.
‘I’ll go and eat something delicious.’
Lifting her head with a light heart, Arti’s eyes went wide.
There, standing where he should never have been, was a person.
“……Gasp.”
‘Am I still dreaming? Why is the Crown Prince here? He’s never once come to the garden!’
It was the moment when all her efforts to run away from the Crown Prince came to nothing.
Unable to tell whether this was a dream or reality, Arti stared blankly at Adrian for quite a while.
For some reason, Adrian also just stared at Arti without moving.
Their eyes met, and a rather long time passed.
‘Now’s my chance!’
Arti flung away even the book in her arms and broke into a run.
‘……?’
Watching that, Adrian was so stunned and dumbfounded that he didn’t even think of chasing her.
What on earth was she doing?
His bewilderment soon turned to anger as he became certain that she really had been avoiding him.
It was merely a suspicion turned into certainty, yet fury boiled up inside him.
‘How dare she avoid me?’
He felt he wouldn’t be satisfied until he heard the reason from that pretty mouth of hers.
Adrian began to chase Arti with a terrifying force.
Arti, who had been running with relief because the Crown Prince wasn’t pursuing her, was startled as if doused with cold water when Adrian began to chase, and quickened her pace.
‘Hngh. Stop chasing me!’
If he caught her, she would die. That much was certain.
Arti ran desperately. But the distance steadily closed. Perhaps she was trying too hard.
“Ah!”
She fell with a thud……!
Startled, Adrian, who had been chasing her, stopped running.
‘Damn it……!’
Arti took advantage of that moment, leapt to her feet, and started running again.
Her scraped knee hurt and she was ashamed to have fallen in front of the Crown Prince, but now was not the time to worry about that.
Her life was on the line!
Seeing Arti flee from him so desperately, Adrian grew even more dumbfounded.
‘What, does she think I’m going to eat her?’
How should he put it, he felt wronged.
It wasn’t that he had never thought of devouring her, but at the very least, this wasn’t the time.
Unaware of his feelings, Arti kept running with all her might despite the pain of her lungs feeling ready to burst.
But no matter how hard she ran, their basic stamina was worlds apart, so the gap between them closed quickly.
“Ah!”
In the end, Arti was caught by Adrian.
The place where the two stopped was an open corridor. Caught, Arti backed away step by step until she bumped into a pillar.
“Don’t even think of running.”
Adrian warned her in a low, suppressed voice. Then he braced his left arm against the pillar and pressed in on her even further.
Arti shuddered and looked up at Adrian.
‘T-too close…….’
The Crown Prince’s face was right in front of her.
