Chapter 21

“Madam?”

“You….”

As the woman trailed off, Jacques raised his head to look at her.

“Why does it hurt so much?”

“Pardon?”

“You are in so much… pain.”

Startled by the sudden words, he looked at the Crown Princess, and she too was staring at the two of them with surprised eyes. But when her eyes met Jacques’s, for some reason the Crown Princess pretended not to know and turned her gaze away from him.

Flustered, he tried to pull his hand away with force, but Adel would not let go.

“You… have not slept at all.”

“What on earth are you saying….”

Enoch, who had been watching Jacques from a distance, saw his master standing there holding the hand of the Countess of Devryan tightly and clicked his tongue. Thinking it was starting again, he shook his head, then his eyes widened in utter shock.

Had Duke Jacques Sonnier ever worn such an expression? Unbelievably, the Duke was flustered. He was not pretending to be surprised; he had thrown off his tiresome mask and was genuinely flustered.

“Countess… my hand, please….”

Jacques hid his surprise and forced a smile to try to pull away from her.

But the woman, said to be one of the proofs of the Empire’s myth, seemed to have no intention of letting him go. He waited for the focus to return to Adel’s eyes and took a moment to catch his breath. He could not simply shake off the hand the lady was holding. But in that moment, Adel, who had worn a pained expression until now, smiled brightly.

“But you….”

For some reason, that smile made Jacques’s heart drop with a thud.

“Why do you have so much money?”

As she said this, Adel’s eyes seemed to grow a little more saturated in color, and then she started in surprise and let go of his hand as if shaking it off.

“Wh-what did I say?”

“Ha.”

He looked at Rene with a flustered face, but the Crown Princess shrugged as if asking what had happened and walked on ahead of them. Adel, flustered, lifted her skirt and bowed.

“If I said anything rude, please forgive me. I seem to have been lightheaded because I could not sleep last night.”

“No. You did not… say anything.”

Jacques did not think Adel was lying. If Rene was like a deep, cold lake of unknowable depth, this woman was like a single white cloud in a clear blue sky. He felt as though he could see clearly what lay beyond, and yet also never know. He sent a look demanding an explanation to Rene, who sat beside Adel in the carriage, but Rene smiled gently and feigned ignorance.

“Not long ago, in the Chande Garden.”

Unable to hold back, Jacques broke the silence, and Rene finally turned her gaze to him.

“The Countess of Devryan saved my life.”

Rene, uncharacteristically, even clapped her palms together in a show of surprise.

“Oh my! Did she? Well now… my sister holds your life in her debt.”

“You could say that. But in a case like this, most people would first ask how such a thing could have happened.”

“Oh my, would they?”

“As expected, the women of House Millium are different in some way.”

“I will take that as a compliment. Ah, Duke. When we get to the banquet hall, please take good care of my sister to the end. I must stay with His Highness the Crown Prince.”

“I understand Count Devryan is in the capital.”

“Ah, the Count has his mistress with him. I doubt he will have the capacity to look after his wife as well.”

Only then did Jacques wear a face as if some of his curiosity had been resolved.

“This is the first I have heard that a mistress may attend an imperial banquet.”

“Oh dear, did I say mistress? Not a mistress, but one who comes as a recipient of the Medal of Merit. She has rendered merit, so she must receive her reward. Is that not so?”

A hesitant voice cut in between the two, who were caught in a strange tension.

“Actually… I did not save your life.”

“What… do you mean?”

The woman like a white cloud filled his vision as if billowing up. Because of that, Jacques smiled kindly at Adel, as if he had never worn a cold look in his eyes.

“Actually, you would have lost an arm and a leg.”

For a moment Jacques could not understand what she meant, and he blinked a couple of times before bursting into loud laughter.

“Forgive me, Your Highness the Crown Princess.”

“I am not so narrow-minded as to scold you for laughing.”

“So the Countess’s words sound as if she knew in advance that I would lose an arm and a leg there.”

Rene glanced sideways at Adel and swallowed, but there was no change in Adel’s face. And soon a clear answer flew back.

“Yes, I saw it in advance. But you were already expecting it, weren’t you? Normally, there is no way I would have appeared there at that time.”

“Of course… you are right. Especially not dressed like that.”

His grin made him seem all the more affectionate. His kindness gave Adel courage for her resolve.

Jacques looked at Adel, and she did not avoid his eyes either. In that moment, the surroundings seemed to turn white, as if only the two of them were in the carriage. To avoid falling into that dizzying sensation, he gave his head a slight shake to scatter his focus, then leaned back languidly against the seat.

“Then today I will serve you diligently with that arm and leg.”

“Thank you. And so, speaking of that.”

“Please go on.”

“After the banquet today, would you invite me to your residence?”

At Adel’s words, both Rene’s and Jacques’s eyes went wide. For a married woman to ask the man who escorted her to invite her to his home late at night after the banquet was, to anyone’s eyes, a clear invitation to a tryst.

“To my… home?”

“Yes.”

But her straight, unwavering gaze and the Crown Princess’s cough, as if trying to hide her fluster, created a peculiar atmosphere. It felt closer to a secret agent’s meeting than a tryst.

“Do not misunderstand. I have something to tell you.”

“I heard the Count will also be in attendance today….”

“That does not matter.”

“It does not matter?”

“I heard that in the capital it is no problem for noble ladies to take lovers.”

Again, the Crown Princess’s cough came faster than Jacques’s answer. Glancing over, it was hard to tell whether her face was red from suppressing a cough or from suppressing laughter.

“Surely Her Highness the Crown Princess and the Countess of Devryan are not teasing me….”

“Of course not. It is just… I do not want to go home.”

“Ahem.”

Now the Crown Princess simply covered her mouth and threw her gaze out the window.

“Is it not possible? Last time you said you wanted to express your thanks to me in person.”

“Of course I did.”

“I simply do not want to go to a house where my husband has brought his mistress. And I have something to tell you.”

Jacques closed his eyes entirely to hide his confusion. What on earth were these two sisters thinking?

He was a man who had once been crown prince of this nation. They were not people who did not know what it meant to attach a Millium to such a man.

Was the Crown Princess dreaming of rebellion? But even so, the Crown Prince’s attitude was hardly clear either.

This was the first time something he had not planned had happened since his return to Hessenia. They said this was the family with the legendary power in the Empire’s thousand-year history, and they were truly wondrous women.

When Jacques did not answer, Adel grew urgent.

Since it was not far from the Crown Princess’s palace to the Rusalte banquet hall, she asked him again and again.

“You seem to have misunderstood—I am not asking you to be my lover tonight. I am merely asking you to invite me to your home.”

“I see.”

Soon the carriage carrying the three stopped before the Rusalte banquet hall. When the door opened, Jacques stepped down first and escorted the Crown Princess. After she descended, Jacques reached his hand out to Adel once more. But Adel only stared stubbornly at his offered hand and did nothing.

A suffocating silence passed, and after a moment, Jacques curled one corner of his mouth into a faint smile, then stretched out his arm and seized Adel’s hand. And he pulled her close and whispered in her ear as a lover would.

“After Duretta’s song ends and His Majesty the Emperor leaves his seat, I will be waiting before the fountain in the Paionia Garden.”

At the end of his words, Adel looked at him and smiled brightly. Her words that she did not want to go home and asked to be invited had not been a lie. Adel was genuinely happy. Even if it was only for a single night, she finally had somewhere to go.

* * *

The capital of Hessenia had been seething like an active volcano for the past few days.

Not only could the two butterflies of high society be seen in one place, but word had spread that Count Devryan would appear at the banquet hall as splendidly as his reputation, bringing both his wife and his mistress.

And what was even more surprising was that the Crown Princess herself had asked Duke Jacques Sonnier to escort the Countess of Devryan.

Fans, which had disappeared from the capital for years as out of fashion, were selling like hotcakes again.

Women alike covered their mouths with fans and gathered in groups, chattering endlessly about the main characters of the day.

Annaston could not collect herself.

An imperial palace banquet. It was a place she could never have set foot in her lowly station unless she died and was reborn.

When Ethan escorted her into the banquet hall, all eyes turned to them in an instant.

Annaston was so nervous that she tightened her grip on Ethan’s arm. But no warm gaze returned to her.

He had been fidgeting since earlier, unable to say a word, just standing there and looking around.