Episode 40
Scanning through the documents again, I narrowed down the information regarding the core. My only thought was that I needed to finish this quickly and help Aidan.
It was right around the time when the documents on the desk were almost all sorted out.
Knock, knock—
A short, cheerful knock resounded.
Both Aidan and I raised our heads simultaneously to check the clock. It was a time when any civil servant working in the Imperial Palace would have already left work. Of course, there might be people working overtime like that Foreign Affairs Department employee from earlier, but there shouldn’t be anyone coming here.
This was because His Majesty had issued an order forbidding anyone from even coming near the Special Audit Department.
Aidan and I quickly exchanged glances.
Driven by the thought that perhaps Akhlo might come to steal the core, Aidan also quietly gripped the sword beside his desk, while I picked up the sharpest pen to try to threaten with something at least. While we were nervously sizing each other up, the door opened.
“May I come in for a moment?”
“Your Highness?”
The person who opened the door and entered was Crown Prince Adelian. At the appearance of the dazzlingly handsome Crown Prince, entirely different from the gloomy Akhlo member, I stood up in surprise, causing the desk to rattle. Giving me a glance as if to say, ‘No matter how surprised you are, how ungraceful,’ Aidan placed his sword back down in its original spot.
“What brings you all the way here?”
“Why, am I not allowed to come? Surely I haven’t interrupted a happy time between the two of you.”
“Of course not!”
Waving my hand that it was ridiculous, I first guided the Crown Prince to a seat. Leaving him standing indefinitely was out of the question.
“Thank you.”
Smiling softly, he glanced at the documents on the desk.
“Is this material about the cores?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
“I heard you two found two cores already. Both of you have worked really hard.”
Saying so, the Crown Prince leaned his upper body forward.
“Actually, I came because I have something to say regarding that core.”
“Regarding the core?”
When Aidan asked back, the Crown Prince nodded his head briefly. His fluttering blonde hair looked just like a fluffy puppy.
“To tell you the truth, my coming-of-age ceremony is coming up soon, you see.”
“That is correct, isn’t it?”
“Ahem, it’s a bit embarrassing, but my parents have a fantasy about ‘destiny,’ you see.”
“…Destiny?”
Being unable to grasp what on earth this meant at all, I tilted my head, and Aidan added a supplementary explanation.
“I have heard that the reason Your Highness the Crown Prince does not have a fiancée yet is also because of that.”
“Yes, that’s right. My parents fell for each other like destiny at the debutante ball and got married. So they wish for me, their child, to also fall in love at first sight and marry for love like them, rather than marrying through an engagement.”
The Crown Prince let out a long sigh and opened his mouth.
“So it seems they are planning to hold a masquerade ball for the coming-of-age ceremony.”
“Suddenly a masquerade ball?”
“Something about finding a woman of destiny to whom I am drawn without knowing her appearance or family background.”
He’s not an ordinary noble, but the Crown Prince, so is that even possible? At the very least, they ought to look at the family background.
“In any case, what does that have to do with the core?”
Aidan asked with a furrowed brow.
“Ah, the story sidetracked a little bit.”
The Crown Prince adjusted his posture and said.
“So for this birthday banquet, instead of the Lady of the Year, my mother called a jeweler, saying she would give a tiara to the woman I fancy at the masquerade ball.”
“The Lady of the Year?”
“Why, do they not select the Lady of the Year at every debutante held in conjunction with my birthday banquet?”
“It’s an event where Her Majesty the Empress selects the most elegant woman among the ladies attending the banquet and bestows a tiara upon her. Just by being selected, one becomes the finest bride candidate in the empire.”
Only after Aidan provided the supplementary explanation did I nod my head.
“Aha, there was such a thing.”
“Hmm? Miss Cynthia, have you never been to my birthday banquet? Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve seen you.”
“Ah, well, I’m not even a real noble…”
“What nonsense. Even so, an invitation must have gone out. Don’t tell me you haven’t held your debutante yet?”
Brightly opened blue eyes looked at me.
Of course I didn’t attend that. To participate there, one has to wear expensive dresses and even shoes.
And even if I went, it’s not like I would hear good things anyway. Just like being drenched in milk at the library, it might be a matter of getting drenched in wine or lemonade.
“So, anyway, what about the jeweler?”
When Aidan asked in a blunt voice, the Crown Prince also continued his words again.
“Among the gems brought by the jeweler, something caught the eye of my mother, who was pondering, and it was said to be a yellow gem about this size. When she asked what it was, even the jeweler was flustered, saying it was his first time seeing it.”
“Was it a gem even the jeweler didn’t know?”
“The jeweler said he himself didn’t know the reason why this was inside his jewelry box. However, my mother liked that yellow gem, so she asked to use this for the tiara. But a problem arose.”
A gem that suddenly appeared that even the jeweler had never seen before.
It was definitely a condition for a core.
“What kind of problem was it?”
The Crown Prince quenched his throat for a moment before opening his mouth.
“A few days later, the jeweler came to visit and said that upon his examination, that yellow gem was merely a cubic zirconia that looked like a gem.”
An item that looks like a gem but is not a gem.
Aidan and I turned our heads simultaneously and looked at each other.
“The jeweler suggested picking another gem, saying there seemed to have been some mistake, but as I said earlier, my mother believes in destiny. She said that the cubic zirconia catching her eye was all destiny, and eventually had the tiara made with that cubic zirconia. But hearing this story made me think of the core right away.”
“C-Can we check that cubic zirconia?”
“That wouldn’t be difficult. Since it’s kept in my mother’s jewelry box, we can check it when she steps away for a moment.”
Aidan opened the desk drawer and pulled out the copper nitrate reagent.
“Your Highness, then please drop one drop of this reagent onto that cubic zirconia.”
“This?”
Long fingers lightly shook the bottle.
“If a rainbow-colored phosphorescence shines when dropped, it is a core.”
“Oh, there was such a thing. Understood. Since it’s late today, I will experiment early tomorrow morning and let you know the results right away.”
With a refreshing smile, the Crown Prince shook the bottle once more and left the office.
And the next morning.
The Crown Prince came to find us much faster than expected.
“It was fascinating. As soon as the reagent touched it, although brief, a rainbow-colored light shone just as you said.”
And that cubic zirconia, as expected, was indeed a core.
“Then Your Highness can just replace the cubic zirconia in the tiara with another gem. I will try to procure a suitable gem.”
“To avoid getting caught by my mother, it would be best to use a gem that is as similar as possible.”
Then are we obtaining the third core like this as well? Although it feels like we obtained it far too easily compared to the cores obtained previously, there ought to be cases like this once in a while too.
Aidan procured a gem that looked genuinely identical to the cubic zirconia and delivered it to the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince returned after making a confident boast for us to just trust him, but…
The words that came out of the mouth of the returning Crown Prince were shocking.
“It failed.”
“Pardon?”
Aidan’s eyebrow twitched. Over the Crown Prince’s blue eyes, faint creases formed as if he were in a bind.
“When I dropped the reagent last time, I ran into a maid. It seems she thought I was trying to hide the tiara because I didn’t want to choose a partner at the ball.”
He lightly shrugged his shoulders.
“My mother sealed it in the safe so that no one can touch the tiara until the day of the coming-of-age ceremony. Saying she would open it directly at the ball venue on the day of and place it on the woman of destiny.”
The Crown Prince looked at me with a playful laugh.
“In the end, there is only one way.”
“Is there a way?”
“Miss Cynthia.”
“…Yes?”
The Crown Prince stood up from his seat and then lightly grasped my shoulders.
“Miss Cynthia just has to claim that tiara.”
“M-M-Me?”
By what means?
