The Crown Prince’s Fiancée, Episode 3
“Getting tangled up with that Crown Prince bastard of all people. Poor thing, you really are. Of all the places to get caught, why there?”
Terni pitied me with the look of someone who had just seen something unbearably sad.
If he was going to pity me, I wished he would do it with money.
No, forget the money. I wished he would just get me out of this situation. It wasn’t as if I had wanted to get caught.
Until just yesterday, there hadn’t been a single ripple in my life.
Viola Bilbao. My name had been swapped out in a single day, but it was my real name all the same.
I had been born a noble, but my family had fallen, and then my family had died, and with nowhere to turn alone, I had drifted from place to place.
A friend of my father’s, taking pity on me, had recommended me as a maid at the imperial palace, and I had come here only a short while ago.
I had just finished my probationary period and was about to begin my life as a palace maid in earnest…
“Anyway, there’s a lot you need to learn. If you don’t want to die, you’d better memorize it well. The ball is two weeks away.”
Terni began with an exaggeratedly serious expression.
“Somehow or other, we have to make you look like Essen. You have to play the fiancée perfectly, just as Essen did. That’s the only way you won’t end up dead.”
I couldn’t tell whether it was a threat or concern.
“Yes. I’ll keep it in mind, Count Obiedo, Your Excellency.”
“There’s no need to be so stiff. We’re siblings now, so speak casually!”
Terni smiled brightly.
For some reason, it felt like he was happy. Was that just my imagination?
Anyway, he told me to speak casually, so it must be all right to do so, right?
“Yes! Your Excellency the Count!”
“I said to speak casually, so why am I still ‘Your Excellency the Count’? Make it casual. Drop the formalities!”
“No, that’s a bit…”
“Then call me Brother.”
“Yes, Brother.”
At my answer, Terni nodded in satisfaction.
It still felt strange and uncomfortable, but with the form of address changed, I felt a little more at ease.
“You’ve been working as a maid, so you know the nobles’ faces well, right?”
“Yes. Roughly…”
“Roughly gets you killed.”
“I know! I know them perfectly!”
It was a situation where I had to know even if I knew nothing.
Having gotten the answer he wanted, Terni laughed in satisfaction.
Must be nice to have something to laugh about. I couldn’t laugh even if I wanted to…
No matter what I did, all I could think was that I was going to die.
Ah, no wonder my luck had seemed so good yesterday.
“I trust the lessons are finished.”
A low, smooth voice made me start, and I lifted my head.
The Crown Prince, in full dress uniform, had suddenly walked into the reception room, and he looked only at Terni, not treating me as a human being at all.
He had merely walked in, yet the presence he gave off was enough to overwhelm me.
“Oh, they’re nearly done!”
Terni answered with a bright smile.
Unlike his crisp answer, the lessons hadn’t even begun.
What was nearly done? My life?
At Terni’s words, the Crown Prince frowned.
Whatever was displeasing him, he stared at me for a moment. It was like the look one gives a bug.
When he saw me shrink back, he frowned faintly.
What had I done wrong?
After eyeing me with continued disapproval, the Crown Prince turned back to Terni.
“Wrap it up and come out. That isn’t urgent.”
At the icy remark, Terni scowled at once.
“You said this was urgent!”
“Come out.”
As though he doubted Terni would come out easily, he grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and dragged him straight out of the room.
At the Crown Prince’s monstrous strength, I held my breath without a sound.
In the instant just before the door closed, my eyes met the Crown Prince’s.
I tilted my head at the unfamiliar emotion that flickered for a moment in those crimson eyes.
What was that?
* * *
I had two people in charge of my education.
One was Terni, who claimed to be my brother, and the other was the Crown Princess-designate’s chief maid, a woman named Madam Lucy.
The mature lady, who looked to be around forty, was always elegant, her posture never faltering.
“Ohohohohoho!”
With one exception. When she laughed.
“Now, how should I introduce myself? Well, I am Lucy, chief maid to Lady Artienne. I’m called Madam Lucy, hohoho. I suppose I’m your maid now, aren’t I? Ohoho.”
Only a few days ago I had been a maid myself, and now suddenly I had a maid following me around.
“Don’t you worry. Just trust me and follow my lead, and everything will be taken care of. Ohohoho.”
It was practically a ray of light in this bleak reality.
The moment she met me, Madam Lucy decided what needed to be done.
“First of all, your figure is different, so we’ll have to alter every one of the clothes.”
She said it as if it were only natural, and just then a certain truth I had learned flashed through my mind.
I wondered whether she knew about that, too.
Surely she must know, right? But if I slipped up, it would be a disaster.
Stealing a cautious glance at her, I broached the subject.
“Madam, do you know as well? That the fiancée was… a man…”
“Of course, naturally! I’m the one who dressed that person as a woman, after all! The bosom was my idea, too. Not a soul suspected he was a man! Ohohohoho!”
Before I could even finish, Madam Lucy explained everything on her own.
“The dress we must alter most urgently is the one for the Empress’s birthday celebration in two weeks, and it is truly beautiful. Once you see it, Miss Arti, you’ll long to wear it so badly that it will appear in your dreams!”
Ah, so the unmissable ball I had to attend was the Empress’s birthday celebration.
“Lady Essen adored it so much, too. It’s sad that she vanished all of a sudden. I did think there was something unusual about the atmosphere between those two.”
“Those two…?”
“Why, Lady Essen and His Highness Crown Prince Adrian, of course! Ohohoho! You wouldn’t believe how close the two of them were.”
“Ah…”
“It was famous from the time they were children. Their brotherly bond, I mean.”
“Ah…”
Was it really a brotherly bond?
“His Highness Crown Prince Adrian said he would never enter a party with anyone but Lady Essen.”
“Ah…”
For a moment I had thought I might be mistaken, but it seemed it was true after all.
I wanted to cheer on their deep bond. If I did, I could live, couldn’t I?
I didn’t know why, but Madam Lucy seemed delighted. In contrast, I was growing gloomier and gloomier.
“Don’t worry, you’ll adapt quickly, too, my lady. You won’t be found out!”
I truly hoped so, but my life was nothing more than a candle flame.
“Now then, let’s take your measurements right this minute!”
At Madam Lucy’s words, the maids came into the bedchamber one by one, carrying measuring tapes and dresses.
Surely I wasn’t going to have to be measured right in front of these maids?
I felt a moment of dread, but the instant Madam Lucy picked up the tape, they all slipped out of the room.
“It’s quite all right. I’m the only one who will see Lady Artienne in her undergarments, hohoho.”
“Haha…”
Well, isn’t that a relief.
I wasn’t used to being waited on, or to baring my body, and I tensed up for a moment. How did the imperial family manage to put their bodies into the hands of maids so easily?
The maids bathed them, the maids dressed them…
I had heard that the Crown Prince hated women and so had men do all of that for him, so did that mean he really was gay?
“Now, stand here, my lady.”
When I stood where Madam Lucy pointed, the clothes I had on were stripped away without hesitation.
Ugh. It was embarrassing, of course.
I was in a chemise, and as I stood there flustered, not knowing what to do, Madam Lucy laughed at something she found funny.
“You must get used to this sort of thing from now on.”
“Is that so?”
“Naturally!”
I didn’t think I would ever get used to it.
Fortunately, the measuring was over quickly.
“And now, on to the next thing!”
I thought the lessons were finally about to begin, but what Madam Lucy said was nothing like what I had expected.
“Next, let’s find the colors that suit the new Miss Arti!”
Um, what about my lessons?
* * *
Adrian Brisch Kaitel van Zakel Appenson.
Adrian, Crown Prince of Appennino, was the empire’s only heir, and he was widely praised as a future emperor who would be flawless.
Needless to say, he was brilliant, and capable in every field. On top of that, he was born to the Empress, so his legitimacy was beyond question, making him the perfect Crown Prince.
His morality… well, sure, fine, let’s say that could pass.
By all accounts, there was no problem with his morality. Judging by how he treated my life like a fly’s, though, I doubted that was true.
And the Crown Prince had one serious flaw that was not known to the public.
It was that his personality was extremely, tremendously bad.
How had this never gotten out? That foul temper wasn’t something you could hide just by trying. This was fraud!
How could that be dressed up as a stern disposition?
Moreover, they said the Crown Prince hated women so much that he had ignored every bit of pressure from above to marry.
Then, in the midst of all that, his destined partner appeared, and that was ‘Artienne Chevil Rabat Obiedo.’
A daughter who had suddenly appeared in the House of Marquis Obiedo, which had had only one heir for five generations.
And yet, by whatever trick had been used, people didn’t question her appearance.
In any case, that daughter was actually a man in women’s clothing, and I had never imagined the Crown Prince would have that sort of taste.
No wonder the rumors were rampant that he didn’t merely dislike women but loathed them.
But why had the fiancé run away? Could the fiancé not stand that vile temper, either?
Oh, that made sense. Somehow I felt I could understand why the fiancé had run.
“Hey.”
“Yes?”
At the sudden low voice, I startled as if waking from sleep.
I opened my eyes wide and looked straight ahead, and there was the Crown Prince, glaring at me with a terrifying expression.
