The Crown Prince’s Fiancée, Episode 5
Until now, the Crown Prince had held up well against the pressure from his elders, even without a fiancée.
If anything, I remembered how astonished everyone had been by the fiancée he had suddenly brought out of nowhere.
It seemed he could just have gone without one, with no need to go as far as finding a stand-in…
The Crown Prince kept his mouth shut tight as though my question were a nuisance, then tossed out a single syllable.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Is there some reason you need to know?”
“…No.”
“Focus on your own duties.”
“Yes, I will.”
As I stood there with my head bowed, Terni cut in.
“Why are you being like that with the poor girl? She’s allowed to wonder. Right?”
Nod.
In the end, it was Terni, not the Crown Prince, who answered my question.
“Her Majesty the Empress wants His Highness to marry as soon as possible. Until now he’s dodged it somehow by claiming he’s too young, but he’s past twenty now and has reached marriageable age, so even that excuse has failed!”
“Ah, I see.”
“And Her Majesty is pushing for Adrian to marry a certain lady if he has no suitable partner, and that woman is just… something else.”
Terni shook his head back and forth.
His face, scrunched up into a deep frown, looked rotten.
Like Diano, Terni seemed to detest that lady.
“I’d sooner destroy this empire than make that crazy woman the Crown Princess.”
The Crown Prince muttered it with a cold, cynical smile.
He really does hate women.
So he must be gay after all.
His remark only added certainty to my certainty.
How much must he hate women to bring the man he loved in and dress him as a woman?
The Crown Prince was a rather pitiable man himself.
Born the Crown Prince and gay on top of that, what a sad life that must be.
While I was busy pitying the Crown Prince, another conversation was already underway.
The Crown Prince and his two hangers-on were talking in earnest.
“Did you find Essen?”
“No, he must have run away. Really far.”
“It’s because you were too rough in bed.”
At Terni’s grumbling, the teacup in my hand dropped straight down to the floor.
Clatter―
Thanks to the carpet, the cup thankfully didn’t break, but I couldn’t stop the three men’s gazes from converging on me.
B-bed, rough.
My eyes wandered at that combination of words.
I laughed awkwardly and picked up the fallen teacup.
“I’m just air. Please carry on with whatever you were doing.”
“These days even air makes noise, does it?”
“Haha… Strange, isn’t it?”
Despite my nonsense, the Crown Prince thankfully lost interest in me soon enough.
When I shrank back into a corner of the sofa, they resumed the conversation they had paused.
I listened quietly.
The more clues I had, the better my chances of survival.
Putting together everything I had heard so far, it seemed this person named Essen was both the Crown Prince’s fiancée and his personal guard knight.
Being a man was a problem for a fiancée, but well, whatever.
It seemed that when the Empress pushed a marriage to some woman, the Crown Prince had given the knight Essen, whom he had loved all along, a new identity and made him his fiancée.
And that certain woman was the very ‘that woman’ who kept coming up in their conversations.
Hmm, so that’s how it was. Things were finally starting to make sense.
“He ran with real determination. I can’t find where he went.”
“Could he have gone home?”
“No. I sent word over there, and he never showed up.”
It seemed the knight Essen was hiding well, and I couldn’t help wondering just how rough it must have been in bed for him to run away so desperately.
I glanced at the Crown Prince, and fearing our eyes might meet, buried my gaze in my teacup again.
Sob, what a cowardly life.
“Then where did he go? We need to find him quickly.”
“Is there any need to find him when we have a stand-in?”
The Crown Prince cut into Terni and Diano’s conversation.
He quietly pointed at me with his chin.
I startled and straightened my back.
Why? W-what is it?
“…And you trust that?”
Before I knew it, all three men were looking at me again.
Wow, that’s a bit much.
I laughed awkwardly and shrank into myself.
Somehow it felt like the thing to do.
“Anyway, make her useful within two weeks. We have to get through the Empress’s birthday celebration safely, one way or another.”
At the mention of the Empress’s birthday celebration, I felt the blood drain from my face.
The people I would have to deceive were attending that party in great numbers, two weeks from now.
Since it was the Empress’s birthday celebration, Her Majesty would naturally be there, and surely His Majesty the Emperor as well.
Oh, the Emperor…
I had no confidence that I could play the fiancée properly in front of him.
“Um, if it comes out that I’m a fake, what happens then?”
“You’ll die, or you’ll croak.”
Ah, solemn silence…
The three men started talking among themselves again.
“Haha. She’ll be coming too, won’t she?”
“There’s no way that party fanatic would miss it.”
At Terni’s question, the Crown Prince answered with a sickened, sour look.
It seemed the woman everyone avoided was a party fanatic.
Parties, huh.
I was from a fallen noble family, but precisely because we had fallen, I had never been to one.
And even though six months had passed since I entered the palace, I had never so much as gone near a place where a party was held.
I grew deeply afraid of my future two weeks from now.
“By the way, what exactly does she have to do?”
Terni propped his chin on his hand, turning toward me in the middle of the conversation.
Meeting his gaze head-on, I opened my eyes wide and drew back slightly.
It was Diano, who had only been watching quietly, who answered Terni’s question.
“To begin with, Essen basically didn’t speak.”
“That’s just because he didn’t feel like talking, however he pleased.”
“She has to do the same. It would be strange if her personality suddenly changed.”
The information that he hadn’t spoken in daily life helped me enormously.
At the very least, it lessened the risk of losing my head over a slip of the tongue.
“And what else did that guy do?”
“Who knows. He managed everything so well on his own that I can’t remember.”
The two men other than the Crown Prince agonized fiercely over how the knight Essen had played the fiancé.
Silently watching them, the Crown Prince scowled deeply and waved a hand.
“Sort it out among yourselves. Why should I have to concern myself with this? Now get out.”
At those words, the surroundings fell quiet for a moment.
Terni, who had been staring blankly at the Crown Prince, suddenly clapped his hands.
“I can see the makings of a tyrant.”
T-tyrant.
It was such an original piece of sarcasm that I wondered whether he might get killed by the Crown Prince for it.
And Diano, who I had thought would just stay silent, joined in as well.
“You will make a magnificent tyrant, Your Highness.”
There wasn’t a shred of doubt in those words, spoken with a smile.
They were filled with a genuine belief that this Crown Prince would become a magnificent tyrant.
How had these men stayed alive until now? Carrying on like this in front of the Crown Prince would obviously cost them their lives…
Sure enough, the Crown Prince’s expression grew even more terrifying, clearly displeased by their reactions.
He glared at Diano.
“Is that supposed to be a compliment?”
At that, Diano bowed courteously and knelt before the Crown Prince.
“Forgive me. Please kill me.”
“No, there’s no need to kill you.”
I envied him. He kept asking to be killed and wasn’t. And here I was, begging to be spared, and they were making a fuss about killing me.
“Handle it well on your own.”
When the Crown Prince shook his head as if it were all a bother, we were driven out on the spot.
And yet I was happy.
I wanted to be driven out like this forever.
If I could, I wanted to be thrown out of the imperial palace altogether.
As long as the Crown Prince was here, this place was far too dangerous.
Terni, who had somehow stuck close to my side, beckoned me.
“Well then, shall we have a heartwarming sibling chat?”
When had we even met to be siblings? He was a total stranger, with not a drop of shared blood.
But since I had no power at all, I could only laugh awkwardly and follow after Terni.
****
Chapter 2. What It Means to Live as a Crown Princess-designate
It had been three days since I became the Crown Prince’s fiancée.
I was studying hard.
Because this was my only way to survive!
At first I had been seized by the urge to run away just like that, but that feeling didn’t last long.
“Arti, you aren’t thinking of escaping, are you?”
“W-what do you mean, escaping?”
“Hmm. I’m just saying it out of concern. Arti, don’t forget. Your opponent is Adrian.”
“Yes, I know very well…”
I had no idea how Terni had sniffed that out all of a sudden, but it stung badly.
“Um, but, if someone tried to escape and got caught, what would happen after that…?”
“What do you think? You’d die, or you’d croak.”
“Ah.”
“As you well know, the inner palace where the imperial family lives has the tightest security in the whole imperial palace, and Lily Palace and Poinsettia Palace especially have had more guards added lately because of Essen.”
“Ah, I see.”
“And Adrian has no mercy, you know? The fact that you’re alive right now is probably Adrian’s unprecedented mercy.”
The blood drained from my face.
Terni laughed haha and nodded.
“Just saying~!”
Oh, he was just saying!
“Arti. Your brother is your brother, so he can get away with cheeking Adrian, but you can’t. I hope you live a long, long time, my little sister.”
That very day, I abandoned the idea of escaping completely.
Whether Terni had intended it or not, it was certain there was no lie in his words.
After that, I began throwing myself desperately into my studies.
