The Crown Prince’s Fiancée, Episode 10
I could feel the eyes of everyone in the garden turn toward me. But my own gaze was fixed on Gabriel alone.
“What do you mean by that?”
Gabriel smiled sweetly and asked me. I was in no mood to smile back at her.
“I believe this is excessive. Bringing the wrong tea leaves was certainly a mistake, but surely you could have been more lenient.”
“Are you saying I’m not lenient? Excessive? That isn’t for you to decide, Lady Artienne. This girl is my personal maid. Whatever punishment I give her is up to me, isn’t it?”
My gaze shifted to the trembling maid. Her hands were swelling more and more, as if they had been scalded.
No matter how charitably I tried to look at it, I couldn’t.
Now that I had stepped forward, I couldn’t back down.
I faced Gabriel squarely. And I spoke slowly, but clearly.
“She is a person before she is a maid.”
* * *
Adrian’s grip tightened on the teacup he was holding. It was something he could only doubt his ears for.
What did I just hear?
Gabriel reacted much as Adrian had. Frowning, she stared at Artienne with a baffled expression, as if unable to comprehend it.
The only one keeping her composure in this situation was Artienne.
Gabriel twisted her face and demanded,
“What did you just say?”
“I said she is a person before she is a maid.”
Artienne spoke without any sign of retreat.
Arti’s profile, as she spoke so firmly, gave a different impression from usual. He had thought she was only vacant and dim.
“Reprimanding a maid’s mistake is all well and good, but overlooking it generously is also the mark of a true mistress.”
“Do you covet my maid, Lady Artienne? I can’t think why you would step forward to defend my maid’s mistake.”
“If you had scolded your maid behind my back, I wouldn’t have interfered. You seem to have forgotten, but His Highness the Crown Prince is present here.”
Gabriel’s expression stiffened for the first time.
“Don’t you think this is rude in front of His Highness?”
At Arti’s counterattack, the corners of Adrian’s mouth lifted pleasantly.
She’s clever.
Watching Arti catch Gabriel out with the point that such conduct was forbidden before the imperial family, Adrian found it more than fresh. It was enjoyable.
Perhaps it was because he had only ever seen her frozen and trembling, but it was both unfamiliar and intriguing.
Had she always been able to speak so well? So she was a creature capable of anger, too. And yet, without realizing it, Artienne was trembling with her fists clenched.
Even Gabriel, who had been stiffly demanding what she had done wrong, could not hold her nose high this time.
Even Gabriel, no less.
Gabriel had been different from others since childhood. Not only would she slap a maid’s cheek, she had once left a maid standing with her clothes stripped off because she was displeased, and had even made one go about in bizarre rags.
Everything about Gabriel’s habit of humiliating others displeased Adrian, but he had never particularly interfered.
He was far too accustomed to it.
He simply could not understand why she did such things even in front of him.
Watching Gabriel bite her lip, Adrian slowly set down his teacup.
“That’s enough.”
Adrian fixed his eyes on Gabriel.
“I think the outcome is clear, wouldn’t you say?”
“Your Highness!”
Adrian’s gaze turned to the maid. Her swollen hands looked serious even at a glance.
“You, go in. Largo.”
When Adrian called the name of the chief attendant, the chief attendant signaled to a palace maid. The palace maid led Gabriel’s maid out of the garden. Adrian rose from his seat.
“Gabriel, you seem tired today, so it would be best for you to go home now. We will take supper among ourselves.”
“What? What do you mean, Your Highness?”
“I will speak to Mother myself.”
Largo bowed his head to Gabriel.
“I will escort you out of the imperial palace, Lady Nevel.”
When Gabriel had been led out of the garden by Largo, Artienne let out a breath.
Adrian stared at Artienne. Pressing a small hand to her chest and drawing in air, Artienne glanced up at Adrian.
“I’m sorry. I overstepped.”
“No, it’s fine.”
She had done well, so why the apology?
Adrian smiled faintly. For once, Adrian was in a good mood.
“Keep doing that from now on. Always.”
“W-what?!”
“I said, keep doing it.”
Once Gabriel was gone, Artienne became dim again.
Looking into the wide-open blue eyes, Adrian frowned, without even knowing what had put him in a sulk.
“What I mean is, don’t watch anyone’s face except mine.”
Artienne opened her eyes wide once more.
* * *
Knock, knock. As always, Albert, the Empress’s attendant, arrived with a knock.
After a perfectly proper bow, Albert quietly delivered the Empress’s command.
“Your Highness the Crown Prince, Her Majesty the Empress summons you.”
“Tell her I’ve gone hunting.”
“Her Majesty is already aware that you have not gone hunting, that you are not at your official duties, and that you are not at sword training, and she says to come.”
The Empress had been summoning him steadily to find out what on earth had happened in the garden that day, but Adrian had stuck to the excuse of being busy.
With all three of his standard excuses for refusing a summons blocked, Adrian scowled.
When Adrian gave a nod, Diano, who had been sitting quietly, suddenly leapt to his feet and drew his sword.
“How rude. His Highness is currently engaged in a sparring match with me. We are merely discussing military secrets for a moment, and will soon be heading out to the training ground. I regret to say to Her Majesty the Empress that His Highness must fulfill his duties as Crown Prince.”
Adrian nodded in great satisfaction.
Albert looked at Diano once and at Adrian once, then bowed his head. He had long since grown used to this pattern.
“Then I shall convey that message.”
When Albert left, Adrian quietly looked at Diano.
Diano gazed at Adrian with eyes full of expectation, like a puppy hoping for praise.
“Well done.”
“Then, Your Highness, you’ll spar with me?!”
“No.”
At the reply that fell without delay, Diano froze as if struck.
“Y-you must! Didn’t you just have me tell Her Majesty so?!”
“So I did.”
“It must have been a week since I last matched swords with you. You didn’t do it yesterday, either, and yesterday was our regular sparring day. Your Highness. Your Highneeess~.”
It was fine to skip it for a week or so. Adrian looked at Diano irritably, but Diano began to pester him without an answer.
Even when Adrian coldly fixed him with a contemptuous stare, Diano, born with nerves of steel, paid it no mind.
Ever since Adrian had once happened to spar with Diano, who was revered as the finest knight in Appennino, and beaten him, Diano had become like this.
Adrian honestly found Diano’s pestering to spar bothersome and annoying, but finding and picking up a knight this useful was no small bother either, so he just let him be.
“Here.”
Adrian tossed the document file he was holding to Diano. With his excellent reflexes, Diano caught the papers easily.
“Finish all of it within thirty minutes and I’ll spar with you. Can you?”
“Thank you, Your Highness!”
Watching Diano prostrate himself and wrestle with the papers, Adrian was, honestly, off his guard.
There was no way that fool could finish that.
* * *
Diano, who always struggled with paperwork, for some reason finished the work at astonishing speed.
In the end, Adrian found himself gripping a sword.
The sword he took up again after finishing the morning training felt different.
Just holding the hilt felt like relief from stress.
Especially when his sparring partner was Diano, he had no need to hide his skill or wield the sword carefully to avoid killing, which was very nice.
After he had thrashed about to his heart’s content, Adrian felt two pairs of eyes on him.
One was Terni’s, and the other was… Artienne’s.
“You look idle. Life must be easy for you?”
Artienne flinched and couldn’t say a word. Adrian slightly furrowed his brow.
She was nothing like she had been at yesterday’s tea. That he found himself oddly dissatisfied was a bonus.
“Good day, Your Highness the Crown Prince.”
Looking down at Artienne, who greeted him hesitantly, Adrian smiled at her as kindly as he could manage.
“Right, so you do know manners.”
At Adrian’s spiteful sarcasm, Arti’s body jolted violently.
Adrian stared at Arti. The way she tried to avert her eyes, then flinched and strained to look at him again, was rather pitiable.
So this woman had been angry that resolutely at Gabriel?
Suddenly, the conversation he’d had with Terni yesterday came to mind.
“She can get angry, it seems.”
“Arti even got annoyed at me!”
Terni’s swagger, as if boasting, somehow grated on him.
He turned his attention back to Arti. Far from angry, she was cowering and watching his face, and he found it quite displeasing.
Adrian spoke on impulse.
“Get angry.”
“…What?”
Naturally, Arti did not get angry just because he said so.
Have I gone mad? Adrian scowled, irritated at his own uncharacteristic behavior.
