The Crown Prince’s Fiancée, Chapter 30
Crown Prince Adrian’s eccentric behavior hadn’t ended that day. He came into my room at all hours.
No, “came into” wasn’t right. “Invaded” was more accurate.
Every time the Crown Prince came, I had to stand obediently before him and endure his gaze. It made me reflect deeply on myself.
What on earth had I done wrong…? Was it a crime so grave that I deserved to be made to stand like this every day?
Had I done something to offend the Crown Prince without even realizing it?
Why did you do it, my past self?
Terni and Diano, who happened to drop by my room, caught sight of the scene as well.
They, too, couldn’t make sense of Adrian’s strange behavior.
After the Crown Prince had glared at me for a long while and left once more, Terni, who had stayed behind in my room, looked at me gravely.
“You’re probably going to die.”
At those flat words, my terror reached its peak.
Did he really have a grudge against me? Then he could just say so, so why did he only glare at me and leave?!
For several days after that, the Crown Prince kept invading. Even Diano, who had been silent all along, finally opened his mouth.
With a deliberately serious face, he offered me some advice.
“Perhaps you should plan an escape route…”
It had even come to a suggestion that I plan an escape route.
Even to Terni and Diano, the Crown Prince’s confidants, that behavior apparently seemed abnormal.
My terror deepened by the day until I was even having nightmares.
How long was the Crown Prince going to keep glaring at me? What on earth had I done wrong?
I wanted to ask him outright, but I didn’t have the courage. I simply kept my mouth shut and stood there being punished before him.
At last, the Crown Prince left. I’d been standing for so long that my legs had gone numb.
Collapsing into a chair, I asked Terni, who was crunching away at something in front of me, in all seriousness,
“Am I really going to die?”
“I suppose so, yes?”
Since it wasn’t his problem, Terni answered with a bright smile.
“Haah…”
I let out a hollow sigh and sank into despair. I hadn’t gone through all that hardship just to die so pointlessly.
“I’ve never seen him do that before, either. It’s a bit strange, isn’t it, staring at someone and leaving? He must be out of his mind with rage. Just how big a crime would it take to make him do that for days?”
“Aaagh, stop…!”
It was torment even to listen.
Surely Terni, as the Crown Prince’s confidant, could come up with a way for me to live? I looked at him with vague hope.
Terni was leisurely demolishing the sweets on the plate.
“What should I do to survive?”
“Escape, I suppose, after all…”
Was that really the only way?!
Even Terni had accepted Diano’s serious advice.
“Haha. Anyway, good luck!”
Having swept up even the very last sweet, Terni smiled cheerfully and vanished.
Looking at the empty plate, I thought,
That Brother brat, he definitely came here just to eat the sweets.
***
Staying cooped up in my room made me feel oddly stifled.
It had been quite a long time since I’d begun playing a fiancée I was never fated to be, but out of fear that I might die, I hadn’t carelessly stepped outside even once.
Noticing that I was tired of it, Madam Lucy made a suggestion.
“You’ve only ever walked around the rear garden, so how about the front garden this time? A very short visit should be fine.”
“May I really go out?”
“Of course. But you must come straight back after your stroll. Ohohohoho.”
Right, I had feet too, so a brief outing couldn’t hurt! Gathering my courage, I left the palace.
As always, I had a face veil fastened on.
It was my first outing (?) in a long while, and my heart pounded. Striding out of the building with great spirit, I marched forward.
And immediately ran into a problem.
“…Where is the garden?”
There wasn’t one, thank you very much.
No matter how far I walked, nothing resembling a garden came into view. If anything, it was just a road.
A path running between one building and another. I walked aimlessly, looking all around.
The familiar scenery had vanished, and I had ended up somewhere unknown.
“You said it was right in front!”
Madam Lucy had tricked me.
She’d said it was right in front, but after walking for ages, there was nothing like a garden.
What should I do? Since I was lost, should I just stay put? While I stood there blankly, deliberating, a human voice drifted over from somewhere.
“Lucky.”
I should go ask them the way back.
Having set my goal, I advanced without hesitation. The closer I got to the source of the voices, the more fragments of the conversation I could make out.
Was it one woman’s voice? Ah, no. Listening closely, I could hear a man’s voice now and then, too.
“…Lord…! …please!”
I had no desire to eavesdrop on other people’s conversation, so I paid no particular attention to the content.
After all, my purpose was only to ask for directions.
But the closer I got, the stranger the atmosphere felt. Instinctively, I muffled my footsteps and crept forward.
Then I pressed myself flat against the side of the building and peeked out, just my head, to survey the situation.
“At the debutante ball, the moment I first saw you, Lord Michael, I realized it. That the person I had been waiting for all this time had finally appeared, and that person was you, Lord Michael!”
“…”
“I like you, Lord Michael!”
W-What? What on earth was this situation?
Completely unintentionally! I had witnessed a confession!
It was an awkward moment to ask for directions, so I ought to get away from here, but given the circumstances, I couldn’t move carelessly.
For now, I’d stay still until the confession was over, and once things settled, I could slip away quietly.
And truthfully, I was a tiny bit curious… Haha.
I stuck my head out only as far as my eyes and observed the man and woman.
The woman, her brown hair neatly styled, had her back to me, so I couldn’t see her face. The man’s face, however, was perfectly clear.
The man, with golden hair as deep as honey, was so handsome that he could bewitch you for a moment.
Handsome enough that I understood why the woman had fallen for him at first sight.
But his expression, which seemed uninterested in others, struck me as faintly cold.
Things moved quickly. The man’s indifferent eyes, which betrayed no emotion, closed and opened.
Apparently growing anxious, the woman urged him in an earnest voice.
“Why won’t you answer, Lord Michael? I truly… like you. So please, please accept my feelings.”
How would this turn out? Forgetting my own situation, I became absorbed in their confession.
A brief silence settled, and then the man opened his mouth.
“I’m sorry.”
My eyes went wide.
Not because the words he spoke were a refusal, but because the man’s deep blue eyes were looking straight at me.
For a moment I thought I must be imagining it, but his gaze truly was directed at me.
W-What do I do? Was I caught?
“Hic, how cruel!”
To make matters worse, the woman buried her face in both hands and left the place in tears.
The man, who had watched her for a moment, turned his gaze… back to me.
I flinched, stiffening, and took a step back. Then the man called Michael took a step forward.
W-Why was he coming?
After a very brief struggle, I reached a conclusion.
“I-It wasn’t me!”
Run!
***
Having finished a long business trip, Michael had only returned to the capital, Pengram, today.
His body demanded rest from accumulated fatigue, but the moment Michael had unloaded his luggage at his mansion, he headed for the imperial palace.
Given his nature, he would surely be unable to rest properly if he put off his report.
After handing off the horse he had ridden, Michael went straight to Poinsettia Palace to make his report. This was because the chief of the delegation had been Crown Prince Adrian.
Walking along the path between one building and another, Michael stopped when someone suddenly appeared and blocked his way.
“Um, it’s been a while, Lord Michael.”
After looking at the face of the woman addressing him, he thought for a moment, but in the end could not recall who she was.
Only after some time did he realize she was a lady whose face he had often seen at balls.
But he had never once spoken with her. Rather than point that out, Michael put on a public smile.
“Yes. It’s been a while, Lady.”
At that, the woman’s face brightened. Seeing that expression, Michael could roughly guess why she had stopped him.
Oh dear, and I don’t have time.
“I have something to tell you, Lord Michael. Um, might you spare me just a moment of your time?”
When Michael wore a troubled expression, the woman looked up at him with pleading eyes.
“It really will only be a moment. Please?”
“Very well.”
They moved elsewhere. It was behind a building where few people passed.
Extremely nervous, the woman hesitated and then spoke.
“Lord Michael. I’ve been waiting for nothing but the day you would return to Pengram!”
She had only said that, yet her cheeks flushed red. Squeezing her eyes shut, she confessed that she had liked him since the first time she saw him.
The situation was exactly as he had expected, and Michael felt slightly awkward.
Every time he faced a situation like this, he found himself troubled. Avoiding confessions to begin with worked only once or twice, and refusing to talk at all was rude.
If it was going to be a refusal anyway, however he phrased it indirectly, she would end up hurt.
“Why won’t you answer, Lord Michael? I truly… like you. So please, please accept my feelings.”
As the woman urged him on, Michael was thinking of something else.
Because he sensed another person’s presence across from him, behind the building.
A spy? No, if so, they wouldn’t have given away their position so easily. For now, sending the woman before him on her way took priority.
“I’m sorry.”
With that brief refusal, Michael turned his eyes aside.
Their gazes collided at once.
A blue as clear as a sky on a fine day.
For a moment he thought it resembled the color of his own eyes, but it was different. Paler, and clearer.
The woman he had rejected scattered tears and disappeared, but he paid it no mind and turned his gaze again to the uninvited guest behind the building.
Her face was hidden by a thin cotton veil, but her flustered state was plain to see.
He had never seen someone whose every emotion showed on her face like that, and it felt refreshing.
Michael took a step toward her. He had no particular intention. His feet had simply moved on their own.
At that, the woman, who had been greatly flustered, began to back away little by little.
He hadn’t meant to frighten her. While Michael, too, fell into bewilderment, the woman shouted.
“I-It wasn’t me!”
What?
What on earth did that mean? He tried to ask her meaning, but Michael couldn’t.
Before he knew it, the woman was already gone.
“I think there’s been some misunderstanding…”
A laugh came out of him for no reason he could name.
He wanted to ask what on earth she had been thinking when she fled, but he decided not to follow.
In case she might be frightened.
Yet those clear eyes that had stared straight at him kept coming back to mind. As did the silver hair that had streamed in the wind and covered her eyes.
She had been a beautiful person. He hadn’t even seen her face properly, yet that was the impression he had.
Would he be able to meet her again?
Thinking that if the moment ever came to meet her again, he would ask her name then, Michael turned on his heel.
