The Crown Prince’s Fiancée — Chapter 47
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The attention of everyone, Arti included, was fixed on the doorway.
Even Terni set down his utensils and waited, wide-eyed with interest, for the attendant to return.
At last the attendant appeared.
On his hands was a tray, covered with a cloth so that no one could see what lay beneath.
The Empress, as if she had been waiting for this, rose and drew the cloth away herself.
“!”
A stir ran through the gathering.
The tea set, as radiant as a flower, was unlike any work that had existed before.
Its form was sculpted to evoke a blossom from the outset, and its delicate patterns were carved so that the petal-like feel would never fade.
Alongside the notoriously difficult gold-painting technique, the transparent sheen, glimmering like a shallow stream with a luster no one could place, was a wholly new technique.
Those startled by the beauty of the cups were soon startled even more by the signature beneath the cup the Empress lifted.
“A new work by Master Jürgen?!”
An object that could not possibly exist was sitting right there before their eyes!
“I knew you would all recognize it.”
The Empress ran her fingertips over the tea set. Her touch was careful, as though she prized it dearly.
“Your Majesty. I had heard that after Master Jürgen vanished, he made contact with no one…… How did you obtain this?”
The preamble had been long, but the conclusion was simply: how did you get it?
Master Jürgen had swept through high society ten years ago, only to disappear without warning one day. Since then, no one had known where he was.
The powerful had searched far and wide for even a single one of his works without turning up a trace, so how could there be a new piece?
Sensing the longing gazes, the Empress covered the tea set with the cloth once more.
“I knew everyone would be delighted. I came by it quite by chance, you see.”
“By chance, Your Majesty……?”
The Empress’s gaze turned to Arti, who had been watching the proceedings blankly.
Suddenly finding every eye in the hall upon her, Arti flinched and drew back.
“It was a gift from my dear future daughter-in-law, Lady Artienne herself.”
At the Empress’s mention, Arti had no choice but to give a faint smile and bow her head to her.
As Arti lowered her head with grace, the binyeo gleaming in her hair caught the eyes of the crowd.
‘A jewel only the imperial family may wear…….’
‘And a binyeo bestowed by the Empress herself.’
‘Truly worthy of the future Crown Princess!’
Terni, who had suddenly become a target of the same attention, puffed out his chest and swaggered.
Arti laughed awkwardly, at a loss.
Among the gazes was Gabriel’s piercing glare. She glared at Arti, who had stolen away the attention that had been hers.
“How on earth did she get hold of something so precious?”
Gabriel revised her opinion of Arti slightly. It had been a mistake to look down on her.
“She’s quite something, I’ll give her that.”
Of course, she was the woman who had taken Crown Prince Adrian away from her.
‘So she can’t be taken lightly, hm?’
Gabriel gave an order to the attendant behind her.
“Find out where she got that new Jürgen.”
“Yes, my lady.”
When the attendant slipped away unnoticed, Gabriel leapt to her feet and went straight to Arti.
The sight of Arti sitting there blinking her blue eyes as though she knew nothing made her blood boil.
In a voice so low that only Arti could hear, Gabriel declared war on her.
“If you think you’ve beaten me with this much, you’re mistaken.”
And with that, she swept out of the hall at once.
“……?”
Terni pressed close to the bewildered Arti.
“What did she say?”
“She said I’m mistaken if I think I’ve won.”
“What? Won what?”
“I don’t know either…….”
Thinking she could not understand how things had come to this, Arti shook her head.
Why on earth was Gabriel so angry?
And to leave first, when none of the imperial family had yet left their seats.
There could be no ruder behavior.
Gabriel’s abrupt exit unsettled a few people, but Empress Ludmila paid it no mind at all.
‘Yes! Finally I’m free of this seat of honor.’
On the contrary, Marie cheered inwardly with delight.
Taking advantage of the moment when people crowded toward the seat of honor to flatter the Empress, who was in high spirits, Marie slipped away and headed straight for where Arti was.
“Sis! Sister-in-law!”
“Oh, Princess Marie.”
“Sister-in-law, help me!”
At Marie’s sudden request, Arti tilted her head.
Marie paid it no heed and promptly linked arms with Arti, lowering her voice to match their closeness as she whispered what she had to say.
“I don’t want to be around those two.”
Arti naturally cast a sidelong glance toward where Marie was subtly looking, and tilted her head.
The “two” were none other than Baron Kles’s daughter and Count Ivana’s daughter.
“……Aren’t both of them your companions, Princess?”
“That one isn’t, but that one is.”
Marie nodded, pointing at Count Ivana’s daughter. Then she complained.
“We just can’t talk to each other.”
“Is that so?”
Lacking the courage to dare contradict her former boss, Arti agreed in a vague sort of way.
The one to stop Marie was none other than Adrian, who had slipped away from the Empress’s side at the same moment.
“Stop bothering my fiancée.”
“I think you’re the one who bothers her most, Brother.”
Sparks flew between Marie and Adrian once more.
At any other time Adrian would already have snapped at Marie for being cheeky, but for some reason he kept his mouth firmly shut and merely glared at her.
By now a few rounds of verbal sparring should have been exchanged, so, sensing something different, Marie tilted her head and looked at her sister-in-law beside her, who was sipping white wine with round eyes.
‘Ah. So that’s how it is.’
A mischievous smile rose on the quick-witted Marie’s lips.
“Sister-in-law, try this. It has a strange flavor.”
Marie deliberately linked her arm through Arti’s and clung to her. Fire flashed in Adrian’s eyes.
“The scent is so strong that I thought it wouldn’t suit my taste, so I didn’t try it…….”
“Oh, come on, when else will you get to try something like this? You don’t have to eat much. Just take one sip.”
“Shall I?”
Arti cautiously drank a strongly scented soup she had never seen before.
Judging by the faint knitting of her brows, it was not to her taste.
‘Looking closely, my sister-in-law is rather nice.’
She hadn’t been interested before, but Marie realized anew that Arti wasn’t bad company at all.
‘I thought she’d be prickly.’
Under Marie’s frank stare, Arti felt secretly uncomfortable.
Adrian was even more blatant. Marie was unfazed by his overt look telling her to hurry up and leave.
“Please speak casually, Princess.”
“Oh, shall I?”
“Marie.”
Adrian called her name to signal that she should stop there, but Marie didn’t care.
“You should speak casually to me too, Sister-in-law.”
“Pardon? But…….”
“It feels odd for only me to do it, you know? Please, Sister-in-law.”
When Marie spoke so affably, Arti didn’t know what to do.
Adrian pressed a hand to his forehead and sighed.
“Do as she says.”
With Adrian’s permission granted, what more could be needed?
Marie looked at Arti with sparkling eyes that said outright, ‘My brother allowed it too, so go on, speak casually to me!’
Arti was overwhelmed by the force of it.
“I will tr…… no, I will.”
Speaking casually to her former boss, of all people.
Feeling her heart pound far too hard, Arti pressed a hand to her chest.
“I have a feeling that we’ll get along well, Sister-in-law.”
“Do you think so?”
“I used to feel a little uneasy around you, but why was that? Was I just being too shy?”
Arti only smiled at Marie’s words. She felt a pang, but saying anything here seemed likely to give her away.
Adrian simply glared at Marie in silence.
Marie had never seen Adrian put up with something so irritating for so long.
‘Why is he holding back? It makes me nervous for no reason.’
He was making his discomfort so obvious, and Marie could not understand why he was behaving like this.
“Ah.”
“Here.”
Before Arti could even be startled by the hot food, Adrian handed her cold water with clockwork precision.
Arti drank all the cold water Adrian had given her, and let out a sigh as the shock finally eased.
Adrian watched her intently from beside her.
‘He can’t take his eyes off her for a single second.’
He was a man in love through and through, and it was enough to make her eyes sting.
Even with Marie right there, Adrian seemed unable to see anyone but Arti, and kept his eyes fixed on her alone.
She could feel him concentrating on her every gesture, every breath, every glance.
‘Don’t tell me the reason he kept telling me to go away is…… that I’m in the way now that it’s just the two of them, so he wants me to get lost?’
Marie narrowed her eyes.
Did he think she would clear off that easily? Hmph!
“Would you like some too, Your Highness?”
“Yes.”
She had asked only out of courtesy, feeling as if she were eating alone all this time, but when Adrian nodded, Arti was flustered.
Having answered that he would eat, Adrian only stared at Arti.
She couldn’t tell exactly what that gaze meant, but Arti awkwardly speared a slice of raw salmon with her fork.
‘When Terni fed me earlier, I didn’t think anything of it.’
Now that she was about to do it for Adrian, she felt self-conscious for no reason.
‘I must be overreacting, right?’
Wondering whether this was all right, she cautiously held out the salmon, and the instant she did, Adrian took it in one bite.
“It’s edible.”
That was the only comment he made, and his gaze was still stuck on Arti.
It was as if sugar were melting in his eyes.
