The Crown Prince’s Fiancée – Episode 49
***
It had already been three weeks since Essen’s return.
I’d been sure the Crown Prince would have something to say to me about it, yet every day had passed in silence.
“He said he’d let me go once Essen came back…”
Just how long was I supposed to wait?
I hadn’t gotten a proper look at his face in the dark, but the owner of that voice was surely the same person I’d freed in Terni’s office.
“Could he have run away again?”
Running was all he ever did whenever we met, so the possibility wasn’t zero.
Either way, I couldn’t go on like this, knowing nothing, so I meant to ask the Crown Prince myself.
We normally never crossed paths, but today was the eve party, held one week before the Founding Festival, and I had the excuse of attending as the Crown Prince’s partner.
“Ohohoho! Perfect again today! Miss Arti, you’re truly someone who makes all the effort worthwhile!”
“Haha. Isn’t it more that Madam Lucy is just that amazing?”
“Well, that’s true too! Hohoho. Now off you go! Young Lord Terni is waiting for you~!”
Madam Lucy, who had finished dressing me, pushed me out the door.
“Arti! My little sister!”
Seeing Terni wave and greet me the moment I stepped out, I tilted my head.
Why hadn’t the Crown Prince come?
We’d passed each other here and there, but we hadn’t had a proper conversation since the Empress’s tasting party.
Honestly, since I was afraid to bring up Essen right away, this might have been for the best, so why did I feel so strange?
Terni, who had come right up to me, tilted his head as he looked at me.
“Huh? Arti, aren’t you happy to see me? What’s with that face?”
“No, I’m happy to see you.”
“That’s not a happy face at all! Don’t tell me… is it because I came instead of Adrian…?”
Out of nowhere, Terni began spouting nonsense.
Before he could say anything even stranger, I grabbed his arm and started dragging him along.
“Let’s hurry before we’re late!”
“What? We still have plenty of time! We can go even slower!”
Plenty of time? Then why had he been waiting for me outside?
“Why did you come so early?”
“Beats me. Adrian told me to go over to you.”
So he had sent Terni on purpose. I couldn’t tell what the Crown Prince was thinking.
Then when on earth was I supposed to ask him?
“Um, by any chance…”
“Hm?”
“Never mind.”
I’d been about to ask Terni about Sir Essen, but I stopped. There was someone else I should be asking, not Terni.
As for what would become of me, I’d ask the Crown Prince when I saw him a little later!
“What? What is it? Arti, you aren’t actually keeping secrets from me, are you? From your big brother?”
As expected, Terni began pestering me.
“No, really, I’m not.”
“That face says you are! What is it? I’m curious! Hm? Hmmm? Artiiiii~!”
I never should have said anything… I regretted it, but it was already too late.
Having caught a whiff of something, Terni clung tight to me and began to question me relentlessly.
With Terni dangling from me like a weight, I was trudging toward Florence Palace one laborious step at a time.
Then someone appeared at the end of the bend in the corridor.
I froze.
I had no choice but to stop at the sight of the person who’d appeared, and the other person did the same.
“…”
“…”
Brilliant silver hair, and slightly upturned ice-blue eyes. A beauty so overwhelming it made me doubt my own eyes stood right in front of me.
Was I dreaming?
While the other person and I stood there in stunned silence, only Terni spoke innocently to her.
“Hm? Why are you dressed like that?”
“Adrian did. No, more importantly―.”
Her gaze, flustered as she answered, soon reached me. Under that blatant stare, I took a step back without meaning to.
Still, this voice, I’d heard it somewhere before.
Before I could recall where, Terni burst out laughing, threw an arm around my shoulders, and pointed at me, announcing loudly:
“Oh, is this your first time seeing her? Say hello! This is my new little sister, Artienne!”
“What?!”
The strikingly beautiful woman scrunched up her face and demanded to know what he meant, but Terni didn’t so much as blink as he looked down at me.
“This is your first time too, isn’t it, Arti? That person right there is my little sister, Artienne!”
“…What?!”
This time it was my turn to be startled and demand an explanation.
I’d just heard something enormous.
I stared in dismay at the other Artienne.
She, no, he, was likewise gazing steadily at me. Seeing in the flesh the person I’d only ever heard about felt strangely moving.
Meeting you for the first time, and yet somehow you don’t feel like a stranger.
I had seen him as a man, but only for a moment, and the memory had been fading by then. Terni’s office had also been far too dark for me to see anything properly.
“Hahaha! Ahaha!”
Terni pulled me and the other Artienne toward him, threw his arms around our shoulders, and squeezed our necks.
“Now I have two little sisters~! Eek! I’m so excited! Okay, Arti and Arti! Try calling me Brother!”
Only Terni was thrilled, bouncing around.
Having unexpectedly run into the real Artienne, I couldn’t even resist, and was helplessly swept along, shaken about by Terni.
“Ugh, you’re disgusting, get off me!”
But the real Artienne was strong!
He shook off Terni’s arm and even snapped at him to get lost. Then he hooked one arm around Terni’s neck and choked him with all his strength.
Thanks to that, I escaped Terni’s clutches and quietly cheered the real Artienne on.
A little more, just a little more, please keep beating him!
“Aaagh, help me! Is this how you treat your brother? Arti! Arti’s trying to kill me! Help me, Arti!”
I couldn’t tell which Arti Terni meant. Not wanting to be dragged into that fight, I backed away three steps.
The real Artienne choked Terni mercilessly.
“This is all your fault, you devil-spawn bastard!”
“What? What are you talking about? That’s so unfair! So unfair!”
“When are you going to quit remembering things however suits you? I’m going to kill you!”
“Ack! Aaaack! Somebody help! Save Terni! Arti, Artiii~!”
I simply turned away from Terni, who was reaching out to me so pitifully.
And so, at one side of a corridor in Lily Palace, a tragedy too awful to watch unfolded.
It seemed things had settled down only after Terni had been thoroughly pummeled, but Terni went and dug his own grave once more.
“Still, it’s nice to be in women’s clothes again after so long, isn’t it? That was actually my idea~!”
“…I’m going to kill you.”
Muttering ominously, the real Artienne grabbed Terni by the scruff of his neck and began dragging him away.
“Artiii~! Please, please save me!”
Watching Terni plead with me even as he was hauled off, I let out a small sigh and quietly followed behind.
****
“Damn bastards.”
Essen flung the door open roughly.
Having shed the trailing dress and wig and wiped off the suffocating makeup, he felt much lighter.
‘They’d already made a stand-in fiancée, so why did they make me crossdress in the first place?!’
It had to be meant to make a fool of him, he was certain.
They were vicious enough to do exactly that.
After changing into his usual knight order uniform, Essen returned to the room.
There, a thoroughly beaten Terni and a woman, the so-called new Artienne, were sitting on the sofa.
It felt strange that the person he’d taken for a maid had been playing Artienne in his place.
“Ah, what a shame. One of my little sisters is gone!”
“Shut that mouth of yours.”
“Boo-hoo. Arti, Essen’s bullying me!”
Whining, Terni threw his arms around the woman sitting beside him.
She was flustered for a moment, then gave an awkward smile and patted Terni’s shoulder. She asked Terni:
“But why is Essen here?”
“Because we can’t have two Artis.”
It was Essen who answered, though. Terni, who had been clinging to Arti making sobbing noises, added an explanation.
“If he’s at another palace, there’d be two Artis. But Lily Palace hardly has anyone in it, and most of them know the secret, so it’s safe~!”
It had all been Adrian’s scheme.
He wanted to screw Essen over, but with two Artis, making him crossdress was risky.
So he’d deliberately sent him to Lily Palace to eliminate the risk of anyone else seeing him, and only then screwed him over.
Essen’s gaze lingered briefly on the woman.
Dressed to the nines, apparently planning to attend the Founding Festival eve party, she looked very pretty.
Silver hair falling in a calm cascade, and blue eyes as still as the surface of a lake.
In an instant, the face he’d seen during his earlier flight came to mind. Those eyes beneath the moonlight.
“…sen.”
“…”
“Essen!”
“Ah.”
He hadn’t even realized he’d been spacing out. Coming to his senses late, he saw a clear-eyed face looking up at him.
So this woman had become Artienne in his place.
He ought to have felt glad that there was no longer any need to play Artienne, yet he could only feel dumbfounded.
‘You told me there was no one you could trust, that it couldn’t be done, and yet you found someone just fine, didn’t you?’
In the end, he’d been used, and the thought made his teeth grind.
They’d put him in women’s clothes for their own convenience, then, the moment he’d run, found a stand-in as though they’d been waiting for it.
It was Essen who looked away first. He couldn’t think of anything in particular to say to the new Artienne either.
“Hey, Terni. A new Artienne? You never told me anything like that.”
“Huh? You never asked, Essen?”
Smack! Hit by Essen once again, Terni made a tearful face and clung to Arti once more.
“Boo-hoo. Arti, look at this. This brother of yours gets beaten up all the time. It’s so unfair, I can’t take it!”
“Then don’t live.”
Annoyed by the whining Terni, Essen hit him once more for good measure. Still, his anger wasn’t relieved.
He had a new stand-in fiancée now, and no more crossdressing ahead, so everything had gone the way he’d wanted. Why did he feel so lousy?
Meeting Essen’s gaze again, Arti flinched and shrank back.
“Hello, Essen. It’s… nice to meet you.”
Keeping an eye on Terni’s reaction, she greeted him.
