“Yes? Why are you…”
Paroni lowered her voice while glancing around awkwardly.
“I’m planning to hold a tea party at my estate in a week. I’d like to invite Daniel-nim then. What do you think?”
I hesitated at the unexpected invitation.
A tea party all of a sudden?
I knew that nobles held tea parties to maintain friendships with each other and show off their connections, but this was my first time being invited. Moreover, I hadn’t even officially debuted in high society yet. Well, as the Crown Prince’s concubine, I didn’t really need to officially debut in society. The problem was that because of this, I hadn’t learned how to handle situations like this.
“Daniel.”
I snapped to attention at William’s voice that suddenly rang out. He was approaching me with a menacing expression.
“You promised to spend time with the children after the exhibition ended, so what are you doing here?”
Huh? Did I?
I tilted my head in confusion before immediately catching on to William’s intention.
He’s intervening so I won’t be bothered by Paroni!
“I was just having a brief conversation with the Countess… I’ll go now.”
I excused myself to Paroni and left that spot.
“Madam, let’s continue our conversation another time.”
***
“Hahaha…”
On the way out of the exhibition hall and leaving the main palace, William kept laughing.
“What’s been so funny since earlier?”
“Just everything is amusing today. So? That old fox-like Countess invited you to a tea party?”
“…Yes. I can’t understand the reason.”
William laughed even louder and wrapped his arm around my shoulder.
“I can tell…”
“Please tell me the reason. Why would someone I met for the first time today suddenly act like that? Could it be because of the lopeia earlier…”
I was about to ask if she invited me because she was upset that I only gave the lopeia to Ovel, but I shut my mouth tight. William would get furious and hate it even when I gave Erica, who was just a servant, a tiny hairpin as a gift, so if he found out I gave away a bracelet, he might sulk and not say a word for days.
“The lopeia?”
“I mean, since I was wearing a lot of lopeia, maybe she was curious about it?”
William started laughing again, holding his stomach. Lately, whenever I said anything, he would laugh, making me feel like I’d become a comedy actor.
“Danny seems smart but is actually an idiot.”
“What did I do wrong?”
“Why are you so clueless? Can’t you tell just by looking? Countess Paroni hates falling behind trends, and she won’t be satisfied unless she makes friends with everyone who’s at the center of attention. She’s doing this because everyone was only looking at you earlier.”
The Imperial Palace was tiring, but the most exhausting thing was the nobles’ pointless interest.
“I never wanted this kind of attention.”
At my words, William, who had been laughing well until now, suddenly got angry. It seemed like he was reacting to something I’d said before, so I quickly corrected myself.
“No, such gatherings would obviously be boring anyway. And it would take away time I spend with Your Highness.”
William, whose expression had half-softened, hugged my shoulder tighter.
“Don’t tell me you’re worried I’d let you go alone? If you go, we’ll go together. Come to think of it, it would be interesting. Everyone would be surprised if the Crown Prince attended a tea party hosted by a Countess, wouldn’t they?”
I stopped walking and looked at William. Though I didn’t know much about this country’s high society, I’d never heard of such a thing.
“Why are you looking at me like that? It would be fun. It would be a glorious occasion for Count Paroni too.”
“It seems like an impossible thing to do?”
William grinned and shrugged his shoulders.
“Count Paroni may hold the rank of Count, but he’s a former diplomat. What does this mean? If we do well, we could make him into someone who could rival Ridden. Uncle will check Ridden centered on domestic forces, and if Count Paroni gathers external forces, it wouldn’t be bad for me either.”
I admired him inwardly and reflected on how I’d misunderstood William’s intention to go to the tea party as simple obsession with me.
I didn’t know there was such deep meaning behind it. I was thinking of William as too young.
I gave William a thumbs up.
“To think you thought that far in such a short time. Amazing!”
“Well, this much is nothing.”
His smiling face seemed somehow scheming, but having just suspected William and then suspecting him again pricked my conscience, so I just let it be.
What was more important now than that was recovering my stamina. I’d been tense and moving around here and there from morning until now, so I was so exhausted I could barely stand. I wanted to rest comfortably alone just for today, but the question was whether William would allow it.
We left the main palace and entered the Crown Prince’s Palace. Just around the corner was a fork in the path. Going right led to William’s room, and going left led to my room. I stopped walking at the corner.
“Why are you suddenly stopping?”
“Your Highness, I have a request.”
“What?”
“I’m too tired today, so I’d like to sleep alone.”
I didn’t say this expecting William to grant my request. So I thought he would firmly refuse or get angry as soon as I spoke. However, for some reason, William didn’t get angry and examined me carefully before asking.
“Does having me next to you make you more tired?”
I instinctively realized I needed to answer this well.
It would be better not to show that I dislike it, right?
After pondering, I found a good answer.
“Emotionally it’s good, but I suppose I really am a Dominant Omega. My heart pounds and I get feverish, so I don’t sleep well.”
William blinked a couple of times before cupping my cheek. William’s hand touching my cheek felt cool, as if I really had a fever.
“You’re right. You do seem slightly hot… Sorry. I said I’d control myself, but it was difficult for you.”
I was surprised by William’s unexpected reaction but also secretly happy. My anxious heart seemed to be gradually stabilizing.
I smiled gently and said,
“It’s fine. I just need to sleep comfortably for today.”
“Alright. I’ll allow it.”
So I went left and William went right. If I went and took a half-body bath first and rested well, my stamina would return quickly.
***
‘Did I make a mistake allowing him to sleep alone?’
Though William had answered calmly when Daniel asked earlier, in truth he felt like he was going crazy with anxiety. A feeling of deep regret filled his entire body.
‘I didn’t like it from the exhibition.’
From the start to the end of the exhibition, the only thing he liked was that the Emperor was pleased with William and gave permission not to marry Ellawud Ridden. Aside from that, it was full of things he didn’t like the entire time.
He didn’t like Erica, who always clung to Daniel chattering away, he didn’t like the three women who couldn’t take their eyes off Daniel’s face under the pretense of looking at lopeia, and he didn’t like the craftsman brats who kept pestering Daniel to hug them whenever they had the chance.
If he could, he would have liked to cancel the exhibition and everything else and hide Daniel away in a room, but then he’d get entangled in other complicated problems, so he endured it.
‘Daniel is too easy-going. And pretty.’
If there was one problem with perfect Daniel, it was that he was unnecessarily kind to everyone. He especially lost his mind whenever he saw children.
‘He’s a kid himself, so why does he like children so much when he sees them? Will he start disliking me too if I grow a little bigger than I am now?’
If that were the case, there was only one method. To quickly make a child other than himself and hold that child hostage. In other words, to make Daniel bear his child.
However, there was a big problem with this method.
‘A heat cycle needs to come quickly to make a child!’
No matter how late, heat would come around age twenty, so he just needed to wait until then.
With this thought, he planned to use every trick to keep Daniel tied to his side so no one else could touch him until he turned twenty, but he still wasn’t reassured.
All the people William had loved had left. His mother and wet nurse had, and the servant he’d given his heart to for the first time had betrayed him and even tried to kill him.
So William was initially suspicious of Daniel, and later anxious that he might leave him for some reason.
‘Why did he suddenly say he wanted to sleep alone?’
William recalled Daniel saying he wanted to sleep alone because he was getting feverish and his heart was pounding. Though he had endured and agreed because he was afraid Daniel would hate him if he pushed too hard, something seemed suspicious.
‘Did talking with people at the exhibition make him curious about the outside world?’
Today Daniel seemed to find Paroni’s invitation bothersome on the surface, but deep down he seemed somewhat expectant. So William had said he’d go along using political reasons as an excuse, but that was just a pretext to hide his obsession.
‘Ah! This is stressful.’
William held his forehead with one hand and paced around his room. He just wanted to burrow into Daniel’s bed right now and claim the spot next to him. But then he’d have to see a sulky expression for several days, which would also be annoying.
Before, when he opposed Daniel’s request to borrow books from the Imperial Palace library to read quietly alone, he couldn’t see Daniel’s smiling face even once for several days. William didn’t want to experience that hell again.
But doing nothing made anxiety choke him. When Kalroy was around, it was because he was constantly eyeing Daniel, but now he didn’t know why he was feeling this way.
***
“Ah, this is great!”
I came out after taking a half-body bath, drank the beverage Erica gave me, and lay down on the bed. If I could sleep soundly like this until tomorrow morning, there would be nothing more to envy in the world.
Moreover, the most satisfying thing was that all this peace was thanks to William, who was gradually changing into a secure attachment. In many ways, today had been a happy day.
“I’ll go to sleep now. Sweet dreams.”
Erica turned off the lights and left, and just as I was about to close my eyes, I suddenly heard the sound of a door opening.
“Erica, what did you leave behind?”
I sat up and gasped at the same time.
“…Who’s there?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
