#21
* * *
When balls were held at the temple, there were differences from typical banquet halls.
Instead of terraces, there were windows, and instead of resting spaces, there were secretly hidden chambers scattered throughout.
It was a space where many unholy things could happen—hardly suitable for sacred rituals.
‘So when I’m led to one of those chambers, that’s when I really need to focus.’
The problem before that was how they were going to try to see my blood somehow.
‘Will they target my arm like in the original?’
How could I get stabbed in a place that wouldn’t hinder my movement?
I was pondering this when Sercil asked.
“Are you hurt, Your Highness?”
“…There’s no time, so don’t ask unnecessary questions.”
“Yes.”
Sercil’s lips twitched as he began his act.
“Ah!”
Oh, he’s good at this.
As if he’d been hit.
Looking at him collapsed rather pitifully with subtle eyes, I poured wine on him at just the right timing.
Having realized something from earlier, I decided to stop the stereotypical villain act.
Instead, I thought it would be good to adjust it to utilize a bit of how I am when I’m with them.
I didn’t splash the wine quickly, but poured it slowly, taking my time. And when the surroundings grew quiet and people began to pay attention one by one.
“Where does some nobody think they can butt into my conversation?”
As I muttered languidly, Sercil’s face contorted with humiliation.
“Y-Your Highness. Why are you doing this!”
“Don’t know? Get lost. Want me to say it twice?”
“…Hic!”
Sercil ran off looking pitiful just by sight.
As promised.
The High Priest watching from afar slightly frowned and sighed.
And.
‘As expected, he’s making moves to handle this.’
Seeing him gesture secretly, I made eye contact with Marcus hyung, who was standing nearby watching with interest.
Hyung chuckled and left his spot.
‘It seems Sercil will become one of the witnesses too.’
Even though Marcus hyung will protect Sercil, he won’t leave this hall entirely.
So how much time is left until things happen?
From what I could see, the half-demons seemed to be waiting in the chambers. In a position where they wouldn’t be harmed even if the Crown Prince went on a rampage.
‘I wonder if the Elder is there.’
Before someone acting on his orders could wound me, I looked around at the people nearby with a hazy gaze.
Perhaps because it was the founding festival ball, it was absolutely packed with people.
I snorted at the noble young ladies and gentlemen who flinched whenever our eyes met.
“You’re like a bunch of peacocks. Do you think that looks pretty? Change your salon.”
“Who does he think he is, saying that to…”
When I heard someone whisper and turned my head sharply, siblings who looked like they’d just come of age flinched.
“What, got a complaint? Looking like conch shells… If you came to find a match, at least dress up nicely. Men and women alike, all half-naked.”
Ah, right.
“Was finding a match just an excuse for you all?”
As I spoke with a very wicked-looking sneer, various people’s faces turned red and they began to get angry.
…I think I was told to be tyrannical to just one or two people…
Did I do well?
“Your Highness…”
When I checked on the Archduke, I saw an angel smiling awkwardly.
‘I guess I overdid it.’
Fortunately, the High Priest began reciting a blessing at just the right time.
People gradually began to focus in that direction, and I quietly moved to a place where the crowd’s gaze couldn’t reach.
To a shadowy spot near one of the chambers hidden in the Great Temple’s ballroom.
How much time passed?
“Your Highness! Could you spare a moment for conversation with me?”
Even though he’d been caught plotting, the High Priest seemed to have no way out and finally made the worst move.
Stab.
“Ugh.”
While people were murmuring things like “He must be giving a blessing!” and focusing on the Crown Prince.
I began to collapse after being stabbed in the stomach by someone.
In the original, it was the arm…!
‘The stomach is… the wound I got before hasn’t healed yet, so it’s a bit… dangerous.’
I barely managed to hide behind a curtain, but more blood came out than I’d expected.
Of all places, the stomach.
When Ersen’s body takes overlapping damage, strange phenomena can occur… so I was in a bit of a bind.
Seeing that I’d been stabbed, the Archduke began to approach.
Crown Prince hyung frowned as he turned his head that way to respond to the High Priest.
‘You can’t come right now either.’
His high moral standards are really a problem.
Right now, I need to stay still so attention doesn’t gather here.
‘Starting with Crown Prince hyung…’
I shook my head at the Archduke, then looked at the Crown Prince.
‘Huh.’
I was definitely supposed to answer that I’d go to the chamber, then make an excuse about business to buy time before leaving the hall.
But he’s not thinking of leaving.
‘…Was it really difficult to trust me after all?’
I was thinking that when I stopped.
Because Crown Prince hyung’s condition that caught my eye wasn’t normal.
“I can smell the scent, but I think I can endure it for a while even if there’s blood.”
He had definitely said that.
But my blood came out more than expected, plus due to my physical characteristics, the scent became more intense and seemed difficult to endure.
‘Right. Then since it would be difficult to leave here anyway, it might be better to be invited to the chamber instead.’
If he rushed at me here, everyone would see the Crown Prince’s disgrace. If casualties occurred, it would be exactly what the half-demons wanted.
The imperial family’s honor would fall to the ground, and the Crown Prince who harmed people could lose everything…
I looked at the area around Crown Prince hyung’s neck that was bulging irregularly, then looked away.
And clutching my stomach, I finally spoke to the approaching Archduke.
“Archduke, first.”
I was about to say that first, we need to help Crown Prince hyung safely escape from the chamber.
“First. Relax your body.”
“Ah? Uh, okay.”
The Archduke smiled gently while cutting me off with a very displeased atmosphere.
I nodded awkwardly, then as soon as I carefully fell into his arms, I started being coy.
“Being held by the Archduke like this feels strange?”
“…I think it would be better if you spoke less.”
“It’s not as serious as it looks. Anyway, Archduke.”
“Hah. Yes.”
“Then I’ll pray.”
“…What?”
The Archduke looked puzzled, then realized I was joking again and began staring holes through me.
Cold sweat broke out a little under his steady gaze.
Just as I was about to leave the ballroom, quietly holding my stomach while being held by him…
“Your Highness.”
As soon as we exited the hall doors, I encountered the Elder who greeted me as if he’d been waiting.
Even though this was definitely one of the situations we’d discussed, the expression disappeared from the Archduke’s face.
I tilted my head while trying to slowly release my body that was trying to tense up, pretending not to be nervous.
Then the Elder smiled like a snake and said.
“As an apology for the previous incident, I would like to treat you. Could you follow me for a moment?”
“…Ha! So you do know you did wrong?”
While answering, I slipped out of the Archduke’s arms, who had been observing our standoff.
The Archduke obediently let me down, then stepped back while putting on an expression of seeming disinterest.
“Then let’s have that conversation.”
Even though we were indoors, the air felt unusually cold.
The Elder said subtly.
“Indeed. Then you’ll accept my request?”
“Hmm… Why not.”
Staggering, I declined the Archduke who tried to come with me and followed the Elder alone.
“I don’t want to show the Archduke such an ugly wound.”
I didn’t forget to wink either.
The Crown Prince would arrive at the chamber he was leading me to.
The Archduke still watched us with calm eyes, then slowly turned around.
‘He’s going straight to Crown Prince hyung, right?’
To arrive with the Crown Prince.
Crown Prince hyung would only be able to return home safely if the Archduke was beside him.
‘As for me…’
The Elder probably won’t kill me right away.
That’s what I was thinking when.
The Elder, standing in front of a door leading to some chamber, muttered incomprehensible words.
“Still so young. When they’re young, there’s the pleasure of taming them. But you need to ripen more.”
“What the hell are you, hey!”
He threw me into that chamber and locked the door from outside while saying.
This is the chamber Crown Prince hyung is supposed to come to, right? It has to be!
“You won’t die. That insolent mouth will get torn up a bit though. The High Priest will fix it up.”
I stopped. It seemed like it was indeed the room I’d wanted.
And slowly, I turned my body toward the inside of the chamber swallowed by darkness.
The curse Eris placed on Crown Prince Theodore through Ersen’s body as a medium was a curse to become intoxicated with murderous intent upon seeing blood.
And right now, I was emitting the scent that would trigger that curse most strongly.
While bleeding profusely.
‘The Archduke is here, right?’
He needs to be here for the Crown Prince to be safe.
I scanned the surroundings with a bad feeling, but unfortunately, the Archduke was nowhere to be seen.
I could only see hyung in the distance, restraining someone.
“Oh no.”
I thought he could maintain control for a while at least…
Hyung staggered, then suddenly opened his eyes wide.
The half-demons were nowhere to be seen as expected, hiding somewhere, and Crown Prince hyung was…
“Ah… Theodore hyung.”
The whites of his eyes had turned black, and his pupils, far from golden, were yellow and repeatedly contracting and dilating.
Meeting those eyes, I sighed involuntarily.
Theodore losing his reason faster than expected was because of me.
‘…The scent… became more toxic. Really, what a strange body.’
If it’s come to this, there’s no choice.
The moment I thought that. He rushed at me.
* * *
“Will it be alright?”
Sercil asked with a troubled expression. Marcus muttered “Well…” as if answering to himself.
They were standing by, ready to save Theodore at any time. However, to secure evidence, even though they were anxious, they had to leave Theodore alone for a while.
The chamber was a magical space cleverly connected to one of the ballroom’s terraces.
A strange space that looked like a terrace from the outside but from the inside, you could see both the terrace and the ballroom.
The entrance wasn’t only connected to the ballroom but also to the High Priest’s prayer room, and to some completely random garden.
While people were enjoying the ball, the three of them had gathered in that garden to watch the situation unfold…
‘The 2nd Prince followed the Elder, they said.’
Marcus unconsciously put strength in his brow as he observed the expression of Archduke Skyle, who was monitoring the chamber with magic.
He knew that the subject of Sercil’s “Will it be alright?” wasn’t only the Crown Prince. Marcus himself was also concerned about the 2nd Prince who had gone to the Elder while injured.
But even if the 2nd Prince was in danger, would they really move?
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
