#37
Just saying that only fear was washing over me was insufficient.
The queasy feeling that had started when she walked over earlier. All my senses were strangely twisted and screaming.
As if someone was reading me down to the cellular level.
‘I’ve never experienced fear magic before, so I probably don’t know much about it, right? For now—for now I can’t let it show.’
Not until the young lady uses black magic more definitively.
I don’t know if she’ll respond to provocation as much as I want today.
Anyway, thanks to being somewhat mentally prepared, I was able to not let it show.
I met her eyes again as she wanted.
In those pupils was gentleness that covered like a mask. But I was clearly seeing the probing and cruelty beneath that surface. The young lady was someone accustomed to finding gaps in her opponents, and was testing me even now.
And I answered with a giggle to her words that pinpointed the position of a prince abandoned by the Emperor.
“Isn’t it that the young lady’s heart is generous? Greeting me like this and all. Congratulations on your awakening ceremony, young lady.”
I relaxed my lips and laughed lightly. Deliberately with an unreadable expression, responding playfully as if nothing was wrong. Though I spoke brightly, inside anger and wariness were layered solid.
“Oh my. Such a misunderstanding.”
I felt the wave of suppressed emotion contained in her words’ ending. Rather than simple politeness, it was a nuance of struggling to hide intentions to trample.
“Misunderstanding?”
I tilted my head and asked back innocently. With a light smile, reacting as if I hadn’t felt any attack. But inside me it wasn’t like that. The aftershock of magic still remained below my solar plexus.
When I tilted my head pretending to know nothing, the young lady drew a strange smile.
Her lips rose in perfect proportion, and gentle curves flowed in her pupils. But strangely, I couldn’t feel any vitality in that beauty. It was cold and alien, like a doll smiling.
Beautiful but somehow eerie atmosphere.
That smile somehow lacked reality. Rather than a living human’s emotion, it seemed like a practiced gesture. I even thought perhaps she really was a person without emotions.
Just as I hesitated, hyung-nim brought another macaron to my lips.
That timing was exquisite. As if blocking the uncomfortable air flowing between her and me, hyung-nim’s hand intervened.
Glancing, I saw it was the gold kiwi flavor I couldn’t eat earlier.
My eyes reflexively widened. It was exactly that macaron I’d had lingering attachment to. Perhaps reading my reaction, hyung-nim was extending his hand with a slightly softer gaze than usual. Though there was no decoration on his fingertips, quiet comfort was contained within.
“…Yes, a misunderstanding. I’m only observing etiquette as I learned from His Gracious Majesty and my respected parents. By the way.”
The young lady continued speaking while keeping her gaze on me. Her tone remained gentle, but pride and sarcasm were layered beneath like thin films.
The young lady spoke while staring at me appreciating the macaron with a chomp.
I bit into it and felt the chewy texture and gold kiwi’s characteristic fresh fragrance spreading in my mouth. Sweetness lingered on my tongue tip.
“Your Highness…”
Her gaze slowly scanned me. An observation not quite rude, as if trying to see through something beyond appearance.
“Mm?”
I asked back with my mouth full of macaron. My pronunciation came out slurred with my tongue somewhat tied.
“You truly have a unique atmosphere. Like you’re not human… oh my. How rude of me. It’s so alien that I couldn’t help myself.”
She lightly pressed her lips and smiled. Though pretending to apologize, the sharpness contained in her words was rather emphasized. At her attitude of speaking as if I wasn’t part of this world, I nearly got goosebumps on my nape.
“Mm-mm. Gulp. Ah, haha, is that so?”
I deliberately brushed it off lightly. The sweetness remaining on my tongue felt somehow bitter, and my laughter was about half insincere.
At the young lady continuing to speak elegantly while suppressing her nature as much as possible, I gulped down the macaron and burst into laughter.
It was actually a bit funny too. This was the first time she’d been this careful, and the impatience readable within that was somewhat exhilarating.
No, how different is this from when she dealt with Sercil?
To the point I’d doubt if it was the same person, the texture of her attitude was different. She’d been rude and unrestrained with Sercil, but was being thoroughly careful with me.
‘Because I’m a prince?’
In the end, is that difference due to status? Or do people’s attitudes change just from the single fact that I inherited the Emperor’s blood?
Does the young lady know this moment was the first time I was properly treated as a prince?
She might have noticed. And that might be the real reason for her changed attitude.
I rolled my eyes once, then spoke to the young lady who was waiting for my reaction.
“That’s, well. The young lady knows too. I’m a half-breed.”
“Half?”
She asked back. Her eyebrows rose slightly and her lips trembled minutely.
“Yeah. Our hyung-nim doesn’t seem to think so though…”
Following my gaze, the young lady looked at hyung-nim.
As soon as the direction was set, her gaze changed dramatically. The cold tension and black poison-like energy that had been extending toward me until just now disappeared like a lie, and instead a proper and careful gaze emerged.
It was fascinating to see so clearly how her eerie gaze softened gently the moment she saw Theo hyung-nim.
That change was as natural as shadow meeting light. Like a gem’s facets changing under illumination, the young lady’s expression was instantly refined and smoothed. Even the malice that had cast fear magic seemed completely erased.
In her eyes looking at hyung-nim, there was no hostility or ulterior motive. As if she’d been a noble young lady of clear and transparent character from the beginning, the texture of her expression changed. That appearance was rather more chillingly perfect.
Theodore hyung-nim, who had been looking back and forth between me and the young lady with twitching eyebrows, withdrew his hand that had been selecting macarons and spoke.
That movement was infinitely leisurely, but contained subtle wariness and a shift in atmosphere.
“The young lady has quite a talent for varied greetings.”
That single statement wasn’t a simple comment.
Though his voice was low and languid, there was a clear message within. Hyung-nim was indirectly saying the fact that he was ‘watching,’ and very precisely detecting that fact.
“Ah.”
The sound that flowed out like a short sigh created a momentary crack in the young lady’s heart.
A trace of suspicion crossed Lady Marsien’s face.
She must have been confident she hadn’t been caught. But when such words came from the Crown Prince’s mouth, her expression momentarily hesitated. Suppressed emotion faintly rippled within that refined expression.
“If perhaps I or we committed any discourtesy.”
Though she spoke while forcibly adjusting the curve of her lips, the words “I apologize” never came out in the end.
She should say “I apologize,” but as if she’d rather die than say those words, the young lady’s expression as she looked back at me was tremendous.
She glared at me like someone who wanted to say “This is because of you.” Her breathing between her lips became noticeably longer, and her gaze mixed irritation and displeasure.
I quickly said mischievously.
“Hyung-nim too, really. The young lady was welcoming me by taking such care to speak to me like this. Making the young lady embarrassed over a little joke, why are you doing that?”
I added playful laughter to my words’ end. My voice was light and cheerful, but within it was the coordination of acting that precisely grasped hyung-nim’s intention.
“Oh ho. Joke? With talk of bloodlines and saying you’re not human and all sorts of embarrassing things to hear—seems like all that came from over there, not me. You’re saying all that sounded like jokes to you?”
Hyung-nim’s reaction was stronger than expected. He slowly but certainly began taking on a warning tone. His tone remained gentle, but the sharpness nestled within was more threatening than anyone’s.
He’s taking my side a bit excessively.
I muttered quietly inside. But outwardly I only lowered my eyes and maintained a smile.
‘Ah, don’t tell me.’
My mind spun quickly for a moment.
While helping with my affairs, he seems to want to dispel the rumors subtly circulating about him and the young lady.
The rumors flowing from high society lately—interpretations of the strange atmosphere between Theodore and the young lady were varied. Some said Theodore and the young lady were growing closer, others speculated an engagement had already been scheduled according to the Emperor’s intentions.
Though engagement would happen by the Emperor’s command, since high society rumors also involved the young lady’s own marriage prospects, there was some risk the story could jump toward her taking responsibility if things went wrong.
Hyung-nim seemed to want to block that danger in advance.
Previously it was an engagement that fizzled out because Sercil was there and the young lady’s true nature was revealed, but now he hadn’t brought Sercil.
If Sercil had been at the ballroom, the situation probably would have gone wrong much earlier.
‘I’ll make sure there are no opportunities to show Sercil in front of that young lady going forward.’
I firmly resolved. To protect him too, I would keep him far from Lady Marsien’s sight.
I quickly reached a conclusion and decided to accommodate hyung-nim’s intention.
I decided to provoke the young lady more openly.
So again, I deliberately nodded with a comical yet mischievous smile.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
