Chapter 10
Episode 10
The next day, at the banquet hall.
“Your Highness, will it really be alright?”
Alice was a bundle of nerves.
“This banquet is an event held in Lady Dana’s honor. If we hold an engagement ceremony now…”
“You are considerate of Dana until the very end, I see.”
Laios moistened his lips with wine, answering dismissively.
“Dana is not considerate of you. Therefore, you have no need to be so toward her.”
Alice nodded gloomily. However, she couldn’t help the discomfort weighing on her heart.
‘Today is Lady Dana’s medal ceremony.’
So why was he insisting on holding an engagement ceremony at this specific banquet?
‘It’s because of me.’
Because Dana slapped her. Because Dana insulted her. Because Dana treated her poorly.
This was his way of punishing her sister.
‘He’s punishing her… so she can never bully me again.’
When she thought of it that way, Alice’s heart fluttered.
‘He really is so wonderful.’
Would a god of the underworld look like this? Sitting there with such leisure, Laios exuded an overwhelming dignity and noble beauty.
‘To think a man like this loves me.’
It was then.
“My word, it seems Lady Danae Winzer has truly lost the Crown Prince’s heart.”
The voice of a man, sounding somewhat intoxicated, drifted over from nearby.
“Well, if it were me, I’d choose a woman like Lady Alice Winzer too.”
“Shh. Henry, be quiet.”
“What? It’s true. Honestly, Lady Danae Winzer—she’s kind and all, but how should I put it? Her reputation is too great. She’s the type of woman who makes a man feel small.”
“Shut up, Henry.”
“Hurry up and take Henry over there!”
His friends quickly dragged him away, but it was too late. They had heard everything.
‘Surely His Highness heard that too.’
Alice stole a glance at Laios’s reaction. She was met with a profound shock.
‘Goodness.’
He was tilting his wine glass with an utterly composed expression, acting as if he hadn’t heard a single word.
In the past, he surely would have cut out that man’s tongue—
‘He’s changed.’
The realization brought a sudden surge of tears to her eyes.
She felt so sorry for her sister, Dana.
There was a time when Laios would beat any man who even dared to approach Dana.
He had loved her sister enough to be that fiercely jealous.
But now, he was standing by with such cool indifference.
“Alice? Why are you crying?”
“Sniff, hic… It’s just that Dana is so, so… pitiable, ugh.”
“I don’t understand why you are crying when it wasn’t even you that Count Stein’s son insulted.”
Laios wiped away her tears with an expression that said he found her adorable.
“You really are a crybaby.”
“Sniff… please don’t tease me.”
“Don’t worry about anything else; just think about the ceremony we’re about to have. You are the protagonist today, Alice.”
“I… I am the protagonist?”
“Yes.”
The protagonist. Alice chewed over the word.
The word ‘protagonist’ had always belonged to her sister, Dana. But now, she…
‘Now, I am the protagonist.’
It was then.
“Lady Danae Winzer is entering!”
“Lady Danae Winzer is entering!”
The moment she entered, every eye in the room fixed upon her.
Dana held her chin high and walked with dignity through the arrows of their collective gaze.
She came to a stop before a frozen Laios.
“I greet the Crown Prince.”
Silence fell.
After a moment, Laios asked in a low, heavy voice.
“What are you doing here, Danae Winzer?”
“As you can see, I am attending the banquet.”
“Yes, I see. I see you entering without an escort.”
Dana simply smiled at his sarcasm.
An escort. She didn’t need such a thing.
‘It’s just as well. I was planning to declare my intention to remain unmarried after the annulment anyway.’
Of course, she had no intention of explaining that kindly to Laios.
“Have you forgotten our conversation yesterday?”
“I haven’t. I told you clearly yesterday, didn’t I? That I would be attending my own medal ceremony.”
Dana cast her gaze toward Alice.
“You heard me too, didn’t you, Alice?”
“D-Dana.”
Alice’s face flushed red in an instant.
She truly was a child whose face turned red so easily.
That trait used to be endearing. Dana had once thought her a very cute younger sister.
“Stop it, Dana.”
But to think Laios had thought so as well.
He was already pulling the tearful Alice against him, patting her shoulder.
“It’s alright, Alice. Don’t cry.”
Then, he glared fiercely at Dana.
“Do you only feel satisfied once you’ve made her cry like this?”
“Did I make her cry?”
“If not you, then who else do you think did?”
“I merely attended my own medal ceremony. I haven’t the slightest clue why Alice is crying. Did Alice perhaps think today’s banquet was for her?”
At that, Alice’s face turned a fiery red as if it might explode. It seemed she had been hit right where it hurt.
“Shut your mouth.”
Laios spat out the words savagely.
“You look truly wretched, Danae, with your eyes rolled back in jealousy.”
Dana furrowed her brows.
Jealousy? What nonsense was he spewing?
“It seems you’re trying quite hard to stop my engagement ceremony. I heard you visited His Majesty the Emperor last night?”
Laios questioned her with wary eyes.
“To do such a thing when you know the relationship between the Emperor and me… How incredibly reckless. Do you still consider yourself the future Crown Princess?”
The future Crown Princess.
At that phrase, both Dana’s and Alice’s faces hardened simultaneously.
However, Laios, seemingly oblivious to the reactions of the two women, continued his tirade.
“What did you talk about? Did you beg His Majesty to stop the engagement ceremony?”
He asked, but then nodded his head without waiting for an answer.
“Of course you did. There’s no other reason you would seek out the Emperor in the middle of the night.”
“……”
Laios, having reached his own conclusion, gave a crooked smile.
“How foolish. Do you think His Majesty would attend a banquet for such a trivial matter? Merely to mediate between you and me?”
The Emperor would never involve himself in something so paltry. His eyes showed he didn’t doubt that for a second.
And there was a basis for that judgment.
The Emperor was an excessively conservative man of faith.
As a member of the Old Orthodox faction who shunned alcohol, music, and entertainment, the number of times he had attended social banquets like this could be counted on one hand.
“Nothing changes. I will proceed with the engagement ceremony with Alice here today, so you should take your leave. I say this for the sake of your honor.”
A short, sharp laugh escaped her.
Her honor? Honor?
“Don’t act like you’re being considerate. This is for your honor, not mine.”
“……Fine. If you insist on witnessing my engagement ceremony, then so be it.”
Laios’s eyes darkened gloomily.
“If you want to be that miserable, I won’t stop you.”
He then took Alice’s hand and walked past Dana, heading through the crowd of nobles.
When he and Alice finally stepped onto the royal dais, the eyes of every noble were fixed upon him.
Everyone had been peeking. They had been watching the fierce three-way confrontation.
“I express my gratitude to the lords and ladies who have joined us at this banquet today.”
Because of the attention, Laios was able to begin his speech quite naturally.
“Twenty years ago, the land of the continent began to rot. It was the Besman Empire—your homeland—that stopped that phenomenon, which was no different from a disaster. You may take pride in that.”
He then smiled smoothly.
Dana suddenly thought to herself.
‘I used to like that.’
Laios’s face, which was usually sharp but looked like a boy’s when he smiled.
There was a time she truly loved it.
“The talents of the Empire present in this ballroom today purified the Rotten Land. Let us toast to their hard work.”
No, she had loved him…
“And there is one more thing to celebrate here. Two lovers shall hold their engagement ceremony.”
But it was all in the past tense.
The Laios she had loved did not exist in reality.
“High Priest Lixman, please come forward.”
Watching Laios call for the priest, Dana thought once more.
Yes, that’s why there was no need to feel hurt by this man’s actions.
Because he wasn’t the man she loved.
“M-My goodness. An engagement ceremony?”
“An engagement ceremony? At this banquet?”
“But Lady Danae Winzer is right here.”
“How awful. How pitiable.”
“What use is being the Saintess who purified the land? She’s been abandoned by her man.”
“Henry, shut up.”
Because the man who made her look this pathetic couldn’t possibly be the Laios she had loved.
“My name is Lixman. I am a High Priest of the Lamon Temple, the Temple of the Sun God.”
And so.
“At this moment, by the authority of the God, I shall conduct the engagement ceremony.”
And so…
Boom—!
“The Em—!”
And so, she didn’t need to feel sorry for him.
“His Majesty the Emperor enters!”
She wouldn’t feel the slightest bit of guilt for making a deal with his uncle, the man he was so wary of.
“……!”
The hall froze in shock.
Through that silence, the Emperor walked in.
