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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: A Suspicious Gift
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The pleasant sound of music echoed, and a gentle breeze rustled the loose strands of my hair.
Judging by the description alone, it seemed like I was having a rather peaceful time…
But my heart was anything but peaceful.
‘This is driving me crazy, really.’
The focused gazes of the crowd felt heavy, and as I covered my face, a worried voice came from beside me.
“Riana, are you feeling very warm?”
“No. I’m not warm at all.”
“But your face is so red.”
“This is probably… I think it would get better if Your Majesty would let me have that fan you’re holding.”
“Hmm.”
At my trailing voice, Enoch stopped waving the fan and reached out to touch my flushed cheek.
“Your Majesty, please…”
Just as I’d expected from his action, the sound of whispers bored into my ears.
“My goodness, did you see that? His Majesty fanned her himself!”
“How sweet of him.”
“He never used to give women a second glance, so much so that there were even rumors he preferred men. I never knew His Majesty had such a side to him. I’m so envious.”
Thanks to that, my face, which was now beyond feverish and felt like it would explode, I grabbed Enoch’s hand.
Though the nobles, who took it as a public display of affection, only whispered louder.
He must have heard it all clearly too, but Enoch’s expression didn’t falter in the slightest.
“What is it? Should I fan you more strongly?”
“No. Please, please stop. People are watching.”
“People, you say?”
At my words, Enoch tilted his head defiantly, as if to ask what that had to do with anything.
“Let them watch.”
“Y-Your dignity! You must maintain your dignity! What emperor in the world fans someone like this?”
“Hmm…”
Staring at Enoch, whose thoughts were a complete mystery, I stubbornly folded the open fan.
“So please stop and go attend to your duties, Your Majesty. What will you do if your reputation suffers because of this?”
“My reputation, you mean? You needn’t worry about it. It was never very good to begin with.”
“Then perhaps you could consider not making it any worse…?”
“Of course not. But are you going to keep calling me that?”
“What?”
I was just relieved that he’d at least stopped fanning me.
Seeing my wide-eyed look, Enoch made a displeased expression, then took a large step forward and brought his face close to mine.
“Hup!”
A gasp escaped from someone in the crowd,
but with our noses close enough to brush against each other, I no longer had the luxury of caring about such things.
Unable to bear Enoch’s face, which looked all the more handsome with his hair slicked back, I squeezed my eyes shut. Then, with a light chuckle, something touched my lips.
“What else could it be.”
Following the languid, low voice, I cautiously opened my eyes to see a white feather fluttering before them.
‘Ah… what the. It was the fan.’
Realizing the thing that had touched my lips was the fan in Enoch’s hand, I felt a pang of disappointment and my eyes widened in surprise.
Wait, why? What on earth am I disappointed about right now?
As I reeled in shock at my own indecent thoughts, Enoch lightly tapped my lips again.
“The way you address me. I asked you to call me by my name.”
“B-But this is a formal occasion.”
“What does that matter? When lovers want to call each other by name.”
As if trying to tempt me.
Enoch tilted his head slightly, and our lips, separated only by the fan, grew perilously close, almost touching.
As I darted my eyes around, avoiding his downcast gray ones, he subtly pressed me.
“Hm? Call me by my name, please.”
“But we’re not real lovers…!”
Finally, unable to hold back, I whispered just loud enough for him to hear, and the angle of his straight eyebrows shifted subtly.
“Not real?”
“Yes. The reason we’re like this is because of this.”
Pok. I poked the spot over Enoch’s heart, reminding both Enoch and myself once again of what our relationship was.
To Enoch, and to me.
“Once the ice has all melted and Your Majesty can live a normal life. We won’t be lovers then, will we? The act will be over.”
“The act… is over?”
“Yes. So, with that in mind, it’s best to be as careful as possible…”
Crack.
In that moment, a brutal sound rang out.
Startled, I looked around and, upon discovering that the source of the sound was the fan, now crushed in Enoch’s hand, I hurriedly grabbed his hand.
“A-Are you all right? Why did this suddenly… First, please open your hand.”
Worried he might have been pricked by the broken wood, I tried to pry open his tightly clenched fist.
But when the fist wouldn’t budge, I looked up in confusion and flinched.
‘Why is he angry?’
The angle of Enoch’s eyebrows was severely defiant as he looked down at me, perfectly still.
Then he suddenly lifted one side of his lips into a smirk, and it couldn’t have looked more crooked.
At the sight, I averted my gaze in a way that was obviously awkward and fidgeted with my hands for no reason.
“Hurry and open it. What if you’re hurt?”
“My name.”
“What?”
“Call me by my name, and I will relax my hand.”
At his stubborn voice, I let out a deep sigh and finally let his name pass my lips.
“Your Majesty, do you know you can be really strange sometimes? Fine. Enoch, would you please open your hand?”
“If you wish.”
As his hand opened with unbelievable ease, I glanced at Enoch and noticed his eyebrows looked a little less defiant.
‘Don’t tell me he was sulking because I didn’t call him by his name.’
Swallowing a chuckle, I brushed the remnants of the broken fan away and gently removed his glove to inspect his bare hand.
Fortunately, perhaps because he’d been wearing the glove, there seemed to be no injuries.
“Ah, you really scared me. Still, just in case there are any splinters left, do this.”
“...?”
Seeing me deftly dust off both his hands, an expression of ‘what is this?’ flickered across Enoch’s face.
Still, I praised the obedient Enoch for following my lead, when someone approached us.
“Your Majesty, so this is where you were. I have been looking for you.”
At the unfamiliar voice, I peeked my head out from behind Enoch’s large frame and met the eyes of the person standing there.
Rustle.
The man whose eyes I met gave a sweet eye-smile that perfectly matched that description.
‘Huh? This person. His name… was it Karhel?’
The man, with curly chestnut hair that suited his eyes, was one of the foreign delegates who had greeted Enoch at the start of the event.
‘It’s like winter and spring standing side-by-side.’
Karhel, with his warm and gentle appearance, and Enoch, who exuded a chilling coldness.
If one were to describe the two with seasons, they would be spring and winter.
With two men of such completely different images standing side-by-side, their differences were all the more stark.
“Why is the Prince of Gamel looking for me?”
“I have heard many stories of Your Majesty from my father, the King. I truly wanted to meet you up close and offer my greetings.”
“Stories about me…”
A bitter smile slipped from Enoch’s lips.
Karhel, on the other hand, continued to ramble on with a genuinely delighted expression.
Standing beside Enoch and watching them, I tilted my head, careful not to be noticed.
‘Why? Why does this feel so familiar?’
The Kingdom of Gamel. And a man who resembled an acorn, whom I was definitely seeing for the first time, yet felt strangely familiar.
As I twitched my eyebrows, trying to grasp the memory that was just out of reach,
Splash!
With an unnecessarily crisp sound, a few drops of champagne splattered onto my face.
“Y-Your Majesty! Are you all right? Oh, dear… I was so excited that I made a mistake. I apologize. I truly apologize.”
The empty champagne glass in Karhel’s hand. And Enoch, his glove and sleeve completely soaked.
It seemed the prince, caught up in the conversation, had spilled his champagne.
“Please, take off your glove! Allow me to help.”
“That’s…”
With an annoyed tone, Enoch, who was about to slap away the prince’s hand, hesitated as people began to gather.
“What’s going on?”
“I’m not sure. It seems the Prince of Gamel spilled a drink on His Majesty.”
“Oh, dear… another promising young man is about to meet his end. He should have been more careful.”
“Come on. No matter how he is, His Majesty can’t treat Prince Karhel carelessly, can he? There are several contracts tied up with that kingdom.”
Although the Kingdom of Gamel was but a small nation compared to the Empire, it was one of the few countries that produced mana stones.
For the Empire, which was facing problems with mana stone mining due to the war with the south, the Kingdom of Gamel was a rather important trading partner, both politically and economically.
Therefore, despite its immense power, the Empire maintained a peculiar relationship with Gamel, unable to treat it carelessly.
Of course, Enoch was no exception to this situation, so he swallowed his irritation and picked up a napkin.
“I will do it myself.”
As Enoch reached into his formal jacket to find a spare pair of gloves, his expression wavered slightly.
“Your Majesty? What’s wrong?”
As I whispered at the sight of him, the space between his neat brows furrowed.
“I left my gloves in my room. I let my guard down, thinking I would be fine with you by my side. I must excuse myself for a moment.”
Seeing Enoch turn to head back to his room, Karhel hurriedly called his attendant.
And held something out.
“Your Majesty, as it happens, I had a gift for you.”
“I will accept it later.”
“Your Majesty!”
As Enoch continued walking without stopping, Karhel raised his voice, drawing the attention of everyone in the hall.
“It may be a humble gift, but I prepared it with the utmost sincerity. Please, quell your anger and accept it.”
His tone made it sound as if Enoch was about to eat him alive.
Because of that, a sense of fatigue appeared in the eyes of some who were watching the situation unfold.
Expressions that seemed to say, ‘What is the Emperor doing now?’
“Hah.”
He had every right to feel wronged by the people’s gazes.
But Enoch, who seemed accustomed to such situations, apparently didn’t want to make a scene and accepted the gift with a suppressed sigh.
Click.
And as he opened the box with an indifferent gesture, a pair of gloves decorated with shining mana stones that resembled his eyes was revealed.
“They are decorated with first-grade mana stones that were recently mined. I heard Your Majesty always wears gloves, so…”
‘Wait a minute.’
Watching Enoch about to change his gloves, as if to get a troublesome task over with, I narrowed my eyes.
‘This is… that thing.’
Smack!
Finally realizing the source of this strange sense of déjà vu, I urgently snatched the gloves from Enoch’s hand and shoved them back into the box.
“Your Majesty, don’t put them on.”
