Chapter 46
Despite Robert’s earnest request, the mouth of the secret pouch was leaking in a completely unexpected place.
“You have no idea how beautiful Milady was when she went to the ball, do you?”
Liz scrubbed the laundry vigorously, pretending not to hear Anne’s excited voice.
It would have been nice if Anne had just gone on her way, but the spiteful girl lingered around Liz, chattering about things she hadn’t even asked.
“In the capital, you know? They don’t just end things by braiding their hair like we do in Dempis. There are fresh flowers, jewels, lace…”
“…”
“As if those expensive things aren’t enough, they even apply the finest camellia oil to their hair so it flows. I touched those things with my own hands every single day.”
If there was anyone who looked forward to the spring social season more than their young mistress every year, it was Liz.
Liz had always longed for the glamorous sights of the capital, but unfortunately, something always came up every year that prevented her from accompanying them. Knowing this, Anne was spitefully grating on Liz’s nerves.
“I dressed Milady up like a princess from a fairy tale every day. Milady was so grateful to me. She praised me so much, saying my skills were better than any dress shop. And so, Milady became the star of the Ronvernon social season this year…”
“…”
“Liz. Are you even listening to me?”
Splash! In that moment, Liz hurled the laundry into the water tub. As water droplets splattered everywhere, Anne let out a scream.
“Hey! Watch it!”
“So? Are you trying to say that Lottie-nim received marriage proposals from every man there all because of your measly skills?”
Liz glared at Anne and muttered ominously.
Of course, that wasn’t quite right. Anne didn’t think her skills were measly, though they weren’t extraordinary either; above all, Milady was beautiful enough to win the hearts of any man even if she were wearing rags.
However, admitting that now would mean failing to take Liz down a peg as she intended. So, Anne puffed out her chest and spoke with confidence.
“She didn’t just receive any proposals. Even the blue-blooded royals were making a fuss, saying they’d die without our Milady!”
She had spoken confidently, saying things she shouldn’t have.
Too late, Anne remembered the gag order she had received from Viscountess Dunchest and quickly clamped her mouth shut. But at the words ‘blue-blooded royals,’ the look in Liz’s eyes had already changed. The water was already spilled; there was no taking it back.
“Our Milady… surrounded by royalty… a proposal?”
“A-hem… Well… something like that.”
“But wasn’t there a man who came to the castle a few days ago saying he was Milady’s fiancé?”
“There… was, wasn’t there?”
The two girls blinked as they locked eyes.
After a brief silence, the same thought occurred to both girls almost simultaneously.
“If Milady refused proposals from royalty… then just how incredible is that man?”
Before her regression, the daily life of Charlotte Evanshire, who had been raised like a hothouse flower, was monotonous.
Taking a walk after breakfast, having tea and walking with the neighborhood girls after lunch, being invited to dinner, playing cards, and then returning home to sleep.
The change in that idle routine began immediately after her return from Ronvernon.
It was because she had been busy filling her empty head with the knowledge required to become the family heir, searching for clues regarding the madness, and rushing here and there.
As a result, Lottie hadn’t been able to properly socialize with her acquaintances since returning from Ronvernon. After putting off her friends who were clamoring to meet, she was practically dragged out to an outdoor tea time today.
“You know, I received a proposal a few days ago. From Major Packer.”
“My goodness, do you mean Major Jonathan Packer? Please don’t tell me there’s another Major Packer I don’t know about, Angela.”
“Speaking of which, I’d like everyone to come to the party at my house this week. I’ll introduce my fiancé then.”
“Do you mean Mr. Goldin, who’s said to be as handsome as he is wealthy? I’ll be there without a second thought!”
The four girls sitting together on the picnic mat exchanged talk about their lovers and fiancés in such a manner.
On the surface, the atmosphere was warm and friendly, but a subtle tension flowed beneath. It wasn’t an illusion. After the engagement season ends, the true purpose of tea time is usually to brag about one’s prospective husband.
“Lottie! Why are you sitting there like a stone?”
Ah, to be young. Lottie had been watching the girls’ radiant moment with the gratified air of an old woman who had seen it all, when her turn unexpectedly arrived.
Lottie just blinked before pointing to herself and asking, “Me?”
“Yes! Out of all of us, you’re the only one who went to Ronvernon for the spring social season, Lottie.”
Even if they were young men and women of marriageable age, not everyone could participate in the spring social season.
To do so, one needed connections in the capital, and most of the girls from the outskirts came from humble families.
“That’s right. What kind of gentleman did you meet this time, and what did you talk about? Tell us!”
“Surely you aren’t going to say you came back empty-handed again this year?”
‘I didn’t exactly… come back empty-handed, but.’
She wasn’t sure how much she should reveal about her ‘fake fiancé promised in marriage.’
“Later. I’ll tell you everything once things are a bit more certain.”
When Lottie spoke evasively, the burdensome eyes fixed on her narrowed.
The friends, exchanging significant looks, flashed mischievous smiles as if they had guessed something.
“It’s not ‘once things are more certain’… but rather that you’re hiding it because you can’t say, isn’t it?”
“Pfft!”
She sprayed the tea she had in her mouth right out. Directly onto the face of the friend who had asked in a suggestive voice.
“C-can’t say? Cough, what is that supposed to mean?”
Had his identity been discovered already? When Lottie asked with a flushed face, the girl who had been hit by the tea let out a shriek.
“What else could it mean! Lottie, I heard you already have a fiancé you introduced to your family!”
“And that he’s such an incredible person that you even gave the cold shoulder to princes who were clinging to you, saying they couldn’t live without you?”
“Just how amazing is he for you to refuse a royal proposal? Could it be… the Crown Prince of Deisnoia hiding his identity?!”
“Kyaa!” The girls screamed and grabbed each other’s hands. Lottie had to force her throbbing head to calm down to figure out exactly where the rumors had leaked from.
‘Seeing as the rumors are vaguely right yet wrong at the same time…’
The gossip-loving maids must be the culprits.
Lottie’s guess was mostly correct. Liz had met a neighbor’s maid and passed on Anne’s story as if she had experienced it herself.
The part about ‘since he’s the fiancé Milady chose after refusing royal proposals, he must be at least the Crown Prince of a Great Empire’ was a guess born entirely from Liz’s delusions.
However, regardless of the process, Calyx’s true identity hadn’t been exposed, so Lottie decided to stop tracing the source of the rumors.
In fact, it wasn’t particularly important. Since the misunderstanding had inflated to just the right degree, it would actually be easier to gloss over Calyx’s true identity…
“I heard your fiancé is quite passionate at night, too?”
It was not good. Not at all.
Judging by the flinch on her friend’s face, Lottie must have almost sprayed her tea again. Lottie swallowed the tea in her mouth as if it were a stone and managed to set her teacup down.
Being ‘passionate at night’ surely wasn’t a reference to his body temperature.
“They say he goes around saying, without hesitation, that he loves his fiancée more than his own life.”
“I heard he’s incredibly rich, too? Like, enough to easily buy a small kingdom and have change left over.”
“But the thing is, he’d throw all that immense wealth into the sea at a single word from his fiancée, right? Oh my…”
She didn’t know which maid had spread the rumors, but they had thoroughly plastered their own delusions onto someone else’s fiancé.
Thanks to that, Lottie became the protagonist of a ridiculous misunderstanding: that she had a fiancé who was ‘as handsome as a walking statue, held a status incomparably higher than a Prince of Matila, and was a complete fool for love who only cared for a single girl from the countryside.’
That wasn’t the only awkward part.
“So that’s why you won’t show him to us? Because your fiancé is such an incredible and charming man that we’d fall for him the moment we saw him?”
“It’s not like that.”
“Then show him to us!”
Instead of answering, Lottie gripped the teacup she had set down. The girls were instinctively intimidated by that threatening movement. However, they didn’t back down easily.
“Isn’t it natural for friends to introduce their fiancés to each other? Why can’t you?”
“It’s suspicious. Is there really something going on? Like, you’ve already seen everything there is to see… Kyaaaa!”
An answer came this time. Not in words, but through the tea spraying from her mouth like a fountain.
Calyx’s laughter echoed through the desolate study. It was right after Lottie had told him about the ordeal she suffered from her friends.
“It’s funny to you, isn’t it? I felt like I was dying.”
“You should have taken it a step further. Tell them my fiancé is a madman who would even give his life for me.”
Calyx spoke in a voice laced with laughter, though it was unclear if he was joking or serious. Good heavens, his life? What a terrifying thing to say.
“Anyone could see that’s a lie. No matter how head-over-heels in love someone is, where in the world is there a person who would throw away their life?”
Lottie spoke more firmly than expected, so Calyx couldn’t tease her any further.
Come to think of it, it was a strange thing to say. She had willingly braved danger for him, yet she questioned where in the world there was a person who would throw away their life.
‘Is she saying it’s possible because I’m not someone she loves?’
Calyx brushed away the self-deprecating thought with a smile. Had he not vowed just a few days ago that he wouldn’t care whether she loved him or not?
“Anyway, I managed to wrap things up somehow. They said if I showed them a token instead of his face, they wouldn’t pry anymore.”
“A token?”
“You know, an item a lover or fiancé gives to their partner as a gift.”
Sophisticated men in the capital would buy jewels or accessories painstakingly crafted by artisans to give as tokens.
However, the residents born and raised in Dempis, regardless of gender, were far from sophisticated; they didn’t even consider something a token unless it was handmade.
“There are many skilled servants in our castle. I can just ask them, so Your Highness doesn’t need to worry about it.”
“Is it because you don’t trust my skills?”
“Pardon? No. That’s not what I meant.”
Lottie blinked as if asking if he really didn’t understand. Her lime-green eyes repeatedly vanished and reappeared beneath her eyelids.
He was, after all, a man born of royalty. She couldn’t very well beg him to carve wood and risk cutting his fingers.
“A token handmade by Your Highness should be given to someone you love. Not to me.”
