120 - Pieces of the Broken Glass Slipper
Shattered Glass Slipper Shards 120
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“Good heavens.”
After a moment, he muttered with a sigh.
“Did you just call me Didi? What a ridiculous thing to say?”
Then he demanded that I explain where the name ‘Didi’ came from in his name.
“I made it up so that I wouldn’t remember Your Highness’s name. So, I can’t really explain it. I’m sorry to say.”
“So, that means I can just make up any name for you, right?”
“Yes.”
The Crown Prince was dumbfounded by my nonchalant answer. But soon, like someone who enjoys fun, he quickly calmed down and called me ‘Ver.’
Then, as if teasing me, he explained that Ver was an ancient word meaning ‘puberty.’ He seemed to expect me to hate the name and throw a fit.
“Then from now on, you’ll call me Ver. And I’ll keep calling you Didi.”
But he looked disappointed when I nodded as if I understood. And then he ‘ordered’ me to change the name because he didn’t like ‘Didi,’ as if there was a whiny child standing in front of me.
“Call me Io. That’s better. Or call me Idi.”
“Okay. I’ll call you Idi.”
“But I’ll keep calling you Ver. This is a punishment.”
“Yes, do whatever you want.”
“You’re not even afraid anymore. I miss the way you used to tremble so pathetically.”
It was ridiculous that he was talking about missing it after only seeing it a few times, but I pretended not to notice.
The Crown Prince, disguised as a commoner, was acting quite differently from the way he did at the ball, which felt strange.
But that was because I knew what he looked like as the Crown Prince, and if I only saw him in this state, I wouldn’t even be able to think of him as the same person. His ‘mask’ was that perfect. I, who had lived as a commoner, felt even more awkward.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“It’s nothing.”
Creeped out, I walked a little faster than him.
Since we had to act like commoners, we went to a nearby carriage depot and paid—Marie had thoughtfully packed a wallet with money—to be taken to the city center.
Although I had been out of the palace many times, it was the first time the Crown Prince had rented a carriage like this, and he was very fascinated, constantly looking around.
When the carriage moved, he even grumbled that his butt hurt. I firmly dismissed it as normal and asked him.
“How many times have you been out? No, have you been out?”
“Until now?”
“Yes.”
The Crown Prince seemed amused by the way I casually spoke informally without any sense of discomfort. He kept snickering, looking like a silly person.
“If Mel saw you like this, he would have fallen backward. Did you know? When Mel first met you, he said this to me. ‘I saw an angel.’ Quite a romantic thing for him to say.”
“Isn’t it said that men become poets when they fall in love?”
“Well? It depends on the person. It seems you’ve seen a man who became a poet.”
“Why wouldn’t I? He’s close to me.”
The Crown Prince, or rather Idi, seemed to have thought of Count Bischwartz at my words and asked, ‘Your stepfather?’ I nodded slightly in response.
“So, that’s why you weren’t very impressed by what I said earlier. But choose one, either speak informally or formally. It’s confusing when you keep going back and forth.”
“I’m still getting used to it. Please understand, no, understand.”
“I’ll bear with it. Anyway, who would have thought that the guy with the nickname Ice would do anything but a political marriage, but who knew he would find you? But considering his father, it’s ridiculous that he’s called Ice. He’s such a passionate man.”
For a moment, the carriage rattled, and his head hit the ceiling with a thud. It was hard enough to make a loud noise.
But he seemed more concerned about the crushed top of his hat than the pain in his head, so he took off his hat and frowned. Then he started pressing the damaged part with his fingertips.
It was a surprisingly delicate touch for someone who was angry. Soon, he returned the hat to its original state and put it back on irritably.
Idi seemed to know very well that his appearance would attract people’s attention.
“Ver, no, you should buy a hat too.”
“I don’t really like wearing hats.”
“But it’s better than being conspicuous, isn’t it?”
“Are you saying I’m beautiful enough to stand out?”
It was a question close to a joke, but he didn’t answer right away. I thought he would scold me for talking nonsense, but instead, he stared at me so intently that it was embarrassing, and he held back his words. I was so embarrassed that I turned my head away.
After a moment, Idi opened his mouth in a low voice.
“There are many women in society who are as beautiful as you. But it’s another thing to feel so lovely that you can’t take your eyes off them.”
“Is that a woman’s stocking?”
It was a slight jab at the behavior of a rogue who goes around lifting women’s skirts. But he shrugged as if my words didn’t matter and continued nonchalantly.
“That’s all I’ve learned in society. So, don’t talk like that, okay? Actually, Mel is amazing. He avoided women as if he had a disease. But now that’s a thing of the past.”
After a while, the carriage stopped. Idi, with a bright expression, jumped out as if he couldn’t wait, even before the coachman opened the door. As if he didn’t care about escorting me.
I grabbed the open door and slowly got out. The etiquette that had become so familiar that it was ingrained in my body was firmly binding the tomboy Sissae of the past.
“I feel like I can finally breathe. I thought I was going to die from my butt hurting.”
He patted his butt with his hand and grumbled that he would never ride in a carriage like that again. Then he complained about how other people ride in such things. It was such an exaggeration.
“Cheap carriages are all like that. How have you been getting around all this time?”
“I always escaped halfway, so this is the first time I’ve come out like this formally.”
“Halfway?”
“Halfway from Mel’s house to my house.”
I could just imagine his attendants frantically looking for Idi. Is this really the Crown Prince I remember?
That scary man who looked at me with indifferent eyes. But I don’t think I’ve ever heard that the Crown Prince had changed halfway through…
I don’t know what his real personality is at all. I just swallowed the sigh that seemed about to burst out and pulled on his sleeve.
“We have to go this way. You want to see the Witch, right?”
“Do you know the Witch’s house?”
“What she can do isn’t just prophecy. She does a lot of things that are helpful to women. Like Love Potion? That’s why she’s so popular with my maids.”
“Love Potion? Don’t tell me that if you drink it, you’ll fall in love, or something like that?”
Idi laughed at my words as if they were absurd. I replied, ‘Imagine whatever you want,’ and walked ahead.
He looked very flustered by my attitude. He quickly stuck to me and asked, ‘Is that true?’ Judging by the slightly raised lips under his hat, he seemed to be interested in the ‘Love Potion.’
“Why, do you need it?”
“Not me, someone else. There’s a woman who’s pitiful but not pitiful.”
At his words, the Empress naturally came to mind. But I pretended not to know and quickened my pace. Idi also didn’t seem to want to say more about it and quietly followed me.
After a while, we passed through a winding alley and arrived at the Witch’s hut on the outskirts. The animal bones scattered around what looked like a yard were very eerie and creepy.
We carefully opened the door, being careful not to step on the bones. A bubbling sound and a foul smell wafted out, as if something was boiling.
I felt like my nose was going numb. I struggled to swallow the sudden nausea and cough that seemed about to burst out and looked inside, and faint shapes gradually began to appear.
In the dark house with only one candle lit, the Witch was humming and singing incomprehensible nonsense.
“A guest. A very precious guest.”
She said. Her phlegm-filled, hoarse voice was painfully grating to listen to.
Her appearance was also like that. Her bumpy hooked nose, as if something had sprouted on it, her dirty fingernails, and her unkempt hair, there was nothing pleasing to the eye.
It was a relief that she wasn’t pointing fingers and calling her dirty. The Witch was dressed in a much more unpleasant way than I remembered.
“So, why did you come to me?”
“I heard you do prophecies. I thought I’d hear it in advance.”
“Are you afraid because I do prophecies? Are you afraid that people will be shaken? Why are you in such a hurry when you can’t stop it even if you know it in advance?”
The Witch cackled. The nasty-looking old woman was teasing Idi as if she knew what kind of person he was. But Idi retorted to her words as if it didn’t matter.
“Is there a law that says you can’t be in a hurry? Why don’t you just tell me?”
“Oh, there’s no reason not to. Actually, it’s better for you to hear it. But I have to get something in return.”
“Money?”
“That’s good too, but what I want is even better. How about being the exclusive Witch of the Imperial Palace?”
“You’re crazy.”
Idi’s body moved in an instant. I didn’t know when he had approached the Witch, but he grabbed her neck and threw the old body in his hand to the floor without mercy.
Then, as if he had touched something dirty, he dusted off his hands and gently pressed the Witch’s neck with one foot. As if he would break her neck.
“I’ll spare your lowly life. So, if you don’t want to die, you’d better speak nicely. Huh? I wonder if you can still wag your eloquent tongue even if your neck is broken?”
Idi’s cold voice was the Crown Prince himself that I had seen before. The one I had feared and been afraid of. In an instant, fear surged, and I leaned against the wall and trembled without realizing it.
It was fortunate that his eyes were not visible because the house was dark. Otherwise, I might have screamed and collapsed.
“Keuh. What a temper. Cough, cough. Why are you being so scary over a joke?”
The Witch struggled to get out, but unfortunately, she couldn’t overcome the Crown Prince’s strength. Nevertheless, she tried several times to move his foot by moving her fingers. It was common for her to writhe and twist her body.
Each time, the Crown Prince put strength on the foot that was stepping on her, as if it was a futile effort. As a result, the Witch’s coughing sound increased, which was only natural.
“Wasn’t there anything about getting hurt in your prophecy? The Vagus use stars and other excuses to not tell the future well, but if they were babbling about prophecies like you, your life would have disappeared a long time ago. Just mentioning the devil is enough to die. So, stop talking and tell me the prophecy.”
After a while, the Witch dropped her hands as if she had given up. And she opened her mouth and said the prophecy.
“Great chaos will come. The sun will lose its light and fall, and the surrounding stars will rise strongly and emit brilliant light. Beware of the moon. The moon and the stars are beings that receive light together, so they will not hesitate to shed blood for each other. The giant womb has already served its purpose, but it releases a dog to swallow the dragon. Originally, the dog has stars embedded in its body, so it will not be afraid to advance to the golden castle, and the fate of the blue lion will be decided on the plains where red soil flows.”
Foam flowed from her mouth after she finished speaking. The Crown Prince was horrified and took his foot off, but the Witch’s hand was faster.
“Death is coming. The Grim Reaper is standing around you with a scythe. So, find the woman who defied death, the woman who is not bound by fate, and keep her by your side. Then you will see the light.”
The Witch uttered the prophecy in a voice that resonated as if it were echoing. Especially the last words were creating a bizarre sound as if the two were shouting together.
But was it just my imagination that I thought I had made eye contact with the Witch when she said ‘not bound by fate’?
