187 - Pieces of the Broken Glass Slipper
Shattered Glass Slipper Shards 187
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Chapter 2: The Allure of a Glance, the Entanglement of Gazes
Dramatic words instill great tension in the listener. Especially an unexpected statement, one that is powerful enough to stir the other party's emotions.
Just like the words I have uttered now.
"I don't think I'll be able to see Your Highness often after today. I can't bear it any longer."
The Crown Prince stares at me as if I'm talking nonsense. I deflect his gaze and take a sip of the wine in my hand.
In the Imperial Palace, as summer deepens, they often gather people for banquets that last until late at night. It started with the intention of overcoming the heat together, and it was a party with quite a long history.
It wasn't held last year for some reason, but this year it was restarted under the auspices of the Crown Prince.
Originally, according to the laws of high society, an un-debuted girl could not attend a banquet, but I could stand proudly next to him, backed by the name of the Bishvarts Family. Therefore, drinking wine was also permitted.
Michael Ayres was away from the city on a mission, and Lady Roshan happened to have a cold and couldn't attend, so only the Crown Prince and I were standing together today.
So I seized the opportunity to utter the prepared words. So that he could be very surprised, as if lightning struck from a clear sky. It was a week after breaking up with Theodore Vitraice.
"Do you know a family that uses the Bitrice surname?"
"I've never heard of it. Is it the name of a rural noble?"
"He came to me last time and said he would tell me how to protect the Bishvarts Family without a guardian."
The Crown Prince replies to my words with an indifferent expression.
"Why, did he ask you to get engaged or something?"
I deliberately exaggerated my words and replied.
"No, he said he would make me a Countess. He told me to become the true owner."
"What?"
Only then does the Crown Prince look at me with a serious expression.
In the history of the Empire, there has never been a case where a woman became a Countess. Even if the heir is a woman, it was essential to marry in order to inherit the family, and then she had to hand over the title as well as the power to control the family's wealth to her legal husband.
That's why the Crown Prince mentioned the engagement, but he can't help but be surprised when I respond with 'Countess'. Because depending on the interpretation, misunderstandings can arise.
"Say it one more time?"
"He said he would make me a Countess."
The Crown Prince pauses for a moment and closes his mouth tightly. Judging from his calmly lowered eyes, he seems to have some idea. Or, he was rummaging through his mind looking for guys who would do that.
After a while, he opens his mouth again and asks me. His voice was even more subdued than before. It's proof that he's in a very bad mood.
"...Who is he?"
"I don't know him well either. He kept approaching me and trying to win my favor by greeting me in a friendly tone. But since he had only greeted me so far, I couldn't imagine he would say something like this. So, Your Highness, please know that I rejected his offer."
"Is that why you're telling me this?"
"Yes. I couldn't overcome my fear."
"Why?"
"Do I need a reason why? Ah, that's right. That's why I'm telling you that I can't bear it, Your Highness."
I let out a faint sigh as if I was fed up. He was the world's greatest playboy when I met him at the Masquerade, but he wasn't someone who exhausted people like this.
But since Sir Ayres brought me into their group, he started to measure me this way and that, and he endlessly distrusts me.
I am also the type of person who has little faith in people, but not as much as the Crown Prince. That's why I sometimes even doubted whether he sincerely thought about Sir Ayres or Lady Roshan.
"I didn't think you were a woman who would get tired of this much?"
"But if this continues, I will have no choice but to give up. I'm not a woman with an iron heart either."
The Crown Prince's lips draw a curve in response to my complaint-like answer. He was lightly dismissing my grumbling as if it was nothing. At the same time, he waits for the next thing to say with a sharp guess.
"Still, judging from the fact that you're saying this, there seems to be something else."
I decided to mention the note related to Sir Halberd here. It was a note that had been delivered before I talked to Beatrice, but I thought that if I associated it in this way, I might be able to catch something.
Of course, the Crown Prince has more information than I do, who uses private informants.
"After that, I also get strange letters. Even in my bedroom. But no one says they put it there. So how can I not be afraid?"
After uttering these words, I take a sip of the wine in my hand to catch my breath, and I see women glaring at me and whispering.
They are angry because they want to seduce the Crown Prince, but I am sticking right next to him.
These days, the Crown Prince tends to refrain from being a playboy when he is with Lady Roshan and me.
According to rumors, the number of women who used to leave his bedroom one by one at dawn has now dropped to one every two weeks.
Therefore, some people jokingly say that the Crown Prince is tired of women and has turned his eyes to men.
If it were someone else, they would have been scolded for talking nonsense, but since the Crown Prince is so handsome, even this absurd claim is generously accepted.
Anyway, he was still watching the hall while drinking wine without dancing with other women today.
The ladies bowed deeply enough to show their cleavage on purpose, but the Crown Prince didn't show even a small tremor and only accepted them politely. It was such an amazing change that I wondered if he was a different person.
Thanks to that, I got the timing to talk about the story just now without any problems, but it's not a pleasant feeling to be stared at so much that my skin stings, so I feel a little uncomfortable.
I swallowed a sigh with the wine and handed the empty glass to the servant standing nearby. And I picked up the only glass with wine on the tray he was holding.
"What kind of letter is it that it's being delivered so secretly?"
"It's a story about Sir Halberd. So, Your Highness, please give this foolish girl some guidance? I can't understand the contents of the letter at all."
"Tell me."
"Who does the true owner of Sir Halberd refer to?"
The Crown Prince's expression changes strangely at that moment. He was looking at me as if he was trying to explore.
It seemed as if he was thinking, 'This can't be happening,' rather than being surprised by the contents of the letter. As if he knew when I received it.
"Your Highness?"
"...No, it's nothing. First, I want to hear Lady's opinion."
"Isn't the owner of Sir Halberd referring to His Majesty the Emperor? He's a knight belonging to the family, but in the end, he's just gathered under the sun of the Empire."
"Lady has a deep loyalty to His Majesty."
"Of course, how can I compare to Your Highness?"
Usually, the family's knight makes it a principle to prioritize the lord they serve over the Emperor. Therefore, the words I just uttered were nothing more than blatant flattery to the point where my cheeks were burning. So the Crown Prince mentioned loyalty as if he was being sarcastic.
But it's not good to buy his vigilance by giving a realistic answer, so I'm just doing this embarrassing thing. Because it's better to be seen as pathetic.
"Usually, they say their lord, but in Lady's case, you're living under the protection of a guardian, so it must be embarrassing to call him your owner."
"Does that mean that the owner of the Knight of Clear Hearing is vacant?"
"Isn't that also in a state where someone else can easily pick it up? The owner of the knight that the knights of the Empire admire. There must be more than one or two people drooling. You must be getting a lot of letters wanting an engagement, not to you?"
"Yes."
"It's because of Mel."
"Pardon? Because of Sir Aires?"
I tilted my head and asked the Crown Prince. Even now, letters wanting to be engaged to Roena were flooding in, and I was busy dealing with them.
In particular, most of the people who coveted me were suddenly turning their eyes to Roena, so I was wondering about it. I thought that this was happening because many people expected that Roena would debut in high society in less than two years, and that I would naturally step down around that time.
But the Crown Prince was saying that it was because of Sir Aires.
"Everyone thinks you're going to enter Sir Aires' family. Mel's devotion to you is very extreme. So they have no choice but to turn their eyes to a girl who has no partner."
Come to think of it, Michael Ayres is the second son of the family, but he is likely to become the Imperial Knight Commander when the Crown Prince ascends to the throne.
If he is the Order of Knights Commander, he can receive at least the title of Count, or generously the title of Marquis, so it is said that the prevailing opinion is that I will not have any regrets about the Bishvarts Family. Or be kicked out as a commoner before that. Because a man's love is unpredictable.
Especially in high society, eternal love is something that only appears in novels, and even if a man is full of faith, it is natural to face a breakup if his love cools down.
Therefore, rather than being criticized for a breakup due to a simple change of heart, it was often accompanied by ridicule, mockery, or small pity and regret.
Anyway, after realizing an unexpected part, I felt like I could understand a little bit about what the letter meant.
So, does the person who sent the letter want me to catch Sir Halberd? To not hand him over to someone else? Why...?
Suddenly thirsty, I put the wine glass in my hand to my lips and gulped it down.
As I accidentally turned my gaze to the side, I widened my eyes as I discovered a familiar face standing in a corner of the hall. The beauty who disappeared from Chatoul's banquet was standing there looking at me.
As soon as she noticed that she had met my gaze, she was moving her lips and saying something.
But it was too far away to understand what she was saying. However, I couldn't bear the sudden stuffiness and dropped the glass as I gasped.
What? Why suddenly? I just took a sip of wine... Wine, wine?!
"Heok...!"
"Lady?"
My vision blurs, my head feels dizzy, and my chest feels tight as if I can't breathe.
The Crown Prince's strong arm grabs my swaying waist and his lips keep calling me, but the pain that is consuming my body is so severe that I can't even answer properly.
It just hurt. It was so hard I felt like crying. Screams were heard from here and there, and voices calling for a doctor and a priest echoed.
But that was only for a moment, and even the buzzing sound subsided, and everything was dyed in darkness. So I thought I had just fainted for a moment.
"...Roena! Bischwartz Young Lady!!"
When my eyes brightened and I could hear, I was lying in the middle surrounded by people looking at me. And next to me was the Crown Prince, holding my hand tightly and staring at me with an unknown expression.
Before I could even realize what had happened, someone suddenly started shouting in a joyful voice.
"Oh my god, the Lady who had stopped breathing has come back to life."
"I thought she was dead, but she suddenly opened her eyes."
"She defied death."
"To reject the Grim Reaper. Is there another miracle like this!"
"Oh my god, God!"
People were looking at me with awe and started spouting strange things like rejecting death.
Everyone seemed to have seen something strange in the short moment when my vision went dark, and they were attaching strange words to me. I had certainly come back to life and reversed time, but it wasn't the same feeling as just now.
But when the Crown Prince, who was sitting next to me, made a similar sound to them, I had to feel a chill down my spine for a moment.
"A woman who defied death... So that was you."
It was not unreasonable for a part of the Witch's prophecy to come to my mind at that moment.
