193 - Pieces of the Broken Glass Slipper
Shattered Glass Slipper Shards 193
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After that intoxicating first kiss and the sweet yet persistent second kiss, he and I fell silent as if by agreement.
This was partly due to the shame that washed over me like a tide, but also because we needed time to process the intimate contact that had occurred under the banner of ‘trust,’ each in our own way.
I buried my face in his shoulder as if trying to hide my expression, and Sir Ayres quietly breathed, lightly embracing me.
It was strange to have my first and second kisses with someone I thought was another version of myself, and to find that it wasn't as bad as I'd imagined. It was proof of how soft I had become towards him, yet my heart was as calm as if submerged in still water.
It was around that time that I heard Sir Ayres' voice. He spoke to me as if whispering, and I couldn't help but laugh at his words.
"Am I allowed to be jealous now?"
So I laughed softly, forgetting that I was in Sir Ayres' arms. It seemed he had confirmed not only trust but also ‘affection’ with this kiss. He was certainly quick.
It was too far a leap for a conclusion reached through the contact just now, but I didn't display the baseness of ruining his joy.
I simply laughed and laughed while held in his arms. A sense of fulfillment filled me. My creaking heart also returned to its place and ticked at regular intervals.
And Sissae from the past, she was standing behind Sir Ayres, looking at me. She nodded to me, wearing a smile like the crescent moon.
"Just a little, I'll only be a little jealous, so don't scold me too much. Human greed is endless, after all, isn't it?"
Sir Ayres' voice was melting softly into my ear. His childish grumbling bounced like a short waltz.
No, like small raindrops pattering against the window. So I quietly closed my eyes and gently filled my mind with his jealous request.
"Don't be too close to the Crown Prince. If he gives you a hard time, call me anytime. I told you, you can use me, didn't I? Why are you so soft-hearted? And come to see me after you meet the Crown Prince. I always want to see you."
I was laughing the most I had since meeting Sir Ayres. I nodded, trying to suppress my ticklish heart.
The time we had together was still enough.
When I, having recovered my health, went back into society, the rumors between the Crown Prince and me maintained a tenacious life like embers remaining in a burnt field. I needed to step on them to extinguish the sparks, but the wind was blowing in all directions, so there were signs that they would flare up again.
Every time people saw me, they brought up the events of that day and tried to delve into the relationship between the Crown Prince and me.
The men were curious if the Crown Prince was my first man, and the women were anxious that an absurd romance might be born.
Most of the ladies who approached me had resentful and envious eyes. Those who seemed to be followers of Lissette Roshan were especially like that. They glared at me, accusing me of seducing the Crown Prince on top of Sir Ayres.
It was only thanks to Lady Roshan saying that nothing had happened that a good atmosphere for ganging up on me hadn't formed.
In the midst of all this, the Crown Prince's summons was nothing short of a catalyst.
Since the knife was in my hands and he could no longer force me, he switched tactics to openly sending letters to call me. The way he sent a flower along with the letter in the hand of a servant was very trite and blatant.
But because people couldn't help but fall for classic methods, the maids of the mansion exclaimed and envied the flower sent by the Crown Prince.
It wasn't just a flower, but a flower blooming in his own garden tied with a pretty ribbon, so it was clear to anyone that he had ulterior motives towards me.
I gritted my teeth at his cunning method, but there was nothing I could do. He was making me uncomfortable with just a few tools.
I refused a few times under the pretext that my body hadn't fully recovered, but even that became difficult later on. Because if I avoided him too openly, rumors would arise that something was really going on.
So I reluctantly had to enter the palace, and whenever I did, I would contact Lissette Roshan in advance and drag her along. I hoped that being with Lady Roshan would quell the rumors even a little.
I had met the Crown Prince in this way before, so I naively thought that if I continued to act like this, they would no longer suspect anything.
But the people of society had a special talent for recreating rumors. When things didn't go their way, they modified the content to suit their tastes, embarrassing Roshan and me.
The truth was that the Crown Prince was interested in Roena, but since she was a young lady who hadn't yet debuted in society, it was difficult to approach her directly, so he was exchanging news through me. That's why the Crown Prince was being kind to me.
The source of the rumors was from noble ladies close to Pulcher. Every time they passed me, they fanned themselves and showered me with praise for being a sister who cared for her younger sibling. And they babbled that the Bishvarts Family would surely have the honored position.
Then Lissette Roshan's followers flared up and insisted that the Crown Prince was close to me because I was Roshan's friend, and that's why he was showing the same excessive kindness as before.
Lady Roshan, who had been called the little queen of society and had received the support of many even before Princess Dieunzel appeared.
Most people believed without a doubt that she would become the Crown Princess and, furthermore, sit on the Empress's throne. Because she was the only woman who had been by the Crown Prince's side for a long time. The Crown Prince, who was famous for changing women several times a day.
The Crown Prince scoffed at these rumors and drank his tea. And he said to Lady Roshan in a cynical tone.
"All sorts of rumors are circulating. It seems people think I'll have an heir from you? Surely not. Even if you become my consort, I'll have children from someone else. Why would I give you the satisfaction?"
Lady Roshan smiled gently without the slightest agitation. She was skillfully retorting as if she was used to such words.
"Yes, Your Highness has repeatedly told me before. You said you liked a submissive woman with no intervention from her relatives. I know it very well, Idi. So there's no need for you to remind me."
Come to think of it, Lady Lissette Roshan was a distant relative of the Empress. I blinked, looking at her, who was smiling brightly but probably clenching her fists beyond her skirt.
When the words ‘no intervention from her relatives’ came out, the Crown Prince intentionally turned his eyes towards me, so I couldn't avoid his gaze.
The Crown Prince was noticeably kinder to me, as if his declaration to keep me by his side was not a lie. Sometimes he even gave me an escort so enchanting that my heart fluttered.
All the violent tendencies he had shown so far had disappeared, and the way he smiled gently while being considerate of me was truly shameless. If I didn't know him, I would have been fooled.
Perhaps even a veteran actor from a famous theater troupe wouldn't be able to wear the Mask of a man in love so naturally.
He played the role of a naive first love, as if he had realized that his feelings for me were love only after I collapsed from a heart attack that day, and he deceived everyone so skillfully that he seemed frighteningly genuine. Even I, who knew it was a lie, was confused.
If the Crown Prince's eyes hadn't remained as coldly hardened as before, I would have wondered, ‘Could it be that he really has feelings for me?’ But fortunately, he was still the ‘Crown Prince’ I knew. An arrogant bastard. So I was relieved instead.
This person would never, ever fall in love with me, or rather, with a woman.
But people began to fall for the Crown Prince's acting. No, even if he gave a clumsy performance, they would have turned a blind eye without hesitation for the sake of a romance of the century.
A third-rate script in which friends clashed over a woman was enough to cause a fresh stir in the otherwise boring society.
Moreover, the Crown Prince had added one more setting to his play, as if trying to keep his promise to protect my honor, completing a cheap third-rate drama.
He was feeling sorry for Sir Ayres, but he couldn't hide his feelings for me, so he was carefully approaching me even while enduring shame and dishonor.
Of course, this absurd story didn't suit the libertine Crown Prince. There was no way the Crown Prince, of all people, could have such feelings.
But it worked. Very easily, ridiculously so. The Crown Prince, who should have been a despicable person coveting his friend's woman, was gaining sympathy due to the rumor that he was suffering from a terrible unrequited love for the first time in his life, unable to do anything about it.
Suddenly, Sir Ayres became the man of the century who was agonizing over friendship and love, and I was transformed into a femme fatale who had captured not only the handsome knight but also the libertine Crown Prince, testing their friendship.
Was that why? There had been women who tried to imitate me before, but this time it was like a trend, and everything I did became a topic of conversation.
Even if I sneezed due to a cold, it seemed like a technique to make men fall in love, and soon all the women were sneezing and burying their noses in handkerchiefs.
I had called Sir Ayres a few times to be with me in order to avoid the Crown Prince's clutches, but it was worse than not meeting at all, as it only drew more attention because the protagonists of the topic had met.
Sir Ayres asked the Crown Prince about his intentions with an unpleasant expression, but the Crown Prince only looked at me with a strange gaze and didn't answer, so there was almost a big argument.
When I couldn't stand it anymore, I shouted, ‘Even if we go back to how we were before, it won't change the fact that I'm by Your Highness's side,’ but the Crown Prince gradually drew out my anger by spouting nonsense like, ‘Is that the real you by my side? It's not enough for me.’
One of the things that bothered me was when he would be quietly reading a book and suddenly say, as if he had just remembered,
"I'd rather you ask me for water like before. Aren't you thirsty now?"
While muttering such nonsense and smiling.
Also, sometimes he would stop drinking tea and stare at me, and when I asked if he had something to say, he would blurt out, ‘You know, you're actually very pretty.’
Thanks to that, I almost choked on my tea, and Lady Roshan looked at the Crown Prince with a pale face and bit her lip tightly.
The maids who were serving us exchanged glances as if they had caught something. The Crown Prince didn't deliberately stop them, so the things that happened during our meetings were spreading everywhere.
If news that the enemy's movements were unusual hadn't come from the border, I would have continued to suffer from the scandal with him and had a headache.
"The prices of wheat and various necessities are fluctuating."
The butler brought me the documents and said in an indifferent tone. Since the Bishvarts Family mainly dealt with luxury goods for the aristocracy, they were not yet affected by the rise in food prices, but that would only be for a short time.
Unless the ominous rumors spreading in the streets were quelled, the damage would surely accumulate like being soaked in a drizzle.
From some point on, rumors began to spread that a war would break out in the empire. The rumors about the small battles that had taken place at the border had grown like a snowball and were on everyone's lips. Before we knew it, it was becoming a foregone conclusion that a war would break out and troops would be drafted.
The rumors, whose source was unclear, spread quickly like a fire in a dry field. The speed was so fast that it was impossible to cope with. Even an epidemic couldn't spread faster than this.
The grown men were wary and cautious, and the women began to buy food indiscriminately in order to stockpile even one more ration.
No matter how much the imperial family put up posters and sent soldiers to shout that the rumors were false, the atmosphere was that the empire was deliberately holding back due to the Emperor's deteriorating health.
The story was that the Crown Prince would take over the state affairs in place of the ailing Emperor, and then he would immediately raise troops and rush to the border.
"I don't know if it's because I'm the guardian, but no nobles are talking about this matter."
Sheldon Bishwartz shrugged, saying that he had gone to the nobles' gatherings several times but had only smoked cigars and gambled. His face was full of fatigue and contempt for the nobles.
"No one is aware of the seriousness of the situation. They're just focused on groping prostitutes' breasts. It would be better to get information from somewhere else."
As the city became turbulent, the once lively society gradually became sparse, and most of the noble ladies were holed up in their mansions, only looking at their husbands and sons.
This was why the servants delivering the noble ladies' letters began to actively go back and forth between each other's mansions several times a day. It was to share what they knew. I also received letters from some of them, and the main content was whether I had heard anything from the Crown Prince.
The letters, which asked me to give them a hint considering our past friendship, as they would keep it to themselves, were so transparent that I couldn't even laugh.
It was fortunate that Lady Roshan sent me a letter asking me to remain silent in order to avoid causing trouble—thanks to that, I had a proper justification—otherwise, I would have continued to suffer from these letters. So I kept my mouth shut according to her kind advice.
Some busybodies cast suspicious glances at our attitude, but since nothing was clearly revealed, only various speculations quickly flared up and disappeared. Everyone living in the city was trembling with anxiety.
But nothing was decided and only meaningless time passed, and the guardian, who had failed, came home drunk more often.
Unfortunately, there was no one who would tell Sheldon information that was appropriate for the current situation. He was an excellent guardian with a quiet and calm temperament, but he was almost useless for the things that were actually needed.
As the Crown Prince intended, Sheldon was only being used to chase away the small birds that were aiming for the Bishvarts Family's grain.
It was around that time that the Emperor, who was said to be dying, contacted me through Madame de Châteauroux. The invitation, which was in name Chatoul's request but in reality the Emperor's order, was placed on my bed without anyone knowing. Just like the letter asking about Sir Halberd's master, very secretly.
