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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 49
Chapter Title: The Reason That Villainess Held a Sword
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Corelia possessed delicate, beautiful hands—hands that no one would associate with a seasoned knight. It was hard to believe she was a knight sent by the Emperor.
Erin lifted the letter in her hand.
“That’s…”
“Ferdin sent it.”
“Sir Erin, if you don’t yet have a partner, may I escort you to this party?”
Erin held the letter, lost in thought.
Ferdin was the guest of honor at this party. Yet, he chose to accompany Erin.
And for the guest of honor at such a party, their partner should be someone befitting their status.
Corelia likely still thought of her as the easy target, the pathetic Erin Resus.
Her feigned terror when they met was all to make Corelia drop her guard.
Erin planned a small gift for Corelia, who had sent her the dress.
“There’s something I need your help with, Karon.”
Erin gazed at Ferdin’s letter in her hand.
Corelia’s voice seemed to echo in her ears.
“Erin, no one will ever love you.”
Erin intended to prove her wrong at this party.
* * *
“Charlotte, how do I look?”
Corelia hummed a tune as she asked Charlotte.
“You are beautiful.”
Her words were not a lie.
Corelia was astonishingly beautiful.
She was currently attending a party celebrating Ferdin’s achievements.
Over the past few days, countless nobles had flocked to the academy. Among the attendees were several high-ranking nobles who rarely graced such events.
As it was merely a small banquet held at the academy, there was no real reason for them to attend.
The high-ranking nobles were there simply to express their support for Ferdin.
Corelia narrowed her eyes, scanning the nobles at the banquet.
‘Duke Ashili, Count Ferdit, even Viscount Liam.’
Duke Ashili. How did that man get here? Wasn’t he supposed to be busy fighting monsters on the front lines?
Corelia glared at him as he conversed with the Princess.
No matter how well she concealed her power using black magic, being in the same space as Duke Ashili was dangerous.
Corelia frowned briefly, then subtly glanced to her side. Ditrion sat beside her.
He muttered, sounding bored.
“How dull.”
Just then, Ditrion’s eyes darted around, as if searching for someone.
‘Where is Erin Resus?’
He was unbearably curious about Erin’s reaction to meeting Corelia. But Erin had yet to arrive at the banquet hall.
Ditrion’s face twisted. Reading his irritation, Corelia offered a soft smile to soothe him.
“Something amusing will happen soon.”
“Something amusing?”
“Yes, I sent Erin a truly ridiculous dress.”
At Corelia’s words, Ditrion looked at her with interest.
Corelia was confident. She had never once considered that Erin wouldn’t wear the dress she sent.
She recalled the Erin she had met recently. Unlike Karon, Erin seemed unchanged from before.
Especially that terrified expression!
She probably wouldn’t dare defy her orders today either, and would show up in that utterly unfashionable dress.
Ditrion was one of the few who knew that Erin’s unfashionable dresses were Corelia’s doing.
But would Erin truly obey Corelia’s command? Corelia seemed completely oblivious to Erin’s transformation.
Ditrion gripped the armrest of his chair tightly.
“That sounds quite promising.”
Seeing his slightly tense demeanor, Corelia leaned in and whispered softly into Ditrion’s ear.
“Don’t worry about a thing, Your Royal Highness. Ferdin Lexia will never be able to defeat you. Not with anything.”
Her words were filled with absolute conviction, devoid of any doubt.
As Corelia whispered to Ditrion, Ferdin met Erin just outside the banquet hall.
“Sir Erin…”
Ferdin, having uttered those words, was left speechless.
Erin, clad in a perfectly fitted scarlet dress that accentuated her toned physique, was dazzling.
He wasn’t the only one who thought so; the eyes of the nobles heading towards the banquet hall were all fixed on them.
“Erin Resus…”
“My goodness… was she always this beautiful?”
“She’s incredibly extravagant. The cost of the fabric alone for that dress…”
The task Erin had asked Karon to do was to bring Sara from the Resus Marquisate.
And through Sara’s name, not her own, she had the finest dress custom-made at the dress shop.
The cumbersome process was to ensure Corelia wouldn’t catch wind of what was about to unfold today.
Thanks to this, Erin today was not unfashionable, but rather exceedingly elegant and magnificent.
‘Erin Resus, who enjoys luxury.’
Perhaps, just for today, that statement might be true.
Thinking so, Erin smiled at Ferdin. His cheeks flushed crimson.
Ferdin knew there was no special meaning behind her smile, yet he couldn’t stop his heart from pounding furiously.
In his eyes, no one else existed. It was as if only he and Erin were present in this place.
Erin, concerned by Ferdin’s dazed expression, stepped closer to him.
She briefly studied his face up close, then carefully placed her hand on his arm.
“Sir Ferdin?”
The spot where Erin held him felt incredibly warm to Ferdin. Unconsciously, he spoke his true thoughts.
“I apologize, Sir Erin. You are… too beautiful…”
Only after the words left his mouth did he realize what he had said.
At that moment, the Princess’s words echoed in Ferdin’s mind.
“You’re making Sir Erin uncomfortable!”
At his words, Erin’s face, like Ferdin’s, turned red. Her face, like a ripe persimmon, looked as if it might burst any moment.
An awkward atmosphere lingered between them. But it wasn’t an unpleasant one.
Ferdin gently took her hand.
Erin closed her eyes, feeling the warm touch of their clasped hands.
‘I wish… time would stop like this.’
But that wouldn’t happen. She was, after all, walking into hell herself.
When she opened her eyes again, the shyness of her age, which had been there moments before, was gone.
Erin gazed into the hall where the party was being held with the eyes of a seasoned warrior.
For him… and for herself… she had to face the devils within.
A faint murderous intent flickered in her eyes.
* * *
Ditrion, looking bored, raised his wine glass.
Ferdin was taking longer than expected.
In the Lexia Empire, it was tradition for the guest of honor at a party to make the last entrance.
So, his lateness was natural. But even knowing that, Ditrion’s temper was twisted.
Just as his patience was running out and he could no longer bear it, a knight approached him and delivered a message.
“Your Royal Highness Ditrion, it seems His Royal Highness Ferdin has arrived.”
At the knight’s words, Ditrion turned his gaze towards the banquet hall doors.
Corelia, too, seemed to have heard the knight’s words, a faint smile gracing her lips.
Her face was filled with anticipation for the scene about to unfold.
‘The unfashionable Erin Resus.’
‘The incompetent daughter, unlike the Marquis’s wife with her excellent taste.’
‘Oh, how upset the Marquis’s wife must be. With such poor aesthetic sense… will she ever find a suitable marriage partner?’
As always, people would compare her to Erin. And then they would all offer her words of comfort.
‘Stupid humans.’
She was fed up with these ignorant people.
But knowing how this childish farce would corner Erin, she willingly participated…
Corelia had recently grown tired of continuing this tedious charade.
She wondered why she still had to keep the utterly idiotic Marquis and his children, Karon and Erin Resus, alive.
Corelia, who had been looking around to avoid Duke Ashili’s gaze, doubted her eyes when she saw a pair of figures entering the party hall.
‘Who is that?’
For a moment, it felt as if time slowed down.
The first person she saw was Ferdin. As always, he displayed astonishingly brilliant good looks. A Prince who, like his mother, possessed a handsome face.
But… his partner, Erin, wouldn’t be like that. She would appear in the ridiculous dress Corelia had sent her.
That was what she had thought just moments ago.
However, just as events that had been unfolding according to Corelia’s predictions had begun to go awry at some point, so did this.
