Chapter 49
Episode 49
“So, what I’m saying is, we have a common goal, we had a fun little fire show in the Imperial Palace, and we even trashed the Rose Palace together. I feel like we’ve become close enough to speak bluntly like this.”
I took a quick look around.
We were still inside the Imperial Palace, but most of the people remaining to clean up the area seemed to be from the Castline family.
It was only natural. The Royal Guard had followed the Emperor, and Imperial Consort Cleo’s people had scurried away to tend to her and Prince Brian.
As for the palace guards, famous for their laziness even in the best of times, they were naturally terrified by the demon beasts and took the opportunity to tuck tail and run once they heard ‘the’ Castline family was handling the aftermath.
In other words, no one was here to interfere with whatever we did.
A man I assumed was Lisianthus’s companion was shaking his head, but he showed no sign of approaching us.
I let out a sigh and ripped a long strip from the hem of my skirt. Despite everything that had happened, it wasn’t as dirty as I expected.
I grabbed Lisianthus’s hand and began wrapping the cloth tightly around his palm. Medical treatment? He was from the Duchy of Castline; they could fetch the High Priest in a heartbeat if they wanted to. For now, stopping the bleeding was enough.
“But that doesn’t mean you’re in a position to interrogate or lecture me, Young Lord Lisianthus, does it?”
“…….”
Lisianthus’s body went stiff as he noticed my gaze flicker toward the sword at his waist. Simultaneously, the hand I was holding went rigid.
It felt like a block of wood. Despite that, his fingertips twitched every time I pulled the white cloth tight.
“…Hey, you, that….”
I clicked my tongue as I watched Lisianthus hesitate, the words seemingly stuck in his throat.
“I know. The Count of Orland and the Duchy of Castline coordinated their stories to create a legend for your sword.”
“…You knew my brother danced with another woman just to make an excuse to give me that sword? Then why back then….”
“I didn’t know back then.”
At my short reply, Lisianthus lost his words. Our eyes met.
My calm green eyes were reflected in his bewildered red ones, which looked as though he had encountered a problem with no solution. It was a strange sight, like fallen autumn leaves and fresh spring buds occupying the same space.
“……It was because of me that hyung did that.”
“I know.”
“There’s nothing between him and that woman.”
“I don’t care.”
“What?”
Lisianthus jumped as if he were a frog dropped into boiling water.
“Hey, I saw with my own eyes the scene you caused back then! You don’t care? How?”
“I’m tired of answering that question because I hear it so often! But if I must answer, go ask the tallest yew tree in the garden near the second-floor balcony of the Rose Palace…. Though I suppose the palace, the garden, and the trees are all trashed by now. Correct! The answer is: just get a major head injury!”
“Your jokes aren’t funny…. More importantly, does hyung know you’re like this?”
“Of course. I even told him not to feel pressured because I plan to break the engagement later.”
“What?! You’re going to break the engagement??!”
“Keep your mouth shut about it. If this leaks to the Imperial Family, both I and the Duchy are ruined.”
“No, I mean, you….”
Lisianthus’s face was instantly flooded with various emotions. The shift was so fleeting that it was hard to tell exactly what he was feeling.
“…Really? You don’t like hyung anymore?”
I hesitated for a moment before answering.
I was gritting my teeth and doing my best not to show it, but it wasn’t as if I felt absolutely nothing when I looked at Raymon.
It was a stroke of luck that, upon regaining my past life’s memories, the persona of an adult woman from the 21st century outweighed the persona of an affection-starved child.
However, when I first proposed the deal during that tea time and felt the cold edge of a blade at my throat.
I had thought, ‘Of course.’ I clenched my molars and replied.
“I think he is an objectively impressive person, human to human.”
I had hoped that would be enough to satisfy him, but Lisianthus snapped back as if he found it absurd.
“I know exactly how many years you spent acting pathetic because you were so madly in love with hyung, and now you’re talking about ‘human to human’? Just last year, you bought some weird love potion from a fortune teller, soaked a hundred folded paper flowers in it, put them in a glass jar, and gave them to hyung—”
“You told me I didn’t suit your brother! You told me to know my place and get lost! I’m trying my best to be cool here, so don’t rain on my parade and just shut up and listen!”
Argh! When I lost my temper, Lisianthus pulled his shoulders in like a threatened turtle retreating into its shell.
Fine. I was sick of hearing about it, and I was sick of ruminating on my past embarrassments. It would be better to drive the nail in right here and now.
“I! Do not! Like! Raymon Oberon el Castline! Anymore! Do you get it? Do you?! You told me to know my place, so I learned it! You told me to grow up, so I grew up! You told me to remember this is just a contractual engagement, so I’m remembering it! Got it?!”
“U-Uh, yeah?”
Lisianthus replied with a bewildered voice. As soon as he saw my eyes blazing with irritation and anger, he flinched and averted his gaze—then, suddenly, he looked at the empty space behind me and let out a sharp, wheezing gasp.
“Princess Titania and Young Duke Raymon are strangers engaged for political reasons! Strangers! Total strangers! That’s it! Whether we have the title of fiancé or not, even if everyone else in the world died and only the two of us were left on a deserted island! He would never, ever be my husband!”
Phew. I finished my heated rant. For some reason, the surroundings felt eerily quiet.
About three paces away, a man with a look of pure horror was gaping at me.
His face looked strangely familiar….
Ah, that’s right. Was it Cassian? He was the adjutant who followed Raymon around like a goldfish poop. I wondered why he was here….
“I see.”
…Oh.
A chill ran down my spine.
Step, step. The sound of footsteps was exceptionally clear. Raymon came to a halt between the frozen Lisianthus and me.
Lisianthus, looking like he’d seen a ghost, glanced back and forth between Raymon and me. Raymon’s expression was the same as always.
Which was even scarier.
Raymon’s gaze stopped on my hand and Lisianthus’s. My hand was still wrapped around Lisianthus’s while I had been tying the cloth, and Lisianthus, seemingly too stunned to pull away, had just left it there like an idiot.
As soon as Raymon’s eyes landed on them, I reflexively squeezed my hand.
Consequently, Lisianthus let out a groan.
“Ouch.”
“Oh, uh? Does it hurt? S-Sorry.”
“No, it’s fine….”
Perhaps it was just my imagination, but Raymon’s eyes narrowed slightly as he watched me stammer an apology and Lisianthus tell me it was okay.
What was it? Did he think I had hurt him? While I was wondering, Raymon slowly reached out and took my hand with his gloved one.
The touch of the cold leather made my fingertips curl instinctively.
As if soothing my stiffened hand, Raymon peeled my fingers away from Lisianthus’s one by one and spoke softly.
“Lisianthus.”
“…Yeah, hyung.”
“You’re injured. There shouldn’t have been any special species among the demon beasts you handled.”
“I made… a bit of a mistake….”
Lisianthus mumbled, avoiding Raymon’s gaze—a rare sight for him.
Even though his hand looked like a mess, wrapped clumsily in a torn skirt hem rather than proper bandages, Raymon didn’t press further.
“Go inside and regroup with Sir Alphonse. Don’t forget to have that treated.”
“Okay….”
Even as he gave a compliant answer, Lisianthus kept glancing at me as if he were worried.
“Imperial Princess.”
“…Yes, Young Duke Raymon.”
I looked at him warily, like a child who had committed a crime.
I know I had already told him, ‘We’re going to break up and live our own lives,’ but still. Having him hear those words directly in front of others was a bit much, wasn’t it?
Was he offended?
“There is blood on you.”
His face suddenly leaned in close.
His golden eyes, unreadable in their intent, shone with a mechanical light.
I felt a firm, faint warmth as he pressed his hand against my cheek to rub it. As if by accident, his thumb brushed lightly against the area just below my lip.
It felt as though someone had tossed popping candy into my chest. Only a moment later did I realize the man had wiped my face with his bare hand, having removed his glove.
Then, as if it were nothing, his face pulled away again.
Was it Lisianthus’s blood that had splattered when the Emoticon Sword was taken away…?
I stood there, frozen like an idiot, watching as the man licked the blood off his own palm with the tip of his tongue.
With a dull face devoid of any change in expression, he pulled his glove back on as if nothing had happened.
…No, I mean, I sometimes suck on my own lip if I bite it and it bleeds, but this feels strange.
I don’t think it’s supposed to be like that?
Just now—what was that just now?
Instinctively, my eyes darted around, and I caught sight of Raymon’s adjutant, whose eyes were nearly popping out of his head in shock. So, what just happened wasn’t my imagination, was it?