chapter 72
72 – The princess celebrates her birthday.(2)
Time passed without interruption despite the news of her fiancé’s late declaration.
Guests began to arrive one after another to celebrate her 19th birthday at the residence of the Duke of Valencia.
“·······So.”
“····.”
And the crown prince, one of whom is currently standing in front of her and taking out her words.
Usually when she went to the imperial palace with her parents, she said it was annoying and she wore her pajamas, but today she was dressed properly.
“Is it because of Prince Albert that the reason you’re dying like that?”
“······No.”
“What’s wrong? It’s because of that.”
“····.”
Is it a mistake on her part to say that the crown prince’s luck seems worse than usual today?
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No, it’s not an illusion.
As I get older, the person I hate to see more and more is the person called the crown prince of the empire.
That’s why the prince was in a worse mood than usual, but she definitely wasn’t in a bad mood because of the news that her fiancé was coming late.
“Prince Albert is too much. He’s late for his only fiancée’s birthday.”
“····.”
“······I’m just kidding. Don’t look at me with such scary eyes.”
Sensing the life force that erupted from her momentarily, the prince quickly lowered her tail.
She commented that the prince’s decision was a very good one.
If I had said one more word over there, I wouldn’t have really hit it.
Even if it’s treason.
“······Laugh a little. Today is your birthday, which happens once a year, isn’t it?”
The prince tried to change the subject of the conversation, as if she thought that she had to change her unusual mood somehow.
“The people who are looking at the flowers in the garden right now are all the people who came to celebrate your birthday. How would they feel if you had that kind of expression on your face?”
“······You know it’s not.”
“Hmm?”
“How many people over there came to wish me a sincere birthday?”
It wasn’t that she didn’t know what the words that flowed out of the prince’s mouth meant, and she didn’t say anything just because she was in a bad mood.
She wasn’t the kind of person who acted on her whim at least.
I wonder how many of the guests who came to the duke’s residence today were only for the purpose of celebrating her birthday.
Most of the aristocrats would have come to her personal connections or to stamp seals with the high-ranking people of her empire rather than her birthday.
“·············You know that you have to endure, don’t you?”
“I know. That makes me feel worse.”
However, the prince was right. The world of nobility was originally like this.
Hope for the other person’s despair rather than their happiness.
He changes several masks a day. That was the nobility.
It was just that I was in a bad mood.
The fact that she is included among those people, that she has to formally say thank you, even though she knows it’s a pretense.
This was also the reason I didn’t want to say thank you to just anyone.
Because even among the servants working at the duke’s residence, there must have been people who acted like common nobles.
At her words, the prince nodded her head helplessly.
“Well, what can I do? I have to accept it. Because that’s noble.”
“I feel worse today.”
“······Couldn’t it be that I’m not the object of that bad mood?”
“No way.”
“····.”
Of course, he was right.
As I said earlier, the prince who was glaring at her next to her was more savory than usual.
***
“Then, I’m off to do the duties of the crown prince.”
“Don’t come back.”
“······As I always feel, you don’t have too much loyalty to the name crown prince.”
“Goodbye.”
The crown prince left, saying he had to greet the other guests who had come.
“It’s been a while! Princess Rebecca!”
“······Yes, nice to meet you.”
The next person to greet her was Isabella Bluebell.
“What is that? That not-so-welcome greeting? Did you not like my presence?”
“No. I meant to say nice to you.”
As soon as she arrives, Isabella puffs up her cheeks as if she is offended by her attitude.
She looked like a squirrel with food in her mouth.
She was looking at Isabella like a strange person in the world.
This person is obviously also a daughter of her duke’s family, so I wondered why she could show her favor in this way to a daughter of the same duke’s family.
······Isn’t it normal to be busy keeping each other in check when it comes to the same title?
Those questions passed through her head one by one.
“····.”
“Princess Rebecca?”
She shook her head and shook her head.
At some point, it was clear that her aristocratic thoughts were deeply imprinted in her mind.
When she thinks this way, she doesn’t think she’s strange, and she thinks Isabella’s behavior is different from other nobles.
There was absolutely nothing wrong with Isabella.
What’s wrong with not hiding your feelings from people?
If you like it, you like it. If you don’t like it, you don’t like it. It wasn’t strange at all to say things like this.
“Princess?”
“No, I have something to think about.”
“…?”
Isabella put on an expression that she didn’t understand her words for a moment.
“Oh, I see. The princess’s fiancé is the problem, right?”
“·······Yes?”
She decided in her own head why she was in a bad mood.
“I told you the other day. I don’t know why a princess like you has to be involved with that madman.”
“······Are you… Crazy?”
“Yes! The princess is too precious to marry that idiot!”
“Another…”
Are these the words that will come out of the mouth of a noble lady who is going to have a coming-of-age ceremony this year?
She originally thought that she was an unknown person, but she had a foreboding feeling that she would never realize who Isabella was in the future.
“I don’t know how he bewitched the princess… You have to listen to me even now.”
“····.”
“No matter how much I think about it, the Princess is too precious… Princess?”
Another voice called out from Isabella’s mouth, but she couldn’t hear it properly.
Because the word ‘possessed’ was stuck in her head.
Thinking about it, it was very strange.
Surely she lacks nothing more than her fiancé.
Swordsmanship is swordsmanship, wisdom is wisdom. Even in her appearance, she would never be pushed.
She said that although her fiancé was handsome, it was true that she was not as good as the girl who had been told since she was a child that she would grow up to be the most beautiful woman in the empire.
······Maybe it’s because she thinks she’s handsome because she has bean pods in her eyes.
The truth was beyond anyone’s knowledge.
Anyway, it was very strange.
From her first impression to her fiancé who adorned her worst that she was so out of her mind.
She and her fiancé who fought every time they met even after the first meeting.
As if they were each other’s destiny, as if her destiny had already been decided.
She slowly but subtly fell for her fiancé.
Now it has come to the point where her mood changes when she hears about her fiancé.
What I said to the prince was a lie.
How could she not be in a bad mood because of her fiancé?
After making people expect a lot. She’s a fiancé who says she’ll be late that morning.
I wanted to deny it somehow, but the reason she was in a bad mood was entirely because of her fiancé.
But the reason she lied to the crown prince was because she didn’t want to be found out.
I didn’t want the crown prince to find out that she, the daughter of the highest duke in the empire, was being swayed by one of her fiancés.
As soon as the damn prince realized that fact, it was obvious that he would try to make the most of it for the benefit of the imperial family.
······And I felt ashamed.
Well, she’s not even a child.
Her pride couldn’t allow her to say that she was in a bad mood just because the news that her fiancé might be late.
Really, how did this happen?
It was the word that came to her mind the most recently.
How did the situation come this far? How did she end up crying and laughing at the words of her fiancé?
Even now, with this thought in her head, her fiancé arrives, and she is waiting for a gift that her fiancé has prepared.
Although she couldn’t understand it for herself.
“No, I was just thinking about something else.”
“What were you thinking?”
“Like Young lady said, I was thinking about a damn fiancée.”
“·······Yes?”
“I don’t know why I’m late… I thought I’d have to be prepared for being too late.”
One thing was certain.
That her fiancé will have to pay for her for daring to keep her waiting.
With the brightest red eyes in her world, she calmly waited for her fiancé.
“····.”
It would not be a mistake to say that Isabella Blue Bell, who was next to her, seemed to be shaking a little.