“Episode 43”
Once again, pressure gripped her arm.
“Do I have to endure this?”
Daphne pondered.
“I thought we were friends. If that’s the case, shouldn’t you have shown some sympathy? And you promised to deliver a letter to the prince, but in the end, you didn’t send any?”
“I’ll deliver your letters to my fiancée. As for Romeo, he’s at sea right now and can’t receive my letters.”
“Why do you address the prince by name? Are you still trying to show off in front of us, Daphne Viewcater?”
‘Ah.’
Despite her anger, Daphne’s mind strangely cooled.
“Now you’re talking about friendship? Shouldn’t you have snapped out of it before turning us into girls who sell themselves to the boss? Do you want to flaunt your victim mentality, your inferiority complex?”
“Daphne Viewcater. Have you said all you wanted to?”
“We invited you to apologize to you.”
Janet interjected with one more comment.
“Fine, do it. Apologize.”
It would be easier to accept an apology and be done with it. Daphne would be grateful if it relieved her of guilt.
It was more unpleasant to think of her beautiful name being chewed over by these stupid girls for a long time!
“How can you apologize while doing this?”
‘What do you want me to do…’
Daphne sighed. Standing for a long time made her legs ache again. She felt she should quickly go to a rehabilitation center after parting with them.
“Daphne, aren’t you going to apologize?”
“I’m sorry. Why did I do that to you, who are noble? I should have held back a little more, being someone who learned and knew better. Did it hurt a lot?”
The last words were directed to her own fist.
Perhaps feeling irritated by Daphne’s somewhat perfunctory and polite apology, Lanen Callie’s face turned red and blue.
“You…”
“Don’t call me ‘you.’ Do you have the right to address me, a peerage’s granddaughter? In the context of commoners?”
The girls’ expressions hardened. It seemed that they had to speak in such a way to make Daphne understand. Daphne was even more disappointed.
Once, Lanen had become close to her and had spent a long time massaging Daphne’s legs, which were sometimes afflicted with seizures. Even though it was awkward because she was a vassal.
It was regrettable to cover up such good memories with such low-grade memories.
“Lanen, just live your life like you always have. Live as a worthless human being who whines all your life, behaving viciously under the guise of ‘gifts’.”
Lanen, Janet, and a few other girls had always said they wanted to be the prince’s wife, the king’s daughter-in-law, and someday even the prince’s mother.
‘I don’t like speaking like this.’
But if that was their dream, Daphne would sincerely support it. Not now, but sometime.
“After graduation, you will become a worthless wife, a daughter-in-law with a violent father-in-law, or the mother of some child who won’t listen.”
Daphne would become a queen, and before that, she would establish a business with her name on it.
“I’ll be the tomb that buries you, who live such a depressing life, and the land of that tomb. I’ll be the woman with Cerénade.”
Maybe she could even find a way to become independent and not be confined to the royal palace.
Daphne thought about it and paused.
‘Independence…?’
That could be Daphne’s goal, as Kilian had suggested.
And to go that route, she would have to develop the stamina to ignore rumors. Unconditional bad rumors can linger or quickly disappear, so dealing with them like passing clouds could be helpful in the long run. It was up to Daphne to find her center within this.
“Have you finished speaking?”
“I haven’t finished yet.”
Daphne loosened the hair tie she had hastily tied and let it fall. Her red hair cascaded down to her waist. She tied it back up again and spoke calmly.
“What you owe me isn’t an apology. It’s a thank you.”
A brief year of pain, sadness, anger.
Daphne didn’t collapse, didn’t run away, but she got things done. That was enough.
They were ultimately nothing compared to Daphne, who was in such a position that they couldn’t cause her even a speck of harm.
Daphne smiled graciously. Just like Kilian had treated them.
“Now, would you like to thank me for saving you?”
—
When Daphne turned sixteen, there was a stir in the Cerénade region for a while about the “new prince.”
“I knew this would happen.”
Kilian threw the newspaper onto the table. Daphne, who had always seen the boss acting calmly, was surprised to see him like this for the first time.
“Why?”
Seeing Kilian looking embarrassed, Daphne repeatedly wiped his neck. She meticulously unfolded the newspaper he brought.
<Returned Prince, New Prince, Cerénade’s Bastard, Is There a Lottery for the First Prince?>
“You knew that there was a bastard in your uncle’s family?”
Daphne looked down at the large photo in the newspaper with surprise. The boy with a youthful smile had bright hair, and his eye color couldn’t be determined because the newspaper was black and white.
‘He doesn’t resemble my uncle or Romeo at all.’
It felt somewhat familiar. Daphne squinted slightly and looked closely at the photo. Kilian kept covering it with his hand.
“Don’t look at it. There’s nothing good that’ll come out of getting involved.”
Daphne hadn’t even thought about meeting this prince.
“Why? He looks handsome.”
“He’s not handsome. He’s a bastard child.”
“Do you know the new prince? How?”
Because he called him a bastard, her curiosity surged a bit more. Just as Daphne kept turning her head from side to side to look at the photo again, Kilian’s hand kept getting in the way.
“Your future husband shouldn’t be from the royal family.”
“Oh. Why? But my fiancé…”
“Forget about the fiancé. Grasp this firmly and take it away. I’ll give you everything you need.”
“Boss, where are you going? Let’s go together.”
“… .”
Kilian clenched his lips shut.
Above all, Daphne had come here because Amber had personally sent her, saying that she needed essential etiquette before becoming a queen. Now, chatting with the boss had become part of her routine.
“Anyway, especially this one is even worse.”
Kilian, who had never made excuses like “anyway” or “roughly,” kept avoiding answering, just continuing to look embarrassed.
“Daphne, didn’t you say you wanted to go to Ayren?”
“Yes. Absolutely.”
“How about going this summer? By then, the territorial affairs should be more or less settled…”
“But I need to prepare for my debutante ball. Will this prince also attend? I briefly saw that he’s appearing at official events instead of Romeo.”
“Oh, the debutante ball.”
The boss seemed to have completely forgotten about it and mumbled absentmindedly.
Since the boss was visibly anxious for the first time, Daphne was also taken aback. When she tried to read the newspaper properly, Kilian snatched it away. It was an uncivilized act.
“I didn’t get to read the newspaper today! You always say to read it every day!”
“You don’t need to know.”
“Wow, you won’t even tell me why? That’s just forcing…”
The more he said not to, the more she wanted to do it. If it wasn’t today’s newspaper, it would surely appear in tomorrow’s edition.
However, the newspaper remained unavailable for several days. Only important news that needed to be known would be summarized briefly by Narid. Daphne had to continue to be puzzled.
—
Not long after, she got a chance to see him in person. It wasn’t in the newspaper, but in real life.
The prince had come to the grand thanksgiving celebration held in Serenade. It was rare for royalty to visit such a secluded place, but it seemed he was touring various places to promote his face as the “replacement prince” from overseas.
“His hair sparkles.”
Daphne almost unconsciously exclaimed with admiration upon seeing his face. He looked every bit like a prince.
Completely different from Romeo, whom she had grown tired of seeing since childhood, this was the prince from fairy tales.
Moreover, his golden hair, uncommon in Serenade, stood out even more as soon as he entered her sight.
He was wearing a well-tailored black suit that accentuated his forehead. His features, neatly packed in his small face, and his smoothly rising lips were red even from a distance.
“His eyes are green. Interesting.”
He had a youthful face but was dignified. He was somewhat taller and more robust than the people around him, so he seemed like a person from another world.
Ladies approached him one by one, greeting him with proper manners and receiving gracious smiles in return.
“I too…”
Daphne kept pretending to pass by but kept staring at him. While stretching her upper body from side to side, his gaze finally fell on her. Feeling embarrassed for no reason, she flicked her hair nervously.
She realized that she was wearing a dress of a similar color to his. She thought they might look good together if they stood side by side.
“Will he greet me?”
However, the prince only stared at her for a long time without any other response. There were no blinking eyes, nodding heads, waving hands, or any such gestures.
“Huh?”
After a minute of staring at Daphne, his green gaze withdrew.
Not only that, but he walked confidently with his long legs to the opposite side of where Daphne was standing and soon disappeared into the crowd. However, his face remained unmistakable.
Just then, Kilian, in a wheelchair, entered the hall. Daphne ran to him with a bewildered heart.
“Boss, I was ignored by that prince.”
“Just ignore him back. Men in this place are beyond your concern.”
“Oh my, he’s the prince. He’s Romeo’s brother!”
“What?”
“If I get ignored by such a handsome prince, I won’t be able to sleep at night!”
Daphne pointed her finger towards where the blond man had disappeared. The boss followed her fingertip with his gaze.
“That prince is back again.”
Kilian muttered with a frown of arrogance.
