Declan’s gaze, which had been fixed somewhere on her slender white neck, immediately shifted to Sienna’s face. Blue eyes filled with disbelief stared directly at him.
“You surely didn’t ask me to dance because you genuinely wanted to engage in this nonsense.”
“I’m not sure what misunderstanding there is, but I did ask because I wanted to.”
Though he spoke straightforwardly, Sienna’s face showed she didn’t believe him. After watching her for a moment, he briefly added.
“Sincerely.”
Sienna’s eyes narrowed briefly, as if trying to gauge his true intentions.
“Let me be clear about this. I’m not particularly pleased about drawing attention with Your Grace like this. People gossiping about us is bothersome, and anyway, I…”
Her voice, which had been methodically making her point, trailed off. Sienna’s lips moved silently before she firmly closed them, as if swallowing back what she was about to say. Her eyes darted left and right as if searching for the right words before dropping downward.
“As you know, this isn’t the time for me to be caught up in strange rumors.”
What followed was a voice noticeably quieter than before.
In the momentary silence that followed, many words went unspoken, but Declan understood her meaning well.
At social events like this with clear objectives, when unmarried men and women danced together, it inevitably led to gossip. Moreover, she was in a position where marriage talks were ongoing with a foreign king.
Although formal engagement procedures hadn’t been undertaken yet, as she said, unnecessary rumors in this situation would do the empire no good.
However, regardless of how sensible this was, he couldn’t possibly feel pleased about her avoiding him because of her relationship with another man.
“Is it worth worrying about rumors that arise from just one dance?”
He replied while suppressing his discomfort. At his tone, which seemed almost insensitive, Sienna’s gaze grew even sharper. Declan smirked at her inexplicably hostile glare.
He slightly lowered his head and whispered close to her ear.
“If associating with me was so disagreeable, Your Highness should have refused more vehemently.”
“I clearly earlier…!”
Sienna, who had started to flare up, suddenly hesitated and hardened her expression.
“…Are you mocking me now?”
“How could I? I wouldn’t dare.”
When he answered brazenly, Sienna frowned and clutched his uniform. The crisp fabric crumpled terribly in her grip, but the curve of his lips showed no signs of dropping.
“For someone so clear in expressing their opinions, why can’t you say anything about this terrible marriage?”
“How can you declare it a terrible marriage? Even I haven’t seen his face yet.”
“The fact that the King of Parma is mentally unsound is already known to everyone on the continent.”
Sienna briefly furrowed her brow at his uncharacteristically persistent attitude.
“Whatever the case, it’s not something for the Grand Duke to concern himself with, so don’t interfere.”
Sienna clearly expressed her wish not to continue this conversation any further. It wasn’t a particularly pleasant topic, and she wasn’t interested in his thoughts.
At her attitude of drawing a clear line, what little smile remained on his face disappeared. His hand gripping her waist tightened.
“Your Highness surely must have other choices available.”
Though he spoke earnestly with a face devoid of any humor, Sienna merely gave a dry scoff.
“Other choices? The person you serve looks ready to behead me if I ruin this marriage.”
At her quietly flowing voice, Declan felt his strength drain away.
It wasn’t that he didn’t understand her. In the empire, women were commonly viewed as nothing more than someone’s daughter, mother, or wife. The greatest success a woman could achieve was becoming the wife of a successful man.
The higher one’s status, the more common it was to marry for family benefit, and marriage was the only opportunity for women in the empire to prove their worth.
This was also the context behind why Sienna of the past life had clung to him at the monastery.
The only way she could recover her position was through marriage to a powerful man.
So, both then and now, marriage meant nothing more to her than putting her life on a stable track. Only the partner had changed.
Besides, in this life, hadn’t she already returned to the capital on her own without his help?
After a moment of silence, Declan slowly opened his mouth.
“Should I offer my congratulations?”
“That would be the normal thing to do.”
Sienna replied indifferently without the slightest hesitation.
“More importantly, isn’t it not the time for Your Grace to be interested in my marriage? Most of the women gathered here would be more interested in Your Grace’s marriage prospects than mine.”
Sienna glanced behind him.
Though she could only see the emperor and empress at the high table due to the distance, she didn’t need to see to know how Marianne must be feeling right now.
After all, this man remained the best revenge she could offer Marianne, both then and now.
It was clear that this banquet was actually meant for Marianne and him.
The banquet, ostensibly held for the military, should have been a touching reunion between the returning war hero and the First Princess. Though unintentionally, she had ended up ruining it all.
Of course, while she no longer intended to use him out of spite towards Marianne, there was one thing she wanted to ask given the current situation.
Sienna maintained an indifferent attitude as she spoke.
“As for Your Grace, you wouldn’t happen to be postponing marriage because there’s someone else you have in mind?”
At this sudden question, Declan slightly raised his eyebrows as he looked down at her. This time, Sienna didn’t avoid his gaze. His handsome brow furrowed even more.
“Are you genuinely curious?”
“Of course. It’s something all the women gathered here would be curious about, not just me.”
“I hadn’t realized Your Highness belonged in that category.”
At his mocking response, Sienna was momentarily silent. After pressing her lips together for a moment, she sharply turned her gaze away.
“It seems certain that whoever it is, they’re not among the people here.”
Sienna excluded herself in an utterly matter-of-fact tone. Her consistently indifferent attitude, as if it had nothing to do with her, struck Declan like a dagger.
He looked at her with an ice-cold expression.
“You say such things while dancing with me.”
“Isn’t it because you have no other interest that you’re leisurely dancing with me here?”
Declan coldly smiled at her seemingly sarcastic words.
“Your Highness doesn’t know much about me.”
Sienna, who was about to retort that she knew enough, chose to keep quiet instead. It suddenly occurred to her that this meaningless war of words served no benefit to either of them.
But her partner seemed to think differently. Even though Sienna had given up on responding and kept her mouth shut, his piercing gaze didn’t waver.
“I’m not the type to be so thick-skinned as to hold someone I’m not interested in.”
Sienna’s face rippled momentarily at his words, spoken in a low voice as if grinding them out. He felt a despicable pleasure in having made at least a small crack in her composure.
“If I said you were the one I wanted. Would that be enough of an answer?”
At his words bordering on mockery, clear fractures appeared on her face. But before Declan could properly read the emotions that had seeped through, they had already frozen over as if nothing had happened.
Even so, her glare was still fierce enough to stab a knife into his chest right then and there.
Just then, the third piece of music ended.
While others finished their dance and politely bowed to each other, Sienna and Declan remained pressed close together. Their intense gazes bore into each other across the small distance between them.
Sienna was the first to move. She separated herself from him as if pushing him away.
“Such words… are too trivial to even dismiss as a joke.”
It was a faint voice that seemed about to break, and a weak retort after the silence. However, seeing her face drained of color, Declan lost his will to continue.
The fourth piece was about to begin. Those who had finished their turns needed to either find new partners or leave the center of the hall.
Among the crowd moving in different directions, Sienna stumbled backward. Once she had put some distance between them, she turned completely and quickly began to leave the hall.
Standing like a stone in the middle of the hall watching her leave, Declan suddenly swallowed a curse as self-loathing welled up inside him. Everything was a mess. And he was the one who had made things this way.
As he turned away, feeling helpless, the balcony where Sienna had been standing came into view at the center of his vision.
It was still raining outside.
****
As Sienna pushed her way through the crowd, she regretted endlessly.
That she shouldn’t have come here in the first place. That she should have made some excuse, any excuse, to not leave her quarters.
She should have just stayed quietly in her room no matter how Joseph threatened her.
With endless regret welling up, Sienna bit down hard on her lower lip. Her doing foolish things, well, that wasn’t particularly surprising. But he…
Thanks for the chapter