“Y-You’re here. You said you might not be able to attend the tea time…”
“The meeting with the nobles is over. His Majesty had an audience with a lord from the territories, so I came to check on you for a moment.”
Kasion glanced at Serhen. It seemed Serhen had told him that I was nervous about meeting the princess. In other words, they had come to protect us… I rubbed my eyes as I looked at these considerate men.
“Ariel… you…” Serhen looked at me with the same expression he had when Viscount Kainum tried to steal our business shares.
“So, Serhen, it seems you didn’t fully trust what I said.” And there was Kasion, looking as triumphant as if he had just conquered the palace and ascended the throne.
Ah, I’m doomed. They appeared at the worst possible moment.
Panicked, I turned my head away, avoiding the two men who were coming straight toward me. I should retract my words and deny everything…
“Hiccup!”
But then I came face-to-face with Diana’s terrifying expression. Was my grave destined to be in the princess’s garden?
If I didn’t deny what I just said, Serhen would be heartbroken. But I couldn’t deny it outright either, as the bad-tempered princess would surely accuse me of deceiving her. Then again, maybe she already had enough to do that.
“Just a moment ago… you said you weren’t involved with him at all, Lady Mellin. Are you trying to deceive a member of the imperial family?” Diana reacted exactly as I had expected. She was behaving just as the book described.
This was definitely my mistake. I had been too hasty. With Kasion in the palace, I had stupidly let my mouth run too freely.
“It’s not that… Hiccup!”
I closed my mouth and took a moment for some self-reflection. But the hiccups didn’t stop.
The princess’s eyes narrowed as she observed me. She was biting her lips as if she had found a reason to strike me. A noble lady hiccuping during tea time with the princess. The people of the society would tear me apart for this.
“Your Highness, it’s a misunderstanding. My sister would never deceive the member of the imperial family.” Serhen quickly tried to calm the princess down.
“Yes, Your Highness. Lady Ariel didn’t mean it that way.”
“Lady Soler, are you pretending not to have heard Lady Mellin deceive me? I asked about her relationship with the duke, and she clearly said they were nothing. But now she says she received a confession and is considering it positively?”
Diana’s loud voice had the same effect as executing a criminal on the city walls. It was as if she was trying to kill me twice with shame.
“When I said I’d be a bridesmaid with the duke, she changed her tune. How am I supposed to take that? If this isn’t an insult and deception of the imperial family, then what is it?” She made it sound like I had changed my story out of jealousy as if I didn’t want to lose Kasion.
“Hiccup! Wait, Your Highness, hiccup…” I tried to speak smoothly, but the hiccups kept interrupting me. So, I decided to take a deep breath and sip my tea to calm myself down.
“Are you mocking me? You said you’d respond to his confession soon, didn’t you?”
Instead of answering the princess, I frowned. I couldn’t decide whether to swallow the tea or spit it out. It was bitter. Why was it so bitter? I glanced at the teacups in front of the princess and Lireania. Their tea looked the same as mine. Was I… being targeted?
I suddenly remembered how the maid had poured my tea in two separate servings. Was it a mistake? Or intentional?
“Ariel, what’s wrong?”
Lireania was the first to notice my discomfort. I widened my eyes and carefully observed my surroundings. Serhen still looked anxious, Kasion’s expression was serious, and… Diana seemed startled?
“How is it deceitful if we’re still not in a relationship?”
At that moment, Kasion leaned forward, placing both arms on the table. His muscular arms bulged as if they might tear through his sleeves. Why was he showing off his muscles like that? This wasn’t a battlefield. His perfectly defined muscles were likely the best in the empire. It seemed he could easily lift and carry someone like Lireania or me with one hand…
…I gulped down the bitter tea without realizing it, distracted by inappropriate thoughts. Ugh, it’s really bitter. Could someone actually stay healthy after drinking this? It couldn’t be poisonous. If it were, anyone would spit it out immediately because of how awful it tasted.
Then I noticed Diana, who had forgotten her earlier panic and now blushed as she looked at Kasion. Was she planning to enjoy herself with Kasion after making me drink this awful tea?
My stomach, which had been unsettled for days, twisted even more because of the bitter tea. “Uugh…” I clutched my stomach and bent over slightly.
I clutched my stomach and doubled over.
“Ariel!”
“Ariel, what’s wrong?”
“Lady Ariel!”
Everyone except Diana, rushed to my side.
“It’s just… this tea is so…”
“Your Highness! Did you poison my sister’s tea?!”
I decided to set my conscience aside for a moment. I even covered my mouth with my hand. The bitter taste of the tea made my face contort, and I gagged reflexively.
“Urgh, Brother…”
“I-I don’t know… It can’t be poisonous!”
Seeing Diana unable to definitively deny it made me certain. Even if it wasn’t poison, she must have wanted to mess with me. She had done similar things to Lireania in the novel, hadn’t she? If so, now was my chance.
“Heuuk, my stomach hurts so much!”
My weak body from childhood came in handy at times like this. I knew the symptoms of illness so well that it was easy to fake them. I whimpered and curled up on the floor.
“The only things I had today… were the tea and cookies Your Highness gave me… Uuugh…”
Diana hadn’t done anything seriously wrong to me yet. This was just a power play to show her that I wouldn’t be easily bullied like Lireania.
At that moment, Kasion turned toward Diana. His gaze was colder than the perpetual snow on the highest mountains as if he intended to freeze everything in sight.
“Did the imperial family dare break the pact with the Pertelian family and try to harm my person?”
The growl of the alpha wolf toward his enemy reassured his pack…
Wait, who exactly is ‘my person’?
* * *
Kasion instructed Serhen and Lireania to take Ariel to another nearby palace where a trusted member of the imperial family could see to her treatment. Then, he turned to face the princess, who was now left alone. His expression was terrifying.
“No one in the Pertelian family can be touched by the imperial family. Perhaps His Majesty didn’t teach you enough about the pact?” His voice was gentle, but his gaze was anything but.
This eerie atmosphere made Diana stumble backward until she tripped over a stone and fell clumsily to the ground. A strange hiccup escaped her lips, much less refined than Ariel’s earlier.
“But, hiccup, she’s not Duke’s, hiccup, person yet.”
“Didn’t you hear that Ariel is considering my confession positively? It won’t be long.”
Diana’s face twisted at Kasion’s crazed smile. She had never seen such a look on the face of the duke, who was known for being aloof, even indifferent.
It was an obsession and desire for a woman. This man really wanted Ariel Mellin, a naive girl who grew up without parents, knew little about noble etiquette, and wasn’t familiar with the customs of society.
The Mellin family wasn’t that respected, as it was known for running a business considered beneath most nobles. She was a woman who hadn’t been able to marry until her brother’s wedding, viewed as flawed by society. Why, then, would he choose her over someone like Diana, who is noble, graceful, and poised from head to toe?
“You… If you refuse to follow our orders according to the pact, you’ll be punished…”
“Princess, didn’t I tell you that you clearly don’t understand the pact?”
Diana clamped her mouth shut at Kasion’s continued menacing tone.
“I am bound by the pact to protect and serve only the emperor.”
“But…!”
“Even if that weren’t the case…” Kasion leaned in close to Diana, whispering in her ear. “It would be in your best interest to never bother Ariel again, Princess. Unless you’re prepared to face death.”
Kasion’s fierce gaze was sharper than a sword.
* * *
“Diana, why are you here, fuming with that sour look on your face?”
Aenix, the crown prince, was surrounded by maids, receiving a bath in the middle of the day. Of course, it wasn’t just any ordinary bath. Despite the unpleasant and sordid scene, Diana didn’t bat an eye.
“Duke Pertelian threatened and insulted me.”
“Insulted? He’s a vassal of the imperial family. How could he do that?”
“Brother!”
“Not brother, but Crown Prince.” Aenix corrected his foolish sister with a patronizing tone.
Diana’s face twisted, but she held her ground. “Yes, Prince. That esteemed duke looked down on our imperial family, using the pact as an excuse.”
“The pact? Well, that guy is pretty rude, using it as an excuse. He was insolent at the last ball too, wasn’t he?”
Despite the crown prince’s crude language, Diana didn’t let her face betray any emotion. Instead, she smiled brightly and said what she wanted.
“Yes, but it seems the duke has fallen for a woman.”
“A woman? That guy, who’s known for not keeping anyone around?”
“Yes, and he’s even using the pact to protect her despite not being married. She should be punished for deceiving me, yet he protects her.”
Aenix suddenly dismissed the maids attending to him. Seeing this, Diana’s lips curled into a smile.
“Who is this woman? Don’t tell me it’s that girl from the ball who still looks like a baby bird?”
That’s the kind of person her brother was. To influence him, there was no point in appealing to the dignity and pride that the imperial family should uphold. The way to move this foolish crown prince was to present him with an intriguing woman.
“Yes, she’s still in the palace.”
“Really?”
Satisfied with Diana’s answer, Aenix rose from the bath.
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