“How dare you! What are you doing with my daughter? Get away from her immediately!”
Delight’s furious voice echoed through the hall.
The atmosphere in the banquet hall turned ice cold.
But I couldn’t afford to shrink back now.
“Your Majesty.”
Serdin immediately knelt on one knee before Delight.
With a resolute expression, he looked up at Delight and spoke.
“I love Ollia.”
Serdin confessed firmly yet respectfully.
“Please grant us your permission.”
A heavy silence followed.
Delight’s silence signaled an imminent explosion.
Everyone held their breath, and then—
“You dare… have feelings for my daughter? Absolutely not!”
Delight’s voice thundered with unwavering opposition.
Then, turning to me, he sternly added,
“Ollia. Don’t even think about it.”
“Dad. I like Serdin too. I don’t want to part with him.”
I stubbornly refused to back down.
Everything had been planned up to this point.
As the audience watched in anticipation—
Everything was proceeding according to plan.
“…I will never accept this! You’ve followed Ollia around since childhood, and now…!”
But as the situation unfolded, Delight’s reaction started to seem… off.
Was he actually getting mad?
And to the point of trembling in rage?
Delight, we agreed on this beforehand.
Calm down!
But Delight’s eyes were already blazing with fury.
At this rate, he might really refuse to give his approval.
To make the scene more dramatic, we had intentionally arranged for Blueny to leave the room.
If things went south, there would be no one to stop him.
Left with no choice, I shot Delight a sharp glare.
Then, I mouthed a warning under my breath.
“Do it properly.”
“…Ahem.”
Thankfully, he must have caught my signal. Delight cleared his throat and turned his head slightly.
It seemed he was regaining his composure.
If he had ruined everything here, I would’ve given him an earful later.
Fortunately, there was still time to salvage the situation.
I directed my glare at him as if I were an angry daughter defying her disapproving father.
If Delight hesitated, it would appear as though a father, weak to his daughter’s pleas, was softening his stance.
From now on, we just had to play our parts well.
“Ollia. Why are you being so stubborn? Do you really like him that much?”
Delight finally delivered the next line of his role.
“It might just be a fleeting emotion. Why don’t you meet other people and think it over?”
He tried to persuade me gently.
But my response?
“No.”
I stood firm, showing unwavering determination.
“I won’t marry anyone except Serdin.”
If I had said I wouldn’t marry anyone at all, Delight would have been overjoyed and welcomed the decision with open arms.
Just look at him!
His lips are twitching in amusement even now!
This is not the time to react like that. I anxiously watched Delight’s expression.
“…If that is what you truly want, Ollia…”
At least this time, he remembered his lines.
“As your Dad, I can’t oppose what you wish for.”
At those words, the once silent hall buzzed like a restless sea.
Everyone was waiting for the final confirmation.
“…Ollia, do as you wish.”
At last, Delight gave his permission.
At that moment, the people who had been holding their breath as if they weren’t even present in the banquet hall let out gasps.
“Oh my, did he really allow it just now?”
“H-he actually acknowledged their relationship? What am I even witnessing…?!”
The murmurs broke out everywhere, overlapping chaotically.
But Delight wasn’t finished yet.
“But!”
Delight’s voice thundered across the hall, silencing everyone.
“Ollia cannot leave for Ilnord!”
His tone made it clear that this was non-negotiable.
A new conflict had arisen.
“Even after marriage, Ollia must stay in Promian.”
He set the condition.
If this condition wasn’t met, his approval would be withdrawn.
Now, everyone turned their attention to Serdin, awaiting his answer.
“I will come to Promian.”
Without hesitation, Serdin made his decision.
But I couldn’t let the conversation end there. This time, I stepped forward beside Serdin.
“Dad. Then I have a request as well.”
“Ollia, are you already taking his side?”
Delight furrowed his brows as if he were truly disappointed.
Why does he keep saying things that aren’t in the script?
I wanted to grab my head in frustration at Delight’s unnecessary theatrics, but I held myself back.
Instead, I spoke up, determined to say what needed to be said.
“Ilnord is Serdin’s homeland.”
“So?”
“So, I would like to hold our wedding in Ilnord.”
It was a decision I made out of love for Serdin, as a gesture of consideration for him.
This way, I was building a valid reason to go to Ilnord.
“…….…”
Delight deliberately took his time, pretending to think deeply.
Then, he finally spoke.
“If it’s just that…”
Gulp. Someone in the crowd swallowed nervously.
“The wedding may be held in Ilnord.”
“I knew you would understand me, Dad!”
Moved by Delight’s compromise, I threw myself into his arms.
At the same time, the hall erupted into cheers and applause.
“Congratulations!”
“Congratulations on your marriage!”
It was a picture-perfect scene, straight out of a romantic proposal.
“Enough. Keep your distance.”
Delight’s hushed warning to Serdin, spoken so quietly that no one else could hear, would remain behind the scenes.
I smiled as I listened to the applause and cheers of the people.
Heh.
This was exactly the reaction I wanted. I was more than satisfied.
Of course, everything we said here was a lie.
Our true plan was simply to go to Ilnord under the guise of a wedding.
That was our only goal.
The wedding itself would never actually take place.
Which meant that all the promises about where we would live after marriage were meaningless.
So, we could say whatever we wanted.
Now, the only thing left was to deceive Ilnord with this staged performance and use the wedding as an excuse to infiltrate the imperial palace.
For that, Serdin had a crucial role to play.
I recalled what Serdin had told me before we arrived at the banquet hall.
“Before coming here, the Emperor gave me another order.”
“What was it?”
“If you can win over the princess, bring her back by any means necessary.”
Serdin confessed.
“Of course, I had no intention of following that order.”
“Then, if I confess to liking you first, and you act as if you’re using this opportunity to capture me under the guise of marriage, it will look perfect.”
We could make it seem as if Serdin was merely exploiting me to achieve his objective.
“If we even say that you deceived me and made me drink a potion… they’ll believe it.”
Thus, the plan to deceive the Emperor of Ilnord was falling into place.
But for some reason, Delight’s gaze was growing colder, and Serdin looked like the worst villain in the world.
A strange silence and an awkward atmosphere filled the room.
Then, Blueny tilted her head and raised a concern.
“But will they really believe that Ollia suddenly fell for Prince Serdin after all this time?”
It wasn’t guaranteed that the Emperor of Ilnord would so easily believe in our marriage.
Even if we fooled everyone else, if the Emperor didn’t fall for it, the entire plan would be useless.
However…
“There’s a way.”
Serdin spoke calmly.
His expression carried a sense of determination, as if he had made up his mind.
“The Emperor of Ilnord gave me that order because he knows that I’ve spent time here as a hostage and have grown close to Ollia.”
‘…No way.’
As soon as Serdin began speaking, I immediately understood what he was implying.
But he had already decided to reveal everything and continued speaking without hesitation.
“The truth is, I approached Ollia on purpose. I intentionally got close to her and treated her well so that she would take my side. Now that we’ve met again, if I say that my efforts from childhood have finally paid off and that Ollia has fallen for me… they’ll surely believe it.”
“So you really were trying to use Ollia.”
Delight’s voice turned cold, as expected. There was no way he would overlook such a statement.
Serdin was confessing to what he had done as a child. And it seemed like he had no intention of making excuses.
But honestly, I didn’t care about any of that anymore!
‘In the end, all he did was help me, and he didn’t even accomplish anything!’
I couldn’t just sit back and watch any longer. Before Serdin could continue, I cut him off.
“We’re just trying to deceive the Emperor of Ilnord, right? Isn’t that right, Serdin?”
At the same time, I locked eyes with Serdin and subtly signaled him to nod—no matter what.
“Congratulations! You two are the best couple of this spring banquet!”
A noblewoman’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts.
Everyone was still watching us.
Before I knew it, Serdin and I had become the stars of the spring banquet.
