It’s quite amusing to see someone aspiring to be a princess, yet picking fights over a mere marquis’s affection. I have no intention of yielding to her anyway. Even though this may not be the era where nobles wield unmatched power, what reason do I, a mere marquis, have to bow my head to Princess Ariel? I wasn’t foolish enough to indulge in such vanity.
I can roughly guess why she challenged me, but the best way to find out for sure is to meet her directly.
I’m not the type to sit sulking in the corner, shedding tears just because she didn’t send an invitation. Bianca Uranos needs to see that she’s not such an easy opponent.
Princess Ariel won’t openly admit to deliberately excluding me in front of others. There’s no reason for her not to invite me to the royal banquet, as my family has done nothing wrong to the royal family to warrant such deliberate exclusion.
However, I won’t just let her off the hook with a simple “Oops, my mistake, sorry!” Honestly, I want Princess Ariel to embarrass herself in front of others, blushing and not knowing where to hide, for committing the ‘mistake’ of not sending an invitation to the Uranos family.
But since she’s of royal blood, the backlash would be significant if I embarrass her too much, so I need to find the right timing to make my move. It was enough to just warn her not to underestimate me.
How fortunate it is to attend this tea party!
There’s no one here who would praise and support Princess Leanna Ariel. Instead, unlike them, many of the young ladies here value etiquette and restraint as virtues. Despite Leia’s affable personality, due to such differences in character, the people gathered here weren’t particularly close to her.
Regardless, it’s a good thing for me. These are the people who will stand by me when I eventually confront Leia publicly.
Returning home after the tea party, I subtly broached the subject with my parents during dinner.
“The invitation to the royal banquet still hasn’t arrived, has it?”
My mother sighed and nodded her head. “Indeed. It seems our family is one of the last to receive it.”
“It probably won’t come at all,” I asserted.
“Why do you think so?” My father asked quietly. I continued eating with a composed demeanor as I answered.
“It seems like the princess wants to pick a fight with me. I’m not sure of the exact reason.”
“Isn’t that too presumptuous? Princess Ariel isn’t debuting in society for the first time, so why would she bother with you…” My mother countered, but I shook my head.
“She probably wants to challenge me because of her friend, Leia Saturnos. Leah recently stopped sending me letters.”
“Have you two fought?” My father frowned. He clearly considered it just a minor squabble between young girls. I chuckled lightly as I replied.
“No, not really. But since her friend Ares became my boyfriend, she might feel a bit hurt. Maybe she wanted to play a little prank.”
Of course, the truth was much more complicated and weighty than that, but I decided to simplify the matter for now. Perhaps you’ll find out the whole story after I’m gone, and Ares and Leah have their happy ending.
Anyway, I shouldn’t have let my parents feel overly uncomfortable about Princess Ariel’s childish provocation. I wanted to handle this breach of etiquette with dignity.
“If the invitation doesn’t come, what do you two plan to do?” I asked, adopting a tone of thoughtful consideration.
To which my mother replied neatly, without hesitation, “If there’s no invitation, how can we attend a party hosted by the royal family? We’ll just stay home.”
“It’s probably a relief that there are so many gatherings. Would the party be a disaster just because we’re not there? Well, some people might feel a bit empty, but it’s not our concern; it’s the royal family’s,” my father chimed in, also nonchalantly.
The influence of noble families who pay hefty taxes to the royal family was not something to be ignored simply by one’s status. Those days had long passed. My parents’ confidence stemmed from this fact.
The fact that the Marquis Uranos did not attend the banquet would likely be noticeable, and people would undoubtedly want to know why our family didn’t show up at the royal banquet.
My mother spoke calmly, “Well, there’s no need to feel upset about not receiving an invitation when the party hasn’t even started yet. It’s just being disappointed about not being able to go to a modest gathering. Hopefully, Princess Ariel won’t repeat the same ‘mistake’ next time.”
As expected, my mother was composed. Look at that cool attitude of ‘if there’s no invitation, then just don’t go!’
Fortunately, it seemed there was no need to worry about my parents. After all, they had experienced all sorts of things in society. They were seasoned enough to brush off something like this without much concern.
I debated whether I should inform Ares about not receiving an invitation.
However, if I could attend the royal banquet with him as his partner anyway, there seemed to be no need to tell him about not receiving an invitation.
If I were to say to him, “Since I didn’t get an invitation, you must be my partner!” Ares would naturally ask me what happened, and then I would have to reveal the fact that we were engaged in a – seemingly absurd to men – rivalry between young ladies.
Men intervening in women’s fights could create unnecessary complications, and above all, my pride didn’t allow it. I was confident I could break the alliance between Princess Ariel and Leah Saturnos without his help.
However, my hope that Ares wouldn’t know about my situation didn’t last long.
＊ ＊ ＊
Despite not receiving an invitation to the royal banquet, one morning when I was in the midst of preparing for the event, the postal delivery person handed me a letter. It was from Ares.
I was lying in the bath, receiving a massage from Miranda, who was applying fragrant oils to my skin when I opened the letter.
“!”
After reading the contents, I sat up abruptly. Miranda muttered softly, but there was no time to reprimand her.
“What should I do, Miranda! Ares is coming to the viscount’s residence in a hurry!”
“What? No, this isn’t the right time for that!”
Oh my goodness, I was covered in slippery oils all over my body! Even if I rushed to wash it all off and get dressed, it would still take at least an hour!
Despite Miranda rubbing my skin somewhat roughly, I decided to forgive her this time. After quickly rinsing off the oils and drying my body, Miranda dashed off to the dressing room as if she were flying, and brought out the dress I was going to wear.
Meanwhile, I vigorously towel-dried my hair to get it as dry as possible.
At that moment, the butler knocked on my bedroom door.
“Miss Bianca, Prince Stanley has arrived.”
Oh no! Miranda and I didn’t scream, but we definitely panicked.
Since he said he had urgent business, it would be rude to keep him waiting with the excuse of getting dressed.
“What should we do, Miss? Your makeup…”
“We have no choice. Let it go. Is my hair dry enough?”
“…There aren’t any water droplets falling.”
Okay, so it’s completely dry.
I shouted towards the door where the butler was still waiting for a response.
“I can’t greet a guest in this state. I’m sorry, but please escort Ares this way!”
With a sigh, I instructed Miranda, who was looking flustered, “I’ll talk to Ares here, so bring some refreshments.”
“Got it.”
Miranda quickly left the room. I roughly combed my hair with my hands and hastily straightened my clothes.
Sigh, greeting Ares like this.
After a while, I heard a light knock. Since I knew I would only look ridiculous trying to elegantly style my damp hair without any makeup, I decided to just open the door without saying anything, with the attitude of ‘let it be as it is’.
“Ah…”
Ares froze in the same position he was in while knocking.
Ugh, I know! I know I look a mess! But still, I can’t make someone in a hurry wait, so I deliberately prepared myself for embarrassment and greeted him like this. But his reaction is too much!
“Come in, Ares.”
My face flushed hot in an instant. It felt similar to when I faced Ares after lifting my skirt in the valley. Come to think of it, he had already seen me in such a state before.
This makes it the second time, including this one. Sigh.
“…”
Despite my words, he remained frozen in place. So, swallowing my embarrassment, I tried to rouse Ares again.
“It’s a bit messy, isn’t it? But I thought it would be better than making you wait.”
Finally, Ares seemed to snap out of it, his face red as he managed to open his mouth.
“Oh, right. Thanks.”
He entered the room with stiff steps. Even after entering, he seemed lost, so I had to take his arm and lead him to the tea table.
Was my appearance really that shocking? I suppressed the urge to sigh deeply.
After Miranda brought the refreshments and left, I opened the teapot and added tea leaves. Despite the clink as I closed the teapot lid, Ares still seemed out of sorts, his face blank.
“Um, Ares? You mentioned urgent business. What’s going on?”
“Huh? Urgent business… Right. There was something like that…”
He muttered with a puzzled expression.
Could he have forgotten about the matter? No, wait, even before that, could anything he might forget about qualify as urgent business?
Now I was bewildered. But I couldn’t confront him directly, so I decided to wait silently for him to remember his business.
Ugh, if I had known, I would have at least put on some makeup before meeting him. I misjudged the situation.
Ares couldn’t meet my eyes properly, just opening and closing his lips, barely glancing at me. Finally, after taking a deep breath, he spoke.
“You… Haven’t received an invitation to the royal banquet yet, have you?”
“Ah…”
Well, it seems he found out after all. I had hoped he wouldn’t know until the end, but it seems rumors had reached Ares’s ears in the meantime.
I calmly acknowledged his words.
“That’s right. I don’t know the reason, but our family hasn’t received an invitation.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Ares asked, sounding slightly annoyed. I looked at him calmly and replied.
“Since attending the royal banquet as your partner wouldn’t be difficult, I didn’t feel the need to inform you.”
“What if I hadn’t agreed to be your partner?”
His retort left me speechless. I had never even considered the possibility of Ares not agreeing to be my partner!
“…You… You wouldn’t have agreed to be my partner?”
