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Chapter 40
“I don’t know…”
After thinking for a moment, Lorena smiled beautifully.
“But if you stole it once, you could steal it again, right?”
“Yes. I’ll get it back… I will…”
“I understand, darling. Look at me.”
Lorena grabbed Felix’s cheek and slowly drew closer.
Soon, their lips met. Felix, as if snapping out of his daze, began to fervently lose himself in the kiss.
Smiling, Lorena recalled a memory from long ago.
sob, sob! Hoooh…!
Why are you crying so sadly?
Sniff, hooong. Wh-who are you? Are you… perhaps the Christmas Fairy?
Hmm, yes. Let’s go with that. So, why were you crying?
I hate my friend! It’s the same Christmas, but only she gets lots of presents. Lorena didn’t even cry. Lorena did lots of pretty things too! What does Lorena lack compared to her!
Wow. You’re something else? A child this young already has this much malice… Hmm, alright. Should this fairy give you a present?
Lorena couldn’t be sure if that memory was just a dream or a real one.
But one thing was certain.
Whenever she looked someone straight in the eye and poured her heart into seducing them, not a single person had ever refused her.
So probably, ‘that man’ would be no exception.
Cayen Kreuz.
As she recalled the man’s sculpturally handsome face and overwhelming presence, her heart pounded with greed.
Until now, the most impressive man in Lorena’s world had been Felix Loheim.
So she thought that if she became the Countess Loheim, she could live happily.
‘What should I do, Freesia? I think I’ve spotted a taller tree to climb.’
The moment she first met that man through Freesia, desire was born.
‘Freesia. If it was something you could have, there’s no reason I can’t have it too.’
After all, there had never been a single thing she couldn’t get.
A captivating smile rose to Lorena’s lips.
It was a smile filled with anticipation and excitement.
Inside the quiet Empress’s Palace.
The maids looked up at Erjea with envious eyes.
‘Her Majesty the Empress is dedicated to her reading again today.’
‘It’s so impressive how she never stops learning.’
However, what Erjea held in her hand was neither an ancient language text nor an academic book.
It was The Secret Society’s Informant ~What Happened in the Noble Lady’s Bedroom Last Night~.
What Erjea was reading with a deadly serious expression was the latest, freshly published gossip column.
[Last night, at the Royal Academy graduation ball, Duke Cayen Kreuz, who attended as Lady F’s partner…]
[The two danced together multiple times without changing partners once…]
[According to our informant, he watched Lady F all night with a ‘devouring’ gaze…]
“Hmm?”
Erjea’s eyes widened as she saw the picture of Lady F—Freesia—published in the gossip column.
The Freesia Violet she had met in person was nowhere to be seen; in her place was a beautifully radiant young lady photographed there.
Erjea smiled a knowing smile.
‘As expected.’
Her eye for people hadn’t been wrong after all.
She had suspected that beneath that bombed-out lion’s mane of hair and thick glasses hid a gem-like true face.
Erjea greatly praised her own discernment for sending a veteran like Headmistress Hestia.
Cayen and Freesia, dancing in the photo, looked perfectly matched, as if destined for each other.
Moreover.
‘…He’s smiling.’
Cayen in the photo was definitely smiling. It was so small and faint that probably only Erjea could tell.
But it was undoubtedly a relaxed-looking smile she was seeing for the first time.
Erjea couldn’t take her eyes off the photo for a while.
Back when Cayen was still a child living in the imperial palace.
The young Cayen used to come to her every day to pay his morning respects as an elder of the palace.
Even if it was just a formality, his little face, which never missed a ritual, was so adorable.
But with each passing encounter, the innocent child’s face gradually lost its color.
Its vitality disappeared, becoming expressionless.
Erjea found this deeply regrettable.
At the time, Cayen’s birth mother was still alive, so she couldn’t recklessly extend a helping hand. No matter what Erjea did, Cayen’s mother would react prickly, believing Erjea intended to harm Cayen.
And so, Cayen lost all expression.
However.
In the photo, that armor-like expressionlessness had lifted from Cayen’s face.
Looking at the photo, Erjea thought quietly.
‘Perhaps.’
Perhaps… perhaps Cayen had finally found someone who could become his haven…
Was it too hasty of her to think so?
“Your Majesty, the Crown Prince is here to see you,” a maid announced.
“Mother.”
At that moment, a fully grown young man walked in.
Shining platinum hair and a kindly handsome visage.
The maids hurriedly prepared refreshments at the Crown Prince’s appearance.
“What were you looking at so intently?” he asked.
“Hmm? Ah.”
Greeting her son with an elegant smile, Erjea replied.
“The Duke is unexpectedly heating up the gossip columns, it seems. It caught my interest, so I was taking a look.”
“Ah, I heard about that too. The news that Cay attended the Academy graduation ball?”
His voice was familiar as he called him ‘Cay’.
Erjea smiled faintly as she looked at the Crown Prince.
He was a son who had lived his whole life being compared to an overly outstanding half-brother.
At one point, opinions were even loudly voiced that the Crown Prince should be replaced by Cayen.
It was only because Cayen firmly renounced his right to the imperial succession and left the palace that the talk died down.
Even though he must have suffered living in his half-brother’s shadow, the Crown Prince always cherished Cayen like a true younger brother.
“So, it’s the first woman Cay has ever shown interest in.”
The Crown Prince smiled playfully.
“I’m curious, what kind of lady is she?”
“Actually, I had her summoned to get a feel for her, and, hmm, well.”
Erjea fanned herself haughtily as she spoke.
“She seemed like a decent, straightforward child. He has a good eye for people.”
“Is that so? Hearing you say that makes me even more curious.”
The Crown Prince’s eyes curved warmly.
“I should go and see her for myself sometime.”
The day I returned to the office after several days of working from home.
I somewhat awkwardly stroked my long hair.
The straight hair Headmistress Hestia had magically attached for me swayed like silk.
It was the malignant curly hair I had loathed my entire life, but now that it was gone, as if by a lie, I felt a slight sense of regret…
Just kidding! Long, silky straight hair is the best! I can run my hands through it roughly and nothing gets tangled!
Before entering the main entrance, I habitually reached for my eyes, only to realize my glasses weren’t there.
‘Ah! Right, Headmistress Hestia took them…!’
She said she’d burn them, erasing even their traces from this world.
‘It’s not like I needed them for my eyesight anyway, so it doesn’t matter.’
For me, the glasses were less for vision correction and more a kind of shield.
At first, I wore them happily because they were a gift from Lorena, but at some point, I started feeling too embarrassed to show my bare face.
But I couldn’t keep doing that forever.
Scratching my cheek awkwardly, I pushed the entrance door open vigorously.
And simultaneously, the people coming and going spotted me and stopped dead in their tracks.
“……”
“……”
Was this place… always this quiet?
The always noisy lobby was silent as a grave.
Countless eyes were fixed on me.
“Is that person the…”
“Gasp. That new secretary…? Is it really the same person?”
It wasn’t just the lobby.
The Red-Yellow-Blue-Green mages I met in the cafeteria saw me, made faces like they’d bitten their tongues, and bolted upright, running away.
Even in the restroom where I went to catch my breath…
“I heard the Academy graduation ball yesterday was insane. My cousin was there! Apparently, the Tower Master blocked the secretary with his arm and declared, ‘Freesia Violet is already my woman, whom I’ve tamed. If any other bastard covets her, I’ll kill them!’”
It wasn’t that extreme!
The distortion overnight is way too much!
“Oh my god! Seriously? Does that mean we’re going to be serving our mistress now?”
Wh-what are they talking about?
I nearly bit my own tongue in surprise.
