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Chapter 9
I couldn’t tell how Reddick had slipped past the guards, so I scanned the area. Giselle looked shocked too.
She hurriedly searched for the butler, but he was nowhere to be seen.
People who felt threatened backed away from the center toward the walls, and Reddick Vangeer charged into the empty space.
“How dare a lowborn like you… to—”
He eyed everyone with blazing looks. There was a will in him to find me no matter what. It felt like things wouldn’t end until he found me.
I, who had been standing at the very back, took a step forward.
“Don’t go out.”
Kiril, who had somehow come close without my noticing, grabbed my wrist.
Not long ago he had been diagonally across from me; I had no idea how he’d come all the way here so fast.
“Let go.”
“Can’t.”
Kiril’s expression, usually indifferent to me, looked strange. It felt like the expression I had always wanted from him, and it made my heart waver.
But that couldn’t be. Maybe the continual fluttering of my heart was also just part of my role.
“Go help Giselle.”
Even at my words he wouldn’t release me. Meanwhile, Reddick Vangeer’s commotion kept getting louder.
“Let go—!”
I twisted my wrist to pull free, but he held firm. Kiril’s face looked as if whatever inexplicable action was happening here wasn’t his doing but mine.
“What on earth is going on here?”
A languid, low voice made both Kiril and I turn our gazes back to the center.
There, with light-blond hair slicked back and an icy expression, Crown Prince Pavel looked down at Reddick Vangeer.
Every party had to invite the nominal crown prince. If he didn’t come it was regrettable; if he did, it was an honor.
Crown Prince Pavel wasn’t the type to enjoy parties. If he wanted to attend a party, he would hold it himself. The only party he ever attended was the one held in Erdona.
‘Maybe because Giselle is the hostess,’ I thought.
He favored Giselle. I didn’t know why.
His three-hundred-eyed gaze lowered like someone looking at an insect.
“…I asked what’s going on. Why is no one answering?”
At his words, Giselle hurried through the crowd and approached. Unlike when it was just the two of them, she bowed with proper manners.
“There was a small disturbance, Your Highness. It is an honor that you would come.”
“Is it about the Red Erdona incident?”
Despite Giselle’s attempt, Pavel turned his words back toward Reddick Vangeer. The cold atmosphere deepened.
With what had already come out of his mouth, hiding was pointless. Even Kiril couldn’t keep holding me now; he must have known that.
Pushing through people, I stepped into view, and the drunk Reddick Vangeer staggered toward me.
“Looks like there’s a beast here who doesn’t understand human speech.”
His face sought agreement as if to say I wasn’t wrong, and though his expression was almost pleasant, the atmosphere stiffened even further.
It was a very simple motion. Pavel stepped and Reddick Vangeer slammed flat to the floor with a loud sound. Even drunk, he made a painful groan as if feeling the pain.
People’s mood became chaotic. What could be more entertaining than this?
My eyes met Giselle’s. She signaled for me to handle the situation somehow. She placed her hand on Pavel’s wrist once more.
“…Your Highness?”
“You must have a hard time. Even a scum like this dares to act like a noble and seek a marriage arrangement.”
“…I will take care of this matter.”
The drunk Reddick tried to get up but slipped several times in a ridiculous display.
That’s when I moved. I lifted Reddick’s arm. Supporting the soggy, limp Reddick Vangeer wasn’t easy.
He was so drunk he didn’t even notice that the person he was clutching for support was the one he’d been seeking.
“…Hey, let go!”
If people hadn’t been around I would have slapped him.
More than embarrassment, I felt anger. I cursed under my breath and tightened the arm I was holding, and suddenly Reddick Vangeer’s body lifted.
It wasn’t that my strength had suddenly increased. I glanced to the other side of Reddick and saw Pavel approaching, draping the other arm across his shoulder.
“Walk.”
When I looked at Giselle, she already looked stunned. What was needed most right then was to get out of there as quickly as possible.
As we started walking, people parted left and right. We pushed through the gap and went outside while Giselle hurriedly tried to smooth things over behind us.
The music began again.
We walked to where Erdona’s carriage awaited, and Pavel tossed him in. The force was strong enough to make my body sway.
“Send him away.”
On Pavel’s command, Erdona’s coachman looked at me. I gave a nod and the out-of-his-mind Reddick Vangeer struggled against the coachman’s hand and made a scene again.
But Pavel handled even that. Using that brutal strength again, he shoved Reddick into the carriage and kindly shut the door for him.
“Thank you, Your Highness.”
“If you had properly taken responsibility, this would never have happened.”
“…I’m sorry.”
I should have apologized sooner; that was my fault. Whenever I stood before this man, things always felt off from my intentions.
“I will apologize separately to Giselle.”
“Why tell me that?”
Again. He didn’t let a single line of speech pass without comment. Maybe I felt that way because I was too afraid of him.
“That is—”
Because you like Giselle.
But it felt awkward to say his actions stemmed simply from the fluffy emotion of liking someone.
For one, I wasn’t in a position to exchange such words with him. Our relationship was worse than strangers.
“Is it the rule in Erdona to not answer my questions?”
“…No. I only meant to say I would finish handling it properly.”
At his offhand remark I fluttered and made excuses.
When I looked up, his face somehow looked dissatisfied.
“How strange.”
“Yes?”
“You are strange.”
What did that mean now?
This time, I didn’t rush to speak and stayed silent. Pavel tilted his head while we remained quiet.
“I didn’t do anything to you and yet you fear me.”
“…That’s not—”
“Don’t think to deny it. It all shows on your face.”
“……”
I felt trapped. Like a small prey caught in a cage with bars on every side, unable to move.
I swallowed. I had no idea what to say to get out of this predicament.
“You’ve gone quiet again. Should I praise you for being obedient?”
“…No.”
“That’s all the words you can say, huh.”
I didn’t mind him insulting me. It wasn’t pleasant, but it was better than being entangled with him.
“Giselle must be waiting, Your Highness.”
“That’s my business.”
“……”
He stood there without seeming to intend to part from me.
“I will come to Erdona tomorrow at noon.”
“…I will tell her.”
“Are you doing that on purpose?”
This time Pavel didn’t wait for me to answer.
“You are to wait.”
“……”
“Tell Giselle I left early.”
Leaving those words, Pavel moved away in an instant. When I gathered my wits, I found myself standing alone in a dim corridor.
I replayed his words in my head in a flurry, and a cold chill brushed the nape of my neck. There had been no chance to answer. I should never have come out.
In the end I couldn’t sleep and when I got up it was already dawn. I pushed back the bed curtain with a haggard face from staying up all night.
It felt like too many things had swirled around overnight. Kiril who grabbed me, and Pavel who showed interest — impossible things. They shouldn’t happen.
I buried my face in the pillow.
There was one reason I was afraid of Crown Prince Pavel. In the original story I knew, I had been killed one day by an assassin who burst in.
The problem was that my death in the original was dealt with very briefly, so it wasn’t clear which of Giselle’s male leads had paid for my death.
So it could have been Kiril who killed me, or it could have been Pavel.
Between the two, each had enough hatred for me that they would claim they were the one who did it.
In the original, Kiril once said to Giselle:
“‘If I had killed him, would you let me stay by your side tonight?’”
That was quite the declaration of love. There had never been room for me to intervene.
Even if that event hadn’t yet occurred in the book I was in, the scar it left on me didn’t disappear.
Still, Pavel was the more likely candidate. It wasn’t just because I had a crush on Kiril and wanted to exclude him.
Pavel had openly threatened me once my behavior toward Giselle became harsher over time.
Kiril, who spent childhood time with me and had memories, disliked me but didn’t go so far as to make that direct a threat.
But Pavel treated me like a bug. He regarded me as something eating away at Giselle. So the probability that he was involved in my death was higher.
Should I have kept my distance more? But it was already irreversible. I sighed deeply.
In my head appeared the image of the house I had prepared in Trillin. At this rate, I might not be able to go there until a season had passed.
My anxiety kept growing.
