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Chapter – 34
While spending those mirage-like moments with you, I foolishly thought:
That I, at least, knew a side of you that no one else ever would.
No.
I don’t know you.
Even though I could tell what you were thinking just by your eyes, I never truly knew “you.”
But at last, today—
After going through that trivial commotion, I felt, just a little,
as though I had caught a glimpse behind the veil—of who you really are.
It felt strange. So strange that…
“I’m scared.”
“Ashilly?”
Ludwig didn’t miss even that tiny whisper that slipped from between her lips.
Ashilly loosened her arms and looked up at him.
“Ludwig.”
“Yes.”
“You know I like you, right?”
At that disarmingly simple confession, Ludwig nodded without hesitation.
“I feel the same.”
“If it weren’t for you, who else could I have bared my soul to?”
As he looked into her eyes—no longer that clouded pale blue—a faint smile played on his lips.
“If I said I might have done the same with anyone I met in a dream?”
“I’d be angry.”
At her childishly sullen reply, Ludwig pressed a soft kiss to her forehead and murmured,
“If it weren’t for you, who else would have retraced my memories and breathed life into them for me?”
Ashilly let out a laugh at the tickling breath that brushed her forehead, and he smiled in exactly the same way.
Neither of them realized it, but—
They say people in love begin to resemble each other.
You become me, and I become you.
So it was that Ashilly and Ludwig met in a dream, and like a dream, melted into one another.
Just as their laughter was fading and she was about to speak—
“There you are… Oh? I didn’t know my brother was here too. Well, that makes things convenient.”
The Crown Prince barged in without hesitation—no, without a hint of tact—into a space that would have made anyone else too self-conscious to intrude.
As if he had sold off every last bit of awareness he possessed, he grinned broadly at Ludwig and spread his arms.
“You told me not to come near you, but since you’re here too, I suppose it’s fine.”
Ludwig, who had been staring at the prince with dry eyes, finally spoke.
“What is it you want?”
To anyone else, it was the kind of voice that would make them apologize first and wonder later what they’d done wrong—dry, cold, and stripped bare of all emotion.
But the Crown Prince was far from ordinary.
He waved his hand airily.
“Of course, I came to evaluate the garden.”
“That’s not something the Crown Prince should be doing.”
“His Majesty the Emperor granted me full authority.”
Ludwig didn’t need to hear the rest to understand the implication—that it was only natural for him to exercise that authority.
Ashilly made no attempt to hide the twist of distaste on her face.
For the ruler of an empire, the Emperor’s scheme was laughably shallow.
Of course, this had never really been about selecting a Grand Duchess; it was about finding a Crown Princess.
So naturally, it was the Crown Prince—not the Emperor—who would come to conduct the evaluation.
But anyone could tell that fool had no genuine interest in such things.
No doubt the Emperor had ordered the restoration of this Garden of Mist precisely to stir up even a shred of motivation in his son.
And to make matters worse, it had been entrusted to Ashilly—someone with as little chance of becoming Crown Princess as a dragonfly’s eye holds water.
For the sake of one prince, both Ludwig and Ashilly were being used shamelessly.
It wasn’t a grand strategy; it was plain manipulation.
They both knew it—Ludwig was being used, and Ashilly had been caught in the crossfire.
And yet, neither of them had truly minded.
At least, not until they saw the prince himself smiling smugly before them, spewing nonsense like this:
“Well then, since my evaluation is of utmost importance, I’ll take a close look at how you’ve transformed the garden. The previous ones were all terribly disappointing—gardens and the ladies who tended them.”
“Your Highness, that’s an appallingly vulgar thing to say.”
Everyone had thought it, but only Ashilly dared to say it aloud.
“Oh, that? Yes, it’s very direct, isn’t it? So direct anyone could tell I’m telling you to impress me—”
Predictably, the Crown Prince began to bring up his past misdeeds, but she had no intention of listening.
“I have no desire to impress you—none whatsoever.”
“Oh… but worms don’t come out in the sun.”
“You’re slow to understand. Do you want me to spell it out for you?”
“No, I get it—you mean you don’t want to impress me.”
Even if she was of the Bolsheik family, her words to the Crown Prince were shockingly disrespectful—but no one here would call her out.
After all, it was Ludwig himself who had told her to disregard the prince, and the prince was the last person who could lecture anyone about propriety—he was forever claiming etiquette was just a hollow facade.
The prince opened his mouth to retort, but a sudden gust of wind swept through.
The wind was so sharp it made him squint. When it passed, he stopped mid-word.
At some point, Ludwig had moved behind Ashilly and was wrapping his cloak—once draped over his shoulder—around her.
He brushed aside a strand of red hair stuck to her cheek and whispered,
“Are you all right?”
“Mm.”
She wanted to say she was fine, but she wasn’t.
She’d been glaring so hard at that damn prince that a speck of dust had blown into her eye.
Ludwig tilted her chin upward and bent closer.
Their noses almost brushed.
Their breaths mingled, but neither flinched nor blushed.
“Don’t force your eye open.”
“If I don’t, I can’t even cry the dust out.”
“Don’t rub it.”
“I know that. But it stings. I’ll just lift my lashes a little—”
“Don’t touch it.”
Their faces were so close, their voices so quiet, so natural—it was clear their concern was purely for the speck in her eye.
Neither Ludwig nor Ashilly seemed remotely aware how their closeness might look to a third party.
And that third party—the Crown Prince—was staring, frozen in place.
Even he couldn’t bring himself to interrupt.
A woman with damp eyes half closed, and a man leaning in, hand beneath her chin, their faces a breath apart—
Anyone would think…
The Crown Prince’s eyes wavered like a small boat tossed on a storm.
No. Right here? Right now? Really?
He’d known his brother cared for the Bolsheik lady, but he hadn’t realized how deeply.
But if that were the case—even if she wasn’t truly a Bolsheik, even if she was some pretender trying to use him—should he let it go?
No—if he really cared about his brother, he couldn’t possibly just let it—
“Your Highness.”
Ludwig’s voice cut through his spiraling thoughts like a blade.
The Crown Prince’s lips parted, but no sound came.
Ludwig looked at him with a face as dry as stone and said,
“You said you came to evaluate. Then do so.”
“R-right. Evaluate. I’ll… evaluate.”
He couldn’t bring himself to say together with you, not after what he’d just seen.
He was still reeling from the image burned into his mind.
If his brother were to say something like—
‘My beloved bird has built herself the perfect nest.’
No. Absolutely not.
The Crown Prince shuddered and swallowed hard.
“Yes. The garden. I should look at the garden.”
“You already passed through it on your way here.”
“I—ah—I was only looking at the ground, so I didn’t see.”
None of them could make sense of what he said, but neither Ludwig nor Ashilly asked.
When it came to the prince, it was best not to question nonsense.
They simply weren’t interested.
When both stayed silent, the prince gave a nervous laugh.
“I expected my brother not to ask, but you too, Lady?”
“Yes.”
Her reply was so short and devoid of feeling that the prince shut his mouth again.
He couldn’t even bring himself to joke, You really are just like my brother, though the thought crossed his mind.
For some reason, the idea of grouping the two of them together made him uneasy.
He shook his head sharply and shouted,
“Well then, let’s begin the evaluation!”
He marched forward, with Ludwig and Ashilly following a few steps behind.
Within seconds, the prince’s awestruck voice began echoing through the garden.
“Whoa.”
“Ha—this is—”
“My goodness.”
Though no one responded, he went on gasping and muttering as he scurried around the garden, bent almost double in his excitement.
Trailing behind, Ashilly felt irritation and anger surge higher and higher. She was this close to flipping him over and beating him senseless.
“The prince will leave soon,” Ludwig murmured softly. “Don’t let him—”
“No.”
Ashilly, face full of restrained fury, shook her head.
“Sure, having the prince here is infuriating, and having to be evaluated by him is even worse, but—”
“But?”
“More than that, I wanted to show this garden only to you…”
She didn’t finish her sentence.
“Lady Bolsheik!”
