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Chapter 15
“Ian?”
Before he could even speak, I said Ian’s name aloud.
“Yes. Ian, is it?”
“Yes. He’s probably nearby. Ah… please allow me to apologize in his place for the rudeness that day.”
I placed a hand over my chest and offered a proper bow.
“It’s fine. There’s no need for the young lady to apologize.”
“Thank you for understanding.”
“Then… did something happen in the North? I heard the invitations were sent to nobles in the capital.”
I hesitated for a moment, trying to come up with a reason. What excuse would sound good for a noble young lady traveling alone to the North?
“I enjoy traveling.”
“Alone?”
“Is that not allowed?”
“It’s dangerous…”
He trailed off.
“While I was there, you were the only one who came to see me.”
You were the biggest danger of all.
When I pointed it out so directly, his expression grew even sadder than before. I hadn’t intended to tease him, but it seemed I’d developed a strange habit.
I’d always lived believing I didn’t have any perverted tastes. Yet for some reason, Valeri Ahibara Kashinev’s about-to-cry expression pleased me. Realizing I was crossing a line, I decided to change the subject.
“So?”
“What?”
He didn’t seem to understand why I was asking.
I briefly glanced behind him, then turned my gaze back to him.
“The reason you followed me.”
“May I know your name now? I’m not sure how I should address you.”
“Ah…”
I thought the name Blake would naturally come out of my mouth. That had been the plan. But for some reason, my throat suddenly felt blocked.
The name Bella should have been erased from my mind by now, so I had no idea why it surfaced.
“Blake.”
“Blake?”
“Blake Ariandel.”
“Blake Ariandel…”
He repeated my name several times, as if engraving it into his memory.
Blake.
When he looked at me with a bright smile, calling my name in his smooth voice, a confusing emotion washed over me. I had no choice but to harden my expression.
“So now I know.”
He looked satisfied, as though he’d finally crossed a great mountain. Over just a name. And not even my real one—a fake name, belonging to someone whose face he didn’t even know.
“Please call me Valeri.”
He casually told me to call him by his name. Even ordinary nobles addressed him by his title and surname, yet he wanted me to call him by his given name, as if it were nothing.
“I’m not bold enough to call the Crown Prince by his name. I’ll just call you ‘Your Highness.’”
“It’s fine for you. You’re my benefactor, after all.”
He didn’t seem to consider the weight or consequences of his own words.
“I don’t want to become the target of all the other young ladies’ arrows.”
“I can block them for you.”
He spoke as though that solved everything.
I felt frustrated.
That’s the biggest problem… Those aren’t arrows you can block with your body.
“Your Highness and I are practically strangers. I only learned your name just now. I don’t want to get myself into trouble.”
“I’ll take responsibility.”
“How?”
Valeri Ahibara Kashinev asked me to be his partner—he wanted me to dance with him later at the banquet.
Normally, nobles—including royalty—secured their partners well before a banquet even began. The more popular they were, the sooner they were taken. Royals were almost always claimed first. Yet he was asking me in the middle of the banquet.
“What about your original partner?”
“I didn’t have one.”
His answer didn’t take even a second. It was firm, concise, and decisive.
“You know there are plenty of unmarried young ladies here.”
Hadn’t Lady Chartres’s cousin been eyeing him earlier? He must have received as many requests as there were young ladies present.
“There is none. I rejected all the requests from the start.”
He drove the point home.
“I see… but.”
“Yes, my lady?”
He seemed to be under a serious misunderstanding.
“I never said I didn’t have a partner.”
As soon as I finished speaking, confusion flooded his eyes.
“May I ask who your partner is?”
“And if you do…?”
What—were you going to threaten him?
“No.”
Valeri closed his mouth tightly, as if swallowing the words he’d been about to say. With his lips pressed into a straight line, his presence grew heavier.
“Then please dance with me after your first partner. I’ll wait.”
He didn’t seem willing to change his mind. In truth, my partner was Ian—assuming I succeeded in approaching him. But Valeri was being so rigid that I decided to step back a little.
“Sigh… Does it even make sense for a Crown Prince to be someone’s second choice? Really…”
Even when I looked at him, he acted as though nothing was wrong. It felt like he was trying to put me not in the line of fire, but straight onto a grill. Or maybe his persistence was even stronger than I’d expected.
Rubbing my forehead in distress, I spoke.
“I can dance with Your Highness first.”
“Are you sure?”
His face instantly brightened. He looked like he might start wagging his tail at any moment.
I almost laughed, so I simply nodded instead of answering.
Valeri’s expression grew even brighter, as though he’d just been handed all the happiness in the world.
No, was it really that great? I stared at him in disbelief.
“Then I won’t need to wait.”
“Yes… I suppose I have no choice if Your Highness is so steadfast.”
No matter what I said or how I looked, the only thing that mattered to him was that I’d become his partner. His smile never faded.
As we talked, more time passed on the terrace.
I told him I’d see him on the dance floor and left the terrace. He’d seemed like he wouldn’t let me go, but perhaps because he’d achieved his goal, he let me leave without protest. I reentered the ballroom with Ian.
The moment I stepped inside, Julie waved at me from a short distance away.
I walked over to her.
“Did you go get some fresh air?”
“Yes. Thanks to that, I feel calmer now. I don’t think I’ll cause any trouble.”
“Blake, you’re really funny.”
Julie Chartres covered her mouth and laughed lightly at my words. Despite her cool-looking face, she could laugh loudly and had a cheerful side.
“While you were gone, we were talking about something…”
She spoke first, perhaps worried I might be concerned about what had been discussed in my absence.
She didn’t need to.
“What were you talking about?”
“We made a bet about who the Crown Princes would dance with today.”
“A bet?”
“Yes. Apparently, neither of them accepted any requests. So all the young ladies whose families put in requests are practically burning with anticipation.”
Her words made me feel gloomy.
So that’s how it is…
“They’ll dance with whoever suits them best.”
“Or with the most beautiful woman.”
“Then you should be nervous, Lady Chartres.”
Julie burst out laughing, completely at odds with her elegant appearance.
“Sadly, I already have a partner. I’m engaged.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
I did know. It was written clearly on the information sheet—but I pretended otherwise.
“So take a guess.”
“At what?”
“At who I bet on.”
Unfortunately, I didn’t possess any mind-reading ability that could decipher the thoughts of a woman I’d known for barely a few hours. I did, however, have the ability to pretend not to know information I’d memorized to death.
“I don’t know.”
Then her fan pointed directly at me.
“Why…?”
“Didn’t you notice? The Crown Prince’s been looking only at you the whole time.”
“He could’ve been looking at someone else.”
Julie shook her finger side to side.
“I put 100 rafs on you. I’m sure I’m right.”
One hundred rafs.
Lady Chartres must be insane. Or her intuition was terrifyingly accurate.
One hundred rafs was more than enough to cover the cost of every dress I’d recently ordered from the boutique. They said she was incredibly wealthy—and even the scale of her gambling proved it.
She spoke confidently.
“I’ve never lost a bet. Maybe I’m not actually from a family of swordsmen after all? And there’s one more thing I think I know.”
“What is it?”
“I think I like you, my lady. I feel like we’d make good friends. What do you think?”
Julie was right. And yet, I didn’t answer her last question.
Good friends.
That was a word that could never exist in my life.
Before I knew it, the music changed, and partners began gathering together. As if he’d been waiting for this moment, Valeri approached me.
