Chapter 45

“······What are you doing? With someone who is supposedly my fiancé.”

“···.”

“And with another woman, no less.”

The face Rebecca made as she said this.

Was the most terrifying face in the world.

Even the ghost stories that made me shiver in fear as a child wouldn’t be as scary as Rebecca’s expression right now.

Her clear, transparent eyes had lost their vitality, resembling the eyes of the dead.

Her cheeks, which usually had a faint blush, were now pale as if she had just woken up and hadn’t fixed her makeup.

Rebecca wasn’t the type to have a warm impression to begin with.

To someone seeing her for the first time, she had a cold, unapproachable aura.

But with all these factors combined with the expression she was making now.

It was like a scene straight out of a horror movie.

And then there was my hand, caught in the grip of the princess.

If it were any other time, I might have blushed at such rare skin contact between us.

But why did the hand holding mine now feel so cold instead of warm?

After a moment of observing the princess’s state, I cautiously spoke up.

“······Weren’t you supposed to be asleep…”

“So, just because I was asleep for a moment, you thought it was okay to flirt with another lady?”

“···.”

And I didn’t even get my point across.

It seemed Rebecca had misunderstood, thinking I was secretly having a good time with Isabella behind her back.

“······I’m sorry to say this, but… what did you just say?”

“······Huh?”

That misunderstanding, as the Crown Prince had said, was one she would never have made if she knew the truth.

*

Isabella continued, sounding wronged.

“Are you seriously thinking I was flirting with this lunatic… I mean, Prince Zernias?”

“······No?”

“Of course not!”

Isabella shouted at Rebecca, who was making such an absurd assumption.

Her indignant cry was so loud that I almost thought I heard a ringing in my ears.

Rebecca wore the most flustered expression I’d seen from her recently.

“······Then why were you two alone…”

“That’s what I’m saying! If I knew you were this crazy, I wouldn’t have even come to apologize!”

“···.”

Isabella’s endless sentences continued, completely ignoring me, the person right in front of her.

The truth Rebecca didn’t know was this.

– We meet again, Prince Albert Zernias.

It was true that Isabella Bluebell had come back to see me after being rejected.

– I came back to apologize for my rude behavior earlier.

– ······An apology, you say?

– Yes, no matter how I thought about it, I realized I was too rude to you, Prince.

The reason she came back wasn’t for any inappropriate reason, as Rebecca had imagined, but to apologize.

– Let me say it formally. Isabella Bluebell of the Bluebell Dukedom sincerely apologizes to Prince Albert Zernias of the Zernias Count family.

A genuine apology, free of any ulterior motives.

Isabella had come back just to do that.

– You don’t have to.

– ······Huh?

– I mean, there’s no need for you to apologize.

Though I, the one who should have accepted her apology, didn’t do so properly.

There was a reason I didn’t accept her apology.

– I didn’t particularly care about you, so why do you feel the need to apologize to me?

– ···.

An apology is only meaningful if the person receiving it is willing to accept it.

The reason I had been troubled was because Isabella’s actions were different from the original story, not because of her rudeness.

– What did you say?!

Of course, upon hearing my dismissive words, Lady Bluebell flew into a rage.

And that situation had led us to where we were now.

After hearing the whole truth, Rebecca.

“···.”

Covered her face with her hands, her face completely red.

It seemed she was extremely embarrassed to realize her assumptions had been a misunderstanding.

“Anyway! Even though this is my first time meeting Princess Valencia today, I think you should break off your engagement with this lunatic!”

“······Aren’t you going to leave?”

“I was just about to leave!”

“···.”

“Oh, by the way, I heard there’s going to be a fireworks display in the garden tonight to mark the end of the banquet. I hope you’ll come and see it, Princess Valencia!”

Except for you!

With those final words, Isabella turned and headed back to where her family was.

I concluded that Isabella Bluebell was truly a chaotic person.

“Princess.”

I looked at Rebecca, who was still covering her face with her hands.

“···.”

At the sound of my voice calling her, Rebecca flinched slightly.

But she still didn’t lower her hands, a clear sign of how embarrassed she was.

“Princess.”

But I wasn’t the type to give up.

When would I ever get to experience a situation like this again?

Seeing me with another woman, thinking I was cheating, only to realize it was all a misunderstanding.

This was a once-in-a-lifetime event.

“Princess.”

“······Why do you keep… calling me…”

At the third call, Rebecca finally opened her tightly shut mouth, unable to ignore me any longer.

“Were you jealous?”

“···.”

I delivered a counter punch.

As they say, an attack is most effective when the opponent is off guard.

And Rebecca, too embarrassed to even lift her head, was the perfect target.

“The great Princess Rebecca Valencia, jealous? There’s no word more mismatched with you.”

“······I wasn’t.”

“Huh?”

“I wasn’t… jealous…”

It seemed admitting to jealousy was worse than death for her.

Her red face clearly betrayed her words, but Rebecca stubbornly refused to admit she was jealous.

“Are you saying what you just said wasn’t jealousy?”

“···.”

“‘What are you doing? With someone who is supposedly my fiancé. With another woman, no less.’ That sounds like jealousy to me. I wonder who said that, because this fool here doesn’t remember.”

“······Stop it…”

Of course, Rebecca quickly surrendered when I brought up her earlier words.

Seeing her like this, I realized just how much her composure had crumbled.

“Princess.”

“······What… is it…”

I called her again, softly.

“Do you remember what happened in the lounge earlier?”

“······Yes.”

“That’s good. I was worried you might have forgotten because of the alcohol.”

“······What are you trying to say?”

Sensing that I was up to something, Rebecca asked with a voice full of unease.

“I told you before, didn’t I? That my fiancée has a bad habit of worrying over nothing.”

I wasn’t the kind of fiancé to give Rebecca time to prepare for my words.

“My fiancée is the most beautiful in the empire, and smarter than anyone else.”

“···.”

“But she has this bad habit of worrying over things that will never happen.”

Unease, and jealousy.

Was there any word less fitting for me and Rebecca?

Every time we met, we’d fight over the most childish things, like who got to flick the other’s forehead or who got to make a wish.

Our relationship had been maintained more by a sense of competition and rivalry than by any romantic feelings.

But, as the old saying goes, “Fight long enough, and you’ll grow fond of each other.”

I had loved my fiancée for a long time, but recently, I could feel the way she looked at me changing.

The desire to compete with her had turned into a desire to monopolize her for life.

The urge to win against her had turned into an inexplicable feeling of affection.

Though Rebecca, with her strong pride, seemed unable to admit she liked me.

But emotions and gazes are often felt more by the receiver than the giver.

And so.

“Let me say it again. I am only your fiancé, so there’s no need for unnecessary worries.”

“···.”

I knew that my fiancée, with the strongest pride in the empire.

“My beloved fiancée.”

“······What now.”

Would one day tell me she loved me with her own words.

“Would you like to go with me, your fiancé whom you think is so wonderful, to see the finale of the imperial banquet?”

“······Just this once.”

And wrap her arms around me warmly.

“I am always grateful for the boundless grace of my beloved fiancée.”

“You really can’t say anything nice…”

······And one day, the hand holding mine would feel as warm as it does now.

“In every way, I am inferior to you, Princess, so shouldn’t I at least win in our arguments?”

“···.”

I would never lose.

Even if it took a long time.

That day, the final day of the imperial banquet, which was a major event in the original story.

I can’t say it passed without incident.

But at least, the fireworks I watched with Rebecca.

Were more beautiful than any scenery I had ever seen.

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