30. Daphne, Uninvited

Wedding invitations arrived from the royal family. One for Marquis Beaucater, the other for Amber Green. The white cards, embroidered with abstract forms of a lion and a mermaid in pure gold leaf, exuded a sandalwood scent.

“Mariel, isn’t there one for me?”

But here too, another problem arose. There was no invitation for Daphne!

“Only two cards came to the main house, Miss.”

“Why?”

Daphne asked, her eyes wide. Naturally, butler Mariel, who had no way of knowing the reason, was visibly flustered.

“Could it have been omitted?”

“Miss, I’m sorry, but… I don’t know either.”

Daphne moved her head and gaze following Amber’s hand. More precisely, the two invitations that had just been snatched away.

The pearl pin threaded through Daphne’s hair reflected light differently as she tilted her head.

“Tsk.”

“Mom!”

Amber glared at the thick invitation with a look of disgust, then promptly tore it up and threw it into the ashtray.

Immediately, the heavy cigar scent erased the sandalwood fragrance. The fire burning the invitation flared up high before dying down.

“Daphne, don’t go. Why bother going to such a useless event?”

“No way, Mom. Do you know how much time I’ve invested in this royal wedding?”

“That’s why. Why did you waste your time? It’s not even your wedding.”

Amber clenched her fist.

“Right, it should have been your wedding.”

Daphne decided to let it go in one ear and out the other. She just looked regretfully at the invitations that had already turned to ash. Even if she had taken both cards, she wouldn’t have been allowed entry unless it was for herself.

No, wait, but who was Daphne? The king’s niece and Romeo Rodriguez’s cousin, not to mention the Crown Prince’s bride’s best…

‘On the surface, we were mortal enemies. Right.’

Daphne put her fist to her chin and fell into thought. Had her name been missing from the list she checked the other day? She hadn’t checked that part thoroughly, assuming her participation was a given.

“Daph.”

“Yes?”

“Your attire is frivolous.”

Daphne was wearing a string chiffon two-piece that exposed her shoulders. She looked like she was in a different season from Amber, who was wearing a green dress that covered up to her forearms.

“Ah, isn’t it pretty? It’s hot, you know.”

It was literally true. After the short rainy season ended in Secradion, a hot summer had begun, and clothes that covered everything were just too hot.

“It makes you, my precious one, look cheap.”

Daphne, letting her mother’s nagging go in one ear and out the other, took a sip of her Earl Grey tea.

If she went out dressed like this, the royal girls would make it a capital trend, and then Amber wouldn’t be able to say anything else.

“Mom, can you give me some money?”

Just a little money? She never thought Daphne, who had been living without wanting for anything, without worrying about money, would now be asking her mother for such a favor.

“Stay home.”

“Let me buy clothes for the wedding.”

“I told you not to go.”

“Mom, I saw the list. Even some members of the Agentar imperial family are coming.”

Daphne wasn’t one to lie.

About three or four distant imperial family members were coming due to their friendship with Romeo, and she had spent months sweating over customizing the room interiors to their tastes.

“The Lacteia sun is as beautiful as the Milky Way~ Meeting on a romantic passenger ship is truly fateful~ Wouldn’t silver hair look like golden hair under the moonlight~”

Daphne made a flower cup with her hands, rested her chin on it, and put on the expression of a girl about to fall in love. Amber’s golden eyes began to waver visibly.

“Dancing with anyone on the night sea deck would be perfect for falling in love. Plus, I heard if you catch the bouquet at a wedding, you’re cursed to get married within three months~”

Daphne paused for a moment. This superstition was a memory from her previous life. It was a story she had never heard in this world, but fortunately, Amber didn’t ask about its origin.

“Should I really not go?”

Daphne kept pushing her hair behind her ear, acting cute. Her daughter’s cute act had a clear goal, but as one listened, it seemed quite reasonable.

Although Amber had threatened her not to go, the invited guests were either royalty, nobility, or wealthy. It was unthinkable that not a single person with Green blood, who had been a great royal in-law family for generations, would attend.

Moreover, currently, that annoying traitor had disappeared, and Daphne wasn’t acting childishly for no reason. She had handled her affairs maturely, and in fact, things had never gone wrong when she followed her daughter’s words.

Amber put down her cigar and picked up the bell. The glass bell rang clearly through the garden.

“Just this once.”

“Yes!”

Still, using the mom card was always fun.

* * *

“This is crazy.”

“Please show your invitation.”

“Don’t you know who I am?”

Daphne’s agitated voice was drowned out by the booming sound of the ship’s horn.

“I, I’m telling you I’m Daphne Beaucater, okay? I’m the owner of the Saturn Memorial Hotel, Romeo Rodriguez’s cousin, and…”

It was already unbearably hot, and now the heat of embarrassment rushed to her face. And to stutter on top of that!

“Is that so.”

Few people in this life of Daphne’s had ever blocked her path. Daphne personally stood in line at six entrances, waiting her turn, and shouted “I’m Daphne, daughter of Beaucater and Green” about six times at the top of her lungs.

“There seem to be about twenty Miss Beaucaters behind you as well.”

“No, I’m telling you!”

“Please give me the invitation.”

But the soldiers, lacking any flexibility, dared to cut her off at the entrance.

As the soldier said, this port was crawling with young ladies with red hair and gold glitter eyeshadow.

It seemed the news that Daphne Beaucater’s invitation had been omitted had leaked. Everyone was claiming to be Daphne!

“For someone claiming to be the owner of Saturn Memorial, your appearance is quite casual.”

‘Did you just dare to criticize my outfit…?’

Daphne looked down at her clothes. The main banquet wasn’t starting until evening, and Daphne had planned to catch up on her unfinished rest as soon as she got in, so she dressed casually.

The flowy dress was a ‘masterpiece’ by a designer in whom Amber invested an enormous amount every year. To call this outfit ‘casual’?

“You know this dress is worth more than your internal organs, right?”

Daphne said in an exasperated voice. Then she tapped her chest a couple of times. The wounded area stung as if strength had entered her thorax.

“Ah.”

“Invitation.”

Daphne briefly frowned at the pain, but the soldier only lowered his voice.

“No. Do you really not know me? How can you not know me?”

“There are many expressions describing you as vicious, but you don’t seem that way.”

The conditions for boarding were, first, an invitation stamped with the royal seal. Then, comparing passport, photo, and list was the second step. Daphne didn’t even have the invitation, so she couldn’t proceed to the second step.

‘It was newspaper reporters who described me as vicious, what can I do about how my face looks!’

Daphne stomped down the iron stairs. Her face had almost become the same color as her hair.

“A calamity I brought upon myself, is it?”

Daphne laughed dryly, placing her gloved hand on her forehead. All those conditions were ones Daphne herself had put in place.

“Am I really going crazy? Sh… At least give me my clothes!”

The luggage she had sent as cargo just the other day, including clothes and accessories, would be safely locked in her cabin on that massive passenger ship. Thinking about that made her blood boil. Daphne clenched her fists and approached Narid, who was standing in the distance.

“Miss, why did you come back?”

Narid, who had come out to see her off, observed Daphne’s expression as she returned to his side, panting. Narid, pushing his wheat-colored hair behind his ear, looked like a wealthy young lady.

“Did something happen?”

“No, those bastards…!”

Daphne was about to explain the situation but closed her mouth. What was the point of creating worries for someone who’s about to go on vacation? Daphne shook her head and changed her words.

“They said I can go in a little later. You go ahead first.”

“Why? Even though you’re you, Miss?”

Narid looked puzzled.

“Yeah. The departure time is four hours later, right? I guess there’s an order. You should go now too. You’ll be late.”

“Then, Miss, you’ll be here for four hours…”

Daphne quickly pushed Narid’s back towards the car. Although the sharp Narid kept looking back, Daphne swiftly blended back into the crowd.

‘Is this Romeo’s doing? Is he trying to tease me?’

But her mature cousin wouldn’t tease Daphne with such trivial matters anymore. Daphne frowned, jostled by the crowd. There was a sound of wind-filled fireworks, and then papers fluttered down from the sky, dancing.

‘What is all this about.’

When things went wrong, Daphne blamed herself. Rather than blaming others, thinking ‘everything is my responsibility’ and then cutting off that thought was much better for her mental health.

But the humiliation she had endured for the past few weeks clearly had a reason.

“Celestian.”

Perhaps because she was clenching her molars, all of Daphne’s pronunciation was slurred.

It was that damned prince with eyes similar to that dazzling emerald color!

“You…”

Until a few days ago, she had spent time imagining the prince’s face crumbling miserably as he watched Psyche getting married in there. Phrases like ‘the ultimate fall of a fallen prince’ were among Daphne’s favorite sentences.

“Ah.”

Thinking of him made the trajectory where the bullet had grazed throb tremendously.

Everything was Celestian’s fault. The wound on her precious body, her enormous wealth being tied up in a trust, her mother pressuring her to marry, Psyche making a rotten face whenever she saw her instead of always smiling!

A prince who was of no help whatsoever in life.

After saving him, he not only ran away but also pushed her into such a predicament. Daphne had never seen a handsome man run away in any romance novel before.

Unless the woman was a criminal and the genre was a thriller!

‘But I’m not a criminal. I’m a romance maker who’s personally seeing through a wedding.’

Daphne began to mess up her hair that Narid had so carefully tied. The various decorations attached to her hair got tangled, causing her to tear up a bit.

“Teriosa. You…”

Bystanders who had been watching her behavior for a while added comments like ‘She must have gone crazy wanting to board the ship so badly.’ Daphne’s red hair blazed as if under a spotlight.

“I’ll really ki-“

A piece of paper fluttering in the wind slapped onto Daphne’s face.

“Oh, come on!”

As Daphne irritably peeled off the paper and was about to crumple and throw it away, she saw:

<Historic first voyage of Page-René, a golden opportunity to win a boarding pass! Unnamed hotel B1…>

“Gambling?”

Daphne looked at the wallet in her hand once. Her lips began to curl up slowly. It was clear that the goddess of fortune was still on her side.