Chapter 11

“Ailey.”

She had thought so.

But the moment she stepped out of the estate and saw Kalan standing before the carriage waiting for her, a sigh escaped again.

Even so, unlike before, she did not feel like grabbing him by the collar or getting angry the moment she saw him.

‘Maybe.’

Maybe she too had felt relieved after, if only in a dream, sharing herself with another man.

With no particular stir of feeling, Ailey walked up to Kalan.

Kalan unconsciously spread his arms a little.

He looked certain that, as she always did, she would run to him, throw herself into his arms, complain about why he had acted that way before, and grab him by the collar.

‘Still, it seems he does feel like hugging me today?’

But Ailey only thought that with cool irony.

She merely walked up to him with calm, quiet eyes and faced him.

“Hello, Kalan.”

“……Hello, Ailey.”

Kalan lowered his arms awkwardly and returned the greeting.

Watching him, Ailey tilted her head slightly.

The way he had taken a posture as if to embrace her, and the fact that he said nothing on seeing her.

‘So he does not care much about being called a wh*re after all?’

Even so, if the rumor had spread enough for her grandmother to know, she had expected him at least to say one word about it for the sake of his own pride and dignity.

‘Well, it was the truth as it was.’

Even if he was insulted like that, what could he possibly say?

She had never meant to apologize in the first place, but with Kalan acting so unconcerned, she had even less reason to feel sorry.

While Ailey was thinking that, Kalan said something a little out of nowhere.

“These days…… you don’t hug me much.”

Ailey’s brows drew together slightly.

To think he would not even question being called a wh*re, yet would pick at this of all things.

“We are not children anymore.”

“……Right.”

Kalan, with an odd look in his eyes, then held out his hand for the escort.

Even while taking it and climbing into the carriage, Ailey felt very little.

No.

There was one thought, actually.

‘Where in the world had my imagination found the hands of that man?’

The only man’s hands she truly knew were Kalan’s.

Kalan’s hand in hers was slightly smaller than the imagined man’s, and softer too.

The imagined man had fingers a little longer and prettier, yet callused at the tips.

And when those fingers moved over her body and gave her pleasure, they had been impossibly gentle and delicate…….

Ahem!

Clearing her throat for no reason, Ailey sat in the seat opposite Kalan.

Kalan, who had been arranging himself as though naturally expecting her to sit beside him, visibly froze for a moment, but Ailey was too busy fanning her heating face with her hand to notice.

“……You look pretty today.”

“Yes.”

“……You did hear me just now, didn’t you, Ailey?”

“Yes. I heard.”

Even Kalan’s words, said for once as though trying to soothe her mood, did not truly register.

That was because the imagined hand had just brushed between her legs again, as it had in the dream.

“…….”

Heat naturally rose in her groin.

To be thinking such things in broad daylight, inside a carriage with her fiancé sitting opposite her.

‘Pull yourself together, Ailey.’

Ailey barely succeeded in banishing the imagined hand before her underclothes could grow damp.

Still fanning herself, she answered listlessly.

“You look handsome today too.”

“Without even looking at me?”

“Yes. You have always been handsome, so I’m sure you are handsome today too.”

“…….”

“You’ve never not been handsome. And you’ve never once gone about unadorned either.”

Because you’re always busy charming the young ladies who came near you.

Ailey restrained the mocking words before they could leap out, and simply turned to look out the window.

She did not notice that Kalan’s face had flushed slightly.

***

“Young Master Ledaire and Baron Temish’s daughter are arriving!”

The moment she was announced and stepped into the Imperial Inner Palace, it was not as bad as Ailey had expected.

‘I had been sure all eyes would turn to us.’

After the commotion she had caused at the previous ball before storming out, she had expected people to throw sharp looks and whisper among themselves.

But if it could be called fortunate, then fortunate it was.

The topic occupying the groups of people gathered in twos and threes and whispering inside the Inner Palace had already been claimed by someone else.

“So will the Third Prince show himself today?”

“Who knows. He did not appear at the last ball either, did he?”

“You never know. My father said he saw servants busily coming and going around the Third Prince’s palace today.”

“Your father works in the Imperial Palace as an official, does he not?”

“Then is it something worth looking forward to?”

The Third Prince.

Born with such high holy power that it was said to appear only once in a hundred years, a sacred figure who had drawn the attention even of the Pope of the Holy Kingdom.

For the Emperor and Empress, who had intended to make the eldest inherit the throne and send the second into the military to strengthen the state, the third being born with holy power had been another blessing.

If the third prince became an official priest of the Holy Kingdom and gained influence in the temple, then he would surely be of great help to the eldest, who would one day ascend as Emperor.

Thus, it was said that the Third Prince had undergone harsh training from childhood to become a priest, and after he came of age he had been sent to the Holy Kingdom.

And there, after years of the highest level of training, he was finally on the verge of formal ordination as a priest.

Whether they meant to deepen exchanges with the Holy Kingdom further through this, the Emperor and Empress were commemorating the Third Prince’s ordination not only with the recent ball, but also with this auction and the parade to come later.

The capital of the Empire was in an uproar with Holy Knights, saints, and priests from the Holy Kingdom.

“He will surely become a cardinal right away, won’t he?”

“Of course. How could someone like him begin as an ordinary priest?”

“You never know. If he is truly so devout and holy, he might choose to begin from the very bottom.”

People were busy praising the Third Prince, whose face none of them even knew.

Of course, there were a few who expressed disappointment as well.

“It is a little unfortunate too. If he becomes a priest, he will not be able to marry…….”

“One seat for a match with the Imperial Family disappears, then.”

It was mostly young ladies from houses that had hoped to tie themselves to the Imperial Family.

For Ailey, whose engagement had been fixed since childhood and who had spent all that time yearning only to be united with that fiancé, it was entirely someone else’s story.

‘Though now I’m not so sure.’

Of course, she would still marry Kalan as things stood.

Yet she no longer felt the same fluttering, ticklish excitement as before.

She only thought, so it will happen because it is something bound to happen.

Nothing more than a calm impression.

Meanwhile, for some reason, Kalan hovered at Ailey’s side instead of going off to charm other young ladies.

“Do you need anything, Ailey?”

“Not at all.”

“Would you like more sparkling water?”

“I’m fine.”

It remained the same even when she answered coolly.

‘Why is he acting like this today.’

Usually, even if they entered an event together, was he not busy leaving her aside and laughing with other young ladies?

Part of her wondered if being cursed at on the night of the ball had really shocked him that much, yet the way Kalan was doing things he never normally did made her strangely uncomfortable.

‘What is he plotting this time.’

Before, she would have been moved to tears by such a small kindness.

Now, all it did was make her uneasy, wondering what kind of scandal he was trying to create this time by treating her so well.

‘More than anything, what I hated was…….’

The fact that there was still a small Ailey left somewhere in one corner of her heart, one who wanted to accept Kalan’s attention thoughtlessly and simply be happy.