Chapter 24

Karl had already arrived in the garden with Azur. He discovered Iana, half-reclined in a chair, looking utterly bored. The woman who never lost her dignity in public now looked as if she couldn’t be bothered with anything. Karl could hardly believe his eyes. Even after his repeated gifts and letters, she had stayed quiet. 

‘Had she really injured her head, as the rumors said?’

The woman who cherished even the old handkerchief he had given her showed no reaction to the gifts he had carefully prepared. He found it strange.

While he tilted his head in confusion, Azur, perhaps bored, squirmed out of his arms and ran off somewhere.

“Meow.”

As if responding to Azur’s call, Iana’s limp body moved. She looked around, searching for the source of the sound, but when she couldn’t find it, her expression turned into a frown.

Azur dashed into the wild rose thicket, busy as ever, darting around until it finally caught something and cried out as if telling Karl to hurry over. But Iana was quicker than Karl. Iana picked up Azur in her arms and placed the sparrow Azur had caught on her palm to examine it.

Her fine black hair fell over her pale face, half-covering it. Her half-open violet eyes were shaded by thick, dark eyelashes. Not long ago, those eyes had seemed so transparent that one could see right through her thoughts, but now they appeared distant, like an unfathomable abyss.

Karl began to think that perhaps Luca was right.

‘I think the young lady has finally come to her senses.’

Of course, Luca must have been joking. People don’t change overnight. It wasn’t impossible for a woman who had been crying and clinging to someone just days ago to suddenly become aloof and fall for another man, but Iana Marseille was not that kind of woman. If she were, Karl would never have weighed her on the same scale as Vivienne.

It might sound arrogant, but Karl sometimes thought that Iana Marseille losing interest in him would only be possible after a miracle like coming back from the dead. Yet, the current Iana certainly seemed different from before. Karl’s eyes narrowed once again.

“I have absolutely, not even a little, interest in you, Your Highness.”

To hear such words—Karl felt as if he’d been struck on the back of the head, stunned. Iana stroked Azur’s fur gently, looking at Karl’s face with delight. Azur purred contentedly under her touch.

At the sound, Karl seemed to come to his senses, composed his expression, and leaned back in his chair. Then he quietly murmured,

“What should I do now? I’m only just beginning to develop some interest in you, My Lady.”

* * *

“Hah!”

Her hand, grasping at empty air, trembled violently. It was still dawn, too early to call for anyone. Vivienne gasped for breath, her eyes wide open. Her usually clear blue eyes were bloodshot, and her forehead was slick with cold sweat.

“It’s just a nightmare.”

Her quiet mutter echoed in the empty air and returned to her own ears.

“So calm down. It’s just a nightmare. Not every dream is a prophecy. Even for me, that can’t be true. Right?”

Vivienne rubbed her arms and gazed out the window. Autumn had deepened, and the bare branches caught her eye. The wind must be blowing, for she occasionally heard the branches scraping against the window. A droplet fell onto the back of her hand. When she touched her face, she found it wet with tears. Vivienne frowned and wiped her tears away with the back of her hand.

Tears never helped with anything.

Vivienne had realized that before she was even seven years old. No matter how much she cried, her father never paid attention to her, and her mother loved her beautiful younger sister, Ines, more. No matter how much she cried, the next king would be her half-brother Leonardo, and she was just a princess in name only.

Tears changed nothing. They only made her seem more insignificant and bothersome.

The first day she dreamed was also the day she realized tears were useless. She had resigned herself to a future where she would grow up and, for the sake of the kingdom, be married off to some old noble or unimpressive royal from a neighboring country. On that day, like a miracle, she saw her own future.

‘Frederick Karl Gosling.’

A man with a beauty completely different from her half-brother Leonardo. Vivienne reflected on her past belief that no man could be more beautiful than Leonardo and quietly revised her opinion. Of course, she still thought Leonardo was the most beautiful, but if she had to say, Prince Karl of Valois’s beauty suited Vivienne’s tastes even better.

His golden hair, as if melted from light, and green eyes like summer were so beautiful that even in her dreams she was entranced.

If Leonardo’s beauty was like gentle moonlight, Karl Gosling was a man who shone like the blazing sun of midsummer. In her dream, he whispered ‘I love you’ to her, the foreign princess. He called her beautiful and offered her all kinds of splendid things. He would do anything she asked.

The young Vivienne eagerly awaited each nightfall. The dreams that came every night were her reward for enduring the dull days, her annoying little sister, and her irritating mother.

As she grew, the dreams became more vivid. Prince Karl’s seductive smile, the warmth of his hand brushing her arm, the occasional kisses, and the dazzling gifts.

In her dreams, Vivienne succeeded in seducing Karl and marrying him. When Karl became Emperor, he granted her every wish. Of course, it took a bit of trickery and lies, but to Vivienne, that was nothing.

Vivienne egged Karl on to erase the Toulouse Kingdom from the map. It felt so good. Her family, who treated her like trash! Even in her dreams, it was so exhilarating that Vivienne laughed out loud, watching the corpses of Leo and Ines lying in the ruined palace.

Vivienne had been dreaming the same dream until just the other day. Prince Karl was still kind. Even the sunlight that shone on her felt warmer than in Toulouse. But last night, the dream changed.

It couldn’t be a prophecy. It was probably just a meaningless dream. Otherwise, it made no sense. Vivienne shook her head. But then, the scenes from her dream came back even more vividly.

It always began the same way. Vivienne entered a splendid ballroom, and Prince Karl reached out his hand as if he had been waiting only for her. It was like a scene from one of Ines’s fairy tale books, which Vivienne had always mocked. In the dream, Vivienne took his hand without hesitation. The two of them danced in a garden filled with starlight and shared a kiss.

“Your Highness.”

That’s when an uninvited guest appeared. Even in her dream, Vivienne felt something was off and tilted her head. This had never happened before. When she turned, there stood a woman with black hair that melted into the night sky and violet eyes sparkling like stars.

‘Iana Marseille.’

She was always hovering around Karl and Vivienne. Karl’s subtle behavior often encouraged her. Sometimes he seemed to give her attention, sometimes he just left her alone. Occasionally, he looked quite annoyed, but Vivienne didn’t care either way. The dream was always on her side, so Karl’s attitude was as good as predetermined.

Karl might have been trying to provoke her jealousy. Vivienne responded to him without hesitation. Leaning her delicate body on him and saying a few words to stir his protective instincts was nothing.

But Iana had never appeared in a space with just the two of them. She hovered around Karl and Vivienne, but that was all. Vivienne’s disregard for Iana was partly due to Iana’s passive attitude.

She was as beautiful as any noble lady in the capital, but perhaps because she had grown up in a rural estate, Iana was rather naive. It was obvious to everyone that she had fallen for Prince Karl, yet she kept her distance, only watching from afar, never daring to approach. Maybe she hoped Karl would come to her first, but that was absurd. Why would Prince Karl bother to approach Iana Marseille first?

Beauty? Vivienne scoffed. Beauty was important, but most of the noble ladies in the capital were beautiful to some degree. Iana was certainly pretty, but so were all the other women.

In fact, because she had only recently come to the capital, Iana’s style was a bit rustic. Her dresses, which seemed to follow every latest trend without any distinctiveness, and her jewelry, studded with large gems, gave that impression. She spent a lot of money, but her adornments looked cheap. These days, when stories about poor noble ladies falling in love with high-ranking nobles thanks to clever styling are popular, such adornments were even more likely to be ridiculed.

Rumors about her being a witch or the unwanted child of a dukedom circulated, of course. Vivienne had started those rumors, but Iana’s awkward attitude helped them spread throughout society.