Chapter 10

At those words, a bright smile spread across Melissa’s face. Surely this was the signal calling for her. Just as Melissa gave a prim little smile and stepped forward, the Emperor continued speaking.

“Skyler and the precious jewel of Marquis Orhan are to be engaged.”

As he said that, he stretched out his hand and pointed to one side, and a handsome blond man and a little girl went pattering over toward the Emperor.

‘N-not me?’

Why? When someone as pretty as me is right here! Melissa, shocked, swayed slightly, then glared fiercely at the girl, Viviana.

‘Why! Why is it a girl that ugly!’

An ugly… girl? She had thought she was ugly because of those washed-out colors, but the moment Viviana lifted her head, Melissa’s gaze was stolen away. That pale and blurred presence, with no hard edges to it, was so delicate and fragile that it seemed she might scatter and vanish at any moment. Melissa was still too young to have the words for it, but if she had known them, she would have understood that it was a kind of tragic grace. To a girl who had mistaken herself for the center of the world, Viviana’s very existence delivered an enormous shock. That was why she became even more hostile, and the young ladies around her, who needed to stay on good terms with her, naturally had no choice but to take her side.

“They really do not suit each other, do they?”

“That is right! That place belongs to Melissa, and really, she does not even know her place….”

Then one young lady quoted the phrase does not know her place, which she had heard her parents use when talking about those beneath them, and everyone seemed to like it, so they all began using it as they talked. Up until then, Melissa had only been glaring at Viviana.

But perhaps they had talked too much, because it seemed Viviana heard them. She glanced over at them, then merely gave a short laugh.

Melissa had tensed up under her gaze, but when Viviana ignored them as though they were not even worth responding to, Melissa became furious.

‘She is… ignoring me because I am not worth dealing with?’

Fire sparked in her eyes. Melissa, driven wild by this first experience of being ignored and slighted, immediately went and stood before Viviana.

“Hey!”

And she swore, she had never meant to put her in danger.

She had only meant to make her fall on her bottom and draw a few tears out of those eyes that had looked down on her. Even Melissa had not imagined that in her blind fury she would push her toward the table piled high with champagne glasses.

At the commotion, which had grown larger than expected, everyone’s attention was drawn there.

Watching Skyler, whom she had only met that day, save Viviana in dashing fashion like a prince should, Melissa’s gaze was stolen for a moment, but then when that prince glared at her fiercely, she grew frightened.

‘What is this….’

She was not the princess. She was the wicked witch who tormented the princess. Only then did all her fantasies shatter, and when Melissa saw that no one could stop the angry Emperor, she grew afraid and ran away with the young ladies who had been with her.

“Huff, huff…! What is this!”

“Lady Melissa! What in the world have you done!”

Once the young ladies, having run all the way to a corner of the garden where no one could see them, had caught their breath, they began attacking Melissa.

“A-are you getting angry at me right now?”

The young ladies who normally would have tucked their tails and groveled the instant Melissa got angry were glaring at her now with sharp eyes.

“How could you push someone into a place like that?”

“That is right, that person is His Highness the Crown Prince’s fiancée!”

“And if the Imperial Family, the Imperial Family…. Anyway! If the knights come to arrest someone, then it was all your fault, Lady Melissa, so you go be taken away by yourself!”

After snapping that at her, they hurried away from Melissa’s side and fled into the distance. Staring blankly after them, Melissa burst into tears and, before someone could come to seize her, crawled into the bushes and sobbed.

“M-Mother, aaah―!”

Sniffling and crying, she thought about the wrong she had done.

What if the king was so angry that he really came to arrest her? In one of the picture books she had seen, there had been evil kings who threw people into prison just because they had offended them.

She worried that if she was blamed for what she had done, her mother and father might be arrested too, but she did not have the courage to go back and see, so she had only been hiding there and crying when Viviana appeared.

When Melissa angrily asked if she had come to insult her, Viviana looked down at her coldly as though dumbfounded, then turned and walked away, ignoring her.

“W-where are you going!”

Melissa shouted shrilly from behind, but Viviana paid no attention and kept walking.

The wonder she had felt just moments ago at seeing mint-colored flowers had completely vanished.

As Viviana walked away to avoid her, she heard the sound of small footsteps behind her.

Even when she ignored them and kept walking, the tiny pattering footsteps still followed, and at last Viviana could not bear it and turned around.

Startled by that gaze, Melissa hiccupped, but Viviana bluntly asked the business first.

“What is it?”

“……”

That tightly shut mouth showed no sign of opening. Viviana asked one last time.

“I asked what it is. This is your last chance, so if you have nothing to say, from now on I will ignore you and simply leave.”

At those words, Melissa hesitated, then cautiously opened her mouth.

“Y-you… are you not angry?”

For Viviana, who was quite angry, it was a truly absurd question. To Melissa, who thought only rage and shouting counted as anger, Viviana’s cold disregard could not be anger.

‘This is a feeling I have known many times before….’

Viviana narrowed her eyes, wondering at the source of this familiarity, then opened them wide. Dennis… she was exactly like Dennis. Oblivious, stubborn, and just a very, very young child. The moment she understood that, even her will to be angry disappeared, and Viviana spoke in the tone one would use to admonish a child.

“Before asking that, is there not something you should do first?”

She knew that she should apologize for shoving her, but perhaps because her pride was so strong, Melissa could not open her mouth. Viviana snapped at her as she stood there with lips tightly sealed.

“I do not want to speak with someone who cannot even apologize for her own mistake. Do not follow me.”

After those cold words, Melissa could not stop Viviana as she turned away. 

There were people she did not want to see both inside and outside the banquet hall, and so Viviana disliked the Imperial Palace even more. Her insides were boiling, and seeing that everyone except her was enjoying themselves made her want to go home. After thinking for a long while, Viviana leaned her body against Celia’s soft skirt as she smiled, and Celia, who had been talking, stopped and turned her gaze to Viviana.

“Via, what is it?”

Viviana hesitated. Could she say she wanted to go home? If this were Korea, she could simply have gone home by herself, but the medieval era was difficult in many ways. As Viviana kept her mouth tightly shut, Celia gently coaxed her and asked again, and then Viviana finally opened her mouth with a dejected expression.

“…I want to go home, Mother.”

At the sight of Viviana murmuring like a child whining and throwing herself into Celia’s arms, Celia was startled. It was all the more surprising because Viviana had never once complained or acted spoiled before. Startled, Celia called for Marquis Orhan, and he hurried over at once and asked what was wrong.

“Via says she wants to go home!”

“What?”

At those words, Viviana made a troubled face. Just as she was about to say that it was not so, fearing they might blame her, Marquis Orhan strode over to Dennis, who was fooling around and playing in the distance, dragged him over, and came back.

“F-Father! Why!”

Dennis, who had been having fun, was upset to be suddenly dragged away and told they had to go home. Sulking and pouting, he complained that he did not want to go, but at Marquis Orhan’s words telling him to live here then, he tightly shut his mouth.

“Let us go, Via.”

“Y-you do not have to do that because of me.”

“What do you mean, no need, child.”

Despite Viviana’s attempt to stop them, Marquis Orhan and Celia were firm. This was the first time since her birth that she had acted spoiled, and they could not simply let it pass. As Marquis Orhan approached the Emperor, who was laughing and chatting with the nobles, the Emperor welcomed him and made room.

“I am ashamed to trouble you, Your Majesty, by disturbing the gathering, but it seems I must take my leave first. I ask for your permission.”

“What, already? Why is that?”

It was still not even the hour when the evening glow had begun to fade.

Looking at the puzzled Emperor and Crown Prince, Marquis Orhan lied and said that he was unwell and ought to return home, at which the Emperor regarded him with a doubtful face.

That was because his body looked far too robust for someone who claimed to be ill.

As the Emperor slowly examined the Marquis like that, he noticed Viviana’s anxious face, and deciding to overlook the Marquis’s absurd excuse this once, partly because of the teasing he himself had done earlier, he relented.

“Hmm…. Very well…. If your health is poor, then it cannot be helped. Then, after leaving early today, send the Young Lady to the Imperial Palace another time.”

At those words, the Marquis looked troubled, but in contrast Skyler’s face brightened at once, and as the Emperor affectionately stroked his head, Viviana immediately answered,

“If I am summoned, I will gladly come.”

Those words were no different from saying that if she were not summoned, she would never come.

Viviana spoke first because she feared Marquis Orhan might refuse and anger the Emperor, and the Emperor, seeing even that hidden intention, smiled and nodded.

He liked Viviana more and more for the way she kept acting so clever.

Feeling as though he had obtained an unexpected jewel, and his mood softened by it, the Emperor gave them permission to depart, and the Orhan family left the banquet hall without even looking back.

Except for the couple who had utterly melted at their daughter’s little display of affection, Dennis was sullen and swollen-faced because he did not like having to part from the new friends he had met without getting to play with them for long.

As they hurried quickly toward the carriage, they heard someone running up behind them.

“Viviana―!”

The one who had run after them was Skyler. Breathing roughly, he stopped Viviana and spoke with regret.

“I am so disappointed that we have to part like this today.”

“We can see each other again next time.”

Even though her answer was listless, Skyler smiled brightly, as though pleased, then unfastened the brooch attached to his collar and placed it in Viviana’s hand. It was a brooch made with a jewel that gleamed in mysterious colors depending on the angle of the light.

“Then return this to me the next time we meet.”

“This is…!”

“For your information, that jewel is one that only the Imperial Family may possess.”

At those words, Viviana’s mouth fell open. This brooch was one of those objects for which mere possession could be enough to accuse someone of treason.

Of course, unless one were a tyrant, no one would do something so absurd.

Startled, Viviana tried to hand the brooch back, but Skyler only laughed and dodged this way and that, refusing to take it.

“We must meet again next time.”

Understood? Skyler asked that again with a playful smile.

He had given her the brooch because he had expected that unless he did something like this, Viviana would never agree to see him again.

As Skyler quickly retreated, saying that he would write to her and that she must absolutely send a reply, Viviana could not stop him.

“Ah….”

As she stared down at the brooch in her hand with a troubled face, Marquis Orhan came over, saw the brooch in her hand, widened his eyes, and then his expression turned grave.

Because he was quick-witted, he understood at once how such a thing had come to be in his daughter’s hand.