Chapter 2 – What Remains the Same and What Doesn’t (9)

The silence between the two was broken by Mirabelle’s sudden interjection.

“They’ll probably extort a lot this time too, right?”

Mirabelle playfully remarked, suggesting that Scandar might be preparing settlement money because they were so wealthy. Demetrian, who quickly regained his composure, responded swiftly.

“Well, they haven’t confessed yet, so it seems we’ll only be able to charge them for something like importing unregistered magic stones this time.”

In Chloe’s mind, as she half-listened to their conversation, an image of the familiar priest she saw at the temple during the grand festival surfaced. It seemed completely unrelated. She had just been thinking about Scandar’s court and her husband…

‘Should I go to the temple and check it out?’

As Chloe’s thoughts reached that point, she remembered a friend from the temple she thought of when she met the Mage a few days ago.

“Right, Demi. Is Luca back at the temple these days?”

Why did her thoughts suddenly jump to Luca? 

Demetrian felt a slight annoyance again and replied slowly.

“Probably? He said he was visiting the Holy Kingdom at the beginning of the year. Didn’t he return for the grand festival?”

“Didn’t you meet him that day?”

With a look that seemed to ask how she would know if he didn’t, Chloe narrowed her eyes at Demetrian.

“I was too preoccupied…”

Demetrian’s trailing words were tinged with embarrassment.

Come to think of it, whenever he went to the temple, he would meet his long-time friend who found the temple life boring, even if just for a moment. But during the grand festival, he had completely forgotten about him. Living a regular life, he habitually met Luca whenever he went to the temple.

‘Was I too distracted by Loi? Now that I think about it, I must have contacted him to meet, so Luca must have been waiting…’

Demetrian’s brow furrowed as he searched his memories.

Just as Mirabelle was to Chloe, Luca was to Demetrian. While most priests entered the Holy Academy to devote themselves to the embrace of the main deity, some were destined to become priests due to their innate divine power.

Luca was the latter, and after his divine power was revealed, he became the ward of the Duke of Crevelle, who sponsored the orphanage where he lived, and grew up alongside the duke’s sons.

Forgetting such a familiar presence was unsettling for him. Chloe gave him a curious look as he fell into thought, realizing his silence had stretched too long, prompting Demetrian to quickly speak again.

“Are you planning to meet Luca? Shall we see him together?”

“Huh? No, I was just asking.”

For Chloe, meeting him together was something she wanted to avoid. She just wanted to ask in detail about someone who seemed familiar, but she didn’t need to see how this gentleman would look at her illogical feelings with disdain.

‘I must meet him secretly. Of course, I won’t tell Luca everything either, but Demi is particularly perceptive.’

Demetrian’s eyes narrowed as he observed Chloe’s expression.

‘Really, it would be nice if I could understand what she’s thinking.’

Lately, her evasive behavior was suspicious. …Though he also had many things he couldn’t yet confide in her.

Meanwhile, they reached the inner palace. Suppressing his disappointment, Demetrian let the two ladies go ahead at the guards’ checkpoint.

“I am Chloe of Lacroix. This is my maid, Mirabelle of Noisette. We’re here to see the Princess of Kendalwood.”

“Yes, we have been informed. Please proceed.”

After exchanging a glance with Chloe and Mirabelle as they were escorted by the guards, Demetrian quietly asked the guards once they were out of sight.

“Just in case… The Second Prince isn’t off duty today, right?”

“He reported for duty this morning.”

“I thought so. Thank you.”

Nodding as if he expected the answer, Demetrian turned back towards the outer palace to return to work.

“Your Highness, Lady Lacroix is here.”

“Let her in.”

Chloe bowed her head to the maid of the Prince’s palace, Viscountess Mohaem, and entered the room.

Upon stepping into the reception room, situated in the best position to overlook the garden from the Prince’s palace, warm sunlight poured through the large windows as always. Sitting at the tea table by the window, a girl with cloud-like fluffy pink hair cast her gaze in their direction.

“Princess, have you been well?”

“It’s been a while, Lady. Come, sit.”

Chloe handed her coat to Mirabelle and sat by the window of the reception room as the princess directed. Watching this, the princess spoke to Viscountess Mohaem.

“Please bring the refreshments.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Viscountess Mohaem bowed and left the reception room. As the door clicked shut, the princess’s fingers, folded beneath the table, began to count down. Five, four, three, two, one…

“She’s gone.”

The princess, watching the door, smirked.

“Sister, I was hoping to see you, and you came at the right time.”

“Indeed, why did you leave the grand banquet so early?”

“I was just there to stand by the princes, nothing more. If His Imperial Highness Daniel had a lover, I wouldn’t have had to attend at all. Actually, I wanted to visit the festival market, but the head maid was adamantly against it. It would have been nice to go with you and Lady Noisette.”

The dignified princess was nowhere to be found, as her small mouth chattered incessantly.

The girl with the bright blue eyes shining beneath her pink curls was Marianne Kendalwood. As the Empress’s niece, she was the only friend from Gotiue with whom Chloe maintained regular contact after going to Scandar.

For several generations, Arthuzen had no princesses, and this time, too, there were only three sons.  So, the Empress took it upon herself to act as her niece’s guardian and brought her into the palace. Unlike Chloe, who was treated as a quasi-imperial daughter when she went to Scandar, Marianne was raised as a quasi-imperial daughter from a young age.

“Just thinking about it makes me sick. If I stayed longer, how many old men would have come to talk to me? ‘My son, you see, hahaha…’ Or perhaps old men are better? If young ones act all charming and ask for a dance, saying they’ll make me fall in love at first sight…”

Marianne shuddered.

The title of the girl whom the Emperor and Empress treated like a daughter was enough to make the capital’s nobles and vassal states drool. That was the reason she was brought into the palace in the first place.

Marianne knew her role well. Her mother was the second daughter of Duke Kendalwood, and her father was the second son of Duke Treya. Being a pureblood of the two ducal families that occasionally intermarried with the royal family, she was an excellent bride candidate from birth. And with the Empress as her guardian.

“Have you ever danced because of that?”

“My shoes are always uncomfortable.”

“But Duke Kendalwood was there, and people from Treya too…”

“So what, I’ll be from another country within ten years.”

“Princess.”

Mirabelle, standing by the door, spoke softly. It wasn’t to caution her about her words but to warn her to be careful because someone was coming.

About five seconds later, the door to the reception room opened, and Viscountess Mohaem and the maids entered, carrying tea trays and sets. From the moment the door opened, Marianne’s expression returned to that of a dignified princess.

The three-tiered tray filled with tea food from the prince’s palace kitchen, which was as much a feast for the eyes as for the taste, and the luxurious tea set adorned with gold. Marianne’s gaze at these things turned apathetic.

It wasn’t the attitude of someone unmoved by what they enjoyed daily, but rather as if she deliberately tried to show disinterest.

“Thank you. You may leave now.”

After the maids left, and about five seconds passed, Marianne’s expression changed again.

“This looks delicious. Lady Noisette, come sit.”

The tea set for three, the tea food for three. Everyone knew that the young lady who followed, whether as a guard or a maid, was also a friend. Ignoring the young ladies’ pretense was a kind of consideration for the princess, who had been brought into the palace when she could barely speak. She was confined to the palace and harassed by people who wanted something from her whenever she attended a banquet, so at least in her own space, she should enjoy herself. The pitiful princess, for whom none of the palace’s luxury could truly be her own.

Marianne’s mother died in childbirth. Her grandfather, Duke Kendalwood, couldn’t ask his son-in-law to remain loyal less than two years after marrying without love, so he registered her as his own daughter.

Following her legal sister and actual aunt, the Empress, Marianne gained the status of a quasi-imperial daughter. Though she was considered a bride with a seemingly splendid background, in her view, neither her residence, nationality, nor family truly belonged to her.

She was raised by the imperial family to be used in a political marriage with a vassal state.

Thus, Marianne only became close to Chloe, who was in a similar situation among the noble ladies of Gotiue, and they continued to exchange letters even after Chloe left for Scandar.

[I’m sad that you went so far away, sister. If you had stayed in the Imperial Federation, I could have seen you at imperial events, but Scandar had to gain independence. If I end up going to Stcherbagnol, could we meet by crossing the Gombert Mountains?]

It was a reference to the two countries located at opposite ends of the Gombert Mountains, which stretch across the northern continent. Even without the mountains, it would take ten days by courier. And those letters always ended with a sort of curse.

[It seems the Young Duke of Crevelle isn’t planning to get engaged this year. I thought he was waiting for Grand Duke Campo’s daughter to come of age, but there’s no news. If he’s going to keep delaying like this, he should break off the engagement and take you instead. I hope he dies impotent.]

The phrase that never failed to appear in her letters. Chloe suddenly laughed at the memory.

‘Who would have guessed that such words would come from the pen of the princess, who is the most sought-after bride on the continent?’

Marianne was the only young lady in Arthuzen who had no intention of impressing Young Duke Crevelle. Or perhaps it was just to her and Mirabelle.

Reading Marianne’s letters was the only time Chloe could genuinely laugh during her time in the Shevik Royal Palace.