Chapter 3 – Ladies Alighting from the Carriage (10)

“By the way, it seems you have a connection with the library, my lady.”

“What?”

However, the question that came out of Bjorn’s mouth was completely unexpected.

A voice, startled by the deviation from her memory, came out in a much higher tone.

“Weren’t you at the library last time as well?”

“Oh, yes, I was. At the Imperial Palace archives…”

Chloe stretched her words at the sudden question.

‘What should I say?’

Chloe, who hadn’t paid much attention to Bjorn around this time, usually dealt with him without much thought, but now that she felt she needed to win his favor, she became self-conscious with every word she uttered.

‘What if I say something unnecessary and upset him?’

“I knew the young ladies of Gotiue were well-versed in culture… but you seem quite different.”

“You flatter me.”

As Bjorn spoke with a smile that seemed painted on, Chloe playfully held her skirt with both hands and curtsied, but her mind was in turmoil, wondering if this was alright.

Just as Chloe bit the inside of her cheek, feeling like her plan was going awry.

“By the way, you mentioned the gardens of my homeland before… the Almoe Garden.”

“What? Ah… yes, I did.”

Why isn’t he asking about Madame Etoile’s salon? 

Engaging in an unexpected conversation with him felt like walking a tightrope.

“Then you must have read about it in books as well.”

“Yes, of course.”

Chloe hadn’t read any books about Scandarian architecture, so she decided to bluff her way through, as she had emphasized to Ryan, shamelessly.

“It’s often mentioned in books that list the continent’s gardens.”

“Is that so?”

Bjorn’s smile remained unchanged as he looked at her, but beyond that, his hazel eyes seemed to be observing something, settling down.

‘Yes, that’s the look of someone who has no expectations.’

He despised many things about the Empire. The looks of admiration from the ladies who adored him were among his top five dislikes. The longing gaze that saw him as an elf who would take them to a world of romance, or the passionate gaze that viewed him as a tempting fallen angel.

Among the very few women whose company he found not unpleasant when talking face to face, was the young lady of the Lacroix Count Palatine right before him.

As she spoke to him with a straightforward expression and didn’t try to meet him often, she was a young woman he rarely encountered. Perhaps that’s why, whenever they coincidentally met at social gatherings he attended forcibly, he found himself unexpectedly pleased.

‘Maybe that’s why I remembered her face back then…’

As Bjorn seemed to be pondering something, Chloe’s face was beginning to show a question mark.

“Do you happen to visit Madame Etoile’s salon?”

Ah, finally!

The relief Chloe felt at the long-awaited question was like taking a much-needed breath of fresh air.

“Was it as you remembered?”

Mirabelle quickly asked as she watched Bjorn leave.

Mirabelle, who wasn’t even sure if she had properly introduced herself to Bjorn, had stepped back just like last time. Thanks to that, she could observe his demeanor closely. Listening to Chloe’s story, she couldn’t help but become interested.

‘It’s been four years since we first got to know the Prince when Loi entered Ridote… Is it not time yet?’

And what Mirabelle felt was uncertainty.

Mirabelle didn’t enjoy social gatherings. As Chloe’s maid and guard, she mostly accompanied her, but sometimes, thanks to Chloe’s consideration, she delegated it to senior members of the security team.

So, she wasn’t interested in the handsome prince and hadn’t observed him closely, but she could see things better when she was a step back.

That handsome prince always wore a smile like a mask, and sometimes when no one was watching, he seemed to have a tired look in his eyes, and…

‘When he deals with Loi, he does seem to smile more genuinely.’

Chloe was the kind of young lady anyone would find charming.

With a slightly lovestruck heart, Mirabelle thought so. But as for whether she saw any romantic interest in his eyes or expression… well, knowing how that ‘cheeky brat’ looked at Chloe, Mirabelle couldn’t readily agree.

‘That young lord seems to have changed his mind somehow, and now he doesn’t seem to hide anything…’

As Mirabelle’s thoughts continued, Chloe, who had been watching Bjorn’s back, responded with a relaxed face.

“Yes, almost.”

She should have treated him as she did before, but she wasn’t sure if she did well. She probably did…

Until she left Arthuzen, she hadn’t felt any particular emotions toward other young men besides Demetrian, and she had been hiding her feelings from him as naturally as breathing, so she hadn’t done anything out of the ordinary.

‘Thinking of him as a different person, with his hair tied and dressed in the Imperial style, helped.’

Expressing the sudden familiarity that bloomed in her heart would have surely backfired, so she had hypnotized herself.

The way he treated her was also quite different, which helped a lot. His tone was as gentle as it was then, but much more formal. If it hadn’t been, if she had seen even a hint of the affectionate tone or the warmth in his eyes she remembered, Chloe might have inadvertently recited something about the tapestry in Shevik’s summer palace or the cabin in the woods behind the royal castle.

‘But when he kissed the back of my hand…’

Indeed, she had been surprised on that day as well. The day when he, who seemed to keep his distance from everyone, suddenly promised another meeting and for the first time touched his lips to the back of her hand.

‘May I express my gratitude on the back of the young lady’s hand?’

‘What? Yes, of course.’

Chloe was equally surprised then and now, and she couldn’t guess what change had occurred in his mind.

‘Then I shall see you that day.’

In any case, today’s meeting with him was successfully executed. She was slightly concerned whether she had handled the unexpected flow of conversation well.

Having returned Etienne’s books, Chloe borrowed a few more books of a similar genre from the Imperial Palace library using his student ID. Although using someone else’s student ID was not allowed, showing the badge engraved with the Lacroix emblem allowed her to pass without issue.

The stories she read with Marianne’s help last time were all due to divine grace, so this time, she focused on selecting a few volumes from the religious studies section, looking at the apocryphal stories recorded in the side chronicles.

‘There wasn’t much to gain from the books borrowed from the Imperial Palace archives, but they helped me figure out which direction to explore.’

Successfully meeting Bjorn, borrowing additional books, and proving her ‘memory’ to Mirabelle, Chloe accomplished all her planned tasks with one visit and moved to her next destination with a light heart.

To meet her friend and priest, Luca, at the Great Temple.

She was going to ask him to look at the lapis lazuli bracelet that Lagu hadn’t completely purified last time. After hearing from Demetrian that he might have returned, she sent a messenger to see if she could meet him, and he replied that he had already returned, so she made an appointment.

“Blessings of the land you tread upon. It’s been a while, Sister.”

“Harmony of the horizon. Have you been well, Priest Lucamiono ?”

When the Lacroix carriage arrived at the Great Temple, Luca was already waiting in front of the priests’ sanctuary behind the chapel. Leaning against the entrance pillar of the sanctuary as if lost in thought, people visiting the Great Temple for various reasons glanced at the priest’s figure.

These days, whenever people listed popular young men in Gotiue, Erd’s priest Lucamiono was always included.

Luca, who had left for the Holy Kingdom to study at the Divine Academy, was ordained under the name Lucamiono and was assigned to the Great Temple in Gotiue, which only the elite could come to, quickly becoming a popular guest in Gotiue’s social circles.

The fact that he was a friend of the Young Duke of Crevelle played a part, but most decisively, it was his appearance. With pale skin, red lips, and deep blond hair down to his shoulders… his beauty, reminiscent of the Apostle of Life, Piresa, combined with the dark blue priest robes, gave off a somewhat decadent feeling.

Responding to the admiring gazes of the devotees looking at ‘that Lucamiono,’ Luca spoke politely with his hands clasped together.

“Sister, there are many eyes watching, so would you please come inside?”

Though polite, the slight smile in his eyes made Chloe feel a bit uneasy as she followed him to a private reception room.

The reason Priest Lucamiono, who had been ordained for less than three years, could have a private reception room not even given to high priests was due to his immense innate divine power. Thanks to that, he was already being considered as the next high priest of the Great Temple in Gotiue.

“You could have just come, why send a messenger?”

“I asked Demi, and he wasn’t sure if you’d returned from the Holy Kingdom yet.”

“That bastard? Ha…”

Once inside the reception room, the gentle tone that had been heard outside disappeared from Luca’s voice.

“I really hated the Holy Kingdom, so I suggested we drink during the festival. No wonder there was no reply, and he didn’t even show up.”

No matter how popular or well-regarded Luca was in social circles… whenever Chloe met him, she felt the urge to wash her ears.

Eighty percent of the swear words Chloe had heard in her life came from Luca’s mouth. As a commoner orphan who had come under the patronage of the Ducal family, he was supposed to live with a constant sense of gratitude, but as soon as his immense divine power was detected, he moved into the Ducal residence at the age of seven, and his first words to the heir of the Ducal family, introduced as having been born the same year, were remarkably different.

‘What are you looking at, you idiot.’

Demetrian, who had shown the conduct befitting the heir of the Ducal family from a young age, trembled his pupils at the words he heard for the first time in his life, and Luca always recalled that time like this.

‘I wondered what kind of useless bastard he was.’