Chapter 5 – Refastening the First Button (2)

Tap-

Rachel’s arm fell back into the air. At that, Rachel opened her eyes wide in apparent embarrassment. In truth, Chloen had not shaken her off that roughly, but even so, Rachel seemed shocked by the single fact that Chloen had brushed off her arm. But it did not end there. Chloen bluntly replied to Rachel, who was staring at her.

“Thanks for the advice, Rachel. But I have no intention of standing out at this ball anyway. I don’t particularly want to catch the eyes of gentlemen. But you seem very interested in that sort of thing, so I’ll give you a piece of advice too. In my opinion, when it comes to presence…”

Chloen gently leaned in and whispered by Rachel’s ear.

“I don’t think it’s something that appears just because you dress yourself up extravagantly. Rather, a person’s own dignity or refinement. I think those things are far more important. Of course, those aren’t things you can achieve just by ‘pretending.’ They would only naturally show through in someone who truly possesses an admirable inner self. So, Rachel…”

Straightening herself again, Chloen met Rachel’s gaze clearly once more.

“How about cultivating your inner self a little too? Instead of being so obsessed only with appearances like you are now. In my opinion, what you need, more than looks, is a fine inner character, considering you’re the type to pin everything on Lady Helen.”

The corners of Chloen’s lips curved softly after she finished speaking. Rachel, of course, was the exact opposite. Even her eyes and lips were trembling violently. It was a tremor expressing a mix of shock and anger.

“Chloen, you right now……”

Rachel moved her trembling lips, just about to say something in protest.

At that moment, the waiting room door opened, and the chaperones who had briefly gone out to hear today’s revised announcements for the debutante ball came back inside. Their faces were somehow slightly flushed, and the reason was soon revealed through the mouths that whispered to their daughters.

“I just heard it from the Imperial Minister, but today’s audience won’t be given only to Her Majesty the Empress! Apparently, it’s been changed so that they’ll be paying their respects to His Majesty the Emperor, Her Majesty the Empress, His Highness the Crown Prince, and His Highness the Prince as well!”

In an instant, excited color bloomed across the young ladies’ faces too. Of course, what had flushed their faces was not the existence of the Emperor, the Empress, or the young prince. There was only one person occupying the young ladies’ thoughts right now.

It was Crown Prince Zenon.

Thanks to that, the waiting room became noisy in an instant. One after another, the young ladies asked their chaperones, their mothers, why.

“No, why? Why did it suddenly become like that?”

“Well. Who knows about that. But perhaps……”

After briefly glancing around, several of the young ladies’ mothers lowered their voices as much as possible and whispered something into their daughters’ ears. It was probably done with Rachel and her mother, the Dowager Duchess Roburn, in mind, but Rachel’s and the Dowager Duchess’s faces had already gone stiff. They already knew as well. Exactly what sweet hope the chaperones were whispering into their daughters’ ears right now.

‘They must be saying that if you only catch the Crown Prince’s eye today, you might surpass Rachel and become the Crown Princess.’

Of course, Rachel was the strongest candidate for Crown Princess. But not everyone agreed with that. In particular, Empress Meizia, the Emperor’s second Empress and Zenon’s stepmother, was not pleased by the idea of Zenon taking Rachel, the daughter of Duke Roburn, as Crown Princess.

The Empress wanted Zenon, her stepson, to take as his wife a woman somewhat less remarkable than Rachel.

That was why the Empress had probably pressed the Emperor to have everyone receive an audience together today. Hoping that among the women who came for the audience today, Zenon would lose his heart not to Rachel, but to some other woman. Better yet, to a woman who would captivate Zenon with a pretty face, yet come from an insignificant family and be somewhat foolish in mind.

Of course, it did make one wonder whether it was even possible for Zenon, cold as an ice pick, to fall for a woman, but there was nothing to lose by trying. Besides, the Empress had always thought this. Men were all the same in the end.

No matter how pretty Rachel was, she believed it was simply in a man’s nature to show more interest in a new woman than in the maternal cousin he had known since childhood, one who looked exactly like his late mother.

In truth, the Empress’s guess was half right and half wrong.

‘It was true that Zenon did not like Rachel, who looked exactly like his late mother. But……’

Because Zenon had no interest not only in Rachel, but in any woman at all.

Of course, including Chloen Risse, who had been his wife.

At that moment, as Chloen was recalling old memories, she heard the voice of the Imperial Minister calling her name.

“Lady Chloen Risse and Madame Risse, step forward!”

At the sound of her daughter being called, her mother beside her carefully took hold of Chloen’s shoulder.

“Chloen. Will you be all right?”

Chloen nodded toward her mother. To be honest, the fact that Zenon would be beyond that door made Chloen tense, but she took a deep breath.

It felt as though only now was her new life finally beginning.

* * *

As the great doors opened, the faces representing Eilan soon came into view.

The old Emperor with hair turned pure white, and the young Empress who looked like that Emperor’s daughter. And seated beside that Empress, the second prince Emil, who would soon turn ten.

And finally……even Zenon, seated there with the same impassive gaze as always.

Excluding Princess Siana, who was away on retreat, every member of the Imperial Family was seated on dazzling golden chairs.

‘Hoo-.’

Taking a low breath inwardly, Chloen stepped forward one step at a time.

In truth, Chloen had been prepared. She already knew that Zenon would attend today’s audience, and that she would meet him today, because she had already lived through it in her previous life.

But being prepared did not mean she was fine. Even though Zenon was not even properly looking at her, the closer she got to him, the more the trembling intensified.

‘At least that’s a relief. He isn’t looking at me.’

Chloen comforted herself and took the final step, and it was then. Zenon’s eyes, which had been looking elsewhere, suddenly collided with Chloen’s eyes. At that moment, his face, like a finely carved sculpture, came clearly into Chloen’s sight.

His silver hair shining like the dawn moon, his dark ash-gray eyes, and the red lips firmly closed beneath the straight bridge of his nose. Every part of him entered Chloen’s eyes vividly and sank in.

In that moment, a strange wave of emotions crossed and rushed through Chloen’s heart.

One was the impulse to run at him that instant and drive a dagger into his chest, and the other was a piercing ache as if cutting through her heart. And Chloen soon realized why she was feeling this way.

Because the Zenon before Chloen’s eyes now was the same as, yet different from, the Zenon she had cursed when she saw him at the execution stake.

The Zenon she saw now looked the way Zenon had when Chloen first faced him. In other words, simply put, he was that very ‘Zenon’ from ‘that time,’ the one she had fallen in love with at first sight.

Chloen bit hard into the inside of her lip. She bit down so hard it felt as though it might bleed, but it did not hurt, overshadowed by the pain she felt in her chest.

Why did I love you? I loved you so much, and tried so hard to receive your love, so why did you betray me? I lived only for you. Erasing myself, I existed only for you. Why, exactly why.

As Chloen floundered, caught in a whirlpool of rage, lament, resentment, and self-reproach.

“Chloen!”

Suddenly, she heard her mother’s softly whispered voice. Barely coming to her senses, Chloen only then realized that she had been staring at Zenon as if to bore through him. And the same was true of Zenon.

She hurriedly lowered her head. Then, bending her knees slightly, she announced her name.

“I, Chloen Risse, greet His Majesty the Emperor, son of the god Eilus, Her Noble Majesty the Empress, and His Highness the Crown Prince and His Highness the Prince.”

Empress Meizia’s brow narrowed slightly as she received Chloen’s greeting. Fingering the large sapphire necklace deliberately draped to fit the cleavage she had intentionally displayed, she looked down at Chloen, who had bowed her head. And she also glanced over Zenon, who was quietly gazing at Chloen.

For a moment, an uneasy look passed over the Empress’s face, but Meizia did not express it in words. Instead, she slowly rose and extended her hand to Chloen, the daughter of a family that rivaled the House of Roburn, or rather, even without their political standing, surpassed the House of Roburn in wealth.

Chloen respectfully pressed her lips to the back of the Empress’s outstretched hand. Then, modestly stepping back, she left the audience chamber. She could feel Zenon’s gaze fixed on her back, but Chloen did not look back. The more so, she only stepped forward more firmly.

* * *

The ball held after the audience was filled with heat and excitement. The debutante ladies, like swans, were busy displaying their charms as they drifted here and there through the Imperial hall, relieved that they had safely finished the audience and wondering whether their future husband might perhaps be somewhere there. Of course, the same was true for the gentlemen seeking to win the hearts of beautiful women. Of course, not everyone was like that, but.

“Mother. How about we return now?”

At Chloen’s suggestion, her mother looked at her daughter as if puzzled. Of course, if Chloen had not spoken first, it would have been her mother who made the suggestion first, but she had not expected such words to come first from her daughter’s mouth.

Up until yesterday, her daughter had clearly spent her days looking forward only to this ball. So naturally, she had assumed Chloen would be restless to enjoy the ball even more, yet to think she would be the one to suggest going home first.

“Y-yes. Let’s do that. Just a moment, though, I need to find Erbe first……”

“Then, Mother. I’ll go outside first, so would you come out slowly with Erbe? I don’t think it would be good for me to stay here any longer.”

“Yes. That would be best. Chloen, you go out first.”

Chloen hurried out of the Imperial hall. Drawing the cool night air deep into her lungs, Chloen let out a long sigh of relief.

‘If this happens, then what happened in my previous life won’t repeat itself.’

In truth, there was a reason Chloen had left the ball so early. It was because of the incident she had experienced at the ball in her previous life.

In her previous life, Chloen’s glove had come off at the ball because of Mac Doherty, Helen’s older brother and the eldest son of the Earldom of Doherty. Because of that, the scar on her forearm was revealed, and in her embarrassment Chloen became agitated. As a result, her eyes turned red. Fortunately, she hastily hid them, so no one else noticed her reddened eyes, but regrettably, Rachel, who had been sticking close by her side, ended up witnessing the sight. In the end, Chloen had no choice but to reveal all her secrets to Rachel, who persistently pressed her.

Of course, judging from what she had seen a little earlier, Rachel had deliberately shaken Chloen off as if protesting that what Chloen had said to her earlier was unpleasant. Thanks to that, there was no chance Rachel would be beside her and see her eyes turn red, but even so, Chloen wanted, as much as possible, not to face Mac Doherty himself at all.

What had happened in her previous life, fastening the first button wrong, must not happen again. Because once the first button was misfastened, it would throw off every button that followed.

Besides, Chloen’s heart was troubled right now. Because of one man whose hair was the same color as that white moon hanging high in the night sky.

‘It’s fine. I won’t have any reason to see that face again anyway.’

She closed her eyes tightly. She wanted to erase the afterimage of him. If possible, without leaving behind even the slightest trace.

It was then.

“Lady Chloen.”

A low voice pierced Chloen’s ears. Someone was calling her. In a voice that sounded quite familiar.