Chapter 5.4
“During the festival period, please take good care of Lady Arinne Delrun.”
……?
At the Crown Prince’s words, I raised an eyebrow. Arinne Delrun? That woman who called Rubellian older brother?
“It wouldn’t make sense for me to care for an unmarried young lady, Your Highness.”
“Weren’t you like siblings since childhood? Ah, the Duchess wouldn’t mind, would she?”
At the Crown Prince’s words, I blinked. A wise and virtuous wife would naturally say ‘No, I don’t mind’ here, but since I have a heart like a dried anchovy, I naturally mind.
I was thinking I should speak as indirectly as possible when Rubellian expressed his refusal first.
“I’m sorry, Your Highness. I have an obligation to be by my wife’s side during the birthday festival.”
At Rubellian’s firm words, the Crown Prince paused. For a moment, as if the two were confronting each other,I grabbed hold of Rubellian’s collar, and he gently wrapped his hand around mine as he spoke in a firm voice.
“So please withdraw that order.”
It was obviously a request for him to withdraw the order, but his face said he’d ignore it regardless.
After a moment of silence, the Crown Prince chuckled and nodded.
“Very well.”
After finishing his words, the Crown Prince soon moved away.
Was it my imagination that his retreating figure seemed somewhat angry?
Eventually, I could only give Rachel a light smile before leaving the ruined party hall with Rubellian.
* * *
“Everything is a complete mess.”
After returning to the palace assigned to us, changing clothes, and getting into bed, I muttered with my lips protruding toward Rubellian, who was leisurely looking through documents beside me.
But even at my words, Rubellian showed no expression. Instead, as he always did, he stretched his arm to hold me, and I placed my hand on his documents.
“What did you talk about with the Crown Prince today?”
“Eve, don’t you sound like you’re interrogating a husband who just came back from an affair?”
“Because this is more important than an affair. An affair can be solved by just abandoning you, but I have no way to solve that Crown Prince bastard.”
“Hmm, so abandoning me would solve it.”
“You know that’s not the point, right? What did you talk about? Did you discuss anything important?”
This was the first substantial meeting between him and the Crown Prince after Rubellian was shot. Judging from his attitude at today’s party and suddenly bringing Arinne Delrun, there was definitely something I didn’t know about.
Rubellian stared intently at my hand resting on his documents and let out a laugh.
Why, why are you laughing!
“Your hands are quite small.”
“This isn’t the time for such comments!”
I exploded at Rubellian’s attitude that was so leisurely it seemed like he wasn’t even in the same dimension as me.
As soon as my sharp voice fell, Rubellian spoke quietly.
“He said he was sorry.”
“…What?”
“About me being attacked, and he said the imperial family would try the one who attacked me last time.”
“If the imperial family tries him…”
“They’ll probably just pretend to imprison him, then release him when the nobles’ interest dies down.”
“Really despicable.”
Whether this was the Emperor’s will or the Crown Prince’s will, the imperial family’s position was clear anyway. Internally repeating the increasingly certain ‘Crown Prince-Emperor conspiracy theory,’ I asked Rubellian.
“So what are you going to do from now on?”
“Well. I should live long with you, shouldn’t I?”
“Rubellian, if you tease me like that one more time, I really…”
“First, I’ll have to use the temple that opposes the imperial family.”
“Using the temple means… Rachel?”
“The Saint isn’t the temple’s representative yet, is she? Strictly speaking, I’d have to use the entire temple, but using the Saint would be good too.”
The last words were almost a murmur.
I nodded in understanding at Rubellian’s words.
Right, the most important thing in the current situation is drawing the temple to our side. Then while Rubellian attacks the temple, I should attack something else.
Looking at me smiling ominously, Rubellian flicked my forehead.
“You can do useless things, but don’t do dangerous things.”
“Got it.”
“You can also play around, but don’t forget to come home.”
“Ah, really!”
What does he take me for? At my gaze glaring at him with narrowed eyes, Rubellian smiled gently.
* * *
And the next morning.
Standing in the way of Melina, who was slowly walking through the palace garden under the sparkling sunlight, I waved my hand.
“Peekaboo.”
Noticing she was without her usual entourage, yesterday’s incident must have really shaken her. Moreover, that face that had been arrogant as a peacock looked particularly haggard today.
“Lady Barnes, to meet in such a place. What a tremendous fate.”
“As I understand it, this place is on the other side from where the Duchess’s quarters are located…”
“Exactly. For me, who gets exhausted after three steps, to come meet Lady Barnes while exerting such effort, fate is truly capricious.”
I spoke with my eyes gently folded. However, unlike my cheerful voice, Melina’s face grew even darker.
“If you came to mock me, please leave quickly.”
“Mock? Why would I mock you?”
“Yesterday…!”
“Ah, that? Oh my, what’s so mockable about that? I’m someone who even proposed to His Highness the Crown Prince and was publicly rejected.”
When the Crown Prince’s story came up, Melina bit her lips slightly. She seemed to think I had come to tease her.
Sure enough, Melina forced her chin up and spoke as confidently as possible.
“Even though His Highness was angry with me, I am His Highness’s fiancée.”
Though she tried to maintain her pride, her voice was quite unstable. Looking at her endlessly shaking gaze that even a fool could notice, I tilted my head.
“I don’t think you said that recently. Did you perhaps reconcile with His Highness? It’s quite different from what you told me after Countess Alke’s tea party.”
“That…”
“Or was there never actually a fight with His Highness in the first place?”
“What on earth…! What exactly are you trying to say?”
I carefully observed Melina’s expression as she shouted indignantly. A thick tension clung to Melina’s face.
As expected.
Convinced that my guess was correct, I continued.
“Well, fights between lovers are all like that originally, so there’s nothing strange about it. Fighting then breaking up, breaking up then fighting.”
“That wasn’t a fight, it was a punishment His Highness gave me in his anger.”
“I’m curious how you received forgiveness for the punishment given in anger. Also how you’ll receive forgiveness for what you did today.”
The dress that covered up to her neck was particularly fitting for her. Her appearance, educated as a virtuous noble lady and future Crown Princess, was truly excellent, but not having the corresponding intelligence would be the regret of her life.
At my question, Melina glared at me furiously as if laser beams might shoot from her eyes.
“That’s not for the Duchess to judge. How utterly rude. What gives you the right to be curious about matters between His Highness and me?”
“Well… because you came to me asking for help on the day of Countess Alke’s tea party?”
“Do you think you’ve caught my weakness with that? Look at you being so smug. Truly vulgar beyond measure!”
Melina spat out roughly as if crushing anger and spitting it from her throat. Her voice, which echoed through the garden, pierced my ears.
Yet, sensing a thread of panic woven into that otherwise natural anger, I lowered my gaze softly.
Today would be a great catch.
“It seems His Highness only taught you how to cause trouble, but not how to clean it up.”
As soon as I spoke, Melina’s pupils shook greatly. Her face, clearly flustered about how to respond to my words, was filled with anger, panic, and sadness. Soon Melina answered in a trembling voice.
“If you’re going to fabricate carelessly… you need evidence.”
“If there’s evidence, it’s not fabrication.”
“…!”
“To think he wouldn’t even create an escape route for his ‘beloved’ fiancée, what a heartless person.”
“Shut up!”
“You walked all this way believing only in His Highness, but things went wrong like this, and that Saint who came from who knows where keeps getting on your nerves. I can’t even use you because I feel sorry for you.”
“How dare you—!”
Eventually, Melina, hit right on target by my provocation, raised her hand while suppressing her indignation.
I firmly grabbed her hand that was obviously coming down to slap my cheek and pulled her toward me while whispering softly.
“When you show that much excitement, it gives everything away. Even if the Empress covers up you pouring tea on me, what kind of rumors would spread if I appeared with a swollen face in a place where only you and I are here?”
“Do you think I’d be afraid of the likes of you?”
“I wouldn’t be frightening, but getting caught by others would be scary. Right? You lived with pride in becoming Crown Princess, but even that seems a bit precarious now.”
“……”
At my words, Melina bit her lips tightly. It must have hit right on target, as tears began to well up in her harsh eyes.
I stared at Melina. Her anxiously trembling gaze and her floundering in panic proved that my words were exactly right.
The Crown Prince used Melina. He made her provoke Rachel, then observed Rachel’s reaction.
As speculation turned to certainty, I chuckled. Melina clearly knew this fact too. That’s why she couldn’t refute my words and was trembling like that.
“The Crown Prince used you and discarded you.”
Thud—
Melina pushed my arm away forcefully and stepped back hesitantly.
She had lived for twenty years by the Crown Prince’s side, counting the days until she became Crown Princess. The Crown Prince abandoning someone like her would feel like a rejection of her entire existence.
While trying hard to hide this, she answered in a trembling voice.
“Don’t babble carelessly. I will become Crown Princess.”
“Of course. There’s probably no one in this imperial palace who would suit that position better than Lady Barnes.”
As if I had never cornered her, I smiled affectionately and continued.
“I don’t particularly like you, but that viciousness of yours is truly quite admirable.”
“What nonsense are you talking about?”
“Then I hope you don’t lose your way until the end and safely achieve your goal.”
Now that things had come to this, Melina definitely wouldn’t stay still. Especially seeing her reaction to being provoked by me today, she would soon make a move against Rachel.
Though the cause was different, it would roughly align with the original work. The dress I had prepared to give Rachel became useless, but what did that matter?
‘There will be many opportunities in the future.’
Muttering internally, I nodded toward Melina. Hoping she would survive to the end burning with that anger, and hoping I could safely stay by Rachel’s side using that anger.
* * *
The relationship between the Crown Prince and Rachel flowed differently from the original work. The Crown Prince even tested Rachel’s power using Melina, and perhaps there was quite a high possibility he would continue to use Melina in the future.
So here’s the question. Would it be faster to draw the Crown Prince to our side, or to send him away bundled with the Emperor?
“He’s an excellent tool for moving the Emperor and Empress, but there’s no guarantee that tool won’t stab me…”
However, it would be foolish to completely turn away just because our values differ. If the Crown Prince had utility value, the best strategy was to use him as much as possible then discard him.
“Given that he’s the male lead, no matter how much he explains himself, can he genuinely be completely bad?”
“Who?”
“Ah, Rachel. You came?”
I, who had been muttering alone, quickly turned my head at the gentle voice heard from behind. There stood Rachel, dressed simply unlike yesterday.
“Eve, is something wrong?”
“No. I just have too much to think about.”
“Don’t worry too much. Some problems become even more impossible to solve the more you think about them. I used to be like that.”
“Did you have problems you worried about?”
“I once suffered due to my family situation.”
Rachel’s gentle smile had not a single blemish. Nevertheless, knowing her detailed circumstances, I couldn’t bring myself to smile.
I sighed lightly, recalling how she had lived being mistreated by her stepmother and those around her.
“Lady Barnes said harsh things yesterday. Please don’t take it to heart. It’s not your fault.”
“Actually…”
Rachel smiled awkwardly then began to speak while stirring her tea with a teaspoon.
“From the moment Lady Barnes approached me, I somewhat expected it. Ah, something big would happen.”
“Can you sense such things?”
Was her intuition at work again?
“There’s that, but Alfred tipped me off that she was His Highness the Crown Prince’s fiancée.”
“Ah…”
“Since His Highness has unfavorable feelings toward me, I didn’t think she would be very friendly toward me either.”
I nodded. Wasn’t it about time to clearly address this? What exactly had happened between the Crown Prince and Rachel? What happened that caused such sparks to fly between two people who should have fallen in love originally?
I looked at Rachel and asked carefully.
“Did something perhaps happen with His Highness the Crown Prince?”
“……”
Rachel lowered her head slightly. She moved her lips hesitantly, not knowing what to say. Her face as she sighed was filled with difficulty.
“At the last party, I was sitting alone on the terrace since I didn’t know anyone… and His Highness came.”
I held my breath. Right, up to here it was the same as the original work.
Rachel sitting alone in a corner, and the Crown Prince who became interested in her status as a saint.
“But the problem was… as soon as His Highness the Crown Prince came to me, um… I felt a strange energy.”
“A strange energy?”
“Yes. Something unpleasant and strange was visible.”
Rachel frowned as if still unpleasant.
However, my mind became quite complicated at this. In the original work too, Rachel definitely read something from the Crown Prince. What that was, was a kind of prophecy—a scene where the Crown Prince took a sword for her.
Near the end of the original work, the Crown Prince takes the sword thrown by Rubellian instead of Rachel. Seeing this and thinking the Crown Prince died because of her, Rachel pours out her holy power to kill Rubellian, and kills me too in the process.
Anyway, Rachel, who briefly saw the prophecy at the party, became curious about why the Crown Prince would take a sword for her, and eventually felt slight curiosity toward the Crown Prince.
That was definitely not an ‘unpleasant’ scene.
Then what did she see?
“What exactly was it?”
I stared at Rachel tensely, but at my question, Rachel carefully opened her mouth.
“Eve, please don’t misunderstand. This absolutely isn’t accurate.”
“…Yes.”
It’s an ability to see an absolute, unchanging future, but let’s not make a big deal of it. Thinking that, I listened.
“Eve was collapsed on a blood-soaked floor with a sword pierced through her heart, and the owner of that sword was… none other than His Highness the Crown Prince.”
…What?
“H-heart?”
“…Yes. But what I saw might just be a delusion, so please don’t worry too much about it.”
Rachel tried frantically to reassure me, but it was useless. Her power was a prophecy that was certain to happen, embodying absolute ‘truth.’
So, what Rachel saw as soon as she faced the Crown Prince was me dying with the Crown Prince’s sword pierced through my heart…
As that scene overlapped before my eyes momentarily, I unconsciously trembled.
I had thought I might die, since I die in the original work too, so it was entirely possible…
“Eve!”
But…
Did I believe things would change if I transmigrated? Did I naturally think they would change? Why is my mind going blank like this?
A future where I might die. More precisely, a future where I definitely die. As soon as I heard that, I closed my eyes tightly.
Unless there was a development where I was actually a dragon hybrid with two hearts, or my heart was on the right side, the future me would definitely die.
“Eve? Eve, snap out of it! Wh-what should I do? Alfred! Come in and—”
“I’m fine.”
I don’t know what expression I made, but judging from Rachel’s reaction, it wasn’t very normal. Looking at Rachel, who stood up and was at a loss, I slowly raised my head.
“So, so what happened after you saw that?”
At my voice that had become frighteningly calm, Rachel exhaled deeply and continued.
“The moment that scene came to mind, I unconsciously stepped back. Perhaps I couldn’t manage my expression in such a sudden situation, His Highness the Crown Prince was displeased.”
“No wonder…”
“And I unconsciously said something about feeling bad… So when Lady Barnes came yesterday, I was somewhat expecting it. Though I never thought she’d know about my mother’s matter.”
“That would have been investigated by His Highness.”
“What? H-how…”
“Because the Crown Prince’s eyes and hands are sufficient throughout this empire.”
“As expected, I had suspected…”
I spoke to Rachel as calmly as possible while suppressing my emotions. Though my heart was churning chaotically, I still had to make today’s visit to her worthwhile. Forcibly calming my pounding heart, I smiled bitterly.
“Anyway, I think I understand why His Highness is antagonistic toward Rachel.”
Her face looking at me with anxious eyes was full of worry.
“Lady Melina Barnes will continue to pick fights from now on. If that happens, you’ll face even more situations, and you’ll have more opportunities to encounter His Highness.”
“But why did he help me yesterday?”
“Well, only His Highness the Crown Prince would know that, wouldn’t he?”
Because he loves Rachel? Out of interest? Or just because he wants that power? While considering various possibilities internally, I put down my teacup.
One thing was certain—the Crown Prince was currently showing interest in Rachel’s power.
“Rachel, do you trust me?”
I asked, breaking the brief silence that followed. When Rachel raised her head as if wondering why I suddenly asked such a question, I curled up the corners of my mouth and said.
“I was just curious. It’s nothing important, so you don’t have to answer…”
“I trust you.”
“…What?”
“I don’t fully understand it either, but just… I have good intuition.”
There wasn’t a speck of hesitation on Rachel’s serenely smiling face.
“And I’ve never made a wrong judgment until now.”
Rachel saying this had something more than simple trust or naivety.
Looking at her strangely resolute face, I chuckled and nodded.
* * *
