Chapter 31
“What?”
However, it was Count Herolds who reacted before Aveline.
“Why would His Highness the Crown Prince…?”
“Hmm. I wonder too…?”
Ares mumbled as if he didn’t know either.
But Count Herolds seemed too serious to notice such things.
“Then perhaps it was also the Crown Prince who sent flowers today?”
“Flowers? Who received flowers?”
“Someone sent your sister an anonymous flower basket.”
“What?”
Ares gaped in disbelief at his father’s words.
“Really?”
Then he asked Aveline once more.
“Who on earth…?”
As Aveline nodded, Ares muttered in disbelief.
Just as Aveline was about to feel oddly annoyed at his reaction, Count Herolds interjected.
“Did the Crown Prince say anything about Aveline?”
“Well, at first he briefly asked about my sister’s well-being, then showed some interest when I mentioned that she’s stronger than me in sparring, and before leaving the palace, he said he’d like to see her with me soon. So, if I add up all the times my sister was the topic, it would be about 10 seconds in total.”
It was an embarrassingly short time compared to Count Herolds’ serious reaction.
“Three times?”
Count Herolds asked again, still in disbelief.
“As much as 10 seconds?”
Judging by how he asked twice, he seemed to take it quite seriously.
Given his unfavorable expression, he didn’t seem to welcome the Crown Prince’s interest in Aveline.
Seeing her father like this, Aveline stepped in.
“His Highness probably just asked about me as Ares’ sister.”
“It’s a full 10 seconds.”
But Count Herolds remained serious.
“The Crown Prince doesn’t even mention things he’s not interested in. The fact that he asked about you three times means it’s hard to see it as just simple courtesy.”
“What?”
This time, Aveline became serious too.
‘…No way?’
Theron’s words about her being the most likely candidate for Crown Princess flashed through her mind.
And that was really something Aveline didn’t want.
“I absolutely don’t want to become the Crown Princess!”
At Aveline’s solemn outcry, Count Herolds and Ares hardened their expressions as if she was talking nonsense.
“Why suddenly mention the Crown Princess?”
“That’s… a bit sudden.”
Embarrassed by Ares and her father’s reactions, Aveline became flustered.
“I was just surprised because Father reacted so seriously, that’s all.”
Aveline tried to manage her expression, pretending to be calm.
“Now that I’ve confirmed Father is okay, I’ll be going back. Excuse me.”
Then she quickly fled from Count Herolds’ room before anyone could stop her.
* * *
“Oh my, young miss! Why are you sweating so much?”
Yoni, who was tidying up the room, approached Aveline in surprise.
Aveline wiped the sweat from her forehead with the handkerchief Yoni offered and exhaled deeply, catching her breath after running to her room.
“Did something happen?”
Yoni asked with a worried expression.
“No. It’s just that I ran after a long time… But what’s this?”
Next to the huge flower basket on the table was an unfamiliar letter.
“Ah, Emma just brought that, saying it came for you, young miss.”
“Was Emma in charge of letters today?”
“Yes. The person in charge of letters is on vacation until tomorrow, so Emma is filling in today.”
As Aveline listened to Yoni’s words, a memory flashed through her mind.
‘Servell once asked me to find our house’s goat.’
There had been circumstances suggesting that someone was intercepting Aveline’s letters.
“Do you know how long that girl Lisa has been in charge of letters?”
At Aveline’s question, Yoni pondered for a moment.
“It’s been quite a while, hasn’t it? About 4 years…”
Four years coincided with when Aveline started shutting herself in at home.
‘That’s when I lost contact with Servell too.’
After Lisa arrived, the letters coming to Aveline stopped, and the letters Aveline sent weren’t delivered either.
‘What if Lisa hadn’t taken a day off today?’
Would the things sent to Aveline have been properly delivered even then?
‘I need to check this properly.’
The fact that letters started coming to Aveline as soon as Emma took charge of letters was enough to arouse suspicion.
‘I should look into this Lisa girl more.’
Thinking this, Aveline opened the letter.
“…?”
Surprisingly, the sender of the letter was Servell.
The contents were equally surprising.
[ . ]
“Is this all?”
There was just a single dot on the paper.
She checked against the window to see if anything was faintly written, and no matter how much she turned it over, that was all that was written.
“Is this revenge for not replying all this time, or what?”
It was entirely possible given Servell’s twisted personality.
“Just wait until I see you next time.”
Aveline fumed, riled up by the letter she received from her childhood friend after a long time.
“Young miss, what should we do with these flowers?”
At that moment, Yoni carefully approached and pointed at the huge flower basket sitting on the table.
“…Just put it away somewhere appropriate.”
Yoni seemed perplexed at being asked to put away a gift, but she left the room with the flower basket without saying anything.
“Phew. The room feels tidier now.”
Although she had only sent out the flower basket, it felt as refreshing as if she had done a thorough cleaning of the room.
Knock knock.
Someone knocked on the door.
“Who is it?”
“It’s me.”
“Come in.”
As Aveline gave permission, Ares entered.
“I knocked this time, didn’t I?”
“Who said anything?”
Ares, seeming to recall being hit with a pillow when he entered Aveline’s room this morning, made a preemptive strike.
He had changed into comfortable indoor clothes, having apparently washed up.
“Why did you come?”
“Ah.”
At Aveline’s question, Ares seemed to suddenly remember his purpose for visiting.
“Just now, I saw a maid carrying out an enormous flower basket. Was that the one you received today?”
“Is that why you came?”
“Somewhat?”
Somewhat, my foot.
He had chased after her, extremely curious, yet he said ‘somewhat’.
“So, who sent it?”
Ares got straight to the point.
“Well…”
Aveline hesitated for a moment, wondering if she should be honest.
She was still flustered by Theron’s suggestion to spread rumors about them being lovers, and she was confused about how much of his words she should believe, or if she should believe them at all.
“Don’t tell me you don’t know who sent it?”
However, Ares interpreted Aveline’s silence in his own way.
“Well, it can’t be His Highness the Crown Prince. He was with me all day today. And if he had sent something, he’s the type to make it extremely obvious.”
Ares, who had been making deductions with a seemingly serious face, suddenly turned mischievous.
“By the way, a flower basket right after your return to social circles? Looks like someone has fallen for you?”
“…”
“His Highness the Crown Prince asking about you, and you receiving an anonymous flower basket. Is there anything like this in the books you often read? If not, why don’t you write one? ‘Imperial Recluse Count’s Daughter, Her Popularity Explodes Right After Returning to Social Circles!’ How about a title like that?”
“That sounds quite good– Wait. Are you making fun of me right now?”
Aveline, who had been momentarily intrigued, sharply questioned.
“Come on, of course not.”
Ares shook his head with a grin.
Even from a hundred meters away, one could see his face brimming with joy.
“Get out!”
“I won’t fall for that twice.”
Ares smoothly dodged the pillow Aveline threw by stepping back, stuck out his tongue, and ran away.
Aveline, who had been fuming for a while even after Ares left, quietly picked up the pillow and threw herself onto the bed.
“I just want to rest comfortably.”
Fatigue set in quickly, probably due to using her body after a long time and being extremely tense because of her father’s collapse.
If it had been before, she would have easily taken a short nap, but now she didn’t know when she might meet Theron in some dream.
“Well, this is troublesome. How can I sleep when I’m so anxious?”
It was obvious that her quality of life would plummet at this rate.
Aveline, now wide awake, sat up straight on the bed.
“In other books, they sometimes put up magical barriers and such.”
Although she didn’t know the extent of Theron’s power, it was clearly quite strong.
Judging by how he freely crossed spaces in last night’s dream.
“…Should I give it a try?”
Although it seemed difficult to use Theron’s magic to block Theron, she had nothing to lose.
No, if done well, she might even achieve quite good results.
“Hoo…”
Aveline closed her eyes and solemnly composed her mind.
“Feel it.”
Please.
Aveline tried to feel Theron’s magic within her body.
After concentrating for a while, she suddenly felt a small, buzzing vibration somewhere in her body.
‘Is it here?’
The place where she felt the vibration was Aveline’s lower abdomen, the same place where Theron had reached out towards Aveline last time, causing Emma to misunderstand.
‘Barrier!’
Concentrating on the place where she felt the subtle vibration, Aveline imagined putting up a barrier around her mind.
Amazingly, it really felt like something was being layered over her head.
“Did it work?”
Aveline opened her eyes with a hazy feeling and tilted her head.
Although she had tried to use Theron’s magic several times before, this was the first time she had felt something inside her body like this.
“…I’m a bit sleepy.”
Perhaps due to the side effect of using too much mental energy at once, an irresistible drowsiness suddenly washed over her.
Aveline swayed and collapsed onto the bed, falling asleep.
