Chapter 102: Breaking the Engagement

“…”

“Princess.”

“…”

“Princess? We need to go now.”

Clarisse stood frozen, her face bright red. Yet her violet eyes followed Isaac’s, trying desperately to meet his gaze.

“Princess?”

“Ah, yes.”

Only after he called her name three times did she finally respond.

She nodded and took a step back, almost as if she were fleeing.

“Are you satisfied now? That was my real attempt at making advances on you. Did you feel the differences?”

Isaac had returned to his role as an escort. The serious expression he had just a moment ago was gone.

Though feeling somewhat disappointed, Princess Clarisse couldn’t deny it anymore.

“Yes… It was different…”

So, she just nodded and let out a sigh.

“Is that how you seduced Rianna?”

“Aren’t you gonna go now?”

“Yes, but… I think I understand how you two got married…”

“…”

“A-Ahem! A-anyway, I’ll be going now.”

Clarisse slowly turned away as she said this. Heading towards the banquet hall, she looked back at Isaac one last time.

“Thank you for giving me courage.”

After throwing him a smile, she walked towards Prince Raphael.

At the center of the banquet hall.

Prince Raphael, who had been receiving congratulations from various nobles, was looking for Clarisse with his eyes.

Considering the occasion, the two of them should have been together, but the princess was missing somehow.

Because of this, the nobles were either watching the prince’s reactions or awkwardly making excuses for Clarisse’s absence.

After a while, finally…

Clarisse came into his view.

From the direction of the garden, she made way towards Raphael from the hall’s entrance.

“Ah, Princess Clarisse.”

Raphael welcomed her and cleared the space beside him. But, what came out of Clarisse’s mouth when she approached him wasn’t her usual gentle and bright voice.

“A moment.”

But rather one that sounded as sharp as a blade.

“I want to talk privately.”

Saying this, she retreated to the back of the banquet hall. The prince then briefly excused himself to the surrounding nobles and followed her.

Though Clarisse mentioned the back of the banquet hall, they actually had to go all the way to the back of the garden to find a place without people.

I was just staring at the moon just now…

Why does it feel so different now?

Clarisse muttered to herself as she looked at Raphael, who had followed her.

As if about to deal with an important matter, the prince straightened his clothes.

Then, he took a step towards the princess.

“Are you enjoying the banquet, Princess Clarisse?”

Prince Raphael tried to change the heavy atmosphere with a light remark. But Clarisse ignored that.

“Del didn’t come?”

“…I’m not in a position to invite her.”

He was at a loss for words for a moment there, but Raphael managed to reply to her calmly. He didn’t know why she was asking about Del so suddenly, but such a topic definitely wasn’t a welcome one for him.

“The fact that she’s a commoner is a part of it, but this banquet is held to confirm our marriage, so there’s no way I could just invite her.”

“So, I assume that you’ve accepted our side’s marriage proposal?”

“About that, I wanted to tell you directly.”

Raphael stepped closer, gently took her hand and confessed.

“Since I have no choice, I’ll accept it.”

“…”

Clarisse slowly looked up at Raphael.

He probably thought that the faint smile on his lips created a touching scene between them.

“During our first meeting, I judged you to be merely a political figure who came for an alliance with my kingdom.”

“And now?”

“Now, I came to know that you are not. In just a few days’ time. You’ve changed my heart.”

In truth, it had been a long time since his thoughts about her had changed.

His first impression of her was that she was a cold-blooded, calculating princess who was only trying to strengthen her kingdom by using him.

But then he came to spend time with her, and realized that she was a completely different person than he expected.

She was like warm sunlight, and she was also the only person who empathized with his situation since both of them bore the difficult mission of being royalty.

He even came to think that she might understand him better than Del.

“Marry me. Let’s grow to love each other, for the sake of fulfilling our duties as royalty.”

“What about Del?”

At her question, Raphael’s expression immediately darkened. Clenching his fist, he confessed honestly.

“I think I’m going to take her as a concubine.”

“……”

“I know it’s shameless, but this was what she suggested to me. A realistic compromise.”

“A compromise.”

As Clarisse murmured, as if tasting the word, Raphael nodded.

“That’s right. So we—“

It’s different.

Indeed. This was different from Isaac’s and Rianna’s story that she had heard yesterday through the Grandmaster.

Who was more noble, whose love was more beautiful…

Clarisse was still too inexperienced to judge such things.

But there was clearly something she desired more, something she aspired to.

“Raphael.”

Seeing the bright smile on her lips as she called his name, Raphael momentarily froze.

I’ve seen her smile many times, but—

He felt like this was the first time he was seeing her true smile. Then, with that smile, she…

“Let’s break off the engagement.”

“…Pardon?”

Threw that unexpected statement.

Before he could even respond, Clarisse began to pour him with words.

“Before I even arrived, you ran away, refusing to even meet me. At our first meeting, you blatantly ignored me.”

“…”

“You didn’t even hide the fact that you favored your lover. You were even seen sneaking out of the palace to meet her while I was there.”

“Uh…”

“Not only that, you also ran away with her right before my eyes.”

“…”

“And finally, you’ve publicly declared that you’ll take a concubine before our marriage is even finalized.”

“P-Princess?”

“Needless to say, your actions have only been insult after insult towards a princess of another country. Our side has long since secured more than enough reasons to demand the cancellation of the engagement.”

It was for this reason that Heyrad had been really diligent in gathering evidence.

The reason they hadn’t used it until now was because political marriage would bring their kingdom so many benefits, but…

“Before fulfilling your duty as royalty, you should take responsibility for your actions first, Prince Raphael.”

I-Is this…

Really the woman I’ve spent nearly a week with?

Raphael was too dumbfounded to say anything.

But, for some reason, this side of hers suited her much better, so in the end, he could just accept this silently.

“You said earlier, didn’t you? That you thought I was just a political figure who came for an alliance.”

Clarisse grinned and nodded, praising Raphael.

“You saw correctly.”

Seeing Clarisse’s bright smile, Raphael asked urgently.

“W-Why are you suddenly doing this? If you were going to break off the engagement like this, you could have done it from the start.”

“You’re right. Honestly, I wasn’t planning to do this at first.”

At that moment, Clarisse recalled what she had said in the carriage on the way to Brentarion.

-Since I don’t know what love is, I won’t feel sad about this

-If I had someone in my heart whom I would give everything to, like Isaac back then—

-It would have been much more difficult for me.

Ironically, what I said back then was perfectly accurate. As expected of me.

Clarisse tried to lighten the heavy atmosphere by praising herself inwardly.

“Honestly, I still think there are many more benefits to going through with the marriage.”

“Then—“

“But!”

Clarisse quickly cut him off and placed her hand on her chest assertively.

“Me doing my best for the kingdom will be enough help. I’ll demonstrate my abilities to the fullest and somehow prove my worth beyond a political marriage.

“Besides, that person will be by my side, so the efficiency of my work will increase. I’ll be having fun while I’m doing my duty. I’ll get to keep him by my side too!”

“…”

Seeing Raphael’s bewildered expression, Clarisse let out a chuckle

Then suddenly, she remembered something.

“Oh right, come to think of it, on our first meeting, you asked if I knew what love was.”

[Do you know what love is?]

[If you do, you’d understand why I’m acting this way]

“Now I know, Prince Raphael.”

Clarisse curtsied, and without a moment’s hesitation, she turned away.

“So this time, you’d understand why I’m acting this way.”

Watching her leave, Raphael felt a heavy sensation in his chest.

He thought he had come to love the two women, and accepted a ‘realistic’ compromise to have them both.

But it turned out that he had just closed his eyes and picked the easiest choice.

To go along with Del’s proposal, telling himself he had no choice.

“Haa…”

Prince Raphael watched Clarisse’s retreating back and slowly crouched down.

It hurts… I see… So I was dumped…

The prince covered his face with both hands, trying hard to hide his tears.

Tomorrow, I’m gonna meet Del…

I’ll kneel before her, apologize…

And take responsibility for this situation…

“Sniff.”

If the capital was in the midst of a charming autumn atmosphere…

The northern wall was still disgustingly cold.

“Sniff.”

Today too, Silverna Cardias was on duty.

With a spear on her shoulder, her hair was slightly longer at the back than before, and she was planning to cut it soon.

“Miss! Miss! Look at this!”

“Hm?”

Anna, her maid as well as a soldier of the Malidean Wall, came up the wall.

“Where were you instead of being on duty?”

Silverna grumbled, but Anna ignored her, shouting while holding out a newspaper.

“Princess Clarisse’s marriage has been canceled. It says the prince of the Brentarion Kingdom already had someone he loved!”

“What? Really?”

“Really. The royal family is furious because of it. Look, they even said that Princess Adeline was ready to start a war!”

“Hmm…?”

Of course, the princess wouldn’t actually start a war at this time. It was probably just an attempt to scare the other side off, or perhaps she made an under the table deal with them to react in this way.

“But thanks to the merciful decision of the benevolent Princess Clarisse, the matter was settled with Brentarion Kingdom only needing to pay reparations—“

Whoosh!

“Uh…?”

“Hm?”

Except for the part Anna was holding, the newspaper was torn and flew into the sky.

As the two crouched down, trying to hide behind the wall from the unexpectedly strong wind.

“…!”

Silverna’s eyes, which had been watching outside the wall, widened.

Something was causing a whirlwind in the pure white mist, and whatever it was, it was gradually approaching the wall.

“Enemy’s raid!”

After Silverna’s shout, the bell warning of an enemy raid immediately began to ring.

The Transcendent Race?!

Guess they’ve been itching to move, huh?

Five months have passed since then…

They sure have been taking their time!

Silverna grinned as she took her stance. She inserted her hand into the gaps between the wall’s bricks to avoid being blown away by the strong gale.

The fierce wind, seemingly created by sorcery, threatened to sweep away even people, but.

The northern warriors responded and dealt with it elegantly.

The Malidean Wall, fully prepared for the Transcendent Race to come at any time.

It won’t be easy to break through.

Just as Silverna thought this with a grin.

“Uh…?”

What her eyes captured was a being that could only elicit exclamations of awe.

At the very front of the army approaching the wall…

Like a great general, he led the rest of them towards the wall.

In his hand was a weapon that was hard to tell whether it was a spear, a sword, or a staff, but…

The most striking thing about him was…

“Red…?”

From his hair color to his eyes.

He was bathed in blood-red.

Just like Helmont.