Chapter 19: Uninvited Guest (2)

Before Damian, who was wearing a smile, Cassia let out a small sigh.

“Please don’t worry too much. I’ve only come to see your face today.”

Cassia fanned herself again, covering her mouth. Then, tilting her head slightly and smiling, she continued as if slightly threatening Damian.

“I don’t want to ruin such a good day either. But as a member of the Imperial Family, how can I stand idly by when I hear that the Grand Duke has ‘secretly’ put forward a successor?”

“…I see. You are right, Your Highness.”

“So… please make time for me later. I plan to stay at the Grand Ducal Castle for a while.”

‘So it comes to this.’

Damian sighed softly, gave Cassia an awkward smile, and agreed. Since he had already been caught, there seemed to be no need to hide it any further.

‘She’s become like this after not seeing her for years. She didn’t seem so prickly in the old days.’

Seeing his cousin Cassia looking every bit the dignified member of the Imperial Family, he couldn’t help but compare her current appearance to her old self, and she had changed so much.

It was his uncle’s absurd demand for marriage. He was disgusted by his crazy uncle, who wanted him to marry a cousin he had known since birth.

The First Princess, who was of marriageable age, had already been sold off, so he was planning to sell off the Second Princess to him. Even beasts and Magical Creatures cherish their offspring, so what on earth was his uncle?

Damian’s head throbbed as if it were about to break.

Seeing his cousin, who had become nothing more than a tool for a political marriage, smile.

Damian couldn’t smile.

---

Yudith’s dressing room.

In reality, it was a room that Yudith hardly ever used and didn’t need, as she rarely went out, but today, the room served its purpose.

Chloe, dressed in a seductive red dress, looked in the mirror and sighed deeply.

The dress was beautiful. She liked the neat frills that embraced her neck and the demure upper part of the chest, but as it went down, it was densely studded with transparent jewels that sparkled like stars embroidered in the night sky.

For a moment, Chloe looked at herself in surprise at the luxurious dress design, which was gorgeous but not at all excessive.

But as soon as she put on the dress, which was so extravagant that she was afraid to even walk in it, Chloe’s commoner instincts made her tremble.

“Someone once said… that it takes a certain amount of courage to have wealth.”

“Why are you so worried when you look so pretty? How could maids like us ever have this kind of experience? Just enjoy it.”

Erina, who was doing her hair from behind, smiled brightly. Normally, she would be jealous, but Erina wasn’t at all. Maybe it was because she couldn’t live without her Husband, even though she cursed him every day.

She knew that the reason she kept telling her to get married was for her sake, as she was the only one in the Grand Ducal Castle who wasn’t married. She knew it, but… too much is poison…

“Okay, all done! Milady, how is my handiwork today?”

“Not bad at all.”

Chloe chuckled and matched Erina’s joke, then looked in the mirror and admired her unfamiliar face when Yudith’s voice came from behind.

“Are you done?”

“Ah, yes. I just finished.”

Turning her head to look at Yudith, she saw Yudith wearing a dark blue dress that looked black unless you looked closely.

She couldn’t hide her surprise when she saw Yudith.

The glamorous dress, tailored to fit her body line, looked familiar. The blouse-like, fluttering frills embraced her neck, and the demure upper part of the chest, like her dress, was almost the same design.

And as it went down, Yudith’s dark blue dress, which was as dark as black, became more and more extravagant, with jewels densely studded like stars and galaxies embroidered in the night sky.

The colors were slightly different, but the design didn’t seem to be much different from the dress she was wearing.

If anything, the accessories were very different. The earrings with blue jewels were noticeable, and she wore a necklace made of large and small diamonds over her covered neck.

It was absurd.

Because this was definitely a dress she had never seen before. Seeing Yudith, who had come out wearing a new dress after the dress she had been coordinating for a week had disappeared, she was so dumbfounded that she couldn’t close her mouth.

“Where did you put the dress we were coordinating and wear a different dress?!”

“I’m going to wear that when I go to the Imperial Palace, so it’s okay.”

Yudith, who made a strange excuse and chuckled, turned her body and put a necklace on her.

The leather strap on the necklace that Yudith had bought her last time had disappeared, and the necklace with the gold string was draped around her neck, but the existence of the necklace was not visible because of the dress that covered her neck.

‘I should have gone with a dress that revealed her neck… It would have looked good since I put her hair up.’

Yudith stared at the back of Chloe’s neck under her raised hair. She was disappointed that the dress covered her slender neck under her neatly raised hair.

‘Next time… should I give her a dress that reveals her neck?’

It would definitely be beautiful. It was obvious that it would be beautiful to see her neck not only in the moonlight-covered bedroom but also in a place exposed to the sunlight.

“What are you thinking so hard about?”

“That Chloe is too pretty.”

“You’re joking…”

Chloe turned her head so that Yudith couldn’t see her face. Yudith felt something pricking in her chest at Chloe’s actions, which still seemed to take it as a joke.

‘She really… doesn’t take me seriously to the end.’

Yudith’s mood sank at the fact that she was just a Milady to her, nothing more and nothing less.

Looking down at Chloe’s neck under her raised hair, she saw that it was red.

Seeing Chloe’s ears turning red and the back of her neck turning bright red from her compliment, Yudith smiled.

‘Is there… a little bit of a chance?’

Yudith chuckled and held out her hand to Chloe to help her up. The noisy sounds were coming through the windows, as if many people had already gathered in the ballroom.

‘If I escort her here, Chloe will definitely refuse…’

Chloe hates being conspicuous. Yudith, thinking that she, with her petty bourgeois personality, would never enter the ballroom with her, took the initiative first.

“Then go ahead first. I’m the last one to enter… I’ll go in with Damian.”

Yudith also sighed softly at Chloe’s appearance, who seemed relieved by Yudith’s words.

“Then. You have to see me at the ballroom.”

“Of course. I’ll be watching Milady become an adult right next to you.”

Chloe also smiled at Yudith’s smiling face. With Erina’s help, she slowly walked out and moved to the ballroom before Yudith.

Erina chuckled, as if she found it funny that I couldn’t walk properly and was staggering because of the high heels I was wearing for the first time.

“Have a good time. Tell me if you meet a good man.”

“I told you that’s not going to happen… I’m just going to hide in the corner.”

What could I do there when I couldn’t dance and didn’t know the etiquette of the nobility? I was just going to stand quietly like a folding screen and watch Yudith’s coming-of-age ceremony.

---

Cassia was standing in the corner of the ballroom with a glass of juice in her hand, leaning against the wall.

Although the Princess had announced her entrance to the ballroom, for some reason, not many people from this Grand Ducal Family approached her.

Sometimes they would come close, greet her, and tell her that they had come because they were curious about the Grand Ducal Family’s successor, but they didn’t give her much of a response.

‘That’s good… it’s not annoying…’

Cassia gripped the glass in her hand tightly and trembled.

‘What the hell is this I’m doing because of my damn father.’

The damn forced marriage to her old cousin that she had been forced into since she was seven years old. She really hated it, but she didn’t have many choices.

At first, she didn’t know anything, and she didn’t doubt it because she had been told that she would marry Grand Duke Damian since she was seven years old.

Of course, she thought that was the case because everyone around her said so. That he was the person she was going to marry. But…

As time went on, she started to think.

‘I want to date like in a romance novel too…! I don’t want to marry an old man like that…! At least… at least up to a three-year difference…!’

Romance novels that the maids happened to show her…

Inside, there was a world of fantasy that she didn’t know about.

The sight of high-ranking nobles holding each other’s hands and running away because of love. She was captivated by the sight of the protagonists in the novels living and going crazy for love.

Where in the world would there be such a wonderful person who would sacrifice everything for her?

‘If there is such a thing, it’s only in the world of novels.’

She had to act like that in front of the Grand Duke because she had to show that she was from the Imperial Family…

Honestly, when she heard the rumor that the successor had been raised to someone else, especially a woman, she cheered inwardly.

Her damn father was surprised when he heard the rumor and sent her here… but it was good for her because the marriage with the Grand Duke was off the table.

She couldn’t have a love marriage in her position as a Princess, but she felt relieved that she wouldn’t marry an old man like that.

‘What’s the point of being handsome… when the age difference between us is over twenty years.’

Let’s just stay quiet. Let’s just say hello. Let’s just say hello to the new Duchess and quietly return to the Imperial Palace. The Grand Duke has appointed a new successor, and especially since it’s a woman, what can I do?

With that thought, she decided to quietly stand like a folding screen in the ballroom.

Then, as if the world was ignoring her will to stay quiet.

She caused an absurd accident.

–Clang!!

‘Ah… shit…!’

Was it because of the unfamiliar dress with a lot of frills?

Or was it because she had relaxed too much thinking that she didn’t have to get married here?

Her shoe stepped on the hem of her dress, and she stumbled and hit the table.

The red wine glass on the table poured over her head, and she took a wine shower.

There was no such thing as this kind of disgrace as a Princess.

A Princess who was just standing still and fell because she stepped on her dress…

This was a mistake she had never made even when she was seven years old…

The surroundings became quiet.

She could definitely feel all the eyes on her.

She could feel the shame rising to the end of her face and her face burning.

“Your Highness…?! Are you okay…?!”

“I, I, I’m okay. Don’t worry.”

The escort was surprised when he saw it and ran over, but she couldn’t think of anything. Her mind was paralyzed, and she couldn’t think properly.

She just had to clean it up, but she didn’t know how to clean it up.

As she tried to get up and head outside, she felt something large covering her body.

“Let’s go to the lounge quickly.”

“Who…?”

She didn’t know who it was because of the cloth that covered her face. She just grabbed the hand that was holding her and followed the unknown hand, but the escort didn’t say anything.

So she decided to follow him for now.

The escort followed behind and was dragged out by someone who was holding her hand.

“I’ll use the lounge for a while. Please wait outside so no one comes in.”

“Yes, I will.”

The escort nodded at her words and didn’t follow her into the lounge. She lifted the wine-soaked cloth and checked who was holding her hand.

Her black hair was neatly up, and her clear blue eyes were smiling.

The red dress she was wearing had diamonds finely ground and embedded in it. She was speechless when she saw the diamonds flowing down like the Milky Way.

‘She’s a young lady wearing such a high-end dress, so of course the escort didn’t say anything… What kind of noble young lady grinds diamonds into her dress…?’

I could see her clear blue eyes amidst her black hair. She quietly smiled with her eyes, looked at me, and said:

“Take off your clothes.”

“Huh?”

“Quickly! If it stains, you can’t get the wine marks out. Hurry!”

“Uh, uh, uh!?”

She took off her silk gloves and almost forcibly tried to take off my dress, as if she was robbing me of it.

“S, stop!!!”

---

The ballroom.

Yudith, escorted by Damian, entered and quietly scanned the ballroom, looking for Chloe.

‘…?’

No matter where she looked, Chloe was nowhere to be seen.

The maid had definitely said that she had entered the ballroom…

She searched every nook and cranny, but Chloe was nowhere to be found.

‘…She’s in the castle.’

Chloe was important, but the Duchess investiture ceremony that was about to begin was also important.

If she left her place here to look for Chloe, everything she had done for Chloe would be in vain, so she decided to be patient for a little while.

Still, she couldn’t see Chloe, who had promised to watch her, and frustration welled up inside.

Yudith bit her lip and thought only of the vanished Chloe.