Love Me Just Once (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 28

The day Netepel disappeared, Aglante’s second prince asked her to dance. Ophelia accepted his invitation.

Throughout their dance around the banquet hall, the second prince praised her appearance. He even congratulated her for finally coming to her senses and spending time with a decent boy like himself.

As soon as the dance ended, Ophelia ran straight to the lounge and vomited everything in her stomach.

The following summer, at the age of thirteen, during another summit, Netepel was nowhere to be seen, and Ophelia noticed a new boy. She heard he was a royal child, but not the son of the Grand Duke’s consort.

Worried that she might start spending time with that boy, Mahanas assigned a personal attendant to keep watch over her.

Yet even without his interference, she would never have mingled with him anyway—because the boy stayed locked in his quarters and refused to come out. Moreover, Ophelia no longer wished to grow close to anyone.

As the eldest among the children of the three noble houses, the Crown Prince of Egelbamot summoned her privately and told her that Netepel would no longer attend future summits.

“You’re clever, Princess—I assume you understand exactly what I’m trying to say.”

Looking down at her with gentle eyes as he spoke those words, the Crown Prince made Ophelia feel once again the revulsion she’d experienced last year.

Ever since seeing the Crown Prince, her stomach had felt unsettled, so she had told Mahanas’s ever-watchful attendant that she wasn’t feeling well.

But the attendant had shoved her into the banquet hall anyway—Mahanas had repeatedly stressed that she needed to form close ties with the future pillars of power.

Entering the banquet hall, fully adorned as she was, Ophelia resolved to dance the moment the music began.

Since attendance demanded at least one dance, she figured she might as well get it over with quickly and rest afterward.

Just then, the banquet hall doors burst open, and Aglante’s three princes rushed in noisily. Ophelia noticed that the eldest prince held something in his hand.

“Now, is there no kind soul willing to dance with this poor wretch? Though he’s clearly uneducated, a little pity from you would be the greatest honor of his wretched life!”

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