94. Tasha Kimfri

2024.01.02.

Lancelot firmly steeled himself before answering.

Clade casually shoved his hands into his trouser pockets, his eyelids drooping as he looked down at Lancelot. His expression clearly said, “Go ahead, say it again.”

Lancelot added firmly, “I don’t want you to get hurt. It might be better not to go to the palace after all, even if it takes time. Refusing won’t strip you of your title. So what if people suspect you? The Emperor has no grounds to arrest you without reason. The situation isn’t the same as ten years ago.”

“There’s no need for mental preparation.”

Clade walked past Lancelot with a bored expression. He settled back into his seat amid the towering piles of newspapers and gossip sheets.

The affairs of his estate, neglected for ten years, demanded his attention every single night, leaving no time to spare.

He certainly didn’t have time to listen to Lancelot’s sentimental rambling.

“I never cared for that woman in the first place—what’s there to worry about? If Bollonico provokes me, I should be grateful. Giving my runaway wife more embarrassment and adding another scandalous episode about the disgraced crown prince? The gossip lovers will be delighted.”

“……”

Clade sat rigidly at his dimly lit desk in the dark office, his quill moving steadily.

Lancelot watched him for a long moment, then let out a short sigh and opened the office door.

A sliver of light from the corridor seeped slowly into the room.

“If you’re really that unaffected, then go to sleep.”

He forced himself to take a step forward, his footsteps barely lifting from the floor, then continued.

“Since that day, you haven’t even entered your bedroom—you’ve just kept working like this nonstop. That’s not normal.”

The office door closed slowly.

For a moment.

An intense silence pressed heavily on the space before vanishing.

-Crackle, crackle.

The clean, precise sound of the moving quill gradually scratched across the silence of Clade Euphris’s office.

***

Regina Pelliese received news of Yuan’s return at a tea party hosted by Princess Celentina.

After enduring the heartbreak of being publicly snubbed at the long-awaited royal debutante ball, Regina had ultimately failed to dance with anyone, suffering the worst debut of her life.

Since that day, not only had the noble heiresses she’d desperately tried to fit in with cut contact, but even minor noble scions had stopped reaching out entirely.

Regina could do nothing but flounder in despair, day after day—ironically, the only person who kept contacting her was the horse-headed Dreykub.

Dreykub’s worried letters, completely unaware that Regina had promised her first dance to Bollonico, had become her sole lifeline.

It was at this moment, just as Regina had barely clawed herself out of depression and resolved to use Dreykub to regain her footing in society, that Princess Celentina sent her a tea party invitation.

Celentina, the most sought-after bride in high society, hosted events brimming with eligible bachelors.

Even if she were to be humiliated, Regina told herself she must endure and stay until the end.

Only by standing out somewhere could she find another chance to approach Bollonico.

So absorbed was Regina in preparing her appearance to avoid embarrassment at the party that she attended completely unaware of her father’s recent fury over Yuan’s actions.

Thus, when she was seated close to Princess Celentina and heard the following words, Regina’s mind went completely blank.

“Prince Bollonico and the Pelliese family are so closely connected. I didn’t get a good look at the debutante ball, but Her Highness the Crown Princess is said to be stunningly beautiful. You lived together as children—how could you never have introduced her to us?”

It was an abrupt, unexpected mention of Yuan Pelliese.

“The Crown Princess? I don’t wish to speak of her any further.”

Regina had assumed the girls gathered at the tea party would bring up the debutante ball incident just to embarrass her.

Determined not to get dragged in, she had resolved to stay quiet—but now they kept asking about Yuan.

“At the upcoming title ceremony, will you introduce her in person? Who will Prince Bollonico escort? If Her Highness the Crown Princess attends as a guest of the Empress’s court, it should naturally be either the First or Second Prince. But since the Second Prince is nearly impossible to meet, it would have to be Prince Bollonico, wouldn’t it?”

“What are you talking about? A guest of the Empress’s court? And how on earth could I introduce Her Highness the Crown Princess at the palace? What title ceremony are you referring to?”

“Oh my.”

Princess Celentina pushed back her wavy golden hair, her eyes widening in surprise.

Regina, too, was startled by the sudden buzz filling the room.

Her mind, occupied only with justifications for past lies, could only see the others’ sudden, random remarks as strange.

Sensing something was terribly wrong, Regina glanced around.

She caught the sound of beautiful girls, dressed exquisitely, whispering behind their teacups, smirking at each other.

“Miss Regina, I knew you’ve been cooped up in your mansion lately, but being this out of touch with the world isn’t acceptable—especially when it concerns your own ‘family.'”

As Princess Celentina’s pale hand naturally gestured toward a nearby maid, a well-trained young servant quickly placed a newspaper into her palm.

“Perhaps His Highness the First Prince was never interested in you, Miss Regina, but in Her Highness the Crown Princess all along. There’ve been countless ‘unworthy scandals’ over the years, but nothing this strong—appearing side by side in the newspapers—since the days of Grand Duchess Ariesta. Don’t you agree?”

Regina struggled to hide her trembling hands as she read the newspaper handed to her.

It had only been a short while since she’d forced Yuan Pelliese to sign a sworn statement by holding Louise’s letter hostage.

Regina’s demands had been clear: never return to the Pelliese estate, and never flirt with Crown Prince Bollonico again.

‘When did she act like she didn’t care about Bollonico at all, and now she’s supposedly too weak to adapt to the harsh environment of Roxenhardt and is staying at the palace for recuperation?’

And Prince Bollonico himself brought her there?

On the surface, it was simply news of a harmonious royal family, but anyone unable to sense the subtle implication—another fallen crown princess enchanted by Bollonico’s beauty—would be a fool.

“His Highness the First Prince is famously capricious. It’s sad, but what can you do, Miss Regina? Since the debutante ball, you’re the only one among us who hasn’t received a single marriage proposal. You absolutely must attend. Only there might you secure even a tiny plot of land from that household, wouldn’t you?”

Princess Celentina gave Regina a sharp jab with the characteristic expression of someone feigning pity, her brows slightly furrowed.

Over the past few months,

she had clearly decided not to let Regina, who had dared to claim the title of Bollonico’s lover, go unpunished.

No wonder she’d been given a seat so close—she’d been placed right in front to be tormented.

While the girls deliberately ignored her, Regina reread the newspaper over and over.

On the table, where the scent of sweet cookies and tea filled the air, Yuan Pelliese’s name had long since become the sweetest treat, passed around among the girls as gossip.

The beautiful fallen crown prince—

and Yuan Pelliese, who had monopolized him, now choosing a new man.

Whispers cautiously brought up sightings from the gossip sheets.

Rumors of someone seen leaving Bollonico’s bedroom multiple times quickly heated up the atmosphere.

Regina’s blood ran cold.

While Regina sat frozen like a tightly bound prisoner, the girls’ attention shifted to who would be chosen as Empress Marilyn’s lady-in-waiting this time.

On this topic, the undisputed figure of interest was Tasha Kimfri, the eldest daughter of the Kimfri Count family, the dominant power of the Eastern region.

“I’d really like to meet Her Highness the Crown Princess someday. There are so many stories about the Black Mansion, and I’d love to hear about palace life too. After all, regardless of rumors, she’s a member of the royal family—knowing her personally can’t hurt.”

“It seems difficult to be introduced to Her Highness through Miss Regina. Perhaps it’d be better to ask Miss Tasha instead.”

“Miss Tasha will soon be permitted to enter the palace as the Empress’s lady-in-waiting, won’t she?”

“Ah— I still can’t forget the palace ball. Just the thought of being able to go in and out of the palace every day makes me so excited.”

Regina had already vanished from the girls’ sight.

Tasha Kimfri, seated closest to Princess Celentina, had been quietly sipping her tea, her eyes lowered in her characteristic cool demeanor for a long while before finally speaking.

“Well, it’s not yet certain whether I’ll become the Empress’s lady-in-waiting.”

“What? Don’t you have the Empress’s favor? I heard the Second Prince and you have been close friends since childhood.”

“Then perhaps Miss Tasha could subtly ask His Highness the Second Prince? My mother mentioned the Empress said the Second Prince and Her Highness the Crown Princess are getting along quite well.”

Regina looked at the girl now receiving attention of a completely different temperature than the scorn poured on her.

In truth, Regina had neither known that Empress Marilyn was currently selecting young ladies-in-waiting, nor that Tasha Kimfri had such deep ties to the royal family.

Was this the kind of different ‘tier’ Princess Celentina spoke of until her ears were calloused?

The Pelliese family, too, was always counted among the respected noble houses.

Yet these girls, casually discussing imperial favor as if it were ordinary, seemed distant.

The special feeling she’d once had—of being a unique girl—when secretly called Bollonico’s hidden lover now seemed trivial, not some grand miracle to them.

And it deeply annoyed her to see Yuan Pelliese so effortlessly stepping into the spotlight of that higher-tier world as its central figure.