Chapter 12.1
I was surrounded by seamstresses who had dressed me in the outfit they had prepared, while the princess gave various instructions with a triumphant attitude. I watched it all as if it were someone else’s business, remembering what happened yesterday.
It was the worst timing. When I tried to refuse her request for a kiss, she asked if I wanted to see her in a prison cell. Unable to do anything in that situation, I tried to convince myself that it was just a casual contact accident as I leaned my face closer. And just at that moment, Ester returned
Although I hadn’t touched her yet, my posture could easily be mistaken as having kissed her just now. Yet, Ester seemed relieved and relieved, as if tension had been lifted.
She had been speaking in favor of the princess before, so maybe she was trying to push me onto the princess. Had I become unnecessary to her? Such negative thoughts filled my head, and I hurt myself unnecessarily, putting aside my own actions.
“Hurry up. . .but make it perfect. I want my perfect Theodore to be worthy of me.”
“. . .I’m just the second son of the Count family.”
“Well, can’t just the second son of the Count family become the next king of Acardi? Besides, you’re so beautiful that you don’t seem to belong to this world.”
It seems that they have finished while I was lost in thought. I sighed heavily at the sight of the seamstresses nodding vigorously at the princess’s words and her arrogant attitude, feeling unbearable.
It’s not that I’m bad with women. If necessary, I can communicate with them, and I want to be kind to people regardless of gender. However, when someone looks at me like that, being engaged to Ester, I start to question my ethics, and if someone looks at me with admiration, I naturally shrink back.
However, it seemed that my face was well-received by women, and I was often looked at with such eyes. I didn’t like it.
I wonder how Ester always looked at me. I wanted to see those eyes that Princess Angelica described as “slightly more yellowish green than mine.” I wonder if the day will come when I can see them.
“. . .It’s not necessary.”
Ester’s cold voice refused my explanation. I keenly felt that my heart had drifted away again, even though she had been making an effort to come closer to me recently. If it was going to be like this, I should have just taken action and made her mine both in name and reality. . .I even thought such a despicable thing.
“. . .Isn’t that Onii-sama and Esterize-san over there?”
I was startled when the name of the person I had imagined in my head came out of the princess’s mouth. Following her gaze out the window, I saw Ester and the Crown Prince walking side by side in the garden.
“Hehe, they look like lovers.”
I felt disgust towards her as she grinned amusedly. However, it was even more frustrating that I couldn’t deny it, even from my own perspective.
Crown Prince Diark is the same age as Ester and it is well-known that they are very close. The friendship between Acardi and Verde is said to continue and become even stronger in the future. However, it is understood that it is only a friendship and they cannot become romantically involved. But. . .
“Hey, Theodore. Do you know the rumor that Onii-sama still hasn’t decided on a fiancée because he can’t give up on Esterize-san?”
“. . .Even if that were true, it’s impossible for them to be together.”
Unless they were both heirs to the throne. . .If there was even a slight possibility of them being together, I might have kidnapped and locked her up somewhere.
The princess speaks as if mocking my thoughts.
“It’s not impossible. It may be true in Acardi, where the first princess has always become the queen since the founding of the country, but who knows about Onii-sama? After all, there are three princes.”
“. . .What are you asking me for by telling me that?”
“I’m just stating the facts. Even if that princess abandons you, I’ll take you in, so don’t worry. Or do you want to abandon the princess? I’ll help you break off the engagement in a way that Theodore isn’t blamed.”
“. . .As they say, the tongue is the source of calamity. This person keeps saying unnecessary things and intends to falsely accuse Ester. Should I just kill her? In a way that no one will know, making it look like an accident or suicide. I have complete confidence in carrying it out perfectly. Sometimes, in order to protect the queen, there are means that cannot be chosen. That’s why the education of the next king includes torture, brainwashing, and assassination methods that cannot be openly discussed.”
