The top floor, where the most important research was conducted, was off-limits to those without clearance. But the ground floor should have been freely accessible to all.
I hurried inside the mage quarters, quickly found a bathroom, and flung myself inside.
Oh, phew! I made it without running into anyone, just as the rumors suggested. I was glad that I’d memorized the layout of the palace grounds when I took that tour as part of my princess consort training.
Safely sequestered, I allowed the tears to fall and waited until I could calm down.
I wasn’t going to let myself think about it, but I kept replaying the scene in the salon. The harsh things the others said and the irritated tone in Prince Helios’s voice as he spoke of me…they all kept spinning around in my head, sending fresh tears cascading down my cheeks as soon as the old ones dried.
I seemed to have been more emotionally gutted by it than I’d realized.
I am such a fool. Crying won’t solve anything.
Still weeping, I tried my best to think about what I should do now.
It was true. I’d dedicated everything to my training as the next princess consort. I wanted to be of use to Prince Helios of course, but my efforts also garnered so much genuine happiness from Father, Mother, the king, and the queen.
I’d studied so hard, in fact, that they’d even told me I’d “nothing left to learn.” But these were all skills that anyone could learn, given enough effort.
Marietta’s beauty and charm, though, were things she’d come by naturally. Even if I expended every last inch of effort, I could never attain even a vague semblance of the same. Viewed that way, my merits seemed so commonplace. Effort meant nothing in the face of natural gifts.
If Marietta had been the one to undergo the same extensive princess consort training, then she would have been a force to be reckoned with. I would have been all but invisible next to her. Even now, one smile from Marietta was said to have the power to inspire men. She already had so much over me. I couldn’t even begin to compare.
As I began to calm down and really think it over, I realized that I actually…agreed with the things my fiancé and his friends had been saying.
As unhappy as it made me.
Marietta, indeed, would’ve made the better bride.
Just picturing the faces of those I presumed were present in the salon was enough to summon another wave of frustrated tears.
I had sworn to support Prince Helios in the future. To stand proudly by his side.
Why, the prince and I had discussed difficult matters of diplomacy on more than one occasion. I thought that we were allies… It hurt to know that he’d never fully accepted me as his future wife.
I also felt…bad for him. Like I’d wasted his time. If only I’d noticed his true feelings earlier, I would never have expended so much time and effort on princess consort training.
“If I so much as even suggest otherwise, I could end up being disinherited completely.”
I recalled how he had said those words with such a self-derisive chuckle.
Well, if Prince Helios’s hands were tied, it fell to me to be the one to act. That way, no one would be hurt, least of all the man fated to carry the weight of the kingdom on his shoulders someday.
But having said that, it’d be extremely difficult for me to be the one to initiate the dissolution of our engagement. Neither Father nor Mother would take kindly to such a notion. Besides, I could never ask such a grievous favor of them.
And so, I made up my mind.
I knew one way to get out of this without anyone getting hurt. If I gave it my all and was willing to stake my life on its success, then it might just be the way to go. At any rate, I was going to give it a try.
Once I settled on my plan, the tears dried up on their own. Now that I had a plan, all I had to do was focus on carrying it out. That would prove far more constructive than crying alone in a bathroom stall.
I wiped away my tears, walked out of the stall with my head held high, and composed my face in the mirror.
No more tears.
My tears always ceased as soon as I hit upon a concrete plan to fix whatever problem I was having. I scrutinized myself harshly in the mirror. My nose and eyes were still red, but that would pass as I walked in the fresh air.
There will be no going back.
Anyway, since Marietta was there and proving a distraction today, the salon work was no doubt barely even halfway done. I might cease to be a royal bride-to-be very soon, but at that moment, I still had my duties to consider.
I hurried along a secluded back passage that led from the mage quarters to the palace. Midway I spotted a black shadow on a bench, almost hidden. The sight of it made me come to a sudden halt, my body stiffening.
Someone’s down here? That’s unexpected… I should probably return the way I came before they spot me.
Hesitating, I peered over at the figure on the bench. Then I gasped in shocked recognition.
Isn’t that…?
It must’ve been six months since I first crossed paths with him. His appearance reminded me of the darkest of nights. That was the impression he gave me.
Everything he wore, from his robe to his boots, was blacker than the blackest black. His hair and eyes, too, were a distinctive midnight shade that was rare to see in this land.
But he wasn’t…unpleasant to look at. Quite the opposite. His hair, tied back in a single ponytail, shone like a raven’s wing and his eyes were like black onyx. All the black of his features stood out in striking harmony with his pristine white skin.
But his eyes were sharp, coldly piercing whomever they were fixed upon.
“The Frosty Archmage of the Third Mage Guild,” he was called, and his title seemed apt. But…the man seated on the bench in front of me was, for some reason, wearing a sappy smile on his face.
“Lord…Viol?”
Such was my surprise that I found myself speaking his name aloud without meaning to. In a panic, I clapped my hand over my mouth. He lifted his head in surprise, and upon locking eyes with me, his mild expression suddenly grew stiff.
As the half-eaten cupcake started to tumble out of his grasp, I yelped in spite of myself.
“Your cupcake!”
“!”
With surprisingly good reflexes, Lord Viol snatched the tumbling cupcake out of thin air. Then, he heaved a sigh of relief, as did I.
I would have felt terrible if he’d lost his chance to eat it because of me. He seemed to be enjoying it so and I was the one who’d interrupted him. I was relieved to see that it’d survived its tumble with merely a crumble.
“I’m so terribly sorry.”
I lowered my gaze in solemn contrition and made to scurry past Lord Viol. How rude of me to interrupt, simply because the sight of him gave me pause. Surely, he has no further wish to look upon me.
Just as I was about to pass by…
“Wait.”
He bid me stop, using that icy voice. I turned around, tentatively. Lord Viol was glaring at me, his face a mask of indignance.
Terrifying.
His expression was frosty. Where was the sweet smile he’d worn just moments ago? Had I imagined it?