I turned toward Islan just as Dirk opened his mouth, looking like he’d been waiting for precisely this moment to speak, but all of a sudden, the surrounding chatter went quiet. “Well, then. I appreciate the kind offer, but all the dancers today look like young girls. They’re all very beautiful, but my tastes run a little more mature.”
“Er, well, that is…” Islan stumbled to respond. I could already feel the shift in the room, our neighbors suddenly extruding a nosy curiosity that held no genuine interest. The dancers were up on stage, and the mood shifted with them.
One of them was draped in sheer silk. She came dangerously close to the flames as she cast a quick glance in our direction, then whirled away before returning to the line, almost like she was running away.
I caught a brief glimpse of her pale face before she turned and tipped my head slightly. I wasn’t interested enough to guess her age, but she did look a little younger than Cecilia. That meant she’d been sent over on purpose because someone thought I might prefer younger girls.
If I don’t stop this, are they going to just keep throwing even younger ones at me? What the hell is wrong with these people? And if Cecilia hears about this, I’m going to have a headache for a week…
Still, I guessed the dancers didn’t all come here of their own free will. That much was obvious. Just because their family was pushing for it didn’t mean they went willingly. No sane person would want to sell themselves off to a demon who goes around brandishing severed monster heads.
And even if both sides agreed to a polygamous relationship, the ones who suffered the most were always the ones sent into the harem, which only showed that no one really wanted to share the person they loved, unless there was a damn good reason. I remembered Cece tried to stall for time at first, too.
Just remembering that made my heart ache. I knew it was my fault, but I couldn’t handle asking her if she really hated it. No way in hell. Just imagining it made me want to rip apart everyone who had a hand in shaping the situation. But having an outburst now would be too pathetic, so I clenched my fist and just barely managed to tamp the anger back down.
Then the lights dimmed.
The illusionary flames lit up one by one, forming a circle on the stage. And the moment they were all lit, bells began to ring, signaling the start of the dancers’ performance.
The choreography was complex and elegant. It was worth watching, at least. But the dancer from before was so pale it didn’t match her skill at all, which only ticked me off further. It was the wrong kind of effort. She’d probably been ordered to dance in front of me, but there was no way she had the nerve to extinguish the flame in front of me.
And that didn’t change the fact that this whole setup was a direct insult to Cecilia. Someone would have to pay.
I pulled the desert rose from its basket and leaned back into the sofa. Islan tried to stop me. “W-wait, Prince Lucas! I haven’t gone back on our agreement! That wasn’t my intention, so please don’t crush the rose! They’re rare natural artifacts!”
“Then what did you intend?”
They’d placed a rose before me specifically for me to present to one of the dancers. What else could he have possibly meant by it?
I narrowed my eyes, waiting for him to spill it already. He did, though I wasn’t expecting the name he connected to the ploy.
“It was all Yana. She said even if the flame is extinguished, Prince Lucas wouldn’t choose the dancer anyway, so it’s harmless. She said it was better to place the desert rose here so you could give it to your wife later.”
I’d fully intended to crush it from the start, to make it crystal clear that it wasn’t even worth giving away.
But if I refused to choose, like the Aram woman said, the only ones who’d lose face were the dancer and her family. I knew that much.
The desert rose was no ordinary ornament, though. It was a special kind of rose-shaped mineral that only formed under rare conditions in Majaar. It never withered and therefore symbolized eternal love. That was why it was used for proposals.
So then…
“She wants me to give it to Cecilia?”
“Y-you’re called the Knight of the Blue Rose, right? So we figured maybe you’d want to give it to your wife, since it fits…”
That “maybe” isn’t inspiring much confidence here. Are you asking whether I want to give it to her or not? Not even a little. Why would I want to give my wife something that was crawling with your fingerprints? I can just get one on my own.
“Give it to my wife, you say?”
That’s what Yana must’ve advised Islan to do, but what was she scheming? Cecilia told me that the Aram princess entered Islan’s harem after receiving one of these desert roses, but all of them joined for political reasons. If she had to choose between Akeem and Islan, she must’ve thought Islan more likely to take the throne.
And knowing Cecilia, it said a lot that she told me she thought Yana was too good for Islan. The Aram heiress was certainly competent if she’d survived in that poisonous palace for so many years.
I’d admit there was something freeing about her now…maybe because she wasn’t feeling the pressure of being the princess here. Her smile looked unbelievably bright lately. But I felt no sympathy for the Aram woman’s situation. She showed up every damn day just because Cecilia kept inviting her over.
Not only that, but she dragged her little brother along, and for some reason, it always fell to me to keep him busy. That only cut into my time with my wife.
The little brat made me break my own coliseum records five times. By the next time we met, he’d better be strong enough to shatter my old numbers, or he’d have it coming.
There was something else bothering me, though.
Whatever happened in the coliseum that night made Cecilia realize something, and I wanted to know what it was. When I asked if everything was settled, she nodded at me with an expression I hadn’t been expecting, like she’d made some kind of decision. Like she had steeled herself for battle. She looked calm, beautiful, and frighteningly fragile. I had a feeling she would crumble if I asked her what happened, so I backed off.
I gritted my teeth, trying to steady the storm inside me as I remembered how she’d stood so proudly.
I held my breath for a moment, then let out a sigh.
“Prince Islan, has the princess from Aram reported anything else?” I asked.