CEDRIC
“GOOD MORNING. Why, it’s another lovely day. Don’t you agree, my dearest Tiara?”
I had come straight to her room in the Freesian castle after finishing breakfast. She spooked at my approach, her beautiful golden eyes wider than usual, but eventually returned my greeting.
“Did you sleep well?” I asked, and she smiled shyly.
“Yes, thank you.” Her face had a healthy color to it, so she probably wasn’t lying. She politely responded by asking how I’d slept.
To be honest, I’d barely slept at all. Only a day had passed. When I pictured Lance still asleep in that bed, unresponsive and unmoving, any hope of a good night’s rest had fled from me.
I smiled at her regardless. “Unfortunately, I didn’t sleep a wink. How could I when I had someone as sweet as you on my mind?”
As I purred the words, I set my fingers under her chin—careful not to scratch her with my rings—and tipped her head up.
Peering deep into her eyes, I added, “I wanted to see you as soon as possible.”
Her cheeks flushed red. Yes, this is so easy. She watched me, never turning her pink-tinged face away, and I caught a sweet scent on the air.
Tiara jumped like a nervous little critter when my hand drifted toward her ear. I smiled, combing my fingers through her soft, golden hair—strands the same color as mine. The sun pouring in through the window only enhanced the flaxen glow. Her hair, finer than mine, kissed my skin like silk.
“Would you…sleep by my side tonight?”
Drawn in by her scent, I kissed a lock of her beautiful hair. Tiara grew redder and redder each time I stole a glance at her, until her lips were trembling. I waited for her response, but she was too flustered to form a coherent sentence.
“P-Prince Cedric, what’re you…?!” my new fiancée blurted out.
The queen had made the official announcement a day ago. I’d heard Tiara had spent her entire life closed off in a tower, and it seemed she wasn’t used to being around men yet. When she’d blushed upon meeting me last night, I assumed she’d be an easy target—someone who’d fall in love with me right away.
“Pardon me, I just couldn’t help it,” I said. “Your hair is too beautiful.”
I flashed her the type of smile that had made women swoon all my life. I let go of her hair, my bracelets jingling with each motion. Tiara was frozen, but I took her hand and kissed the back of it anyway.
“Is this what you’d prefer?” I asked.
She twitched and stood up straight. “Um…” she began, her entire body flushed like her heart might explode. When I released her hand and closed the distance between us, she scampered back to the other wall.
“What’s wrong? We’re engaged, aren’t we? This is how one betrothed greets another.”
“B-but we only just met last night!”
I wasn’t used to someone so inexperienced. Back when I lived with Lance and Yohan, a few of the women in town had reacted this way when I’d ventured there. I was determined to keep her in this flustered state.
Thud! I slammed my hand against the wall next to her so she couldn’t escape, my bracelets jangling. Pinned between me and the wall, she stared at the arm blocking her escape.
“Looking away from me, hm? I guess I didn’t get my point across.”
When I chuckled, Tiara finally looked me in the eye. I leaned closer, and she blushed harder and squeezed her eyes shut. So she was prepared to receive me as her fiancé, at least to this extent. She clutched her hands over her heart, standing as still as a statue and keeping her eyes closed as tears pricked the corners. Oh well.
I kissed her cheek instead of her lips. She flinched, but once I backed away, she blinked like she’d expected more.
“What, wasn’t the cheek good enough? You can be honest if you want me to keep going.”
I brushed my hair back, and she flailed all over again. “N-no! I-I-I just thought you were—” She cut herself off, not daring to say more.
Sweeping a thumb beside her eye, I said, “I’m not into stealing kisses from crying girls. But I guess I don’t hate making them cry.”
I took her hand and suggested we go outside, then led her down the spiral staircase of her isolated tower. Tiara flushed anew at our joined hands, turning away shyly when I smiled at her. Despite the adorable reaction, I knew…someday, she would come to despise me too.
It was only natural. I’d come to this kingdom to make her fall in love with me before I killed her. No matter how much I charmed her with my good looks, the moment she learned the truth would be the moment she came to hate me—no matter how much love she once felt. That thought helped push aside the guilt for deceiving her. She was just using me as an outlet to live out her fantasies, after all.
Things like love and romance didn’t exist. There was nothing but ugly lust and the greedy desire to tie people down. Ultimately, the only thing I used to trick her was my appearance, not who I was on the inside. She was bound to release my hand the second she discovered all the blood staining it.
“You’ll probably fall into my clutches over the next three days,” I had said to her when we met the night before.
With the bashful way she blushed and pressed her lips together, I could read her like a book. I was confident I’d be able to keep my promise to the queen. My current trip would only last three days, so I needed to make the most of my chances to steal her heart during this time. I wanted Tiara to feel empty for the next month without me, to leave such a lasting mark on her that she couldn’t exist without me. All of this was to get Lance’s country back…as well as Yohan’s.
I couldn’t trust anyone. Yohan himself hated me now; he believed the queen instead of me. But if possible, I wanted to return his country to him too. He’d lost it because of my own foolishness. Even if he still detested me, this was my one and only chance for atonement.
If I just seduced the queen’s sister and got a bit more blood on my hands, I could fix everything. Not that I fully believed the queen when she’d offered me that bargain, but it was the only thread I had to grab onto. All I could do was defile the princess’s heart, staining it with thoughts of me and me alone.
Then why did I hesitate to steal a kiss from her just now?
I could have given her a goodbye kiss last night too. She never would have forgotten me if I stole her lips right away, even if she wanted the kiss. It would have made my work over these three days much easier.
No, I wouldn’t keep hesitating. I would steal a kiss in the end. I couldn’t satisfy the queen without winning Tiara over enough that she asked for a kiss herself.
But…kisses were important to women. Even the me from one year ago would have foolishly gone in for a kiss on the first day. After filling my head with all the knowledge I could acquire, I understood that women saw kisses as something sacred. I couldn’t capture her lips so easily. Only in books did people gaze into each other’s eyes and lock lips before they even realized what they were doing, but many women probably dreamed of that sort of thing.
That left me with one last resort. If I didn’t use it, I would have to wait for Tiara to fall for me and request a kiss herself. Fate demanded she die at my hands, but I wanted her to remain an innocent maiden until the end. I could at least give her that much.
Right then, Tiara shrieked; she must have been spacing out. She stumbled, and I rushed to wrap my arm around her and pull her close.
“I’m sorry!”
I released my hold on the blushing princess. “I’m glad you weren’t injured. Did you hurt your ankle?”
“No, I’m all right.”
She averted her eyes, embarrassed by her clumsiness. What a truly innocent young girl.
“You aren’t injured, are you, Prince Cedric?”
I told her I was fine and took her dainty hand in mine. This was all so frivolous. Not only was I uninjured, but I was plotting to kill her someday—and here she was more concerned about me than herself.
No, none of that mattered. She was just being polite. Someday, she would look at me with disgust. In her final moments, Tiara would hate me so much that she’d want to kill me. I didn’t need to show her that much concern. Our engagement was only for show.
I didn’t trust anyone but Lance. I wouldn’t let anyone else get close to my heart.
That was the lesson I’d learned when everything I loved slipped from my hands, and I made up my mind for good.