(I mean, I didn’t know that he had put so much into consideration like that...)
She would have never known unless he told her. There was no way for her to know. She was both reflective on her actions and reluctant about the situation. With her mind on both ends of the spectrum, she reached their destination.
The congratulatory banquet was already underway just as Claudio had ordered when they arrived.
“Your Majesty, my sincerest apologies for not being on time.”
The clamor encapsulated her body.
The gazes of the people in the hall into which she’d been dragged were sticking into her, to the point of pain. Her heart was fluttering like mad.
Even while Claudio was extending his apologies to King Baltzar, she was afraid to look around the room.
Claudio walked proudly through the crowd of people clamoring to see the guest of honor. Rosemarie tried to grab hold of his arm, but he suddenly broke free of her grasp. Then, with a forced smile, he said:
“Would someone entertain my wife for me? I’m going to go dust off.”
As soon as Claudio said that, he quickly turned back faster than Rosemarie could react. Needless to say, this left her in a panic.
“Huh...? Prince, please, wait a—”
“Come now, Your Highness, care to chat with us until His Highness makes his return?” She felt the slender hand of a random noblewoman gently touch her on the back. Rosemarie looked over to her in dread, and was filled with momentary relief when she saw that the noblewoman’s face was human—her eyes quickly widened in shock, however.
Her thick, beautiful hair was as black as the night sky. But in the blink of any eye, it had transformed into pear-yellow feathers. Her eyes that shone with curiosity took a fully circular shape. Her pair of beautifully-painted red lips jutted forward, curved, and morphed into a hard, black beak. The noblewoman who had transformed into the head of a parrot—a creature that Rosemarie has only seen in illustrated form—was trying to strike friendly conversation.
“The word is that His Highness devotes every waking moment to you. I am quite envious of how happy of a couple you two make.” The woman flashed a forced and ambiguous smile as Rosemarie’s face tensed up. When she did, another woman that was standing by her side leaned forward. Her white dog head with its large, open mouth made Rosemarie want to shriek, but she stifled it.
“Indeed. We were also selected as marriage candidates for His Highness, but it seems that we were not to his tastes. Now that we know his tastes lie in the innocent types such as yourself, I see that we did not stand a chance.” The pairs of animal eyes staring straight at Rosemarie were clearly not amused. If they wanted to be Claudio’s wife enough to harbor real envy, they should have been able to. They gathered bridal candidates from neighboring countries because there were no suitable candidates around.
Even if these girls had no desire to get married, they probably didn’t like that some country-bred princess was now the most important lady in all the land after the Queen Mother.
Their lies, their disparaging words, had made them take on beastly forms in Rosemarie’s eyes.
Rosemarie’s violently beating heart was dredging up bad memories along with it.
“I can’t stand you, Lady Rosemarie.” The first time she ever saw a beast head on someone was with the noble’s daughter she was most friendly with.
“I’m sorry for what I said earlier. I really do love you.” Just as when she’d said she couldn’t stand Rosemarie, the girl had the head of a rat atop her shoulders. Apparently, she was only apologizing because her mother scolded her once she caught word later on.
Anger, animosity, negative emotions—that was the very moment she learned that all of those things will make her see people as beasts.
The mismatch between her words and her face was horrifying.
“Your Highness? Is something the matter?”
“You must not be used to such a boisterous locale, I assume.”
The parrot- and dog-headed noblewomen let out scoffing laughs while mouthing words of concern. Rosemarie felt as though she was going crazy, tightly squeezing her hand.
“I’m... sorry...! Please... excuse me.” She managed to squeeze those words out through her frantic panting as she backed away.
She knew what she was doing was a bad display of manners. However, she wanted to run off to somewhere unpopulated as quickly as possible.
Dodging through people, she tried to bolt for the exit, but an individual clad in silver-threaded priest’s garb interrupted her.
“Oh, my, if it isn’t Her Royal Highness. Are you not going to wait here until Prince Claudio makes his return? If you were to make an early exit, Prince Claudio will be quite cross at us. We promised to keep you company, after all.”
“—Archbishop?”
It was Archbishop Kastner, half of his face reptilian and melting off. The human part of his face smiled and looked at Rosemarie.
“Now, this way, my child.” Kastner took a step forward and presented his hand. His monstrous form approached her. Rosemarie furiously shook her head and stepped back.
(Why is his face like this even though the prince isn’t even here?)
They didn’t have enough contact with one another for him to have such animosity toward her. As much as she was confused, she was just as—if not more—terrified.
Rosemarie’s behavior was strange to the whispering people around her watching her dubiously, but she no longer had the mental capacity to be concerned about that. The monster-headed Archbishop was standing right next to her.
“Your Royal Highness.”
“...Please, do not touch me! No, no, go somewhere else!” Slapping his fingers in mid-reach away, Rosemarie cowered in fear in place.
The crowd was astir. She didn’t know what they were saying, but she didn’t want to hear it and covered her ears with both hands.
(Please, I beg of you. Don’t come near me. Just leave me alone. I don’t want to hear anything—see anything.)
Suddenly, with her eyes shut tight, she could see the image of a young boy holding out his arms with a consoling smile deep in the woods.
“P-Prince...?” Seeing the young boy’s face with a passing resemblance to Claudio, she had a vague feeling of dizziness even though her eyes were shut.
Something warm unexpectedly came over her body. Having noticed she was being embraced by someone’s arms, she tried shaking them off; but that only served to strengthen this person’s efforts to hold Rosemarie back. Unable to freely move, she slightly opened her eyes to see her maid, who was pacing around in concern.
“Heidi...”
Rosemarie had visual confirmation on her trusted maid, which allowed her to find genuine relief as she let the energy exit her body, her tear-stained eyes unwiped.