“That excuse won’t work, Selene,” Cesia admonished her. Selene hadn’t grown one bit in the past three years, and it was as if she was still a child. Cesia had heard that Selene had gotten married, but Selene hardly seemed qualified for the role of mistress of the house.
Internally conflicted, Cesia held back the urge to shout. She had to focus on settling this thing as fast as possible before it got out of hand any further. As she endured those pressures, Selene laughed derisively at her.
“Hmph, you aren’t looking too well, Cesia. Don’t you think you might be getting a bit full of yourself after the prince fell in love with you at first sight and you became a noble? No matter how much you struggle, you’ll always be a dirty rat. I can only wonder what the prince saw in someone like you or why that marquess gave you one of his titles.”
A low voice escaped Cesia’s lips. “You’ll pay for insulting them.”
Seeing rage flare up in Cesia’s purple eyes, Selene chuckled. Compared to Cesia’s previous, boring reactions, which had involved bottling up her explosive anger, this was a clear change. The more Selene hurt Cesia, the better she felt.
Selene had no desire to change places with Cesia; she had never even considered it. It had been unbearable to be tricked by her lowly, unimpressive cousin and forced to leave the capital. On top of that, her father, Viscount Diane, afraid of any further repercussions, had only strongly urged her to keep quiet, saying, “Don’t bother with Cesia anymore.” After that, Selene married some wealthy provincial noble, but that didn’t make her happy. She was supposed to be a gorgeous capital noblewoman whom everyone served hand and foot; she wasn’t supposed to be leading this wretched existence.
Amid that quietly simmering rage came unexpected news: Cesia was to become the second princess consort. That had truly made Selene’s blood boil. Unable to take it, she had considered going to the capital and spilling the truth about everything when Layne had arrived at the Dianes’ estate.
So, after a string of fateful events, Selene had come to Rosary’s party to take everything away from Cesia: her position, her dignity, and her love—just as Cesia had once taken everything from her. To do so, she wanted some sort of obviously scandalous piece of information, not some non-issue like the fact that Cesia had falsified her academic record. It had to be something that would expose her unsightly nature and make her unfit to be princess consort in everyone’s eyes.
Selene wanted to enrage Cesia enough to where she would be seen, in front of a crowd of spectators, assaulting someone. She had even spent a small fortune on the magic item that restricted Cesia’s magic, so Cesia couldn’t cast a spell at her that no one noticed like the last time, three years ago. Now, it was Selene’s turn to make Cesia taste every bit of the humiliation she had gone through back then, and just as she had hoped, Cesia was trembling with anger, and her hands were balled into fists by her side. It looked as if Cesia had been living a thoroughly pampered existence, and she was growing angrier and angrier, not at whatever Selene said about her but about the insults she flung at the prince and the people who had helped her out in the past.
Selene grinned nastily and was about to continue her verbal assault when someone spoke.
“All right, I think we can stop things here, Selene Diane.”
The prince had arrived.
Though Cesia was thinking, I won’t do what she wants me to, and enduring Selene’s insults, she was growing more indignant by the second, and she couldn’t get her thoughts straight. Cesia was close to hitting Selene when she heard Marcus’s chilly voice, which made her suddenly realize what she was about to do. “Your Royal Highness,” she said.
Noticing the angry tears that had formed at the corners of Cesia’s eyes, Marcus smiled reassuringly at her, and with just that, her anger and tension disappeared.
“Hello, Your Royal Highness. It has been quite some time,” Selene said with a curtsy as if nothing was out of the ordinary.
Marcus calmly nodded at her. “It seems you’ve been having a very interesting conversation. Was there something about my fiancée being a criminal?”
“Yes.”
“Isn’t your information a bit out of date?”
Hearing that, Cesia was startled. She thought that Marcus was teasing Selene and that he was going to say, “Aren’t you confusing her with Juliette?” but this was no joke. A strange mood formed as the nobles around them found it difficult to laugh.
Selene shook her head, not wanting to be outmaneuvered. “No, sir, I am not mistaken. The criminal I speak of is the woman standing next to you: Cesia Kathrin.” She thrust a finger at Cesia, but Cesia’s only reaction was to frown. As soon as Marcus arrived, she regained her previous composure, which seemed to irritate Selene.
Selene’s plan seemed to have been to charge in with just one piece of dirt on Cesia and enrage her so much by exposing it that things would escalate to violence in front of everybody. If someone like Juliette had gotten wind of such a sloppy strategy, she might have fainted.
“Layne brought Selene here,” Marcus whispered to Cesia. “He learned about your past and chose this place to charge you with not being suitable to be princess consort.”
Cesia’s eyes widened. Back then, Layne’s cold gaze had been one of contempt—he had seen her as a criminal. From Cesia’s perspective, Layne’s respect for Marcus bordered on worship. He had already resented that Marcus had chosen the commoner Cesia as his wife, so he must have been unable to tolerate the idea that Cesia had committed a crime in her past and hidden it.
“You can think about Layne and admonish yourself later, Cesia,” Marcus said calmly, and Cesia straightened her back.
She was surprised by just how relaxed she suddenly felt when she looked into his jade-green eyes. Nothing had changed, and she had just learned that someone she loved and respected had betrayed her. Nevertheless, her thoughts had been wiped clean when Marcus had arrived, and as her anger subsided, her fighting spirit grew. Now, all she had to do was think about her next steps and put them into action.
“Got it,” Cesia quietly replied. Whenever this crafty prince had that bratty, mischievous smile, it meant that he was thinking of something truly naughty. Now that she thought of it, she realized that she had first sensed that roguish streak in him at a time very much like this when they had faced down Selene at a soiree. This time, too, she knew he would again lead her to victory.
“Are you ready, my fiancée?”
“Of course, my future husband.”
After Cesia responded to Marcus’s usual term of address for her with the one she used for him, Marcus smiled incredibly charmingly. It was time for their counterattack.
“Y-Your Royal Highness…is what that lady says really true? Baroness Wallen faked her academic record?” a strict-looking, elderly nobleman nearby asked.
“That’s not quite accurate, Sir Norwood,” Marcus replied, and the man he called Sir Norwood grimaced. Many seasoned veterans among the male-dominated Knights were skeptical of Cesia. That was because she was a former commoner; she had suddenly risen to prominence as the prince’s fiancée, and, while it was accepted under the kingdom’s laws, she had received a barony while being a woman. As a result, this venue, with many knights in attendance, was slightly advantageous to Selene. Layne must have selected this soiree because of that, Marcus thought. He’s such a perceptive person. Why did it have to come to this?
Marcus surveyed his surroundings, then clearly spoke so Sir Norwood and anyone who shared his doubts could hear him. “As Lady Selene has pointed out and Baroness Wallen has recognized, the baroness, Cesia Kathrin, was made to attend the Royal Academy in Selene Diane’s place and under her name.”
With that unmistakable pronouncement, there was a wave of murmurs among the crowd. At worst, if it had ended at only an argument between Cesia and Selene, someone might have been able to use a large amount of influence to suppress the incident, but now, it was an incontrovertible fact that Prince Marcus had acknowledged it.
Cesia’s lips trembled slightly, but she calmed herself down. She believed in Marcus and knew he wouldn’t abandon her. If he acknowledged her crime, it meant there was some sort of opening ahead. Marcus had always believed in her, and this time, it was her turn to leave things to him. Her love was such that she trusted that he wouldn’t betray her.