“…Actually, we had another request for her hand,” the earl admitted, sounding relieved.
“What’s that you say?”
“The offer was withdrawn, of course. It was the son of a certain family—”
Needless to say, Joseph shivered with delight at this news. He knew all about the boy his own age who was far more gifted than his own older brothers. Of course he did—people compared them all the time. The lucky bastard had happened to have contracted with two top-level spirits. Even he had forsaken Brigitte, but Joseph was rescuing her.
Yessss…what a glorious feeling to beat that rat!
That day he stayed in his room, buried his face in his pillow, and laughed silently. If he hadn’t, the doorman would have come to check on him. Joseph was no longer the idiot prince. He wasn’t about to get himself a reputation as an eccentric.
His relationship with his new fiancée proceeded better than he could have imagined. As soon as they were engaged, he realized how timid she was. He’d heard that many members of the Fire Clan had fiery tempers, but Brigitte always hid the scars on her left hand and constantly glanced around, anxious and scared of everything.
When they went out in public, she hid stiffly behind Joseph, clinging to his sleeves. It was intoxicating. Joseph was the only person in the world this miserable girl could depend on. The thought of it filled his chest with pleasure and elation. He would reach back and squeeze her little hand, smiling much more brightly than usual.
But as their relationship continued, he learned something unexpected. She was far more intelligent than the rumors said. She could reel off information from books she’d read and recite poems with ease. She was awful at embroidery and chitchat, but when it came to her studies, she was downright gifted.
When Joseph learned this, he panicked.
He was praised for his kindness because he kept the miserable, useless Brigitte by his side. He didn’t need a fiancée who was more gifted than he was. What purpose would that serve? With their enrollment in Otoleanna Academy of Magic approaching, he had to prevent anyone else from discovering her talents. That was when he hit on an idea.
“My favorite girls are the stupid ones.”
He told her to wear pink dresses, act conceited, and make mistakes on her tests. He demanded many other things, too. Each time, she nodded solemnly and did her best to become the kind of girl he liked. Even in the face of his absurd demands, her attitude toward him did not change. At least, he didn’t think it did. He pretended not to notice that her expression was regressing to the hopelessness of when they met.
After all, she was always gazing up at him and murmuring, “Sir Joseph, you’re so kind.”
Her eyes were so pure and admiring.
When they’d first met, he found it bothersome. But after she said it so many times, he realized that she meant it. She knew nothing of the laughingstock Third Prince. She believed in him completely as the person who had rescued her from seemingly inescapable darkness. Maybe that was why he felt a certain peace when he talked to innocent Brigitte.
Those days ended abruptly, just before they began at Otoleanna Academy.
On that day, Joseph visited the shrine for the first time in a long while. He had been there often, ever since he was a small child. Staying in the palace was torture; it was where he was constantly compared to his brothers. But at the shrine, everyone treated him with the warmest hospitality. He may have been young, but he was still a royal.
On a whim, he asked a priest he was especially close with to let him take a magic crystal home with him. It was a very special object used at contracting ceremonies to see the contracted spirit of the person standing before the crystal. He planned to use it to get a look at the no-name hanging around Brigitte. What a laugh it would be to see a spirit so much more worthless than his own.
But his plan went awry in the worst way.
He snuck into her room while she was sleeping and held the crystal before her—but the spirit he saw in no way resembled a no-name.
Faced with the incredible truth, he bit his lip. An icy, bloodred rage flooded his mind. He had been starting to believe she was the only one for him.
I never imagined you would betray me, too, Brigitte.
Brigitte Meidell was supposed to be the most abject and foolish girl in the world. Now, years after the fact, he was learning that even she had deceived him. He made up his mind on the spot.
I’m done.
He didn’t need her anymore.
I’ll leave her and find another stupid girl.
After they started at the academy, Joseph’s treatment of Brigitte turned icy. Of course, when other people were around, he still played the amiable knight in shining armor, protecting his fiancée. Brigitte seemed confused but never complained. After all, she considered him her savior.
Joseph soon found a girl to take her place. Lisa Selmin, the daughter of a country baron without a soul to support her. She had a reasonably pretty face, but she was uncultured and stupid—just what Joseph wanted. His subjects would adore a prince who kindly doted on a slow-witted girl who was practically a commoner.
“Brigitte Meidell, I am officially breaking off our engagement!”
A year after starting at the academy, when the time was ripe, he left her. It was all he could do to hold in the laughter when he saw the disbelief spread over her face.
Of course she can’t believe it.
She must have been shocked to be accused of harassing a girl she’d never even talked to. It was a lie, of course. Joseph had told Lisa he needed a justification for ending his engagement, and she’d invented the story.
But he’d underestimated Lisa’s foolishness. Even though they weren’t yet engaged, she cooed his name in a sugary voice and tried to hold his arm in public. She seemed uninterested in chastity, and he even heard her boasting loudly about her encounters with him.
He was sick of it. Brigitte had pretended to be conceited on his orders, but he’d never once seen her act so unladylike.
A trained dog would be smarter than this girl.
Brigitte had been called a changeling and exiled from her own home, but she was the daughter of a distinguished family. She had been taught to be polite and graceful. Lisa was nothing compared to her. But Lisa had no self-awareness, and eventually, she took to looking at him with puppy dog eyes and asking when they would be engaged. By that point, of course, his interest in her had evaporated, so he hid his distaste behind a smile.
In the middle of all this nonsense, he’d realized something.
It was really very strange.
Why doesn’t Brigitte seem to care?
Abandoned by her darling Joseph, she should have been living the life of a miserable parasite at school. Yet every time he saw her, her eyes were resolutely optimistic. Her scores on the written tests awed the teachers. Even the students in his class were talking about how she raised her hand in practically every class and gave correct answers.
He knew better than anyone that supposedly stupid Brigitte was actually a brilliant student. That was why he encouraged Lisa to interfere, but Brigitte overcame it all.
When someone stole her pen, she took her test in blood and got every answer right. Before Joseph knew it, his future aide Nival was acting like Brigitte’s personal attendant.
During the magic-stone hunt, Joseph gave Lisa a torch and had her throw it at Brigitte. He knew how much Brigitte feared fire. He couldn’t wait to see her disgrace herself—but then Lisa was the one who was suspended.
Someone else was always by Brigitte’s side now. Yuri Aurealis, whom she’d hardly even known before. Every time Joseph saw him, dark emotions roiled in his chest.
I thought she’d come crawling back in tears.
He could just see her tearstained face, her disheveled red hair. She should have begged him to take pity on her again.
He’d been the only one who stood by her. When the world was tormenting her, he was her only friend, her saint, her protector. But now her green eyes were for someone else. She followed another boy around now.
She looked so happy when she smiled. He’d never seen her so lighthearted.
…I don’t like it.
Did the Red Fairy imagine she was spreading her wings now that she was free of Joseph? Every time he thought about it, his fury swelled. That was why he finally said: