Calen Castle
–
Pamela continued to speak, despite Adam's efforts to leave before the Prince's anger, who would become particularly sensitive towards that servant.
“If that’s the case, I can’t leave a girl like that as His Highness’s maid.
I will prepare another maid as soon as possible.”
The Baroness' unnecessary and strong determination made Adam unintentionally look back at Killian.
‘Your Highness, don’t forget what I said.’
As Killian's fierce glare did not lessen despite the count's serious gaze, Marquis Oswald interrupted with a smile, "Come on, the maid, all of His Highness's personal matters are Sir Albert's responsibility, so don't worry and do what you have to do."
I'm sure you're very busy preparing for dinner tonight.
Can you stay here like this?
If there is any mistake, Sir Albert will try to pull out all your gray hairs.”
The Baroness opened her mouth to refute Marquis Oswald, who didn't always call her by her title, but rather as a servant, and it was in an oily and greasy way.
But before she could do anything, one of Killian's hands shot up.
“Stop.
It's Albert's job to manage my maids.
Even the Count and Marquis here can't say anything about it.
This is the right of the great chamberlain, whom I have ennobled, to do.
Do you understand what I mean?”
Contrary to Adam and Oswald's concerns, Killian was not excited.
He just stared coldly at her, daring her to rebel against his words.
At the Prince's gaze, Pamela had no choice but to take a step back.
The appearance of the young maid did not seem to shake the Prince's faith and trust in Albert.
In that case, she would have to force the maid to make a big mistake and shake her faith.
Pamela thought: Let's see if your faith is firm, even if you are uncomfortable with the maid chosen by the great chamberlain in whom you trust so much.
* * * * *
Marquis Anais looked out the window at the lake with his hands clasped behind his back.
A pair of white swans fed with their beaks, the surface of the water shining transparently in the bright sun.
Among them, a baby swan appeared as if it was jealous.
The mother swan spread her wings and held her baby, and began pecking and polishing her baby's feathers with her beak.
With the affectionate gesture, the marquis' expressionless face was distorted in pain.
He remembered a day when he was very happy.
He and his wife were eating, and his daughter tried to get between her parents and opened her mouth to ask for food for herself.
‘Stella, Juliet…’
The whereabouts of his lover and daughter were unknown after they were evicted from his mansion overnight while he was attending a ceremony for the crown prince of the Vicern Empire.
He returned to Austern and belatedly found out about this, and went frantically searching for them.
But it was Stella's body that he found half a year later.
The man who brought the body said that she had died after the death of her daughter, who had not been able to overcome her grief.
Furthermore, they had only found Stella, who was already dead, so there was no way of knowing where she had buried her daughter.
The Marquis could never forgive his wife Ivana, who had taken Stella and Juliet from him.
He was distressed because he was unable to give any affection to his daughter and the son she gave birth to.
Whenever he saw Christine, who was born a few months before Juliet, hatred and sadness intertwined and consumed his spirit.
He showed him his best to give Christine what she wanted, as he could not give her love, and they praised him as a loving father.
The marquis felt guilty about this, but he had no intention of revealing it to anyone.
He was full of revenge against Ivana.
His revenge went so far as to include Duke Dudley's family, who pressured him to marry Ivana.
When he reinforced his need for revenge, Christine, who had an unrequited love for the fifth Prince, asked him to visit the Principality of Bertino.
He had decided to go to Bertino, pretending that he could not bear Christine's harsh provocations.
It was a golden opportunity to break Ivana's plan, who wanted to sacrifice her daughter for the crown of Francis, her nephew, even though she was not getting along with her sister, the first queen.By granting his daughter's wish to marry Prince Bertino, there was no better way to separate Duke Dudley's family from Marquis Anais' family.
Until now, even if he had been steadfastly neutral, he couldn't ignore the Dudley family since he had married Ivana.
But if Christine married the fifth Prince, he would naturally be able to face the Dudley family head on, giving power to his son-in-law.
The marquis closed his eyes a little and calmed his vengeful heart, still thinking about what would happen.
A small commotion was going on in Rezen Castle's reception hall as Marquis Anais recalled the past and planned to paint the future with revenge.
“Your Highness has arrived here, why did you stop me from greeting you?”
Christine struggled to maintain her affable, graceful demeanor like a marquise and forced a smile.
It was her first love in twelve years since she fell in love with Killian at first sight when she visited the Imperial Castle to meet her aunt Victoria, the first Queen.
She had been waiting for this for a long time, dreaming of the day she would become his bride after coming of age.
Christine, who finally made her social debut this year to celebrate her long-awaited seventeenth birthday, was finally able to formally introduce herself to Killian, whom she met at the Emperor's birthday banquet.
Seeing Killian right in front of her, who she had only seen before from a distance, she fell in love with him all over again.
Christine was lucky.
She crouched down beside Killian, who gave an insipid wave despite her shy and innocent greetings, and when he spoke to Marquis Rhodius about his scheduled visit to the Principality of Bertino, she listened and came up with a trick.
After tactlessly interrupting the conversation as if she were an immature and innocent lady, she managed to get an invitation from Marquis Rhodius instead of the ignorant Prince Killian.
“If you would like to go there, visit it when you have time later.
He will also be happy with your visit.”
The prince glared at the marquis, inviting her, but Christine didn't care.
She was just happy to finally have the chance to gain the upper hand among her countless competitors.
Christine seized on the invitation to the Principality of Bertino, even if it was a mere invitation, and began preparing for the trip from there.
Only after learning that the Prince and his group were ready to leave for the Principality of Bertino, did she manage to arrive at Calen Castle before Killian, followed by her father, the Marquis.
Christine was not intended to be used as a tool to make her cousin Francis the crown prince, as planned by her maternal grandfather, Duke Dudley, and her mother, the Marchioness Anais.
Duke Dudley was in the process of choosing a family to marry his granddaughter to in order to obtain these marriage bonds.
Marrying someone she didn't know Francis, she flatly refused.
Instead, she thought that Francis and her maternal grandfather's ambitions would disappear if she married Killian, the most likely crown prince.
Then, she would take the man she loved and become the empress of the future, and Francis would never cling to the unlikely crown in the first place, hastening her death.
She arrived at Castle Calen a few days ago with such inflated dreams.
But Christine was soon hit with a difficult situation, being confronted by a superficial woman who was her lover.
The reason she ran to Castle Calen, where the Magic Square was not connected, was to win Killian's heart in a place where there was no rival in love.
But there was also a competitor here!
Sa-chan
Sa-chan
Thanks for reading.
^-^