ALL NOVEL chapter 17
17 – Beneath the Crystal Palace (1)
Autumn rolls in the gentle wind.
The colorfully colored leaves danced on the wind and soon touched my cheeks,
I lightly pick up the yellow leaves on my cheeks and blow them away again with the wind.
Now, just staring blankly at the clouds in the high sky, it can be said that it is a very leisurely life.
“Good.”
As I muttered with a light smile, Lopena, who had been looking at me like that, smiled and poured tea into a teacup.
The founding day celebrations were all over, and now the only thing left was the upcoming hunting festival.
Irene also finished her main role, and now she doesn’t stay up all night. Sometimes she goes out to the garden like this to drink tea.
“By the way, are you preparing for hunting?”
“Well, at best, there won’t be bears or tigers.”
It was a body that handles mana.
A body that has already far surpassed human limits.
A normal person would not be able to deal with such a beast, but
There was no need for me to be afraid as I had reached the level of an expert at destroying buildings with a single knife.
I’ve also cut people, but it’s no big deal to cut animals like that.
Cutting people, la. The thought struck her, and she drank her tea with a bitter taste.
As the delicate scent of darjeeling fills my mouth, it seems that the stuffiness is relieved.
I sighed lightly and picked up a cookie.
Since I’m not good at sweets, Lopena ordered something new, but it’s okay.
“What is it made of?”
“Well, I heard it was made of coconut.”
Was there a coconut cookie on this side too?
Dessert culture has developed quite a bit, so things like this are more amazing than the modern day I lived in.
This cookie must be one of them. Well, after all, you can’t give up the taste of what you eat, so it’s rather good.
“But what about Sir Chris?”
When Lopena asked, I answered with a smile.
“I’m with the lady. If I’m here, Sir Chris is there.”
After all, I haven’t been formally appointed yet.
It might be more fitting that Sir Chris be there.
However, Fena narrowed her eyes and then she pouted her lips and stared at me.
“Please think about how old Sir Chris is. I will soon be turning sixty.”
“Yes, but.”
Honestly, when you reach that stage, age doesn’t mean much.
Wouldn’t it be corrected even by the time it collapses at the end of its lifespan?
He wasn’t a master either, but he was an expert. Maybe it will be fine It’s not that I just want to rest.
“The cookies are delicious.”
As I cut into her cookies with her eyes closed, Lopena looked at me with a frown on her face.
Anyway, Sir Chris and Lopena are quite fond of each other. Anyone who saw them could have mistaken them for being a father and daughter.
“Release your expression. I’m barely taking time to rest like this.”
“…Okay. But, did you hear that?”
“What?”
When I asked back, Lopena said she wasn’t interested in the lady, and she bruised her once, then she opened her mouth.
“You said that the crown prince would hold a ball this time. There she was also invited by the lady. Didn’t you hear?”
“…I do remember hearing that.”
I think I vaguely heard it while passing by. If it was something important, Irene wouldn’t have told me right away.
By the way, since he was the crown prince, when I remembered the name, I naturally frowned.
Because the biggest cause of Irene’s death was the prince who fell in love with the heroine.
Of course, it was strange to leave Irene alone, who was rumored to rebel against me.
But even aside from that, you could say he was a tough guy to look at.
I don’t know what the feeling of love is, but to destroy one of the five major families by using all the power of the country because of just one thing called love.
Didn’t he act immediately after hearing the ‘prophecy’ that the female lead said, not knowing whether it was true or whether there was accurate evidence?
If you had a little bit of reason, it would be right to figure out the truth first.
I should have found out if Irene really intended to rebel, and even if she had a sword, where the tip of the sword was headed.
What emerged from the coldly sunken expression was a ray of anger.
She sympathized with Irene, so it wasn’t her feelings. She just lamented the foolishness.
If it’s a country’s crown prince, shouldn’t she be more rational in her judgment?
Rather than her love, I should have looked at the weight of the name of the 5th family.
Irene didn’t say anything about her treason until the end.
She only smiled slightly when she saw the knife pointed at her throat.
When she stood on the guillotine, and until the cold blade fell on her neck.
She died without giving any testimony about treason. What did she think and she died.
She probably wouldn’t know, and she didn’t even want the situation to come when she would know.
“…Well.”
I really didn’t want to.
She drank the hot tea again, but as soon as she got inside she seemed to cool down again.
The sweet cookie somehow felt bitter, so she smiled bitterly and quietly put the teacup down.
“I guess you don’t like the crown prince very much?”
“…Well, I’m not the type of person who has a very nice personality.”
“That’s right. But seeing how popular he is, how handsome he is.”
Noticing the dark expression on her face, I thought about her as I touched her chin in response to the question she asked.
She was handsome. She suddenly remembered the prince’s illustration in the novel, and shook her head to shake her thoughts off.
In the first place, she only had the impression that she was good-looking, but to be honest, wasn’t it more like a parasitic brother?
Of course, it should be remembered that he is a leading strongman who will reach the level of Master later on.
Kycel Freia di Evangelium. The only son of the emperor to be protected by the 5 generations, and a person with a natural swordsmanship.
It should have been enough to know this much for now. Irene didn’t have the strength to do anything yet, and there was still a lot of time left.
The black hair I saw in the illustration caught my eye, so I turned my gaze to the sky.
#
“Evan, can you come here for a second?”
After a short break in the garden, on my way to Irene to escort her again, a lady-in-waiting called me and stopped me.
A lady-in-waiting with a mole under her eye, perhaps her name was Rize.
When I nodded her head calmly, she smiled shyly as she handed me a letter.
It’s supposed to be wrapped in a fancy way, but it looks like a pretty expensive piece of paper.
When I tilted her head as I read the letter, Rise answered while covering her mouth with her hand.
“Last time, a young lady asked me to deliver it, but I forgot and couldn’t deliver it. It must have been the daughter of Viscount Fritzel.”
“…Where else is it?”
“Probably north of the Empire, not long from here.”
Then you must be one of the people gathered at the tea party. I let out a light sigh while holding the letter.
I don’t know if I should like this or be embarrassed.
I think it’s probably another confession letter from me. It might have been just nice at first, but now that I’ve already received dozens of them, I’m just calm.
Wouldn’t someone point a finger at you for deception?
“You don’t look so good, are you fed up now?”
“…To be honest. It’s not like I’m interested in them.”
When I frowned, Rize giggled at what was so good about it and patted my shoulder.
“Cheer up. It’s a good time.”
At that, I just shrugged once.
With just the letters piled up in the drawer, I think I’ll fill the 50th with this one.
Now it seemed that the contents of the letter could be seen without opening it.
Perhaps a word-for-word expression, like your eyes if there were a jewel carved out of the whole world’s forests-like expression.
It was the first time in my life that I was being courted like this, so I was quite surprised, but now I was just calm.
Everyone praised my appearance, or else it was admiration for the level of being an expert who had reached a young age.
After all, isn’t it a love letter sent in an instant?
There’s no way I’m interested in such people, and I didn’t have time to pay attention to them in the first place.
I am an escort knight, so if I cared about someone, that caring would only belong to Irene.
Aren’t all the people at the tea party frivolous in the first place?
I was only interested in the incidents happening around me,
Since they didn’t say anything nutritious, there was no way I’d like them.
And looks, hmm.
Is there anyone who can follow Irene’s looks?
She was called a villainess in novels, but her appearance was as famous as that title.
Pure white hair that looks like it was created by collecting pure white feathers,
The interior of the wall is like a cut jewel that captures the clearness of the sky, and her skin is as white as her hair and as soft as silk.
All of the modifiers to describe her appearance were compliments.
I also didn’t think much different from those modifiers.
I’ll probably think about it again if Yeoju appears.
Anyway, I should say that there is no possibility that I, who is always by Irene’s side, will fall in love with someone because of her looks.
Deuk-
[Are you safe? I tried to hold back a little, but for some reason it’s not easy to calm my raging heart, so I’m writing this letter… It’s like containing your forest… So I’m wondering if you’ll join me at this ball… ]
It’s been awhile since I opened the letter and smiled at the fact that it wasn’t different from what I expected.
When I turned my head at the presence behind her, I saw Irene at the end of the hallway.
As I stared at her with her gaze fixed inside of her as if she were coming towards me, she came closer to me and opened her mouth looking at her hand holding the letter.
“He’s holding a letter again. Did you even get a confession?”
“…Not particularly interested.”
“I must have been full of praise for you. Where did you praise this time, eyes? Nose?”
“Snow.”
When I answered calmly, she glanced at her letter and then looked away at her with a sneer.
“You are very nice too. If you get attention from so many ladies, other children might be jealous of you.”
“I have no interest in other people. It’s too much for me to care about just one lady.”
When I said that, Irene stared at me with a somewhat blank expression, then narrowed her eyes and opened her mouth.
“…Don’t confuse people.”
What are you confused about? After looking at her for a while, she put what suddenly came to her mind.
As was written in the letter earlier, didn’t it say that the crown prince would hold a banquet soon?
If she participated, she would definitely follow me too, so it wouldn’t hurt for her to ask in advance.
“Then, are you planning to participate in the ball that the crown prince will open?”
“It’s a ball. There was talk of opening something like that.”
Are you not interested?
But since it was common sense for her to be absent from her crown prince’s opening, she probably should participate even if she doesn’t want to go.
Irene must have thought of that too, she let out a sigh and turned her gaze to me.
“If you’re going to the prom, you need someone to go with you.”
“…She won’t be able to go alone. Dancing is an activity that requires a partner.”
“Come with me.”
What did I just hear? Let’s look at Irene, doubting my ears for a moment,
With Irene still giving me an impassive gaze, she opened her mouth again.
“I am asking you to come with me as my partner.”
My face hardened at those words.
As if time had stopped, only embarrassment was mixed in my gaze at Irene’s expressionless face.
There wasn’t even an inch of lies in his shimmering blue eyes.
As if the words he just uttered were really true, his eyes staring at me clearly seemed to pierce my lungs.
However, that made me even more flustered.
To be a partner at the prom, to ask yourself for something like that.
At first she thought she just heard wrong. She said maybe she made a mistake, she thought so.
Since the meaning of the words spoken again did not change at all, I could only look at Irene with a bewildered gaze.
I wanted someone to understand this situation.