Chapter 70
The effect of fulfilling as many as eight of Bianca’s wishes at once was truly remarkable. A full day had passed, and she had not returned to being Bianca Lloyd.
Thanks to that, Chloe was able to spend some leisurely time with her family. The Count and Countess Elena, who had been terribly worried about their daughter constantly losing consciousness and collapsing, showed their relief with smiles. Seeing her parents’ bright expressions for the first time in a while, she too smiled broadly.
Chloe took every opportunity to emphasize that she was fine now and there was no need to worry. That was the only way to ensure they wouldn’t call for the High Priest.
Fortunately, her efforts worked, and the High Priest’s visit was canceled. After that, everything went smoothly, aside from being bombarded with questions about her relationship with the Crown Prince and why he had come to visit.
“Why am I not going back?”
However, as time passed, a new source of anxiety arose: the fact that she wasn’t returning to Bianca Lloyd’s body.
It wasn’t as if the dark magic had suddenly vanished. Even by generous calculations, it was about time she became Bianca again, but as the next morning dawned without any signs, she felt uneasy.
Just in case, Chloe sent a letter to Bianca Lloyd to assess the situation. She had considered going to check in person, but after what happened last time, she thought it best not to do anything conspicuous and sent only a letter.
“Deliver this letter to Miss Bianca Lloyd personally and bring back a reply immediately.”
“Yes, My Lady.”
The servant who headed to the Viscount Lloyd’s mansion with the letter returned empty-handed about two hours later.
“I was told that Lady Bianca Lloyd is currently in such poor health that she cannot even hold a pen, so I was unable to deliver the letter to her personally or receive a reply. I am sorry, My Lady.”
“No, it’s fine. You don’t need to worry about it.”
Her goal from the start had been to check if Bianca Lloyd was conscious.
If her condition was so poor that a letter couldn’t even be delivered to her directly, it was safe to assume she was unconscious.
After soothing the servant, who repeatedly apologized, and sending him away, Chloe took a walk in the count’s mansion garden. Looking at the lush greenery and brightly blooming flowers, she calmed her frustrated heart and organized her cluttered thoughts.
As expected, it doesn’t seem like the dark magic is completely broken. It just seems like it isn’t time to go back yet…… But how much time is left?
Being able to stay as ‘Chloe Elena’ for a long time was certainly a good thing, but she hated trembling with the fear that she might become Bianca at any moment. She was also worried she might collapse in front of her parents.
“Should I stay at the summer villa until the problem is solved?”
The winter villa was far from the capital, but the summer villa was relatively close. It took only a day by train, so staying there under the pretext of recuperating didn’t seem like a bad idea.
She would discuss this part with Jeremy later, but first, she needed to find a mage who could figure out what kind of magic was cast on Bianca’s diary.
“Where do I find one?”
Chloe sat on a pergola intertwined with red rose vines and thought deeply. Commissioning an information guild was the most common method, but the problem was that they couldn’t be trusted.
Asking her acquaintances to look for a mage was also uncomfortable, as they would likely pry…
“……If it’s Ian, it might be okay.”
“What about me?”
“Hieek!”
When a cool voice came from behind, Chloe let out a bizarre sound and turned around. Ian MacMilden was standing on the rose-lined path leading to the pergola.
“W-Why are you here……!”
She was so startled that she couldn’t even speak properly. While Chloe took deep breaths to calm her racing heart, Ian strode forward and stood before her.
Of all things, the eye level was exactly the same as in the dream she had the other day, causing her heart to drop. Her mouth went dry, and her fingertips curled.
Chloe couldn’t bring herself to look Ian in the face and cast her gaze far down. Her blue eyes, following his smooth, wrinkle-free vest all the way down, stopped at the fly of his trousers. Whether it was just her imagination, the front seemed slightly swollen.
She had seen clearly in her dream what lay beyond that tightly fastened fabric. Had she only seen it? She had touched it, kneaded it, and even put it in her mouth.
As the sensations, as vivid as if they had actually happened despite being a dream, came back to her, Chloe squeezed her eyes shut so hard her brow furrowed. She felt miserable and devastated, as if she had done something terrible to Ian.
“Are you all right?”
Even the question filled with concern pricked Chloe’s conscience painfully. She wanted to run away. She didn’t want to see Ian’s face until this godforsaken situation was over.
Can you look him in the eye when it’s all over?
Can you treat him like nothing happened, like you used to?
To the question posed by someone deep inside her heart, Chloe concluded: ‘No.’ Even if she escaped Bianca’s clutches, what she had already experienced wouldn’t disappear, so treating Ian as she used to was absolutely impossible.
Then their relationship would gradually drift apart. Eventually, they would become mere acquaintances who exchange greetings if they happen to meet at a party, rather than friends.
Bianca Lloyd, you were unhappy that Ian and I were friends, and in the end, you got your way.
Chloe clenched her fists tightly, feeling so infuriated by the fact that she had no choice but to move according to Bianca’s wishes. Her breath caught as if someone were strangling her, and her chest felt even more stifled.
“Haa…….”
Chloe let out a deep sigh and leaned her head back. The eyes looking up at the pergola ceiling were filled with moisture.
“You don’t look well; let’s go inside.”
Ian, thinking she was acting this way because she was sick, urged her, but Chloe didn’t budge. Her gaze remained pinned to the pergola ceiling.
“Chloe.”
“…….”
“Chloe Elena.”
It was strange that there was no reaction even when he called her by her full name. Convinced that she wasn’t just sick and that there was another reason, Ian grabbed her shoulders and asked point-blank.
“What did the Crown Prince do?”
“……Ah.”
At that question, Chloe recalled what had happened with the Crown Prince yesterday, and her eyes distorted sharply. Her infuriated heart split in two, the pain vanishing and leaving only anger. The tears that had been flickering in her eyes also dried up.
She hadn’t liked the Crown Prince from the first moment she saw him, but she hadn’t realized he was such a weirdo. Thinking about a guy like that becoming Emperor and ruling the empire, she seriously contemplated whether she should emigrate.
Still, thanks to that, Chloe was able to momentarily forget her guilt toward Ian and finally look him in the eye.
“Did he threaten you? Did he say he’d do something to your family if you didn’t listen to him?”
“It’s not that…… No, more importantly, how do you know I met the Crown Prince?”
“Sir Mars Elena told me.”
……It wasn’t the time to be worried about the future of the empire.
Chloe let out a short sigh and shook her head. Between the maid incident and now this, she hadn’t realized Mars’s mouth was so loose.
“What kind of threat did the Crown Prince use?”
“I wasn’t threatened.”
“Then is it purely of your own will that you’re participating in the Crown Princess selection exam?”
“……Did Mars tell you that too?”
“No. I heard it directly from the Crown Prince.”
Wow, he told Ian already. Chloe found it absurd, but on the other hand, she thought the suspicion she had been harboring since meeting the Crown Prince might actually be true.
“Are you really participating of your own will?”
“Well, I mean…… yeah.”
Trading with the Crown Prince was a secret, and Chloe, judging that nothing good would come of telling the truth, spoke vaguely. At that moment, Ian’s eyes narrowed as he noticed the slight tremor under her eye.
“You’re lying.”
The words hitting the mark made her heart tremble in a different way than before.
“N-No! What lie am I……!”
“Right there.”
As Ian pointed to his own eye, Chloe winced and fell silent.
“When you lie, the area under your eye trembles.”
“What? Really?”
“I guess you didn’t know.”
Of course she didn’t know. If she had, she would have practiced in front of a mirror to make sure it didn’t tremble when she lied. Chloe, flustered by this fact she had learned for the first time in her life, fiddled with the area under her eye.
“Tell me the truth.”
Ian spoke as he snatched her hand. His voice had become low and dark, like the garden where twilight had fallen.
“Are you really participating in the Crown Princess selection exam of your own will?”
To tell the truth or not.
Chloe, who had been contemplating while gripping her skirt tightly with her free hand, finally parted her lips.
“Before I answer, can I ask you one thing?”
“What is it?”
“You…… are you on really bad terms with the Crown Prince?”
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