Chapter 13
Over the past few days, Kasselard’s temper had become thoroughly twisted. The guiding substitute potion he had used before wasn’t as effective as the new suppressant he had taken previously, and on top of that, Bart had warned him over and over again.
‘Please, only use two bottles a day! If even this stops working, it’ll be a disaster!’
“Damn it… my whole body hurts, so what am I supposed to do?!”
As he snapped and slammed a towel to the floor, the attendant serving beside him let out a small yelp and then hurriedly clamped his mouth shut. Kasselard shot the attendant a frightening glare, then turned his head away.
Taking out his anger on those around him wouldn’t loosen the waves that kept piling up anyway.
‘This is why I didn’t want to use suppressants in the first place! Guiding, my a*s…’
Years ago, there had been a Guide who tried to temper his waves. Agnes, an S-Class Guide. Kasselard had placed his hopes on her as well.
Even though her match rate with him was abysmally low, the other Guides were even worse, so a match rate of 31% didn’t seem so bad.
But her guiding had been horrific. It made him feel nauseated, and a different kind of pain, unlike the pain from tangled waves, assaulted him.
If only that Guide had been like Fleur…
Waving his hand to dismiss the attendant, Kasselard thought of the Duchess of Lanas. Fleur was a bright beauty with blonde hair and lively green eyes. As a young lady of a marquis’s house with a cheerful and bright personality, it was only natural that everyone loved her.
But look at his Guide. Dull black hair and a gloomy face. If his cousin, a duke, had obtained such a beautiful woman as his Guide, then he, the Crown Prince, ought to have an even more beautiful and lovable woman as his Guide.
“That woman is absolutely not acceptable.”
He didn’t dislike his cousin, Duke Hylian de Lanas, but he didn’t want to lose to him. In terms of status or ability as a Transcendent, he was superior by any measure, so having a worse Guide than Hylian’s was unthinkable.
His pride would not allow it.
‘Well, I’ll admit her face is kind of… cute… But at the very least, her hair should be blonde. Or red. Cotton-candy pink hair might be pretty too.’
As images of blonde beauties, red-haired noble beauties, and lovely women with pale pink hair floated through his mind, Ephinia’s face only grew more displeasing to him.
“There has to be a decent Guide somewhere.”
He was the Crown Prince and someone born with blessed talent. The world ought to produce a Guide worthy of catching his eye, for someone like him.
“Your Highness, Baroness Linier has come to see you!”
Kasselard, who had been trying to dull the pain by fantasizing about a Guide who would suit him, scowled at the sudden announcement. He thought he had just managed to drive her away, and now it was starting again. Not that the woman had ever actually started anything, to begin with.
“Tell her to leave!”
Was the Crown Prince’s Palace really that easy to enter? He found it extremely rude to come without even setting an appointment. He had just finished training and was about to get dressed after showering.
“H-However, she says she has come under Her Majesty the Empress’s orders…”
Ah, so it really is starting.
There was no way Her Majesty the Empress would give up with just the humiliation at the ball. In this tug-of-war, Baroness Linier was the one being pulled back and forth in the middle, so she likely had no will of her own.
Kasselard irritably called for an attendant.
If she had come under the Empress’s orders, he couldn’t just send her away. He would have to meet her, at least.
‘There’s no need to dress up carefully just to meet a woman like that!’
With a scowl, he ordered them to prepare only a shirt and trousers. Unfairly enough, even that appearance was beautiful, so the attendant glanced at him for a moment and then received the full brunt of Kasselard’s irritation.
* * *
‘If I can just break things off with you, I’ll do anything!’
While waiting for Kasselard to finish preparing, Ephinia thought resolutely. She was prepared to wait five hours, even six hours.
Because she had gotten a definite answer from Her Majesty the Empress!
‘If it’s the day His Highness the Crown Prince turns twenty-seven…’
From now, that would be about a year and a few months away. In truth, Ephinia still didn’t know Kasselard’s birthday. She had only heard that he was twenty-five.
It was a period of less than two years. If she could safely get through just that time, she could become a Countess and meet another Transcendent and form a pair with him. That would mean a permanent farewell to the imperial family and the Crown Prince… maybe not entirely, but at least an escape.
‘She said I wouldn’t have to do deep contact guiding. Okay! I’ll do anything!’
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