Chapter 86
* * *
Bringing up marriage was, to a great extent, impulsive. No matter what she said, she had thought that the Crown Prince marrying her would be something that happened only after he checked the match rate with ‘that Princess’.
However, the moment Kasselard heard Ephinia’s words, he answered at once, his eyes flashing as if he had just found an opportunity.
Ephinia wasn’t given a chance to take it back as a joke.
‘Is it really okay to do this?’
Around then, she realized she had forgotten something very important. The match rate. Even if the Nabel Princess was an S-Class Guide, if her match rate with the Crown Prince was terrible, she couldn’t become his Guide, but she had overlooked that part.
Because she was an Princess.
Unlike herself, a commoner who couldn’t even remember her parents’ names, the other side had noble blood. Like a heroine in a novel meant to save the Crown Prince, she had mistaken it for something obvious that she would have a high match rate with him.
Even though it was something no one could know until they opened the lid.
By the time she realized it, it was already too late.
Kasselard seemed to have his subordinates preparing something… and the ladies-in-waiting of the Crown Prince’s Palace showed Ephinia a pure white wedding dress they had rushed to procure.
“You’ll wear something splendid at the formal ceremony you’ll hold later, but we thought this might be His Highness’s taste. Which one would you like?”
Ephinia’s title was still Baroness, but they were already using honorifics as if Ephinia were already the Crown Prince’s Consort.
And they hadn’t brought only one or two wedding dresses. Wedding dresses were spread out here and there, enough to fill the sitting room attached to the Crown Prince’s quarters.
They said time was tight because the delegation from the Nabel Empire was scheduled to enter the capital’s gates in just a few hours.
‘If it’s found out later, Their Majesties will fly into a rage.’
It was frightening enough to make her legs tremble just to think about it, but she didn’t want to stop Kasselard. She didn’t want to have him taken by the Nabel Empire’s Princess.
Imagining that later, if Kasselard’s heart changed and she was discarded, made it feel like her chest would tear apart, but she intended to run forward anyway.
Shouldn’t you be allowed to clutch what was given to you at least once in your life? He was the one who had grabbed her first, not her.
No matter what she might go through later, she would go through with it like this.
Ephinia made that resolve as she chose one of the wedding dresses the ladies-in-waiting presented.
* * *
Today, the imperial carriage was passing through the main gate of the imperial palace with unusual urgency. High Priest Ghileste turned his head in puzzlement as he read inside the carriage. It was the first time he had seen them drive like this without even stopping briefly in front of the gatekeeper.
‘Is there someone seriously injured?’
Even if there were, the Crown Prince was an outstanding mage, so he would have used healing magic without calling a priest. They sought priests when there was a political issue and they needed to cooperate with the Temple, or, rarely, when there was illness.
But the Crown Prince’s attendant who had come for him showed no sign of that. He had only hurriedly led him to the carriage and made him get in.
‘What is this about?’
He had watched the Crown Prince since he was a child. It was only natural, since he had worked for decades as the High Priest in charge of the Grand Temple of the capital.
An SS-Class Transcendent who couldn’t receive proper guiding was irritable, but he was also a warm young man who knew how to cherish his own people.
‘He shows that warmth too sparingly, and that’s the problem.’
His hunches tended to be quite accurate, and today’s hunch was truly strange. It felt dangerous, yet also like things would go terribly wrong if he didn’t go… an odd feeling.
On days like this, an incident beyond what he could handle tended to break out.
‘Is he looking for me because he’s troubled about the political marriage with the Nabel Empire?’
Recently, a Guide with a high match rate had appeared for him, but unlike other Transcendents, he had driven her away after insulting her severely. Her background was part of the problem, but it was probably also because their ranks were two levels apart.
Every Transcendent had pride. As the Crown Prince, he was especially so, yet even then, it seemed unexpected.
The other party was a Guide. For a Transcendent, a Guide with a high match rate was always an exception in everything.
“We’ve arrived, Your Holiness.”
The moment the carriage stopped, someone ran up and opened the carriage door. The way he bowed was polite, but his haste was obvious. Just why?
With questions filling him, Ghileste stepped down from the carriage.
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