Chapter 100
When she quietly stared at his lips, her face heated up for no reason. Iora quickly chomped down on the food in her mouth. She knew it was a joke, so why was her imagination running wild? She felt embarrassed.
Vigros must have misunderstood her reaction. He clicked his tongue and chuckled.
Don’t stare at me like that, thought Iora. I’m not going to do it like that.
“Instead, we should aim for something that subtly gets the rumors going. Like running into each other by chance.”
Chewing the fluffy madeleine, Iora frowned slightly.
Right. How do you stage something that people think is ‘a good match’?
Just then, as she looked away in thought, he gently tugged on her hair — not hard, but enough to draw her attention.
When she looked back, he was smiling brightly, like a flower in full bloom. The curve of his eyes glowed sweetly, radiating a rich, chocolate-like charm.
“Iora. Your tomorrow is mine, right?”
“…”
How can he throw a line like that so casually? Is it because he’s a character in a novel? If a guy Jiyeon knew in real life said something like that, she’d probably slap him in the face for being creepy, but not with him. Her heart is racing. Iora rolled her eyes, feeling desperate for him to stop. She tried to turn her head away, but his hand grabbed her cheek. The warm tips of his fingers gently brushed across her smooth skin. That tickling sensation sent a chill down her spine, and her fingers curled in reaction.
Please.
“It really bothered me seeing you with the crown prince,” he said.
“…”
“It was almost like we’re dating, you know.”
She could hardly breathe. She thought she might die from embarrassment, and with a deep exhale, she begged him.
“Vigros, you’re too close…”
“Don’t like it?”
And then she realized. There was a faint scent coming from him as he drew closer. It was a scent that calmed the nervousness that had flared up in her chest. She looked at the man before her. His smile, gently curving, was exactly the same as the Vigros she had known before the regression — an expression so familiar it could make me believe she was back in the past. His face, identical to the one she had once seen, did not remind her of the misery of those times, but instead, he seemed like a warm person.
But was there another face behind that one?
What exactly had he been doing? Despite his clean appearance, the subtle scent he carried was unmistakably the smell of blood.
“As sweet as it would drive the Crown Prince crazy with jealousy,” he said.
A faint, inescapable smell of death.
When she thought of what kind of person Vigros was, she could guess what kind of things he might have been involved in.
‘I should be afraid.’
But despite that, why…?
“Let’s go on a date, Iora.”
Why was her heart beating so fast?
Even if he threw a bloodstained knife at her, she had a feeling she wouldn’t feel a thing. The thought of that terrified her.
* * *
“Ovid.”
Arcanda looked sad.
The moment he saw her expression, Ovid felt a sudden fear. He realized he had done something terribly wrong. Then, confusion set in. If he thought of things in terms of how much he owed in apology, perhaps it was more wrong to have kept another woman close while engaged to Iora.
Before seeing her, why had he disliked Iora so much? Why had he been so hesitant with her?
And Arcanda…
‘I had feelings for her even before I saw her.’
The Crown Prince’s nerves were tightly wound. With unsettling reports coming in, it was possible that these strange thoughts were a result of his heightened sense of alertness. Shaking his head, Ovid approached her as she sat by the fountain.
“Are you on your way to meet the Emperor?”
“No, I came because I wanted to see you. I missed you so much today.”
It was a pitiful smile.
But a thread of reason whispered in his mind: this situation was strange.
She wasn’t even the Crown Prince’s fiancée — just a candidate for Saint — yet she came and went from the imperial palace as if it were her home. But that confusion quickly sank again, drowned by the sound of her voice.
“Aren’t you going to escort me?”
“…It’s late. It would be best for you to stay in one of the palace’s guest rooms tonight.”
“Then hurry and take me there.”
As always, Ovid’s thoughts came to a halt when he was before Arcanda.
Like a shadow fading helplessly under the bright sunlight.
He gently took Arcanda’s hand and escorted her. Those who saw the scene began whispering once again, spreading the story of their peacefully continuing romance.
As if it were just another day…
* * *
Guillen wore a bored expression, while Shana was red in the face, practically shouting.
If they were animals, they’d be a bear and a chick in terms of size, but the chick looked about ready to devour the bear with rage.
And this had been going on for two days now.
“No matter how I think about it, that just doesn’t seem right.”
“Hmph! That’s because you’re just impossibly thick-headed, Sir Guillen!”
“And you’ve already fallen for that witch’s sweet talk, haven’t you?”
“Wi-wi-witch?! Are you insane?! Sir Guillen, have you completely lost it? My lady is not a witch! How can a knight say something like that about the lady he’s supposed to be protecting?”
“Ah, not a witch — an evil woman. My mistake.”
“Eek! That’s just as bad! ‘Evil woman’ or ‘witch,’ they’re both horrible things to say! I said she’s not! She’s not, she’s not, she’s not!”
It was honestly laughable. Guillen watched Shana stamping her foot like she was about to explode and decided to dismiss it like he was simply arguing with a little sister.
At some point, Shana had begun outright worshipping the so-called “villainess” of House Ribandt — Iora.
It was utterly absurd. Especially when she was bawling her eyes out like a sacrificial lamb being dragged to the demon at the very beginning.
Discussion
1 CommentEr_amaral26@