Chapter 30
Arendtert turned his gaze to Sylaria and spoke in a voice overflowing with desperation.
“Syllie, please come back to me. I still love you.”
Arendtert’s green eyes were moist with emotion. He whispered with such longing, it almost seemed he truly loved her.
“If you come back now, I’ll even understand if you wavered because of my brother. My love.”
My love?
Sylaria’s eyes flickered.
That was the one thing Arendtert should never have uttered. The moment he shamelessly voiced that deceitful word, Sylaria no longer wished to offer even the slightest courtesy.
“I am not Your Highness the Second Prince’s love.”
Sylaria gave a cold smile.
“I’ve hardly even had a proper conversation with Your Highness the Second Prince. To call that love is excessive.”
“Syllie!”
Despair colored Arendtert’s cry at Sylaria’s unyielding attitude. Failing to persuade her, he glared at Euclid, who remained steadfastly at her side.
“You’re not even a real brother. How can you steal your younger brother’s Purifier? And right before the engagement, no less!”
“So what? It’s not as if you were actually engaged, is it?”
Euclid replied with a relaxed, spinning smile. That made the fuming Arendtert spring to his feet.
“While you were away from the palace, I fought for the imperial family! I fought for the Empire and haven’t even received purification, yet this is the treatment I get!”
“If anyone heard, they’d think you fought all on your own. The Holy Knights must have been dispatched quickly. Besides.”
Euclid spoke leisurely, then pulled a small vial from his jacket. He shook it and tossed it to his irate younger brother.
“This big brother even brought holy water from the temple just for you, dear younger brother. Go on, purify yourself with it.”
“…!”
“Where will you find another brother as considerate as I am, right?”
Arendtert, who’d caught the holy water by reflex, flushed red and blue with embarrassment. Watching this, Cressida shouted, her own face flushed crimson.
“First Prince! There’s a limit to how much you can mock someone!”
“Mock, Your Majesty the Empress? I simply offered holy water out of concern for my brother.”
“Your Majesty! Are you just going to sit there and say nothing?”
When Cressida pressed the Emperor, he rubbed his brow with a weary face.
The decision had already been made, but the Empress had no intention of accepting it.
In that case, there was only one way forward.
“I will give Lady Rainier the choice. Who do you choose?”
It was the question she’d been waiting for.
At the Emperor’s question, Sylaria smiled. Without a moment’s hesitation, she took Euclid’s hand.
As the two clasped hands, an intense, vivid light sprang up where their skin touched.
The powerful light of purification.
A clear, unmistakable purple light filled the Emperor’s chamber, leaving no room for argument.
And with that, the dispute was ended.
* * *
Back at the First Prince’s palace, Sylaria let out a long sigh. Without her even knowing, Euclid had moved all her belongings here, making it seem natural for her to stay.
She had no complaints. Once they were engaged, she would be living here anyway, and this place was far more spacious than the guest palace.
In particular, the private room set aside for Sylaria was so comfortable it felt as if it had been made just for her.
Seated in the drawing room of her private quarters, Sylaria pressed her forehead with a troubled expression. She needed to look around her new lodging, but she was too exhausted.
All because of Arendtert.
His endless, pathetic clinging had made the conversation drag on far too long. It felt as if she’d spent the entire day just for a single audience.
‘No, was it really just a single audience?’
Sylaria furrowed her brows. The aftershocks would be considerable. She had gone from being the Second Prince’s fiancée to the First Prince’s fiancée in a single day.
Once this became known, people would gossip. For a while, she would be the center of scandal.
‘Well, let them talk.’
Sylaria had no interest in the idle chatter of people who knew nothing about her.
She had something far more important. Something that could not even be compared to the Empress, Arendtert, or Grizelle.
Her family.
‘Congratulations on your marriage, Sister.’
Her precious little sister, Elenia.
As she thought of Elenia, Sylaria squeezed her eyes shut. Memories of losing her so helplessly in her past life sent chills down her spine.
But this time would be different. She had asked Euclid to bring her here, so they would be reunited soon. As she was reassuring herself—
Knock, knock.
A polite knock sounded at Sylaria’s door.
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