Chapter 96
Chapter 96
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 96
Chapter Title: Will You Be My Partner?
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“Trained martial artists like me age more slowly than most.”
“Huh? What’s that supposed to mean? I was just asking your age.”
Adelin stared intently at Alicia, who tilted her head with the most innocent expression imaginable.
Three seconds later.
*Whack!*
“Ow?!”
Alicia clutched her forehead and let out a scream.
Adelin had just committed an act of lese-majeste.
“Ah, my mistake.”
“…”
“My hand slipped, Your Highness.”
Is this okay?
Even for Adelin, was it alright to smack the imperial princess on the head like that?
“Ugh… your hands still sting as much as ever. I thought doing instructor duty lately had mellowed your temper…”
“You wouldn’t have gotten hit if you hadn’t poked first, Your Highness.”
But something felt off about the atmosphere.
The two of them seemed far too comfortable with each other.
Like old friends who’d known each other forever.
‘Come to think of it… is that how it is with Adelin?’
I could more or less guess why Alicia had come looking for me.
The second heroine to max out her affection toward me after Cecilia.
She probably genuinely wanted to take me to the banquet.
But I remembered something.
What she’d said back at the Necreddin frontlines.
‘You could become my weakness, or I could become yours.’
For someone as cautious as that to act so boldly in front of Adelin… what was her angle?
My brow furrowed involuntarily as the thought hit me.
“…What exactly are you two doing?”
“What else? The obvious.”
Alicia quickly curled her lips into a familiar smile.
“I’m teasing you.”
Damn it.
I shot Adelin a glare, and she was shaking with barely suppressed laughter.
Figures. No wonder it felt rushed.
Adelin must have sensed her approach from afar and teamed up with her to mess with me.
“Adelin and I have known each other for a very long time.”
“Didn’t I tell you? I went to that ball alone and got in a bind. One of the people who put me in that bind was Her Highness Alicia.”
“A bind? I merely prepared a buffet, and she punched me right in the head out of nowhere. Even back then, her fists stung.”
And this wasn’t even the first time she’d gotten hit.
According to Alicia, when the prince snatched Killien as his retainer, she realized she needed a sword of her own.
Adelin had just started making a name for herself with her divine power, so Alicia set her sights on recruiting her.
And her recruitment effort?
“A buffet, you say.”
Adelin said in utter disbelief.
“Naked men—twenty of them—laid out for the taking, with her saying, ‘Become mine, and you can pick any man you want to eat.’ …Is that what you call a buffet?”
“…H-how dare you bring that up?! B-bring me a blanket!”
“An eight-year-old kid pulling something like that? I had no choice but to smack her.”
Fair enough.
After that incident, Adelin started declaring strict neutrality at every ball, while Alicia settled for Kaiser as her sword instead of the pheasant she’d missed.
I came after that.
The two of them had kept in touch sporadically ever since, apparently.
“Sigh… so it was all just a joke in the end.”
I let out a sigh of utter deflation, but Alicia’s face turned serious as she continued.
“The part about the dress uniform was real.”
“Huh?”
“I’m serious about wanting to take you as my partner to this banquet.”
She extended her hand to me with a grave expression.
“Will you allow it?”
“Your Highness.”
Adelin cut her off.
The mirth had vanished from her eyes as well.
“In this political climate, don’t you know that you and this boy becoming partners could poison both sides?”
“You still see me as that eight-year-old kid setting out buffets?”
“Is that why you nearly lost Halibal to His Highness the Prince?”
The prince hadn’t sent Killien after Alicia, Aren, or Mineva in the first place.
He’d targeted them as a cover, but really, it was just to pull in me—a guy with no backing.
It might’ve looked like a package deal on the surface, but it had been aimed squarely at me.
In fact, all three of them had met the prince and Killien and come back unscathed.
I’d barely escaped thanks to Ragnar, and now go to the banquet with Alicia?
That’d be a blatant declaration of war on the prince.
His faction still held the majority, so it’d make enemies of them all.
But.
“I won’t let that happen. No matter what.”
“Such confidence. How can you be so sure?”
“Because I’ve decided it will be so.”
Alicia looked me straight in the eye as she spoke.
“Political ties are the issue? I’ll make sure they’re not. If others mock us, I’ll shut their mouths.”
“Isn’t that overkill? It’s just one banquet. Partners switching at balls is common enough.”
“You wouldn’t understand, but right now, I’m more sincere toward Halibal than anyone.”
Her hand remained extended before me.
Adelin stared at her for a moment before shaking her head with a sigh.
“She’s said her piece. What’ll you do?”
Then she extended her hand to me as well.
“In the end, the choice is yours. Which hand will you take to step onto the stage?”
Two hands now lay side by side before me.
That’s when something I’d forgotten came rushing back.
I’d been so blindsided by the partner bombshell that it slipped my mind.
If Ragnar hadn’t helped and I’d been dragged off to the prince, where would I be now?
The prince would’ve done whatever it took to bring me to his side.
If so, I might not even be standing here.
The one who’d averted that worst-case scenario.
Who that person was.
“I’m sorry.”
“Get a load of this guy.”
Adelin laughed in disbelief.
“The two most eligible women in the empire both offering their hands, and his answer is ‘I’m sorry’? I never taught you to be like that, kid.”
“I’m deeply honored.”
I looked back and forth between them.
“Thanks to you two, I remembered something I’d forgotten.”
“You don’t mean Duke Ren, do you?”
“That monster uncle didn’t say something like you have to marry our daughter, did he?”
“Nothing like that… but now that I think about it, there’s someone I should’ve asked first about this banquet.”
The face that came to mind was hers—still lying in her hospital bed.
Cecilia.
After returning to Naveil, I’d gone straight to thank her and chat about the dungeon.
She’d brushed it off as just what needed doing, no need to thank her.
Even as she said it, the image stuck with me: her quietly smiling, unable to move her arm freely.
“If it’s Cecilia Ren, her arm probably hasn’t fully healed yet.”
As Alicia pointed out, most people with that injury wouldn’t attend a banquet.
She probably knew that, which was why she’d come straight to me without hesitation.
The problem was, I hadn’t even considered asking Cecilia to be my partner.
“Even so, I should at least ask her. Would it be okay to decide after checking if she can attend?”
At that, both their expressions darkened simultaneously.
“If Cecilia says she can’t make it to the banquet…”
“Then you’ll pick between me and Adelin.”
“Tier processing.”
I knew it sounded ridiculous.
Put myself in their shoes: confess to your crush, and they say, ‘I’ll ask another girl first, and if she can’t go, I’ll go with you.’
Still, this felt like the right thing to do.
For Ragnar, and for Cecilia.
As chilly silence filled the room, I waited for their reactions.
Part of me feared Adelin’s iron fist—aimed at Alicia—might end up in my solar plexus.
“Kuheheh.”
Alicia burst into laughter, and the heavy mood evaporated like a lie.
“Very well, then.”
“…Huh?”
“The daughter of the Ren family, who officially declares neutrality. And with ‘that’ rumor floating around.”
She covered her mouth with her fan and smiled.
“A wise choice, Halibal.”
Then, tilting her head playfully, she added,
“Of course, I can’t help being a tiny bit disappointed.”
Only then could I rethink what affection level 5 really meant.
High affection didn’t necessarily mean acting purely on emotion.
“I forgot we haven’t had as many chances to interact as she has.”
“Well, there you have it.”
Adelin shrugged in agreement.
“Go get her answer from Cecilia first. If she can’t go to the banquet…”
She grinned and patted my shoulder.
“Then you’re going with this big sis. Got it?”
“…”
“Separate from that, I’ll get your dress uniform tailored.”
“No, that’s fine. You don’t have to go that far…”
“Doesn’t matter who your partner ends up being. My disciple’s first imperial banquet deserves a proper suit from his master. This much is fine, right?”
I looked back and forth between them.
They’d neatly resolved what could’ve turned messy, and I was truly grateful.
“Thank you, sis. And… Alicia.”
I stood, bowed my head, and left the instructor’s office.
As I walked down the hall, one thought circled my mind.
‘I need to head to the hospital.’
Counseling really does help.
⁎⁎⁎
Hali bal vanished, and the door to the instructor’s office clicked shut.
“So, what will you do now?”
“…Hoo.”
Alicia finally dropped her mask.
The mask of the “considerate lady” she’d worn in front of Halibal just moments ago.
“I can tell you’re losing control of your expression, Your Highness. You seem pretty shocked.”
“Quiet.”
Alicia walked over to the window.
Sunset light filtered through the curtains, staining her eyes red.
‘Cecilia Ren…’
Even as an imperial princess, she couldn’t know the inner workings of every family.
She’d interacted often with the Ren family since childhood and was close enough with Senia to call her a dear friend.
In that context, Cecilia had been like a child dropped from the sky.
Her talent didn’t measure up to Senia’s, so Alicia hadn’t paid her much mind. Senia was the obvious next head of the Ren family anyway.
Yet the one she hadn’t bothered watching had become the obstacle.
The empire’s Red Scales.
That’s what people called Alicia.
The woman who weighed everything.
The woman who masterfully manipulated hearts to get what she wanted.
The woman who enchanted countless souls but gave her own heart to no one.
But in truth, she’d never even been in love.
The “buffet” incident at eight was just a clumsy imitation of something from a book.
Every relationship she’d built since was nothing but scripted acting based on cold calculations.
She’d learned how to win hearts, but never how to give her own.
And just now, the first man she’d ever decided to offer her true feelings to had said:
‘I’ll go ask another woman first.’
In that moment, Alicia felt it for the first time.
A strange, unpleasant feeling, like her insides were twisting.
‘…So this is what defeat feels like.’
Alicia gripped her fan so tightly it nearly snapped.
⁎⁎⁎
Harsh breathing leaked through the crack in the door.
Peeking inside, I saw Cecilia swinging a sword in rehab training.
Sweat beaded on her forehead with every raise of her arm, and pain lingered unmistakably on her gritted-teeth face despite her efforts to hide it.
We’d known each other a while now, but this was the first time I’d seen her training alone.
She probably hadn’t wanted me to see.
I waited until her breathing steadied and a brief silence fell before knocking.
“Come in.”
Entering the hospital room, Cecilia—perched on the edge of her bed—beamed at me.
“I knew you’d come.”
“How’s your body holding up?”
“As you can see, no major issues. Sis and Aren drop by often to help out. I should be discharged soon.”
She swung her arm casually, as if it were nothing.
On the table beside her sat a plate with a few freshly peeled apple slices.
After a short exchange of greetings, I got to the point.
“You hear about the imperial banquet coming up?”
“Yeah. I did.”
Cecilia’s expression clouded over quickly.
“With how things are, it’d be tough for me to go. It hasn’t fully healed yet, and pushing it might set me back.”
Her eyes drifted to her shoulder.
“So don’t worry about me. Just go with someone else.”
Hearing that, I honestly felt a wave of relief.
She’d said it herself, so now I could just contact Adelin or Alicia.
And that’s that?
‘…No.’
I recalled her expression from moments ago.
That hadn’t been sincere.
And strangely.
It wasn’t the answer I’d wanted to hear either.
I took a step closer to her side.
“Cecilia.”
“Yeah?”
“Do I really need an arm for the banquet?”
“Well, there’s escorting, dancing, eating…”
“I can handle that for you.”
“…What?”
Cecilia’s eyes went wide.
I gently took her uninjured hand in mine.
“I’ll lead the escort and the dances. For meals… I’ll feed you.”
“…”
“It’s the imperial banquet, you know. Too intimidating to go alone. I’d feel better with someone who knows etiquette better than me by my side.”
Suddenly, I remembered the day Cecilia and I had first paired up, her as follower.
The hand she’d offered me then—I now took and offered back.
“Cecilia. Will you be my partner?”