Under the Crystal Palace (3)
“Does it suit me?”
Frowning, I tugged at the jabot at my throat. The tailored fit was uncomfortable compared with my usual plain clothes, and even more than that, I couldn’t quite shake the fact that once I was fully dressed, I’d have to go to the ball.
If I had my way, I’d gladly faint for a day and wake up after it was all over. Unfortunately, the world didn’t work that easily.
As I loosened the tight collar a little and looked at Ropena, she stared at me with a dazed expression, her lips parting and closing a few times.
“...Who are you?”
“What, do I look weird?”
“No... it’s just that you look so different from the knight I know.”
Just what kind of image did she have of me, anyway? Still, I could tell at once that she meant no harm.
What filled her glazed stare was unmistakable admiration.
Her cheeks had gone a little red, which was awkward in its own way, but I only gave a small laugh and stepped in front of Ropena.
“I don’t look strange, do I?”
“Not at all.”
I didn’t know how Irene would dress, but at the very least, I hoped she wouldn’t be outshone.
Still, this was a ball I would be attending with the woman I liked most in the novel, wasn’t it?
This might be the last chance I ever got. So I wanted to look my very best.
Just in case, I’d even practiced dancing.
Lise had been furious about it, too, nagging that if I could handle a sword so well, why was I so hopeless at dancing?
My feet still ached where she’d stomped on them, and I let out a bitter little laugh. Then Ropena, having finished adjusting every last fold of my clothes, cleared her throat and stepped back from me.
“Why don’t you dress up like this more often? It’s a lot better than I expected.”
“If I had to wear this every day, I’d suffocate. Besides, I won’t even be wearing this after today.”
When I took off the sword that had always hung at my waist since becoming a guard knight, an odd sense of emptiness rushed in. To think I had to play the role of a count’s son instead of a bodyguard knight. Could I really do this well?
After I was fully dressed and stepped out with the door open, everyone waiting outside gave me awed exclamations one after another.
“My, Evan. Is that really you?”
“...Is it that different?”
“You already look fine normally, but dressed up like this, you’re almost unrecognizable. I’ll have a hard time delivering letters for you from now on. The young ladies are going to lose their minds.”
Hah. Even now, that sticky sort of courtship was a little hard to deal with.
I couldn’t help a snort of laughter at the way Lise looked at me with such clear pride, and then she tapped my back a few times and spoke again.
“This ball is just the Crown Prince putting his name on it, so don’t stress too much. Just do whatever the young lady tells you to do, and you’ll be fine. I’m not sure why she’s bringing you along, though.”
“...Well, I’ll do my best. Don’t worry too much. At least I won’t embarrass you.”
When I smiled faintly and told her not to worry, Lise suddenly flinched, then narrowed her eyes and continued.
“And don’t smile at just anyone once you get there. Keep a straight face. It’d be best if the corners of your mouth stayed level at all times. Burn that into your head. I’m saying this because I’m worried about you. It must be hard enough dealing with other women already.”
“Got it. So I just keep my mouth shut?”
I didn’t know why she was telling me not to smile, but as the daughter of a viscount’s family, she’d probably spent far longer moving in social circles than Irene ever had.
If she was giving me advice, I ought to listen carefully. I kept hearing her talk about the ball for quite a while, and then, from somewhere far off, a familiar presence reached me. I lifted my head.
“What is it?”
“It seems the young lady has finished getting ready. I should go.”
The sound I’d just heard had definitely come from the room where Irene was waiting.
When I gave an awkward smile and said I had to go, Lise waved me off and told me to do well.
“Hmm.”
Why was I so nervous? Every step I took toward Irene’s side was accompanied by a heartbeat just as loud, pounding in my ears.
A strange tension wrapped around my body, and I frowned as I let out a heavy breath.
When was the last time I’d been this tense? Not even when I was facing assassins had I felt like this.
Ropena, standing beside me, asked if I was all right, and I only smiled faintly and nodded. I couldn’t very well let myself look pathetic.
“It seems you’re all ready.”
At the voice that reached my ear, my gaze slowly shifted away from Ropena and forward.
The coldness in that voice told me the woman standing ahead was Irene.
And when my eyes finally landed on her, I let out an involuntary gasp.
Under the chandelier, where countless candles swayed and the corridor blazed with light, there was a brilliance that seemed to shine all on its own.
An indigo dress, with no especially lavish ornaments on it, yet she looked so dazzling she might as well have been a jewel. That was surely just her natural grace.
No matter what she wore, her beauty always drew gasps from others.
For a moment, I almost forgot the coldness held in those deep blue eyes. Her appearance now was more than enough to enchant anyone.
“What are you staring at so blankly?”
“...You look lovely.”
Struggling to speak without taking my eyes off her, I finally managed the words, and Irene looked at me before answering in an even tone.
“You look good as well. You prepared quite a bit, I see.”
“I’ve been getting ready since a few days ago. I even practiced dancing—”
“Ropena.”
I shot a glare at the chatterbox beside me, and she gave a sheepish grin, nodding a little.
There was no need to mention that I’d practiced dancing, of all things.
But Irene didn’t seem to care much about that sort of thing. She simply passed by me with her usual indifferent expression.
As she walked past my side, Ropena gave her a sidelong glance, then spoke to me.
“Have a good time. And don’t get too nervous.”
“...Yeah. Thanks to you, I think I’m a little less tense.”
Hoo.
After I let out one long breath, the tightness in my chest seemed to ease just a little.
Outside the window was nothing but endless darkness, and I looked up at the few stars scattered through it before taking a step toward Irene.
Was it my imagination that made this night feel unusually long?
#
Clatter—
A medieval carriage, huh. To be honest, for someone who had grown used to cars, adjusting to one was no easy matter.
And when the person sitting across from me was the very lady I was supposed to protect, it was even worse.
The roads were poorly maintained, and whenever the wheels struck a stone or the horses began to act up, the carriage rattled like an earthquake had hit, leaving my face drained white long ago.
“...Are you all right?”
It must have been obvious just how bad I looked, because even Irene asked me that.
Seeing the slightest trace of concern in her otherwise cool gaze, I could only force out a bitter smile.
Even with a body strengthened by mana, adapting to this sort of environment was brutally difficult.
“I’m fine.”
“If you really feel unwell, we can stop the carriage for a while.”
“Wouldn’t that make us late for the start of the ball? Please don’t worry.”
When I forced a smile, Irene stared at me for a moment, then nodded lightly and looked away.
There had definitely been concern in that look just now, and for some reason, it felt awkward.
Had I become close enough to Irene for her to worry about me?
It had already been three months since I became her guard knight.
If someone asked whether we had grown closer in that time, I’d nod. But if they asked whether I’d opened her heart, I could answer with a firm shake of my head.
Irene was the type who seemed close right up until you reached for her, and then drew a cold line between us.
Whenever I looked at her, always carrying some unfathomable darkness inside herself, my thoughts naturally grew complicated.
When would the day come that I learned the story hidden inside her? If I could truly understand her heart, wouldn’t that help me prevent the tragedy she would later face?
The reason she would later be called a villainess was probably the result of a heart that had been broken beyond repair.
She cared for the people of her domain and was kind to those under her protection, so the reason she later ruined even her own family and persecuted the heroine had to be that warped heart, surely.
For now, it was still all right. But if time passed like this and she never opened her heart, only for the tragedy I knew to come crashing down on her—
Then I would probably never be able to die in peace, even after death.
Her gaze was fixed outside the carriage window.
What was she looking at out there, beyond the quiet street and the emptiness where no real buildings stood?
Following her eyes to the window, I saw the scenery outside streaking by as fast as the horses moved.
The Yuris Duchy, one of the greatest territories in the Empire, spread out before me in a vast cityscape.
The tallest building among them was probably the ducal estate we had departed from.
The city was shrouded in darkness, and yet one building alone shone brilliantly through it all.
Was that what she had been watching?
Or was she staring at the sky, still unmoving even as we rushed beneath it?
Her strange, unreadable gaze remained fixed outside, so I simply kept my eyes on the window and said nothing.
After a while, something radiant began to appear in the distance, shining even in the night.
A palace so tall it seemed it might touch the moon, rising high into the sky.
The Crystal Palace, a place said to have been created by the Empire’s founding emperor by capturing the light of the world itself. The palace shimmered alone, as though it had been carved from starlight, and it was like a source of illumination unto itself.
Its grandeur was beyond any comparison with the ducal estate, so I could only stare at it in awe.
We had apparently arrived beneath the Crystal Palace already, because a number of carriages and the people standing beside them came into view. They were probably nobles.
But the moment I realized that, the tension I’d forgotten came rushing back.
To think I had to stand among all those people.
The urge to run away from this place crept up on me, and I shook my head hard to drive the thought away.
Clatter—
The vibrations that had kept shaking the carriage finally stopped, and I realized we had reached the Crystal Palace.
Just moments ago I’d found it hard to sit still in the carriage, and yet now I didn’t want to get out at all.
When I stepped down, countless eyes turned toward me.
The crest of the thorned shield carved onto the carriage was the symbol of Yuris in this Empire and this Empire alone.
It felt as if every person in the world was looking my way.
Still, I acted as if nothing were wrong and held out my hand to Irene, who remained seated in the carriage.
Right now I was her partner. The fact that she had chosen me instead of her fiancé made it impossible to show her anything embarrassing, and that thought scattered at least some of my nerves.
When she naturally took my hand in her gloved one and stepped down from the carriage, the weight of those gazes sharpened even further.
The one accompanying the Yuris young lady. The one escorting her despite not being her fiancé.
Their stares were sticky, as if they were licking over every inch of me. Naturally, the whole situation was nothing but unpleasant.
Were they displeased that someone uninvited had come to the Crystal Palace?
There wasn’t a shred of goodwill in any of those looks directed at me.
Suspicion and wariness toward the man who had come with Irene in place of her fiancé.
As I frowned beneath the weight of dozens of those stares, a chill voice sounded beside my ear.
“Take those eyes away.”
The tone was so cold it felt as if the world around us had frozen, and the thorns hidden within those words made the gazes aimed at me disappear at once.
Only then did I realize I had lost hold of her hand. Had I tensed up without meaning to? My tightly pressed lips trembled faintly.
“Evan.”
Irene looked at me and spoke, and there was no coldness or thorns left in her voice now.
How did I look to her? In those wavering blue eyes, I could see only a faint concern for me, and I stared at her blankly for a moment before my lips parted.
“...I’m sorry. I got nervous without meaning to—”
“You let go of my hand.”
She didn’t ask anything. She didn’t scold me for my clumsy display, either. She simply watched me with that indifferent face of hers and silently held out her hand.
I stared blankly at the gloved hand before me, then carefully took her slender fingers in mine.
What a tiny hand it was. So small that once I held it lightly, it almost disappeared beneath my grip.
And yet, the moment I did nothing more than hold that small hand, the tension that had filled my entire body seemed to melt away like snow.
As if she were waiting for my stiff expression to ease, she stood there without moving, and I gave her a quiet smile.