Chapter 79
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 79
“Ouch!”
Just then, a maid cleaning the floor let out a small shriek. Startled by her own voice, she quickly covered her mouth and glanced around anxiously, worried she would be scolded for causing a disturbance.
“Did you cut your hand?”
“Pardon? Oh, no! I thought I did, but there’s no wound. I think I was just pricked.”
The bead forming on her fingertip must have been a drop of wine, not blood. When the maid wiped her hand on her clothes, her finger was perfectly clean, proving she wasn’t just making excuses. I was relieved she wasn’t hurt.
“I’m sorry for making more work for you.”
“No, not at all, my lady!”
When I apologized, the maid waved her hands in a flurry, unsure how to react. I had spoken to her intentionally, hoping that showing kindness to a mere maid might change people’s perception of Evangeline—making them see she was a better person than the rumors suggested. Sorry for using you… My conscience stings…
“You must have been terribly startled as well, Lady Evangeline. It would be best to rest for a moment until Sir Gabriel returns.”
It wasn’t shock but a guilty conscience. Madame Toten, however, seemed to think I was traumatized. She supported me by the arm and led me to a less crowded area. As we approached, the few people standing there quickly dispersed. Moments ago, they were practically lining up to speak with me, but the second they saw me fall out of favor with the Duke, they turned tail and pretended they didn’t know me.
“I had no idea Duke Hosaquin would be so harsh. My apologies, my lady; I wish I could have been of more help.”
“Please, don’t worry about it.”
Just as I had told Gabriel, I was keeping to myself when the maid I’d spoken to earlier shyly approached and offered me some wine. She certainly knew how to read a room. A startled heart is best soothed with alcohol. Madame Toten and I took our glasses and clinked them together.
“The taste is a bit different from the one we had earlier…?” Madame Toten murmured, puzzled, after taking a sip.
Was it really that strange? I took a sip as well, but perhaps because my palate wasn't very refined, I couldn't tell much of a difference. It was richer than the previous one, but wasn’t that just because it was aged longer?
By the time we emptied our glasses, the Crown Prince’s banquet had officially begun. I was already exhausted and wanted to go home. Once again, I felt a profound respect for romance fantasy protagonists. Navigating high society was no easy feat.
“The banquet is officially beginning.”
The Crown Prince descended from the dais, holding hands with one of the twin imperial grandchildren. His presence was completely overshadowed—not just by his son, who was touted as the next emperor, but even by his daughter, who held no special titles. The two soon came to a halt in the center of the banquet hall.
“The one who has stepped forward is Lady Jeremia.”
“Can you tell them apart, Madame Toten?”
They both had blonde hair and blue eyes, and even their clothes and hairstyles were perfect copies of each other. How on earth did she know?
“On the surface, they are so identical that not even their own father, His Highness the Crown Prince, can distinguish between them.”
Shouldn’t a parent be able to recognize their own children? So Madame Toten could tell them apart when their father couldn’t? Just how sharp was her eyesight?
Madame Toten smiled faintly and continued her explanation. “Actually, once you know the secret, it’s quite simple. The colors of their jewelry are different.”
The colors of their jewelry?
“When the twin Highnesses were born, His Majesty gifted them necklaces that differed only in the color of their gemstones. That is how we tell them apart. The green beryl emerald belongs to Lady Jeremia, and the black jade belongs to Lady Tenebrae.”
Ah, she was right. The one standing with the Crown Prince was wearing a green emerald necklace, so she had to be Jeremia. The association between “emerald” and “Jeremia” made it easy enough to remember.
Madame Toten added that neither of them ever took off their jewelry, not even when bathing, so one only had to look at their necks to identify them. Indeed, once you knew the trick, telling them apart was a breeze.
“My beloved daughter, may I request a dance to celebrate your father’s birthday?”
“With pleasure.”
As the Crown Prince and Jeremia took their positions, the orchestra began to play in perfect sync. The sight of dozens of instruments playing in unison for just two people was truly marvelous.
With every spin the Crown Prince and Jeremia made, the lights began to go out one by one—perhaps as part of the performance. The final spin plunged the entire hall into complete darkness. It was so pitch-black I couldn’t see an inch in front of my face; they must have closed all the windows. I had no idea what kind of grand event they were planning that required extinguishing every single light.
The surrounding crowd, panicked by the sudden darkness, began to murmur in confusion. Nearby, someone let out a sharp gasp as they stumbled, shoved by someone else. I reached out and caught them, helping them regain their footing. In the process, wine must have spilled on me, as my clothes began to feel damp. Gabriel… the effort you went through to save me has gone completely to waste.
“Thank you, Lady Rohanson.”
Before I could even ask if they were alright, the person thanked me and vanished into the dark.
How long were they going to keep us like this? The music hadn’t stopped, so it didn’t seem like an emergency but rather an intended part of the event. They wouldn’t set off fireworks indoors, so what could it be? Whatever it was, judging by everyone’s confusion, it was a failure.
As if to mock my thoughts, the lights flickered back on.
The sight that unfolded before my eyes was beyond anything I could have imagined. The Crown Prince, who had been dancing hand-in-hand with Jeremia just before the blackout, was now hanging limply from the chandelier. A sword was plunged straight through his heart—and strangely, the hilt looked incredibly familiar. The moment I realized why, I gasped and covered my mouth in horror.
Wait, isn’t that… isn’t that the dagger I brought?
I wasn’t the only one who noticed. Someone screamed at the top of their lungs.
“Lady Rohanson has assassinated His Highness the Crown Prince!”
What the hell? No, I didn’t!
* * *
The first waltz began, accompanied by the orchestra. Since the seat of the Crown Princess was vacant, the Crown Prince’s partner was one of his twin daughters. In truth, his partner was always the same one. The Crown Prince always chose Jeremia for official events, and this time was no exception as he took the hand of his daughter wearing the green gemstone.
While the girl in the black jade necklace watched her father and sister dance with a bored expression, the father and daughter, who shared the same striking features and blue eyes, continued their elegant waltz. The layers of her puffed dress flared out in a circle. The young, unmarried noblemen watched the hem of her dress spin and settle with entranced eyes.
“Lady Jeremia is truly beautiful.”
“But she looks exactly like Lady Tenebrae.”
“Tsk, their inner natures are entirely different. Even with the same face, Lady Tenebrae has a certain gloominess about her.”
Though their appearances were identical, as if cast from the same mold, the sisters’ personalities were polar opposites. Jeremia was bright, cheerful, and lovely, whereas Tenebrae was gloomy and could never hide her melancholy disposition.
Perhaps that was why the Crown Prince discriminated between them. Although the superstition that twins were an ill omen should have applied to both, it was always Tenebrae’s name that was whispered with it. There were even rumors that when the twins—an ominous sign—were born, the Crown Prince, who could prophesize the future, had tried to kill Tenebrae with his own hands.
The music transitioned into a familiar movement. Sensing the first dance would soon end, the guests began preparing for the second with their own partners. Just as the performance reached its climax, the brilliant lights of the chandeliers began to go out one by one.
“Why are the lights going out? It’s not like there’s a draft.”
The light lingered one last time on the very center of the hall where the Crown Prince was dancing, as if focusing solely on him, before it too faded away. The magnificent banquet hall was swallowed by darkness. It was a complete blackout, impossible to discern even what was right in front of one’s nose.
“What is going on…?”
“Who was that? Damn it, stop pushing!”
“Kyaah! Someone stepped on my foot!”
“I can’t see a thing…! I-I need to get out of here!”
With this level of chaos, the music should have stopped. However, terrified of being punished for halting the performance without permission at the Crown Prince’s banquet, the orchestra desperately kept playing. There was a precedent, after all, of a cellist who had been decapitated for accidentally snapping a string during an imperial banquet.
The murmurs of the crowd, laced with budding fear and confusion, blended with the sweet orchestral music to create a bizarre harmony. It felt almost comical, like a scene from a well-crafted play.
Fortunately, before a greater panic could break out, the lights flickered back on. As the chandeliers burst into light all at once, as if they had never gone out, the guests calmed themselves, frowning as they adjusted their eyes to the sudden brightness.
“What in the…”
Only after their eyes had fully adjusted, allowing them to take in the splendid decorations of the banquet hall once more, did they begin to cover their mouths in sheer horror, one by one.
The last thing the crowd had seen before the darkness swallowed their vision was the father and daughter standing in the center of the hall. Naturally, when the room brightened, they looked for them first.
But the pair who had been sharing a waltz was nowhere to be seen. Instead, only the girl with the green necklace stood alone, staring blankly up at the ceiling as a red liquid rained down upon her. Puzzled, the guests slowly followed her gaze, only to behold something utterly unbelievable.
Someone screamed. Someone lost their mind. Some collapsed to the floor, while others began to retch. Perhaps it would have been better if the room had remained dark, and they had seen nothing at all.
The music faltered.
The accompaniment, which had continued only because the musicians were too focused on their playing to notice the commotion, began to lose its harmony as they realized, one by one, that something was terribly wrong. Only the piano remained, carrying the grand finale alone, until a string snapped under the strain of the frantic playing. With that final, dying gasp, all music ceased.
All that remained was a rhythmic, beating sound. Like a metronome keeping time with a heart, drops of blood fell from above. The sound of each droplet hitting the small puddle pooling on the floor was agonizingly clear.
The Crown Prince, murdered with an antique dagger plunged into his heart, hung suspended from the chandelier. As the fixture, tilted by the weight of the corpse, swayed with a creak, its crystal ornaments clinked against one another. It was a faint, yet chilling and hair-raising sound.
“Father!” one of the Crown Prince’s twin daughters shrieked. She wore the black necklace; she was undoubtedly Tenebrae.
Someone else, staring at the blade embedded in his heart, cried out next. “Th-That’s the dagger Lady Rohanson presented as a gift!”
The crowd’s eyes locked onto the hilt of the dagger. Having drawn everyone’s attention the moment she entered, quite a few people had witnessed Evangeline Rohanson presenting the dagger to the Crown Prince. Realizing the hilt was identical, their gazes shifted in unison.
“Lady Rohanson has assassinated His Highness the Crown Prince!”