Weren’t You the One Who Was Dying? Chapter 9

My body swayed in time with the carriage’s rocking. All the while, my eyes kept drifting to Ehit’s clothes as he sat across from me.

The top button of Ehit’s white shirt, his arms folded, was missing.

‘Good thing he didn’t ask me to pay for it.’

Like everyone else on Appel Street, the clothes he was wearing were extremely high-class.

The moment the button fell off, I was honestly more shocked than when that club-wielding man had raised his spiked weapon.

Right now, the thought that I must not end up owing the Cloyden family was deeply ingrained in me.

So the instant I saw that expensive button drop from such expensive clothes, I felt as if I had shattered a piece of costly porcelain.

Fortunately, Ehit was quite magnanimous. He had said it was fine.

Despite having little time left to live and despite disliking me, he didn’t act petty about things like that.

“What are you staring at so intently?”

Of course, his attitude was still prickly and cold.

“I’m looking at you, obviously.”

“Are you fully recovered?”

“Huh? Me?”

“You collapsed yesterday.”

“Oh, right. Thank you. I heard you took me to the medical center.”

“They said you had severe accumulated fatigue.”

He asked with a face that somehow looked irritated.

“What on earth have you been doing to end up like that?”

If I had to say what I’d been doing, it was honestly more surprising that I hadn’t collapsed sooner. For an entire week, I’d barely slept, staying up until dawn searching for my brothers…

In the mornings, I’d go back to work at the medical center, and at night, I’d go looking for my brothers again. Over and over.

Without realizing it, my body had become that exhausted.

But I couldn’t exactly tell Ehit all of that honestly.

“I don’t know. I didn’t do anything—so why did it turn out like this?”

“And yet you built up that much fatigue?”

“Maybe I’m getting old? Haha.”

I laughed awkwardly, but Ehit didn’t laugh at all.

Since I didn’t really have anything else to say either, I just let out another hollow chuckle.

Ehit’s eyes were fixed on me as if he found me truly strange. But right now, I had no more excuses to offer—and no energy to make them.

“The engagement ceremony won’t be possible for at least three months.”

“Really?”

It was welcome news.

From my perspective, it was better if anything that officially acknowledged our engagement was delayed. After all, one way or another, it would eventually be broken off.

Still, reacting with open delight might have looked odd, so I asked for a reason instead.

“Why does it have to be then?”

“Because someone who must attend the ceremony won’t be in the Empire until then.”

Someone who must attend would usually mean family.

‘If it’s Ehit’s family…’

There was the duke, his father and stepmother, and his sibling.

There were probably many other relatives, but those were likely the essential ones.

“You must have something important going on.”

Come to think of it, these days it was common to skip an engagement ceremony altogether.

“Honestly, I think it’d be fine to just skip the engagement ceremony.”

At my words, Ehit glanced at me and replied flatly.

“That won’t make the wedding happen any sooner.”

“What?”

“By Imperial law, two seasons must pass after the engagement contract receives the cathedral’s approval before a wedding can be held. If you thought skipping the engagement ceremony would speed things up…”

“No, that’s not it.”

I quickly denied it, realizing he’d misunderstood my intent.

Silence settled between us, our two closed mouths saying nothing.

The carriage kept moving on. Ehit only spoke when absolutely necessary, as if he weren’t the type to waste words, and I stayed quiet too, sensing I wouldn’t gain anything by speaking up.

“……”

Like that, I sat there in silence—until I nodded off.

When I woke up, the carriage had stopped in front of the medical center’s residence building.

Ehit, still wearing an unwelcoming expression, helped me down from the carriage.

“Do you have something to wear? For the banquet, I mean. Not clothes like that.”

Right, I’d said I’d be attending a banquet tomorrow. Since it was an invitation from the prince, refusing wasn’t really an option.

“I have a banquet dress.”

“You don’t mean that dark-green seaweed-looking thing, do you?”

“Seaweed is a bit much… Wait, you remember that dress?”

It seemed I’d made quite an impression on Ehit at the banquet.

Of course, in a bad way.

“I honestly didn’t think you’d remember me. You left so coldly.”

“People who approach me with lines that unnatural tend to be memorable.”

“There were circumstances.”

“I’m curious what those circumstances were.”

“Just… the kind of circumstances that make you detached from worldly matters and push you into doing things you normally wouldn’t.”

Before Ehit could ask any more, I quickly turned away.

“That’s all it was. Don’t ask for details.”

After taking a few steps toward the residence, I glanced back over my shoulder. The street was empty, the sun already set.

Ehit had already left without a backward glance.

 

 

****

 

 

 

‘Ehit said it looked like seaweed, but…’

The next afternoon, I was standing in front of my wardrobe, choosing a dress for the banquet.

In the end, I only had one option.
The dark green dress I had worn to the banquet at the Fallen estate.

Just then, Pona, the caretaker of the residence, knocked on my door.

“You have a visitor, Lady Dapflen.”

The guest who had come to see me was a woman with a cute impression and short, reddish hair.

Below the scarf around her neck was an embroidered symbol shaped like six petals.
It was the emblem of the Cloyden family.

“My name is Merier. I’m from the House of Cloyden.”

Why would someone from Cloyden suddenly come here?

Merier, who looked incredibly strong, was holding five large bags. From those bags came an endless stream of dresses, makeup tools, and hair accessories.

“What is all this?”

“If it’s all right with you, may I help prepare you before the banquet?”

“Did Colonel Cloyden send you? To me?”

“The young mas— I mean, the person who assigned me this task asked that it remain a secret. And please speak casually, Lady Dapflen.”

Merier smiled brightly and immediately began setting up what looked like a traveling makeup shop.

As I watched, almost mesmerized, by the parade of glamorous clothes, jewelry, and cosmetics, I somehow ended up entrusting everything to her hands.

“Lady Dapflen, how about this color? No—this suits your skin much better!”

“They look kind of similar…”

“This hairpiece would be perfect! Yes! It looks amazing on you!”

Two hours passed in the blink of an eye.

I could say this with confidence—today was the day I spent the most time getting dressed up since my academy graduation party.

“All done!”

Merier, her cheeks flushed with excitement, looked genuinely pleased.

“Merier swears. Tonight, the most radiant person at the banquet will be you, Lady.”

She spoke skillfully, lifting my mood, and then held up a mirror for me.

But I know what I look like…

“Wow!”

“What’s wrong, Miss?”

“Is this really me?”

I was only now saying the kind of line possessed protagonists in novels say the moment they first look in the mirror.

And honestly, it made sense.

What I saw reflected there was on a completely different level from the face I had seen tens of thousands of times before.

If the old me had just been an ordinary person, then now I was… T.O…

Anyway—
A water-colored veil dress that matched the seas of Bellachen, long hair tied up with pearl ornaments, and makeup that was a bit bold but still natural and rosy.

Everything was perfect.

“Merier, you really have the hands of a god.”

“You flatter me.”

For a full ten minutes, I stared unblinkingly at my reflection.

At that moment, I still had no idea what this banquet would come to mean for me.

 

 

 

*****

 

 

The Diela Palace, the imperial villa in the northwest of Bellachen and the site of tonight’s banquet, was overflowing with people.

The banquet was being held in the palace courtyard. The garden, welcoming the start of autumn, gave off a warm atmosphere with leaves just beginning to turn red.

‘Where is Ehit?’

The reason I was looking for Ehit the moment I arrived wasn’t to join him—but to avoid him.

Every time I saw him, I felt it again. No matter where he was, Ehit always drew attention.
If I stayed near him, I’d inevitably get attention too.

‘I’ll just show my face briefly when greeting the prince later.’

Considering how much he seemed to dislike me, him appearing with me at all was probably just a matter of formality.

Unless absolutely necessary, it was best to avoid attention as much as possible—especially with breaking off the engagement in mind.

So, despite Merier’s careful makeup, I was walking around with my face half-hidden behind a feather fan.

I definitely was.

And yet—

“…the Aileta family…”

What?
Did I just hear my family’s name?

After checking once more that my face was well hidden, I cautiously moved toward the source of the voices.

“What? Really, Lord Werner?”

“Of course. You know my cousin accompanies the princes, right?”

“Yes, I do!”

“My cousin clearly heard Prince Beriwyn say it himself this morning.”

What—Prince Beriwyn said that?
Well, it was true, and it wasn’t exactly a secret…

Still, from my perspective, there wasn’t a single benefit to it becoming known. We were going to part ways anyway, and in the process, whether I lived or died was the real issue. The more people talked, the more exhausting it became.

“My goodness, really? That family is…”

A man covered his mouth in shock and whispered to his group.
I had moved closer under the excuse of getting bread, and I could hear him clearly.

“Isn’t that family basically falling apart?”

That was true too, but hearing it from someone else felt like being hit straight in the face with facts.

People began seriously discussing how badly matched Aileta and Cloyden were as a pair.