Although I was caught off guard inside, I couldn’t let it show in front of the Crown Prince.
“I suppose so.”
I answered calmly and subtly turned my head, only to find the Crown Prince staring at us.
His expression hadn’t changed, but his eyes were different.
‘Maybe I went a little… too far.’
I seemed to have genuinely provoked him.
At least, judging by the cold gaze that swept sharply over Elhardt.
“Won’t you regret it?”
I had an ominous feeling that the danger level of this trap was about to double.
“I’m far too inadequate to serve His Highness the Crown Prince.”
Let’s try to ease the atmosphere, even if only a little.
“I’m simply grateful that you think so highly of me.”
As I said that and politely bowed, the Crown Prince clicked his tongue softly.
“Indeed. I suppose I was being too hasty. You must have had enough trouble simply adjusting to life here.”
He stepped closer to me and reached out his hand.
“If you ever change your mind, come find me. My offer… will always stand.”
He brushed a few strands of hair that had fallen along my cheek behind my ear, then walked past us without another word.
Thank goodness my dress had long sleeves.
Otherwise, the Crown Prince would have seen the goosebumps rising along my arms.
“Doesn’t he really seem like a womanizer?”
When I whispered that and looked up at Elhardt, I was startled.
His face had gone frighteningly cold.
It was a look I had never seen on him before.
Feeling as though my heart were being squeezed, I lightly shook his arm.
“Elhardt.”
Only then did he relax his expression and look down at me.
“Are you all right?”
“I should be the one asking you that.”
He carefully examined my face as he asked,
“That man touched you so casually. Nothing happened, did it?”
“Not at all. Maybe he deliberately did that to provoke you?”
“No.”
He firmly shook his head.
“Auriel has no reason to provoke me.”
His expression was dark as he said that while holding my gaze.
“To him, I’m nothing more than a powerless hostage whose life he could end with a single command.”
And he looked just a little… uneasy.
“So everything he said and did was aimed at you, Ser.”
Hmm…
Was that really so?
Going strictly by the circumstances, Elhardt wasn’t wrong.
It was only natural that the deposed Crown Prince of a small country offered up as a hostage to the Crown Prince of the empire that held the continent’s supremacy would be of no interest to him.
Keeping Elhardt’s words in mind, I retraced Auriel’s words and actions in my mind.
‘Is he really interested in me?’
But no matter how much I thought about it, the Crown Prince was suspicious.
It was impossible to take his behavior as pure goodwill.
“We need to be especially careful today. You know what I mean, right?”
“Yeah, of course.”
Before enjoying the banquet, I had to keep the compound poison known as the ‘love potion’ firmly in mind.
“Elhardt, just in case, don’t eat or drink anything anyone gives you. Got it?”
“…All right.”
Elhardt looked at me as though he had a lot he wanted to say, but more and more people were beginning to gather around us, so he chose to keep quiet.
Not long after, the doors to the banquet hall opened, and people began entering.
Elhardt had explained that in Cradion’s aristocratic society, it was customary for those lower in ceremonial rank to arrive early and wait in the banquet hall. That made me think of my expedition companions.
‘If it were them, they’d barge in early without caring about etiquette and start clearing out the food tables.’
Anyone who arrived late wouldn’t have anything left to eat.
Just imagining the scene made me laugh.
Only when I felt Elhardt’s gaze land on my cheek did I give a small cough and compose myself.
A short while later, it was our turn to enter the banquet hall.
Even though he was royalty and a hostage, Elhardt’s ceremonial rank was only one step above the lower-ranking nobles.
I knew it was better not to attract unnecessary attention, but I couldn’t help feeling that the imperial bastards were being petty.
Elhardt himself didn’t seem to care at all, though.
The enormous banquet hall was already fairly crowded.
‘There are so many nobles in Cradion.’
The scale was incomparable to Bardia three hundred years ago, and I found myself slightly overwhelmed.
‘I’m going to see more people today than I have in my entire life.’
They, too, stole curious glances at Elhardt and me.
We were both spectacles to the other side.
“It seems the guest from the detached palace was invited to the banquet as well.”
“Who’s the young lady beside him?”
“I’m not sure. I think I saw her talking to His Highness the Crown Prince earlier.”
“She must be a Bardia noble.”
At first, their curiosity was nothing more than that.
Elhardt’s and my appearances also became the subject of conversation from time to time.
However, as high-ranking nobles began arriving one after another, the atmosphere gradually changed.
“That dress that woman is wearing…”
“Surely not…”
The looks that kept stealing toward me as they whispered in low voices were anything but ordinary.
Elhardt seemed to notice it as well and furrowed his brow.
“…It seems that dress has some significance.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought, too.”
“Did you choose it knowing that?”
“The greater the conflict, the more there is to gain.”
If nothing happened, that would be a waste of time in itself.
Especially in a situation like this, where I needed to gather as much information as possible, I almost hoped that even some minor incident would break out.
That was the only way I might figure out what was going through the mind of the Crown Prince who was acting like a womanizer with Mikhail’s face.
‘Whether he’s genuinely interested in me, or whether it’s malice disguised as goodwill.’
“The food here is all delicious. The champagne, too.”
“…Don’t drink too much.”
“It’s fine. This much is practically water.”
Thanks to the Cradion nobles who watched us without approaching too closely, we had the food and drink table all to ourselves.
Then a cry announcing the Emperor’s arrival rang throughout the banquet hall.
‘So that’s the man who started the wars of conquest.’
I quietly watched the Emperor and the members of the imperial family following behind him.
The Emperor’s face, glistening with greed, bore little resemblance to the Crown Prince.
‘A dream of unifying the continent.’
Someone I knew had a dream that saved countless people.
[Ser, we won’t fail. If I die without accomplishing it, you’ll fulfill my dream in my place.]
But someone else’s dream would claim the lives of countless people.
“I am pleased to be able to share another joyous victory with you today. At last, the northern barbarians have sworn their submission, so this is a day worthy of a toast.”
How many people’s lives had been trampled beneath the Emperor’s finger at a single gesture?
If Mikhail and I had been born in an age like this, would we have been able to understand that man’s dream and his joy?
We risked our lives to drive out demons and monsters. We purified lands tainted with demonic energy and built a barrier where people could live safely.
My Bardia had been a sturdy fortress.
A foundation of hope built after crushing despair.
And yet now, it was on the verge of disappearing after being reduced to one of that foul man’s conquered territories.
“Elhardt.”
While half-listening to the Emperor’s lengthy speech as he praised the nobles for their efforts and listed his own accomplishments, I asked my prince,
“Do you have a dream of unifying the continent, too?”
“What do you think?”
“I hope you don’t. I hope you don’t have that kind of ambition.”
Elhardt stared down at me silently for a moment before turning his gaze back toward the platform where the Emperor stood.
“A fortress does not move.”
I quietly nodded, feeling a sense of trust in those words.
Those accustomed to fighting to protect others came to possess a special mana scent.
Whenever Mikhail stood at the front, those behind him forgot their fear.
Those who followed Elhardt must have been the same.
They would have forgotten their fear and fought back.
To protect their homeland, their precious families, and the place they called home.
‘The only thing that amazes me is that there was someone who betrayed him in the midst of all that.’
Perhaps becoming too fearless was a problem, too.
When you forgot whose efforts had kept you alive all this time.
If it were me, I would never, ever make a man like this my enemy.
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