Love & Poison (13)
I drew in a sharp breath.
Edwin found himself holding his breath without realizing it.
Watching the slender, snow-white nape of the duke’s daughter stirred something strange inside him.
A tickling sensation in his chest and a fluttering in his stomach—both feelings were utterly unfamiliar.
“Your Highness Edwin?”
Edwin barely snapped out of it at Brigitte’s voice.
“J-just a moment.”
With trembling hands, he fastened the necklace around her neck.
“Th-there. It’s done.”
At the prince’s words, Brigitte tidied her hair and turned around.
“How does it look?”
She smiled brightly and touched the necklace at her throat.
“Is it pretty?”
She looked like a single young rose discovered at dawn.
On Brigitte, the word “pretty” wasn’t enough. She possessed a captivating charm that seized the eye at first glance.
Edwin stared at her, completely entranced, unable to speak.
“What is it?”
Brigitte looked at his face and laughed playfully.
“Were you startled because I’m that beautiful?”
“…Yes.”
At the unexpected answer, Brigitte’s eyes widened. Edwin spoke in a small but clear voice.
“You’re truly beautiful.”
Brigitte’s eyes grew even larger.
None of the boys her age she had met so far had ever openly told her she was pretty. Even those who clearly liked her had only teased her or said mischievous things on purpose.
Perhaps because it was unfamiliar, Brigitte’s cheeks flushed a rosy pink.
“Ah, um, I have another gift too!”
Edwin must have finally felt the embarrassment hit him as well; he hurriedly offered her the second present.
It was a silk pouch.
“This is…”
Brigitte opened the pouch and blinked slowly.
“Flower seeds?”
Inside were five seeds.
Edwin nodded shyly at her question.
“That’s right.”
“What kind of flowers?”
“That’s a secret.”
“It’s a birthday present, and you’re keeping it a secret?”
Brigitte stared at him with suspicious eyes.
But Edwin shook his head firmly, as if he would never tell.
“You’ll find out when you grow them. You can plant them in a pot.”
“So I won’t get to see my birthday present for months.”
At her words, Edwin gave an awkward smile.
“W-well… isn’t the wait part of the fun?”
The fun of waiting, huh.
Brigitte stared intently at the seeds inside the pouch before closing it again.
“I understand. I’ll take good care of them.”
She tucked the silk pouch deep into the pocket of her skirt.
“Then is this all you came to see me for?”
“Ah, well…”
“In that case, may I take my leave now?”
Edwin nodded, his eyes filled with obvious reluctance.
He simply couldn’t think of any more excuses to keep her here.
Brigitte looked at the prince for a moment, then turned away without hesitation.
She had taken only a few steps when—
“Your Highness.”
Brigitte, whom he thought had already gone far away, suddenly turned back and approached him.
Edwin looked at her in surprise.
“You mustn’t like me.”
“…What?”
It felt as if the corner of his heart he had kept hidden had been suddenly exposed.
Edwin stared at her with the expression of someone who had been struck hard.
“As I told you last time.”
Brigitte continued with a face far too mature for a child.
“I am meant to become empress.”
Born as the only daughter of the Crowner family, it was a fate she could not escape.
Only the future emperor could become her husband.
Edwin unconsciously moved his lips.
“…Even if First Prince Brother becomes emperor?”
First Prince Adrian was her cousin. If the two of them married, it would be difficult to avoid the stigma of incest.
“If it comes to that, I will simply go east.”
“East…?”
“It means I may become empress of the empire on the Eastern Continent.”
Brigitte knew exactly what burden had been placed upon her.
She was not the kind of person who would irresponsibly cast that burden aside for no reason.
“Once I have my coming-of-age ceremony, I will likely become engaged immediately, no matter who the other party is. The elders of the family have already decided.”
As Edwin listened, his brows drooped.
“Is that… what you want?”
“Your Highness, there are things in this world that must be done even if one does not want to. Just as there are many things that happen whether we wish them to or not.”
Brigitte looked him straight in the eye and whispered softly.
“So please do not like me. Now, I will take my leave first.”
This time, the duke’s daughter turned away without hesitation.
But once again, she could not take more than a few steps before stopping in place.
It was because of Edwin.
“That…”
Edwin was holding the edge of her sleeve.
His clear blue eyes, filled with desperate light, held her gaze.
“I don’t like that.”
“That is not a matter of what Your Highness likes or dislikes…”
“What if.”
Edwin toyed with the edge of her sleeve and spoke.
“What if I become emperor? Then what?”
“…Pardon?”
At the prince’s shocking statement, Brigitte’s eyes widened like pine cones.
“What are you even saying right now…”
“No, what if I at least become more outstanding than Second Prince Brother?”
Edwin’s blue eyes burned with a heat fiercer than anyone else’s.
“Then, Brigitte, can I like you?”
Brigitte could not say a word.
Just as she had done with the second prince, she could have shaken off her sleeve and told him not to be rude.
She could have, but she didn’t want to.
“If liking you requires qualifications.”
Edwin looked at her and spoke in a resolute voice, as if making a vow.
“I will become that person.”
They were twelve years old.
It was an age when even a moment’s impulsive words could be spoken as if they would last forever.
Yet for some reason, Brigitte felt that the prince standing before her was more sincere than anyone she had ever met.
“…If you can.”
Brigitte found herself smiling at Edwin.
“Then try.”
Only after hearing her answer did the strength leave Edwin’s hand.
Brigitte’s sleeve, finally freed, soon disappeared into the distance.
Watching her retreating figure, Edwin clenched both fists tightly.
In his blue eyes burned a resolute will that no one could break.
The Second Consort’s Palace was the most luxurious and beautiful among all the palaces in the Ventrum Empire’s imperial court.
Normally, only the beautiful songs of the birds raised by the consort echoed through its halls. Today, however, a sharp scream tore through the air.
“Aaaaaaaaah!”
Second Consort Helena shrieked as she repeatedly stomped on the slave at her feet.
The sturdy male slave curled his body without letting out a single groan, enduring the kicks.
If he made a sound, it would only further offend the consort and could cost him his life.
“Haa…”
Perhaps tired from all the kicking, Helena panted harshly and swept back her disheveled hair.
She glared at the maids standing nearby and snarled.
“Can’t you see it too? How His Majesty the Emperor is doting on that mutt!”
The maids remained silent.
They knew all too well that silence was the way to preserve their lives.
Helena glared at the maids who were only watching her mood, then snatched the honeyed liquor with ice from the table and downed it in one gulp.
He never showed such open affection even to Adrian. So why that worthless boy?
She ground her teeth, recalling the emperor placing his hand on the third prince’s shoulder with a proud expression at the hunting grounds.
Don’t tell me he’s switched from the first prince to the third?
No, that couldn’t be.
The Crowner ducal house was an indispensable family to the current emperor.
How infuriating. The first prince is already an eyesore, and now the third prince is causing trouble too. And the assassins I sent still haven’t sent any word.
Helena collapsed into a nearby chair and bit her nails.
There was no way for her to know that the Gilbert brothers had become fertilizer in the herb field tended by the third prince’s gardener.
Crunch.
Helena kept gnawing at her nails.
There was something even more irritating than the fact that the assassins sent to the Third Prince’s Palace had not returned.
Because of the empress, it’s only me again!
Ever since the day the empress had nearly been poisoned, the emperor had tightened security throughout the imperial palace even further.
Thanks to that, going outside had become difficult, and the entry of outsiders into the palace was now strictly controlled.
I heard the one who saved the empress this time was some nanny or maid who follows the third prince.
Helena fumed, unable to contain her rage.
Just thinking about the third prince made her blood boil even more.
The boy who used to cower whenever he saw me has suddenly grown bold. And that Jerome bastard said he wouldn’t take anyone’s side, so why did he let the third prince join the knights’ training?
Helena’s face twisted more and more as she sank deeper into her own thoughts.
Countess Katarina Palein, who had come to visit the consort’s palace, noticed the mood and quickly sent the slave away. She then called in the maids to help with the consort’s appearance.
“Your Highness, the Founding Festival will be held soon, won’t it?”
Palein brought up a topic that might soothe the second consort’s temper.
“Isn’t it customary for the princes to compete against one another during the Founding Festival? Last year, His Highness Lloyd couldn’t participate because of his injured leg, but this year will be different.”
At the word “competition,” Helena’s eyebrows twitched.
Palein observed her reaction and quickly added.
“Wouldn’t this be the perfect opportunity to show His Majesty the Emperor His Highness the Second Prince’s outstanding swordsmanship?”
“Swordsmanship?”
“Yes. During the Founding Festival, the princes always perform a sword dance, do they not?”
The Founding Festival, held once every three years, was a national celebration attended by envoys from foreign countries.
Performing a sword dance on such an occasion was both burdensome and honorable.
“But a sword dance requires an opponent. Are you saying I should put Adrian on stage too?”
He was the one chosen as crown prince simply because he was the legitimate first prince.
She had no desire to make him stand out even more by sharing the stage with him.
“Besides, the empress probably wouldn’t allow it.”
At Helena’s words, Palein stretched her lips into a long smile.
“There is another prince, is there not?”
“You can’t mean…”
Helena glared at her with a look of disbelief.
“Are you telling me to use Edwin as Lloyd’s sword dance opponent?”