Chapter 43
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Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
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Chapter 43
'I made sure to tell him.'
Charlotte hurried through the cold marble Corridor of Count Oslo's Mansion, following the shadow that resembled Leopold. As she walked, she found herself arriving at the very place where she had first met him—the entrance to Count Oslo's Gallery.
"Your Highness?"
Charlotte called out to Leopold cautiously, directing her voice toward the center of the Gallery, which was filled with dim lamplight. Her voice echoed faintly through the Gallery, and a moment of silence fell. Just as Charlotte was wondering whether she had imagined him out of longing, a figure emerged.
"I didn't intend to disturb your time."
A cool voice resonated from beneath the Gallery arch. Soon, a tall man appeared between the archways. Charlotte's intuition had been correct. Leopold revealed himself, leaning against the cold stone wall of the Gallery.
"No, Your Highness Leopold! I was...."
Charlotte replied with a voice brimming with joy. In the darkness, the soft dark brown hair and serene grayish-green eyes she had yearned for all day were gleaming.
"I'm truly delighted that you came to the Ball."
Charlotte stepped closer to Leopold one pace at a time. The rich scent of sandalwood and the faint trace of his smile drew steadily nearer to her.
"Yesterday, I wanted to tell Your Highness that we should meet at Count Oslo's Residence. Because I couldn't do that, my heart felt heavy all day today. But now that Your Highness has revealed yourself before me like this, I'm truly relieved!"
Charlotte felt her heartbeat quicken along with his fragrance, and she chattered on with a voice tinged with laughter. However, as she arrived a couple of paces away from Leopold, she noticed the melancholic expression on his face.
Leopold slowly opened his mouth as their eyes met.
"Philip Oslo, was it? You danced quite beautifully with him."
Despite the complimentary words, Leopold's grayish-green eyes had darkened like a sky filled with storm clouds. Moreover, the lamplight reflected off the wall seemed to slash across his gaze like fierce lightning.
Charlotte found Leopold's demeanor unusual compared to his normal self. Yet she continued speaking, delighted that she could see Leopold today when she thought she wouldn't be able to.
"You say I danced beautifully? If so, that's all thanks to having danced with Your Highness."
Charlotte answered with flushed cheeks, and with her characteristic cheerful chatter, she walked toward him.
"By the way, Your Highness, how do you always know where I am? I thought I was seeing things when I saw you earlier. You always find me like this without me even telling you where I'll be."
However, Leopold cut off her words with an unusually cold voice that didn't suit him.
"I wish you'd meet a good person, Charlotte."
At Leopold's sudden remark, Charlotte finally stopped in her tracks as she approached him.
Leopold continued slowly, as if suppressing the emotions welling up within him.
"Someone who respects you for who you truly are, not someone interested in your fleeting fame or popularity."
"Suddenly that...? What do you mean?"
Charlotte asked with a puzzled expression. Leopold then lifted his head and glanced around the Corridor of the Gallery, speaking in a chilled voice.
"Didn't you want to find a suitor before this social season ends?"
Leopold's expression, with his chin raised, was illuminated by moonlight streaming through the Corridor's windows. His downcast, cold gaze cast shadows from his eyelashes, and his soft dark brown hair fell diagonally across his forehead.
"About that... I already told you before. Finding a suitor is less important to me right now than solving the mystery surrounding Your Highness."
Charlotte took another step toward Leopold as she spoke. From the moment she realized her heart was drawn to Leopold, seeking a suitor had become a distant concern. Moreover, through her conversation with Philip just moments ago, Charlotte had essentially confirmed her feelings for Leopold once more.
Charlotte fell silent in thought for a moment, then straightened her posture and opened her mouth. Her face bore a resolute expression as if she had made a great decision.
"Leopold, Your Highness, actually I have something important to tell you."
"If it's about the investigation, later. Charlotte. Not now... I don't want to hear it today."
Leopold murmured painfully, leaning his head against the Corridor wall.
"...Pardon?"
Charlotte questioned in response to Leopold's unexpected reaction. Leopold then brushed back his heated head and replied.
"Today was the first time I've ever been displeased with my position—invisible to everyone's eyes."
He held his jaw firm and enunciated each word with deliberate clarity and slowness. Had something troubled him when he saw her in the Ballroom earlier? Charlotte's expression grew increasingly bewildered.
"Ha...."
As Charlotte gazed at him with utter incomprehension, Leopold exhaled a sigh tinged with self-deprecating laughter. He appeared simultaneously angry, sorrowful, and arrogant—like a prince displeased with something beyond his control.
"So Philip Oslo is there, and you are here? In this dark, cold place where no one exists to admire your beautiful adornment?"
"That is...."
Charlotte's words trailed away. Could she truly confess that she desired Leopold alone to behold her, rather than the dozens who would admire her in the Ballroom? She drew breath repeatedly, steadying herself. Then, closing her eyes tightly, she whispered.
"That is why I said earlier that I had something I wished to tell Your Highness."
What she was about to say required tremendous courage. She was preparing to confess her heart to a prince who might be nothing more than a phantom. It could be a confession devoid of substance, one that would never be accepted—yet calculating such practicalities before acting was among the many things Charlotte did poorly.
'Charlotte, if you follow your heart upon the fragrant breeze, you shall surely discover a beautiful flower garden.'
Aunt Elicia's voice echoed through Charlotte's mind. Most of Aunt Elicia's counsel was peculiar—things like "feign fainting into a gentleman's arms"—yet Charlotte somehow felt her advice to follow one's heart was different.
Leopold gazed intently at Charlotte. Did looking at her in such a manner help calm his turbulent emotions? He spoke now in a voice somewhat more composed than before.
"Charlotte, I truly have no desire to hear how I became a phantom. Rather, I wish only to forget that fact, at least for today."
Leopold's arrogant, smooth voice that followed reminded her unmistakably that he was a prince.
"Of course, you must soon return to the Ballroom where your dance partner awaits."
Leopold emphasized the words "dance partner" as he spoke.
"What I wish to say is not about the investigation, Your Highness."
Charlotte fidgeted with the edge of her glove as she spoke. Despite her beautiful adornment for the Ball, standing before Leopold with his towering frame and sculpted features, she felt herself impossibly diminished.
"It is about my heart."
Charlotte's voice trembled slightly as she spoke. Now she found herself unconsciously tugging at the edge of her glove. She recalled learning from the etiquette book with Leopold that touching the edge of one's glove was how a lady expressed interest in a gentleman.
Charlotte pressed forward with her words, deliberately avoiding his reaction.
"Your Highness, why do you think I... I... I abandoned the Ball to follow you?"
"...."
Leopold remained silent. I gathered every ounce of courage remaining within me and slowly lifted my gaze. There was Leopold's face, appearing somehow rigid and unyielding—the same beautiful visage I had witnessed every night for nearly two months, from the first shadows of darkness until their end.
"Ah, just now Philip Oslo asked me whether I wished to fall in love with someone respected and admired, someone of wealth and honor. I answered that it was impossible. Because, you see, falling in love is...."
I carefully met Leopold's grayish-green eyes. Perhaps due to the shadows cast by the dark gray walls, his irises seemed to gleam with a murky gray light rather than green today. I sensed that behind those storm clouds gathering in his eyes, he wrestled with some profound internal conflict.
I continued slowly.
"...falling in love is like walking along a fragrant breeze and discovering a beautiful flower garden that no one else has ever seen."
A faint smile graced my lips. Beside my rosy cheeks, soft strands of chestnut hair drifted gently. The pale green dress I wore embraced my entire form so tenderly that I appeared like a forest sprite clothed in grass leaves.
Leopold thought he saw the rippling shadows of the stream from their Secret Place dancing across my beloved face. But soon, he realized that those shadows existed not on my face, but because his own heart was trembling.
"So, Your Highness, what I wished to tell you is.... I simply followed the fragrant breeze that blew through my heart...."
My eyes sparkled with hopeful moisture. For one accustomed to rejection, the notion of sharing the same heart with another was something I dared not imagine. And so, I was not hoping for such a miracle.
Instead, as I had done before, I rejoiced and spoke with quiet conviction, listening not to anxiety or impatience, but to the true longing within my heart.
"...and at the end of where my heart was leading, Your Highness, you were there."
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Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
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