Chapter 98
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98.
"I didn't mean anything malicious by it."
Cassian Artez blurted out an excuse, which was unlike him.
Thinking I might be angry, he looked at me like a puppy caught misbehaving.
"I was just asking out of curiosity."
"...Really?"
His surprised expression only made me more exasperated.
"Then why did you watch me if you thought I'd be angry about it?"
I'd only asked if he'd been watching me all this time, yet his guilty reaction made me suspicious.
"Don't tell me you were trying to—"
"No, Roselita!"
Cassian Artez answered urgently at my words.
With a shallow sigh, he rubbed his face roughly with dry hands.
Then, unusually, he couldn't speak right away and revealed an embarrassed expression.
Not the shameless superior who always plotted to tease me, but a boyish figure.
My heart stirred strangely at that sight.
Could I have actually missed something?
Having destroyed the original story, I'd barely witnessed Cassian Artez's teenage years.
Was that why, whenever he acted clumsily or showed weakness before me like this, I felt a peculiar sense of fulfillment?
"You really won't be angry?"
"Hear me out first?"
"Your words changed—just now you acted like you wouldn't be angry."
Then, showing his disappointment, he grasped my hand and fiddled with it.
"Even my title changed after I took a brief leave."
While speaking of this, he seemed intent on abandoning his role as superior and the annoyingly perfect Second Prince.
His expression, which pouted yet laid bare his emotions, drew a laugh from me.
"You're upset about something like that?"
"Yes."
Cassian Artez lifted my hand he was holding and kissed the back of it, his eyes fixed intently on mine.
"I thought you were allowing me to be someone other than a twenty-one-year-old when we first met."
Slowly intertwining his hand with mine, he spoke to me earnestly.
"It feels like you're saying it's not a connection that continued from then, but merely something in the past."
It was an overly honest confession.
On the other hand, I could sense how significant those memories from around eleven years old were to him.
And to me as well.
'It's hard to dismiss it as merely a matter of conscience....'
I found it increasingly difficult to deny how extraordinarily precious that memory had been.
For an entire season, I—barely nine years old—had desperately tried to evade my parents' gaze to save him, my feet restless with urgency.
From the moment I witnessed young Cassian Artez struggling so painfully to survive, my desire for his happiness eclipsed any thought of concealing myself; that longing only deepened.
It seemed I had finally reached the limit of denying that emotion I had so carefully hidden and suppressed, fearing it would be swept away by the tide of greater forces.
After all, from the instant I arrived in the Capital City and saw him again, I had been rather weak where he was concerned.
And increasingly, rather than finding him impressive, I found myself charmed by how boyishly he would pout and sulk only to me.
"I won't let you feel disappointed."
How could I possibly refuse such a modest wish?
"But you know, Ian."
"Hmm?"
At the name I had corrected him to use, his face brightened and he drew a gentle smile.
Yet even so.
"When we first met, I think you called me 'Your Majesty'?"
Our first meeting was when you were seven years old, wasn't it?
Of course, only in Cassian Artez's memories, not my own.
He wore an expression of momentary surprise.
But it lasted only an instant before his face shifted back to the playful expression I knew so well.
"Then should I call you the beautiful Reaper?"
He counterattacked as he always did.
Look at him, refusing to concede.
I indulged the petty thought before breaking into laughter.
I grasped his unguarded hand and asked again.
"So when did you start watching over me?"
You didn't think I'd give in just because you acted cute and clingy, did you?
At my question, Cassian Artez drew another beautiful arc with his lips before releasing a deep sigh.
Unusually, the skin beneath his eyes and near his ears had flushed a soft crimson.
*
During my leave of absence, Francis and the other Administrative Officials had worked so diligently that I found myself with enough leisure to reminisce with Cassian Artez about old times.
He began recounting the story to me hesitantly, his expression clouded with concern.
"Well, I learned that Roselita Salice was a child of the Salice Marquis Household back when we were at the Cottage."
"I... see?"
"I followed her."
At those words, I regarded him with a rather cold gaze, and Cassian pouted his lips, muttering that this was precisely why he hadn't wanted to tell me.
"You certainly speak honestly despite harboring such thoughts."
"If I lied about something like this, I suspect Roselita Salice would never forgive me."
It was fortunate that he understood this much.
Though it was admittedly unsettling, knowing Cassian Artez's childhood made it possible to show some leniency.
Hadn't he been in a situation where he could see only people trying to kill him?
And the place where he nearly died was one sent by his own father, the Emperor.
To think that someone who saved him without demanding any compensation in return had appeared in such circumstances.
Just as I had misunderstood the letter Cassian Artez sent about repaying his debt as a voice phishing scam, he too would have had no choice but to harbor suspicion.
Especially if that person was younger than himself, it would have been more reasonable to suspect that some wicked adult behind her was trying to lower his guard.
"...It seems Roselita Salice is thinking something strange again."
"Yes?"
I was charitably trying to understand your actions, yet you're being too much.
As I squinted slightly at him, Cassian's lips curved into an oblique smile.
"I was simply curious because Roselita Salice was so adorable."
"...Yes?"
Adorable?
You followed someone for such a reason in that harsh situation?
No matter how I thought about it, my interpretation seemed far more reasonable and considerably less sinister.
As I expressed my astonishment at such an explanation, Cassian Artez gazed at my face and released a deep sigh.
"As you know, I was neither particularly cunning nor shrewd before I met Miss Roselita Salice."
"Ah."
"Isn't it only natural to be curious about who this adorable and lovely little lady is, one who serves me soup that's completely congealed and egg dishes that are an absolute mess?"
"Hmm..."
Though I found it difficult to empathize, I decided to feign agreement.
"This is precisely why I really didn't want to tell you—I thought my young heart would crumble entirely."
His gaze toward me, as though wounded, only made me feel more wronged.
What had I done, exactly?
A person can become a bit hardened sometimes!
"In any case, I wanted to meet Roselita Salice again when we were both older, not in such a chaotic state as we were then."
In an instant, the boyish quality in his gaze withdrew.
The Cassian Artez I knew well appeared before my eyes once more.
"When I could truly face you properly."
He grasped my hand, which I had released, and lowered his head.
Beneath his slightly closed eyelids, delicate lashes glistened like dewdrops catching the light.
"Because you saved me, I was able to grow up straight and true. Just as you wished, I made it here without foolishly losing what was mine."
Silently, his lips pressed against the back of my hand.
That lingering kiss was composed entirely of sincere emotion, unlike any other time.
I found myself thinking that perhaps this very moment was what he had been anticipating ever since we reunited in the Capital City after all this time.
"So I watched over you, from the moment I was no longer treated as a non-person within the Imperial Palace."
Cassian Artez slowly lifted his head and gazed at me with warm eyes.
"Even so, it wasn't until around the time Roselita Salice had one year left before her debutante ball that I could properly station my people near the Salice Barony."
He was speaking of events from when I was seventeen years old.
He recounted it with a deeply regretful expression.
"Before that, I could only hear news occasionally, so unfortunately I didn't know."
"Know what?"
"That you had become friends with a charming young man named Wesley Morel."
His empty hand reached toward me, caressing my cheek and ear with a ticklish touch.
"Or that you had diligently put Paul Theodima to work after making him cry, raising him into a fine heir to the Theodima Family."
"...The Count and Countess raised Paul."
If you change the primary caregiver of that poor boy who's already called hopeless in love, Paul will only feel more heartbroken.
Though I'd certainly enjoy watching it.
Cassian laughed softly.
"What I regret most is actually something else."
"What is it?"
"Not being able to witness with my own eyes as the cute little lady of the Salice Barony grew into such a composed and capable woman."
Thump—I felt as though he had struck my heart.
For I too had lamented missing nearly all of his teenage years.
Cassian gazed into my eyes, and as if he had read my innermost thoughts, he offered a satisfied smile.
"So please forgive me, Roselita Salice. For watching over you without even asking your permission, simply out of curiosity about how you were faring."
Even as he spoke, his tone carried an undertone of earnestness.
At the sound of his voice, pleading for me to understand that it came from his heart alone, I simply laughed.
"I already told you—I was simply curious."
It would be one thing if he had thoroughly investigated my household.
But he had merely been curious about my wellbeing from a distance.
More than anything, the fact that he had been curious about me was, to be honest—
'...wonderful.'
Just as I had wondered how Cassian Artez would grow even while struggling to escape my fate.
I found myself confronted with the truth that despite hoping he would pass by, wishing he would forget me, my heart had never truly wanted that.
I truly was greedy and contradictory.
"So there's nothing to forgive or hold against you, and I'm not upset either."
I told him there was no need to apologize unnecessarily, to simply let go of that guilt.
"...I'm really worried."
"Pardon?"
"What if Roselita Salice goes off with some bad person just because they offered her money?"
Cassian shattered my sentimentality into a thousand pieces.
"...Is this revenge?"
He had destroyed the pure emotions I once harbored in childhood?
And my superior simply smiled that infuriating smile.
"That's too much. I'm genuinely concerned about Roselita."
He uttered the shameless lie without hesitation.
*
As spring fully arrived, the Imperial Palace Garden burst into bloom, flowers blooming and fading in succession.
Yet the work at the Winter Palace Administration showed no signs of diminishing.
When I found myself gazing longingly out the office window, Cassian handed me a document.
"Roselita, visit the First Concubine."
The path to the First Concubine's palace was ablaze with blossoms at this season—the most beautiful time of year.
"At times like these, I truly feel blessed to have such a superior."
"I wish you'd always feel that way."
Cassian expressed his mild displeasure, yet graciously sent me on my way.
The distance from the Winter Palace Administration to the First Concubine's Pansy Palace was considerable—though truthfully, all the palaces were far apart—but the scenery was so exquisite that the walk was worthwhile.
As beautiful as the landscape was, the atmosphere among the attendants and servants should have been equally pleasant.
'...What?'
Yet something felt amiss.
Upon arriving at the Pansy Palace, I sensed the subtle, watchful gazes of those around me.
I usually saw such looks when I was dumping administrative matters on the officials before departing...
The moment I stepped inside with growing confusion,
a sharp crack rang out—!
Accompanied by that piercing sound,
"You dare suspect me without evidence, Fourth Concubine?"
I was forced to witness a confrontation between the First Concubine and the Fourth Concubine.
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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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