Translator: Hye; Editor/PR: Hye
Arnoa asked again.
Vainas, who did not notice her unusual attitude at all, laughed loudly and nodded.
“You must have liked the play today!”
It was a clear consent.
Standing next to him, leaning over with her arms crossed, Larissa stared at her suspiciously. At least, that one’s quick to notice.
“Come closer.”
Arnoa called Rick and smiled warmly. He answered back with a sleek smile.
One had to admit his shamelessness. He insulted Arnoa and built up a career, yet he had this kind of attitude.
In the play, he killed Arnoa several times. Today with a sword, last time with a death sentence, and before that, pushed off on a cliff.
And each time, the audience cheered. It was not an exaggeration to say that Arnoa’s reputation and Rick’s popularity were exchanged.
“Greetings, Your Highness.”
He bowed with a smile. His eyes, facing her, seemed to be filled with mockery.
“More.”
Arnoa spoke briefly. Rick raised his head and blinked.
“…Pardon?”
“Closer.”
Arnoa gestured at Rick using her finger.
In her gesture, in her eyes. It contained composure that had never existed before.
Rick, a little embarrassed, hesitated before going all the way to her.
A rare bright smile was shown on her face while looking at the famous actor. And for a moment, Vainas’ eyebrows wriggled.
When he finally reached the distance as close as he could reach, she saw Rick, a young man with dark blonde hair and light blue eyes. It felt somewhat similar to Vainas but younger.
Arnoa laughed innocently as if she had become a different person and opened her mouth.
It was the moment she prepared for while watching the play.
“Indeed, you’re the most handsome man in Dirhan.”
She whispered sweetly.
“Y-yes?”
Rick’s eyes grew bigger at the sudden remark. Vainas also looked at her absurdly.
“You look exactly like what I’ve been painting for a long time.”
“Ah…”
Rick murmured as if he had realized something.
What she said was a line in the play.
However, it was not a scene of the dying wicked woman, which Vainas expected, but a scene where she met the male protagonist for the first time and fell in love.
Vainas frowned.
Dirhan’s most handsome man.
Even if it was ordered, was it appropriate to say it to another man in front of her husband?
There was also a buzzing sound that surrounded them. However, Arnoa’s affectionate gaze did not fall from Rick.
“…Thank you.”
Rick uttered his own lines as if being carried away.
“You have a king-like appearance. It’s befitting for everyone here to bow their heads.”
Her cheeks blushed as if she were truly in love.
The audience became cold for a moment.
Though it was as the director said, the queen of the kingdom praised another man for looking like a king and bowed her head deeply.
It was difficult to accept it as a joke. Especially when the actual king was next to them.
The noble ladies sitting behind widened their eyes like rabbits and looked at Arnoa while Vainas’ face became cold.
“The purple cape you’re wearing suits you very well.”
Arnoa didn’t care about the lines.
“I don’t think I’ve seen anyone in Dirhan who suits that color better than you.”
She stopped talking for a while, then opened her mouth again.
“At least…if you haven’t seen Arnoa.”
Rick’s mouth opened wide while someone from the audience gasped.
“Oh my, I got the names mixed up, Your Highness. I should have said ‘Irnia’.”
Arnoa glanced at Vainas and smiled, acting like she knew nothing.
“Well, I’ll stop here.”
The surrounding people were quiet as if someone poured cold water. One couldn’t even hear the sound of breathing.
The color purple was a symbol of the Dirhan Royal Family.
Strictly speaking, it was a color that should not be used in plays. However, as the actual protagonists of the performance were Vainas and Larissa, Count Estea deliberately dressed Rick in that color.
Rick was the Vainas of the performing world.
It was his role to shine brightly as an actor on his behalf. But it was not Rick’s job to pull off the purple cape better than Vainas. It should never have been like that at all.
He was told that he looked better with the purple color than anyone else.
In front of King Vainas himself.
Coming from his queen in the same purple clothes.
The bigger problem was the fact that the queen looked so sincere when she said it. An appearance that had never been seen in front of the king, she looked and sounded like a girl who was suffering from a first love.
It was a scratch to the king’s pride.
The nobles looked appalled, asking each other if the always-quiet woman had suddenly gone crazy. And Vainas’ lips trembled slightly.
He seemed to be holding it in, but his face was distorted.
“Queen…”
“I want to gift the actor who helped me. Is that okay?”
Vainas growled low, but Arnoa smiled brightly as if she didn’t hear it.
“For courtesy’s sake.”
What she said was true. As usual, after watching the play, she had to give the actor a gift.
Vainas nodded with a stiff face. Arnoa then removed a ring from her finger instead of usually taking out a pocket of gold coins.
“I want to give you a special gift.”
She spoke as sweetly as she did a while ago.
Rick still had his mouth gaped. He didn’t understand the situation.
He and Arnoa had never met before.
In all his previous works, Count Estea invited the king and his wife. When the king asked for the queen’s comment after the performance, she would only say ‘I saw it well’ with a reluctant expression.
However, the current queen gave him high praises that he should not dare to hear.
He was suspicious for a moment whether she was doing it intentionally, but there was no malice in her bright expression.
He couldn’t understand it even more.
‘…Did you suddenly fall in love with me?’
Was it possible that the young queen momentarily fell for him that she doesn’t know what to say?
Was she stupid that she forgot that his acting was an insult to herself?
“I-it’s immeasurable…”
Rick smiled vaguely and knelt on one knee.
“I think sapphire will suit you.”
As soon as Rick, who was conscious of Vainas’ deep blue wrath, wondered if he should decline, Arnoa’s icy fingers wrapped around his wrist.
(T/N: Deep blue wrath meant threatening force that no one dares to defy.)
Giving no one a chance to stop her, she dropped the ring into his hand and closed his open fingers to make him hold the ring.
‘Heuk.’
It was a delicate woman’s hand, but she held him firmly to a point that Rick finds it difficult to resist.
He looked up in surprise.
‘…Huh?”
Arnoa’s expression was slightly different. She still had a smile on her lips, but her gaze was filled with a chilling coldness that had never seen before. It was shuddering to the core which Rick had never felt in his entire life.
Rick trembled for a moment. Starting from the wrist that Arnoa was holding, his whole body felt frozen.
“May the memories of this good day be with you forever.”
“…T-th-thank you, Your Highness.”
Rick greeted and tried to remove her hand, but Arnoa only stared at him without letting go.
“…Your Highness?”
Overwhelmed by the unfamiliar atmosphere, he looked up at Arnoa again, speaking in a mosquito-like voice. The chilling ardor in her eyes remained the same.
‘…I-is it because I’m only holding her gift?’
Rick interpreted her unexpected attitude as unspoken pressure to put the ring on his finger.
The audience was still quietly cold. All the nobles were looking their way because of Arnoa’s unexpected behavior, but none of them could easily come forward. No one could intervene unless the king stood up. However, Vainas, whose pride was hurt, was just staring at the two.
‘If it’s blue sapphire…’
After all, it was a common gift.
Rick organized his thoughts.
It was not unusual for the Royal Family to give a ring to an actor they liked. It was only right for the recipient to wear it the moment he received it.
Let’s put on the ring first.
That way, he could leave this awkward moment quickly.
Barely holding onto his confused mind, he cleared his throat and answered.
“I-I’ll keep it as a family treasure, Your Highness!”
He put the ring on his other hand.
Arnoa’s eyes slightly softened while the hand that held him also felt loose. And the next moment, her bright smile returned.
Feeling relaxed, Rick breathed a sigh of relief. He was unnecessarily nervous.
The queen simply gave a gift to an actor she favored, like any other nobleman.
He’s a quick-witted person. With the happenings like this, he was thinking of changing the atmosphere by making idle remarks.
“You have good eyes, Your Highness!”
He added a joke and raised his ringed hand high.
In the dark auditorium, a large jewel shone blue.
But as soon as Rick went back on stage, he realized something was wrong.
His fellow actors, the scriptwriter, the director, as well as Count Estea who was far away, and even the king’s mistress and his relative, Larissa Estea, were all looking at his index finger with horror expressions.
‘Huh…?’
Rick slowly glanced at the ring.
‘Oh my God.’
The ring looked bluish in the dark, but once illuminated by the lights on the stage, it was shining in vivid purple.
What he received was a purple sapphire ring.
Purple sapphire was the symbol of the Dirhan Royal Family. Although possession was permitted, it was punishable for royal impersonation if worn by commoners.
“P-ple-please kill me, Your Highness!”
Rick cried out and knelt in front of Vainas.