***
****
“Your Highness……….”
Cecilia’s expression faltered a bit as she looked at him. As he stared at her, Ian, who had a strange smile on his face, slowly opened his mouth.
“It would be better to postpone your tea meeting to next time.”
He gave a beautiful smile as he continued to speak.
“Filina is going to take a walk with me now.”
Filina burst into laughter at Ian’s words.
‘Who’s going to take a walk with who?’
It was all absurd. Even in the garden, he went around sweeping someone’s neck in a black-hearted manner.
‘Is he out of his mind?’
Ian pretended not to know Filina, who was staring at him with a ridiculous face. He just stared at Cecilia with a mean smile.
“Have you made an appointment with Lady Filina?”
Cecilia forced her tight lips up and asked calmly. Ian, who was staring at her, tilted his face at an angle and replied.
“Why do I have to make an appointment? I am the Crown Prince.”
Cecilia fell silent by the arrogant wordplay he had used. For there was nothing more to refute.
Filina wrinkled her brow as she stared at the two of them.
Perhaps Ian was trying to make Cecilia jealous.
She wasn’t sure if there was a need for such a scene anymore, but nothing ever happened between the main characters.
The only problem was that she, who had nothing to do with it, was caught in the middle.
“Then take care of yourself. Miss Cecilia.”
His golden eyes drew a thin line. Ian bowed gently to Cecilia, then straightened up and stared at Filina, who was looking up at him.
Her eyes, which had been bent like a crescent moon, now looked as if they had been looking at him emotionlessly. When he saw this, Ian said in a blunt voice,
“You don’t look happy.”
It was rather her expression that made him look uncomfortable about something.
Somehow, Filina could understand why.
It was probably because she didn’t have a face that smiled brightly like the other ladies.
Moreover, in the original story, Filina was very much in love with the Crown Prince.
The supporting characters were not very strong. No matter how important the villain was.
In the end, she was in a situation where she had no will and was killed by the hands of the Crown Prince. She was only saddened by what she had become.
Ian, who was looking down at Filina with a straight face, finally grabbed her wrist. It was the moment when she had no choice but to step away from him.
Cecilia, who was only blinking, opened her mouth in a panic.
“Huh, but isn’t it the duty of a gentleman to ask the lady’s opinion first!”
The expression on the Crown Prince’s face stiffened.
As long as she said that, he might suddenly turn into a bully if he tried to take a walk without Filina’s consent.
Eventually, his golden eyes turned to Filina. He parted his lips unwillingly.
“Would you like to take a walk with me, Lady Filina?”
The answer was obvious anyway.
She was just material to further advance the relationship between the two. No matter how much she didn’t like it, there was a limit to her role.
“Lady Filina, you may answer truthfully! I’m sure His Highness will understand any answer with an open mind!”
Cecilia exclaimed so hastily that his brows crinkled. Ian recited lowly as he stared at Cecilia with a cold face.
“You think too good of me.”
His beautiful golden hair flashed. Ian turned his head again and looked into Filina’s ruby jewel-like eyes.
In a cold voice he threatened her to her face.
“Filina, you’d better think twice before you answer. I am not a generous person.”
Filina sighed dryly.
The fact that he wasn’t very generous had been known for a long time now.
The male protagonist in the original story was so wonderfully rendered that she sometimes mistakenly thought that approaching him would naturally lead to a happy ending.
There were days when she made constant efforts not to be disliked by him.
However, as if to laugh at her efforts so far, she was put on the death row by the maid’s words that she spit out without evidence.
The first life she died in vain indeed. This face, cold and indifferent to the end, came to mind. At least Cecilia felt sorry for her.
She knew better than anyone else where her feeble spark, which could go out at any moment, would persist and survive.
“Your Highness, I have told you this before.”
Filina raised her head and looked into Ian’s eyes. She could see him frowning.
“The more possessions a person has, like Your Highness, the less privileges you have.”
Ian’s face turned cold.
“You’re not saying you’re going to reject me, are you?”
Meeting his eyes quietly, Filina opened her mouth again with a calm face.
“Please reduce the privilege and give a young lady the broad grace to refuse His Highness the Crown Prince.”
Her overly polite voice made Ian burst out laughing as if dumbfounded.
****
“I heard you’ve decided to hold your engagement ceremony in two years?”
Filina said with a gasp. Cecilia looked at her strangely.
“Yes. His Highness also told me that he wanted to delay the engagement ceremony. But why are you so surprised?”
“No, I’m not.”
Filina deliberately hid her confused expression and took a mouthful of fruit juice from the table.
At last she left Ian and went to the Count’s residence with Cecilia.
She wanted to go home, but she couldn’t pretend not to know Cecilia, who was staring at her with an expectant face.
Cecilia asked the maid to make different kinds of teas and drinks for Filina.
The table was full of delicious cookies and sweet cakes.
But she didn’t have time to care about them.
According to the original content, Ian had to tell her that he would set the engagement ceremony for next spring. Cecilia should have rejected the offer.
The small conflict between the main characters serves as a stepping stone for further advancing their relationship.
Several episodes arise as Cecilia unilaterally avoided Ian to postpone the engagement ceremony.
Due to the emotions that bloomed during this time, Ian decided to do Cecilia a favor and spent two years listening to the Emperor’s grudge.
But, why did he just skip that whole process?
Then what happened to the emotions of the main characters born out of the conflict?
Filina couldn’t hide her perplexed expression. She didn’t expect the original story would be shortened like this.
“I’m sorry, Miss. Is there something uncomfortable?”
Cecilia asked cautiously, looking at Filina’s pale face. Finally, Filina cleared the confusion from her mind and smiled wryly.
“No, I was just surprised that the engagement ceremony will take place later than expected.”
“Oh, I see. To tell you the truth, I still don’t really feel like I’m getting engaged. It’s kind of awkward… and I’m rather relieved that he gave me two years.”
Filina nodded closely at what she said. Then Cecilia immediately spoke in a more cheerful voice.
“Of course, I’m very grateful that your Highness proposed to a humble person like me!”
Filina opened her mouth with a little smile.
“No matter how humble you are, don’t lower yourself too much. Miss Cecilia.”
“But I don’t stand out in any particular way like the others, and I’m a person who falls too short for someone as amazing as His Highness.”
Filina’s brow furrowed at Cecilia’s faint dejection.
“Well. I don’t think so.”
Cecilia looked up at her words. Filina smiled quietly and spoke.
“His Highness is a man who knows all about practicality. Why did such an amazing person choose Cecilia over the other ladies? He must have even sent you a proposal because you have that much of a sufficient quality.”
Her quiet voice echoed widely in the waiting room. Cecilia looked at Filina with dazed eyes. When her gaze did not fall for a while, Filina called out to her with a strange face.
“Miss Cecilia? What’s wrong?”
Finally, the eyes that reminded her of clear blades of grass slowly shifted to the side. Cecilia stared into the air, catching her breath for a moment.
“It’s just that…I’ve never heard those words before…”
Cecilia bit her lips quietly as she spoke.
Cecilia couldn’t control her emotions. Filina could only watch silently as she did so.
Cecilia’s family was strict.
She grew up with more criticism and control than praise from her family, and the environment around her was not very nice.
In addition, her title as a saint made her feel distant from the aristocratic society, and she even received a proposal from the Crown Prince, which made people jealous of her.
If Filina had played the role of a villain as in the original story, Cecilia would not have been able to bear it.
In reality, it would have been.
But this was a world in a novel, a world completely different from reality.
The female protagonist, who never lost her laughter even in the midst of hard adversity, would meet and fall in love with a wonderful male protagonist who would accept her for the first time.
The story would end with a happy ending.
That’s how it would have ended in a normal picture.
If only this novel hadn’t been labeled R-rated.
“…… Lady Filina is a really nice person.”
Cecilia smiled and raised her head.
The blue-green eyes were filled with transparent tears, but the corners of her forced lips were smiling like a habit.
It was a pity that she had to keep smiling, as if it was her own virtue.
“There’s a visitor for you, young lady.”
At that moment, a maid came into the parlor, approached Cecilia, and told Cecilia quietly.
She quickly wiped away her tears and looked at Filina.
“Lady Filina, if you don’t mind, may I welcome a Young Master here?”
Cecilia asked with a smile so bright that Filina couldn’t refuse.
“Of course.”
Once the permission was granted, Cecilia spoke to the maid with a bright smile.
“Please bring him here. I’m sure the Young Master will be pleased.”
Seeing her buoyant face helped Filina to put down the heavy feeling she had. However, the mood did not last long.
It was an awkward moment when she was so immersed in Cecilia’s emotions alone that she failed to recognize the identity of the Young Master she mentioned.