Episode 73
Stranger Appreciation
Alecto was embarrassed by the unexpected situation, but he could not stop there. When he grabbed her wrist, Helena put strength in her feet and refused.
Without time to appease her screams to change her clothes Eris allowed her, who appeared to have ‘stolen’ her clothes and fiancé, to run away. He called Helena as she escaped his grasp, but she ran away without looking back.
Everyone’s eyes were on him. Eris smiled with her lips and reached out to Alecto. The dark green eyes were not smiling at all.
Silence heavily wrapped around the two. Unable to withstand the pressure, Alecto tried to walk off first, but Eris raised her hand to block him.
When asked if he hated her, Alecto approached her without realizing it.
When a surprised Alecto stepped back, she even hit her foot against the wall. She looked like a scoundrel on the street.
“You hate me, don’t you? You want me to be sick and suffer somehow, right? So even when you came into the hall, you looked at my expression before His Majesty’s. To see if I’m hurt.”
It was true. He found Eris before anyone else. It wasn’t a coincidence. This was because he unconsciously wandered in search of Eris in the crowd.
Maybe he wanted her to be hurt as she said. Was she still influencing him… he wanted to confirm.
“But as for me, Your Highness……. I wish I was dead.”
Alecto found himself hurt by the words.
“So don’t try to hurt me, you know. Because it’s the same.”
Eris was moving away. It was not his first time seeing her back, but why did he feel anxious?
He believed it would be forgotten if he didn’t see her all the time. However, in the corner of his heart, he kept thinking of that expression of Eris.
That indifferent and cold face. There was faint contempt, but it was close to thorough indifference. It was the face that Melpomene used to make when she saw him.
The vague anxiety soon became a reality. When he looked for Helena, the attendant hesitated, replying that she was with Eris. Now, whenever Eris entered the palace, she no longer sought him. Alecto hurriedly ran into the room where Helena and Eris were together.
There was no welcoming sign anywhere on the face that casually greeted him. Alecto’s teeth were sharpened. Helena, who was looking at the two of them alternately, sneaked in between them.
“I, I, I asked Lady Misérian to have a cup of tea. Right, Lady Misérian?”
“You’re…… Without fear! What if that hurt you?”
He looked around to see if Helena was hurt, but she really seemed to have only drank tea. There were no injuries or wet corners in her eyes.
He deliberately responded roughly to Eris, who asked if he thought she was a monster as if she was tired of it. At the same time, Alecto carefully pushed Helena’s hair back, who was cautiously looking up at him.
She was a precious person. Helena was definitely the only one precious to him.
“I’ve got something to tell you.”
“What? What are you talking about….”
“Let’s go to Lady Kazar’s debutante ball together. As my partner. Don’t you know the child, too?”
So Alecto repeated to himself that he kept looking at Eris because he was annoyed. Eris didn’t feel bad even when she saw their affectionate appearance. Rather, she said she would also attend.
“Alone without a partner?”
“Why don’t I have a partner? Isn’t there Anakin?”,
“Anakin?”
“You probably saw him last time. My escort knight, Your Highness.”
Rather, Alecto’s face hardened. He (Anakin) didn’t catch his eye the first time he saw him. Eris, who refused to appoint a knight, reversed her will and picked him herself; he also heard that she was going around with him everywhere.
When he looked into that person, they said that he was from an orphanage and was not a particularly skilled person even before he became a knight.
It was widely known that Eris thoroughly selected people based on ability, so rumors had circulated that he was Eris’ lover.
Did she fall in love? Was that why she has changed like this? Perhaps leaving for the Rundol region for a while was also a love escape with the knight, Alecto guessed. His mouth was bitter. Alecto asked quietly
“Does your father know this?”
“If my father doesn’t know, will you be my partner then? You’re not even going to do that…..”
“Are you going to put up an act with the imperial family?”
“Yes, Your Highness. I’d like to break ties with the imperial family this time.”
The fact that Eris would leave him first…… he had never thought about it. He had to be happy. Because there was no obstacle. But why was the wind blowing in the corner of his heart?
“If you break your engagement, you’ll become a stranger, so we will not be able to face each other anymore.”
“Imperial affairs are not something that you can control as you please. Didn’t you say first that it was a marriage between the imperial family and the marquis?”
“It was approved by Her Majesty. Is that an answer?”
He didn’t know. He had met Melpomene several times since then, but she only talked about trivial things, and he had never heard of any of those issues. In the end, both the engagement and breakup, began and ended regardless of his will.
Even though his long relationship was cut off, Eris did not even change her expression. Rather, she seemed to think it was strange when she saw his expression
Were endings with someone usually so vain? The confusion was further amplified by the fact that Alecto did not even have a few ended relationships.
“Your Highness, didn’t you want this a lot?”
Something was really weird. It was what he wanted so much, but he was not happy at all.
“What do you think?”
Standing in front of Alecto, the woman was dazzlingly beautiful. Amethyst violets blooming on silver hair like stars, dresses that cut down the sky by the time the dusk set, and above all, her eyes shining brighter than any other purple color.
He felt like one word of admiration was a waste. However, no lengthy description would be enough for Helena’s beauty.
Alecto reached out to Helena, and Helena gently placed her hand on his. Eris’ hand was a little bigger than hers.
“Crown Prince Alecto is entering with Lady Antebellum”.
As the attendant loudly announced his position, the most gorgeous and beautiful flower in the garden, lit up with a thousand lanterns and embroidered with ten thousand flowers, looked back at him.
She wrapped her whole body in bright pink, which she usually did not wear, and her eyes containing the chill of early spring briefly stared at him and fell.
Alecto suddenly became unfamiliar with everything.
He felt like he was alone in a strange world. These were images that he didn’t even know, such as Eris, who saw him insensitively, Helena, who kept her Lady manners and greeted people, and Jason’s eyes that kept following Eris.
He felt like he had to stand by Eris even now. However, when the dance song began, Eris naturally held the knight’s hand and left. Looking back at Helena, she looked busy talking to others. Even Helena, who didn’t care about him, was unfamiliar,
Perhaps all of this was a dream, he thought.
Finally, a familiar figure appeared to him. Eris’ eyes were sparkling with love. Not long ago, he couldn’t believe that Eris’ eyes, who fell in love, would face someone other than him. But now he had to admit it.
Eris Misérian no longer loved him.
Alecto was trembling so much because he could not regard this simple proposition as true. He dared to be overconfident that the child would love him forever.
No, it might have been selfish, but it was what he might have hoped for. Someone who would blindly love him even if it would never get reciprocated.
Eris looked happy kissing someone other than him. Alecto saw a face he had never seen. Alecto always saw ‘the face that Eris wanted to show. Maybe that was why he always hurt her.
He wanted to see over the mask. He wanted to face Eris’ true feelings because it was okay to laugh, cry or get angry. What should he call that feeling?
He was sure it was not love. If this twisted thing was called love, the twisted feelings his parents held on to would also be true.
He started having nightmares. It was a dream of being stabbed in the neck by Eris. Alecto, having an eerie feeling, involuntarily touched the area of his neck. Whether the guilt was manifested unconsciously, it was a dream that he’s been having since he was told by his father to hold Eris.
Alecto grabbed his throbbing head and raised himself. He asked the royal attendant while the servants helped with his clothes.
“Is Lady Misérian still in ‘The Tower’?”
“Yes, she still says nothing.”
“Stupid.”
It has already been several days since the marquis was brought in with charges of opening the Magic Gate and questioned.
To be honest, she would be released soon, Eris refused to testify about her father. She seemed naive to believe that she could save her father if she took such a long time.
“The interrogator has asked you to persuade Lady Misérian yourself. Lady Misérian is weak against His Highness.”
“…I can’t help it if the interrogator has asked me to do so.”
Unlike before, there was no confidence. This was because Eris confirmed that she no longer loved him.
However, the lingering attachment led to Alecto. Maybe like in the past…… perhaps it was one of her tricks to meet him….