Chapter 41
Clarissa bit her lip tightly again and quietly watched him smile.
Recently, Aryan had been smiling a lot.
It felt strange.
The Aryan von Mathias—or Duke Ruben—that she knew was not someone who smiled this easily.
He was a man who endured both joy and suffering with equal measure.
But that fact didn’t feel bad. In fact, it leaned more toward the pleasant side.
“Ah, I’m sorry. But today… today has been so strange…”
Clarissa barely caught sight of the golden eyes that were looking at her.
And perhaps embarrassed by her sudden laughter, she covered her slightly reddened cheeks with the back of her hand and offered an excuse.
“…You’re right.”
Clarissa’s voice softened a little in agreement with his words.
The day she had carefully planned had turned into a mess, but did that really matter?
The teasing from Adria, the ambitions for the future duchess title, the feelings of wanting to make him happy—whether those feelings were pure guilt or something else—none of it mattered now.
“It really has been a strange day.”
That was no longer the most important issue for Clarissa.
“But I’m glad I got to spend it with Aryan.”
“…Me too.”
The most important thing was that Aryan was by her side, and she was by his.
“Clarissa.”
“Yes?”
“Thank you.”
Ding—the chime of bells praising the goddess rang throughout the village.
Aryan’s voice seemed almost swallowed by the sound, yet Clarissa didn’t miss his words.
“For coming to see me again like this…”
“Oh, Aryan, what are you saying?”
Clarissa scratched her cheek awkwardly and smiled. Her red lips moved slightly.
She had said these words dozens of times already, yet they still felt hard to speak.
“We’re… friends, after all.”
Aryan’s blue eyes sparkled even more deeply.
Seeing his joyful face, she couldn’t help but smile.
What did pride matter?
Truthfully, concepts like love and marriage still felt far away to Clarissa.
She admitted it plainly. Leaving aside stubbornness, for now, this was enough.
For Aryan, who was only now learning the feeling of happiness, and for herself, who was only now coming to know him, she didn’t want to rush into complicated bonds.
Well, there’s plenty of time now.
Recalling the promise she had made to herself not to be impatient, Clarissa decided to simply enjoy the happiness of the present moment.
Time, cruel in its swiftness, passed by almost in the blink of an eye, and four years flew past.
Aryan, who had once been known as the reckless Clarissa’s fiancé, was now more commonly called Rashad, Crown Prince of Adria. And thanks to Clarissa not causing any major incidents in the past four years, she hadn’t earned any new infamy beyond being called the fierce beast of the Lizette family.
Life had been peaceful, without a single cloud in the sky.
Especially for Clarissa, aside from Aryan’s growth pains two years ago or the brief excitement surrounding Adria and Aryan’s coming-of-age ceremony last year, there had been very little to worry about.
But this year was different.
In the returning spring, undeniably, one of the biggest events in her life was waiting.
It was none other than the “Debutante Ball,” often called the pinnacle of spring.
This was the formal event where young ladies turning sixteen in noble families were gathered, introduced to the highest woman in the empire—the Empress—and officially made their debut into society. For any young lady of a family within the Asgard Empire, it was a lifelong dream.
It was fun while it lasted. While it lasted…
Of course, except for one person here.
Clarissa gazed blankly at the sky, silently lamenting her fate, letting her pupils relax as she indulged in self-pity.
Even the usually cheerful Clarissa had not always been like this.
But any positivity, any tiny hope, inevitably vanished after daily torment from her mother, Ecléea, and the maids.
Experiencing a debutante ball firsthand was far more complicated than what she had seen in media in her past life—it was far from a “romantic event.”
It was simply a state-sanctioned ceremony piled with etiquette upon etiquette.
Because of that, Clarissa had been forced to memorize every rule she needed to follow that day, without rest.
Not only that, but she was evaluated on which of the hundreds of similar white dresses suited her best after trying each one.
I don’t even want to look at white dresses anymore. If I see one, I’ll burn it for real.
Clarissa’s face hardened with the severity of her thoughts.
Especially today, she had to decide on her hairstyle. Marie, leading several maids, brought decorations to her head and tormented her scalp from morning on.
Just when she feared she might go bald, Clarissa could no longer hold back and let out a cry.
“It’s too much.”
“You must endure.”
But Marie, Clarissa’s recently braver personal maid, cut her complaint off decisively.
Of course, Clarissa had no intention of backing down.
She spoke as if about to raise a very serious issue.
“I can’t leave Aryan neglected any longer.”
Marie’s expression in the mirror changed slightly. She seemed to mull over the words for a moment, but only briefly.
“Neglected? But Aryan is doing fine, isn’t he?”
“No, neglected. Neglected. So we’ve prepared as much as we can…”
“That’s not allowed.”
As expected, her words had no effect.
Clarissa pouted in dissatisfaction.
“…Marie, have you grown up a lot?”
“It’s all thanks to you, Clarissa!”
“That’s not a compliment.”
Threatening Marie to escape this room would have been nothing for Clarissa, but considering the torment she would face from Ecléea afterward, she had to hold back.
Ultimately, Clarissa closed her eyes tightly in frustration.
“Fine, fine. Just hurry up and finish this.”
If it was an unavoidable event in life, all she could do was hope for the tedious time to pass quickly.
Girls in pure white dresses entered the hall in order, walking in a line.
The grand chandeliers hanging from the high ceiling illuminated their steps, and a lively yet elegant melody filled the room along with the audience’s applause.
Soon, the young ladies of the season stepped forward one by one, each radiating beauty, to stand before the highest lady in the empire.
The moment the woman, dressed in a golden gown and white cape—the emblem of the imperial household—raised her hand elegantly toward the sky, all sound ceased.
At the exact same moment, the same words burst from the lips of each debutante:
“We pay our respects to Her Majesty the Empress.”
“Welcome, lights of Asgard.”
Delia von Gren Asgard, Empress of the Asgard Empire, greeted the young ladies of spring with a gentle smile.
The audience held their breath as the debutante ceremony continued.
A woman in uniform behind the Empress began calling the young ladies’ names one by one in a loud voice.
The eldest daughter of the Stard family, the youngest of the Peridot family…
Countless names passed, until finally:
“Clarissa of the Lizette Marquis family!”
Clarissa held the flower-like folds of her dress and stepped forward toward the Empress.
Like the young ladies before her, Clarissa bowed her head once, then fully lowered it and placed a brief kiss on the Empress’s hand.
“Clarissa von Lizette, I pay my respects to Her Majesty the Empress.”
