Chapter 45
The head maid approached me with elegant but quick steps.
“I heard an explosion coming from the lake and was worried. The Crown Prince’s knights have surrounded the lake, so…”
“Ah, sorry for worrying you.”
“I’m relieved to see you safe. Nothing happened at the lake, did it?”
She seemed to be asking about something beyond just my condition, but I only nodded.
It would come out soon enough anyway, so there was no need to be the first to tell the Empress.
I’d tell Eloise first.
“Lizet!”
“Eloise!”
Perhaps she’d heard I’d been found, because Eloise came running straight toward me.
I also quickly ran and leapt into her arms.
Her turquoise eyes busily scanned me up and down as she held me.
“You’re not hurt anywhere, right?”
“Mm-hm. I’m fine. I went toward the lake, but there were too many knights, so I played somewhere else.”
At my answer, she sighed in relief and hugged me tightly.
Her usually cold body was just a little warmer now, wrapping around my fur.
When I rubbed my head against her chest, her careful hand stroked my head.
“Wherever you go, trouble seems to follow.”
“This time it wasn’t me.”
“I know.”
I grumbled in protest, and Eloise gave a small smile.
The head maid, who had been quietly observing us, slowly approached.
“You must have been startled, Lady. Please rest in your room. I’ll have Sophie bring up your dinner.”
“Thank you. And sorry for the trouble.”
“Not at all. I was the one who recommended a walk by the lake.”
Eloise gave a slight nod and went upstairs to the room assigned to her.
The room, with its bedroom and small private parlor, had become somewhat familiar, but I still missed the Duke of Monclair’s estate.
“Eloise, how long are you supposed to continue these Crown Princess lessons?”
“Her Majesty the Empress told me to stay about a month. But it’ll depend on your health, Lizet.”
She set me down on the sofa and sat beside me.
Her turquoise eyes still brimmed with worry.
“I really wasn’t hurt at all.”
“…When you say ‘really,’ you mean something happened besides the explosion.”
As expected, she was smart and quick to notice.
I wondered how I should bring up the fact that the Crown Prince and Marianne had succeeded in resonance.
If Eloise could accept that truth more calmly, she wouldn’t act out destructively like in the original story.
“Hey, Eloise.”
“Tell me.”
“Do you… like the Crown Prince?”
“Of course not.”
“Then what about Marcel?”
This time, instead of a sharp, immediate answer, a long silence followed.
I didn’t rush her and waited quietly.
“Foolishly… still.”
It was an admission.
Eloise’s face, as she confessed she still loved him, was filled not with excitement but sorrow.
Her trembling voice came in broken pieces.
“Since I can’t awaken, the only way I can serve my family… is this. Becoming Crown Princess.”
I couldn’t tell her she could never be Crown Princess, not when she put her family’s honor above her own feelings.
There were many things I wanted to say instead, but would they truly comfort her?
“…I saw the Crown Prince and Marianne by the lake just now.”
“I see.”
Her resigned voice was flat, without intonation.
“It looked like… they succeeded in mana resonance.”
“…!”
Her eyes widened, trembling, losing focus.
It was the one position she was holding onto. The fear of losing it must have been unbearable.
I placed my paw gently on her thin fist, veins faintly visible.
I’d already untangled most of the mana knots in her hands.
All that remained would unravel with just a little more effort. But I feared giving her false hope.
“Open your hand, Eloise. There’s more I need to tell you.”
Her cold hand slowly opened. She’d clenched it so tightly that deep red nail marks lined her palm.
I pressed and massaged her right palm with my paw, and the tangled mana within it unraveled completely.
Now, instead of an icy clump, only a soft, springlike flow of mana remained in her right hand.
“Can you feel the difference between your right hand and left?”
Before I’d even finished speaking, Eloise carefully clenched and unclenched both hands.
“My right hand… doesn’t hurt anymore. It used to feel like being stabbed with needles.”
“That means it’s forming properly. That’s good. You may already know this, but your mana circuits were all tangled and hardened, which blocked the flow.”
“I knew. That’s why everyone said it couldn’t be fixed. But—”
“But your circuits reacted to my mana. Strange, isn’t it?”
I looked into her tear-filled eyes and smiled as brightly as I could.
“You don’t have to become Crown Princess. I don’t care about Monclair. I just want you to be happy.”
I’ll work harder, so it won’t be false hope.
So your life won’t collapse, and so I can be happy by your side.
Because I’m a selfish cat.
“I’ll make sure you’re happy.”
“Lizet…”
Eloise pulled me into her arms again, silent tears streaming down her face.
She cried and cried until Sophie entered with the dinner trolley, startled into fumbling.
Though it lightened my heart, it also weighed on my shoulders.
I’d put myself on a difficult path, but my mind felt at ease.
I had taken a step away from ruin alongside the so-called villainess.
The next day, the Crown Prince sent Eloise an invitation to a banquet at the Crown Prince’s Palace, to be held in a week.
It was clear he intended to announce his resonance with Marianne there.
Shameless bastard. Tsk.
Eloise must have guessed as much; her eyes sharpened as she looked at the invitation.
“Sophie, did we bring the emerald-green parure?”
“I’ll have a maid fetch it, my lady. I’ll also bring the most splendid gown with it.”
“Good.”
Though she spoke calmly, she ground her teeth. That angry face of hers looked fittingly villainous.
Eloise placed the invitation carefully into a drawer and went downstairs to the first-floor parlor for her lessons.
I, meanwhile, turned toward the main gate.
“Lizet, where are you going?”
“For a health check! They told me to come a bit early today.”
It was a lie. I was heading out early to coordinate with Etienne.
As soon as I arrived at the Prince’s Palace, I tapped the foot of a familiar knight.
“Hey, where’s Etienne?”
“He just returned from an outing, so he should be in his chambers.”
“Thanks!”
At my cheerful thanks, the knight’s face lit up with a silly grin.
Following the scent of dog, I scratched at Etienne’s chamber door where claw marks were already etched.
The door burst open and I nearly fell forward.
“You—did you forget I told you not to scratch my door?”
“Cats grow by scratching with their claws.”
“Who told you that?”
“Marcel did.”
Etienne sighed and rubbed his forehead.
I shamelessly walked in and plopped onto the sofa as if it were mine. He followed and sat opposite me.
“I’ve been thinking.”
“About that plan of yours?”
“Yep! First, we’ll break off the engagement. For that, I want to search through the Crown Prince’s Palace.”
“The Crown Prince’s Palace?”
The biggest obstacle for Marcel and Eloise was her engagement to the Crown Prince.
It would be good to have the support of the Empress or the Monclair family, but before exercising such power, I needed a justification.
That justification would be the Crown Prince’s wrongdoing.
He had countless faults already, but none that could publicly break an engagement. I intended to find one.
“Yes. The reason for breaking off the engagement has to lie with the Crown Prince. Our Eloise must remain spotless.”
“Our Eloise?”
Etienne repeated my phrasing incredulously, but I ignored him.
Using what I remembered from the original story, I’d dig up any small slip of the Crown Prince’s and blow it up into something big.
The dreaded day of the Crown Prince’s banquet arrived.
With help from the Empress Palace maids, Sophie began dressing Eloise in dazzling splendor.
Her hair, usually left down, was pinned high, adorned with jeweled hairpins of diamond and aquamarine.
There were so many, they glittered like the Milky Way across the night sky.
“Sophie, the Milky Way is flowing through Eloise’s hair…”
“Oh my, Lady Lizet, I’m so happy you noticed my intention!”
I’d only said it out of disbelief, but Sophie beamed as if truly delighted.
Her pale skin was dusted with rosy powder, giving her a faint blush.
“Lately, my lady’s complexion has improved. It seems the Imperial Palace air suits you well.”
“Really? Maybe it’s because I’ve been sleeping better these days.”
Eloise glanced at me absentmindedly, but I feigned ignorance and licked my paw.
