Chapter 2
“Miss, you absolutely must not go anywhere! I’ll be right back!”
“Mmm, go on.”
A few hours later, the table was already packed full of empty wine bottles. After drinking far too much for the first time in a while, Violette nodded off with her head half-buried in the table, staring blankly into space.
Even as he went to the restroom, Hurain kept glancing back several times, clearly worried about leaving his mistress alone. But the moment Hurain disappeared into the restroom, Violette’s head snapped up.
“Ah, right! I have to get that whiskey from Heln too….”
The whiskey she’d won in a bet at the casino a few hours earlier flashed through her mind. That sneaky Heln would definitely pretend nothing happened if today passed.
“He should still be at the casino, right?”
In the end, Violette completely forgot Hurain’s plea to stay put and staggered toward the casino. In her hands, she tightly gripped a half-finished bottle of wine and an empty glass.
“He’s not here?”
But no matter how thoroughly she searched the casino, there was no sign of Heln. Assuming he’d run away to avoid giving her the whiskey, Violette frowned and stepped outside. To find Heln — or rather, the whiskey — she wandered off without any real destination.
The garden connected to the casino was quiet and deserted. Of course, there was no way Heln would be there, but in her drunken state, Violette was incapable of that kind of reasoning.
“Heln! Where did you go?!”
As she glanced around in irritation, Violette’s steps suddenly stopped in one spot.
A man was sitting slumped down in the corner of the garden, blankly staring up at the night sky.
His silver hair, falling to his shoulders, shimmered under the moonlight, and his pale skin looked so translucent it almost seemed to glow. At the sight of a beauty she’d never seen before in her life, Violette was drawn to him as if enchanted and walked over to his side.
“What are you doing here?”
“Ahh!”
Startled by the sudden presence, he let out a short cry. Ignoring the confusion on his face, Violette plopped down beside him.
“W-who are you…?”
“I’m Violette. But what are you doing here?”
After eyeing her with a wary look, the man finally noticed something strange. Her goofy smile, her repetitive, short way of speaking, and the strong scent of wine radiating from her entire body. Even from a hundred meters away, it was obvious she was completely drunk.
“You seem to be drunk. Don’t you have anyone with you? It’s dangerous to wander around alone….”
“Huraein is over there somewhere. So what are you doing here?”
Violette pointed vaguely somewhere and tilted her head again. After hesitating for a moment, he answered in a low voice, deciding she wouldn’t back down easily.
“I just have something on my mind….”
“What is it? Want me to listen?”
“No, it’s fine.”
Despite his refusal, Violette’s eyes sparkled. She seemed genuinely excited at the thought of listening to someone’s worries. Smiling brightly, she picked up the wine bottle she’d set down beside her and shoved it in front of his nose.
“It’s fine! We’ve got lots of time!”
“Ah….”
A woman offering him a half-drunk wine bottle — he let out a deep sigh, thinking he’d really run into trouble.
“Here, drink while you talk.”
Violette ignored his reaction and poured wine into a glass before handing it to him. He stared at her for a moment.
Her eyes are completely gone.
Refusing with some excuse clearly wouldn’t work, so he reluctantly accepted the glass and took a light sip. For wine that someone else had half-drunk, the aroma and taste were surprisingly good.
“It’s tasty, right?”
“It’s not bad.”
Before he knew it, he was being swept up in her pace. He emptied every glass she poured, and when he finally came to his senses, the bottle was already completely empty.
“…I want to become a magician.”
A little tipsy, he suddenly revealed what had been in his heart.
He talked about the dream he’d cherished for a long time, the family that opposed him, and the sense of responsibility he carried.
“Do you know that three years ago, a huge crack formed in the barrier near the Air Beach?”
At his question, Violette shook her head. Three years ago was right when she’d just possessed this body — she’d been too busy just trying to stay alive to care about what was happening in the world.
“What happens if the barrier cracks?”
“Things from another world would cross over. Like magic beasts. At worst, the entire continent could’ve been destroyed.”
At the violent words — magic beasts, destruction — Violette’s eyes widened.
“Thankfully, it ended without anything happening, but it caused a huge uproar. People’s trust in the Magic Tower was shaken badly. Anyway, I personally investigated the incident and wrote a report, and apparently a high-ranking member of the Magic Tower liked it. He said he’d write me a letter of recommendation so I could enter the Magic Tower — as his assistant, no less.”
“Ooh. Being an executive’s assistant sounds amazing. That’s great news.”
“Didn’t you hear what I said earlier? My parents are against it. They want me to be the heir.”
His face darkened again as he said it.
The Magic Tower was a closed-off organization that was extremely hard to enter, and being able to skip the apprentice stage and immediately become an executive’s assistant was an unbelievably rare opportunity. Because he knew just how precious that chance was, his heart was even more conflicted.
“He said he’d wait for me, but at the latest, I have to decide by next year’s public recruitment exam. But I really don’t want to miss this opportunity.”
“Have you tried talking to them seriously? That you really want to be a magician? It’s not like you’re the only one who can be the heir. You could appoint a proxy, too.”
Violette thought of her own siblings fighting every single day over the position of heir. In the Raskal family, the children were desperate to become the next Marquis, yet this man was trying to avoid it — she couldn’t help but feel sorry for whichever family he belonged to.
“I’ve talked about it countless times. But they insist it has to be of the Kegrainner bloodline. If I really want to join the Magic Tower, they told me to at least get married. They said until a child is born, my wife could handle the territory.”
“Kegrainner?”
Violette frowned slightly, as the name felt strangely familiar, but her thoughts stopped there. She’d drunk far too much for her brain to work properly.
“But that doesn’t make sense. I can’t do something so selfish just because it makes me happy.”
Listening to him, Violette fell into deep thought. In her foggy, hazy mind, one idea slowly began to bloom.
“Ah, then why don’t you marry me?”
“…What?”
“I can’t tell you the details, but people keep trying to pair me up with some guy. It’s gotten a bit better lately, but I still have to avoid him. If I become a married woman, there won’t be any reason to pair me with him, right? It’s good for both of us!”
Violette looked up at him with a bright smile.
Although her reputation had fallen through the floor long ago, there were still a few persistent nobles who were constantly looking for chances to connect her with Tereso. At this moment, Violette genuinely thought this was a brilliant idea.
“You’re serious…?”
He ran a hand through his hair, looking truly troubled.
His slightly furrowed brow, his pale fingers running through his soft hair, and his violet eyes that looked like they could swallow someone whole — all of it captured Violette’s gaze.
“Of course….”
Hypnotized by his looks, Violette answered without thinking. At that moment, words like Tereso and noble factions completely vanished from her mind. One thing was absolutely clear — no man in the Empire, no, on the entire continent, could match this man’s beauty.
“Yeah, let’s get married! I’ll marry you!”
With a wide grin, Violette grabbed his hand.
Startled by her sudden action, his face turned bright red, and he jumped to his feet.
“I-I don’t think this is right….”
“Why not?”
“I’m sorry. Forget I heard any of that….”
“Hey, pretty boy! Where are you going?! Pretty boy!”
Ignoring her desperate shouts, he hurried out of there.
Left alone, Violette let out a hollow laugh, dumbfounded.
“Ha… so being pretty makes you special, huh?”
After going as far as proposing, he’d acted so rude. Violette glared briefly in the direction he’d disappeared, then pulled out a cigarette from her chest and lit it.
What a terribly rude man.
* * *
“Yaaawn—.”
About a month later, Violette finally woke up when the sun was already high in the sky and let out a long, lazy yawn. Pressing her throbbing temple, she stared blankly into the air.
“How much did I drink last night…?”
For nearly a month, there had hardly been a single day she hadn’t drunk alcohol.
As soon as she opened her eyes, Violette headed to the balcony and put another cigarette between her lips.
“Hmm… Pretty Boy was in my dream again today.”
She tried hard to recall the dream she’d had during the night, grasping at faint, blurry memories.
Over the past few weeks, a mysterious man had occasionally appeared in her dreams. Although she couldn’t clearly remember his facial features, the pure, refined aura and the neat, gentle silhouette he left behind gave her a strong impression that he was very beautiful.
She called him “Pretty Boy” and smiled to herself whenever she thought of him.
But a dream was just a dream.
Since she didn’t take it seriously, she would just feel satisfied whenever he appeared, thinking she’d had a nice dream.
After crushing out her cigarette in the ashtray, Violette stretched widely.
It was a peaceful morning, same as always.
