“I feel sorry for the princess who will be used and discarded.”
“…Is that so.”
Major Rodriguez replied in his characteristically calm voice.
“It seems Brigadier General Masera is also planning to divorce the princess after benefiting from her royal lineage. Coincidentally, the Grand Ducal Princess, a collateral relative of Medea’s royal family, has sent a marriage proposal.”
Brigadier General Steve noticed a slight change in the Major’s eyes.
“Rumor has it that the Grand Ducal Princess still adores the Brigadier General. I guess she wouldn’t mind a divorcee.”
The Brigadier General was spouting such words because sympathy and pity were the sparks that ignited incidents.
Especially if the kindling was made of hot-blooded young men.
‘Whether it’s a scandal or a love affair… I must use anything.’
Your smooth married life is over, Masera.
The Brigadier General, who usually felt inferior to Masera, smiled leisurely.
* * *
“Lady Cynthia, I was sorting out the people to send the wedding invitations to… Ah? Are you already done?”
Diego had barely finished explaining when the list of wedding invitations was confirmed.
Because, surprisingly, Cynthia had almost no one to invite.
‘I have as many friends as a glowworm.’
Apart from the invitation list sent by House Queensguard, there was no one she could personally invite.
‘I have to make a lot of friends from now on.’
Cynthia, who felt miserable for about 3 seconds, headed to Eugene’s room, the number one person she wanted to befriend.
Masera was the ‘someone I have to befriend to survive, but also don’t want to befriend.’
“Eugene, we were going to decorate the frog house together.”
Cynthia, who opened the door first and knocked belatedly, said cheerfully.
Eugene, who was sitting at his desk reading a book, looked at the small fishbowl in her hand.
“I didn’t make that promise.”
“I did. You just didn’t hear it.”
Cynthia, who came in insisting like a child, held out the round fishbowl.
The fishbowl, filled with soil and decorated with ornaments, pine cones, and small dolls, looked like a small garden.
“Isn’t it pretty? The frog is asleep inside.”
While pretending to be uninterested, Eugene’s clear green eyes were fixed on the fishbowl.
“We’re also planning to make a warm shelter for the cats before the cold wave comes. You’ll do it with me, right?”
“Do it with uncle. Uncle likes cats.”
“Really?”
On Helene’s wedding day, when he disappeared in the middle, she had her doubts, but he really was a can opener.
Cynthia briefly imagined making a cat house with Masera, side by side.
She added the most friendly and harmonious atmosphere possible, but…
“Why did you ask me to make it with you? I’m the one who’s going to make it anyway.”
In her imagination, he wasn’t just a can opener, but a rude can opener.
Cynthia, who erased the imagination with cloudy eyes, asked.
“Eugene, do you like books? I like books too. What are you reading now?”
“The book the teacher gave me.”
Cynthia glanced at the book Eugene was reading.
It was about a rabbit family competing to find the biggest carrot, and there seemed to be no problem.
Then she found a book on the bookshelf.
Snow Queen
‘That’s the book Eugene read and was scared of.’
“Hey.”
Eugene turned to look at Cynthia, who was lost in thought, and spoke.
“What?”
After hesitating for a moment, Eugene closed the book and opened his mouth.
“Big sis, why don’t you look like your family?”
It was an insightful observation for a child. Their hair color, eye color, and everything else was different from hers.
Everyone only talked about the Snow Queen having white skin and red eyes, but Cynthia was slightly embarrassed because it was the first time someone had raised such a suspicion.
“You don’t think I look like them at all?”
Eugene pointed to a rabbit illustration with his finger and said.
“Big sis’ family looks like foxes, and big sis looks like the white rabbit in this book.”
“Really? I must look a lot like my mom. I don’t remember very well because it’s been so long.”
At Cynthia’s words, Eugene made a sad expression that adults would make.
“Do memories disappear when you become an adult? My mom’s face gradually disappeared as time passed. But now I remember again.”
According to Dahlia, Eugene was in a hospital in the ruined duchy after the bombing.
Eugene, who was smaller and younger than now, had to experience the sadness of losing his parents and being left alone in the world, just like her in her previous life.
“How did you remember again?”
At Cynthia’s question, Eugene stared intently at her.
The boy’s eyes contained complex emotions. It was like a gaze that projected a certain object.
“I don’t look like my mom. Why?”
Instead of answering, Eugene asked another question.
Not knowing what to say, Cynthia scratched her cheek awkwardly.
“You won’t know until you grow up, right? The fact that you’re so pretty must be thanks to your mom too.”
Eugene, pouting his lips, fiddled with the fishbowl on the desk.
No one knew about Eugene’s parents except that they were sacrificed in the bombing.
‘But he must have been a young master who grew up well.’
She could tell just by looking at Eugene’s white and spotless hands.
She had often seen parents making their children do hard work from the age they started walking.
Cynthia, one of those children, looked down at her rough and scarred hands in silk gloves.
Suddenly, Dahlia’s words came to mind.
“I tried to find his relatives by asking around, but he would shut his mouth whenever the story about his parents came up. I decided not to ask anymore because I was afraid of stimulating his wounds and trauma.”
The fact that Eugene was talking about his mother meant that he had opened his heart a little, didn’t it?
Thinking so, Cynthia handed the wedding invitation she had brought to Eugene.
“Here, it’s a wedding invitation. You’re the first person I’m giving it to directly.”
Eugene’s action of receiving the wedding invitation, skimming through it roughly, and putting it down showed that he was deliberately being mean.
But Cynthia didn’t care.
“There’s a flower drawn on here, right? It’s a wedding invitation only given to special people.”
Eugene, who pretended not to be interested, looked at Cynthia carefully.
‘Is big sis really a bad person? I don’t know.’
A question full of confusion kept swirling in the child’s mouth.
He couldn’t understand why everyone said that people with white hair were bad.
In particular, the tutor Hayden said, ‘Don’t be fooled by their kind smiles.’
He said that Cynthia would reveal her true colors once she married Masera and became the mistress of the house.
‘Is big sis really going to kick me out?’
Eugene liked Cynthia’s warm smile, but he was also afraid of it.
“This child’s mother had white hair and blue eyes? We can’t accept this child.”
“If we continue to treat him in this ward, we might suffer something big too. My friend was dragged to a concentration camp for helping a runaway Esatain.”
Eugene, who was left alone in the ruined duchy, had already experienced such things while wandering around.
Because of that, Eugene didn’t tell even Masera, whom he trusted and relied on the most, about his mother.
“This wedding invitation…”
Eugene moved his lips, then closed them again. The afterthought of saying thank you was stuck in his throat.
“It’s ugly.”
In the end, he was mean again against his will.
“Eh? The wedding invitation is ugly?”
Cynthia widened her eyes and looked at the wedding invitation from side to side.
The still young child didn’t know that the feeling of wanting to avoid Cynthia, but constantly being drawn to her, was longing.
* * *
Cynthia delivered special wedding invitations to the duchess and the people in the residence.
She tried to deliver it directly to Major Rodriguez, but he didn’t visit the residence after that, so she had no choice but to send it to his address.
And as time passed, the day of Cynthia and Masera’s wedding arrived.
