Chapter 82
Chapter 82
Ah.
Things had become absurdly tangled.
More precisely, we were on the verge of tangling into a knife-edge balance.
But there was simply no way to stop it.
'What if I tell Lily to stop here?'
Beep-beep-boop. I ran a quick simulation in my head.
If I said, 'Stop. Halt. Don't say another word.'
The pink puppy in front of me would naturally go, 'Oh, yes,' tuck her tail, and hide behind my back.
But what would Crown Prince Louis's reaction be if he witnessed that obedient, blind devotion right in front of him?
It was obvious as day.
'What on earth is going on between those two? Why is the Order's saintess ignoring my words, the crown prince, and listening so perfectly to yours, a mere noble?'
Just imagining it was exhausting.
The gates of hell would swing wide open.
It isn't only a woman's resentment that can bring frost in the middle of summer.
I didn't want to take the fall and personally confirm the pathetic rage that bursts out when a prideful man's flimsy sincerity is betrayed.
'Let's stay quiet.'
After quickly turning my brain over.
I decided that in this situation, instead of forcibly stopping Lily, the lesser evil was to let Lily talk herself hoarse and avoid the worst outcome.
"Why?"
Louis asked in an intimidating voice.
I stole a glance at Lily's back.
Her shoulders were trembling so hard she looked like reeds on a day with a high-wind warning.
'Looks like she's absolutely freaking out and feeling the pressure too.'
Still, wouldn't she rein herself in to a reasonable degree?
She'd keep to the line, right?
Yeah.
"Because I think Lord Cassian is my guardian!"
"...What?"
Ah.
Damn it! What line? What a joke!
I'm screwed.
She just blasted that line clean out into space!
"...Guardian?"
Louis's red eyes filled with deep suspicion and incredulity.
Then he pulled on an expression full of distrust.
Was it denial that he'd misheard what he'd just heard, or disbelief that this woman was insane?
Hmm.
What was the point of arguing it?
It was probably both, anyway.
Even I wanted to shout that Lily's statement was total bullshit, so how much worse must the guy who'd been tailing her feel?
But just then.
Click. Click. Click.
From below the stairs, I heard the steady sound of heels striking the marble floor in rhythm.
What is it?
A jolt of electricity ran down my spine.
Why am I feeling uneasy right now?
Why does that clicking rhythm feel like it's tightening around my heartbeat?
And then, the moment I faced the person who had come up leisurely from below.
I had to admit my intuition wasn't some shitty hunch, but a ridiculously, unnecessarily glittering golden one.
Lustrous silver hair, as if silver itself had been melted down and poured into it, and eyes like cut amethysts.
"What in the world... is going on here?"
It was Elysia von Rosenberg.
"..."
I sucked in a sharp breath.
I couldn't help but be breathless.
Elysia standing at the top of the stairs had a truly overwhelming sensuality and a destructive allure that seized every gaze.
A blood-red, skin-tight silk dress wrapped her body without a single gap.
Beyond that thin fabric, the voluptuous curves of her chest, ready to burst forth, swayed dangerously with every breath.
The line from her slender waist to her hips was so provocative and alluring that once it stole your gaze, you couldn't look away.
Add to that her haughtily lifted chin and red lips.
Her very existence was a lethal temptation and a weapon.
'Wow, I'm really fucked.'
Why the hell does my golden intuition have to kick in at a time like this?
Would it kill me to have shitty intuition for once?
Crown Prince Louis.
Saintess Lily.
And the villainess, Elysia.
This suffocating central love triangle from the original story was erupting in the hallway in front of my lab, with no one really in a position to stop it?
Although the situation had twisted completely away from the original plot, honestly, it would be much better for my mental health if it had just followed the original.
"..."
But while I watched the situation quietly, one odd thing caught my eye.
The place Elysia's captivating violet eyes were fixed on.
The person she and Lily kept looking at in turn.
'...Huh?'
It wasn't the original fiancée, Crown Prince Louis.
It was me.
'What? Why is she looking at me like that?'
It was the kind of gaze dripping with annoyance, like some kid watching another kid steal their toy.
While I was blinking in confusion, Louis broke the silence with an irritated wave of his hand.
"I think you should answer me first."
Louis's cold gaze stabbed back at Lily.
"That man is your guardian? Could it mean that you and he are, somehow, distantly related by blood, without my knowing?"
'Ah, that might not have been a question he should ask.'
I clicked my tongue inwardly.
I had already confirmed this pattern: this trembling little weakling was terrified of the crown prince to death, yet still forcing herself to spout bold, outrageous remarks.
The more you poked her, the bigger a bombshell she'd toss out.
"No."
Lily clenched both fists and shook her head vigorously.
"Lord Cassian and I don't share a single drop of blood!"
"Then why on earth would he claim to be your guardian?"
Louis's voice dropped even lower, growing more intimidating.
But what the hell, I never claimed to be! That was her one-sided declaration!
"Because I trust Lord Cassian completely, and I trust him... and I always will, for the rest of my life!"
"That much, I also..."
"Even right this moment! You're risking everything to save me from that horrible Order!"
"..."
Lily's clear cry rang thunderously through the hallway.
"Is that the reason?"
Louis asked, furrowing his brow deeply.
I scratched the back of my head.
'Ah, now he's asking another damn pointless question.'
Why the hell ask that again?
I had no idea why he kept digging as if some wonderful answer would come out of it.
"I don't know how Your Highness may take this, but Lord Cassian has always cared for me."
"..."
"He protects me. The thought of him wanting to take responsibility for me isn't burdensome at all... I'm just so grateful, and it makes me feel at ease."
'Ah.'
Don't deliver the final blow, please.
I screamed inwardly, bleeding tears.
"And I really like that kindness."
This won't do.
I'm really screwed.
I had to smooth this over somehow.
Fuck, it would have been a hundred times, no, a thousand times better to shout, 'Lily, stop!' earlier and show the crown prince my obedient puppy mode.
"Anyone watching would think I'd been sweetly coddling her or something."
I hurriedly waved my hands and raised my voice in protest, as if deeply wronged.
"...Th, that's not it eitherrr."
"You can't just casually say something that could cause such a misunderstanding in front of someone as important as the crown prince."
I put on my stern guardian face and scolded Lily.
"He might misunderstand us as a man and a woman involved romantically. How can you say something no different from a lie in front of royalty? Isn't that right?"
I secretly thought Lily would want to cutely protest here with, 'W-well, that's not quite it!'
But unexpectedly, Lily flinched at my firm tone.
"I'm sorry..."
And then she obediently apologized in a tiny, crawling voice.
'Huh?'
But while apologizing with her head bowed low, Lily's gaze seemed to keep sneaking glances to my side.
Twitch, twitch.
'Sigh.'
Because Elysia, my absolutely vicious nemesis from my past life, was standing right beside her, radiating a chill aura.
And on top of that, she was in this suffocating three-way standoff with the villainess who had tormented her to death and killed her, and with the crown prince she wanted to avoid because she didn't want to die again, so of course she'd be under a lot of pressure.
I stole a glance at Crown Prince Louis's face.
The crown prince seemed to have been hit by such an enormous shock that he looked completely dazed.
His unfocused eyes were like those of someone who'd been blindsided by life, unable to believe he'd ever hear something like this.
Well, right. When would he ever have been rejected by a woman in his life? Fucking annoying.
'Rather than let Lily open her mouth again and go way overboard, I should step in and clean this up myself now.'
Just as I was about to sigh and speak.
"Seeing something I wasn't exactly eager to see."
"!"
"May be unpleasant, but..."
A voice, cold and sharp as ice, sliced through the hallway.
It was Elysia.
Her voice carried an unmistakable, deeply unpleasant edge.
Elysia lightly climbed the rest of the stairs, then looked at the dazed crown prince with a thoroughly disappointed expression and snapped at him.
"Surely not in this urgent situation, where all the interested parties have barely managed to come to an agreement and pool their wisdom to resolve the conflict."
"..."
"Is it right to waste precious time on such private, worthless conversation, Your Highness?"
Louis's brow furrowed horribly.
"Resolve the conflict?"
"Yes."
Elysia gracefully folded her arms and nodded.
"The cardinal who started this whole mess and the Order of the Twin Cross Knights under him have already been subdued, and His Holiness the Pope and the academy's principal are gathered in the grand conference room hearing objective statements and clearing up the misunderstanding."
"...Is that true?"
"How could I possibly lie to Your Highness? Then... you still didn't know?"
A charming sneer curled on Elysia's red lips.
"I'm sure Lord Cassian del Farne here explained the situation to you. Surely you weren't just stubbornly digging in your heels without even listening, were you?"
'Wow.'
I almost gaped with my mouth open and clapped.
'That last jab is way too delicious, isn't it?'
The exhilarating chill was like getting mint and cola shoved into my mouth at the same time.
It was the perfect soda blast that made even an untroubled stomach sink.
As expected, class, family, and position are all that matter.
After all, she was the legitimate daughter of the Rosenberg ducal house, which boasted the greatest power on the continent, and the crown prince's official fiancée.
So even if she directly smacked that blade-sharp crown prince in the face with facts, there was no problem.
'Well, true.'
I nodded inwardly.
How must this situation look in Elysia's eyes?
Her fiancé, the crown prince, had gotten distracted by another woman, ignored the national emergency, and come all the way to the lab just to start a lovers' quarrel.
'No matter how you look at it, it's basically catching a cheat in the act.'
But she really does look furious.
Seeing how coldly she's sharpening her words and pressing him.
'She really does love the crown prince a hell of a lot, huh?'
The original setting's obsessive devotion and pure love were clearly boiling over.
Seeing the man she loves clinging to another woman, she must have gone blind with jealousy and was throwing those terrifying fact bombs.
In fact, Crown Prince Louis himself had frozen with an expression of utter embarrassment, like a husband caught cheating on his real wife.
"It seems Your Highness cherishes the saintess so much."
Elysia said it with absolute firmness, driving the point home.
"If you truly care for the saintess."
"..."
"You'd know that instead of standing around like this, your first priority should be to clear up the vicious misunderstandings and allegations of abuse surrounding the saintess."
Her voice really stung.
It was like pouring soda straight into my brain.
If I had been hit head-on by that kind of fact barrage with such a cold expression, I think my mental state would have shattered and I'd have fled straight back to my hometown.
Crown Prince Louis's face instantly flushed red and blue.
I could even see his jaw trembling.
His pride as crown prince probably made him want to shout right away, but there was nothing he could rebut, because Elysia's words were logically flawless.
"...Fine."
In the end, Louis bit his lip hard enough to draw blood and forced out an answer.
He shot me a chilly glare once, and then Lily in front of me.
Then he spun around and strode toward the stairs.
His angry footsteps completely vanished toward the end of the hallway.
Until they did, a very strange silence hung between the three of us.