Chapter 205
Olivia blinked in bewilderment.
No matter how she thought about it, she could not understand.
This was not merely two young ladies chatting; it was two women of high rank having a conversation, wasn't it?
Their way was to circle around and around, somehow maintaining decorum as they fought.
Olivia had naturally come expecting that fight, and she had intended to fight until the end.
Yet a single remark just now had caused everything to crumble.
‘She called me because she wants to become as beautiful and clever as I am?’
That was all?
Could there be some hidden intent behind it, an attempt to land a blow?
She tried to think of it that way, but she simply could not get a read on it.
The more information accumulated, the more the picture became a mass of contradictions.
‘A dragon like an immature young lady……?’
Even a willful dragon like Storeus might be called childlike, but he was not truly a child.
His words had always carried messages unique to dragons.
Olivia’s mind was working faster than ever.
What if that childish behavior was a strategy to make her lower her guard?
What if saying that was all there was to it had been a lie, and it was actually a ploy to make her lower her guard?
What if Valdrova intended to cut Olivia’s throat the moment she showed interest while probing Valdrova’s intentions?
Olivia continued constructing possible responses.
The more tangled her thoughts became, the more ferociously those horns gleamed.
“Are you hot?”
Everything stopped at that one question.
The turmoil in her heart made her armpits and forehead damp.
The powder she had applied to sensitive areas was about to melt away.
“I’m sorry. I’ve always been prone to sweating……”
“Wait a moment, Luri.”
Luri handed Olivia a glass of ice water.
Wind spirits circled around her, cooling the air.
Olivia drank the ice water to clear her head.
Just as she was about to think it through again,
“I am sorry.”
“……Pardon?”
A dragon had apologized.
“When I heard the princess was coming, I chose a suitable place, but I was thoughtless. I didn’t think you would be susceptible to heat.”
“Not at all. That is partly because I was too nervous, so please do not concern yourself.”
“You were nervous. Hmm……”
Valdrova appeared to be pondering something.
The message in that silence became another information bomb that tormented Olivia.
Then she looked toward her attendant.
The attendant merely stood quietly with his eyes closed.
Yet that alone seemed to have been enough of an exchange, because Valdrova acted at once.
Valdrova removed her mask and revealed her face.
“Will this…… help you relax……?”
And she discarded every conclusion Olivia had drawn.
The face hidden behind the mask was beyond anything Olivia had expected.
She was smiling awkwardly, her expression exceedingly gentle.
Her round eyes and cherry-like, glossy lips held a trace of shyness.
She was one of the most beautiful women Olivia had ever seen.
If she had merely been beautiful, Olivia would not have been so shocked.
It was because her impression did not fit a dragon’s dignity at all.
Whenever Olivia saw those vicious horns, it felt as though someone were pressing a blade to her throat, but when she looked at Valdrova’s face, she could not feel that blade.
Even though an overwhelming aura unique to dragons surrounded her, Olivia could not help wondering whether this woman was truly a dragon.
“Are you feeling a little less nervous now?”
“……Yes.”
“That is a relief.”
By smiling brightly, Valdrova gave Olivia one more piece of information.
She was easy to read.
“I have been truly curious about how I can become as beautiful and clever as you.”
Perhaps because of that, Olivia was now the one having difficulty.
She was certain that without her social skills, honed over many years, she would have stammered disgracefully.
“There is nothing special about it. I am too foolish to know what made you feel that way, and I am floundering like this—how could I possibly be called intelligent?”
“Hmm, um…… what was it……? ‘To emulate the form of a god,’ was it? How can you say something like that?”
“I did not coin the phrase. I am embarrassed to admit it, but it is merely a quotation from a famous philosophical work.”
“Isn’t philosophy the making of iron?”
“Its dictionary definition is the study of the world and human life in depth. But as Your Highness says, it is like making iron. One constantly hammers and tempers the mind, turning it into a tool.”
Valdrova’s golden eyes glinted.
“I see. If I read that book, will I be able to speak intelligently?”
“Of course.”
“Philosophy…… Wait a moment, Luri.”
She gestured for something with which to write.
Luri replied quietly, her tone implying displeasure.
“I will remember it.”
“But…… no, then I wouldn’t be learning properly, would I?”
“……”
What Valdrova had said were words Luri herself had used.
Luri had not expected to have her own words returned to her this way, but she forced herself to maintain a businesslike expression and handed Valdrova paper and a pen.
“Could you recommend what books I should read?”
Her voice was no longer dignified.
Olivia answered.
“You would do well to read some light books of meditation and dialogue. The meditations contain many questions that make one think, and the philosophers’ thoughts and answers make them fascinating to read.”
“I see. Meditations and…… dialogues……. Um…… could you also tell me what this means?”
“Of course.”
Olivia explained everything methodically.
Whenever Valdrova looked unable to understand, Olivia explained it once more, elaborating until she understood it clearly.
It was a truly bizarre situation.
She was teaching a dragon whom everyone feared.
She was undoubtedly talking to a dragon, yet that distinctive pressure was no longer there.
It felt as though she were talking to a child.
And that frightened her at the same time.
Whether this situation truly had no hidden intent.
Or whether she simply had not realized it even now.
If anything, Olivia’s mind was growing hazy.
She was being helplessly swept along by Valdrova’s pace.
When a brief silence fell, Olivia reflexively commented as she watched the words Valdrova was writing.
“Your handwriting is remarkably beautiful.”
“It is, isn’t it?!”
Valdrova’s face brightened as though the sun had risen upon it.
“I practiced a great deal. Writing characters is easier than I expected, but writing them well is truly difficult.”
“But is there really any need for Your Highness to go to such lengths?”
She quickly smoothed over words that might easily have offended.
“With my shallow understanding, I have dared to ask because I think it would be better for Your Highness to have someone else do this on your behalf rather than expend such effort herself.”
“Mm, yes.”
Valdrova felt the same.
What would she even use handwriting like this for?
She had not particularly wanted to learn it, nor had she cared about it.
“I wanted to show these characters to Mr. Ferda. I thought he might be happy if I showed him some especially beautiful handwriting……”
“Is that all?”
“That’s all.”
She smiled foolishly.
“Because that is all I have right now.”
“Is…… that so?”
“And so I kept wanting to learn something. I thought that if I became clever by learning this way, I might not feel ashamed to stand beside Mr. Ferda……”
Valdrova looked at Olivia again.
“And then I wanted to try talking, too.”
“……”
No matter how she thought about it, it made no sense.
Why would a dragon try to make a good impression on some human?
She could not believe that such a small-minded, ordinary notion existed in a dragon who had lived since the dawn of time.
Their eyes met once more without thinking.
Those vertical pupils were set in golden eyes.
What Olivia felt was pure admiration.
It was exactly the same as when the children of the Empire had looked at her.
Valdrova was the one who looked away, perhaps embarrassed.
“I want to learn many more things from now on.”
“If Your Highness wishes it, I will teach you whenever you like.”
“That’s why……”
Valdrova’s face gradually reddened.
She carefully drew out the words with fidgeting lips.
“Could Olivia…… become my friend, too?”
Olivia answered her question.
“Of course, Your Highness.”
* * *
After finishing her tea party with Valdrova, Olivia went outside.
She had excused herself by saying that she needed to go discuss diplomatic matters with Ferda.
In truth, it was not even an urgent matter.
Since it could be rude to seem eager to leave first, Olivia generally avoided announcing that she intended to leave early.
But she had done so.
Being in the same room as Valdrova had been too difficult.
When out in public, Olivia always hid her emotions behind a sunny smile, but now her expression held only a subtle, awkward smile.
The word that had shaken Olivia so badly was deceptively simple.
‘Friend…….’
It was a word all too familiar in social circles.
‘What is a friend?’
Yet it was an impossibly distant word for Olivia.
Was it someone beyond a mere acquaintance, someone who stayed by one’s side in joy and hardship, respected one another, and gave and received help?
‘……Was I ever capable of making a friend?’
Suddenly, she remembered the first time she had been slapped.
The woman who had committed that bold act was the first wife of Crown Prince Alexander Arken.
Although she was married to a loathsome blood relative, she was an upright woman.
When she entered the palace after their formal marriage, she had tried to ease the tragedy Olivia felt and sincerely become close to her.
Olivia had even hoped that perhaps she could regard her as an older sister.
It was the first and last time she ever made a friend.
Hope had always been cruel to her.
It had not taken long for the first wife, who had always smiled and teased her, to come to hate Olivia.
With her mascara smeared and looking like a ghost, she had approached Olivia and slapped her cheek.
-You bitch…… because of you……!
Having received nothing but inexplicable hatred, the first wife disappeared forever.
Only later did Olivia learn why she had been so furious.
The problem was that she had been unable to bear a child despite repeatedly sharing a bed with Alexander.
She had been pointed at and denounced as a woman incapable of carrying a child, and eventually, the decision had been made to depose her.
She had no choice but to be enraged.
Because Alexander, not she, was the one with the problem.
She learned that Olivia was the only person Alexander regarded as a woman.
Since she could not slap the cheek of the man who would soon be emperor, the arrow of her anger had turned toward blameless Olivia.
Olivia pitied the Crown Princess terribly.
But she did not feel guilty.
That kind of resentment was echoing countless times even beyond where Olivia could hear it.
If only the princess did not exist, the person I love would notice me.
If only the princess did not exist, my fiancé would cherish me more.
‘They’re all just excuses.’
Olivia thought those were excuses made by lazy people.
She considered them fools who were trapped in the past and did nothing but hate and rage.
If I were gone, would anything really change?
If something was missing, one could make it; if not, one could cultivate one’s own strengths.
Olivia had always lived that way.
She had never once neglected the strengths she had, and whenever she found something lacking, she worked to improve it, even if it meant cutting back on sleep.
That was how she had been able to rise to the position of princess admired by all.
She had never doubted that she was right.
At least, until today.
-Could you become my friend?
At those words, Valdrova felt something in Olivia that she herself lacked.
-I like you, pure person.
It overlapped with the words Olivia had spoken when she first met Ferda.
She was an incredibly pure person.
She found it difficult to speak indirectly and difficult to hide her emotions.
Yet she was careful not to inconvenience anyone, and if there was something she liked, she loved it wholeheartedly.
She was immature, but her immaturity could not be laughed at.
Because even if Olivia created and donned thousands of masks, she could never reproduce the person beneath them.
‘So this was what it felt like.’
Olivia unconsciously clenched her fist.
She could understand, if only a little, a fragment of the first wife’s feelings.
To look up at a realm one could never reach, no matter how hard one tried.
So this was how painful it was.
That frustration was boiling in Olivia’s chest.
Olivia was jealous of someone for the first time.
The story continues off the page
The Last Dance Before Midnight
A masked dragon asks the lanternwright for one slow dance