Chapter 34
Monica had been carried into a private room some distance from the party venue. She sat perched on the sofa, her face clouded with grief.
Isaac stepped into the room and slowly looked around.
Frieda Blanke, who had carried Monica into the room, and the other servants were nowhere to be seen.
After Isaac, Cyril, Raul, Ray, and the others came into the room, Monica covered her face with both hands and broke down sobbing.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry..."
Isaac knelt before Monica, who was still apologizing, and spoke in his role as the Second Prince.
"Ah, please don't cry, my lady. The ones to blame are the fool who came up with this reckless plan and those who failed to stop it."
At Isaac's words, the serious-minded Cyril clutched his chest with a guilt-ridden expression and said, "Ugh..."
Meanwhile, the mastermind Raul clasped his hands behind his head and casually muttered, "What a shame." He was probably the only person who could call Monica's sorry performance "a shame."
As for Ray, who was also one of the causes of this whole uproar, he twisted his gloomy face into a self-deprecating expression and let his gaze wander.
"...Th-that was my fiancée... I couldn't get a good look at her from far away, but she was tall... Could she be about as tall as me? ...What if she laughs at me for having short legs...?"
After muttering this, Ray stared at Isaac.
He gazed intently at Isaac's long, slender limbs—the ones Monica had once described as the golden ratio—then hugged his knees and crouched down before the harsh reality.
"...The world is unfair... Men with long legs should be cursed so that their pants explode..."
Ray became more and more self-deprecating, Monica sniffled apologetically, and Cyril clutched his head in guilt, saying, "Because I failed to stop it..."
Thanks to the three gloomy people, the humidity in the room kept rising. At this rate, mold or mushrooms would start growing.
Amid all this, the man who couldn't read the room, Raul Roseberg, spoke in a bright, sunny voice.
"All right, let's pull ourselves together and move on to the next plan!"
"U-um, 〈Thorn Witch〉-sama... Th-that..."
Monica, who had been sniffling, abruptly raised her head and began to say something to Raul while repeatedly glancing toward the window.
But Ray cut her off and spoke first.
"...It's over. It's all over... Someone like me was never going to make an engagement work anyway..."
"Don't give up, Ray! You were always saying, 'I want to be loved, I want to be loved!'"
"...Yeah, that's right... I want to be loved. I want someone to love me... At this point, anyone will do, so just tell me that you love me..."
As Ray's words grew increasingly desperate, Cyril frowned in displeasure.
"Saying 'anyone' is rather insincere, isn't it?"
"Th-that's the kind of thing only someone who's been loved can say! People who can have normal romantic relationships could never understand how I feel..."
For some reason, Monica's shoulders twitched at those words, and she lowered her head.
Had something happened between Monica and Cyril? Isaac discreetly watched Monica, but her expression was hidden behind her bangs and difficult to see.
As Isaac kept an eye on Monica, Raul scratched his cheek and muttered under his breath.
"For someone who says anyone will do, Ray sure has a lot of requirements. I mean, my big sis wasn't good enough, right?"
At once, Ray cried out with the expression of a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
"Th-that woman is impossible, impossible...! I'd rather be a slug for the rest of my life than be loved by her!!"
"Hahaha! Did you actually say that to my sister? You're pretty brave, Ray!"
"I-I just don't like older women!"
Isaac also knew of Raul's older sister, Melissa Roseberg, the Fourth 〈Thorn Witch〉.
He had never spoken to her directly, but he had seen her several times at ceremonies. Above all, everyone in the castle knew about her atrocious behavior.
In short, she was so intense that even Ray, who craved being loved, had run away from her.
"Anyway, we got sidetracked. Let's try the 'Get Ray and His Fiancée Together Plan' one more time!"
"...Pointless."
Cyril folded his arms and groaned with a grim expression.
As a serious-minded man, he probably found this sort of farce difficult to accept.
"If you have a fiancée, you should deal with her honestly. Why not simply speak with her face-to-face?"
For some reason, Monica's shoulders trembled slightly at Cyril's perfectly reasonable statement. As expected, something was off.
As Isaac wondered whether he should speak to her, Raul said loudly,
"That's right! Cyril makes a good point! So, Ray, why don't you go charge over to your fiancée and talk to her?"
"I-I can't do that! That's why we were thinking of all these different plans in the first place!!"
"I just realized something. Ray, you always beg people to love you, but you never say 'I love you' yourself, do you?"
Ray's face stiffened at those words.
Without noticing how the color was steadily draining from Ray's face, Raul continued,
"Why don't you try saying 'I love you' yourself for once, Ray?"
For Raul, it was probably an innocent suggestion.
But Ray's complexion changed when he heard Raul's words.
His already pale face went deathly white, and his pink, gemstone-like eyes glinted ominously.
"D-don't mess with me!!"
Ray shouted in a voice far louder than anyone would have thought possible from him.
His face was twisted with anger and hatred—and intense jealousy.
"There's no way I can tell anyone 'I love you'! I'm a curse mage, damn it! If I say 'I love you,' it will absolutely become a curse! Whoever hears it will be cursed just like my father was, and keep serving someone they don't even love until they die!!"
As Ray shouted, his purple hair flying wildly, everyone was left speechless.
Even the usually cheerful Raul could only stare at Ray in stunned silence.
Ray raked his fingers through his hair, stamped his feet, and shrieked at the top of his lungs.
"Ah, I'm jealous, jealous, jealous! I'm jealous of everyone who can casually say 'I love you'! Be cursed, be cursed, be cursed...! Everyone, every last one of you, go be cursed!! ...Except girls!"
After tossing out that last bit of brutal honesty as if it were nothing, Ray dashed out of the room.
Raul hurriedly tried to chase after him, but Isaac grabbed him by the arm and stopped him.
It was probably time to call it a day.
"Your Highness, don't hold me back. I think I said something insensitive, so I have to chase after him and apologize... Do you think he'll forgive me if I give him a carrot?"
As though it were the most natural thing in the world, Raul pulled a carrot from the pocket of his formalwear.
Isaac was curious how Raul intended to beg forgiveness with a carrot, but...
"Yes, but first..."
Isaac shifted only his eyes toward Monica.
Monica was deathly pale and kept glancing toward the window—or, more precisely, the curtain at the window.
Honestly. She couldn't have been any more obvious.
"Why don't you come out now, Lady Frieda Blanke?"
At Isaac's words, the curtain swayed, and a woman emerged.
She was a tall noblewoman with short blond hair and gray eyes—Ray's fiancée, Frieda Blanke.
Monica shrank back and apologized, saying, "I'm sorry!" Frieda swept her gray eyes over Isaac, Raul, and Cyril in turn.
"Please don't blame the little lady over there. I was the one who asked her to keep quiet. I asked her to cooperate because I wanted to know what was going on."
Frieda had heard everything that had happened, as well as the reason for the charade, from behind the curtain.
Cyril murmured, "This is bad, isn't it?" while Raul scratched his head uneasily.
A moment ago, Ray had blurted out that anyone would do as long as they loved him. It was quite a serious slip, one that could even lead to the engagement being broken off.
However, Frieda did not appear particularly angry and continued speaking calmly.
"My fiancé has a great many friends, I see."
At the word "friends," Raul's face lit up.
"Yeah! Ray's my friend! Ask me anything about him!"
"Then let me ask you something. Do you know how Lord Albright's parents died?"
Raul gave a thumbs-up and answered in a forceful tone,
"I don't know a thing!"
"..."
Frieda silently looked at Isaac.
Isaac opened his mouth with a wry smile.
"I heard they died quite some time ago when curse magic ran wild. There was also a rumor going around at the time..."
After prefacing it by saying that it was not a very pleasant rumor, Isaac continued:
"They say that Lord Albright's father was turned into a puppet by his wife's curse."