CH 45

…She just said she didn’t want to trade, but was it something to be so serious about it? Did he want to know Mikhail’s weakness so much? In the original story, Terrence only despised and distanced himself from Mikhail, but did not seek to defeat him by catching his weakness. Although he was offended, he did not regard him as an enemy.

She was slowly checking his eyes, but the Grand Duke asked again in a low-pitched voice.

“I think it is important.”

“…yes?”

“Lord Sheldon.”

A cold sneer crept into his well-shaped lips.

“Seeing you keep this secret, it must be really important, isn’t it?”

The purple eyes staring at her curled up with a smile. But there was still a deep displeasure in his eyes. 

A chill ran down her spine from those cold eyes. She guessed she forgot for a while that this person was evil in the drama because he had been in a lot of trouble. When she was no longer needed, he would kill her more ruthlessly than the Emperor.

Without realizing it, she answered with a hesitant look.

“Not really… It’s not important. It’s not even information that would be helpful to Your Highness.”

The Grand Duke later learned of Sorel’s relationship with Mikhail, but he did not use the information. Far from using it, this man also became Sorel’s fake lover to keep the secret. Not because of Mikhail, of course, but because of Sorel. By then he had a real crush on Sorel, so it was natural for him.

“And don’t get me wrong. I especially like Mikhail… No, I’m not hiding a secret because I have a crush on Sir Sheldon. It’s because it’s something I shouldn’t say for personal reasons.”

She had forgotten for a moment that this man had a very hard time with his half-brother Mikhail. Since she knew Mikhail’s secret, she may have seemed intimate with him. Even now, the two of them were meeting in a place like this.

She tried her best to make excuses, but Terrence was silent. She didn’t know if he believed her words. This man didn’t show emotion, so she couldn’t fathom his intentions.

“Could you tell me why you need the fix?”

“I will tell you that. It’s because of my maid.”

She explained to him the foresight she had seen yesterday.

“Looks like they’re putting off the wedding until the Emperor returns.”

After hearing the explanation, Terrence immediately understood the situation.

“So you need a fix to avoid drugged food?”

“Something like that.”

She already had a way of thinking of how to do this. She needed a fix for that.

She explained her plan to him. Hearing her words, Terrence gave a low laugh with an amusing look in his eyes.

“The simplest way is the most effective way.”

So, she was going to ask again if he would lend her the crystal, but he answered first as if he had read her thoughts.

“I will give the crystal to the maid I sent her before.”

Their contact had always been through Chloe.

“Thank you.”

Terrence watched her quietly before adding nonchalantly.

“It doesn’t matter how you use the handmaiden or the crystal, so take care of yourself. Shouldn’t you keep your promise to use the princess’s abilities for me?”

Yes, she was trying to get used to it.

“Do not worry. It will work out well.”

* * *

Terrence’s promise was immediately realized. A few hours after she returned to the palace, someone knocked on her door.

“Princess. I have something to tell you.”

“Come in.”

It was Chloe who came in. Chloe calmly bowed her head, took out a small box from his chest, and offered it with both hands.

“His Highness told me to deliver this.”

Inside the small wooden box was a bracelet connected by a thin gold chain. White jewels of different sizes were hung at each place where the chain was connected.

She touched the translucent white crystal in the middle. It was the Arcana Crystal that Terrence had shown her. After taking out the bracelet, she closed the box and put it in the dresser drawer.

“Tell him thank you.”

* * *

The imperial palace passed quietly for two days after that.

It was snowing again, so she couldn’t go out and there was nothing she could do. She, too, passed her time in her own palace. Even in the midst of heavy snowfall, everything in the princess’s palace still went back to normal. She passed the time by the window, reading or learning from Nell.

Of course, she wasn’t doing anything. She ordered Chloe to spy on Lana. It was because she thought Chloe would do a better job as a watcher than Nell. Even from the outside, it looked calm and serene. Since she was a newcomer to the princess’s palace, Lana wouldn’t be wary. Instead, she left Nell with other tasks. Everything was done quietly, as if covered in white snow. Except for Nell, Chloe, and Mikhail, no one noticed that something uneasy was going on.

“It’s good that things are going smoothly on the surface, but that’s what I mean.”

She murmured as she took out the colored thread from the box. Inside the box of embroidery thread, dozens of colors were filled like a color palette. While she was confined in the snow, she learned embroidery from Nell as a way to pass the time. Although it was difficult, it was surprisingly fun.

It was late in the afternoon when Diane came, when the snow had subsided a bit. Diane entered the palace under the pretext of discussing how to make her wedding dress.

“Princess.”

“Miss Diane, are you feeling better?”

Diane’s plaster-pale cheeks turned faintly red at her question.

“I’m fine now. I am sorry for causing you concern.”

Diane was wearing a dress that came up to her chin, gloves on her hands and a veil on her head. She was coming to the imperial palace in her own way, so she was wearing court regalia, but her entire body was covered up except for her face. Dressed like that, she came in with a large bag.

“I am delighted to have you visit my palace. Come on, sit over here.”

Diane found an embroidery frame and embroidery thread on the side of the table.

“Ah, princess. You were making a veil.”

“Ah… No, I was just practicing.”

It was said that the new bride would have to make her own bridal veil for her wedding day, but with her skills, that’s out of the question. Now she was just learning simple embroidery for handkerchiefs and tablecloths.

“I’m doing this part, but it’s harder than I thought, so I’m not doing well.”

She pointed to the pink petals on the embroidery frame. It was to give shade by mixing threads of slightly different colors on the petals, but it was easy to say and difficult to do it herself.

Diane looked at her embroidery frame, she hesitated for a moment, then she said.

“If you don’t mind, can I help you?”

“Does Miss Diane like embroidery?”

“Yes, I did a lot at home as a hobby.”

Diane blushed in embarrassment. Eve wondered if she liked handicrafts like this because she was only at home.

“I will be grateful if you teach me.”

Diane took off her gloves and picked up the needle for her embroidery.

“I think we can do more like this here.”

As she gave some explanations, she began to carefully embroider the petals with pale pink embroidery thread.

‘Wow, that’s really good.’

The needle went back and forth just a few times, and the petals were much denser and neater than the crappy petals Eve made.

“Miss Diane is really good at embroidery.”

Like the lot before. Both had good dexterity. Did cousins resemble each other? Would Terence do the same? She couldn’t imagine the man making anything with his hands. He might be good at killing people with a dagger.

“Do you have a style of wedding dress in mind?”

After a while, Diane put the embroidery frame aside for a moment and she began discussing her wedding dress in earnest.

“Well.”

She never thought about it. She might die on the wedding day, but she had no time to think about her dress at leisure. As for the wedding dress, she thought for a moment, why not just take a white dress from the closet, tweak it a bit, and put it on?

“I’ve been looking for some designs here.”

Saying that, Diane pulled out three booklets from her bag. All the booklets were full of wedding dresses. It’s a wedding dress textbook.

“Hmm… I think it would be nice if it was like this.”

She picked out a few pictures. Diane pulled out a piece of white paper and held it out to her.

“I was asked to do a sketch, even briefly, in the dressing room,” she said. “If you draw a picture, they say they can make it based on it.”

Did she even have to draw a picture? She picked up a pen and started sketching the wedding dress. She drew roughly what came to mind by referring to the dresses in the booklet.

“Roughly… How about doing this?”