Chapter 8
The sound of the Princess moving around could be heard from inside the room. There was also the rustling sound of fabric. After a long while, the door opened by a hand’s breadth.
“Come in, Sir. I have something to ask.”
He hesitated before the door again, but his hesitation was shorter than the day before. Entering the bedroom, Lucian paused at the change in the Princess’s appearance. Ioreth, now changed into a pure white dress, looked up at him intently.
“Does it suit me?”
“Yes, Princess. You are beauti—”
Lucian answered reflexively but stopped. As Ioreth turned halfway in front of the mirror, her bright blonde hair swayed, revealing her back.
“… full.”
Several buttons running down her slender back were left undone. It must have been difficult to fasten all the buttons on her back by herself. His gaze reached the white skin visible through the gap by sheer force of instinct. Ioreth smiled faintly.
“You aren’t being honest, Sir. Do you really think this suits me?”
“…!”
Lucian hurriedly lowered his eyes. His ears felt hot as if he had been caught in a rude gaze for a moment. Strictly speaking, the dress itself didn’t suit Ioreth perfectly. It was too voluminous for her thin frame. The pure white fabric made her skin look even paler. However, since her natural features were so exquisite, that much didn’t even count as a flaw.
“I apologize. However, it is not a lie.”
“Is that so? Enough to make any man fall for me at once?”
Likely any man, as well as every insignificant scoundrel, Lucian thought, suppressing the words. He asked:
“Why are you curious about such a thing?”
Instead of answering, Ioreth held the hem of the dress and looked at herself in the mirror.
“This is the first gift Sister Catherine ever gave me. She gave it to me to wear to my wedding. It should be good enough to wear to a banquet.”
“Are you attending the Foundation Day banquet?”
“There will be many envoys who came to see my wedding. It is also the last event I can attend before being kicked out.”
True, that day was originally supposed to be Ioreth’s wedding day. All Lucian had been reported was that the wedding was canceled and the Foundation Day opening ceremony and welcoming ball had been moved up. He had never received an order forbidding Princess Ioreth from attending the banquet.
Ioreth murmured meaningfully.
“I will be the protagonist of the banquet. Just as it was decided from the start.”
It was a bold statement, but it didn’t seem very realistic. Lucian thought skeptically. Crown Princess Catherine was the undisputed center of Elobis’ noble society and the queen of the social world. With her beautiful looks, clever speech, and charisma that captivated crowds, she was the perfect material for a monarch.
In comparison, Princess Ioreth was far too fragile. Her shimmering blonde hair and delicate features were certainly beautiful. However, she seemed more like a single flower that needed to be coaxed and protected rather than a lord to be trusted and followed.
Lucian’s gaze touched the Princess’s loosely opened back again. His fingertips, moved by impulse, twitched as if they might touch the undone buttons.
“…Are you really going to wear this dress?”
Ioreth shrugged.
“I don’t have any other suitable dresses.”
Everything in the wardrobe consisted of dresses with deep-cut chests or backs, or those that revealed every line of her body. Naturally, they were gifts from Catherine, and she had torn them to shreds last night.
“It might look ridiculous to wear a wedding dress when the wedding was canceled, but that’s not necessarily the case.”
What Ioreth desperately needed right now was a powerful presence.
‘I must show the entire country that there is a princess named me in this palace. The best stage, of course, is the Foundation Day banquet.’
While she was alive, her mother, Queen Charlotte, used to sit her daughter on her lap and teach her various things in a gentle voice.
“In high society, clothing doesn’t just play the role of making you look pretty and well-off. It is the certificate of your status itself and a political declaration. You can show who you side with, what you intend to do, and for what purpose you attended without saying a word. It can be used as a weapon to threaten enemies or a bait to attract allies.”
The gaze in Ioreth’s eyes as she looked in the mirror became sharp. In fact, Ioreth had a plan from the beginning. She already knew people who were more knowledgeable and capable than anyone else regarding the clothing of noble society.
‘It would be perfect if I could bring “that child” as well, but the problem is how cooperative this man will be…’
Ioreth glanced sideways at the silent knight. He was the only person who could freely move in and out of the castle according to her orders without raising Catherine’s suspicion. Yesterday, she had taken a gamble by framing him as a potential scoundrel. It was enough to make him feel a bit of guilt or pity; seeing him cross the threshold without hesitation today, it seemed to be working.
Then, let’s take the gamble once more. In any case, Ioreth’s life this time was a series of gambles.
“Sir Ferrain. You need to run an errand for me.”
In Delphine, the capital of the Elobis Kingdom, high-end boutiques and jewelers were gathered in the western plaza district. Among the shops working day and night to meet the Foundation Day deadlines, there was one unusually relaxed shop.
[Kanzail Dye Merchant]
The owners of the Kanzail shop, who had moved diligently and finished their work early, were enjoying a rare rest. Someone knocking on the door in the early morning at dawn was not part of the plan.
“Who is it?”
Logan Kanzail, the owner of the Kanzail shop, opened the door with a sleepy face.
“I’m sorry, but we are closed for a week starting today— Gasp.”
A tall man in a royal knight’s uniform stood before the door. Sleep fled instantly.
“I have come on an errand for a high-ranking person. Are you the dye artisan, Mr. Kanzail?”
“Ah, yes. I-I am Kanzail, but what brings a royal knight to a place like this? If it’s an errand, from whom…?”
“Take this for now.”
The knight suddenly shoved a letter and a package at Kanzail. He had an expressionless face, but his steady gaze felt piercing.
“I will return in two days. Farewell.”
The knight disappeared, leaving only those words. Logan Kanzail just blinked blankly. Meanwhile, his wife, who had come out of the dye warehouse, asked:
“What’s going on, honey?”
“Someone from the royal palace… was sent.”
Mrs. Kanzail, Agnes, whose round eyes on her round face were charming, covered her mouth with her hands.
“Surely, is it a person sent by that crazy bitch, the Crown Princess?”
Her personality was not as round as her appearance.
“Steady, honey… He was wearing a knight’s uniform.”
“He was clearly just an apprentice knight running errands. What is there to fear! You should have poured ink on him!”
Agnes jumped with rage. Once, the couple had been artisans working in the Elobis royal boutique. They were the artisans especially cherished by the second Queen, who had married from the Levia Kingdom eighteen years ago. This was because they were the only ones who handled the dyes commonly used in Levia’s clothing style.
However, after the Queen was caught in an inappropriate scandal with a guard, the Kanzail couple also lost trust and were kicked out of the castle. Fortunately, dye was a necessity that could not be separated from noble society, so they had a way to make a living. The Kanzails opened a dye shop, collected all sorts of rare dyes from abroad, and supplied them to the market. Since their main customers were fabric merchants and boutiques rather than nobles, it wasn’t hard to recover.
More than ten years passed like that. Now, tfew rememberedthe fact that the Kanzails were the closest aides to Queen Charlotte. The couple had accumulated wealth no less than that of any low-ranking noble family. However, a ten-year-old resentment still lingered in the couple’s hearts. Agnes, in particular, loathed the Crown Princess.
“After making the Queen go like that, with what face does she seek us out?! How could they frame such a kind person with such an absurd charge! They even sent the upright Sir Perkins to the execution platform…! That bitch deserves to have her veins dyed with cyanide!”
“Honey, I’m afraid someone might hear… Let’s just open it first. We need to know who sent it.”
Logan sweated profusely as he tried to stop his wife. Agnes reluctantly looked over the package. Inside the box was a luxurious wedding dress. The texture that slid through her fingertips was no ordinary item.
“Well, the fabric is top-tier. It would be perfect for dyeing… Hmm? What’s this?”
Something fell out from between the ruffles of the dress. It was a thin silk handkerchief. The moment she saw its unique color, Agnes’s eyes filled with shock.
“…Dear. Didn’t you say a letter came with it earlier?”
“Yes, honey. Here it is.”
Logan opened the letter that came with the dress box. Agnes read through the characters in one breath. Soon after, her mouth hung wide open.
“My God, this is…!”
