RYL Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Lilianne was meeting Crown Prince Mikael at a café.
Sabrina and I sat behind her, wearing deep-brimmed hats with veils covering our faces.
We had ordered tea, but since we weren’t drinking it, the waiter kept giving us strange looks.
We ignored it and focused entirely on Lilianne and Mikael.

Mikael had red hair and golden eyes that shone like the sunset.
He was the male lead of this novel, as handsome as Mathieu, but in a different way.
While Mathieu had a seductive charm, Mikael had the classic good looks of a devoted and kind-hearted man.
At least, that’s how the novel described him.

But in reality, he was terrible.
Even though he still had feelings for his first love, Lilianne, he ended up falling for the female lead.

“It’s been a while since we had tea together like this, right?” Mikael said with a bright smile.

Lilianne remained silent.

Sabrina nervously fidgeted her fingers and was about to say something, but I quickly covered her mouth.

“Why are you stopping me? Lilianne looks frozen in fear. We need to help her!” she whispered.

I simply pressed my finger against her lips and shook my head.
Just wait.

“Lilianne?” Mikael called again, sounding confused.

Then, her voice rang out—calm, cold, and emotionless.

“Mikael, do you like me?”

Sabrina and I stiffened in shock.
I glanced at Mikael. He was even more shocked than we were, his face completely frozen.

Even though I could only see Lilianne’s back, I remembered the icy expression she had worn at the banquet.
I shivered just thinking about it.

Her acting was truly flawless.

“I’m sorry, but I don’t,” she said, her voice dripping with indifference.

Sabrina held her breath as if she were watching a dramatic TV show.

“I don’t see you as a man,” Lilianne added.

Mikael’s stiff face began to crumble.

Lilianne didn’t stop there. She delivered the final blow with pure contempt.

“The fact that you’ve seen me that way all this time… honestly, it disgusts me.”

Mikael looked like he was about to cry.
Even I felt a little bad for him.

“Lilianne…” he pleaded.

But she cut him off with a sharp tone.

“Did you not understand me, Your Highness?”

Mikael couldn’t say another word.

“I find you so unbearable that I don’t even want to remain friends.”

Even though I couldn’t see Lilianne’s face, I could guess her expression from Mikael’s devastated look.
She probably gazed at him like he was a disgusting insect.

Mikael’s posture crumbled even further.
I did feel a little sorry for him, but in the end, this was for the best.

The male lead would eventually end up with the female lead.
If Lilianne stayed, she would only suffer.

Even if cutting ties didn’t guarantee her safety from her tragic fate, at least she wouldn’t be caught in their love story.
And who knows? Maybe the original plot would change.

“From now on, let’s only meet in official settings. Goodbye.”

Lilianne stood up to leave, but Mikael grabbed her wrist.

“Lilianne.”

She looked down at him with a piercingly cold gaze.

Even I felt a chill run down my spine.

Mikael hesitated, then spoke in a desperate voice.

“Were all our years together… so meaningless to you?”

Lilianne pulled her wrist free and replied with a cruel smile.

“You misunderstood.”

Then, she drove in the final nail.

“I only spent time with you for my family’s benefit.”

Sabrina’s mouth hung open in shock.

We’re going to get caught if she keeps reacting like this.

I quickly pushed her head down, forcing her to hide.

Finally, Lilianne delivered her last words.

“The relationship between the Marquis family and the royal family will remain unchanged. But I no longer belong at your side.”

“If you try to keep me there, I’d rather choose death.”

She wasn’t just acting like a cold-hearted woman.
She was practically a queen.

Was it really okay to be this merciless to the crown prince?

Feeling a bit nervous, I glanced at Mikael.

Lilianne then gave her parting words.

“So go find your true partner, Mikael. Find the woman who truly makes your heart race.”

Mikael’s eyes flickered with emotion.

As she walked away, she looked so majestic that even I was impressed.
She was like an ice queen—untouchable, unreachable.

Mikael stood frozen, too shaken to even call after her.

Taking this as our cue, I grabbed the back of Sabrina’s collar and dragged her out of the café before we were discovered.

“Sabrina! Snap out of it!”

I shook her, and she finally came to her senses.

“D-Did you see that? Was that really Lilianne?” she asked, dazed.

I sighed.

“Did you forget? Lilianne was an actress in her past life.”

“Oh, right… Wow. She was born for it. I can’t believe she wasn’t famous.”

Just then, Lilianne walked over.

“Mikael left for the palace,” she said, wiping her sweat.

The ice queen from earlier was completely gone.

Sabrina clapped her hands in amazement.

“Wow! That last line was perfect! ‘Go find your true love!’ That was straight out of a drama!”

At Sabrina’s praise, Lilianne suddenly collapsed onto a chair.

“Haaah… I was so nervous. I didn’t mess up my lines, did I?”

“Not at all! You were amazing!” Sabrina assured her.

I added, “Mikael looked completely shocked.”

Sabrina even mimicked his devastated face, making us chuckle.

Lilianne, however, bit her lip and murmured in concern…

“Will he really give up?”
“It’s hard to let go all at once. But what can he do if she clearly doesn’t want him? Besides, once the female lead appears, he’ll probably move on quickly.”

Hearing my calm words, Lilianne and Sabrina nodded in agreement. Now, all that was left was to wait for the female lead to appear. And for her to take away my trashy fiancé as soon as possible…

***

Alex, who had come out for a drink in a good mood, now looked at the already-drunk crown prince with an awkward expression.

“Lilianne… how could she do this to me…?”

For an hour now, he had been saying the same thing. Alex had no idea what had happened, but he could clearly hear Lilianne’s name being repeated over and over.

Feeling frustrated, he leaned toward Mathieu and whispered, “What’s wrong with His Highness? Did something happen between him and the Marquis’ daughter?”

Instead of a response, there was a loud slam as Mathieu forcefully put down his glass.

BANG!

Startled, Alex stared in shock, amazed that the whiskey glass hadn’t shattered.

“What’s wrong with you now?”

But Mathieu didn’t answer. Instead, he immediately refilled his glass with strong whiskey and gulped it down in one go.

“Damn it.”

Wiping his mouth angrily, he glared at his empty glass.

He felt absolutely terrible.

Was it because he had been caught with another woman in front of so many people?
No. If he had cared about that, he wouldn’t have gone around flirting with women so openly.

The cold gaze and composed smile on Claire’s face.

The way she, who had obediently stayed by his side for ten years, suddenly turned her back on him—it had been quite a shock.

It felt like he had been hit hard on the back of the head.

Yeah, this wasn’t about breaking off their engagement.
It wasn’t that.

It was the fact that she had deceived him all this time, pretending to be someone she wasn’t.

That was what infuriated him.

“I should’ve just kept my feelings hidden… I should’ve stayed as her friend at least…”

Hearing the crown prince muttering pathetically, Mathieu clenched his fist tightly.

‘It would be fine to just stay as friends.’

He suddenly recalled the last words she had left behind at the banquet.