GIF 6

Chapter 6

At the Crown Prince’s sudden appearance, Madame Hestia hurried out to greet him, and Iris followed slowly behind at a distance.

The golden-haired man, who looked as though he were forged from gold, was shaking hands and exchanging greetings with Madame Hestia.

Hestia looked flustered, as though she had never imagined he would attend her birthday banquet, but she did not seem to be in a bad mood at all.

‘An immediate member of the imperial family — and the Crown Prince, no less. She’ll gain face from this.’

Hestia had been close with the former Empress, but, as if in reaction to that, she was not on good terms with the current Empress. With the current Crown Prince coming to celebrate her birthday, she must feel her standing — which had been steadily shrinking lately — was widening.

‘Madame Hestia must be wondering why the Crown Prince came.’

What a shame. If only she knew it was all thanks to me, her attitude toward me would be quite different — what a shame I cannot tell her.

‘I should step back a bit so the Crown Prince can approach me easily.’

No matter that he is the Crown Prince, it would not be easy for him to approach a woman who had recently divorced — her fourth divorce, no less. She glanced at the Crown Prince, Cliff, exchanging greetings with Hestia, then turned and headed toward the terrace.

‘It should be easier to approach if I’m alone.’

Men’s curiosity deepens when they are alone together, after all. But then—

‘Hm?’

She heard a stir behind her back. And someone’s footsteps drew gradually closer. Iris turned around, thinking, Surely not—

“Y-Your Highness……!”

She belatedly realized that the Crown Prince, Cliff, had come right up close to her. The beautiful man, who looked as though he were forged of gold, curved his eyes and gently held out his hand.

“Lady Iris, is it?”

He gently took her gloved hand and politely kissed the back of it. Iris stammered for a moment, flustered.

“Y-You shouldn’t do this…….”

Of course, if she became entangled with the Crown Prince, she would draw the attention of the entire Empire — but for her strategy, that was not what she wanted right now.

‘I thought that, being the Crown Prince, he would be mindful of those around him and approach secretly.’

Was the male lead this forward a person? Thinking back to the novel, he was not at all. Rather, he was the type to investigate everything around a person and approach cautiously.

“Crown Prince? Ah, are you acquainted with Iris?”

Madame Hestia approached, this time with a face flustered in a different sense. Iris shook her head at Hestia, asking for a kind of help.

But the Crown Prince’s words were faster.

“I had wanted to see you at least once, and meeting you by chance, I was so glad I forgot myself, Lady Iris.”

Someone please do something about that bomb of a statement!

The murmuring around them grew louder, and Iris felt her entire plan — carefully laid out so she could quietly take the spot beside him — come crashing down.

‘Did the Crown Prince eat something strange?’

“Your Highness, Iris is flustered, so why don’t you talk with me for a moment.”

Hestia, having caught Iris’s plea for rescue, tried to naturally lead the Crown Prince away. But the Crown Prince, still holding Iris’s hand, only gazed at Hestia.

“I don’t want to.”

“P-Pardon?”

When Hestia looked taken aback by his firm words, the Crown Prince answered with a childlike smile.

“You’ll only nag me again. Am I wrong?”

“Oh, honestly. Your Highness is still the same…….”

Hestia gave a hollow laugh, as though reminded of the Crown Prince’s childhood, and pressed a hand to her head once. Then she lightly shook her head and spoke with pretended sternness.

“You must think of Iris’s side as well. Iris, go to the lounge for a moment.”

“Yes, Madame. Then I’ll excuse myself for a moment…….”

Iris gently slipped her hand out of his, which was holding hers, and briefly met his eyes. Even while talking with Hestia, he did not take his gaze off her — it felt rather persistent.

‘It’s not as though the development is that he fell in love with me at first sight.’

The Crown Prince of the original work was too rational for that. It seemed that something had changed as a variable because she had intervened.

The original work had not even begun, and she had done so little, yet already a variable. It was not a good sign, but it was not at a terribly dangerous level either.

‘Rather, if he shows a lot of interest first from his side, I can naturally follow along.’

If Iris approached the Crown Prince first, she would be showered with insults, called a frivolous divorcee who had divorced four times — but if a young man approached her first, that was different.

‘Honestly, I’ll be cursed either way, but the latter is better, I’m saying.’

At any rate, it made it easier to hide that she was after something.

Iris made as though to go to the lounge and slipped away, and Madame Hestia headed with the Crown Prince, Cliff, to a room prepared for the guests.

‘Let’s see, if it’s that room…….’

She had become acquainted with Hestia during her first marriage. It was her first marriage, after all, and she was a commoner girl no different from a country bumpkin, so she had had some difficulty blending into noble society.

‘So I made some effort to draw Hestia to my side.’

The Empress’s faction was too high-nosed to accept a commoner like her, and Hestia was on the gentle side.

Hestia thought positively of Iris, who tried hard to act like a noble and do well by her, and had served as something of a patron to her until now.

This has gotten long, but to explain it in a single line:

Iris knew the structure of this mansion quite well. If it was that room over there, she would be able to overhear at least a little of the conversation from the terrace on the west side.

So Iris, pretending to go to the lounge while avoiding others’ eyes, headed to the west terrace, arrived safely, closed the door, and even drew the curtains.

She leaned against the terrace wall and waited to hear something, and soon — creak — she heard the door of the terrace next to hers open.

“The weather is nice. I’ll open the door a little.”

It was the Crown Prince’s voice. It seemed the Crown Prince had opened the terrace door. For Iris, this was excellent.

“Whew. I was quite startled just now, Your Highness.”

“Haha, it seems I startled my aunt too much.”

The Crown Prince and Hestia were not blood relatives, but because the former Empress and Hestia had been especially close, Iris already knew that he called her this way. That was also why she knew Hestia cherished the Crown Prince dearly.

“Of course. Surely you haven’t taken an interest in Iris?”

“Would that be wrong?”

At that, Hestia’s startled voice came through.

“Of course it would be wrong. What kind of girl is she? She is a woman who has already divorced four times. Who knows what defect she might have.”

Iris listened to the voices drifting in from the next terrace and waited indifferently for the next words. Hestia was on the gentle side and pitied her, and had served as a patron — but only to that extent.

‘ A defective commoner girl who cannot be paired with the precious Crown Prince.’

It was not as though she did not know that already, so there was nothing to be hurt by. Nobles were, fundamentally, a breed who believed there was an insurmountable wall between commoners and nobles.

“I believe the defect was on the husbands’ side.”

“That’s right. All of them were divorced for adultery.”

Soon Hestia’s tutting, clicking her tongue, could be heard.

“But Your Highness, think about it. Four husbands, all divorced for adultery? This must certainly mean there is a problem with Iris as well.”

“It seems my aunt thinks so.”

At the Crown Prince’s indifferent tone, Hestia’s deep sigh seemed to come through. Setting aside Hestia’s reaction — what on earth was the Crown Prince thinking, acting like this? Iris listened a little more closely.

“It’s just that I need something.”

“Need something?”

Hestia’s questioning voice. And Iris, waiting for what he would say next. Then, a completely unexpected answer flowed from the Crown Prince’s mouth.

“Someone to love.”

Even without seeing, she somehow knew the Crown Prince was smiling broadly.