Rowen let out a hollow laugh and took a step toward Nigel. The heavy sound of armor menacingly split the silence of the clearing.
“That’s really amazing. You have a talent for making a person’s sincerity into something shabby in a single moment.”
“…….”
“Yeah, you didn’t do anything wrong. The fact that you told me you weren’t going to the eve festival, but were actually dancing with that Veil Khalid in the middle of the ballroom. When I was worried about you suffering alone and went to your room, and when I saw that your room was completely empty, how much I…!”
Rowen’s cry that he couldn’t hold back echoed between the narrow walls.
So he did come to my room.
Nigel was momentarily speechless at Rowen’s outcry.
“Whether you dance with Veil Khalid or meet anyone else doesn’t matter. Did you worry even a little that I would be burning inside while searching for you like a madman? Or am I just a burden that gets in your way—”
Rowen clenched his fist as if he would grab Nigel’s collar at any moment, then roughly withdrew his trembling hand.
Rowen suddenly stopped speaking.
“…I told you to just go. Even if I say all this, Nigel, you just won’t understand this situation anyway.”
Before his agitated breathing could even subside, he hung his head dejectedly as if deflated on his own.
Rowen roughly covered his face with his empty hand and dry-washed it.
“……Forget it. I acted sensitive for no reason. What happened yesterday just… happened like that. I don’t even want to know.”
There was no anger in the voice coming from behind his palm. Instead, it was steeped in terrible self-loathing.
Rowen didn’t move for quite a while with his face covered. Nigel couldn’t tell if he was chewing and swallowing harsh words trying to burst out between his fingers.
He couldn’t bear the silence that flowed between them.
Rather, if he had shouted like before or grabbed his collar in anger, Nigel could have at least sneered at him, but Rowen crumbling so helplessly was something Nigel hadn’t calculated.
“Rowen.”
A strange impatience mixed into Nigel’s voice as he called him. Because Rowen lowered the hand covering his face and took a step back.
“……I’ll get going. Everyone’s preparing, so I can’t stay out here alone for long.”
Rowen turned around, ultimately avoiding Nigel’s eyes. In that moment, Nigel forgot he was the Crown Prince and roughly snatched at his sleeve.
“Hey! Where are you going?”
It was an urgent touch devoid of any dignity. Rowen’s steps stopped, but he still didn’t turn around. Nigel gritted his teeth while tightening his grip on Rowen’s clothing.
We’re not actually dating partners like the rumors say, yet just because I went to a party separately once, he’s making this kind of tragic protagonist expression.
“Isn’t your reaction a bit excessive?”
Nigel’s brow furrowed. Clear bewilderment lurked in his arrogantly raised violet eyes.
“Dancing with Veil Khalid… there were circumstances. So why are you angry at me and acting as if you’ve been betrayed?”
“…….”
To Nigel, Rowen was someone who should always be there. A friend who came when called and always kept the seat beside him whenever needed. When that natural order was shaken, Nigel chose irritation instead of an apology.
“……Yeah, Nigel. You’re right.”
Rowen’s low voice flowed out, sounding deflated.
“I was acting above my station. Like you said, we’re just friends.”
The conversation clearly went the way Nigel had thought, but hearing it from Rowen’s mouth oddly grated on his ears. Rowen Ashfield continued.
“I was too rude to someone who came to apologize. I’m sorry, Nigel.”
…I didn’t suggest talking to receive an apology. Nigel frowned at how strangely the conversation had gone, but Rowen seemed to have already finished saying everything he wanted to say.
Rowen quickly left the clearing before Nigel had a chance to hold him back. Left alone, Nigel muttered while watching his retreating figure.
“What’s with that guy? Making someone who came to apologize feel embarrassed.”
He was just dumbfounded at his friend acting sensitive unlike usual.
The cold wind he felt in the now-empty clearing strangely irritated him, so Nigel kicked an innocent wall.
***
In the glass greenhouse opened for the festival, delegations from various countries and VIP guests dressed in splendid dresses had gathered.
The Student Council room’s glass greenhouse had already become the Empire’s social circle itself. That was because the Student Council hadn’t prepared any separate splendid plays or festival attractions, and with only the usual conference room tables and chairs set up, there was nothing to do but talk to each other.
The VIP guests who chose the Student Council room among the six paths had come precisely for that social gathering.
“Your Highness Nigel, seeing you at Kaiserion feels fresh again.”
“Marquis Valerian. You must have had a hard time coming from afar.”
Nigel responded with a light bow. The marquis’s territory was at the edge of the Empire, so scheduling to visit the festival held for only three days at the academy located in the capital must have been quite a troublesome matter even for a marquis.
“What do you mean? Compared to the honor of seeing Your Highness’s august countenance, this much hardship is nothing.”
Countess Isabella, adorned with brilliant jewels, approached while folding her fan. Her gaze blatantly lingered on Nigel’s handsome features, closest to the Emperor in the Empire.
“In two days, won’t Her Majesty also arrive here? I’m already looking forward to seeing how pleased Her Majesty will be when she sees the current Kaiserion Academy that Your Highness Nigel has achieved.”
“You’re too kind. I couldn’t prepare this grand festival alone.”
Nigel answered with only the corners of his lips barely raised. It was perfect etiquette, but his words were sincere. If it had been possible for Nigel alone to plan and prepare all of this, he naturally would have done so.
But reality flowed messily, completely different from Nigel’s expectations. The budget plan he’d expected to be perfect was broken from the start, and he’d suddenly transformed into a frog. Moreover, all of those things had been the Artifact’s doing.
The nobles, who couldn’t possibly know about that desperate struggle that had occurred beneath the surface, were praising Nigel’s competence while only seeing the smoothly arranged exterior.
Just like at the Imperial Palace, as the hollow praise lengthened, the back of Nigel’s neck stiffened.
Nigel’s gaze, which had been receiving the nobles’ greetings with a polite smile, suddenly turned toward the deepest corner of the glass greenhouse.
Between the shadows of the giant leaves of the lush tropical plants inside the Student Council room, a familiar figure could be seen.
“…nida! …that’s not it…”
It was Eden Lake.
Though he couldn’t hear well due to the voices of the nobles conversing, he seemed to be talking with someone. It was a completely different atmosphere from the courteous and gentle attitude he usually showed by Nigel’s side.
Who is he talking with to be like that?
In front of Eden stood a dignified middle-aged man who wore neither the academy uniform nor the Empire’s formal dress. A man with copper-colored skin and thick features, as large as the big-framed Eden Lake.
The two were conversing in voices low enough to be drowned out by the VIP guests’ laughter. Even from afar, Eden’s expression had grown cold. His eyes visible behind his glasses, far from the affection he showed when looking at Nigel, were emanating a murderous aura as if he would bite his counterpart at any moment.
That’s when it happened.
The eyes of the man who had been speaking as if fighting with Eden Lake collided with Nigel’s in midair.
As soon as he spotted Nigel, he gave an incomprehensible fishy smile.
“……?”
Nigel narrowed his eyes. What’s this? Is he someone I know? No matter how much he searched his memory, he was someone he was seeing for the first time. As the two were looking at each other, Eden, who noticed this, immediately moved his body and blocked the man.
He had blocked the line of sight. It was a brief moment, but Nigel could hear Eden’s lips moving quickly as he spat out a strange language.
Sihari?
He didn’t know the exact meaning, but judging from the tone and unfamiliar pronunciation, it was clearly the language of Sihar, which had become a vassal state of the Empire.
“Your Highness? Is there something uncomfortable?”
At the question from Countess Isabella, who had been in the middle of conversation, Nigel barely withdrew his gaze from Eden’s direction.
“Ah, no. There’s just something that caught my attention.”
