Chapter 15
I tried to scratch and peel off the seal attached to the contract with my fingernail.
But no matter how hard I tried, it wouldn’t come off—as if it were stuck with magic glue.
“Do you… perhaps want to keep the seal, my lady? I’m sorry, but once attached, it can never be removed.”
“But Your Highness took it off so easily earlier!”
“That was because that contract wasn’t signed. Once a contract becomes effective, a protection spell prevents the seal from being forcibly removed.”
After hearing the Third Prince’s explanation, I gave up trying to remove it.
Instead, I decided to just rip the entire contract apart.
However, no matter how hard I pulled, the paper didn’t even crease—it was like it had been made of steel.
“Why won’t this tear? Don’t tell me… this is magic too?”
“Yes. A protection spell,” he replied innocently.
“This is absurd!”
“Wouldn’t it be a good thing that it can’t be torn? I don’t understand why you’re upset.”
The Third Prince blinked his blue-violet eyes innocently, looking as harmless as a baby chick.
Then he opened his small, beak-like mouth and said,
“Don’t worry too much. Nothing in this contract will harm you, Lady Lurupel. It’s entirely in your favor.”
The baby-chick-mouthed boy was talking complete nonsense.
He then placed a sheet of paper into my hand.
When I hurriedly looked down, I realized—it was another copy of the contract, without the seal.
Meanwhile, the sealed one had somehow found its way into the prince’s hands.
When did he even take it?
I hadn’t noticed him snatch it at all, even though I’d been holding it just a second ago.
How could an eight-year-old move that fast?
What on earth is this kid?
“There won’t be any difficulties,” he said cheerfully. “Just live as you normally do. I’ll be counting on you from now on.”
The Third Prince clapped his hands together with a bright smile.
Somehow, the scene gave me déjà vu.
After getting half-swindled into an engagement contract with the Third Prince, I didn’t see him again for quite a while.
It wasn’t just Count and Countess Lurupel who were suddenly swamped with work—my days passed by in a blur, too.
I’d thought the engagement between Hariela and the Third Prince would be about as significant as a neighborhood dog’s birthday party…
But I couldn’t have been more wrong.
Between the royal palace of Rudbekia and the Count Lurupel household, there were hundreds of servants.
You’d think with that many people, at least one eight-year-old prince could take it easy and do nothing.
But, as always, the world doesn’t work that way.
Anyway, three weeks was an insanely short time to prepare an engagement ceremony.
Even Anna, when she heard the news a week before, screamed while scratching her cheek with her fingernails.
“What? Three weeks? Not three months—three weeks? Please tell me you’re joking, my lady! Oh, my heavens, tell me I misheard you!”
“Unfortunately, your hearing is perfectly fine, Anna.”
“This is impossible! It’s the devil’s work!”
If anything, it wasn’t the devil’s doing—it was the Third Prince’s.
But saying that aloud would count as blasphemy, so I wisely kept my mouth shut.
Anna sat crouched in a corner, refusing to face reality.
I just stood there, looking down at her with pity.
“Three weeks… just three weeks… how am I supposed to finish a dress in that time? No, Anna, pull yourself together! You can do it. No—you must do it…”
She muttered like someone possessed, her tone tragic even though her words were technically optimistic.
As I awkwardly patted her shoulder to comfort her, something in her muttering caught my attention.
A dress?
“Huh? A dress? You’re ordering another one? Why? You already have a mountain of dresses you haven’t even worn yet!”
Every word I said came out with a question mark.
I furrowed my brows in confusion.
After all, I already had dozens of dresses piled up in the wardrobe—custom-made for the Third Prince’s welcome banquet.
Some of them I hadn’t even tried on once.
Unless the seasons were changing in three weeks, ordering more would be a huge waste.
But Anna gave me a look as if my words were suffocating her.
“But none of them match the blue-violet sapphire!” she cried.
“The sapphire? What sapphire?”
“The one His Highness gave you as a gift… Oh! Don’t tell me you don’t know yet?”
“Know what?”
“The tradition! In Letitia, it’s customary for couples to exchange gemstones the color of their eyes at their engagement. The woman wears it as a necklace, and the man wears it as a brooch on the day of the ceremony.”
“…That’s quite a weird tradition.”
“I heard it started when the First Emperor proposed to the First Empress. He gave her a blue diamond that matched her eyes. Isn’t that so romantic?”
Anna spoke with dreamy eyes, but I felt nothing.
Since Anna loved romantic stories more than anything, I quickly changed the subject before she started reciting their entire love story.
“So you’re saying the Third Prince gave me a sapphire?”
“Yes! A very rare one, large and shining with that vivid blue-violet hue! A maid I know saw His Highness personally hand it to the Countess.”
“Really? When did he even manage that? His hands are faster than I thought…”
“This morning, before you came to breakfast!”
“Ah. That explains why Mother and Father were in such good moods.”
That solved one mystery—but somehow, I just felt worse.
So it all came down to money, huh?
These rich nobles really couldn’t get enough of showing off their wealth.
They weren’t even my real parents, yet I still felt oddly resentful.
“By now, the Count has probably sent His Highness an emerald in return,” Anna continued. “There’s no time to waste if the jewelers are to finish the settings in three weeks!—Oh! What am I doing just talking here? I need to summon the tailors!”
Anna rang the bell to call a servant and ordered them to bring every tailor in the estate.
I nearly fainted.
How many tailors were there in this territory?
The servant looked bewildered but chose to obey instead of questioning her.
“Then I’ll go see the Countess for a bit!” Anna said, already rushing to the door. “If I’m to design a matching dress, I need to know how the necklace will be set!”
“Go ahead.”
“Yes, my lady! I’ll be right back!”
She left energetically, as if she’d never despaired in the first place.
While she was gone, I decided to take care of my own business—like finding a good hiding spot for my copy of the contract with the Third Prince.
After circling the room for a while, I eventually decided to slip it between the pages of a book again.
Anna still hadn’t returned, so I decided to take a bath.
I called for a servant to prepare the water and enjoyed a long, relaxing soak for the first time in ages.
But when I came back to my room afterward… I walked straight into chaos.
Anna had returned—with a whole army of tailors.
They had spread out sketches and fabric samples all over the floor, each presenting them for Anna’s approval.
“My lady, how about this design?”
“Good.”
“And this one?”
“Excellent.”
“Oh! I think this one could also work!”
“Fantastic.”
Anna chose dozens of patterns and kept asking my opinion.
She held up sheets showing the sapphire necklace in one hand and dress designs in the other, comparing which matched better.
Of course, I had no idea what was going on.
As time went on, more and more tailors arrived.
I honestly wanted to just collapse right there.
“Ah… suddenly… my head… hurts so much… maybe from… all the fabric dust…”
“Oh no! My lady! I’ll call a healer right away!”
That was how the chaos ended—thanks to my flawless acting.
But the next day, it all happened again.
And now, once more, I was sitting in the same situation.
“My lady, how was the one you tried on earlier?”
“It was fine.”
“And the one before that?”
“Wonderful.”
“Oh! I actually liked the very first one too, with a few adjustments! What did you think?”
“Fantastic.”
“Oh, come on, my lady! Please help me choose seriously!”
Some of the faster tailors had already brought sample dresses.
Anna insisted that I try on every single one, saying you can’t know how it looks until you wear it.
Of course, the people in this world weren’t exactly master tailors.
