𖹭 Chapter 9 𖹭
After a moment, Calliope spoke again.
“Pieria, congratulations on your victory.”
“Waaah!”
The moment Pieria’s victory was announced, the only ones whose faces darkened were Esid and her daughter, Vibrephon Hairocl.
“Wasn’t she really amazing?”
“How did she even think of playing the piano strings?”
Hearing the whispers around her, Esid clenched her fists tightly.
Her hands trembled.
She could not deny it.
Pieria was skilled.
And her idea had been brilliant as well.
The moment Esid realized the gap between them was so wide that she could not even compare them, she felt deep anger and frustration.
“Now then, as is our custom, I will grant your wish.”
Calliope said gently as he approached Pieria.
“What is your wish? I will grant you anything.”
Pieria stayed silent at Calliope’s question.
Instead, she took out a ledger from her clothes.
It was the one she had secretly taken from Esid’s room when the annex had been empty before.
“My wish is for you to accept this ledger.”
Pieria opened the ledger toward Calliope as if telling him to look at it carefully.
‘Gasp!’
Esid’s face turned pale.
That ledger contained proof that she had stolen money meant for the youngest granddaughter candidates and used it for illegal slave trading.
‘If that ledger alone is revealed, everything is over!’
Because every one of her crimes was recorded there.
Calliope took the ledger from Pieria.
Flip, flip.
As he examined it closely, his expression darkened with every page he turned.
‘Was this the reason I felt so uneasy…?!’
Cold sweat poured down Esid’s forehead.
She had rushed to the Imperial Palace and failed to bring it with her, carelessly trusting that the servants she had bribed would keep it safe.
Esid quickly looked around, searching for some way to escape.
The moment she realized it was impossible because guards were everywhere, she hurried to Calliope and dropped to her knees.
“This is unfair! Please listen to me too. I—!”
“Silence.”
Before she could even defend herself, Calliope cut her off.
He firmly closed the ledger and slowly lowered his head.
His gaze fixed on Esid like a nail driven into wood.
“Esid.”
Calliope’s voice cut through the air like the cold wind of midwinter.
“Once we return to the Duke’s estate, I will settle everything. Every word you say from now on will decide your fate. Any lie will only add to your crimes.”
A suffocating silence fell over the hall.
Esid stayed on her knees, her whole body shrinking in on itself.
Her shoulders shook, and all color drained from her tightly clenched fingers.
The sounds of protest slipping out between her hands, which were covering her face, now seemed far too weak to persuade anyone.
Meanwhile, a faint smile spread across Pieria’s lips as she lowered her head.
Her fingertips trembled lightly.
Even in the middle of tension, it was as if she could feel the joy of victory.
The time for all truths to be revealed, with all three of them facing one another, was slowly drawing near.
Unlike usual, Helision stood at the entrance of the banquet hall with a small smile on his face.
His white shirt and black formal uniform embroidered with gold made his shining blond hair and green eyes stand out even more.
He looked relaxed—
But his eyes kept drifting toward the door.
As he realized he was waiting for sky-colored hair and pale eyes to walk through it, he smiled bitterly.
‘Has she already left?’
When he heard that the Trache family group had hurriedly left the Imperial Palace as soon as the Junior Concours ended, a strange heaviness settled in his heart.
It was not simply because, on the day they first met, he had failed to ask her about the piece she had played.
Every time he thought of her name—
Pieria.
The girl with hair like the sky and eyes like a quiet morning—
His heart kept beating faster.
At first, he thought it was only light curiosity.
Because he liked piano so much.
Or because of the way she played.
‘But is that really all?’
Helision clearly remembered the sight of her sitting in front of the piano on the day of the concours.
Her tiny fingers running over the keys looked as if she were speaking to the piano in the language of the world itself.
He also could not forget how everyone had held their breath when the music filled the entire palace hall.
He too had been overwhelmed by her performance—
So much that he wanted to ask who else could possibly dare take first place if not Pieria.
But what he felt in that moment had been more than simple admiration.
There was that one moment after she finished playing and stepped down from the stage—
When she looked up at him.
No smile.
And yet, there had been a faint warmth in her eyes.
That gaze would not leave his mind.
‘You must not reveal your feelings. Stay calm.’
He kept telling himself that again and again.
As the Crown Prince, he could not afford to lose his composure.
Remembering the advice his mother used to give him as a child, he tried to control his feelings.
But maybe…
Maybe that calmness was nothing more than suppressing emotion.
“Your Highness, is something wrong?”
Noticing the change in his expression, his aide Timpani asked in a low voice.
Helision shook his head slightly and deliberately looked away.
“It’s nothing.”
His voice was calm, but not perfectly so.
He could not explain why he wanted to talk to her longer.
Or why the few words they had shared were still circling in his mind.
‘Is it simply because I want to talk about that music?’
Whatever the reason, one thing mattered more than anything else—
Now he wanted to speak with her again.
It was not because of her music.
And it was not because she might be a descendant of the Trache family.
Now—
He had become curious about Pieria herself.
‘I will definitely get another chance.’
Helision lifted his head.
His green eyes shone like a deep forest under the light of the hall’s grand chandeliers.
As if calming himself, he slowly took a breath.
When the moment came to meet her again, he promised himself that he would no longer hesitate in front of her.
The Crown Prince she remembered had to be perfect.
Elegant, confident, and completely unshaken.
‘But…’
And yet, in one corner of his chest, something quietly grew—
A desire not to show perfection, but his real self.
The feeling he had when she played.
The soft warmth that had briefly rested in her eyes.
Those things were drawing him in.
Pieria appeared in his thoughts.
The sight of her sky-blue hair lightly moving as she looked at him.
The sight of her small figure proudly leaving the stage after accepting the applause.
Just imagining what she might say when they met again—
Or what kind of expression she would show in front of him—
Made his heart beat strangely.
His face still held its usual dignity, but his eyes were deeper and heavier than ever before.
He already knew it.
This strange pull he felt toward her was not just simple curiosity.
He still did not know exactly what it was.
But one thing was clear—
That feeling was changing him into a better person.
‘Until then… I need to become someone I won’t be ashamed of.’
In his heart, he repeated her name.
Pieria.
A musical genius.
And the sky-colored girl who had shaken him.
As soon as the concours ended, the Trache family group headed straight back to the Duke’s estate.
Unlike the light and lively mood from when they had left for the palace, a heavy atmosphere now surrounded them.
Behind the carriage came Esid.
Her hands were tightly tied.
The chains around her ankles dragged across the ground, making an unpleasant sound.
Her face was pale, and the beads of sweat on her forehead clearly showed the anxiety inside her.
After arriving at the Duke’s estate, Calliope headed toward his office.
Inside the office, a young man with silver-blue hair was already waiting for him.
The wind coming through the window brushed across his bangs.
The young man had been standing there with his long eyelashes lowered, quietly receiving the cool breeze, but when he sensed someone entering, he rose from his seat.
“Duke.”
Calliope met the young man’s eyes.
His red eyes burned quietly like lava.
His name was Eurpel Trache.
The eldest grandson of Calliope—
And the young duke of the Trache family.
