Chapter 5
“Oh my goodness…! You guys really…”
I couldn’t finish my sentence.
That was because the sight of myself in the mirror was nothing short of a scam.
Wow, what is this?! Unbelievable… what is this?!
Suddenly, I remembered a day in the past, in the bridal waiting room, when I saw a friend’s face.
No—this was even more shocking than that.
This was… the kind of beauty that, if my bare face were ever revealed, a war would break out immediately.
My hair, piled up and pinned with various ornaments, was heavy, but in exchange it looked glamorous, radiant, and beautiful.
So this is why they say women should dress up.
The face I’d seen my whole life suddenly felt new and strange, and I inspected it in the mirror from every angle.
Oh, I’m so hot!
Once I adjusted the hem of my dress, my preparations were complete.
Compared to usual, I stepped out of the room as a truly lovely, refined version of myself.
Every servant I passed expressed surprise at my transformation.
So did my parents.
Thanks to my mother’s fussing, I felt a bit embarrassed.
The banquet was about to begin.
Though our viscount’s estate was in the capital, the imperial palace was a fair distance away, so I boarded the carriage a little early, factoring in the travel time.
As the carriage rolled along, thoughts drifted to the surface.
Evelyn Dott. londmio de Heilron.
Descriptions of the two people flickered through my mind.
At last, I would see them with my own eyes.
“We’ve arrived.”
The carriage delivered me safely to the palace.
After my identity was verified at the entrance, I went straight to the banquet hall.
Although there was still a bit of time before the scheduled hour, the hall was already packed with people.
“Latte!”
“Kano.”
I turned toward the voice calling me, and sure enough, it was Kano.
She seemed amazed at my transformation—but then, she was no less stunning herself.
Normally, she stuck to a simple, understated style, but now she wore a dress as glamorous as a blooming rose.
From her flushed cheeks, she seemed rather excited at the prospect of meeting the crown prince.
We exchanged mutual compliments—you look beautiful—and chatted briefly.
Before long, the clock hands struck the hour, and at last the banquet began.
Amid the lively chatter, I quietly sipped my champagne, waiting for the main characters to appear.
And I didn’t have to wait long.
Before I could even finish my drink, a booming voice cut through the noise.
“His Imperial Highness, Crown Prince Rondemio de Hailon, and Her Imperial Highness, Princess Rosellia de Hailron, are entering!”
The hall instantly fell silent.
Every gaze, mine included, turned toward the entrance.
The sweet music of the orchestra, inaudible a moment ago over the din, now gently filled the banquet hall as two figures walked in side by side.
“…My goodness.”
Someone whispered.
Somewhere, a fan dropped to the floor with a thunk.
He’s insane!
That was my first thought upon seeing londmio.
The male lead, the crown prince, had a truly insane face.
A memory from years ago resurfaced.
One day, a close friend had by chance met—in person—the man then considered the most handsome actor in all of South Korea.
Rumor had it that cameras couldn’t capture even a tenth of his beauty.
When I asked her what he was like, she stayed silent for a long while before finally saying:
“…He’s handsome. F***, he’s handsome! Just—f***… yeah, he’s handsome!!”
Back then, I teased her, asking if she’d damaged her Broca’s area—the part of the brain that controls speech—but now, I understood her completely.
She’d done her best to put it into words.
I also now understood why, in Beauty of the Beast, the novel poured out every possible adjective in describing the male lead’s looks.
You can’t exactly write, He was f**ing handsome* in a novel.
This was a kind of beauty that made you swear under your breath.
The crown prince was, honestly, breathtakingly good-looking.
I kept silently marveling at him.
It was fascinating how two eyes, one nose, and one mouth could look so different on someone.
If I compared it to art, it was like the difference between a meticulously crafted masterpiece completed after a week of sleepless nights, and a lazy doodle scratched out with your foot while picking your nose at home.
Curious about Kano’s reaction, I glanced at her.
…Hmm. Her eyes might actually fall out.
Wondering if she was even blinking, I turned back to londmio.
Upon a second look, it wasn’t just his face—he was tall, broad-shouldered, and long-legged.
He had it all, and he stood there, soaking in everyone’s intense stares without the slightest hint of discomfort.
As expected of the male lead. That face must come with a very thick skin.
While I was admiring him like a finely crafted statue or a famous painting, I suddenly remembered the heroine.
Come to think of it—where was Evelyn? Didn’t she appear almost at the same time as the male lead?
Just as that thought passed, Rondemio’s expression changed.
Up until now, even with all eyes on him, his face had been calm—perhaps even a little bored.
But suddenly, there was a clear hint of surprise.
It was subtle, but distinct.
Maybe it was only obvious to me because I already knew the heroine was about to appear.
Either way, his expression shifted, and his gaze fixed in one direction.
You didn’t have to be a genius to know—Evelyn had entered his line of sight.
I followed his gaze.
In a far corner of the banquet hall—somewhere not easily noticed—stood Evelyn, her long dark-blue hair flowing down her back.
With a book in hand.
Not just holding it, but reading it, open in front of her.
“…”
She was reading a book at the banquet.
“Wh-what is that?”
Kano’s dumbfounded voice reached me. She’d spotted Evelyn too.
I fully agreed with her disbelief and answered calmly, “Exactly.”
As if she’d come to a library rather than a banquet, Evelyn was completely absorbed in her book, utterly uninterested in the crown prince.
One by one, people began to follow the prince’s gaze—he was frozen in place like a statue, staring straight at Evelyn—and attention gradually shifted to her.
Evelyn, however, remained unfazed, turning a page with a delicate flick of her hand. Flaap.
Murmur, murmur.
The silence broke. The hall quickly grew noisy again.
Everyone seemed to be thinking what Kano and I were thinking.
As the chatter rose, Evelyn finally looked up from her book.
I could almost see the question marks popping up over her head.
Her expression clearly said she had no idea why everyone was staring and whispering about her.
And then, I remembered.
Yes—this was it.
This exact scene!
The early chapters of the novel I’d read on my monitor played out vividly in my mind.
“Such indifference was something utterly unfamiliar to him.
Could it be that she simply had not yet noticed him?
But as if to mock that thought, Evelyn showed no particular reaction even after laying eyes on him.
When those indifferent green eyes turned away from him, Rondemio felt an unfamiliar sensation—something he had never experienced before.”
Suddenly, my memory became razor-sharp, and I recalled exactly what happened next.
I knew what the crown prince was about to do.
He would—
“londmio smirked as if amused and ran his left hand through his hair.”
“…Ha.”
Oh my god! I just got chills!
The crown prince’s action perfectly matched the scene I remembered.
For a moment, I felt like a prophet and almost clapped my hands.
This really is inside the novel.
The realization hit me again.
And once more, I was shocked—londmio was truly a man who could get away with everything using his looks.
Not only had he captured everyone’s attention with his face alone, but he’d just pulled off that hair-sweeping move.
I mean—“smirked as if amused and ran his hand through his hair”—in real life, that’s the sort of thing that would make you cringe so hard your toes would curl.
Yet he didn’t just make it work—he made it cool.
Wow. Was this guy even human?
It wasn’t just me—judging by the soft gasps from around the hall, plenty of others felt his deadly charm.
Following the sounds, I spotted several young ladies with dreamy expressions, hands clasped over their chests.
Oh my goodness…
In just three minutes, Rondemio had created a whole group of girls in love.
I silently gave him a thumbs-up for his extraordinary ability.
But… what happened next again?
The flash of brilliance that had turned me into a temporary prophet was gone.
What remained was only vague recollection, big events in patchy fragments—not clear, detailed narration.
What the…? My memory stopped at the hair sweep?
Disappointed at my return to mediocrity, I sighed inwardly.
Predicting someone’s actions like a fortune-teller had been thrilling.
I let go of my disappointment and briefly considered how ridiculous this must look from a third-person perspective.
After all, most of the hall was staring at the crown prince, who was staring at the heroine, who was just looking confused.
What is this—a comedy sketch?
This frozen tableau was broken by the arrival of new figures.
“His Imperial Majesty the Emperor and Her Imperial Majesty the Empress are entering!”
The rulers of Hailron appeared.
As the emperor and empress entered, the gazes fixed on the crown prince dispersed.
I, too, turned away from londmio, and he finally looked away from Evelyn.
I looked toward the man who had passed down such lethal genes to the prince, expecting something extraordinary—
…but the emperor looked surprisingly like a kindly next-door uncle.
…So then, was the mother the most beautiful woman on the continent?
Also no. She was simply an ordinary beauty.
Uh… is this a setting error?
“Today, we have gathered to celebrate our Rosellia’s seventeenth birthday. I thank you all for coming.”
Though his appearance was warm, the emperor was still the emperor—his voice carried a powerful charisma that filled the hall.
I quickly tucked away my presumptuous judgment of his looks and focused on his speech.
The dignity that commanded the room… yes, that was impressive.
The emperor’s words were short and to the point, ending quickly.
After wishing everyone to enjoy the banquet, he exited with the empress.
The crown prince followed, apparently having only come to make a brief appearance.
Thus, the crown prince vanished from the hall just five minutes after arriving.
And the hall erupted into chaos in the wake of his brief presence.
“Ahh, His Highness the Crown Prince…”
“I wasn’t dreaming, was I? My god, can a person really look like that?”
“I think I’m in love.”
“I want to see him again…”
