Chapter 30
I had seen him cough up blood before, but wasn’t he the same person who cleaned up after it so nonchalantly?
I wanted to bring that up as an example, but Allendo stayed silent at the anxious look on Belia’s face.
“I promise he’ll be really okay. And if I get any news, I’ll let you know immediately.”
Despite Allendo’s words, Belia bit her lip as if she still couldn’t calm her worries.
The image of Carlton coughing up blood on that last day was vivid in her mind.
Wasn’t he the one who had come running to save her despite his injured body?
Even if she couldn’t see him directly, she wanted to at least hear that he was alright.
Since there was no way to contact him directly right now, the only thing Belia could do was to visit the palace every day to ask for news.
‘Whatever happened to him…’
Seeing Belia so unsettled, Allendo put down his pen for a moment.
“If I say it again, he’ll be fine. Pacing around like this won’t make him show up in front of you… Just do what you have to do and wait. I’ll tell you right away if Carlton contacts me.”
“…Okay.”
Despite the answer, worry still filled her face, so Allendo spoke again.
“By the way, isn’t there a tea party coming up soon?”
“Oh, right.”
Belia, who had been blankly thinking of Carlton, nodded.
“Have you made the guest list?”
“Hmm, roughly?”
“Am I on it?”
“Huh? You’re coming?”
Belia blinked.
Allendo glanced at his watch, then turned his eyes back to the documents.
“Well, it wouldn’t hurt. The business itself started with an agreement, so it’s good if someone from the royal family attends.”
“Hmm… I’ll think about it.”
“You’re not accepting right away?”
“It’s not that I don’t want to…”
Belia smiled awkwardly.
If the Crown Prince came and carried her bag just once, it would be great publicity.
But she hesitated a little.
“Why? Because of rumors? No matter how much you worry about Carlton, if you keep coming to the Crown Prince’s palace like it’s your own home, everyone will think that way.”
“Hmm—.”
Belia scratched the back of her head.
Just like Allendo said, at first, Bedol asked about her frequently going to the palace, then her parents eventually came to ask what her relationship with the Crown Prince was.
Only then did she realize how the society might view her constantly going in and out of the Crown Prince’s palace because of worry over Carlton.
It had been such a hectic few days that she only realized it when her parents asked.
She worried so much she couldn’t restrain herself even after realizing it.
“By the way, what about food?”
“Lunch?”
“If nothing’s wrong, why don’t you eat and stay?”
“Suddenly? Don’t you have plans?”
The Crown Prince’s meal times, especially lunch, were usually filled with appointments.
“Um, I do, but you can eat with us.”
“Who with?”
“Lady Doltan.”
“Huh?”
Allendo shrugged his shoulders, glancing at surprised Belia.
“Lady Doltan? Isn’t that an important meal?”
When Belia questioned the unexpected proposal, Allendo nodded.
“Well, it’s important if you want it to be, but the people involved don’t really think so?”
“No thanks. It seems really improper to join them.”
“I don’t think so?”
“Why?”
Belia tilted her head at Allendo’s denial.
“Last time, the lady asked about you.”
Allendo recalled the meal with the lady at the Doltan family tea party.
“I heard you went to the Doltan family tea party.”
“Oh.”
Belia seemed to realize something and nodded.
She remembered how, after the insult to Songbu, she had distorted the meal with Allendo a bit in anger.
Because of that, combined with the fact that she was named Miss Delivery of the Year, rumors had spread that she was a candidate for the Crown Prince’s bride, comparable to Lady Doltan.
At the time, unlike Miss Delivery and others who had turned pale, Lady Doltan’s face was clearly calm.
“What did she say?”
“Nothing much. She just asked if you were close.”
“With me?”
“Yes.”
Allendo nodded.
“She asked in passing, but it was the first time I heard Miss Canary ask first.”
He paused for a moment, recalling that time.
The purple eyes looking straight at him with curiosity was so unfamiliar that it stuck in his memory.
It was the first time since childhood that the lady spoke to him like that.
“Hmm, I guess it’s because of the rumors….”
“Rumors? It didn’t feel like she asked because of the rumors about you, me, and Lady Doltan. Like I said before, I guarantee the lady isn’t interested in becoming the Crown Prince’s bride. So why not have a talk with her this time? You asked me about her before, remember?”
“Oh, that’s right.”
Thinking about how they had looked down on someone else’s troubles made Belia feel a little guilty when thinking of the lady.
That scene in the salon had been quite shocking.
“Since it’s come to this, let’s have lunch together.”
“Won’t the lady get upset?”
“She’d probably prefer that to eating alone. It’s time, let’s go. The lady sends everyone away during meals, so she won’t even know you’re there.”
“But what if rumors spread?”
“I’ll handle that.”
Allendo glanced at his watch and stood up.
“Let’s go.”
He gestured for Belia to follow.
Meanwhile…
“Canary Doltan, do not go against the family’s wishes. Your actions must not bring disgrace to our house. Always maintain dignity and win the Crown Prince’s heart as the Duke wishes.”
“Yes.”
To an outsider, the mother and daughter who saw her off on her brief outing would seem close.
But for the parties involved, they were not.
Canary felt burdened and almost nauseated by the sight of her stepmother.
Tired from waking early and preparing busily for the boring meal with the Crown Prince, she leaned comfortably against the carriage backrest once they departed and were free from her mother’s gaze.
“It’s so dull.”
No matter how splendid her dress and hair accessories were, she felt no excitement.
Some might envy this life, but she had long since grown disgusted by it all.
Canary picked up a mirror beside her.
Her jewel-like purple eyes and white skin were decorated like a doll.
“Terrible.”
The purple eyes inherited from the Doltan dukedom were shackles that bound her.
The proof of her pure Doltan blood made escape impossible.
She rolled up the sleeve of her tightly fitted dress, revealing bruises that hadn’t faded.
“This one lasted a while.”
When she was younger, her stepmother’s slightest word would make her cry, but now, even after being hit, she felt nothing.
She just wondered when this life would end.
Tilting her head back, she quietly closed her eyes.
“The Crown Princess…”
The Crown Prince had no interest in her.
And she felt the same.
Since it was a family matter and she had no will of her own, she had resigned herself to whatever happens.
Would becoming the Crown Princess mean escaping this hellish mansion? Or would another hell unfold?
Only one thing made her life somewhat bearable.
The paintings her deceased nanny had taught her.
“Try like this. Our lady is good at it.”
Whenever she held a brush, her nanny’s face came to mind, and that was the only brightness in her life.
She should have hidden it better, but she got caught again, leaving a lump on her arm.
She knew that if she painted, her stepmother would badmouth her to her father, but if she didn’t paint, there was no place to breathe in the mansion.
Still, the meals with the Crown Prince were somewhat comfortable.
Because the three ladies who acted as her mother’s spies weren’t there.
She could eat as much as she wanted and be a little less formal.
And the Crown Prince wasn’t the type to catch faults, so it was a relief.
However, she had become quite tired because of the recent rumors circulating in society.
“Lady Belia…”
That was the name her mother mentioned most these days.
She was an unnoticed lady before, but recently, wherever her mother went, she heard about her.
The influence of that lady was rising enough to affect even her mother, who valued social reputation greatly.
“The last tea party was fun.”
A faint smile appeared on Canary’s lips.
She liked how Belia had angered Delivery.
Delivery was like a parrot who exaggerated even small things to her mother and made her tired.
The most exciting recent thing was when Delivery got silenced by Lady Belia after being cocky.
“Recently, she said she was preparing some kind of business. There’s a tea party soon, right?”
Recalling what her mother said quickly, Canary pondered for a moment.
Did Belia remember what happened at the salon?
Canary wiped her cheek.
If her mother had known she had been spying like a mouse, it would have been a disaster.
“Don’t tell mother.”
