~CHAPTER 46~
She wondered if it might have been a mistake.
For a few seconds that felt endless, Rision did not move at all.
His lips, slightly parted from calling Dianu’s name, and the hand she held on to remained exactly as they were.
His lips were soft and warm, just like the rest of him.
…I’m ruined.
Inside the lightly swaying carriage, they stayed with their lips touching like that for a short while.
Dianu had no choice but to accept it. Her first kiss was a disaster.
She had always believed that if she ever kissed a man, it would happen before a wedding altar.
A gentleman and lady of Catalos were taught that such a thing was proper and correct.
Even if that rule were broken, she assumed the man would take the lead somehow.
Crying and slamming her lips against someone else’s in a running carriage had never been part of her future plans.
What made it worse was that the other person did not respond eagerly to the kiss, but rather froze like he was staring into the eyes of a mythical witch.
Dianu slowly opened her eyes, which she had kept tightly shut the entire time.
Her heart pounded at the thought of how to fix this mess.
He won’t behead me… right? We’ve known each other long enough.
And then the moment her green eyes met his wide open ones.
“―Mm!”
She was devoured.
That was exactly how it felt.
She had definitely leaned toward him first, but in the blink of an eye, their positions reversed.
By the time she realized what happened, Dianu was half pinned to the carriage seat and half folded into Rision’s arms.
His hand gently swept her messy hair behind her ear.
It was a surprisingly tender gesture, unlike the fervor of their joined lips.
Rision looked like someone who had found an oasis right before dying of thirst.
In this cramped carriage, it was as if he feared she might escape, and he wrapped one arm firmly around her waist.
Then he kissed her like he could barely breathe without it.
He truly looked out of his mind.
The green in his eyes almost disappeared, and the wall of reason had already crumbled long ago.
A desire intense enough to resemble rage boiled inside him, as though he might burn her whole.
Heat surged through her entire body.
This was nothing like the clueless bump she had initiated.
Whenever she tried to pull away for air before her head exploded, he seized her again and swept her thoughts away.
Her limbs felt like they were melting.
The hand supporting the back of her head, protecting her from bumping into the carriage wall, suddenly grabbed something.
It was a ribbon.
He pulled his lips away.
Even in that brief distance, he seemed reluctant to let go, as he pressed his forehead to hers.
Dianu panted hard, as if she might suffocate.
“This is not the ribbon I gave you.”
His low voice, whispered right in front of her nose, sent a chill down her spine.
“Do you dislike me so much that you’ve stopped using my gifts?”
She felt that saying she simply didn’t want to decorate herself with Rision’s ribbon while going to see Sir Varlieh would lead to serious trouble somehow.
“…I just wore something different today.”
“I want you to use the things I give you.”
The sweet whisper made her heart melt.
“Then why did you return the jewelry I gifted you at the Founding Day banquet? Did you not like them?”
He sounded like a sulking child talking about something from long ago.
Dianu was speechless.
“Those were far too expensive. Do you want me to be shameless enough to snatch such costly luxury?”
“Yes. I want you to be that kind of person.”
Rision gently stroked her cheek as she stared at him, lost for words.
“To me, they’re simply beautiful things. And I want you to enjoy beautiful things.”
Dianu jerked her head away from his touch.
“…It’s not like you picked them yourself.”
Rision’s hand, which had been following her movement, hesitated.
“What do you mean?”
She felt petty and ridiculous for dragging up the past, but she couldn’t help it.
“I know that Lady Adelaissa picked out the dress and jewelry you sent me.”
Rision frowned. But Dianu did not give him a chance to defend himself.
“Fine, fine. You probably didn’t like me back then. So you had Lady Adelaissa choose them for you. But—”
“I chose them.”
Dianu froze.
Rision gently kissed the very end of her hair as he spoke.
“I chose the jewelry. I picked what would match your eyes.”
“……”
“As for the dress… My taste wasn’t good enough, so Lady Adelaissa rejected my choices.”
Dianu’s mouth opened and closed silently.
Rision looked straight into her eyes and spoke with emphasis.
“And I liked you then as well.”
“……”
“Not as intensely as now, but… maybe from the beginning.”
There were surely women in this world who could accept such a confession and feel pure joy.
Dianu was not one of those women.
Even so, this moment did not feel tragic.
The reality outside this carriage, the future awaiting her, none of it mattered right now.
Rision Catalos loves Dianu Ortensa.
Just knowing that made her feel lucky.
That alone was enough. At least for this moment.
She could not hold back her rising affection.
Dianu wrapped her arms around his neck and clung to him.
He held her waist, looking a bit flustered by the sudden closeness.
“Your Majesty, I—”
Rip.
The sweet moment shattered with a loud and familiar sound of dread.
Dianu slowly looked down.
The torn bodice of her dress slid down her body like a fallen curtain.
Her scream that day surely echoed across the entire capital.
* * *
The coachman went to fetch a maid from the palace, and Dianu curled up inside the carriage clutching her shredded dress.
“This is so humiliating…”
Rision looked equally troubled.
He sat as far away from her as possible, but his hands twitched as if he wanted to help somehow.
“What kind of dressmaker produces something like this? Dianu’s dresses should all be entrusted to Lira’s tailor from now on.”
She didn’t even have the strength to argue.
Trying to keep the bodice from slipping further, she muttered:
“Your Majesty, you should leave. If a maid sees you here, she’ll misunderstand.”
Of course, there were a few things that weren’t exactly misunderstandings, but rumors about the emperor ripping the royal tutor’s dress would be disastrous.
Rision accepted and stepped out of the carriage without protest.
“Then, I shall—”
Her hand moved before she thought, grabbing onto his coat.
She stared down at her own hand, shocked.
“I… this is…”
“…I’ll come again.”
“When?”
“As soon as I can.”
She liked that answer.
Rision took her hand, now freed from his coat, and lightly kissed it.
His eyes were filled with unrestrained affection and passion.
She felt like she might suffocate from how full her heart was.
She had to use all her self-control not to grab him again.
“Have a good night.”
With his jacket slung over one shoulder, he disappeared into the night air.
Dianu leaned out of the carriage until he completely vanished from sight.
She already missed him.
* * *
“What in the world happened, Lady Dianu?”
The maid who ran over with clothes was Cora.
Thanks to her help, Dianu barely managed to change inside the carriage and return to Oak Palace, completely drained.
Two maids tended to her while she lay sprawled across a long couch.
Only after eating a few sweet cookies and drinking tea did her senses return.
“Cora. How was the festival today?”
“Very enjoyable. I ate so much festival food I think I might explode.”
Cora chatted about the festival while spreading the ruined dress out on the table.
The moment she examined the torn bodice, her expression hardened.
“Huh?”
“Who helped you dress today?”
Dianu struggled up from the couch.
Since Cora was not available earlier, another senior maid had helped prepare her outfit for the outing.
“I think it was Nelly…”
Cora bowed to Dianu and hurried out of the room.
The other maids looked uneasy.
Excitement that had filled Dianu earlier faded, replaced by irritation.
So someone did it on purpose.
There was no reason for a maid to personally resent her, so someone else must have ordered it.
And there was only one person in Oak Palace who would hold that kind of grudge against her.
Bertona Aldebaron… What am I going to do with her?
In less than thirty minutes, the head maid stormed in.
Nelly, held by Cora, cried and sniveled as she was dragged along.
“I didn’t do it!”
She yelled as they forced her to kneel before Dianu, but no one listened.
Cora showed the dress to the head maid.
“There are cut stitches in several places. And look at this clean edge. This wasn’t stretched or damaged by accident.”
Cora looked down at Nelly with contempt.
“I checked the dress last night. Nelly was the one who received the key during the shift change, so she was the only one who had time to do this.”
Nelly trembled so hard she couldn’t even deny it.
The head maid carefully examined the damage, then bowed to Dianu first.
“I am deeply sorry, Lady Dianu. For something like this to happen in Oak Palace… This is entirely my fault.”
Dianu shook her head.
She was too exhausted to assign blame, and she already knew who the real culprit was. She had no desire to scold the head maid over it.
“I’m fine. Handle it within your authority.”
The head maid froze, understanding exactly what that meant.
“…If we report to the mistress of maids, she will investigate every detail.”
Meaning, the instigator could be exposed.
But Dianu did not need Countess Ornin’s involvement in this matter.
“……”
“Deal with it appropriately. Not too lightly, and not too harshly.”
A seasoned head maid would understand perfectly.
She curtseyed deeply, then left while dragging the sobbing Nelly away.
Dianu collapsed back onto the couch with a sigh.
Cora looked puzzled.
“Why not report it? Something this serious… We should find out who ordered her and disgrace them.”
“Because I have a better way.”
Cora looked upset, but did not argue further.
Dianu smiled faintly.
“I owe you a lot, Cora.”
Cora’s face turned red at the sudden praise.
“I only did what I should.”
“There are plenty of people who don’t do what they should. And plenty who do what they shouldn’t.”
While she murmured that, noises rose outside the window.
It seemed the imperial princess’s party had returned from the grand cathedral.
As satisfying as it would be to run out and shake Bertona Aldebaron by the hair, that wasn’t what mattered most right now.
