14. The day of the Evening Ball (2)
“Tia.”
The prince whom I met for the first time in a week appeared a little tired.
As he walked towards me, His Highness seemed relieved.
In the guestroom, I was waiting for His Highness. I then bowed and greeted him.
“Good day to you, Your Highness. Thank you for coming all the way here to the Duke residence today.”
“Tia, I’m sorry.”
“Eh—kyaaa—!?”
When I bowed my head and stated some long, formal, greeting, warmth suddenly touched my waist.
I couldn’t believe what was happening. When I looked up involuntarily, I was hit by His Highness’ breath. He had me within his arms.
Wha, what is this Prince doing—!? It’s so unlike his usual persona at all—!!
It’s not profanity if it’s only spoken in heart—as of recent, this had officially become my motto.
“W, wait, Your Highness—?! What exactly are you doing—!?”
Despite being engaged, we weren’t actually married yet—!? Besides, didn’t you already have another lover—!? What was even happening—!?
I panicked and reflexively pushed his shoulders. It was only a small push, despite so, His Highness quickly released me.
Then he smiled, quite widely too.
“…I caught a whiff of you, Tia.”
Pervert—!!! A real pervert is here—!!!
Who are you and what have you done to my fiancé—!?!? Give him back, no, return him please—!?!? Despite everything that he’s done, he’s still necessary for the prosperity of this Kingdom—!?
Towards the panicked and stiffened me, His Highness lowered his eyes …oi, are you still alive?! He’s alive!!
“Tia, everything that goes inside your mind shows up on your face, you know?”
“Eh? Huh?!”
“Is it that unusual for me to smile? Is it…? Come to think of it, I rarely laugh in front of you. If that’s what you prefer, that’s what I shall do from now on.”
“…”
What? What are you talking about? What are you going to do from now on?
Who’s this person? I’m scared…
I no longer assumed that he was a different person, because clearly, he was a different person!
Who is this guy? He’s clearly not His Highness…
I furrowed my eyebrows and stared straight at His Highness.
But that was clearly his beautiful face. The face that was adored by many women. No one else had this face. No one else had this voice other than His Highness, either.
Because I had been with him for more than a year, such things were plain obvious… probably?
Recently, I hadn’t spoken to him that much. I couldn’t quite say that I was confident in my ability to differentiate him from someone trying to impersonate him…
“…too bad, but I haven’t changed at all, you know?”
“…Your Highness.”
I felt like he was mind-reading me since a while ago…
I grew increasingly scared. Sooner, I had to break my engagement sooner!
I recoiled and distanced myself from His Highness. He noticed and laughed bitterly.
Why was this supposed His Highness so expressive?
“…Tia, there’s no time. We have to go to the venue right away.”
“Eh? Ye, yes…”
Dangerous. My voice broke.
I took his hand, trying my best to suppress the raging storm inside me.
I wondered what had happened to this person…
“Fu, Tia, you truly are easy to read, huh… hey, smile? After all, Tia’s smiling face is the most adorable in the world.”
That moment I wanted to scream… His Highness had suddenly squeezed my hand…
I couldn’t comprehend what was happening anymore.
What was he doing? Who was this person?
My brain was entirely dominated by these three thoughts.
…at the very least, give me time to process reality?
In the end, I gave up.
***T/N: AGAIN, TIA, WHAT HAPPENED IN THAT ENTIRE TEN YEARS OF YOU GUYS BEING ENGAGED–!?!?!? DOES THIS GUY NEVER COME TO YOUR RESIDENCE TO DEEPEN YOU GUYS’ RELATIONSHIP?!??! DOES IN THAT SPAN OF TEN YEARS YOU GUYS HAD NO CHANCE TO INTERACT AND KNOW BETTER ABOUT EACH OTHER?!?!! IS HE REALLY IN SOME CRYOGENIC SLEEP UNTIL CH.1 OF THIS STORY OR STH!? OR HE GOT REPLACED BY ALIEN? In that case, I got the ‘E.T’ tag ready.
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Will your Rat is showing ^^
Hehe, when she called him a pervert I snorted. Tia’s thought process is hilarious
I’m beginning to think that the Prince really is in love with her but Tiya is a naturally sweet airhead who doesn’t realize it because 1. He is like the number 1 bachelor in the whole kingdom so she might feel like a guy like the Prince wouldn’t feel any love for her (case in point her conversation with rat)
2. Tiya is really the kind of person who doesn’t give a sh*T ??
And 3. The Prince was trying to be patient and was waiting for Tiya to finally acknowledge him but to no avail. And then something like that thot appearing happened and now he just couldn’t bare the thought of being in love with somebody else other than Tiya.
Oh my god. How did this novel got me so emotionally invested.
Or 4. He is a fucking retard.
My anger meter is now at 50% and it never reached that point in any novel/manga that I’ve read~
Only once when I’m fed up with my family~
I feel that I am beginning to understand their lack of communication…… the prince probably thinks that it is fine even if Tiarize does not say anything to him cause he can clearly understand what she is thinking just by looking at her face and will just do what he thinks she wants without saying anything thinking Tiarize will understand but too bad for him our Tiarize is denser than osmium the most dense naturally occuring element…….and this thinking of his makes him a qualified idiot
My head hurts and I’m so mad but I HAVE TO READ MORE! My theory is that this Baroness have that drug inducing magic like in the other novel with the while dove or whatever. The Prince actually likes Tia so when he got out of the range of the Baroness’ magic he returned to normal and wanted to make up for it. But if he got close again to the thot then.. My theory crumbles.
Nothing in the story so far indicates that the protagonist is dense. Ya lot are (were) projecting your experience from other novels.
So here I guess someone finally told the prince about how his actions have appeared up to this point.
This feels like a Bibliophile princess smell to it. Thank you for the chapter!
Eyyyyyye!
He was hit with the lewd powder.
What… I’m confused… Author-san… Please explain…
Lmao the TL notes are on point. It might seriously be that they were engaged on paper for 10 years but rarely interacted. It seems the Prince is clearly aiming for the Tia route though which is nice.
I can’t really figure out where this is going to go. That’s pretty refreshing actually.
Thanks for the chapter!
wow that’s confusing…I’m still all ready to root for a Vioris x Tiarize ship…but what on earth is going on?
Thanks for the chapter! <3