Chapter 81. Closer to Body and Mind (5)

“What?”

Ian shouted so loudly that the maid, who had been carrying another cup of tea, fell down.

With the sudden spilled hot tea, the drawing room quickly became a mess.

Robert patted Ian on the back of his hand and said.

“She said I don’t fit her ideal type at all, and you and I are in a similar position, so shouldn’t we give up neatly?”

I was so busy cleaning up the carpet from the hot tea and comforting the maid that I couldn’t hear Robert’s words.

Only after arranging the drawing room could we calmly face each other again.

“Prince, what are you talking about? What do you mean you got dumped even before you started flirting?”

I responded to Ian’s question with a noticeably stiff look as if it were nothing.

“It’s literally what it means. I asked him not to fall in love and neglect his ambition, and I asked him to take good care of his mind.”

And I added with a determined look that I would no longer talk about this topic.

“It’s not the time to pay attention to that kind of thing. There’s a foreigner coming to kill me.”

We had a lot of work to do, finally starting to catch the enemy’s shape vaguely.

The helper of Carlon in the temple also had to be found, and the third “origin of black magic” had to be found before that.

So somehow I had to expose the connection in front of everyone.

In the original work, it ended like that by digging behind Morriett three years later.

‘Since Morriett was killed, I can’t wait until the end… But I have to finish it as soon as possible. Perhaps in the original work, they couldn’t find the origin of black magic because they didn’t know what it was.’

But the most important thing was to prepare for the order of assassination on me.

It was said that they would bring in a person not from the capital who could kill me, but I didn’t think they would do all this for a commoner like me.

As it was the first case of a proper clash with each other, we had to draw a big picture and act carefully.

So I looked at Robert and spoke seriously.

“Maybe the talented Prince Carlon will officially ask me for a duel, right? In front of many people.”

“…I guess so.”

Robert nodded heavily.

“He’s definitely going to apply for the duel, and I hope there’s a condition.”

“What is it?”

“No matter what happens… I don’t want to have a duel in front of my family. They’ll be worried.”

No matter what, a dangerous situation could arise, but I didn’t want to make my parents nervous.

“I think Crown Prince Carlon will definitely want that to happen.”

It was also the reason why I asked Robert.

Wouldn’t Robert, who was a part of the royal family, know better about Carlon?

Carlon was probably asking the brothers of Abedes about me.

Since we became enemies without knowing each other, we had to ask for advice from someone who knew better.

So, we wanted to set the stage for the trap that the opponent would sell.

We’d make good use of that trap.

“Ah.”

Robert clapped his hand once.

“If that’s the case, then there is a very good opportunity.”

“Oh, what is it?”

For such a dramatic reaction, he must have come up with a truly amazing idea.

“Soon, my birthday banquet will be held at the Imperial Palace. Before that, Carlon will arrive.”

Looking at my face, Robert smiled broadly.

“May I invite you to be my partner, Miss Annabelle Reinfield?”

I couldn’t help but let out a sigh of admiration. There could be such a great plan.

If it was a birthday banquet held at the Imperial Palace, of course, Carlon would attend.

Moreover, ordinary commoners were not allowed to attend the banquet unless the main character of the banquet had specifically invited them.

So that person’s family wouldn’t be able to go.

There was a lot of talk about it in the common people’s councils that were being organized here and there these days.

What was the era, when the commoners mixed with the nobles and couldn’t even dance?

This problem had to be noisy somehow.

The empire was now on the verge of obscuring its status due to capital.

Therefore, noise against the old traditions was inevitable.

But for this moment, I felt grateful for these old traditions.

“Wait.”

As I was about to nod my head coldly, Ian frowned and intervened.

“It’s a bit… I think there might be a problem.”

“What’s wrong?”

At my question, Ian hesitated for a moment with a puzzled expression.

I groaned.

“What? Why can’t you speak? There is no problem at all.”

Ian was startled and spoke slowly.

“…When you become the prince’s partner, it means that you have a very special relationship…”

“What? It’s not like we’re announcing an engagement, can’t it not be something special? After all, it’s just an act.”

“But the partner…has to keep dancing together…”

“What? Why are you talking nonsense?”

As I kept shooting down Ian, Robert intervened.

“No, Miss Annabelle. Come to think of it, there is one problem. Ian was sharp.”

At that, even Ian looked at Robert with a surprised expression and agreed hastily with a smirk.

“That’s right. A clear problem…”

From my point of view, Ian must have been unaware of the obvious problem.

Before he could even think about why he was doing that, Robert clicked his tongue as if he had remembered it too late.

“As Ian said, we have to dance together. It shouldn’t be difficult either. After all, I am the main character of the banquet.”

“Dance?”

“Annabelle, have you ever learned to dance? No matter how good a teacher is, I think it will take ten days.”

Then it didn’t matter.

I answered brightly.

“I know how!”

At those words, Ian hurriedly intervened.

“But that’s only a few hours…”

“I learned hard from someone who knew my movements incredibly well, and it worked so much better than what someone else can teach me in 10 days.”

“Still, your overall skills can’t be that great…”

“Probably in the top 10%, the teacher said that himself.”

I refuted one by one with the words Ian had said in the past.

Robert asked, smirking at my words.

“You mean that there was such a wonderful and inhumane teacher?”

“Yes! There was such a teacher who was good at it, but the fun was missing!”

I smiled proudly and looked at the teacher right next to me, who raised me to the top 10%.

However, Ian, who I thought had a proud expression on his face, was rather completely hardened.

“…Fun.”

He even looked a little confused.

‘Why is your face full of displeasure? It’s like the look when facing the old me.’

In an instant, three hypotheses flashed through my mind.

First, he probably didn’t want to tell anyone about the night he danced with me because he was ashamed.

Second, he didn’t like that his close friend, Robert, was partnering with a woman like me.

‘These are dismissed. Because I’ve heard it several times that he doesn’t hate me that much.’

Third, maybe…very possibly…he just hated the thought of me dancing with Robert.

‘Is he getting jealous now just because we pretended to be fake lovers for two days? Or not…’

I swallowed dry saliva as I looked at Ian’s stiff lips.

‘No way.’

As far as I know, that was a look he made when he was really unhappy.

It’s also a face that I had seen a lot.

‘Like my uncle said, I used to be reckless, but because he was kind to me, did I become better as a woman?’

Then, it also explained why Robert’s request for a partner had been put on hold for Ian’s ridiculous reasons.

Of course, I was ashamed to think this way about Ian Wade.

Still, it wasn’t a story without any possibility.

‘You even said you fell in love with me at first sight. Even as a 14-year-old kid.’

Looking back on memories, there were some ticklish moments these days.

However, I thought it would be too noisy if I made more progress in my thoughts here.

Now I was in a state of a life threatening situation.

‘I don’t want to have such complicated thoughts.’

Rather, reasoning and doubts began to spread further.

‘Is it really… Does Ian really like me? It either turns out that his taste is unique, or he’s just crazy.’

I glanced at Ian and Robert smiled brightly and said.

“Then you don’t even have to think about it anymore. Miss Annabelle can be my partner.”

That’s how my attendance at the banquet was decided.

I thought I could go as a member of Marquis Abedes someday, but I couldn’t believe I was attending as the Prince’s partner.