chapter 62
Masera lowered his gaze, thinking of the necklace that rested on Cynthia’s pale, slender neck.
The red necklace that had led to his mother’s death. The royal bloodline that killed his father and stole from him any chance at a normal life.
No matter how hard he tried to cut himself off, her eyes—like crimson roses trembling in a blizzard—kept resurfacing in his mind.
Why?
The more he thought of her, the tighter his chest felt. Even though it shouldn’t.
Exhaling a breath that misted in the cold air, Masera swept a hand through his platinum hair.
He had finally recognized the emotion he’d felt earlier when looking at Carlos.
Jealousy.
* * *
At that moment, Carlos approached Valeria to ask her for a dance.
He wasn’t in the mood, but since they had come together as partners, he figured he should at least show some effort.
“Alright.”
Valeria accepted, and they headed to the dance floor. She said nothing about the embrace she’d witnessed earlier.
Carlos, however, couldn’t focus on the dance. His mind kept drifting.
Each time he remembered the contempt in Cynthia’s eyes, his throat dried out and his stomach burned with anger.
‘How can she look so proud when I’ve got her by the throat?’
He couldn’t shake the feeling that the power dynamic between them was beginning to shift.
Meanwhile, Valeria, watching Carlos dance half-heartedly, let her lips curl in irritation.
There was no way she hadn’t noticed that his mind was elsewhere.
“I’m going to chat with the other ladies.”
At the end of the song, Valeria turned her back on him without hesitation.
‘If I can go from a princess consort to a queen, then a petty scandal is nothing.’
She remembered what her father had told her about reviving the monarchy.
He believed that even if it wasn’t in the Lutemia Republic, a monarchy could be re-established in one of the former colonies returned by the fallen empire.
‘That’s why it’s important to choose allies.’
In her eyes, Helene didn’t seem close to her younger sister, Cynthia. In fact, from the way she looked at her, they seemed like rivals.
Having made up her mind, Valeria approached Helene for a discreet conversation.
They moved toward a quiet sitting area in the ballroom, and Valeria asked bluntly,
“Duchess, I know this may be an inappropriate question, but since I’m to marry into the family soon, I feel I should ask. Is it true, the rumor about Prince Carlos and Princess Cynthia?”
Helene tilted her head and feigned ignorance.
“What rumor?”
With a calm face, Valeria replied,
“There’s talk that the two of them share feelings… beyond those of siblings.”
“Surely not.”
In truth, Helene had been quietly spreading that very rumor, but she shook her head with a soft smile.
Valeria’s father, the Prime Minister, had promised the Queensguard family a political position as part of the marriage deal.
If she confirmed the rumor now, she might end up taking the blame.
‘Even if it were true, the Prime Minister would force the marriage through anyway.’
No matter what scandal broke out, Carlos becoming the Prime Minister’s son-in-law couldn’t be stopped. After all, marriage was just a transaction between families.
Still, Helene thought, letting Valeria go into the marriage with a sense of unease wouldn’t be so bad. It would make her increasingly resent Carlos and turn to others for support.
‘I’ll tie Valeria and the Prime Minister to me—and when I divorce Carlos, I’ll leave him penniless.’
To Helene, Carlos wasn’t family. He was competition.
Smiling inwardly, Helene spoke gently.
“My eldest brother does tend to dote on our youngest sibling, but I’ll be sure to mediate if anything seems amiss. There’s no need for concern.”
Just as Helene had hoped, Valeria responded with reluctant agreement.
And so Helene smiled to herself in triumph.
It was the perfect opportunity to reduce Carlos’s standing and bring Valeria to her side.
“Lady Valeria, you’re always welcome to come to me if you have concerns. After all, you’ll soon be family.”
“Duchess… thank you for hearing me out, even though it was uncomfortable to say.”
‘Just as I thought—she doesn’t like her siblings.’
Valeria, too, became convinced Helene was on her side.
Even among nobles skilled at hiding behind masks, one would usually frown slightly when hearing negative things about their family.
After Valeria returned to the ballroom, Helene quietly summoned someone and gave a discreet order.
“Give this note to Carlos.”
* * *
At the ballroom, Carlos was surrounded by interested ladies.
“Will you be staying in the capital long?”
“What are your hobbies?”
He was a handsome prince, and his recent absence from high society made him an object of curiosity.
Carlos maintained a polite smile when someone approached him.
“One of the ladies asked me to give you this.”
A masked servant pressed a note into his hand before disappearing.
Carlos unfolded it, puzzled.
“……”
It simply read: Come to my room without anyone knowing. This is our chance to escape together.
There [N O V E L I G H T] was no sender’s name, but only one person came to his mind.
Carlos headed straight to Cynthia’s room.
He knocked several times, but there was no answer. Had she fallen asleep?
Carefully opening the door, he was met with an unexpected scene.
“What are you—”
A maid in uniform was lifting Cynthia into her arms, clearly not a natural situation.
The maid smiled awkwardly.
“I was just about to wash her.”
Carlos looked down at the deeply asleep Cynthia.
She seemed to be heavily drugged… So who had written the note? Something was off.
“Why wash her in the bath instead of wiping her with a towel?”
At his question, the maid’s expression began to stiffen.
“Guess the saying about luck wasn’t wrong. You had to show up now, of all times.”
Her cold tone made Carlos instinctively take a step back.
“What do you mean…?”
In truth, the woman wasn’t a maid at all. She was a member of the Free Council, disguised.
She had planned to kidnap Cynthia during the guard shift change—but thanks to Helene’s planted letter, Carlos arrived at the wrong moment and caught her in the act.
“Well, I suppose this just means we get to take both of the royals crawling out of hiding.”
Smiling slyly, the fake maid raised a pistol at Carlos.
Just then, someone else threw a cloth over Carlos’s head.
He blacked out almost immediately.
“Hm?”
The disguised maid picked up the letter Carlos had dropped and snickered.
“They’ll think it was some forbidden lovers’ elopement.”
Copying handwriting? Child’s play.
* * *
Masera rushed out of the ballroom and headed straight to Cynthia’s room.
“The maid attending to Cynthia was called away for something urgent. You should go check on her.”
Helene had relayed that message, hoping to catch Carlos and Cynthia in a compromising situation.
But things hadn’t gone as planned.
‘The door’s open.’
Arriving at the room, Masera sensed something was wrong and tread quietly. A cold breeze drifted out through the doorway.
He realized the window was open, drew his pistol, and carefully stepped inside.
Whooosh—
The window was wide open. Curtains fluttered violently in the wind. The room was completely empty.
“……”
Cynthia was gone.
He picked up a note left on the bed and stared at the writing.
Come to my room without anyone knowing. This is our chance to escape together.