Chapter 14

It had begun.

There was no turning back now.

Since I had directly petitioned the Crown Prince, it could no longer be undone; we had to push forward.

There was only one strategy I had imparted before reaching this point.

And it was a remarkably simple one.

A direct breakthrough against Crown Prince Kistihart himself.

This was likely the only way for the two of them to unite.

Nobles were already forced to bind themselves to tradition. Furthermore, they were expected to obey the commands of those in power without question.

That was precisely why Lady Adelina couldn’t defy her father’s eager expectations, and why she found herself trapped with no way out after being named a Crown Princess candidate, however nominal.

Because the highest authority in the land—the royal family—was involved in the matter.

Then, by turning that to their advantage and settling the affair with the royal family directly, everything might just fall neatly into place.

If we could spill everything to Crown Prince Kistihart and win his mercy… perhaps the two of them would be permitted to unite right here and now.

Even Lady Adelina’s father could hardly defy a decision made by the royal family.

“But will they allow it so easily?”

Beneath the night sky after hearing my plan, it was Lady Adelina’s lover who had asked that anxiously.

“Bothering the royal family with mere matters of the heart might even be treated as disrespect if things go wrong. Especially right in the middle of the Crown Prince’s search for a consort, to demand one of those very candidates…!!”

Naturally, anyone would feel anxious.

That was why I patiently spelled it out and instructed them.

Precisely because it was such a timing, they should realize how easy it was to convey the severity of their feelings.

Because matters of the heart were personal issues, tonight was the only chance to directly petition the Crown Prince.

“But whether the Crown Prince himself will forgive us…!”

“That’s right! To him, wouldn’t it look like someone trying to snatch away his prospective fiancée right before his eyes?!”

In addition to the marquis’s son, Lady Adelina herself voiced her anxious worries.

But it would be fine; from the Crown Prince’s perspective, she was ultimately just one of hundreds of candidates.

The Crown Prince didn’t view her with any special partiality, no matter how much her father hoped otherwise.

On top of that, the turning point of the battle would depend entirely on how earnestly they could appeal their seriousness.

I was confident it would go well.

Prince Kistihart was precisely the capable individual he appeared to be. He possessed the magnanimity to lend an ear to the heartfelt pleas of his subjects.

“Can you tell all of that? That’s amazing… I’m attending for the very first time tonight and have no clue what his character is like at all.”

I had felt the same, at least in this life.

And in my past life, I had learned his competence to my absolute dismay. His intelligence and execution had completely crushed my ambitions of sitting by his side down to the ground.

“But just in case… what will you do if His Highness refuses to grant permission?”

That anxiety was only natural, too.

Yet it would be fine; there was no way they would be torn apart, even in the worst-case scenario.

Just in case the Crown Prince happened to act on a whim, I had prepared a secondary contingency plan.

If, by some remote chance, the Crown Prince rejected their plea, it would mean he valued Lady Adelina so highly that he couldn’t bear to let her go.

Everyone around would think the same.

Witnessing that fact, a certain young lady driven mad by jealousy would leap out to attack Lady Adelina.

Since it was an evening banquet, knives and forks were everywhere within immediate reach.

Having her face slashed by them, Lady Adelina would lose her beauty and no longer remain a viable candidate for Crown Princess anyway.

That “young lady driven mad by jealousy” would be none of other than myself.

“Eh?!”

“No way?!”

The two of them stared in shock and confusion.

It meant that if they truly wanted to be together, they needed that level of resolve.

If Lady Adelina truly loved him, she wouldn’t falter even if she suffered a scar or two on her face, right?

And the gentleman wouldn’t possibly lose his love just because a scar appeared on her face, would he?

“That goes without saying… what I love about her is her inner self… well, actually everything about her!”

“Our resolve is a given, but… what about you? According to the plan you just mentioned, the one who will scar my face is you, isn’t it?”

Right.

After all, there were no other collaborators available to them besides myself at the moment.

I understood what they wanted to say.

It was essentially a premeditated blade incident, after all.

Moreover, the crime scene was an evening party hosted by the royal family. The charges would likely be exceptionally severe.

“This isn’t the time to be making calm conjectures. If you do something like that, your reputation will plummet! For a noble lady, that’s fatal!”

She was worried about me.

Yet there was no problem. For this “one with no magic” lady, my reputation in high society had hit rock bottom from the start.

It couldn’t possibly get any lower than this.

My only concern was whether my father and the others would suffer any collateral damage from my antics.

In that case, all I could do was quickly contact them after causing the incident and have them cut ties with me parent-and-child.

If they had me exiled from the country as a result, the consequences wouldn’t extend to the duke’s family.

Since I had figured out long ago that leaving the country was the only way I could make a living on my own anyway, it meant zero actual damage from my perspective.

Compared to that, Lady Adelina—who would end up bearing a scar on her face despite it being a last-resort method—was suffering a much heavier blow.

In the end, I could only save people through methods like that, huh…

Still, nothing had been decided for certain yet.

If the Crown Prince accepted their feelings and approved of their relationship, there would be no need to resort to any reckless stunts.

Let’s trust in his wisdom and brilliance!

In my past life, he had displayed that brilliance without even being asked, driving me right into a corner.

In this life, it wouldn’t hurt for him to conveniently be brilliant.

…With those discussions serving as the backdrop, the direct petition operation targeting the Crown Prince was now underway.

The success or failure of the plan was left entirely to the Crown Prince’s judgment.

I begged him to simply nod and say yes.

Even so, anticipating the worst-case scenario, I positioned myself advantageously.

Near a table… there it was, a dining knife with just the right heft.

My distance from Lady Adelina was also optimal.

If possible, I didn’t want to slice open someone’s face with my own hands. To commit yet another crime in order to atone for the sins of my past life… how ironic.

Whether I would execute that plan depended entirely on the Crown Prince’s response.

Even now, wearing the aloof expression of someone dwelling above the clouds, he was listening to the lovers’ plea.

“I have been deeply in love with Lady Adelina for a long time. However, due to the weakness of my position as a third son, I could not take action. Because of that, I could do nothing right up until the day the Crown Princess selection began.”

“Yet the two of us cannot give up on each other. We know it is deeply impolite to Your Highness. But to convince my father, we need Your Highness’s mediation!”

The lovers bowed their heads in unison.

The evening party was plunged into confusion by this unexpected turn of events.

What should have been a venue to select the future Crown Princess was veering wildly off course. It was only natural for everyone to be bewildered.

How to manage this chaos was also a test of the Crown Prince’s—the future king’s—qualities.

Forgiving the two of them smoothly and wrapping the matter up neatly would be ideal. I earnestly hoped he would do just that.

How would the Crown Prince respond to my expectations?

“Your desires cannot be granted unconditionally.”

That was the Crown Prince’s reply.

Hearing those words made my heart freeze over.

“Your feelings of love for one another have come across. However, barging into the Crown Princess selection venue without permission to appeal personal emotions to the royal family is, I must say, a breach of etiquette.”

That was a completely fair argument, and an atmosphere favoring that view quickly took hold among the surrounding attendees.

This was a bad turn of events for us.

Did this mean we had no choice but to trigger the last resort?

The exact moment my grip tightened around the knife I was already holding…

“If a noble intends to push aside etiquette and force their own way through, they must possess the resolve and capability to match it. Beret, if you are truly one connected to the Marquis Civileton family, you ought not content yourself with merely accepting whatever position is handed to you.”

“Wh-What do you mean…?! “

“Coincidentally, Lady Adelina is currently one of my fiancée candidates. If two men are going to fight over a single lady, there is only one way to settle it.”

What was this? This was a completely unexpected development!

What on earth was the Crown Prince planning to do?

“A duel. Beret, shall you and I fight over Lady Adelina? The one who wins shall take the fair maiden into their own hands.”

Huh?!

What was that prince suddenly babbling about?!

The graceful evening party was instantly transforming into a fierce dueling arena?!

“What’s wrong, are you getting cold feet? I hear that the three sons of the Marquis Civileton family are all warriors capable of standing against a thousand. Surely, this is the very best place to put that strength to use for the woman you adore, is it not?”

“I accept.”

Eh?! He actually took the bait?!

Why are men always so eager to start bickering at the drop of a hat?!

“I was aware from the start that this was a discourtesy, but no matter what happens, I want to stay by Adelina’s side until the very end. If Your Highness stands in the way of that… I shall raise my hand against you!”

And somehow, that was how things turned out.