Chapter 43

The sheer pressure of his presence made my chest feel as though it were being crushed. Aria’s expression had also stiffened with tension, but her piercing gaze remained fixed on someone behind me the entire time.

I steeled myself and turned around.

Behind me stood the prince with a broad smile on his face.

“The prince…”

The prince stood there with a bright smile. He had grown much taller than me, making him look even more like an idol. But at the same time, he was surrounded by an indescribable atmosphere.

The prince softened his eyes and tilted his head as if trying to reassure me. The gesture was so perfectly calculated that it sent an even stronger chill down my spine.

“Bell, congratulations on entering the academy. Is she your friend?”

The prince’s gaze shifted toward Aria.

Her shoulders twitched, and a trace of unease appeared in her eyes. Rather than looking happy to meet the prince, she looked almost frightened.

“…Aria?”

I called out to her without thinking, and I felt the pressure around us grow even heavier. Aria glanced at me, her eyes clearly telling me not to do anything unnecessary.

This was serious.

I obediently closed my mouth.

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Your Highness. I am Aria Plata.”

She slowly performed a lady’s curtsy, looking like an entirely different person from the one I’d been talking to moments ago. I couldn’t believe someone as rough around the edges as her could make such delicate movements. She must have worked incredibly hard to learn them.

“Ah, so you’re from the Plata family…”

The Plata family was a high-ranking noble house, though not quite as powerful as House Tybus. The prince repeated the name as though confirming it for himself, narrowing his eyes.

His expression wasn’t that of someone falling in love with the heroine at first sight.

Even while smiling, his eyes were cold as he looked down at her.

“Then you know, right? The head of the Plata family already warned you, didn’t he?”

“…Of course, Your Highness.”

Aria’s voice trembled with tension, but her eyes continued to shine with a defiant glare directed at the prince.

I secretly admired her.

She really was strong to stand her ground in an atmosphere like this.

“Make sure you tell him properly, okay?”

“…Understood. Then, I shall take my leave. Your Highness, Lady Bertia, please excuse me.”

Aria bowed gracefully and turned to leave with brisk steps. I stared at her blankly.

As she passed by, she quietly whispered, “Sorry.”

Honestly, I didn’t want to be left alone with the prince right now.

I could feel that something was wrong from the oppressive atmosphere surrounding him.

While I was still stunned, I sensed the prince turn toward me.

“Now then, Bell. What were you doing here?”

“Huh?”

I looked up at the prince, and my heart froze.

The prince who was always smiling wasn’t smiling.

That’s right.

His face was completely expressionless.

The well-shaped lips that had been curved into a smile were pressed into a straight line, and the warmth that usually filled his eyes had been replaced by a coldness that sent shivers down my spine.

I could feel the blood drain from my face.

I’d seen the prince genuinely angry several times before, but at least, I’d never seen an expression like this on him.

The prince stood before me with an expression that seemed to mix anger, disappointment, and dejection—so many negative emotions all tangled together.

“Bell, I’m angry.”

I could tell that much just by looking at him.

The prince’s anger was frightening.

It felt like the same atmosphere he’d had when he’d fought with the Crown Prince.

Before I knew it, my hands were trembling.

There was something unnatural about the prince’s presence. Perhaps it was because he possessed magical power, but I felt an overwhelming fear, as though I were being swallowed up by it.

As I trembled uncontrollably, the prince suddenly smiled brightly again.

To me, that smile looked nothing but like the black smile of a demon.

“Is he the person you like, Bell?”

“Huh…?”

He meant Az, right?

I’d never met anyone other than Az whom he could possibly be referring to as “him,” so it had to be.

Had he seen us?

But I wasn’t stupid enough to simply nod here.

Whether he’d seen us or not didn’t matter. All I could think about was somehow getting through this situation.

“No, he isn’t. He’s my friend.”

The prince’s face became expressionless again, and his eyes grew even more menacing.

I instinctively clenched both hands.

“Oh? You call your friend by his nickname, but you’ve never once called me by my name, have you? It’s always ‘Prince,’ ‘Prince.’ So in your eyes, I’m beneath him, aren’t I? Or am I even below your friends?”

“N-No, that’s not what I meant…”

I hadn’t meant that.

I’d always thought calling the prince by his name would be rude and presumptuous.

No… Maybe I was afraid of becoming too close to him.

In fact, Schwarz, who served as his aide, was the only person who called him Dylan.

Unable to find the right words, I was hit with another blow.

“Besides, ‘friend.’ Don’t you think that’s a nostalgic word? It was the very first thing you said to me, Bell.”

I couldn’t say anything.

“You were the one who gave me those words, weren’t you? So why did you have to say them to another man? Were the words you said to me a lie?”

The prince’s eyes accused me.

It almost felt as though he was silently telling me not to pretend to be some hypocrite.

Was he right?

Was that why I was so shaken?

Somewhere inside me, a voice insisted that wasn’t true.

I had never thought I’d only been pretending to be friends with the prince.

I had truly considered him a friend. I trusted him almost as much as my best friend from my previous life. We’d spent that much time together, and I even had memories of us having little arguments.

And yet, the reason my chest hurt so badly was because the prince hadn’t trusted me.

In his eyes, I had only ever been a hypocrite.

That realization made me unbearably sad.

As I lowered my head in shock, the prince gently cupped my face in both hands.

When I cautiously looked up, I saw his beautiful face twisted with sorrow, and I sucked in a breath.

“Bell, you’re beautiful.”

The prince gently lifted my ice-gray hair and placed a light kiss on it.

I stared blankly at the sight.

His tearful eyes, like those of an abandoned puppy, were so heartbreaking that my chest tightened.

That’s right.

I wasn’t the only one who was hurting.

The prince must have had his own feelings about this.

After all, it really was strange that I still hadn’t called my own fiancé by his name.

“…I thought Bell had accepted me. But it seems I was mistaken.”

“No!”

I reacted instantly.

I had only wanted to become friends with Az. I had never intended to disregard the prince.

At my words, the prince’s face crumpled.

“I’m your fiancé, right, Bell?”

It was the first time I’d ever seen such a youthful expression on the prince’s face.

He hugged me tightly, like a child clinging to a parent.

“I’m yours, right, Bell?”

……Hm?

That wasn’t quite right…

I raised my head to protest, but once again, I met his sorrowful eyes, and everything I had wanted to say flew out of my head.

Instead, I could only think about how I could comfort him.

I’d been his fiancée for years, after all. Naturally, I’d grown attached to him.

Even more so because I wanted him to be happy.

“I’ve never met my mother since the day I was born.”

The prince’s voice whispered beside my ear.

His tone was strangely calm.

“I’m always alone. My father and brother both despise me and treat me like I’m a nuisance. No one ever looks at me.”

His words seemed to say:

So, I’m pitiful, aren’t I?

It felt as though I had caught a glimpse of the prince’s true feelings, and my heart trembled.

I clasped my hands in front of my chest and looked up at him pleadingly.

“No. You’re not alone, Prince. You have me. You have Schwarz, too. Will looks up to you as well.”

The prince loosened his arms around me.

He placed his hands on my shoulders and faced me directly.

His expression was indescribably disappointed.

“…You’re right.”

He lowered his head, and his long bangs concealed his face.

But then, suddenly, his grip on my shoulders tightened, and I was slammed against the wall with tremendous force.

My back struck the wall lightly, and I let out a small gasp as the breath was knocked from me.

“Then I’ll put it another way.”

I looked up.

The prince was smiling fearlessly.

Yet there was still a trace of loneliness in his expression.

“Make me your proper fiancé.”

For a moment, I couldn’t understand what he meant.

I simply froze, staring at him.

The prince continued without caring.

“Do you really understand that you’re going to marry me someday, have my children, and stay with me until you die?”

I felt his gaze as though he were evaluating me, and I instinctively looked away.

This was bad.

I was shaken.

The fact that Aria had been my best friend, and the fact that the heroine hadn’t chosen the prince, were both huge problems for me. They were things I had never anticipated.

I wanted time to sort everything out, but the prince was bombarding me with questions that only made things worse.

He didn’t give me any time to choose my words.

His words kept coming one after another, stealing away my ability to think until my brain was practically waving a white flag.

Could I really be honest?

Could I tell him that I had never intended to marry him in the slightest?

That I had always planned to support him from the sidelines when he eventually fell in love with the pink-haired girl?

But how could I possibly say that?

Telling him that now would only be like pouring oil on a fire.

“Um…”

And if I hesitated any longer, the atmosphere would only get worse.

What should I say?

What was the right answer?

“Ah, I…”

Just as I desperately tried to squeeze out some kind of response despite my scrambled thoughts, the prince suddenly pulled me into a gentle embrace and stroked my head.

His scent tickled my nose.

“I’m sorry. I put you in a difficult position.”

I could tell from his voice that he was disappointed.

And yet, the fact that the interrogation-like questions had stopped made me feel relieved.

I hated myself for feeling so easily reassured by something like this.

“I-I’m sorry. I was nervous because I haven’t gotten used to the new environment yet. I got carried away because I happened to find someone I knew.”

This time, I was able to speak slowly and clearly.

The prince smelled like those flowers he’d once created with magic.

“I was being thoughtless for talking to another man when I should have been with you. I’m sorry.”

“I can’t really overlook the fact that you were alone with him, though.”

“I-I’m sorry.”

He gently stroked my head as though comforting me, and I felt relieved.

I really was too easily satisfied if something this simple was enough to make me feel forgiven.

“I’m not angry. I’m not angry anymore. …So at the very least, I’d like you to call me by my name.”

At his quiet words, I looked up.

The freezing gaze from before was gone.

Instead, his eyes were incredibly warm as they looked at me.

“Please. Will you call me?”

“…Dylan.”

At this point, there was no longer any option of refusing to call him by his name.

Because of my own selfish thinking, I’d hurt the prince… Dylan.

From now on, I decided that I would never call him “Prince” again.

While I was making that resolution to myself, he leaned close to my ear.

“It’s a good thing to make friends. It’s fine for you to get along with him, too. …But there’s one thing I want you to remember.”

Dylan whispered into my ear.

His breath brushed against my skin, making me feel slightly ticklish.

“If you get too close to him, I can’t guarantee what I’ll do.”

A deep, low voice I’d never heard before sent a chill down my spine.

It was powerful enough to make me think that if I angered Dylan, I wouldn’t live to see another day.

All I could do was nod as hard as I could, like a bobblehead.