IDMH - Chapter 33
I Decide My Husband
Unlike a wedding, the engagement ceremony had a very simple procedure.
All the man and woman had to do was enter at the same time, greet both parents and let people know that they were engaged.
After all the formalities were completed, the reception was enjoyed until late at night.
Even though Perdes was the main character of the party, he stayed alone in a corner and watched the party.
The large chandelier hanging from the high ceiling was dazzling. The orchestra's beautiful performance filled the large party hall. At the center of the party was a fountain with a large angel statue, and around it, nobles danced to the music.
Most of them were high-ranking nobles of Count or higher, but in the eyes of Perdes, who was seeing them for the first time, they were no more or less than human beings.
Perdes, who was scanning them with indifferent eyes, stopped in the direction where Adele was. Unlike Perdes, who was alone, Adele was surrounded by nobles.
Nobles also decorated themselves extravagantly, but it was nothing compared to Adele.
In particular, the red dress she was wearing caught his eye. Even the hair and clothes are red. Adele perfectly pulled off a style that could seem old-fashioned.
So she stood out even more. Even if she was far away, she could still be found.
"...So..."
"Oh my goodness......."
Although he couldn't hear their conversation properly from where he was, he was able to roughly guess the situation by looking at Adele's expression.
Adele's left eyebrow raised meant that the conversation was quite boring. The slight shaking of the corners of the mouth meant that she was annoyed.
While Perdes watched, Adele never laughed heartily once.
"That woman is just like me."
He wore the same false mask of laughter and treated people in a pretentious manner.
Perdes stared at Adele, amazed at the fact that Adele, the daughter of a noble Duke, and himself, a lowly penny, were the same.
“Perdes.”
Then, he turned around when someone called him. The Crown Prince was standing there.
Perdes expected it to be a member of the royal family since he called him by name instead of "Your Highness," but Perdes was a little surprised that the person he was talking to was the Crown Prince.
As expected, Perdes had no contact whatsoever with the Crown Prince.
No matter how large the imperial palace was, there were a few instances where they ran into each other by chance since they lived in the same palace for over 16 years.
Every time that happened, the Crown Prince ignored him and passed by, treating him as if he didn't exist. He didn't even give Perdes a glance. However, he was embarrassed when the Crown Prince approached him and called his name.
There's something up there. Otherwise, there was no way the Crown Prince would do that.
Perdes, who came to that conclusion, was wary of the Crown Prince on the inside, but on the outside he smiled brightly, befitting the name of the idiot Prince.
“Tsk.”
The Crown Prince seemed to disapprove of Perdes and openly clicked his tongue.
'It's not your purpose to trick me.'
If so, he would have smiled kindly and approached him as if he were a good person. Like Adele Leopold.
Thinking of her, his eyes naturally turned back to Adele.
"Do you really like Adele Leopold that much?"
The Crown Prince spoke to him, so Perdes looked at him again.
The Crown Prince looked back and forth between Adele, who was still surrounded by people, and Perdes in front of him, and shook his head.
"Really, it's such a waste of a daughter to you. He's a half-penny and an idiot, and he doesn't suit you at all."
Explicit criticism soon poured in.
"I don't know why she chose someone like you, but I'm sure it's not because she's really in love with you like she said."
Adele said that the reason she chose Perdes out of many Princes was because she fell in love with his purity. It was a ridiculous reason, but he couldn't refute it any further.
Like the Crown Prince, all he could do was deny it as a rule of thumb.
"Here."
What the Crown Prince held out was a glass filled with purple liquid.
"It was given by His Majesty the Emperor in congratulations on your engagement, so drink it."
It's probably not poisoned.
Perdes looked at the drink in his glass with anxious eyes. Unless he was out of his mind, the Crown Prince wouldn't have given Perdes a poisoned drink so openly, but he was still uneasy.
"What are you doing if you're not drinking it right away?"
When Perdes just stared at the glass, the Crown Prince became irritated and forced the glass into his hand.
"Drink it quickly."
"..."
As Perdes forced himself to do it, his anxiety grew. Perdes didn't want to drink it, but unfortunately, he had no right to refuse.
"Okay, thank you."
He said something he didn't mean to and forced himself to drink it
Gulp.
The unique sweet scent of the drink filled Perdes's mouth and then disappeared. Fortunately, it wasn't unpleasant.
After Perdes finished his drink, the Crown Prince walked away as if he had nothing more to do. There was no formal greeting, such as saying that he would be leaving or congratulating the engagement.
'Did you really just come to give me drinks?'
If that were the case, it would have been okay to send a servant instead of coming directly. Since it was a drink given by the Emperor, did he have no choice but to personally deliver it?
'I don't know.'
As he had been paying attention since he was born, Perdes was confident that he was quite good at reading people's emotions and thoughts.
However, it was impossible to read what the Crown Prince and Emperor were thinking at all.
'It's the same for that woman.'
Adele Leopold.
She was also one of those people whose thoughts he couldn't read at all.
Perdes looked at Adele, wiping the remnants of the drink left on his lips with the back of his hand.
At that moment, Adele was also looking at Perdes.
When Adele made eye contact with Perdes, she folded her eyes beautifully like a crescent moon and smiled.
"...!"
At that moment, Perdes felt a sharp pain like an arrow piercing his heart and turned his head.
***
Why are you turning your head?
Was it strange that I smiled?
Even so, there is no need to turn your head like that. It hurts a little, but if I just brush it off, it will go away quickly. More than that, I'm curious about what you discussed with the Crown Prince.
I thought it would be a good idea to go to Perdes and was about to head there, but the nobles blocked my path.
"Lady Leopold, it's been a while. This is my first time seeing you since Debutante."
"Hello, Young Lady. I am a member of the Count Lanchot family..."
Ha, here we go again.
It was very annoying for nobles who had never met each other or had only seen each other briefly during debutantes to pretend to be friendly and talk to each other. But I couldn't just ignore it.
"Hello."
In the future, I may need their help when I want to succeed the Duke and Duchess. It was good to build up a moderate amount of friendship.
As we received greetings one by one, there was no end to it.
I was afraid that I would be known to be discriminatory, so I accepted everything.
Thanks to this, my image improved, but fatigue built up. I just wanted to go back to my room and rest. But that couldn't be done because the reception wasn't over.
It changed from the 2nd Prince to the 4th Prince, and from a wedding to an engagement, but why is the size of the reception the same?
I was very disappointed because I was hoping to go back to my room early and get some rest. This wasn't the only thing that didn't change.
"You can go into this room, lady."
The room the maid showed me was the room where I spent the first night with Chernosor in my first life. Does leading me here mean that I should spend my first night with Perdes?
'Probably not.'
Perdes and I were engaged, not married.
Besides, Perdes was too young to spend something like the first night. I thought it didn't make sense, but maybe I was the only one who thought that.
I smiled when I saw Perdes curled up at the head of the bed.
I'm forcing a young boy who hasn't even had his coming-of-age ceremony to spend his first night together. I knew the Emperor was crazy, but I didn't expect it to be to this extent.
'Then the drink I drank or the food I ate must have been drugged, right?'
Just like I did in my first life.
Suddenly, I remembered what happened back then and I felt really bad. Even if I wanted to forget, the terrible nightmare that came to mind could hardly be erased.
I felt nauseous as I remembered even more clearly that that was the room I was in. I need to leave this unpleasant room immediately. I was going to leave because I had no intention of spending the first night with Perdes.
Rattling.
"What?"
The door was tightly locked from the outside.
"Open this door right now."
Bang bang!
"Open the door!"
No matter how hard I banged on the door and shouted, the tightly closed door did not budge. Even if I pull the rope, it remains unmovable.
The Emperor must have ordered this door not to be opened until tomorrow morning.
"Whoa."
I had a burning desire to run away right away, but it was an impossible wish, so I gave up and turned a round.
I was already going through a hard time because of the wedding reception, but I didn't want to waste my energy on something that had absolutely no hope. And even though the Emperor drugged me like in my first life, I didn't have to worry at all.
Because I received the antidote from Sir Aldor in advance.
The small pill that Sir Aldor gave me before entering the engagement ceremony was the antidote. The pills that I had hidden inside my molars so as not to be noticed by others had completely melted and had become the size of a bean.
Just in case, should I keep it?
I think if it shows even the slightest hint, I should swallow it right away.
"Wrong... I did it."
Perdes, who had been crouching at the head of the bed like a pumice stone, suddenly muttered.
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