TPOTLPIM Chapter 20

In the powder room attached to the pre-ball banquet hall, Rosein sat busy running her mouth. Inside the powder room were not the ladies from the reading club, but other noble young ladies listening to her words with curious eyes.

"Lady Rosein, is it true that Lady Cecilia is meeting with Lord Teros? They even came together as partners."

"You must know, don't you? You're in the reading club with Lady Cecilia and get along particularly well. Or perhaps you've heard something from Lord Dmitri?"

Romance issues about who was meeting whom were the top interest of social circle ladies. Moreover, wasn't it Teros Jeminick with his excellent conditions? The ladies wanted to confirm whether he had been claimed as another woman's man.

Rosein enjoyed the gazes pouring onto her and slowly opened her mouth.

"Well. It's hard to say they're meeting, but also hard to say they're not. It's difficult to speak about."

"Are they meeting or not? Oh my, hurry up and tell us. Is there something between the two of them?"

Rosein made a troubled expression before pitifully lowering her gaze.

"Well... Lord Teros seems sincere, but Cecilia doesn't seem to be."

That statement was, in Rosein's assessment, one truth. At first she had thought there was no way Lord Teros would like Cecilia, but by some twist of fate, Lord Teros had revealed with his own mouth that he was courting Cecilia. Moreover, since Cecilia had never expressed her feelings yet, she at least wasn't lying.

However, the phrase "doesn't seem to be" here sounded like she didn't seem sincere, subtly causing a misunderstanding.

"So Lady Cecilia is meeting Lord Teros even though she has no feelings? Why on earth? Does she covet his status? Or is she enjoying his reaction?"

"I advised her to let him go quickly rather than do that, but now she won't even listen to my words. I don't know what Cecilia is trying to do."

Rosein neither denied nor confirmed the ladies' misunderstanding, while adding only what she had actually said to subtly create a confirming nuance.

"Goodness, enjoying a man's courtship when you have no intention of accepting him is not a lady's proper mindset."

"Lord Teros seems prepared to wait until he wins her heart. Of course, Cecilia must be opening her heart to him too."

Even while fostering gossip about Cecilia, Rosein didn't forget to add a word defending her. Such a statement was necessary to maintain her reputation and to have an escape route in any unforeseen situation.

But that single statement had already failed to register in the ladies' ears. As the image of a devoted man was added to Lord Teros, who had only bluntness as his sole flaw, the ladies felt secretly bitter.

"Poor Lord Teros! I hope Lady Cecilia doesn't exploit his sincerity for long."

As various people added their words one by one, before long Cecilia had become a cunning woman trying to exploit Lord Teros's sincerity while having no feelings herself.

Rosein smiled faintly. There were no lies in what she had said, and even though she had explained both Cecilia's and Lord Teros's positions, it was the ladies who had misunderstood on their own. She had merely created the flow of that misunderstanding.

"Oh my! Lord Dmitri must be waiting. I'll go ahead!"

There's no reason to stay in a place continuing gossip and get splashed with unnecessary mud. The best strategy is to throw the spark of gossip and quickly withdraw. Rosein swiftly left her seat, leaving behind the ladies whispering in the powder room.

Coming out into the corridor connecting the powder room to the banquet hall, Rosein suddenly stopped walking.

A man with a familiar silhouette was leaning against the corridor wall.

"Lord Dmitri! Were you waiting for me? I thought you'd be greeting people in the hall!"

Flustered, Rosein ran toward Lord Dmitri with short, quick steps, excessively pleased. Lord Dmitri's position was ambiguous. Being his usual mannerly and dignified self, he wouldn't have come right in front of the powder room, but if he had been nearby, he might have heard the loud gossip the ladies were exchanging inside.

Lord Dmitri smiled warmly and gently stroked Rosein's cheek.

"Yes, I want to spend more time with you, but you wouldn't come out. We need to have our date in the garden too. Alpensio Palace has many beautiful gardens."

"I'm sorry for making you wait. Let's go quickly."

Rosein linked arms with Dmitri and leaned her head against his shoulder, and Dmitri looked down at her as if she were adorable. The affectionate couple began walking toward the exit of the south palace with steps as light as birds in flight.

"The powder room was quite noisy. What were you talking about, darling?"

"Trivial women's talk. You don't need to be particularly interested."

"I heard Teros and Lady Cecilia's names."

At those words, Rosein nearly stopped walking. If he heard their names clearly enough, didn't he hear all the conversation content too? Black anxiety instantly swept over her entire body.

But when she looked at Dmitri's face to gauge his expression, it was bright and still warm. Facing his smile full of unwavering trust and affection for her, Rosein felt relieved.

"Well, that. You know how it is. Even though Lord Teros is an excellent unmarried man, he still has no official partner, so everyone was curious whether our Cecilia is that partner or not."

"Understandable curiosity. Even I was curious about their relationship. So what did you say?"

"Me? I said what I knew. That Lord Teros seems interested and trying to develop the relationship. Oh my."

Rosein covered her mouth with her hand at the end of her words, pretending to be flustered.

"Ah... Looking back, I was thoughtless. Unless their relationship was certain, I should have just said I didn't know."

"Yes. That would have been better, darling."

Rosein made an expression as if she might cry at any moment. Her finely trembling sky-blue pupils gave a pitiful feeling.

"I'm so sorry."

Dmitri laughed and stroked Rosein's head.

"Sorry for what? It's not like you made up stories, and it's just because you're an innocently honest person. Anyway, gossips will make up stories no matter how you speak, so being honest is better. You did well."

Feeling the gentle touch stroking her head, Rosein smiled faintly.

Rather than clumsily making excuses in a situation where Lord Dmitri might have heard, it was better to speak truthfully. Anyway, not a single word she had directly said to gossip about Cecilia in the powder room existed, and although it wasn't sincere, she had even said words defending Cecilia, so she was blameless. Look even now, when she honestly revealed everything and felt sorry, Lord Dmitri understood her.

Rosein felt this gentle man who treated her with endless warmth was reliable and rubbed her face against his shoulder.

Just then, a familiar man approached and greeted Rosein. It was Prince Crolyn.

"Rose goddess."

Displeasure and confusion mixed as Rosein's complexion turned pale. How dare he call her by his personal pet name when she was with her fiancé? Moreover, she wasn't even intimate enough with Prince Crolyn to exchange such pet names. She looked at Lord Dmitri's expression first with aggrieved eyes.

Prince Crolyn paid no attention to her reaction and only said what he had to say.

"You said you wanted to see my victory, didn't you? I'll definitely meet your expectations, so please watch."

He kissed the back of Rosein's ungloved hand and then left abruptly. The act of putting his lips directly on her ungloved hand was behavior that reeked more of personal desire than proper etiquette.

"Rosein, I thought you'd be cheering for my brother, but you were cheering for Prince Crolyn?"

"Absolutely not! That person is always drunk and often says senseless things. I've never said such things, and I'm truly dumbfounded."

Looking into Lord Dmitri's clear eyes as he asked quietly, Rosein made excuses saying whatever came to her mouth.

Prince Crolyn, who had boldly promised victory to Rosein, left the south palace and went to the imperial palace stables shrouded in thick darkness. He busily looked around in the pitch-black darkness.

"Tsk, why isn't he here yet?"

"My lord, I've arrived."

"Ack, you startled me! Make some noise when you come."

"Oh dear, my apologies. Since you told me to come without anyone knowing, this fellow walked stealthily."

Prince Crolyn, embarrassed by his foolish surprise, coughed several times before pressing a small pouch into the stable keeper's hand.

"Fourth horse from the left. A robust black horse. It's so conspicuous you couldn't possibly miss it. Oh, I should give you this too."

Prince Crolyn took out another heavy pouch that made jingling sounds and personally tucked it into the stable keeper's side pocket.

"Oh my, thank you. I'll do it without any mistakes, so just leave it to me."

"Well then, I trust you and I'm going."

Crolyn patted the stable keeper's shoulder encouragingly as he turned away, and the stable keeper gave a servile smile while bowing ninety degrees.

Once Crolyn had gone some distance, the stable keeper who entered the stables had his expression completely change.

"Hah, what a pathetic fellow. A young man should think about winning fair and square. Well, it's good for me since I'm making money. Hah."

He could quickly find the black horse that was particularly large even among the horses.

"So you're that fellow's horse. Your master prepared a special meal for you. Such a fine horse doesn't even need to be fed this."

When the stable keeper opened the small pouch Crolyn had left and poured it into his palm, withered grass-like leaves spilled out.

Among the nobles participating in equestrian competitions, there were occasionally cases of feeding their horses herbs that could make them exert about 1.5 times their usual strength in order to secure victory. However, if fed too early, the effect would disappear in a day, so the herbs had to be given during the pre-ball, and by that time the horses were under imperial management and couldn't be fed directly, so they often paid imperial stable keepers to do it.

Even if horses that were already spirited became a little more energetic due to herbs, others had no way of knowing it was because of herbs. It would just look like the horse was in slightly better condition that day, so for the stable keeper, it was risk-free business.

The stable keeper hummed while pouring the herbs into the trough in front of the well-built black horse. Without even knowing what those herbs really were.

Meanwhile, Prince Crolyn was returning to the south palace where the pre-ball was in full swing, with a vile smile on his lips. He needed to return to the banquet hall in time and show his face here and there so as not to arouse suspicion in any unforeseen circumstances.

"Heh, heh heh..."

Though he tried to hold back, laughter kept escaping from his mouth.

With this, his biggest rival Teros Jeminick would not advance to the finals. He was confident that with Teros gone, victory would fall into his grasp.

Soon he would seize both the glory of victory and the emperor's prize. He would reclaim his family's jewels, regain the honor of being an equestrian genius, and properly settle even the succession issue with his father. Imagining the near future, Prince Crolyn walked through the pitch-black darkness, his body feeling light as he hopped and jumped.

When the pre-ball ended and it was time for everyone to return to their respective lodgings.

Teros, who was staying within the imperial palace, felt endlessly regretful that he had to send only Cecilia to her lodging outside the palace. It wasn't as if he could ask her to stay together in his room.

He could only watch the retreating figure of Cecilia as she walked away, chatting with the reading club ladies.

Even though she must have heard the ladies gossiping about her in the garden, Cecilia was smiling kindly at them.

That might be life as a noble and socializing.

But she was too pure to enjoy such things. Recalling how she had earnestly covered his ears to prevent him from hearing the ladies' conversation, a gentle curve naturally formed on his lips.

The sensation of her small hands pressing down was enough to make his heart race, and when he met her pleading-like eyes, Lord Teros had to struggle to suppress the impulse to embrace her.

Though he had somewhat guessed through various circumstances that she had liked Lord Dmitri, when he heard that fact directly with his ears, displeasure welled up from deep in his chest. From the beginning, she had wanted to win Lord Dmitri's heart and had been troubled by an unexpected person all this time.

But the moment he saw her flustered, he couldn't help but say it was okay to reassure her.

Among the many reasons she rejected him, Lord Dmitri surely occupied a part. He was certain that if he didn't say it was okay, she would become frightened and distance herself even further from him.

Suddenly Lord Teros had a puzzling thought. This wasn't his usual way. If it were the original him, he should have gotten angry when he learned that fact and pushed forward to manipulate her according to his will. Grasping an opponent's weakness and making them move according to his intentions was a method he used well usually.

But he increasingly couldn't treat Cecilia that way. He wanted her to treat him comfortably rather than fear him, and he wanted her to be with him voluntarily rather than act according to his intentions.

How long will I be able to endure this one-sided emotion?

Lord Teros turned his steps with a frustrated heart.