Chapter 10. It’s Beautiful

‘Yet he shot without listening to the person begging.’

Indeed. He probably didn’t even want to show mercy to an in-law whom he treated worse than a stranger during seven years of marriage.

She started feeling sorry again for fleeing in shock from him during his seizure, but Lottie quickly came to her senses.

Anyway, that man is a murderer. He committed unforgivable acts.

If he hadn’t fired that gun back then, instead of receiving courtship from several men like now, she would probably still be distributing shameful advertisements looking for a remarriage partner, but……

‘Why do you keep taking his side?! Can’t you get a grip on yourself, Charlotte Ebenscher?!’

“Thanks to your escort, I enjoyed the walk, my lady.”

Calyx matched his pace to Lottie’s, who was now practically crawling.

What had been a full sprint for her was merely a stroll for him. The thought made Lottie’s blood boil.

She mentally crushed his irritating face that hadn’t shed a single drop of sweat, then pretended not to hear and increased her speed.

Calyx caught up to the distancing Lottie with his long strides.

When she scurried away again, he caught up once more.

It was as bland and easy as catching up to a baby who had just learned to walk.

Unable to bear it any longer, she glared at the man standing beside her, but he feigned innocence as if nothing had happened. That behavior grated on her nerves yet again.

She couldn’t understand. Even after an hour of walking like she was being chased and turning thoughts over in her mind, she absolutely couldn’t understand this man’s intentions.

If he was curious about how she had been in that secret room, he could have forced her to speak using his notorious reputation, so why mention a date?

And then just follow her as she walked ahead without saying a word.

What exactly was he trying to do?

Unable to bear the frustration, Lottie stopped abruptly, turned around, and faced Calyx.

“Fine. I’ll finally answer your question from an hour ago.”

“Let’s hear it.”

“That day, ahem, I wasn’t feeling well. I wasn’t in any condition to dance all night. Then suddenly I remembered visiting the palace with my father when I was young. At that time,”

“Your father, a noble council member, and his daughter were given a tour by a servant who specially showed you the hidden room in the grand ballroom, and you tried to hide there by recalling that memory, right?”

Damn it. Calyx burst into laughter as if it was within his expectations.

“I’ll pretend to believe you. You should think harder about a more plausible answer. I’ll ask again when you’ve almost forgotten about it.”

“Why…… why are you doing this to me?”

If she walked any further, she felt she would collapse on the ground like the Little Mermaid who had just gained human legs. Lottie asked as if begging him to stop.

“That day, I wasn’t the only one who was somewhere I shouldn’t have been, that……”

Lottie hesitated briefly before referring to the Calyx standing before her.

She couldn’t find an appropriate way to address him, who had become the deposed prince.

No matter how he had been stripped of the royal surname and forced to use Valdea, the surname used by illegitimate children, she couldn’t dare call him Mr. Valdea.

“Prince…… Your Highness was in the same situation, weren’t you?”

After a moment’s hesitation, Lottie decided how to address Calyx. Though he had been expelled from the line of succession, a prince was still a prince.

Honestly, she didn’t want to care about what feelings that title might evoke in him.

“I have no intention of threatening you, but didn’t Your Highness also have your own reasons for hiding there that day? I’m sorry, but I clearly remember seeing Your Highness exchanging confidential words with a visitor to the secret room.”

“That is threatening.”

“……I apologize.”

“You mean, we both have something to hide, so let’s keep our mouths shut and go our separate ways. That’s what you’re saying.”

Calyx’s eyes grew a little colder as he spoke his last words.

Oh no. In trying to reverse her disadvantageous position, she had momentarily forgotten who she was dealing with.

Lottie unconsciously lowered her eyes. She clasped her hands in front of her, but they trembled slightly from the fear that had somehow slipped out of its cage.

“Come to think of it, you were strangely calm when you were accused of being the protagonist of a garden scandal. Even when Patrick…… my cousin comforted you. As if you knew in advance that it would happen.”

“……!”

“What kind of person are you? My lady.”

His tone was light, but his eyes were not. They pierced the trembling woman before him with heavy sharpness.

“What kind of person are you to be so bold even knowing who I am?”

“……”

“Aren’t you afraid of me?”

Lottie felt her ears buzzing.

There were infamous titles attached to the name Calyx Valdea like hooks.

The traitor who assassinated the previous king, the deposed prince stripped of the royal surname, a parasite barely clinging to life thanks to the grace of Her Majesty the Queen and the crown prince.

An ungrateful wretch who, not valuing his life, wandered the heart of the royal palace, tarnishing the royal name.

In addition, there were names that only she, living her second life, knew.

A traitor who ultimately betrayed the royal family that had saved his life.

A tyrant who started a civil war, driving poor citizens to their deaths.

The one who murdered me.

‘Murderer.’

The public remembered him with fear, but she remembered him with anger.

Fear and anger were similar yet different emotions, and Charlotte Ebenscher, who was angry at him, had no desire to bow her head in fear of Calyx Valdea.

“……”

So she remained silent. So that she wouldn’t have to forcibly swallow her resentment in reverence, like others did.

That silence gave Calyx a strange sense of dissonance.

Deposed Prince Calyx Valdea could only be an object of contempt and fear to the citizens.

Once again, he read genuine emotions in the woman’s eyes, transparent as glass.

Anger and resentment.

And sadness.

“Have I greatly wronged you, my lady?”

“……!”

This time, clear confusion.

As if aware that her emotions were helplessly exposed, the woman hurriedly turned away. She seemed to need physical movement to calm her unsettled mind.

After walking for a while and starting to walk again, she predictably collapsed after just a few steps.

The green dress settled like flower petals, screaming in her place.

“If you enjoy walking this much, we should go horseback riding together next time.”

“……There won’t be a next time. Probably.”

“No one can guarantee what will happen in life. Probably.”

He was still joking in front of someone who had just embarrassed herself. Lottie glared at Calyx from her seated position as he mimicked the end of her sentence.

Now that he had seen everything, there was nothing left to hide. It was all or nothing.

“You’ve claimed an excellent spot for viewing the scenery, my lady.”

As if Lottie had deliberately chosen that spot, Calyx also sat down beside her, pretending not to notice. It was as if he had seen through her complete lack of courage to stand up.

Sitting directly on the ground without servants or a mat was uncomfortable even for Lottie, who was born noble.

She was momentarily dumbfounded by the casual behavior of a man born and raised as royalty, then shifted her gaze to follow his line of sight.

His words weren’t empty—the Contra River flowing through the center of the capital danced with its scales of light.

“It’s beautiful.”

Lottie only realized she had spoken when she heard her own voice.

It was a feeling she had never experienced in any aquarium decorated with seaweed or at any famous plaza fountain.

In her seven years as queen, she had never realized that this scenery, which had become so familiar as to be dull, could be so beautiful.

The river that flowed freely without constraint from anything, and therefore shone all the brighter.

Another name for beauty is exquisiteness. Lottie felt she could add another sentence to the one she had created.

That another name for beauty is freedom.

“……I don’t know how to ride a horse. Since I wouldn’t need to ride alone after marriage anyway, Father didn’t have me learn separately. It’s also prone to injuries, and I didn’t want to worry Father. I never felt the need to learn.”

“……”

“Riding a horse must feel like flying through the wind, right? Not to mention the speed. And no leg pain from shoes.”

Disjointed sentences followed. At some point, they were no longer words meant for a listener.

Calyx, who had been looking at the Contra River—Matila’s lifeline—and the capital nestled safely in its embrace with somewhat different thoughts, suddenly turned to look at his one-day partner sitting beside him.

He prided himself on knowing how to seduce women.

For women who wanted praise, he would offer compliments sweet enough to melt his tongue.

For women swayed by compassion, he would convincingly dress up his empty heart.

For women craving affection, he would offer vows of love. And if that wasn’t enough, he would satisfy their carnal desires as well.

Calyx had prepared more than dozens of such methods to win the heart of the woman named Charlotte Ebenscher.

He had planned to cleverly grip and shake her heart, to ask whether there had been some kind of relationship between her and Patrick, how she had walked into that secret room that only royal family members should know about, what she had seen and heard there, and what she had discovered.

If she tried to persuade or threaten him with what she knew, he had planned to withdraw all his plans and silence her in the ‘most natural way.’

None of it succeeded. All plans were derailed because of this woman’s eyes.

Eyes like glass that revealed everything inside without even knowing to be ashamed.

Yet it didn’t feel so bad that all his carefully prepared plans had fallen apart.

He had a premonition that he, who had tried to win her heart by giving her what she wanted, might instead receive from her what he had been wanting.

What he had wanted.

Even if he didn’t yet know exactly what that was, besides the throne he had lost.

He, who had been repeatedly stabbed by irreversible memories of the past, looked at the woman sitting beside him with such sentiments.

The woman’s eyes, which perfectly reflected the sparkling river, were a beautiful light green that even the darkness of the secret room could not have covered.

“Next time, I’ll teach you horseback riding, my lady.”

Calyx only realized from his own ears that there was a subtle emphasis on the word “next time.”

“This is my belated answer to your question about why I’m doing this to you.”

“……!”

“It’s beautiful.”

The last words echoed what Lottie had murmured while looking at the river.

For a moment, Lottie couldn’t be certain whether those words were truly directed at the Contra River, but she quickly dismissed the thought as it seemed absurd even to herself.

The river flowing before them now would surely be called beautiful by anyone who saw it.