Chapter 44. Calen Castle, Part V

Pamela continued to speak out, regardless of Adam's efforts to leave before the anger of the Prince, who would grow particularly sharp for this maid.

"If that's the case, I can't leave a girl like that as a maid of His Highness. I'll get another maid ready as soon as possible."

The Baroness's needless, strong determination made Adam unwittingly look back at Killian.

'Your Highness, don't forget what I said.'

As Killian's fierce look did not ease despite the Count's serious look, Marquis Oswald broke in with a smile, "Come on, the head maid, all the personal affairs of His Highness are Sir Albert's business, so don't worry about it and do what you have to do. I'm sure you're very busy getting ready for dinner tonight. Can you just hang around here like this? If there are any mistakes, Sir Albert will try to pull out all your gray hairs."

The Baroness opened her mouth to refute Marquis Oswald, who didn't always call her by her title, but as a head maid, and was unctuous and greasy. But before she could, one of Killian's hands went up.

"Stop. It's Albert's job to manage my maids. Even the Count and the Marquis here can't say anything about that. That's the right of the grand chamberlain, who I ennobled, to do. Do you understand what I mean?"

Unlike the concerns of Adam and Oswald, Killian was not excited. He only looked coldly at her, daring her to rebel against his words.

At the Prince's gaze, Pamela had no choice but to step back. With the appearance of the young maid, it did not seem to shake the Prince's faith and trust in Albert.

If so, she would have to force the maid to make a big mistake and shake his faith. Pamela thought, Let's see if your faith is firm, even if you are troubled by the maid chosen by the grand chamberlain who you trust to such an extent. ***************

***

Marquis Anais looked out of the window at the lake with his hands folded behind his back.

A pair of white swans were feeding each other with their beaks, the water's surface shining transparently in the bright sun. Between them, a baby swan broke in as if it were jealous. The mother swan spread her wings and held her baby, and began pecking and polishing the feathers of her baby with her beak. At the affectionate gesture, the Marquis's expressionless face was distorted with grief.

He remembered one day when they had been really happy. He and his wife had been feeding each other, and his daughter tried to get in between her parents and opened her mouth to ask for food for herself.

'Stella, Julietta...'

His lover and his young daughter's whereabouts were unknown after being evicted from their mansion overnight, while he had been attending a ceremony for the Crown Prince of the Vicern Empire.

He had returned to Austern and belatedly found out about it, and gone frantically searching for them. But it had been Stella's body that he had encountered half a year later.

The man who had brought the body had said that she had died following the death of her young daughter, who had been unable to overcome her grief. Also, they had only found Stella, who had been already dead, so there had been no way to know where she had buried her daughter.

The Marquis could never forgive his wife Ivana, who had taken Stella and Julietta from him. He was distressed because he couldn't give any affection to the daughter and son she gave birth to.

Whenever he saw Christine, who had been born a few months earlier than Julietta, hatred and sorrow were intertwined and gnawed at his spirit.

He showed her his best to listen to what Christine wanted, as he could not give her love, and they praised him as a loving father. The Marquis felt guilty about it, but he had no intention of revealing it to others.

He was only full of revenge against Ivana. His vengeance went so far as to include the family of Duke Dudley, who had pressured him into marrying Ivana.

When he had strengthened his need for vengeance, Christine, who had an unrequited love for the fifth Prince, had asked him to visit the Principality of Bertino. He had decided to go to Bertino, pretending he couldn't endure the hard teasing of Christine.

This was a golden opportunity to break down Ivana's plan, which would approve even if she sacrificed her daughter for the crown of Francis, her nephew, even though she was not getting along with her sister, the first Queen. By granting his daughter's wish that she should marry Prince Bertino, there was no better way to split the family of Duke Dudley from the family of Marquis Anais.

So far, even if he had been firmly neutral, he could not ignore the family of Dudley, since he had married Ivana. But if Christine were to marry the fifth Prince, he would naturally be able to confront the family of Dudley head on, empowering his son-in-law. The Marquis closed his eyes for a while and calmed his vengeful heart, still thinking about what would happen.

A little commotion was happening in the reception hall of Rezen Castle when Marquis Anais recalled the past and planned to paint the future with vengeance.

"His Highness has arrived here, why did you stop me from greeting him?"

Christine struggled to maintain her affable and graceful attitude as a lady of the Marquis, and forced a smile.

It was her first love for twelve years since she had fallen in love with Killian at first sight when she had visited the Imperial Castle to meet her aunt Victoria, the first Queen. She'd been waiting for this for a long time, dreaming of the day when she would become his bride after her coming of age.

Christine, who finally made her social debut this year to celebrate her much-awaited seventeenth birthday, was finally able to formally introduce herself to Killian, whom she had met at the Emperor's birthday banquet. Seeing Killian right in front of her, who she had only seen before in the distance, she fell in love with him once again.

Christine was lucky. She ducked around the side of Killian, who gave her an insipid nod despite her shy and innocent greetings, and when he talked to Marquis Rhodius about his scheduled visit to the Principality of Bertino, she heard and thought up a trick.

After interrupting their conversation tactlessly, as if she were an immature and innocent lady, she managed to get an invitation from Marquis Rhodius instead of the ignorant Prince Killian.

"If you'd like to go there, visit him when you have time later. He'll be happy at your visit, too."

The Prince glared at the Marquis inviting her, but Christine didn't care. She was only happy that she finally had a chance to gain the upper hand among her countless competitors.

Christine seized on the invitation to the Principality of Bertino, even if it was a mere invitation, and began to prepare for the trip from then on. It was only after hearing that the Prince and his party were ready to leave for the Principality of Bertino that she was able to arrive at Calen Castle before Killian, asking for her father, the Marquis.

Christine had no intention of being used as a tool to make her cousin Francis the Crown Prince, as planned by her maternal grandfather, Duke Dudley, and her mother, Marquise Anais. Duke Dudley was in the process of choosing a family to marry his granddaughter to in order to enlist those marital bonds. Marrying someone she didn't know for Francis she absolutely refused.

Rather, she thought that Francis and her maternal grandfather's ambitions would die down if she married Killian, the most likely Crown Prince. Then she would take the man she loved and become the Empress of the future, and Francis would never be hanging on to the unlikely crown in the first place, hastening his death.

She arrived at Calen Castle a few days ago with such swollen dreams. But Christine was soon hit by a difficult situation, being confronted by a shallow woman who was his lover.

The reason why she ran to Calen Castle, where the Magic Square was not connected, was to win Killian's heart in a place where there was no rival in love. But there was also a competitor here!