Chapter 93

︵‿୨ ₊‧꒰ა ୨ৎ ໒꒱ ‧₊ ୧‿︵

On the day of the party, things were busy from the moment the sun rose. Thanks to all the servants rushing around, everything managed to get done right on schedule. I almost burst out laughing at the sight of Marie among the servants, looking completely worn out, but managed to hold it back.

Father looked between Heron and me, who stood side by side, and spoke.

“You both know very well how many people will be attending the ball at the palace today.”

“….”

“Never forget that everything you do reflects on the Aidelis name.”

“Yes, Father.”

My father stared at me for a moment, clearly not convinced by my obedient answer, before getting into the carriage first. Heron was about to follow him into the carriage, but suddenly hesitated and turned to look at me.

“….?”

Not understanding what that look meant, I tilted my head in confusion, and Heron reached out his hand to me. I just stared at his hand, unsure what to do, until he let out a faint sigh and said.

“Take it.”

“Oh, th-thank you.”

Surprised by Heron’s unexpected gesture, I took his hand.

‘What in the world is even going on right now?’

Heron climbed into the carriage behind me.

As he naturally took the seat beside me, the carriage set off as if it had been waiting.

Just moments ago, he had been so gentle and courteous while escorting me, but now all that warmth was gone, and the mood inside the carriage grew heavy in an instant. I glanced at the two of them, not even making eye contact, much less speaking, and quietly held my breath.

‘It’s a good thing I didn’t eat anything before this.’

If the atmosphere had stayed this tense the whole ride, I probably would’ve ended up with a stomachache no matter what I ate.

I turned to look out the window, thinking about the situation I was about to face.

A party held in celebration of Vien’s birthday.

On the surface, it was to celebrate his birthday, but in reality, it was basically an event to choose the crown princess, the future empress. With the emperor’s declining health, there was no way they could leave the position of crown princess empty any longer.

‘But is Vien’s health really okay?’

I suddenly remembered how he looked a few days ago. While he didn’t look seriously ill at first glance, he definitely seemed worse than before.

I forced myself to push aside those lingering worries about him.

‘Anyway, the important thing is that even without unlocking a target character’s route, I can’t change the overall storyline. The fact that I’m being dragged to another palace ball just proves it.’

I let out a quiet sigh and leaned back further in my seat.

Since it was a party held at the imperial palace, it was certain that all the most important figures in Arbonis would be attending. In other words, unless something unexpected happened, people like Diel or Allen would all be attending as well..

‘Just like always.’

The thought that there were three people at the party I would need to steer clear of was already exhausting.

With a quiet sigh, I glanced away and caught sight of the sky turning dusk outside. The sky, now colored a deep blue, was enough to remind me of someone.

‘Estieren Kaisian.’

The moment his name came to mind, I couldn’t help but recall the secret conversation we’d had last time. After I had awkwardly cut the conversation short out of embarrassment, he hadn’t reached out to me first again. Regret hit me that maybe I had said something I shouldn’t have, and lost some favorability.

‘I could’ve phrased it more gently. I reacted too sensitively because I felt like I was just being swept along.’

I furrowed my brow, once again realizing that the only routes I had unlocked so far were Heron’s and Estieren’s.

Based on how things have gone, I didn’t think Estieren’s favorability toward me was all that bad…

‘But there’s no way to know if it’s higher than Heron’s.’

This was my first time unlocking both of their routes in this life, so I found myself worrying about every little thing. I wasn’t even sure if I was doing things right.

But if I had to pick which route was harder, it was definitely Estieren’s.

The main reason was that I couldn’t even see his favorability.

Not knowing what made his favorability rise or fall made me way more anxious than I expected. Maybe that was why interacting with him always felt so difficult.

‘Sometimes, even harder than with the other target characters.’

But the thing that really bothered me was how the system, the same one that kept killing me, seemed to be forcing me down Estieren’s route.

‘Actually, the fact that the system won’t let me refuse missions related to Estieren makes it clear that it’s forcing me.’

I massaged my temples, trying to ease the pounding in my head.

Although all these unanswered questions kept spinning in my head and tormenting me, I decided to set them aside for now. The imperial ball was meant to raise Vien’s favorability, so unless I unlocked his route, it was basically just a filler event for me. Of course, I had to make sure I didn’t get caught by him and faced another unexpected trouble like last time.

‘I just need to stay as inconspicuous as possible.’

Resolving myself, I turned my gaze toward the window.

In the distance, I could see the imperial palace coming into view.