Chapter 163 – A Shift in the Atmosphere

“Getting closer… you mean me and Axion?”

Evelyn frowned slightly, but Chloe looked at her as if the answer were obvious.

“Who else would I be talking about?”

A faint smile curved her lips as she flicked open her fan to hide them.

“Oh my? Why are you getting all shy?”

“….”

Now that she thought about it, Axion and Chloe were alike in certain ways. For one, they had a remarkable talent for ignoring what other people said.

‘Honestly, I should just stop talking altogether.’

At a loss for words, Evelyn shook her head, but Chloe’s sharp gaze remained fixed on her.

“There’s definitely something going on.”

“There’s nothing—”

Evelyn, about to retort, let her words trail off.  

It was because, unlike before, when every meeting with Axion ended in bickering… something between them had shifted. Lately, a slightly different atmosphere had been flowing between them. Even though she couldn’t quite put it into words, it would have been stranger not to notice.

The sudden image of her fiancé’s face made her eyes widen in fluster.

Why did his red eyes pop into my head all of a sudden

A ticklish flutter rose in her chest, and Evelyn shook her head desperately, as if to drive it away.

“There’s nothing like that going on!”  

Her firm denial earned only a half-hearted response from Chloe, whose interest seemed to fade as quickly as it came.

“I just thought so because of some news I’d heard.”

“What do you mean?”

Evelyn asked, a trace of curiosity glimmering in her green eyes. Chloe’s lips curved faintly, her tone turning suggestive.

“You know my father is very interested in land acquisitions, right?”

The Duke of Winterwald had always made his fortune buying and selling estates with high investment value. When she gave a small nod, Chloe leaned closer, glancing around before lowering her voice to a whisper.

“But recently, my father met with Lord Valentino.”

She went on to share what her father had told her in passing that while visiting a region to purchase land, the Duke of Winterwald had unexpectedly run into Axion.

“I heard the Lord bought an estate.”

“Where?”

Evelyn asked, surprise slipping into her voice at the unexpected news. Seeing that, Chloe simply shrugged her shoulders lightly.

“I don’t know that much either.”

She added that the only other thing she knew was that it was a remote area, rarely visited by people. 

‘Hmm, maybe he bought a vacation home or something.’

For the Valentino family, with all their wealth, purchasing a private residence wouldn’t be particularly difficult. Evelyn dismissed it without much concern, assuming her fiancé had only purchased it for leisure purposes.

Little did she know what was soon to unfold.

︵‿୨ ₊‧꒰ა ཐི༏ཋྀ ໒꒱ ˚₊ ୧‿︵

“What was the point of holding this gathering, anyway?”

Chloe grumbled in a disgruntled tone as she gazed up at the perfectly clear sky. If it had at least rained, the event might have been canceled naturally, but the oblivious sky was far too bright and blue.

Evelyn’s lips curved into a faint, knowing smile as she watched the nobles circling each other like hawks.

“It’s the perfect stage for gossip, isn’t it?”

Her tone was calm, but her words carried an edge.  

‘In a place like this, every move you make becomes someone’s prey.’

From the very start, the Crown Prince’s gatherings had always served another purpose, which was to test his circle and determine who truly stood on his side. Anyone who displeased Erden, even in the slightest, would end up like a discarded doll, used to the fullest and then quietly cast away.

Evelyn recalled the scandal sheets filled with such stories and swallowed a heavy sigh. Just then, Chloe, who had been sipping her champagne, furrowed her brows.

“What is she doing here?”

At her friend’s noticeably sour reaction to someone, she glanced around.  

“Huh? Who…?”

But she couldn’t even finish her sentence.  

The moment she saw the person approaching her, her mouth snapped shut.  

“It feels like it’s been a while, Evelyn.”

Her silver-white hair shimmered softly in the breeze, her violet eyes gentle as wisteria blossoms. The woman greeted her with a delicate smile that felt almost too serene.