As the mood lightened, the young ladies chattered even more excitedly.
“Seeing the two of you together is simply magnificent…”
“And Prince Tarkan reserves only Lady Diona’s company, doesn’t he? So many young ladies would love to serve him tea.”
“I think His Highness’s heart belongs solely to Lady Diona…”
Diona let the naïve girls talk on, enjoying herself fully.
Only when their words began to dwindle did she finally speak.
“I appreciate the affection you all feel for me. But perhaps this isn’t the time to discuss it—on the wedding day.”
“Oh… we’re sorry.”
“There’s no need to apologize. I know your words come from goodwill. But this marriage was decreed by His Majesty.”
Not by Tarkan, but by the king—that was what Diona wanted to emphasize.
“Ah, of course. One cannot question what His Majesty has ordained.”
“And so His Highness Tarkan must also…”
The young ladies’ eyes brimmed with pity as they looked at Diona.
A doomed lover torn away by royal command. Even if political marriages were inevitable among nobility, Diona was fully worthy of Tarkan.
They clasped her hands tightly.
“Lady Diona, we support you.”
“Stay strong.”
Diona regarded them with a face that said she had no idea why they were acting this way.
“Heh heh. Thank you. It feels good to receive your encouragement.”
She sounded pleased, though she clearly hadn’t the slightest inkling they meant her relationship with Tarkan.
Their pitying sighs grew deeper.
‘She really has no guile…’
‘So devoid of ambition…’
Seeing this, the young ladies’ affection for the princess turned to resentment.
Diona offered a bright smile.
“It’s been lovely to chat after so long, my ladies. I wish I could stay, but I really should see to the princess now.”
“The princess?”
They asked in surprise. Why on earth would she go to her rival—especially on the wedding day, when the rival was in her wedding gown?
“The princess must feel so lonely and anxious, coming to strange Irugo lands to wed.”
“That may be, but why you, Lady Diona…”
“Because among young women here, I’m the only one she knows. Those princesses wouldn’t think of caring for her…”
Diona said as she gazed thoughtfully into the distance, her eyes distant.
“I suppose the princess would be more at ease with me—after all, we met on her first day at court.”
As if to hide that wistfulness, Diona smiled.
The ladies frowned. Did that mean the princess had summoned Diona?
‘Did the princess call her on purpose?’
‘Perhaps to probe their relationship…’
They wouldn’t blame Diona—this political marriage was not her choice. Even if they grumbled over Diona’s presence at Tarkan’s wedding, they didn’t think her malicious.
Yet…
The ladies exchanged glances.
“None of the other Silvanus royals came. She’s marrying with no family present.”
Murmuring pityingly, Diona sighed softly.
Listening to Diona’s concern for the princess in such circumstances made the young ladies ache with envy.
They hated the princess all the more.
‘No royal kin at all…even her own house didn’t honor her.’
‘What could our Lady Diona lack, to be set aside like this…’
Their thoughts were plain on their faces, and Diona suppressed a smile.
Lowborn ladies like these, so many of them, would be useful for spreading rumors.
Diona glanced at the clock on the wall and then at the bridal waiting room.
‘Time to go.’
The princess was alone in the waiting room. She’d been watching, waiting for an opportunity.
The court ladies who’d helped her dress had returned to their duties, and though the maids had lingered, all four had suddenly left.
Their departure had seemed ominous; they wouldn’t return soon.
She waited a little longer, so it wouldn’t look as if she’d dashed in the moment the door opened.
‘Now it’s enough.’
“Well then, I really must be off. Until next time, my ladies.”
Aristine turned at the sudden opening of the door.
‘Have the maids come back already?’
She’d thought the sparring maids wouldn’t return for a while, judging by their fierce departure.
But the figure who entered was nothing like she expected.
“It’s you…”
It was the woman from the mirror— the one who’d been with Tarkan when he whispered his heart wouldn’t change.
“Your Highness, princess.”
Diona bowed gracefully, offering Aristine a gentle smile.
“I am Diona. We’ve met briefly before—do you recall?”
“I remember. You poured tea for me, back then.”
“It is an honor that Your Highness remembers me.”
Diona bowed again, fearing her face might bob ungracefully if she dared look up.
In a wedding gown, the princess was infinitely more radiant than Diona had imagined.
Any man seeing her today would fall hopelessly in love—and despair, for she was another’s bride.
‘…Prince Tarkan’s wife.’
Diona clenched her fist.
“Well, what brings you here, my lady?”
At Aristine’s question, Diona lifted her head and smiled.
“Why, naturally, to congratulate Your Highness and His Highness on their marriage.”
In Diona’s sea-blue eyes, a glimmer of moisture gathered.
“You two truly are perfect together.”
The faint smile trembled like a candle flame in the dark.
It was unmistakably not mere congratulations, but the messy implications of a love triangle.
A tragic heroine’s smile, as she stepped back, urging the new bride to happiness.
‘There’s something between your husband and me—a deep story you know nothing of.’
Exactly that sort of message radiated.
But since she spoke only of congratulations, Aristine could not press further.
There was no more unsettling smile for a bride than this.
Yet Diona had chosen the wrong target.
“Thank you.”
Aristine inclined her head lightly. Her eyes rested on Diona in form only; her mind was elsewhere.
‘…What is this?’
Diona flinched at Aristine’s utterly unmoved response.
Compared to the welcome banquet, this princess was no dullard.
‘She must perceive my meaning…but why no reaction?’
This would not do.
Diona began speaking more boldly, determined to make Aristine understand her significance to Tarkan.
“His Highness and I grew up together, you see.”
A seductive smile played on Diona’s lips.
“His mother and mine were dear friends. My brother and Prince Tarkan likewise.”
Recalling those days, Diona gazed off with a tender expression.
“His mother adored me…”
She had chosen me as her daughter-in-law-to-be.
“That is why His Highness always looked after me, cared for me.”
We have been special to each other since childhood. The two houses are so close, marriage would be natural.
‘Yes. So it was.’
Diona reveled in her own words and thoughts.
She and Tarkan had been inseparable.
‘Yet suddenly you waltz in between us…!’
The image of Aristine, boldly seated in the bridal waiting room, so infuriated Diona.
‘That place was rightfully mine…!’
But Diona masked her feelings with practiced grace, continuing warmly.
“You know, His Highness’s nature is so cold, he never keeps a woman by his side.”
Then she added, “I’m sure Your Highness has experienced it yourself.”
She meant, of course, that Tarkan must have treated Aristine with his usual coldness.
“I, however, have known him since childhood—things are different.”
At this, Diona sought Aristine’s reaction. There was none. Aristine seemed entirely disinterested.
He’ll treat you coldly, but I’m special to him—he takes care of me.
Even saying this so openly earned no response.
It was Diona who grew frantic.
She stepped closer, continuing to prattle.
“I never imagined Your Highness and Prince Tarkan would marry.”
She crossed the line, then backtracked with a wave of her hand.
“Oh, I mean no offense. It’s just—I never thought such a union would take place, given Irugo and Silvanus’s long enmity.”
Now Diona stood directly before Aristine, meeting her gaze and enunciating every word.
“For the sake of peace, this marriage must succeed.”
Her red lips formed, “Don’t you agree?”
My one true love is him, but for peace’s sake I must marry you. Don’t you see? Agree!
Until now, the princess had shown no reaction—but surely she could not hold back forever.
‘I cannot let you marry so placidly, without protest.’
Imagining the princess’s hysterics, Diona’s eyes sparkled with delight.
‘Come on—lash out, scream, weep!’
Diona thought as she met Aristine’s gaze.
But Aristine merely watched her, genuinely struck.
‘Oh… so boring.’
Nothing is more tedious than listening to someone brag about their lover. Even the Emperor’s Eye sometimes reveals such boasts, and they’re utterly dull.
Better to witness a grand Romeo-and-Juliet drama at least once.
‘Lover-bragging is always…’
A foregone tedium, devoid of emotion, fun, or meaning.
‘Why are you still yammering?’
Who asked for anyone’s lovey-dovey tales?
I didn’t, and I’m not curious.
‘I stayed silent, thinking you’d stop—but you never do.’
Either oblivious, or you never tire of your own voice.
Aristine had no interest in Diona, nor in Diona’s relationship with Tarkan.
Whatever Diona said, whatever nuance she implied, Aristine had neither energy nor desire to decipher it.
That was for politics or business.
To Aristine, Diona held only one significance: might she serve as a bargaining chip in negotiations with Tarkan.
Beyond that, she was outside her concern.
No utterance warranted parsing for hidden meaning.
Diona could never have imagined Aristine’s cold appraisal.
Now, she stared with desperate longing at Aristine’s unshaken face.
‘Show me some fury!’
At that silent stare, Aristine resolved to humor this tiresome display.
Those eyes demanded a hearty reaction; refusal felt rude.
‘After all, she’s my business partner’s lover—or something. Better to be cordial.’
Social graces are arduous, indeed.
With that thought, Aristine returned Diona’s smile.
“Thank you. As you said, I will make this marriage a success.”
At the unexpected words, Diona’s smile stiffened.
Forcing another smile, she emphasized, now blatantly:
“Yes—marriage normally unites loving partners, but this union is, after all, for ‘peace,’ so it must succeed.”
“Indeed. I fully understand that my marriage to Tarkan is not merely a union of man and woman, but a union on the grand scale of world peace.”
Aristine nodded earnestly.
She preferred this topic to dull lover-bragging.
‘Ha…!’
Seeing that composed expression, Diona ground her teeth.
Despite herself, her jaw clenched tightly.
‘So this marriage is on another level entirely?’
The blue of her eyes froze like a winter sea.
‘A marriage of a different dimension—so don’t interfere?’
No words could drive Diona crazier.
Even if Aristine and Tarkan’s union were undone, it would never change—Tarkan would not share such significance with Diona.
It would be an ordinary royal marriage.
This marriage’s specialness—and global attention—rested solely on Aristine and Tarkan’s union.
A marriage severing centuries of enmity, and love.
What could be more heart-stirring?
The protagonists should have been Tarkan and Diona.
Not Aristine!
Forget husband—time to make money.