Chapter 42: Chapter 42

“Tell me the truth; why would you two pretend to be in love? What could be the reason other than that?”

Shia heard a familiar, seductive voice say these words. Sure enough, as she peeked inside the dressing room, she saw her – Lady Edelfina Nanris. Her arms were lovingly tangled around Prince Langrion’s neck, and she was caressing the back of his head.

Shia had half-expected Langrion to act hostile towards her, but he was not pushing her away. In fact, it seemed like he was looking intently up to her, focusing his attention to the playful way she said her words against his ears and the way her long, beautiful lashes brushed against each other whenever she blinked. Shia watched as Langrion moved closer to her face and said his words in a half whisper.

“It’s because of you, Edelfina. You are the reason, the one and only reason why we needed to pretend...”

Shia wished she had just turned around at that point, but she stood there seemingly frozen, and as such, she was able to see what she had dreaded all along. She saw his majesty’s lips descend upon Edelfina’s half open mouth and proceeded to seal it with a kiss.

Suddenly, Shia’s heart began to beat wildly inside her chest, and an invisible wound started to throb inside her sternum. She didn’t realize that tears had started to pool in her eyes until her vision of the prince and Lady Edelfina kissing each other became blurred.

Before she could even think of doing something – anything at all, at that point - a pair of arms closed in on her. One of the hands began to cover her eyes, while the other hand turned her away from the sight that was injuring her heart so badly.

“Don’t look,” he said.

Shia started to gaze upwards only to find the comely face of Langrion’s twin looking down at her. His blue eyes felt as deep and as sorrowful as the oceans when they stared back at her, making her feel more and more wretched in the inside.

“I-I can’t... I can’t stop looking...” Shia said in a whisper.

“Shhh... You don’t need to speak... It’s alright... Nothing happened... There was nothing to see,” he replied.

He continued to hug her softly. He started to rub his hand up and down against her back in an attempt to comfort her.

“Come; let me walk you away from here, Lady Shia.”

Shia started to take a few small steps with Danterion still clutching her from behind, still propelling her to take a step forward and away from the scene that she wanted to undo seeing in her head.

‘What was that about?... What were they doing together?...’ Shia wracked her brain for some answers, but it was her heart that spoke to her.

‘You knew all along that he loved her. He still loves her....’

Her heart was right. Just as Galahad could not yet recover from the love he had felt for Freya even after a thousand and one lifetimes, Prince Langrion would never be able to recover from the love of his life in just a few weeks.

She was also blind to assume all along that he would cherish such feelings for her. She was just a cursed one he had met casually on his way to his hometown. He had been helping cursed ones escape for a long time. Perhaps she was just another charity case for him. How could she think, for even a sliver of a second, that he would like her in the manner that he adored the always alluring and beautiful Edelfina?

After a few minutes of walking absentmindedly with Prince Danterion, Shia’s knees gave way. She started to plop herself down on the soft earth of what turned out to be the maze garden of the grand pavilion.

Prince Danterion sat down silently beside her, stroking her shoulders in a comforting manner. For a while, none of them spoke. They simply listened to the fireflies and the buzz of the crickets and the cicadas.

Out of the blue, the prince began to speak. “Lady Shia, listen to me... What you just saw in there did not really happen. It was simply a passing dream. None of it was real.”

Shia looked up to see Prince Danterion’s sympathetic, blue eyes looking down at her. Somehow, it reminded him so much of Langrion’s eyes when he first met him in the woods. More and more tears started to flow in her own eyes, and she tried to rub them away as best as she could.

“How come you don’t feel miserable after seeing what we saw? Didn’t it hurt you at all?...” Shia began to ask him.

“Edelfina and my brother had been lovers for a long time. They had cherished each other since they were children. I was the one who stole Edelfina away from him, so I don’t have the right to get angry.”

“So, you do feel angry?...”

“I do. Even more than you do, perhaps, but not all things can be solved by anger or any other emotions, for that matter.”

Shia sniffed while trying to stifle a tear. Prince Danterion produced a white handkerchief somewhere from inside his frivolous, gray outfit. He handled it to Shia, which she accepted gracefully.

“There’s also something else that prevents me from getting emotional, unlike you.”

“And what is that?”

“The throne matters to me more than Edelfina. My marriage with her will forge a bond between me and her noble house, and that will secure my position as a contender for the crown. If I get emotional now and we break up our engagement, I risk losing my political stance, and I’d hate that even more than seeing her kiss another man.”

“I see,” Shia responded. “Now I know why my father said that marriages between nobles would require a lot of acting...”

Danterion started to look down towards her again, his eyes more dazzling and yet more sorrowful than ever. “I deduce from your words that you are marrying my brother because you love him, correct?”

Shia smiled ruefully. “That was a grave mistake, perhaps...” She sighed. “I wish I could remain as detached as you are when it comes to this...”

“Well, you can, if you chose to.”

“How do I do it,” Shia asked, “how can I devoid myself of feelings after seeing all that?”

“I’ll tell you if you do one thing with me tonight.”

“And what’s that?”

“Dance with me. Be my partner for today, and dance with me.”

******************

Langrion started to kiss Edelfina passionately on the lips, just as he had done so many times before when he had loved her.

She started to melt in his arms. Suddenly, he pulled her away from him so hard that she gasped.

He peered down on her with such disdain that she blinked back at him looking dazed and confused. Langrion couldn’t help it. He started to laugh.

“What do you think? Did I do a good job acting? Was that convincing enough for you?”

“W-what,” Edelfina said in disbelief, “What on earth did you just say, Langrey?!”

“That was what you wanted to hear me say, right? You wanted to hear me say that it was because of you that I had to use someone to pretend to be my bride. Unfortunately, Edelfina, I had learned a good lesson from you. You were such a good liar that you were able to turn me into one!”

She hissed, “Langrey, you fool! You scoundrel!” Edelfina struggled to raise her arm to slap him, but he did not let go of his firm hold against her shoulders.

“You’re right, I was a fool! I was a fool to believe that you’d love me as purely as I had loved you! But I wasn’t enough for you, wasn’t I?! I couldn’t make you queen because I do not wish to rise to the throne. Now, you have gotten what you wish. You shall become a queen soon! Now, leave me and Shia alone! If you harm even a single hair from her body, I swear I would kill you,” he spat as he began to throw her to the ground.

“Langrey! Do you mean to say you do love her? Are you really choosing her over me?!”

“There is no doubt in my heart, Edelfina,” he began to say, “I would choose Shia a million times over you. I love her that much!”

Langrion turned around and left Edelfina writhing with rage on the cold, hard floor.

As soon as he had finished speaking with his former lover, all the pain he had nursed inside his heart seemed to have been suddenly released. There was a considerable amount of lightness in his chest as he realized the truth.

‘I love Shia!... I have loved her all along!...’

His sweet and beautiful betrothed Shia - he wanted to find her immediately and tell her the truth. He wanted to say sorry for acting like a jerk, for kissing her without an explanation, for trying to manipulate her into marrying him without disclosing to her how he had truly felt. He wanted to hug her close to his chest and whisper to her the words that he wanted to say since the very first day he saw her.

Langrion went around and opened the doors to the other dressing rooms. By now, more than half of the rooms were already occupied. Almost all of the debutants had already arrived, and the master of ceremonies was already rounding up the debutants and their partners one by one.

Langrion spotted Khailis and Gavil at the back stage. The Imperial Guard’s Second-In-Command positively beamed at him when she spotted him inching his way towards them.

“Your highness, you look really dashing tonight! Where’s Lady Shia?”

“I was about to ask you that. Have you seen her?”

“Er, no, but we need to find her soon. The debutant presentation is about to start.”

The three of them looked around, searching for the lovely face of Langrion’s would-be bride.

“There she is! Lady Shia!” Gavil said, waving his hands towards the southern part of the hall.

Langrion looked at the direction Gavil was waving at and spotted the silvery-white braided tresses of his beloved. She was smiling back at them so beautifully that his heart seemed to have skipped a few beats.

He started to walk towards her, and he called her name.

“Shia! Shia!”

Everything else seemed to fade away as she bobbed her head to the direction of his voice. The music stilled. Time passed by in such a slow motion, his heart ached to be near her.

After what seemed like an eternity, he was able to reach her side. He grabbed both of her hands closer to his chest. “The debutant presentation is about to start. Let’s go.”

He pulled her towards the line, but she did not move.

“Um, your highness, there had been a slight change in the line up... I’m afraid you won’t be my escort for tonight.”

Langrion blinked back at her. “So who are you going to be partnered with?”

“That will be me, brother. I am her escort for tonight.”

Langrion heard the words just in time as he saw an aggressive and seemingly possessive arm twirl around Shia’s perfect waist. It belonged to his twin brother, Danterion.

“We will be changing partners for tonight. Isn’t that fun?” he snickered as he took his beloved away towards the line of the debutants.

“Indeed,” a voice from behind said as Langrion felt a soft hand interlock with his. “This will really be fun, don’t you think,” Edelfina replied in her seductively wicked voice. “What do you say, partner? Are you ready to dance?”