Chapter 25 (1/2)

There was whispering here and there in the theater. I sighed. I wanted to go back and see my father for a minute, but I couldn’t because the emperor seemed not to leave the place. After telling the royal guards not to approach him, he said with a bright smile, “Oh, I heard that you stopped by the palace in a cute dress. Rumors about your visit were already spread to the 2nd Knights Division. ”

“Your Majesty…”

“I heard you also met the crown prince. So, what do you make of him? Were you really cute? ”

How did my visit reach his ear? While I bent my head in embarrassment, I looked back at my side, startled. I met his dark blue eyes instantly. While looking at me indifferently, he said, “Yes, she did come to see me, Your Majesty.”

“Oh, I see.”

What did he mean by that? The emperor laughed happily, while the prince who was looking almost like a young man came into my view. His neatly combed blue hair, pure white robes, and deeply sunken eyes as well as his smile on the corner of his mouth.

For the first time, I saw another man instead of his past self that overlapped my image of him as a boy. An image of him as the crown prince of the past who showed no particular emotion to me vanished as he smiled at me.

Suddenly, I felt heartbroken. When did he get screwed up? Though he was occasionally hostile to me, he was basically just cold to me, but at some point he began to act brutally. Why was he so cruel to me? Did something about me make him so annoyed?

“And finally the sun of the future has been born to succeed his noble blood,” one of the actors said loudly on the stage.

Trying to empty my head while blinking my blurred eyes, I raised my head, hearing the actor’s narration about the birth of the crown prince.

‘When did Act 3 start?’ Was I so deeply lost in thought that I didn’t even know that Act 2 gave way to Act 3? I hurriedly checked his countenance. I felt relieved to find he didn’t look bad and turned my eyes at the stage.

“Thanks to God’s warm consideration of the son of tomorrow. He gave him a noble fiancee. May God bless the child of God’s prophecy!”

While I was listening to the actor’s praise of the prince that he would surely bring a new glory to the empire, I flinched at his next words. What the heck is he talking about me here?

‘Did the emperor have me sit next to him because of this?”

Looking back at him with a suspicious expression, I suddenly noticed the boy’s face, who was sitting next. Watching the stage blankly, he interlocked his fingers and smiled very happily, which made me feel goosebumps because he made that expression like that when he didn’t like something. Did he hate the actor’s narration mentioning my name?

I smiled bitterly as if I was thrown by cold water. Why was I mistaken?

‘Look at that, Aristia. Isn’t it obvious that he doesn’t like you?’

“The Sun’s partner, the noble moon…”

With a sigh, I looked at the stage. At that moment, the chandelier suddenly fell down with a loud noise. Screams were heard here and there. The surroundings on the stage became dark and caused confusion instantly.

“Your Majesty, are you okay?”

“I’m fine. Are the prince and his fiancee fine?”

As if he was not surprised, the emperor’s voice was very calm. But I couldn’t help but answer the emperor’s inquiring about my safety because I felt creeped out at the moment.

When I noticed the shattered chandelier and the dark stage, my cold hands trembled. And I was breathing roughly.

Obviously, it was the moment when the two on the stage joined hands. Just as the two actors who played his and my role respectively looked at each other, swearing eternal love, the heavy chandelier fell from heaven as if the two should not be united together, implying an ominous future for them.

At that moment, I felt goosebumps. Perhaps this meant that the same bleak future I went through once would be waiting for me. Or it might mean God’s ridicule that I could not escape my fate no matter how much I struggled.

“Your Majesty, Crown Prince, and noblemen and noblewomen!”