"Young lady, please listen to me, this is important! You can't meet with the first prince!"
"Move out of the way, I am not going near that meeting room! I know that you are ordered to do this, but even if you continue begging and even if you go on your knees, I am here to meet with prince Alastair, not his younger brother."
How did he find out about my meeting with Alastair? I am impressed by how fast they can gather information related to an important person like the first prince, but I am not here to congratulate them or go along with it, since I know that his brother is in this too. Another thing is meeting Jonathan when he doesn't have any idea of my previous interaction with his brother, and another thing is meeting him now when I cannot bring Mireya up without causing a scene. He will be uninterested!
"He is not here in the academy!"
If he thinks this will stop me, he better changes his strategy because I am not buying it. Why shouldn't he be here if in his letter he said that we will be meeting today in the academy? It doesn't make sense, unless…
"If he is not here then where is he?"
"Thank goodness you are ready to listen to me! As I was trying to tell you before, but you changed your mind so suddenly, the first prince has been absent from the academy since the last council meeting and is under a doctor's supervision. They stopped everyone from entering and told us not to bother him until he gets better and only his highness went inside his room for the past few days. What I am trying to say is that even though he is not here, his highness is willing to listen to you and give you answers."
'This took an unexpected turn, for the better or the worse, this girl's aura changed. She covered her mouth, is she shocked or is she going to cry? I didn't think this news would upset her to this extent.'
So, it is true, he is not here huh? Hahaha…hahaha…hahahaha! Stop, I can't stop laughing…hahahahaha! Great, this is even better than I had imagined in my head, at least I am not going to see his face, and my work is almost done.
Mireya, I know she can't stay still and she will try to do something to prove herself to me. She has definitely done something by now, I am sure of it. Something that would let them know, let everyone know. The war will begin before they figure it out, and when they do, aristocrats filled with hatred and their pathetic desire for 'justice' will be already on their way to the palace gates and the people out of the circle will be on the first prince side asking for him to be spared. This will lead to another fight inside the kingdom. And then there will be the end of my little partnership with his grace, and I will put an end to this game too.
"Y-young lady, are you feeling all right? I know it was sudden, but please try to understand that it wasn't his highness's fault!"
"Sigh! I don't know what you are talking about, I understand it and I am not blaming anyone! I guess I don't have anything better to do since my meeting with his highness was unexpectedly canceled, so please do show me the way to your highness, before I change my mind and go on with my day like this did never happen!"
"R-right this way, the meeting room is at the end of this corridor."
Perfect, this will give Mireya more time to do what she is supposed to do, if she has not done it yet. If she has messed up the floor and is waiting for me there, a professor is going to find her sooner or later and she is going to explain herself from the fear of being taken as another female student who comes upstairs to admire their crush.
"Young lady, I hope that you have not forgotten about our deal before! I am about to go in and announce your arrival to his highness and I expect that you are not going to tell his highness about what I just told you and I am going to do something in return for your silence."
"Oh yeah, sorry I forgot about it! Well it is not a big deal, I would have asked you to lock the door right after I go in, but since the plan changed then there is no need for you to do this, so just leave it open or close it, do what you wanna do!"
This is not going to end up well anyway, so I don't have my hopes up for this one! And my ribs hurt from holding back my laugh just a minute ago. I think he saw me laughing, or maybe my makeup is ruined because I was trying to wipe away the tears. I never thought that one day I would almost cry while laughing in this world where I can't find anything worth surpassing my anger and contempt. This was an admirable first!
And thankfully the makeup is holding pretty good considering that it is from an old era and maybe it's not good for my skin. But if I recall, I put wet mud on my hair to cover the red ends and my hair is still healthy. So, if the cream and a ton of powder can continue hiding my dark circles and make me look at least less tired then I am sure that I can put up with any irritation or trouble it will cause to my skin for at least a day or so.
"Young lady, you can come in now, his highness is waiting for you inside! Huh?! Young lady, what are you doing over there?"
"Looking at my reflection and admiring my own beauty of course!"
"…"
"Is being rude part of your work as well? Your silence speaks a lot and also you are blocking the way and probably making your highness annoyed by the wait! So let me get this over with!"
"Oh yes! Pardon me, this way!"
Why was he looking at me like that? Did he not expect this response? Well, I guess it was pretty much out of my character to respond like that to begin with, or perhaps because ladies of this time don't have the luxury to express themselves so openly in front of a man. So this can explain why his face showed such disbelief and regret, but he doesn't know what I am like, therefore he didn't have to be so obvious about it!
"Your highness, I want to fully apologize for the long wait and I hope that my lack of performing my task has not affected your busy schedule! I present to you the second daughter of duke Phelter and the first prince's guest, as you ordered!"
Oh, he is finished!? I thought it will take longer to get to the point where I had to introduce myself so I was just waiting and looking around the room. Fancy…boring, and sitting there patiently drinking tea is the same person I have tried so many times to imagine how it would look like in real life. A tall boy with blond hair and purple eyes emitting clarity and pride at the same time. Boring but intriguing! Guess it is time to act like a lady and stick to the etiquette to introduce myself, although it is a waste of time because he knows who I am from Axel, what I am from my hair, and of course, my purpose here which is related to his beloved brother!
"Greeting your royal highness, the second star of Raeon kingdom! My name is Raelian…Raeliana Rapha at your service!"
"A pleasure to meet you too! You may sit!"
It looks like Mr. Dormer doesn't approve of my introduction, partly because my word contradicts his, but I am not going to lose my time pretending and giving myself a weakness before this even starts, not with my own mouth and not in front of him!
Jonathan Viotto Aleader, I don't know how this meeting will go because we are the same age, but I can think of him as nothing more than a child. He is the irreplaceable male lead of "The villainess love", and someone who does not need to do anything to get the happy ending with the heroine, although they change pretty easily.
So different and yet similar to Alastair! Then again, they are half brothers, the only similarity that I can think of now is that they have the same father and the same eyes color. Although Alastair's are more like purple and blue mixed together while Jonathan's are simply a faded purple.
…Sigh, I called it. The silence and this room are making me bored! Now I am thinking about their eyes as if that's what concerns me right now!
"This is the first time we both meet lady Raeliana, but sadly this is not the first time I hear about you! Therefore, I hope we can have an open conversation without hidden meaning from both sides."
"I wish for nothing more than a clear talk as well your highness!"
Oh crap, did he say he has heard about me? One thing is for him to know, and another is to hear. I hope Nasya is not the one who told him! Then again, no one else knows me that much to go to Jonathan and tell him something, I think even his brother is not going to share what he does in his private life with him. But maybe that guy Alan blabbed too much about me. He looks like a simp and called me an angel right off the bat, what else should I expect? Everyone is suspicious! And both of those who are going to have a tragic ending is the worse so far.
"Now, I believe you must be confused by this unexpected change, so let me first explain what is going on. My brother, the first prince, received your request sent by duke Phelter two days ago and he decided to arrange this meeting right away without thinking about his condition first!"
What condition?! Is he sick? Oh, now that I think about it, Axel did say something related to doctors and him staying inside his room to get better, guess I didn't give much importance to that.
"Since he could not make it and the meeting was already decided to be done by both parties, I made him agree for us to switch places and in return, I will become a mediator between the two of you. So you can rest assured that this is going to be the same as if he was here."
"Right…so I speak in the same way with your highness as if the first prince is here without worrying that I won't get an answer to my questions?"
"Correct! You can talk and ask me anything, and the same goes for me."
I want to know what is he going to ask me since I can't tell from his expression if it is going to be a good or a bad decision for me to take. But if Alastair is not here then he is not going to give me a satisfactory answer that could give me at least a lead to his plan. Still, I agreed to come here even though I know he was not participating, and since I don't have anything better to do I am going to play around and see where this goes.
"If I may your highness? I would like to express my gratitude for the opportunity I was given to have a word with a member of the royal family, whom the whole kingdom adores! And what's more, you are being so welcoming to me even though you don't know me yet!"
Just like your brother, you blood-related jerk! You will keep your mouth shut after this one.
"So, to show my appreciation I am not going to take too much of your time by asking only one request."
"Only one? That is all you need?"
"Yes! I don't want to be ungrateful or demanding after the hospitality your highness showed me!"
It is risky to assume that he knows, but then he wouldn't have any motives to attend a meeting instead of his brother if he didn't. They also could have canceled this whole thing easily without making Jonathan part of it. And he said himself that he pressured him on agreeing with this place switching. But if I am wrong…this can end differently and much worse than I anticipated.
"If you have made up your mind and only want one thing, then I am going to listen and answer with everything I know."
"Thank you, your highness! I will keep it short and simple. Ahem…I, Raeliana Rapha, now the second daughter of duke Phelter, am asking for his highness, the first prince Alastair Viotto Aleader hand in marriage!"