She tried to sneak a peek at Roslyn, hoping that the latter could enlighten her to what exactly he meant.
Unfortunately, the maid didn't seem to understand the meaning of her eye contact, only bobbing her bruised forehead in trepidation after the prince detected their silent communication.
Growing impatient, Prince Siegfried's face morphed into disappointment. He straightened his back up.
"I suppose it shouldn't matter to me. After conceding to your request for pardon earlier, I was hoping that you'd at least cooperate with me this time, my lovely wife."
The prince snorted in disdain before continuing.
"Then again, considering that you broke our deal first by stealing from your husband, perhaps I didn't need permission to ransack your room in the first place."
Adele snapped her head towards him in shock.
'Steal? Ransack? What is he talking about?'
Adele grinded her teeth as she silently cursed the absent villainess.
'What did you do this time, Odile?! You already stole the prince from the female lead. Heck, you even got the title and the crown. What more could you possibly want??'
The prince raised an eyebrow at the wide-eyed woman, who refrained from uttering a careless word out loud. He then sneered mockingly.
"So this time, you're resorting to silence instead of self-harm? Shame, but I will not give into your antics this time."
Prince Siegfried once again bent closer to Adele. Embarrassed at their close distance, the red-faced woman could only hope that the man wouldn't be able to hear her rapid heartbeat.
"Where is it?"
Adele blinked innocently.
"… Where's what exactly?"
The prince's scowl grew deeper, his voice growing colder.
"Playing dumb again? You know exactly what you stole from me."
Adele frowned.
"B-But I'm not, and I don't. What exactly are you talking about?"
"Don't take me for a fool, Odile. You truly want me to believe that you have absolutely no idea to what I'm referring to. Perhaps I could forgive your imprudence from earlier. But stealing that irreplaceable treasure from me … that I will not tolerate."
"B-But I really don't know! And how would I even be able to steal something when I've been unconscious for days??"
The dark-haired prince began tapping his fingers on his plated arm; Its sharp tick tocks sounding unpleasant to Adele's ears.
"The palace guards have observed your wandering about in the Sun Palace multiple times during my absence. They say that you've excused yourself by reasoning that you only 'missed my presence'. But what do you know? As soon as I've returned, something precious to me has gone missing from my chambers. Something that only YOU would find of importance."
His fingers stopped tapping.
"I already told you that I will not be lenient this time. I'm giving you one last chance, Odile. Tell me where you're hiding it."
It was Adele's turn to scowl in annoyance.
'What's with this guy and his love for interrogations?! What are you? The FBI??'
Even as a young adult, Adele had rarely ever involved herself in petty confrontations. And after that one fight with Carla led to her being pushed into the sea, you'd think that she would've learned her lesson by now to not aggravate a more powerful-looking opponent.
But for some reason, she couldn't help but feel indignant towards this infuriatingly vague man. She tried to calm herself by taking in a deep breath.
'Come on, Adele. Be nice. You ARE in Odile's body. We can't blame them for thinking that way about you.'
She coughed lightly, trying to conceal the gnashing of her teeth.
"Forgive me, Your Highness. But I have no idea what you're referring to. Perhaps if you're ever so kind enough to give me some hints-"
"Ha! Hints, she says!"
The man resentfully stomped away from her, rubbing his gloved palm all over his tanned face.
Adele, on the other hand, was growing equally as frustrated.
It was bad enough that she woke up in this bizzare place and discovered that she possessed the body of a villainess. It was worse when she's being confronted over and over for crimes that she absolutely had no idea about.
Perhaps it's true that her body's real owner was most likely guilty of whatever the prince was accusing her of. But that doesn't make her feel any better for being falsely charged for Odile's queer actions. She already had enough in her plate!
Maybe if he would simply be straightforward, the two of them wouldn't need to keep playing this exhausting guessing game! Throwing away her fancy pretense, Adele began to raise her voice.
"If you can't even bother helping me out, then just tell me what it is you're looking for! What? Is it a secret stash of erotic novels that the highly-esteemed Princeliness would be too embarrassed to talk about in front of his men?!"
Immediately, the prince's face turned tomato red at her unexpected jab.
"How did you-?! Urgh, how dare you speak such foul accusations!"
"Yes, I dare you! So, is that what it is?!"
"NO!"
"Then just tell me what it is!"
"Why you-!"
As the two began to squabble loudly, none of the room's other inhabitants dared to make a single peep. Their eyes swivelled back and forth as the arguing couple continued to exchange childish blows.
Most of the knights remained professionally alert, just in case some furniture ended up flying about. The rest couldn't help but tighten their lips in amusement as they conjured a comical, yet apt image in their minds.
A large gray dire wolf growling against a tiny, screeching red fox.
Ironically, this was probably one of the tamest arguments that these two ever had, considering the temperamental woman's preference for physical abuse.
'Still,' Benno mulled over the curious sight, 'It's quite unusual to see Siegfried get so fired up like this.'
Even as a young lad, Siegfried had always been considered a patient yet aloof prince. His reserved nature only heightened the further he got involved with the kingdom's politics.
When Odile regularly hurled threats and accusations towards him, sometimes even by physical means, the man would remain unaffected like a statue. As long as she did not kill anyone and followed through with her end of their deal, he could tolerate any amount of her tantrums and felonies.
"But now, he's arguing back like a little kid!" Benno mused while scratching his chin. The two bickering royals have not yet conceded to one another. "I haven't seen this side of Siegfried since before that incident."
So the audience had no choice but to patiently wait on and on, until finally…
"… Her locket."
The prince whispered reluctantly, signalling his surrender to the stubborn woman. With how muted his voice was, Adele could barely catch what he said.
"Can you repeat that please, Your most merciful Highness?"
The prince scowled at the woman's annoyingly gloating expression. He let out a discontented sigh as he ruffled the back of his head. His silver grey eyes then turned mistier.
Melancholic.
"… Odette's locket. The silver necklace with a swan engraving on its pendant." He murmured slowly.
"Oh."
Adele paused after recognizing the Swan Princess' name.
Odette was the female lead of Swan Lake, known for her moniker as the Swan Princess after being cursed to become a white swan in the story. When the sun is up, she will remain as a swan, and only during nighttime would she be able to revert back into her human form.
It was Odette whom Prince Siegfried came upon while hunting in the forest one night. She was also the woman whom he truly intended to give his vows of love to in order to break her curse, not the villainess daughter Odile.
But now that Siegfried was married to Odile in this reality, Adele couldn't help but wonder what happened to the White Swan.
'Odette huh? Seems like His Highness here still has a thing for her, despite being married to Odile. Well, he did follow her to her death in the original ending after all.' She concluded.
Nobody else in the room seemed to recognize the name whispered by the prince. All except for Benno, who froze when he heard his best friend mention the name of his first love in front of his wife.
But the unaware Adele only huffed in satisfaction.
"See? That wasn't too hard, was it? And here I thought that it was some embarrassing 'treasure'! But it turns out to be a little piece of jewelry after all."
The prince only continued to glare in response as Adele chuckled at his moody expression, feeling as if she'd won an argument against a big kid.
To be honest, she was feeling quite proud of herself.
In her past life, she never had much guts to argue back against anyone who tried to disparage her hard work. It wasn't unusual to hear some whispers about her and her mother being portrayed as sly opportunists, thanks to her mother's remarriage to Lila's father, who happened to be the biggest sponsor of their ballet academy.
Her mother comforted Adele whenever she felt discouraged by these comments, especially during the time when the marriage was still new. She had always taught her that patience and perseverance were strengths in themselves, so there was no need to respond pettily.
At first it was easy for young Adele to open up to her mother. Yet as time went by, it began to dawn on her how heartbreaking it was for her mother to feel so helpless against all the nasty rumours thrown at her. Even if she confided in her stepsister, Lila, she knew that the latter, who was naturally born with a silver spoon and surrounded by people who adored her, would never fully understand her predicament. So by the time Adele grew into a teenager, she learned to keep her complaints to herself.
Luckily, Lila always stood by her side as a shield, and nobody wanted to mess with that feisty lady! Not to mention, she didn't want any of her trifling conduct to bring down her stepfather's family name.
Because of that, Adele never bothered retaliating against anyone who looked down on her. It was lucky that none of them were cruel enough to rip her leotards, or stick hidden thumbtacks in her pointe shoes. And it wasn't as if there weren't many mature colleagues and mentors in the field as well.
Perhaps all the stress and anxiety Adele had bottled up from her past life until now, combined with the reckless headbanging that she inflicted upon herself, had finally blew up at its tipping point.
And honestly … it felt so liberating!
She might sound like a bully, but Adele couldn't help but delight on the man's deflated expression. It reminded her of their labrador, Rohan, whenever they took his favorite toy to the washing machine.
It was admittedly kind of cute.
But she suddenly froze as his description of the locket belatedly sunk in.
'A silver locket with a swan engraving? ... No way, that sounds way too similar to-!'
"Oh! That one!" Roslyn jumped as something dawned upon her.
She scurried to her mistress's vanity table and took out a small, jeweled box from inside the table's drawers. As she tiptoed towards the prince, the young maid gave an inquiring look towards Adele.
It seemed like she was asking for her permission. Not like that would make any difference, considering how she already took out the mystery box in front of the prince.
In any case, Adele needed to confirm her suspicions.
The princess nodded her head. Gaining her affirmation, Roslyn then opened the lock of the jeweled box, revealing to Prince Siegfried its glittering contents.
"We found this hanging on Her Highness' neck when we got her out of the lake. I-Is this what you were referring to, Your Highness?" she asked timidly, making sure not to make any eye contact with the prince.
Prince Siegfried's icy aura then melted significantly. He reached inside the box and pulled up a delicate silver necklace. With warm eyes, he caressed the thumb-sized pendant so preciously, as if he was afraid of sullying it.
"… Yes. This is it."
And just like he said, it was a silver chained, heart-shaped locket with a swan engraving on the front of its pendant.
Stunned, Adele's mind began to scatter as she unconsciously pointed a shaky finger towards it.
'?! H-How is that possible? Isn't that-?'
Her mother's gift.