Chapter 7 : Chapter 7
Volume 1
Chapter 7 : The Banquet Begins!
In his room, Muen lay on that luxurious bed of his—so comfortable it could bring a man to tears—and carefully went over tomorrow’s schedule in his mind.
“First, I have to get dressed and groomed.”
As the Duke’s son, and with this being the only coming-of-age ceremony he would ever have in his life, his entrance naturally had to dazzle the entire hall.
He had to be the sort of presence that could stand there without saying a word and still draw every eye like the eye of a storm.
Which meant that before dawn had even broken, more than ten senior maids would arrive to tend to his appearance from head to toe.
Every last strand of hair had to be precisely where it belonged.
To be honest, the moment Muen had seen that splendid formal suit in the afternoon—the one inlaid with all sorts of precious metals and flashy enough to nearly blind him on the spot—he had already felt a deep sense of suffocation.
Tomorrow, his greatest danger might not be Selicia at all, but that magnificent formalwear with a net weight of twenty kilograms.
“Then I have to welcome the guests with Father.”
A coming-of-age ceremony was, in essence, a declaration to the entire aristocratic class that Muen Campbell had officially stepped into the social world.
From that point onward, he could attend and host all manner of functions in the capacity of the Duke’s heir.
He could also express his admiration and affection to a noble young lady of suitable standing and enter into a sacred betrothal with her.
Of course, since Muen was already engaged to the Empire’s Third Princess, that latter point was automatically ignored.
But tomorrow, every noble in the royal capital would put on their finest attire and bring along their most promising sons and daughters to attend this grand occasion.
This was not merely a banquet.
It was also a stairway leading upward.
Every noble would wear splendid clothes as their shield and smiles as their sword, all in hopes of climbing still higher.
“After that, I have to deal with all those nobles.”
This was the part he was least worried about.
The instincts left behind in this body by the original owner should be enough to help Muen through it.
Tomorrow, all he had to do was smile.
“And at the very end… that.”
Muen’s hand moved unconsciously toward the two bottles hidden beneath his pillow.
That was the true centerpiece of tomorrow.
“First, I need to gain Selicia’s trust and get her alone.”
That part would not be difficult, because even if Selicia wracked her brain dry, she would never imagine that Muen Campbell would dare drug her.
And with the status of fiancé on his side, asking her to share a private drink should have been simple enough.
“Next comes drugging her.”
That was the hardest step.
If he were discovered in advance, then all his efforts would go up in smoke.
“But it should still be fine.”
After all, this was how things were meant to unfold on this worldline.
Even heaven itself ought to help him reach his goal.
All he needed to do was wait until she was not paying attention and quietly slip the drug into her wine.
“And after that… all that remains is to wait for ruin?”
Muen laughed at himself.
“A transmigrator like me, actively seeking out a ruined ending, is probably the first of his kind.”
“I just hope nothing unexpected happens.”
The candlelight went out.
Outside the window, the bright moonlight filtered through the branches and cast mottled shadows across Muen’s handsome face, as elusive and unreadable as Fate itself.
A breeze stirred, and the shifting shadows trembled with it, as though they too were praying that everything would go smoothly tomorrow.
...
The next day.
After enduring a full three hours of torment at the hands of the maids, Muen finally stood before the doors of the banquet hall wearing that magnificent formal suit with a net weight of twenty kilograms, greeting the arriving guests alongside the Duke, who stood there with the majesty of a lion.
His golden hair had been arranged with perfect precision.
His handsome features, touched up just enough, had lost a little of their youth and gained a little more maturity. Paired with that absurdly heavy yet undeniably noble formalwear, Muen looked like the rising morning sun itself—blinding, perhaps, but possessed of a strange radiance that drew every gaze toward him all the same.
When Muen had looked in the mirror earlier that morning, he had once again been stunned by his own good looks.
Unfortunately, no matter how unreal his beauty might have been, when the noble young ladies came up to greet him, they still kept their heads lowered and their eyes averted, as though they were terrified of being noticed by him.
“Hah. The original owner’s reputation really is too terrible.”
Muen sighed helplessly to himself.
To a great many noble girls, the name Muen Campbell was practically synonymous with a shameless bully and a human stud horse.
The fact that his name alone could overshadow the golden signboard above his head—the Duke’s son—was enough to show just how appallingly bad his reputation truly was.
“Hey, boy, look over there!”
Just as Muen was inwardly sighing over his miserable situation, Duke Campbell—his bargain father—suddenly slapped him on the back with one heavy hand, nearly knocking the breath right out of him.
“See who’s here.”
No guidance was needed. Muen’s eyes turned there at once.
The nobles who had been coming up to pay their respects and offer a few flattering words also turned to look.
Even the noble girls who had not dared meet Muen’s gaze all this time looked over as well.
All eyes shifted in that direction together, as though a brilliant spotlight had suddenly flared to life in the dark between acts.
And beneath that light stood a young woman.
Her long hair was smooth, flawless, and silver-white like moonlight itself.
Her delicate face seemed as though it had been sculpted from perfect ice, so flawless that not the slightest imperfection could be found.
Her fine lashes looked as though frost clung to them, and they too were silver-white.
Beneath those lashes were a pair of blue eyes, cool and clear as a lake, yet so deep they seemed capable of stealing away a person’s soul.
She wore a white gown that was not especially elaborate, yet elegant without losing any of its nobility.
The instant she appeared, she became a new center of the storm, drawing every gaze to herself.
“So this is… Selicia.”
The Leopold Empire’s Third Princess, the Pure White Child blessed by the Goddess of Ice and Snow, the Ice Witch Selicia Leopold.
And also the very source of Muen Campbell’s ruined ending.
At this moment—she had finally appeared!
“As expected, words and memories can never fully capture a person’s beauty.”
Even though he had been mentally prepared, Muen was still inevitably shaken the moment he saw her.
In his previous life, he had been a loyal admirer of Selicia and had often haunted all sorts of forums, where he had seen no small number of fan illustrations of her.
Among them were quite a few exceptionally high-quality works—so good that Muen would save the original image on the spot and spend the next three days and nights admiring it in delight.
But now that he saw the real person, he realized that even the finest of those works had failed to capture even one tenth of Selicia’s charm.
“It has been a long time, Young Master Muen.”
While Muen was still distracted, Selicia had already walked gracefully up to him.
“It has indeed been a long time, Princess Selicia.”
Muen immediately came back to himself and gave her a perfectly gentlemanly bow.
“You are especially lovely today.”
“Is that so? You honor me with your praise.”
Selicia lightly lifted the hem of her skirt and returned the gesture with elegance.
Her manners were so perfect that not a single flaw could be found in them, yet there was still a trace of coldness in them that kept others at a distance.
“Still, hearing such words from Young Master Muen is truly a rare thing.”
“Haha, Your Highness must be joking. From the way you say it, one would think I were some ill-bred lout incapable of minding his own tongue.”
Was he not?
A trace of puzzlement flickered through Selicia’s cool eyes.