Chapter 87 : Chapter 87
Volume 2
Chapter 11 : When It Comes to Being Despicable, I Am Still the Better One
“Does Your Highness truly take me for the sort of man who would put something strange in the tea?”
At Selicia’s words, Muen froze for a moment.
Then he immediately looked as though he had suffered some tremendous blow, his expression turning utterly despondent, as if he were on the verge of beating his chest and wailing to the heavens until snow began falling in June to vindicate his injustice.
“If Your Highness distrusts me so deeply, then I can only prove myself with my actions!
I shall drink first as a show of sincerity!”
Muen seized the teacup that belonged to him and prepared to tip his head back and drain it in one gulp.
“Wait.”
Selicia suddenly spoke and stopped him.
“There is no need for Young Master Muen to be so upset. I was merely making a little joke.”
“A joke...”
With that face of yours that has not changed expression from beginning to end, you certainly do not look as though you are joking!
“As Young Master Muen’s betrothed, I have naturally trusted him from beginning to end.”
A faint curve touched Selicia’s lips. For her, that probably already counted as a smile.
“I was only teasing Young Master Muen just now. Please do not take it seriously.”
“Is that so?”
Muen set down the teacup and quietly let out a sigh of relief.
“Then I ask that Your Highness not make such jokes in the future—jokes that might easily damage the trust between us.”
“Of course. I already recognize my mistake.”
Selicia still did not drink her tea.
Lowering her head, she toyed with the teacup.
Through the rich red liquid, she seemed to be gazing at her own reflection.
“In truth, there is a reason I make jokes like that.”
“Hm?”
“You should know this, should you not, Young Master Muen? In fact, I am actually a few months younger than you.”
“...Naturally, I knew that.”
Knew my foot.
I was completely caught off guard!
Selicia, the student council president of Saint Marika Academy, and someone two whole grade levels above Muen, was actually younger than him?
The original book never mentioned that at all!
Eh?
Wait. Does that mean the Selicia before him, who was ostensibly his upperclassman, was actually, in a sense, more like a younger sister in private?
After all, between the royal family and the nobility, there had to be at least a little shared blood somewhere.
Calling her “little sister” would not be too outrageous.
Could this be some legendary new extension of that charming blend of adorable and dignified?
This is bad.
The moment Muen imagined the aloof upperclassman Selicia privately calling him “big brother,” he felt that something was very, very wrong.
That kind of contrast struck straight through the heart.
“After all, I am a genius who skipped two grades, so a situation like this is hardly strange.”
“But precisely because of that, I often feel very tired. Everyone around me is older than I am, yet I must become just as mature as they are, perhaps even more so.”
“So whenever I am in private, in an environment where I feel at ease, I sometimes become a little childish.”
“Childish?” Muen stared blankly for a moment. He truly had not expected the words “childish” to come from Selicia’s mouth.
“That is right. Just like just now.”
Selicia’s silver-white lashes fluttered gently as she asked in a soft voice,
“You are not angry, are you, Young Master Muen?”
“Of course not.”
Muen could not help smiling, and he answered without even thinking.
“If it is Your Highness, I could accept however childish you may be. If anything, that side of you only makes you easier to approach.”
“Really? That is wonderful, then.”
Selicia suddenly lifted her head.
“As it happens, I have another exceedingly childish request that I need Young Master Muen to fulfill.”
“Eh?”
“Young Master Muen, your tea seems to taste better than mine. So... shall we exchange them?”
“Hah?”
The corner of Muen’s mouth stiffened at once.
He looked at Selicia, his hands and feet turning cold.
Her eyes still carried that distant, untouchable chill, yet through the frozen surface of that coldness, Muen seemed to glimpse the slyness and mockery hidden underneath.
Damn it. I let my guard down for one moment, and this woman managed to get the upper hand over me!
So all that talk about being childish was a lie. S
he really did suspect that there was something wrong with the tea!
Still, she probably had not imagined that he would be bold enough to actually drug it. Otherwise, what awaited him now would not be this probing exchange, but piercing frost.
“That... would not be appropriate.”
“And why not? Did you not say that you could accept all of my childishness? Or is it that—”
Selicia tilted her head and asked, enunciating each word one by one,
“What exactly are you afraid of, Young Master Muen?”
“H-How could that be? I have done nothing guilty. Why would I be afraid?”
Muen did his best to keep his smile from showing any cracks.
“Then why—”
“Because... I have already drunk from this cup!”
Clutching the teacup tightly, Muen declared in a ringing voice,
“If Your Highness drinks it now, then that would be... that would be an indirect kiss!”
“Oh? Is that so?” Selicia still did not waver in the slightest and merely continued asking.
“That is right. Exactly so.”
Muen’s eyes widened slightly as he stared fixedly at Selicia.
Well then, Your Highness.
As the cold and lofty goddess, the ice princess that you are, can you truly withstand those invincible words, “indirect kiss”?
Surely someone as pure as you would blush furiously with embarrassment the instant you heard them.
“It does not matter. I do not mind.”
Yet Selicia showed not the faintest trace of shyness.
“After all, as your fiancée, I can accept at least this much.”
As though she had truly accepted the identity of his fiancée, Selicia even placed her delicate hand over Muen’s.
But Muen felt not a shred of delight from it.
All he felt was a chill like falling into an icy abyss.
Because Selicia was prying open his fingers one by one and taking the teacup from his hand.
But now that things had come to this, there was nothing he could do.
He could only watch in silence, quietly, hopelessly.
As though he were watching the countdown to his own death.
“Come to think of it, I was rather looking forward to the tea brewed by Young Master Muen.”
Selicia’s face showed no expression that could remotely be called anticipation, yet she still raised the cup that had originally belonged to Muen to her lips.
Then, looking at him, she asked in puzzlement,
“Are you not drinking, Young Master Muen?”
“I am drinking.”
Muen forced the corners of his mouth upward with all the stiffness of a corpse.
He too lifted his teacup and slowly brought to his lips the tea that had originally belonged to Selicia.
He moved very, very slowly, as though he wanted to stretch that moment into the lifespan of a diamond.
But under Selicia’s gaze, even the slowest process had to reach its end.
Left with no choice, Muen closed his eyes, tipped his head back, and poured the tea into his mouth.
Watching this, Selicia narrowed her eyes slightly as well.
She glanced once more at the tea in her cup, then turned her head a little to look outside.
Goblets clinked, music drifted and danced, and just beyond the wall of this room, the grand ball was still in full swing.
Most of Belland’s nobility had been invited here tonight.
Even if he was the Duke’s son, he should not truly dare to do anything so foolish at a time like this... should he?
At last, Selicia took a small sip of the black tea in her cup.
Hm?
Why did the tea still taste strange?
Frowning, Selicia lowered her head to look into the cup.
The liquid inside swayed gently, red as vivid blood.
Could it be...?
Selicia suddenly looked up.
Muen had not spoken at all for quite some time now.
And now, he was smiling.
It was the kind of smile where the corners of his lips had nearly stretched to his ears, yet his mouth remained tightly shut, making him look deeply unsettling.
“You!”
For the first time, panic flashed through Selicia’s eyes.
But it was already too late. She could feel her whole body beginning to go weak.
And Muen finally opened his mouth.
Blargh—
He spat out every last mouthful of tea.