When the Female Lead Went Off-Script, the Main Male Lead Became the Tyrant's Empress - Chapter 33.1
Mishien, who had blocked the crystal paperweight Arden had hurled at him, sighed.
Good grief, he actually asked him outright!
“After all this, how can he still insist he doesn’t like the Countess?”
Mishien grumbled quietly enough for only Arden to hear.
This time, an inkwell came flying at him.
Haster had known Arden would ask what sort of relationship he had with Troanne.
But he had expected Arden to use it merely to tease him maliciously. He hadn’t expected him to interrogate him as though there really were something between them.
Haster briefly looked dumbfounded before speaking without emotion.
“We’re nothing.”
It was an honest answer, but Arden snorted.
“Liar. You were acting like that when there’s nothing between you?”
Acting like what?
Haster searched his memories of the previous night, trying to recall what had happened.
The only things he had done with Troanne were discuss the young lady they would choose as Clary’s lady-in-waiting and exchange idle conversation about their lives.
“Pathetic. We merely talked, and you’re acting as though something happened between us.”
They merely talked?
Arden felt wronged.
‘Don’t make me laugh! You didn’t just talk!’
The garden that night had been glittering all over with night dew, and even the air had been fragrant.
It had been such an enchanting and romantic night that something could have happened dozens of times over.
In the gazebo blooming with climbing roses, the two had stood side by side and gazed affectionately at each other.
Their gentle, tender gazes intertwined, and their voices, like the sound of song, never ceased.
But if Arden said any of that, it would be the same as admitting with his own mouth that he had followed Haster and Troanne and secretly spied on them.
As the Crown Prince, and as a human being, he absolutely couldn’t do that.
Wasn’t that far too vulgar?
Arden vaguely glossed over the matter based on what he had seen in the ballroom.
“You left me all alone and went over to the Countess to chat with her all friendly-like.”
A chill settled around Haster’s eyes as he looked at Arden, who not only enjoyed gossip but even invented it himself.
“We merely discussed Clary’s lady-in-waiting.”
“Did you just say ‘we’?”
“……Is that important?”
“It is. To me, it sounds like you and the Countess have some kind of special relationship.”
“Our relationship is none of your concern.”
Haster snapped at him in a voice as cold as ice.
“What?”
As Arden stared at him in confusion, Haster drove the point home.
“I’m saying that even if I were seeing the Countess, what would that have to do with you?”
Those words kept Arden awake all night.
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Arden was going out of his mind.
No matter how many times Haster thought about it, Arden had clearly finally gone insane from the stress of excessive work.
The moment Haster returned from his outing and opened the door to his room, he doubted his own eyes.
‘What the hell is this now?’
“Delivery. Ah, what the heck?”
Clary, who had been entering with a gift box in her arms, flinched at the sight inside the room and took a step backward.
“What is all this?”
“I don’t know either.”
The entire room was overflowing with flowers.
Some sort of spell had been cast, and wisteria vines twisted and stretched their branches along the ceiling.
Thanks to them, clusters of flowers resembling bunches of grapes hung overhead like a curtain of beads.
Along with the roses decorating the entrance, tulips, snapdragons, moth orchids, lilies, lilacs, and brightly colored flowers of unknown names bloomed lavishly in bunches throughout the room.
As though that weren’t enough, glowing butterflies created by magic fluttered around them, scattering sparkling powder.
Rather than trying to make sense of the immature Crown Prince’s bizarre behavior, Haster turned his gaze toward his niece, who was standing beside him with her mouth hanging open.
“What are you holding?”
“This? Uncle told me to give it to you.”
The box he received was light.
When he removed the wrapping and opened the lid, an extravagantly ornate banquet outfit appeared.
The luxurious embroidery that bore the touch of a master craftsman and the gold decorations drew the eye, but what stood out most was the jeweled chain brooch attached to the collar.
“What is this……?”
The large red ruby was surrounded by small diamonds set densely around it, and it looked as though it had to be worth well over the annual pension of an ordinary noble.
“He says you can’t return it.”
As though she had read his mind in advance, Clary beat him to it.
Haster groaned and pressed a hand to his forehead.
It was difficult to tell whether his head was spinning because of the overpowering fragrance of the flowers or Arden’s outrageous behavior.
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