A Fake Marriage? Sure! …Wait, Is It Actually Fake? Something’s Not Right Here! - Chapter 11

The day after the tea party hosted by the Crown Princess.

Having finished checking the supplies, Lidoria walked through the palace corridor with a clipboard held against her chest.

She was on her way to the Crown Princess’s office to give her report.

The tea party had been a great success. In fact, ever since Lidoria arrived for work that morning, she had been bombarded with questions from familiar noble daughters, asking, “What kind of tea party will Her Highness the Crown Princess host next?”

It had been three years since Crown Princess Sophia married into the royal family. Never before had she been the topic of conversation in the palace for something “good.” As Sophia’s lady-in-waiting, Lidoria felt immensely proud.

Lidoria left the building and walked along the cloister.

The building she was heading toward was used by the Crown Princess, the Queen, and the Princesses.

It wasn’t for private chambers, but rather for offices and receiving guests—primarily for official duties.

The cloister was paved with bricks, making it perfectly fine for walking.

As she walked, her heels clicking sharply against the stone, the bushes in the garden suddenly rustled loudly.

Turning her head, she saw someone heading straight toward her.

It was Sena.

Her shoulders were squared angrily, and her face was flushed so red that the freckles, which were something of a trademark for her, were completely invisible.

“Hey!”

With that, Sena grabbed Lidoria’s arm and dragged her away from the cloister.

“Hey…! What are you doing?!”

“Just come with me!”

At a spot among the garden trees, hidden from view of both the building and the cloister, Sena finally released Lidoria’s arm.

Lidoria cautiously glanced around.

She found it simply strange.

Sena was alone.

She usually moved around in a group, accompanied by the other ladies-in-waiting of Princess Melissa.

In fact, even when Lidoria had been lured to the café with that fake letter, Sena had come to mock her with several others.

(Maybe someone else is hiding nearby, waiting to attack me.)

Sena shoved her shoulder, but since Lidoria had braced herself at the same moment, she didn’t fall.

“What is it? Are you looking for a fight?”

This time, Lidoria shifted her stance and raised a hand in a defensive posture, but Sena shouted at her.

“What did you say to Lord Evan?!”

“Huh?”

The question was so unexpected that for a moment, Lidoria almost asked, “Who’s Evan again?”

“Ah, you mean Lady Sena’s fiancé?”

Her face twisted as she remembered the rather rude things he had said to her yesterday.

“What did I say? He’s the one who said rude things to me.”

Things like how she was lying and causing trouble for everyone, and that she should confess the truth sooner rather than later.

And in the end, he might have even told Alex the mysterious “truth” he’d been fed, leading Alex to admonish her as well.

“Don’t you lie!”

Sena shouted in a low voice.

At that tone, Lidoria blinked in surprise.

Normally, she would have screeched.

She usually complained in a shrill, grating voice, and the other ladies-in-waiting, as if incited by that sound, would join in, insulting Lidoria and the others in the same piercing register.

But now her voice was low and menacing.

Realizing this, Lidoria understood that Sena was genuinely furious with her.

Indeed, there was nothing but pure hostility in Sena’s eyes—none of the usual mockery or arrogance born of a sense of superiority.

“Late last night, Lord Evan came to my residence and asked if I had anything to say or correct regarding you,” Sena said in a growling tone.

“When I said I had nothing, he said, ‘I’d like you to think it over for a while.’ You must have put something in his head!”

She lunged to grab Lidoria by the collar, but Lidoria narrowly dodged and maintained a safe distance, shaking her head.

“I’m not the one who put ideas in his head. That was you, Lady Sena. You’re the one who told Lord Evan that I’m lying about my engagement to Sir Alex Reading, aren’t you?”

“How could someone like you possibly be engaged to Sir Alex?! You must have schemed your way into it, didn’t you?!”

“No. I received a letter summoning me to that café by Sir Alex.”

“That’s impossible! Because I wrote that letter!”

Sena spat out the words.

“You realized that, didn’t you? That’s why you pretended to be the victim and consulted Her Highness the Crown Princess! And then the Crown Princess went crying to His Highness the Crown Prince! You really played it well!”

Lidoria was dumbfounded.

“So, it really was you who sent that letter, Lady Sena.”

“Don’t act so innocent when you already knew! Otherwise, you wouldn’t have waited for hours! You were just putting on a show of being pitiful!”

Well, I was just thinking, “I wonder when they’ll show up,” Lidoria thought, feeling a sharp sting in her heart.

“What did you say to Lord Evan?! Tell me!”

Sena closed in on her again. Lidoria was thoroughly fed up.

Wasn’t Sena the one at fault here?

She let out a small sigh. (Why do I have to clean up her mess?) She decided she’d just shake Sena off here and head back into the palace.

Just as she was thinking that, the garden bushes rustled loudly again.

Instinctively, both Sena and Lidoria turned toward the sound.

There stood Alex, expressionless, and Evan, who looked as if something were stuck in his throat.

“Wh-why…?”

Sena’s face turned pale as she muttered. Even with her lipstick on, she had clearly lost all color.

“After that.”

It was Alex who spoke.

His gaze was fixed on Lidoria.

“After what?”

“Yesterday’s tea party. Evan came to me with accusations, saying you were lying and such.”

Alex clearly stated “accusations” and glanced briefly at Evan.

“Even after that, he kept insisting that you were lying, so I told him.”

“Told him what?”

“I said, ‘Then go ask Lady Sena once. Ask her if she has anything to correct regarding Lady Lidoria.’ If she says ‘no,’ just tell her, ‘I’d like you to think it over for a while,’ and come back. Then, if Lady Sena doesn’t go pick a fight with Lady Lidoria the next day, I’ll also admit that Lady Lidoria was lying.”

“And the result of carrying that out.”

Lidoria glanced at Sena.

She stood frozen, not moving a muscle, like a statue.

As for Evan, he too seemed unsure of what to say to Sena.

Did he want to say, “I believed in you”? Did he want to confront her, asking “Why?”?

Or perhaps he wanted to say, “What about my position, since I trusted you?”

Whatever the case.

Sena had clearly admitted that she was the one who wrote the fake letter.

“Get back to your duties at an appropriate time.”

Alex ordered Evan in a flat tone.

“You’ve only been tailing Lady Sena since morning. You’re falling behind on everything.”

Lidoria was stunned that he would say such a thing to Evan, who remained silent as ever. (This guy is seriously messed up as a person.)

It really was a good thing this engagement was fake. There was no way she could spend her whole life with such an inhuman person; if anything, it would be a bad influence on her brother’s upbringing.

“Lady Lidoria. Are you heading to Her Highness the Crown Princess’s office?”

Directed with the conversation, Lidoria nodded with what must have been a rather stern expression. But Alex didn’t seem to pay it much mind and gestured with his chin toward the cloister.

“Then let’s walk together part of the way. There are things I’d like to discuss.”

(No, I was going to say I can go alone,) but if he had things to discuss, then it was official business.

Reluctantly, Lidoria replied, “Yes,” and began to walk.

Somehow.

She could feel Sena’s gaze on her, but even if she stayed here, there was nothing she could do for her.

After all, Sena had sown the seeds herself.

“What did you want to discuss?”

She quickened her pace to catch up with Alex, and the two walked together along the cloister.

“It’s about that. Yesterday, His Highness the Crown Prince said something like, ‘By the time we go on that picnic, you two will have been on a few dates, right?’”

Ah— Lidoria covered her forehead with her free hand, the one not holding the clipboard.

That’s right.

Before the Crown Prince and his wife went on their picnic, she and Alex had to go on a few dates that at least looked like dates, to create a fait accompli and avoid being exposed as a lie.

“You have your duties, and I’m busy with various things too. I wanted to coordinate our schedules.”

To match Alex’s pace, Lidoria had to half-jog, but she was surprised.

He must have noticed.

“What is it?”

He narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

“No, I just thought you might say, ‘Come on this day,’ or something.”

“What kind of tyrant do you think I am?”

“Ah, my apologies.”

“If you didn’t have work, I’d intend to have you accommodate my schedule, but we both have responsible jobs. It wouldn’t be fair to only have you adjust to my convenience.”

“That would be a great help.”

From the way he spoke, it seemed Alex valued Lidoria’s work.

In a society where being a lady-in-waiting was often seen as a temporary job for noble daughters before marriage, she felt a small flicker of happiness that he recognized her efforts.

“Then let’s each suggest possible dates.”

“Yeah. Sorry, but write them down and give the paper to someone in the Crown Prince’s Royal Guard ready room. I’ll make sure they know to pass it to me.”

“Understood.”

“Is it fine if we just have some tea and go shopping or something?”

“That’s perfectly fine. If you could even accompany me on my shopping errands, that would be helpful.”

“No problem at all. But right now, the ‘Hunting Dogs’ are quite busy.”

“Is it a mission?”

(What could it be? Maybe something like a spy mission?) she wondered, feeling a little excited as she asked, but Alex snorted dismissively.

“There’s a Royal Tournament in ten days, right? For each knight order.”

“The annual event held before His Majesty, yes.”

At the door connecting the cloister to the building, guards stood watch. As the two approached, they saluted and opened the door. Alex escorted Lidoria in a perfunctory manner as they entered the building.

“I’m participating in that too. As one of the Crown Prince’s Royal Guards.”

“Congratulations.”

Being selected was an honor.

“If our dates don’t line up, then come watch that Royal Tournament. Cheer for me a bit, and that’ll count as one date completed.”

“Understood.”

And so.

A rather unromantic date schedule was being arranged.