It Seemed My Fiancé Hated Me, So I Distanced Myself—But for Some Reason, He Complained - Chapter 33

“Still, who exactly is this young lady? I don’t recall any high-ranking nobles in this country named Clarissa. Is she from a lower noble family? Surely she’s not a commoner?”

“Clarissa is the daughter of a marquis. Anastasia, could we continue this conversation another time? Right now, I’m in the middle of giving Clarissa a tour of the castle.”

Though Prince Lucas spoke with exasperation, Lady Anastasia showed no sign of listening.

After staring intently at me, her expression suddenly changed to one of realization.

“Clarissa from a marquis family? Don’t tell me you’re the Ash-covered Lady from the Meriam Marquis family!?”

Lady Anastasia covered her mouth with both hands, her face transforming into one of shock.

“Anastasia! Stop calling Clarissa by that disrespectful name!”

“But the Ash-covered Lady of the Meriam family is someone who’s mocked in social circles. She’s completely mismatched with her fiancé. That’s right, the Ash-covered Lady was supposed to have a fiancé! What happened to him!?”

“Due to certain circumstances, her engagement was recently dissolved. Anastasia, please just let us go already.”

Prince Lucas said this with clear annoyance before pulling me closer by the shoulder.

“I’m sorry, Clarissa. Let’s just go and ignore Anastasia.”

“Is that really alright?”

“Don’t worry about it. Just because she’s my cousin doesn’t mean she can be so pushy.”

With those words, Prince Lucas took my hand and practically dragged me away from Lady Anastasia as we broke into a run.

I could still hear Lady Anastasia saying something behind us, and though I felt bad about leaving so abruptly, I allowed the prince to lead me away from the scene.

“Clarissa, I’m truly sorry! Anastasia caused you trouble!”

When we returned to the room he had shown me earlier, Prince Lucas brought his hands together in apology.

I waved both hands in front of my face.

“No, please don’t worry about it. More than that, I’m concerned that I might have been disrespectful toward Lady Anastasia.”

“Don’t worry about that. She’s the one who was rude.”

Prince Lucas said this with a troubled expression.

“Um… if it’s alright, could you tell me about Lady Anastasia?”

I couldn’t help but be somewhat curious about the engagement matter I’d just heard about. Since Prince Lucas had said he firmly rejected it, I assumed the engagement was a thing of the past.

But what bothered me was that Lady Anastasia herself didn’t seem to have given up.