CL Chapter 2

The pale glow of dawn had yet to fade when Charlotte d’Ignator arrived at the royal palace.

A Royal Knight, waiting by the entrance of the central palace to escort her to the king, was momentarily mesmerized.

The woman, stepping down from her carriage with the help of the coachman, appeared almost otherworldly, like an ice sculpture brought to life.

Her eyes, a vivid shade of blue, seemed as if they had been carved from the frozen lake itself.

Her silver hair shimmered, like shards of moonlight scattered across the sky.

Her skin, so pale it nearly glowed, was almost translucent in the dim light.

There was no extravagant decoration, every aspect of her physical appearance radiated an almost ethereal beauty. It was hard to look away.

Is this…….the princess?

The knight forgot his duty for a moment, caught up in admiring the divine creation before him. His gaze traveled from head to toe, then back again, without pause.

How many times did he repeat this? the knight suddenly became aware of the gazes watching him.

One was the coachman, while the other was a masterpiece that God had crafted with great care.

Damn it.

The Knight, feeling a sudden surge of shame for his unexpected behavior, quickly filled his mind with thoughts of Charlotte d’Ignathor’s ugly past in an attempt to reprimand himself.

Five years ago, Princess Charlotte, the eldest daughter of king Ignathar, had been exiled from the royal palace to a secluded villa on the outskirts of the capital.

His memory was clear, because this was right before the war broke out with the now-dissolved Kingdom of Cloman.

The public reason was to recuperate, but everyone knew that was not the truth.

Because the rumors about Princess Charlotte that spread outside the palace walls were extremely negative.

She had been especially envious and jealous of her younger sister, Princess Mia.

The incident where she slapped princess Mia and left marks on her cheek was well known throughout Ignathor.

Despite this, the king and queen had chosen not to punish princess Charlotte, who was heir to the throne. Instead, they had tried to guide her.

However, Edification proved too weak a method to change a person’s vicious nature.

The daughters of noble families who had volunteered to be the princess’s maids fled one by one.

Eventually, there were no more servants willing to tend to her, and it became a widely known secret that the queen was in distress.

Even so, the royal couple persisted, unwilling to abandon their first child, enduring through all of it.

That was until princess Charlotte’s coming-of-age ceremony, when she caused a scandal almost every day, even ruining princess Mia’s birthday celebration.

The king and queen, having witnessed one of their musicians embracing princess Charlotte on the balcony, finally exploded in rage.

They stripped Charlotte of her claim to the throne and sent her away to the secluded place.

On the day the princess, stained by her own disgrace, left the royal palace, the people gathered in the streets and threw stones at her carriage.

The royal guards tasked with escorting the princess pretended to dissuade the crowd, though they subtly opened a path.

As a result, the carriage that reached the secluded villa had its windows shattered beyond recognition, hardly looking like a carriage meant to carry royalty. Yet no one felt pity for it.

And so, this so-called princess spent her life in the isolated palace, her title nothing more than a formality.

No matter how beautiful the shell she wore, the heart inside was as ugly as could be, not even a single blood vessel untouched by cruelty.

The knight’s gaze shifted, now laced with disgust. It was as if he had witnessed something he shouldn’t have.

“Follow me.”

Without offering the customary greeting to royalty, he simply stated his business, His tone clearly conveyed his desire to avoid further interaction.

The coachman, still standing there without any special order to leave, stared at the knight in surprise.

After a brief pause, the coachman’s expression shifted, and he quickly turned away in understanding.

Once again, no one was welcoming the princess.

 

 

⋆｡°✩ ★ ✩°｡⋆    

 

 

Despite their troubled past, to Diandel, Charlotte was his daughter he hadn’t met in a long time, and to Charlotte, Diandel was her father she hadn’t met in a long time.

If these two, bound by the name of family, couldn’t stand their built-up longing and had a tearful reunion, no one would point fingers.

Moreover, the throne room was a closed space at the moment.

There were no eyes to see or ears to hear.

It was perfect privacy. If they laid down the weight of being royalty and showed their affection as family, it would be known only to the two of them.

“……”

“……”

Yet from the moment the throne room door closed, a harsh silence began. It remained for minutes.

Despite not sharing a single resemblance on their faces, there was one unique common point, their eyes showed no emotion as they looked at each other.

Dry time passed.

* Tick-tock, tick-tock. *

On one side of the room, the grandfather clock stood straight and tall, its rhythmic movement filling the quiet space.

“Have you been at the villa so long that you’ve forgotten even the basics of courtesy?”

Diandel stopped struggling and spoke first. His words were meant to scold Charlotte for acting as if she had no manners at all, but the fact that he had to make the first move put him on edge.

He clicked his tongue out of habit.

Still, despite Diandel’s concession, Charlotte remained stubbornly silent, her tightly closed lips refusing to open.

“It seems you don’t even care about why I called you here.”

Seeing her stubbornness, Diandel added another remark.

Only then did Charlotte’s lips move, slowly as if time itself had been altered in her mind.

“Whether I am curious or not, does it even matter?”

Her retort came without any expectation of a response.

Diandel couldn’t help but chuckle.

She was right.

There was no need for Diandel to concern himself with what this useless child was thinking or feeling.

All she needed to do was carry out whatever task was assigned to her in accordance with his instructions.

Still…..

“I have some news you’ll be thrilled to hear.”

Although not intentional, this time he had something that would undoubtedly make her happy.

Diandel clicked his tongue again, feeling uneasy about the inevitable outcome.

The heavy chime of the grandfather clock ceased its loud ringing.

It probably rang five times, but I couldn’t be sure if I counted correctly.

The light streaming through the window was enough to suggest it was 5 am on a new day.

However, there was a hazy fog in my head disrupting clear thought.

“Go to Rosa and Marry Leo Carthenon.”

I had heard this unrealistic command.

As if on cue, the grandfather clock started ringing again.

The surreal ringing spreading through the atmosphere pulled Charlotte one step away from reality.

It was hard to tell what was real and what wasn’t. Everything was hazy.

Amidst the unclear, one thing stood out, the look in Diandel’s eyes as he stared at her.

A hunter waiting for his prey with a trap set.

Charlotte steeled herself, aware she could soon lose all she had worked for.

She didn’t know what was at stake here, but it was clearly a setup.

Leo Carthenon, The Duke of Rosa.

He was the man Mia de Ignator adored and couldn’t live without. And Diandel would never give the man Mia desired to Charlotte.

It didn’t matter if it was Leo Carthenon or just a tiny wisp of grass, or even a drop of dirty water.

Whatever Mia desired would never be Charlotte’s.

Moreover, due to his key role in defeating Cloman, Leo had become a hero in Ignator, a symbol of hope.

Even locked away in the Palace of Stars, Charlotte heard news from the outside now and then.

What about her, the troublemaker of the kingdom?

Marriage?

It was absurd.

It wasn’t even worth taking seriously.

“The palace will soon be buzzing again. The king has already lost his mind.”

Charlotte’s response was so lame it sounded like a joke.

She shrugged it off and turned around.

It was time to end her five-year visit to the royal palace.

She didn’t feel any regret. She was just returning to her own time.

Charlotte straightened her back.

She didn’t want anyone to think she had been swayed by such nonsense.

Despite all her efforts, she had still fallen into the trap under her feet.

“I heard that guy went blind.”

Charlotte paused, slowly turning back to face Diandel. 

Her face wore a look of astonishment that satisfied him.