“…Yes…?”

“So I would appreciate it if you, Valentin, stay quiet like now, as if a mouse had died.”

Words treating everything as a small music box world revolving within his palm.

He couldn’t bear it any longer.

Slap.

Valentin raised his hand and brushed off the finger touching the tip of his chin.

Now without hesitation, and as if to show, he frowned and took a step back.

He was trembling with anger and felt unpleasant.

He wanted to throw a punch at the arrogant prince who touched his face as he pleased, but the last remaining reason tied Valentin’s hands.

‘Even if I can’t hit him, I should say what I have to say.’

Even if Clifton harbored more disgust at his words and attitude, now that he had already taken various actions, he couldn’t just stay still like a doll without a mouth.

“No. Our engagement will never happen.”

The eyes of the one shaking his head and speaking were determined.

‘What did I do for this?’

But Clifton just chuckled at Valentin’s strong tone of making a resolution, with a look as if watching a day-old puppy’s struggle barking at his feet.

“This time, you can expect it. Then I will take my leave now.”

Valentin couldn’t bear it anymore and moved his steps busily again, ignoring courtesy. He didn’t have time to receive permission to leave.

With a unilateral farewell, Clifton moved away behind his back.

Valentin quickly climbed the stairs and twisted the cane he was holding. Angry veins bulged on the back of his hand under the white gloves.

‘No wonder…!’

There was an unexpected variable.

He couldn’t understand why this engagement, which both parties opposed, had been dragging on for several years, but the premise of ‘both parties’ was wrong from the beginning. And the idea that Empress Beatrice and the Heatherfield ducal family were the root of all evil was wrong from the start.

‘Damn it…’

His molars chewed the inside of his mouth.

It seemed there was a reason why the Third Prince had been standing a step away, as if a stranger, and leaving their engagement as it was, thinking something suspicious in his head.

Just as he had placed his lover in a firm position through the media for a long time, the engagement with Valentin that seemed to be forced must have been necessary for the great and grand life plan woven by that good brain of his.

For whatever reason, it seemed there was some value in using it in the mind of someone who was the protagonist of the original novel, although an ordinary person like himself couldn’t know with his own head.

‘You think I’ll stay still and let things flow as you think?’

There will never be an ending where he gets used unknowingly and collapses after frolicking around excitedly like in the original.

The die has already been cast.

The game had already begun, and since he couldn’t back out, the only path left was to move forward, no matter what.

* * *

“Wait here?”

Valentin asked the attendant, looking at the place he was guided to as a waiting room. It looked excessively crowded. It was as if they had gathered all sorts of riffraff in the neighborhood and threatened them to chatter loudly and chaotically right away or they wouldn’t be forgiven…

‘Why is there such a strange chicken coop-like place in the imperial palace…?’

The attendant answered nonchalantly.

“Yes. You can wait here.”

My goodness… These people must have had at least the status and position to enter the imperial palace, so they must have been able to come here like Valentin himself…. That bustle was truly reminiscent of a market floor.

“Are you sure you guided me correctly?”

Valentin couldn’t hide the confusion in his voice.

“Yes, that’s right. This is where those who have come without making a prior appointment with Her Majesty the Empress wait.”

Then it was a very absurd face, as if asking if he thought it would be easy for a mere noble to meet Empress Beatrice, the center of imperial power that even birds flying in the sky would fall. It was a perfect match for the saying that a servant of a powerful family knows they are high in authority.

“But you are lucky, young master. Usually, except for Wednesdays like today, she never accepts general audiences.”

It seemed like a subtitle was passing over the attendant’s head, saying, ‘Today happens to be the day when guys like you who came recklessly without an appointment can get a little chance. It’s a day when she accepts general audiences. The fact that you came all the way here is already overflowing favor and imperial grace.’

In fact, Valentin had nothing to say because he didn’t know that he had to go through such complicated and difficult procedures when coming alone without any preparation, since he had been able to meet the imperial family so easily while accompanying his father, the Viscount.

Indeed, was he too reckless in his haste…?

“…I understand. I’ll wait.”

Valentin sat down on an empty chair, groaning.

The attendant mechanically held out a hard file folder and writing tools, saying,

“Please write your name here and I will report it.”

“Yes….”

He took what the attendant offered and weakly scribbled his full name. Hoping to receive an audience quickly, he wrote in the remarks column of the file that he had brought a reply to the invitation sent earlier and handed it to the attendant.

Watching the back of the attendant, who was only pretending to be polite, walk away with the file, Valentin awkwardly sat on a remaining chair in a place like a flea market.

* * *

Our Valentin….

If he had been a little less hasty and truly wise like a serpent, as mentioned in the bishop’s sermon, it would have been an action he never would have taken.

But our Valentin never betrayed expectations… And he was digging his own grave by taking hasty and foolish actions….

Rather, the title of this story depicting Valentin’s life could be called ‘Valentin, Taking a Shovel and Finding His Burial Place’.

Anyway.

That’s how the names of the people gathered there were called,

And one by one, they were filled and left diligently,

Until there were more empty seats in that room.

And as the sun set slowly,

Valentin’s name was never called.

* * *

“What is this…?”

There was no strength in Valentin’s steps as he trudged out of Empress Beatrice’s palace. It was similar to the steps of a head of a household with many mouths to feed who was suddenly fired.

Thud, thud.

‘Damn it…. They should have said it wouldn’t work from the beginning….’

This must have been a method to make a fool of him. Valentin regretted belatedly that he should have used his uncle’s name instead.

Empress Beatrice must have had no intention of meeting him from the start. It was obvious even to him that he had come to reject the unofficial line under the pretext of teatime with the Third Prince Clifton.

Valentin had no choice but to blame his haste and stupidity from a few hours ago and move his steps powerlessly to a place where he could call a carriage.

‘Still, it’s fortunate that I wrote a letter.’

It was on the way out after earnestly asking the attendant of Empress Beatrice’s palace one last time to make sure to deliver his letter.

The letter was very lengthy, stating that he had spent the night with someone he met at the ball and lost his chastity, so he was not qualified to be the companion of His Highness the noble Third Prince.

And that His Highness the Second Prince had directly witnessed it and knew it well, so it could be used as a witness, and he, who already had the sin of not being chaste, was so embarrassed and ashamed that he couldn’t even face His Highness the Third Prince and absolutely could not become a family with the imperial household, so he prostrated himself.

Historically, there was no such thing as pride in Valentin’s life.

What meaning does pride have in a matter of life and death?

He hoped that the letter would at least be delivered well to Empress Beatrice’s hands. But what if that didn’t work? If the letter was discarded and this operation didn’t work properly, he only had the last resort left.

It was to put on a public humiliation show in the media.

‘Should I provide a tip or interview to Eldon Times, the empire’s largest media company…?’

Or if the rumor spreads widely in gossip weeklies, that would be the most definite method.

Of course, there was a very fatal disadvantage that he wouldn’t be able to show his face in the capital from now on…. What should he do about the family’s honor…? The family’s reputation would be greatly damaged….

Valentin’s face was filled with worries about this and that, and there was no strength at all in his steps.

“Valentin.”

A voice heard from afar stopped the one staggering across the imperial palace in the sunset. It was a deep voice that seemed somewhat familiar, yet a little unfamiliar.