I Don’t Want A Prince In My Life - Chapter 12. The Maid Of Honor
The dress had been made in my previous size, and I managed to get it altered and ready to wear in half a day.
The seamstress who was called in to fix the dress was very surprised when I suddenly picked up a needle and started sewing my own dress.
I was told not to do this as it was dangerous, but I was undoubtedly quicker, having done more work in a day than the prestigious tailor’s seamstress.
I knew it was not very ladylike behavior, but I didn’t think it mattered because I was not a noble lady anymore anyway.
The dress, which was successfully resized, was the same blue-purple color as Albert’s eyes, and I was more worried that it might have belonged to someone else.
“It’s alright. Don’t worry about anything, princess.”
The maid, who had been taking care of me since this morning, said it in a very good mood.
Even so, why did she call me princess?
It was not wrong to call me by that name, because my birth family, the Dukes of Bradley, was a lineage separated from the royal family of Percival, but it was more correct to call me “Miss”, which was used for unmarried noblewomen in general.
I wondered how Serge had explained this to the maid, and she led me to the place where Albert was supposed to be.
I was summoned to the courtyard of the royal palace, which was only accessible to a limited number of people.
The garden, which contained the tombstone of the first king, was the real heart of the castle and was normally only accessible to those of royal blood and their spouses.
Ever since I was a child, I have always wanted to enter this place.
I kept asking the maidservant if I could really go in there, but she kept walking confidently down the path to the courtyard.
I followed her, wondering if she should be given walking boots instead of high heels to walk in the garden.
The courtyard was so large that it looked almost like a small forest with wild-looking trees here and there, although the undergrowth had been cut.
It was nothing like the gardens of the nobility where symmetry was the standard.
A clear stream flowed through the garden, and small animals such as squirrels and birds swayed in the trees.
We walked, being careful not to let our dresses get caught in the branches, until we came to an ancient white pavilion with a gazebo.
Inside the gazebo was a table and two chairs, one of which Albert was sitting on.
When he caught sight of us, he stood up and approached us as if in a panic.
“What brings you here?”
The maid of honor was wrong when she told me to meet Albert in the garden. I was upset by the fact that I inadvertently broke into the secret place of the royal family.
“I’m sorry, too.”
Forgetting yesterday’s exchange, I apologized.
It was true that I still found it hard to forgive Albert, but that was not the point.
But it seemed that Albert was speaking more to the maidservant than to me.
The reason why I knew this was because he later shifted his gaze to me and said, “That dress is…” and his face turned bright red.
I knew it was not the right dress for me to wear.
What the hell was this maid of honor thinking?
I couldn’t help but glare back at her.
But Albert somehow regained his composure and said: “I’m not going to do it.”
“Why are you with Cecilia? Witch.”
There were a lot of questions on my mind at that time.
It was a pity that the prince, who was so good-looking, thought the maidservant was a witch because of the after effects of being played by Angelica.
I was stunned for a while, then I sat down in the other chair after Albert encouraged me. He seemed to have recovered somehow.
My legs were just getting tired, so I sat down quietly, but I thought something strange happened.
When I asked the maid what the hell happened, she smiled broadly. Then, right before my eyes, something amazing happened.
In an instant, the dress that the maid was wearing instantly transformed into a shiny black dressing gown.
On top of her head, even a triangular hat appeared, giving her the appearance of a witch from a fairy tale.
“Oh, that was fun! She’s passed! She’s passed!”
And with that, the former maid of honor sat down in the same chair that Albert had been sitting in.
In other words, right in front of me.
With the chair gone, Albert was left standing by the table.
It was not often you see a man of such high rank standing still.
“Witch! I haven’t told Cecilia anything yet,” he said. “All of a sudden this…and that dress…”
Apparently, Albert still had something to hide from me. I didn’t mind, because we didn’t get along well enough to be honest with each other about everything, but I didn’t feel good about being involved in their games.
“The dress,” I said, “is not for me to wear, is it? I had to make it fit. I’ll fix it back later.”
The dress’s real owner must be Albert’s fiancée. I’ve never heard of her before, but Albert was old enough. I was sure he had a fiancée. When I thought that the other person was of a similar stature to me, Albert denied my words with a tearful look on his face.
“No, you can keep the dress,” he said. “If you’ve resized it, keep it. That’s not what I’m trying to say. It looks great on you…”
Albert was no longer the man who liked Angelica when we met again.
I was happy because he complimented me as if it were the old days.
It was hard for me to see my fiancée, my friend, and my brother as different people all at once back then.
“I see. So what exactly do you mean by witch?”
As I asked Albert back, I looked at the woman in front of me, and I wondered why I had thought she was only a maid with her silver hair and black eyes.
At once, she thrust one of her white fingers in front of me and drew a circle with it as if it was dancing.
The next thing I knew, a tremendous gust of wind blew out of the circle. I reflexively shut my eyes.
“Cecilia!”
Albert put his hand on my shoulders to protect me.
How long did I stay like that?
I finally opened my eyes after the wind had died down, and I saw a strange, hairy creature like a ball floating in the air, defying the order of the world.
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