I’m Sorry I’m Not Qualified to Be Empress - Chapter 4

Chapter 4: This horny raccoon bastard1

Rosé felt like she was being dragged to a slaughterhouse.

She was the last of the ball’s protagonists to appear, and as she stepped into the hall, everyone’s gazes focused on her.

“Oh my goodness. How beautiful.”

“She’s beginning to closely resemble Countess Audrey, who was famous in the empire for her beauty back in the day.”

“How will the parents give away such a lovely daughter? Count Jared probably wants to keep Rosé by his side for a lifetime.”

“I don’t know which family it will be, but whoever does marry the daughter of the Etoile family will be having a windfall marriage.”

“I heard they were successful in procuring another trading ship recently?”

The nobles covered their mouths with their unfolded fans as they discussed.

While descending the stairs, Rosé lowered her eyes and quietly searched for Cassiax among the crowd.

Finding him wasn’t so difficult.

A man arrogantly showed off his golden platinum hair, a rare sight amongst those at the ball.

Standing on the last steps of the staircase, he lifted his glass in her direction.

As if to further announce his presence, his eyes curved in delight as he grinned at her. At his smile, the ladies in the crowd only fanned themselves harder.

But as soon as Cassiax smiled, unlike the other ladies, Rosé felt a hot feeling of disgust burst from inside her.

Evil bastard. 

Rosé avoided Cassiax’s gaze, acting as if she had not seen him from the start.

When Cassiax noticed her difference in behavior towards him, he let out a chuckle as if he thought her actions adorable and held his forehead in his hand. She wasn’t the only one who had acted in such an obviously cheeky way to grab his attention.

But when Rosé saw him laughing, she wanted to pour some champagne on his face.

“You’re looking really beautiful tonight.”

As Rosé reached the bottom of the stairs, Cassiax stepped in front of her and reached out to take her hand.

Rosé looked at his hand as if she was unwilling to take it. Cassiax reached out to take Rosé’s hand and bent down to kiss the back of it. As he lowered his head, she looked up at her with his green eyes.

His eyes showed that knew he had the powder to seduce all the women in the world  with his gaze. How many nights had she spent fascinated by those eyes?

Now that she knew his true despicable self, his handsome face and gaze made her feel as if she was being looked at by a snake.

She didn’t want to touch the hand that had strangled her neck.

“Thank you for coming, your Highness.”

She curtsied and gave a formal greeting. The usually lovely voice sounded cold.

As Cassiax sensed Rosé’s strange mood and raised his head, Rosé pulled her hand out from his grasp quickly as if she had touched something dirty.

A wrinkle appeared for a moment on his handsome visage.

“Then, I hope you have a good time!” As Rosé spoke and quickly turned around to leave, Cassiax stared at her backside with a frozen expression.

What’s going on with her all of a sudden?

Cassiax did not understand Rosé’s behavior.

He had thought she had been acting shy to grab his attention, but he had just seen her pull her hand away from him as if she had touched a dirty bug.

So she was more of the tiresome type. 

He clenched the hand that Rosé had held, deciding that when they married, he would give her a thorough education on conduct as her husband.

Once she had gotten away from Cassiax, Rosé quickly blended into a group of people who showered her with birthday wishes.

I was so nervous he would ask to dance.

Then she would have had to hold his hands and look into his eyes.

I’d rather die!

At this time, someone pulled on her elbow.

“Where are you going Rosé!”

It was Eliza. Eliza and Helen were together with Lady Muriel.

“Tracy’s dancing.”

Perhaps her dance partner wasn’t to her taste, because Tracy had a scrunched up face throughout the whole dance.2

“Also, Lady Muriel, you managed to make it to the ball, though it must be so difficult to keep yourself from crying because of your…situation.”

Upon hearing Eliza’s words, Muriel looked as though she was going to burst into tears.

Rosé stared at Eliza, frowning.

“Are you really saying that as consolation? It’s like sprinkling salt on a knife stab wound.”

How did she get acquainted with these kind of girls back then? Rosé felt that she herself had probably been of the same kind.

“Don’t worry too much, Lady Muriel.”

Because I’ll make sure you won’t have to die of poison. Thinking this to herself, Rosé clasped Muriel’s hand.

“Heu heu heuk!”3

She hadn’t meant to make her cry, but tears began to fall down Muriel’s face when Rosé held her hand.

The atmosphere of the ball became slightly heavier. The aristocrats, already aware of Muriel’s situation, shook their heads, clicking their tongues.

The Marquis Montenegro, who was on the other side of the ballroom, saw this and brought his daughter away to send her on a carriage back home before returning. Muriel burst into tears as she left, and all eyes in the ball were directed at Rosé. Cassiax immediately began to approach her.

Damn!

As if he was preparing to ask her to dance, he tapped his collar once. Tak! He then briskly walked in her direction.

Fortunately, someone else was one step ahead of him and asked her to dance.

“Would you give me the honor to dance one song with me?”

“Of course.”

Rosé took the gentleman’s hand without hesitation and blatantly ignored the crown prince. The two bystanders, Eliza and Helen, stared back and forth between Rosé and Cassiax.

At this point, Cassiax did not even try to hide his puzzlement from his face.

Even if one says she changed, isn’t this too different of a change from her the last time I saw her? 

The thought of having been ignored by a humble merchant-turned noblewoman made his thoughts churn, and the slightly twisted closed lips showed how irritated and angry he was.

This is getting really annoying. Is she deliberately trying to get on my nerves?

Cassiax stared intently at Rosé as she danced. It was the same look as the one he had as he pushed her off the tower.

“Ah!”

“Oh, pardon me!”

“No, no it’s alright.”

Unable to concentrate on dancing, Rosé had accidently stepped on her dance partner’s feet. She couldn’t move well because her body was stiff like a log.

Her dance partner noticed that she was not focusing on him at all, and feeling like he was dancing alone with a doll, his face reddened and sweated.

“I am really. Really sorry. I’m just not feeling well right now.”

Rosé apologized to the gentleman and tried to separate from him even before the song was over.

At that time, a hand grabbed onto hers in a natural manner. Rosé was embarrassed and turned to look. Then her eyes widened with joy.

“Hans!”

“To make perfect gentleman like that so upset. As expected of my younger sibling.”

“I…”

“He looked so pitiful I couldn’t watch it any longer. Look, over there. He’s looking at me like I’m his lifesaver.”

The gentleman who had just danced with her was staring at them with a face full of embarrassment.

Hans gently grabbed his sister’s waist and led them away to dance. Rosé looked at her brother, some of her stress loosening and her eyes filling with tears. This was the first time she had seen him since she had heard that he was missing at sea in her past life.

It was as if she was seeing a man who had died and then had come back to life, and a difficult and strange feeling settled in her chest.

“I looked for you earlier but I didn’t see you, so I thought you weren’t coming.”

“It’s our little baby’s birthday. Of course I have to come.”

“Please, please, when you leave, tell us you’re leaving, and when you’re coming, tell us that you’re coming home! You know everyone worries about you!”

As he saw her eyes tear up, Hans’s expression showed confusion.

“What’s going on all of a sudden? Doing and saying things you’ve never done.”

Instead of replying, Rosé rested her face on his shoulder instead. She didn’t want to show her tears.

“It’s because I’m worried that you’re going to disappear suddenly.”

“ Don’t you know? No news is good news. What’s wrong with that? And explain why that horny raccoon bastard is staring at you.”

He pointed his chin towards Cassiax, who was still staring intently at them.

Rosé burst out laughing when she heard Hans call Cassiax a “horny raccoon bastard.”

In the entire Solstern Empire, Hans was probably the only one who would dare to call the crown prince such a name.

In her last life, Hans had started despising Cassiax even before Rosé fell in love with the prince.

He would criticize Rosé everyday, saying he didn’t understand how she could fall in love with such a hypocrite. He belittled the prince, arguing that if you took away his royal title, Cassiax was nothing.

Indeed. Why didn’t I take a hint from him?

With that in mind, she leaned her head on Hans’ shoulder.

If I had listened to my brother, then all the events in my past life would not have happened. 

As she let out a deep sigh, Hans looked at Rosé with a serious expression.

“You’re being really suspicious. Tell me honestly. What did he do to you?”

“Well, turns out he was a total bitch.”

“That bastard. I knew it.”

“Go and kill him Oppa.”

How should I kill him? Should I step on that place so he can’t have children?”

“I wish you would grind him away to powder so that he could die and disappear in the most painful way possible.”

Rosé’s hands trembled as they gripped onto Hans’s shoulders, and Hans suddenly stopped dancing.

“Wait what. Didn’t you like Cassiax?”

Hans was surprised to find that his sister’s words to kill Cassiax were not a joke.

“You’re my gentle baby sister who would punish me severely as soon as you heard even a little bit of swearing. Why the sudden change of heart?”

Rosé was so excited she wanted to tell Hans everything.

“…No. No it’s nothing. I was just kidding.”

She smiled and buried her face in Hans’s chest again.

“Well he’s an extremely terrible person, so don’t go near that boy.”

“Mmhm. I won’t.”

Rosé smiled and replied.

“I might be leaving for a very far place soon, so Oppa, you need to take good care of our parents at home. It’s my first and last request.”

“Going far away? Where would you even go after leaving our house?”

“There’s something like that,” Rosé said seriously.

“Since the last time I saw you, you’ve become really weird.”

“I came to my senses, that’s all.”

Hans laughed at that, and Rosé laughed with him.

By the end of the song, someone entered Rosé’s line of sight.

“I have one more favor.”

“Hmm?”

As she danced and led Hans to the corner of the hall, Rosé reached out her hand to Helen, who had been standing alone like a wallflower.

“Ro…Rosé!”

Helen jumped up in surprise. Now that they were right up close, she was too nervous to even take a peek at Hans.

Rosé took Helen’s hand, put it in Hans’s and stepped back. Seeing Rosé’s eyes that said to take care of Helen, Hans laughed and grabbed Helen’s waist. As he smiled attractively at Helen, he led her to the center of the ballroom floor.

Tsk tsk. What was so good about her flirtatious “bad boy” of a brother?

Seeing the shy Helen at a loss for what to do, Rosé smiled happily as she shook her head.

A bad guy like Hans will wake up when he meets a girl like Helen who won’t stand his unruly actions. I can’t wait to see him wallowing in regret.

Rosé looked at the two and imagined as she thought about the two of them together.

“Finally, the two of us are alone.”

She looked back in shock at the voice coming from the dark corner of the ballroom. Since when had Cassiax been standing behind her?

“Uh…Your Highness!…”

Cassiax grabbed Rosé’s wrist and pulled her to closer by the waist.

“We need to talk.”

Rosé looked straight at Cassiax’s eyes, which held a serious look.

Seeing that, Rosé could see Cassiax’s mind was in a mess.

Good. If it’s this much, it should be enough.

“As a matter of fact, I was looking for Your Majesty. Let’s go somewhere quiet to talk.”

Rosé coldly broke away from his grasp and smoothed out her dress.

***