Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Hikan looked down at Dahlia with a dissatisfied expression. “You heard him. Don’t leave the ballroom. You still need to meet Adrisha Beniterre.”

So she’s not here yet, Dahlia thought, relieved. She said a quick farewell to Hikan and started towards Duchess Blueport. “Thank you for coming all this way.”

Duchess Blueport nodded calmly and answered her greeting in a warm voice. “I heard you’ll have a personal maid soon, Dahlia.”

“Yes. She’s called Adrisha Beniterre. Have you heard of her?” Dahlia asked, hoping to get some information about the main character.

But Duchess Blueport shook her head. “Hmm, I haven’t heard the name before.”

“Oh...”

“It’s been a while since I attended any social gatherings. Aside from that, have you heard? The second prince ran away from the palace again. I only heard about his disappearance yesterday.”

“Pardon? Again?” Dahlia exclaimed as she covered her mouth in shock.

The emperor had two sons. The first was Crown Prince Leonard and the second was His Royal Highness Cederic. The crown prince was born a normal child, and if anything, was a little dim-witted.

But Cederic was an extremely talented Transcendent who was already recognized for his magic abilities despite not having had his magic flourishment yet. On top of that, he was so handsome that words failed to describe his beauty. He even had his own personal group of followers within the palace.

But Second Prince Cederic didn’t appear in Ouroboros' Labyrinth as a male lead. Many players who played the game thought it was strange that Cederic wasn’t one of the male leads, although it made sense that Leonard wasn’t, since he was normal. But Dahlia also thought it was strange since other romance games had an emperor, the crown prince, or another prince as one of the male leads.

I remember fans of the original story demanding a romantic quest for Cederic because he was described and shown as a very handsome character.

But there was one fatal problem with Cederic. Whenever he felt that palace life was boring, he disguised himself with a fake identity and traveled around as a commoner. He became harder and harder to find even though he didn’t have his magic flourishment, so getting people to go search for him was becoming a chore.

“His Majesty must be having a hard time,” Dahlia said and continued to talk with the duchess. By the time they neared the end of their conversation, a lot of time had passed.

That was when the entrance to the ballroom grew noisy. Dahlia turned around and looked at the entrance.

Is it Adrisha?

But the main character Adrisha Beniterre didn’t arrive at this point in the story to shine and turn heads in shock, though Dahlia could understand if people were shocked by her beauty.

Hmm, that’s something I’d like to see one day.

That was when Duchess Blueport leaned down and whispered in a worried tone, “How strange.”

“Pardon?”

“Why is His Majesty here? Did he come to find the second prince?”

The emperor?

Dahlia stared hard at the entrance with wide eyes. Of course, some of the dukes of the four duke families were in attendance while the others sent their heirs, but the emperor was the emperor. It was very, very rare for the emperor to attend any ball except the ones held at the palace.

He didn’t say he was going to visit either.

But the person who appeared through the sea of people was really the emperor himself. He was smiling, but he also looked uncomfortable. Contrary to his usual demeanor, he was waving away the many greetings that poured in from all sides with a wave of his hand. The person following behind him was—

Oh no. Dahlia choked on her breath when she saw the servant.

The man at the emperor’s heels was the emperor’s servant and one of the male leads of the original story, Aseras.

Oh goodness.

Even though she didn’t like him, this was Dahlia’s first face-to-face meeting with a male lead who had his own romance quest. Her heart thumped for no apparent reason.

Aseras had brown hair and green eyes, like the original story depicted. His eyes were wide with low edges, giving him a very cute expression. There was a soft smile on his face.

Despite his peaceful expression, Dahlia knew Aseras had a horrible personality. He had already gone through his magic flourishment and was a Transcendent who could use divine power. Compared to the other male leads, he was considered a genius who had his magic flourishment first. The fact that he was still in the empire acting like a servant instead of fleeing to the Holy Empire was probably because he had secret plans.

And behind Aseras...

Woah...

It was Adrisha. The main character Adrisha Beniterre was following the emperor.

Her hair was straight as though it had been pressed, her eyes hidden under her lashes bled red like blood, and her features looked as delicate as those of a porcelain doll, like a princess of a fairytale. Although she was only fifteen this year, she was beautiful.

Adrisha crossed the ballroom in strides with her skirt in hand behind the emperor, her bearing flawless. Boys her age stole glances at her.

Dahlia wasn’t expecting Adrisha to appear by the emperor’s side in a visible show of allegiance, even though she already knew Adrisha had been working for the emperor using the assassination and information gathering skills she’d learned at Canun.

How did I get so lucky today...?

Dahlia finally felt like she was truly living in a story. She stared at the two characters secretively.

“Dahlia Pesteroz!” Hikan called out. Dahlia turned to him. He was walking towards the emperor in quick strides. Dahlia rushed to catch up to him and matched his pace.

Hikan grabbed her hand, went before the emperor, and formally greeted him. “What brought you here without prior notice?” His tone was rigid.

“Of course I’m here to congratulate you on your new title... Well, that is what I’d like to say, but I don’t have a lot of time. For now, have this.”

Aseras, who was standing behind the emperor, handed Hikan a rolled parchment. It looked like a congratulatory message with the royal family’s signature.

“All right, now do your own things, both of you. You can greet Lady Dahlia later, Adrisha.”

Aseras bowed and left. Before she could leave, Adrisha smiled slightly at Dahlia and spread her skirt to greet her. “Hello, Miss Dahlia. I’m Adrisha, of a minor viscount family, the Beniterres. Please allow me to greet you later.”

She then turned and walked away. Dahlia’s heart raced as she watched Adrisha disappear.

She’s so pretty.

Suddenly, Dahlia remembered the comment battle she’d fought against Adrisha’s anti-fans that had lasted through the night. When she’d played the game, the game’s story was centered around Adrisha’s growth more than the romance. She’d learned how to assassinate people and gather information in a criminal organization as a child, but refused to become one of them until the very end. Instead, she survived and continued to repent for the sins of her past.

The male leads of each romance quest expressed their interest in Adrisha by tormenting her like the abusive characters they were. But no matter what they did, Adrisha never caved. While she hated the male leads on each of their quests, she also offered a helping hand.

That often led to misunderstandings, but she was the only “good” person in Ouroboros’ Labyrinth.

[Stop it! Adrisha is an angel!]

[It’s because of your bad temper that you can’t understand a kind person like Adrisha.]

That was why Dahlia often stood up for Adrisha whenever there was a fight between players.

I’m so happy I was able to see her with my own eyes.

It was the first time Dahlia felt truly glad to have reincarnated into the game. But she couldn’t stop the numerous painful obstacles that lay ahead of Adrisha.

I’m sorry.

Dahlia watched Adrisha disappear with a hint of guilt as her devoted fan. Dahlia’s eyes sparkled. That was when she remembered Aseras, who she’d forgotten existed momentarily. He was standing with a champagne glass in hand behind the huge crowd of people, observing his drink against the light.

Do servants need to pay attention to the champagne glass too?

From what she knew of him, Aseras was always plotting something behind his pretty smiles. He could be looking for an excuse to defame the Pesteroz family in some way or another with the champagne.

Aseras knew how to block magic by using his divine power in some intricate way, like erasing the power of yang by using a perfect amount of yin. That was how he avoided the emperor’s ability to read emotions and stole national secrets that he turned over to the Holy Empire.

Hmmm. He’s really suspicious, Dahlia thought as she looked at Aseras. For some reason, she felt like she shouldn’t let him wander around the ball.