Julietta's Dressup

Chapter 205. Engagement Ceremony, Part IV

Translator: Khan

Editor: Aelryinth

Meanwhile, Ivana, sitting opposite the admiring aides looking at the lord and his fiancée, stared at the main characters of the engagement ceremony with a grimace.

’Today Christine did not attend on the pretext of being sick. But who would believe it?’

Ivana knew what people were saying even if she didn’t listen. They said that it would be family history, once again chasing after a man. In addition to that, her daughter was now in a scandal with Francis.

Christine didn’t want to take a step out of the mansion these days, but she came out today and forced herself to do so because she didn’t know what rumors would be spoken. Robert, however, paid all his attention to the engagement ceremony of his niece, whom he had not seen for a long time, so she could hardly see his face. Her husband was completely ignoring her so much that she could not believe that he was still at the same party. He was just standing next to the Emperor and laughing contentedly at Prince Killian and the princess.

Her eyes glowed even harder when she looked at Princess Kiellini. ’Why is that child so annoying?’

Then the princess smiled and tilted her head back as the Prince whispered something, and the sight came to her eyes. ’Stella!’

At the moment, the brilliant light of the party hall of the Imperial Castle looked like the bright sunlight that had been falling on a garden a dozen years ago. As all the noise fell away, the midday garden landscape that had been seen past the iron gate at Harrods Street overlapped.

She remembered how miserable it was going to the lover’s home to find her husband, who never returned to the mansion even after Christine was born. The face of the hateful woman who was happily smiling at her husband in the garden of the strange mansion she visited so laboriously came to her mind clearly.

’How can I forget the appearance when she smiled so crudely with her white teeth exposed as she tilted her head back?’

But this was the princess of the Kiellini family. It didn’t make sense. Ivana shook her head once as if to wake up, took a glass of wine from a passing servant and swallowed it all at once. Only then did she hear the music again and the scene of the beautiful garden dazzling her eyes disappeared.

When Ivana looked back, Princess Kiellini was looking up at her fiancée with a dollish look, as if she had not laughed.

’Was that smile just similar? Was I upset because my husband paid all attention to that child, and did I create an illusion for a moment?’

Ivana turned away, thinking she had to go back now, clutching her pounding forehead. She reached the entrance of the banquet hall, nodding to those who were pretending to know her with a pale face. Then she looked back again, as if she had been attracted by something.

’Ah!’

When the main characters’ dance to mark the beginning of the party was over, she saw Princess Kiellini full-face as she was leaving the dance floor among those rushing to the stage to dance.

The gleaming green eyes were slightly thin, as if they showed a feeling of happiness. It was like the hateful woman looking at her husband.

Ivana staggered out and called the carriage to take her back to her mansion. When she returned, she remembered the scene she had seen earlier.

’Princess Kiellini returned to the capital after the girl who lived like a dead woman in the corner of the theater died for unknown reasons. Don’t tell me...’

She thought it was nonsense and impossible, but the idea of a coincidence that fit so well did not leave her mind.

"When I saw the dead child’s body in the Eileen theater that day."

"What? Ah, are you talking about that day?" Poche, Ivana’s maid, shuddered when she recalled the body of the time when suddenly asked by her master.

"Was it clear that the dead child’s eyes were green?"

"Yes, ma’am, they were definitely green."

Ivana nodded at the maid’s answer.

She was so sensitive and irritated today that she seemed to see a phantom. Yes, it didn’t make any sense. ’What’s the point of contact between such a humble girl and Princess Kiellini?’

She was so dumb in her thoughts and Poche added a word. "I was so scared of the eyes like a fungus on the grayish face. Sometimes it even appears in dreams."

Poche revealed a little bit of resentment, and her master’s head was lifted, then Poche quickly apologized to her for her fault. "I’m sorry, ma’am. I said that without knowing it."

"Tell me again. Were they like a fungus?"

"Yes. It was a strange color that comes from rotting food. I thought that it was very different, even if it was the same green one, and that a daughter and a father didn’t look like that similar."

"How was it different?"

"His Excellency the Marquis has clear green eyes that are not mixed with any impurities, but the dead woman’s eyes were a moldy blue-grey mixed with brown spots. The room was so dim and they might have been looked that way, but they were different from what I had imagined."

"No, no matter how dim the lights were, there’s no way you’ve seen brown spots wrong."

Ivana thought of the child’s face that she had seen for a while as a child. The face which looked so much like her husband was unpleasant, but the color of her eyes and hair could change as she grew up.

Ivana sat thinking silently until the carriage passed through the front gate of the Anais mansion. When the carriage finally reached the main entrance, she ordered Poche. "Poche, go to the secret union."

"Yes? The secret union?"

Ivana’s face became fierce when Poche asked back with her eyes open wide. "Yes. I need someone to take this job without anyone knowing."

"You can ask His Excellency the Duke."

"Didn’t you hear me? No one should know."

Poche replied quickly to Ivana’s angry scolding. "Yes. What should I say when I go?"

"I’ll put the investigation into their hands and let them send a person to the mansion tomorrow with the secrecy declaration. When you visit, tell them she’s your cousin."

"Yes, ma’am."

Whoever would hear her, they would say that she was crazy. However, she could not clear away the doubt. For now, it was necessary to send a man to Tilia to find out how sick the Duke was and what it was like before Princess Kiellini came up to the capital.

’Why did the Duke return to Tilia as soon as his successor came up to the capital?’

He looked so healthy when she accidentally bumped into him a few days before returning to Tilia.

’Was it possible that he got sick all of a sudden?’ He couldn’t even attend his beloved daughter’s debut party, could he?’

What she had initially dismissed as nonsense doubts grew bigger in her head.

---

By the time Ivana arrived at the mansion, Killian had moderately responded to the endless greetings of the people surrounding them, and taken Julietta to a table in the reception hall.

"Your Highness, congratulations! Congratulations, the princess."

"Congratulations! This Oswald was so impressed by the beauty of you two that I almost cried."

"Congratulations, Killian. Congratulations, the princess. Please take good care of him." Spencer clapped as Oswald raised his both arms in excitement.

Killian looked at Julietta with a bright smile at the hearty congratulations from his closest friends. It was a smile that was hard to see.

Sitting on the throne in the distance, the Emperor had been looking at them with satisfaction. He said to the Second Queen, "I think Killian really cares about the princess. He has such an expression."

Unlike the happy Emperor who laughed with Killian, the Second Queen did not look good. "It’s not good. It’s not good."

"What do you mean by that?"

The Second Queen was looking at Princess Kiellini with cold eyes. She said, "He will be the Emperor. How can there be anything more dangerous than a weakness? I’m anxious."

The Emperor said soothingly at the concern of the Second Queen. "He will do well by himself. I’d like to thank Princess Kiellini, who has given him that look."