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“Welcome, Ashmia!”
As soon as Vanessa evaded to the side, Francesca grabbed Ashmia’s hands. Then the reporters, who had forgotten their jobs for a while, pressed the shutter button again.
‘The Princess of Pendragon ran first towards the Kalanishiel and took her hand.’
“I was waiting. Come on in.”
‘And they entered together.’
It was very shocking to see the daughter of the mafia walking with the Princess of Pendragon among the nobles, such as the marquis and the counts, gathered in the hall.
And at the same time, it also meant that Ashmia’s debutante had already been extremely successful.
“Come on, take this. It doesn’t have alcohol.”
Ashmia took the glass of champagne from Francesca.
“I was very rude back then, wasn’t I? As an apology, and for our eternal friendship.”
Clink—
Ashmia smiled as her glass clashed against Francesca’s with a clear sound.
After taking a sip of champagne, Francesca lowered her voice.
“As Lady Ashmia said, we regulated the marijuana on the same day, and there was a riot.”
Therefore, many people voluntarily withdrew just because they had experience in possessing or distributing the drugs, and Francesca, dismayed at the appearance, officially dissolved Fleur immediately.
“Then the next day, the Imperial Guard came to investigate. The timing was amazing.”
Of course. It was Ashmia who took care of that wonderful timing.
“I’m really glad. You didn’t get in trouble, did you, Princess?”
“Yes. My father nagged me for a bit, but he also praised me for taking action before something really bad happened. This is all thanks to Lady Ashmia.”
“No. Thank you for believing in me.”
“Don’t speak nonsense.”
Thanks to Ashmia, Francesca managed to avoid a big scandal, so she couldn’t understand how grateful she was. Ashmia smiled bitterly inside at Francesca’s actions, which she seemingly found difficult to adapt to.
But anyway, Francesca’s dissolution of Fleur was significant.
It may have started out as a social club for Francesca to play king, but in the past when the aristocratic union staged a coup, Fleur played a role in causing the imperial family to collapse from the inside.
Now that Fleur had disappeared, it was clear that the future would be different from the one in Michael’s memories.
Also, the variable that made Francesca Pendragon an ally and Ashmia’s debutante in the social world couldn’t be ignored.
But it was only the beginning.
There are still many mountains to climb.
‘Still, today will go well.’
However, when Ashmia was about to take a sip from the champagne…
“He’s here!”
Suddenly, a shout was heard from the entrance of the hall, and there was a murmur among the people.
“Who is here?”
Ashmia asked, but Francesca couldn’t take her eyes off the entrance with a slightly blushing face, definitely not listening to Ashmia.
‘It looks like a person invited by Francesca is here.’
Soon, at the entrance of the hall, Ashmia saw a man walking in, escorted by soldiers wearing the royal emblem.
Even though Ashmia couldn’t say he was tall, he wasn’t short either. Brown hair, clear blue-green eyes, and a handsome small face.
He was the third prince of the empire, Alexandrio, who had a soft, gentle personality and a fandom made of both nobles and commoners.
***
Michael Rose didn’t read magazines.
It might not be a newspaper, but he thought that magazines were made of gossip and factories that printed fake news.
There were several famous rumours that even Michael had heard of, and one of them was ‘Princess Francesca Pendragon and the Third Prince Alexandrio flirting’.
Like most gossip, it felt like a ‘whatever’ to Michael, but it was a pretty hot topic among the people at the time.
Until the third prince died in an ‘accident’.
***
Alexandrio was greeted by the nobles in the hall, and he walked straight to Francesca.
“Francesca Pendragon greets the prince.”
Alexandrio also paid his respects with a light gesture to Francesca, who grabbed the hem of her dress and bent her knees slightly.
“Thank you for inviting me to such a wonderful ball. Have you been well, Fran?”
“Yes, Sir Alec. How have you been?”
As soon as they finished greeting each other with courtesy, Ashmia, who almost choked at the nicknames, coughed quietly.
Franesca seemed to take it in a different way, because she clapped her hands lightly.
“Goodness, look at me! Sir Alec, this is who I told you about…”
“Ashmia Kalanishiel greets the Prince.”
Ashmia bent her knee along with Francesca’s introduction.
“I heard a lot of stories. It’s an honour to meet you.”
“Ashmia is my dear friend. Did I tell you?”
“Yes. If you’re Fran’s friend, you’re also my friend. I wish you all the best in the future.”
Ashmia could see the faces of the nobles around them hardening at Alexandrio’s remarks.
Although these three young people didn’t fully represent the power of their surname, the birth of an entirely new form of cooperative structure between the duke, the imperial family, and the mafia, gave the nobles a sense of immeasurable crisis.
Of course, like the princess, this innocent-looking prince didn’t seem to have thought about what he said.
‘How am I going to lead these innocent people in the future?’
It was when the thought crossed Ashmia’s mind that Alexandrio looked at her face and said,
“It may be rude of me, but you have a mysterious eye colour. It’s golden, so beautiful.”
“Thank you.”
The moment she answered Alexandrio’s compliment without hesitation, Ashmia could see Francesca’s lips twitching with jealousy.
Ashmia had a strong feeling that if she were to say something like ‘the prince has beautiful eyes as well’, the friendship she had just built with Francesca would crumble at once, and she might face the risk of assassination.
“Lady Francesca, now that the Prince has arrived, how about saying a few words?”
“Oh, my mind.”
Ashmia succeeded in diverting the topic and sighed in relief.
Today’s ball was hosted by Francesca instead of Theodore Pendragon, who was absent for some reason. Francesca appeared on stage without any sign of being nervous, as if she was already familiar with it.
“I would like to express my deepest gratitude to all of you for attending the ball organised by the Pendragon family despite your busy schedules.”
‘She’s very sorry that she has caused a lot of trouble to many people due to a recent unfortunate incident and will provide maximum compensation to those who have been harmed, blah blah.’
“Then, I hope you enjoy tonight’s ball—”
It was when Francesca was about to finish her speech…
“…?!”
Byren Bernando hurriedly climbed onto the stage and grabbed Francesca, pushing her away.
At the same time,
Bang—!
A single shot resonated, and a young musician sitting right behind where Francesca was previously standing, fell to the ground with a bleeding wound on his head.
“Aahhh!”
With someone’s scream, the hall quickly fell into chaos.
The assailant, who was disguised as a waiter and aimed a gun at Francesca hidden under the tray, was subdued immediately by the guards, but there wasn’t only one enemy.
“Lady! Get behind me!”
The assailants disguised as reporters and cooks took out their guns and went on a rampage.
Bangbangbang—!!
The guards tried to retaliate, but there were too many people in the hall to do so.
On the other hand, the attackers indiscriminately shot their bullets as if they were trying to slaughter everyone present without even considering their own death.
Vanessa turned a nearby table over to use as a shield and hardened her entire body.
Ting— Ting—!
The bullets that pierced through the table hit Vanessa’s body and bounced off with a spark. Ashmia leaned closer to Vanessa’s back and looked around her.
Among the members of the imperial guards, who were toppled by the surprise attack, Alexandrio was seen looking hopeless.
“Vanessa! Move to the side! We must save the prince!”
Instead of answering, Vanessa took the table and quickly moved towards the prince.
“Prince! Come here!”
Hearing Ashmia’s call, the prince turned his head.
“What?!”
When the last guard protecting the prince fell, his feet froze in place.
Tsk–!
Ashmia clicked her tongue and threw off her high heels before running toward the prince and grabbing him by the collar.
“Excuse me for a second!”
Thud!
Ashmia threw the prince behind Vanessa and crawled on her arms to the fallen guard.
“Lady! It’s dangerous!”
Despite Vanessa’s desperate cry, Ashmia quickly pulled a pistol out of its holster, which the guard was wearing.
Click!
After checking the magazine with a quick hand movement, she loaded it by swinging it to the side.
Bang– Bang—!
“What about the princess?!”
Ashmia found Francesca as she shot her pistol over the table.
Below the stage, she could see Byren covering Francesca with a table as a shield.
Bangbangbang—!!
However, it was impossible to move due to the group of people who were focused on shooting their guns at Byren.