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“You should be worried…”
The princess right under him has awakened the power of the spirits, So his position would be taken.
“Ugh, of course, I’m worried! The wolves will run at you like crazy now. There are a lot of dark-hearted people in the social world, so be careful, Dorothea.”
“Ray.”
“Dorothea.”
Raymond stopped and looked back at her.
“You don’t have to be so serious, Dorothea. You just got the power of a spirit, that’s all. Don’t make it complicated.”
He shrugged and smiled at Dorothea, who had hardened.
Then Dorothea found Ethan waiting in the distance.
“That guy…”
“Ray, I’ll talk to Ethan for a moment before I go in.”
“Alright, Dorothea.”
Raymond looked at Ethan once and entered the ballroom where the debutante is in progress.
As Raymond disappeared, Ethan cautiously approached her.
“Your Majesty—”
“Ethan. I don’t intend to become emperor.”
Dorothea spoke first.
Ethan’s eyes shook at that.
“But now the princess is also properly qualified.”
Ethan grabbed her hand.
Now he could give Dorothea the power that tormented her for the rest of her life.
She was able to repay the disrespect and contempt she had received and make everyone look up to her.
Now, even if she becomes emperor, there will be no one to hold her back, citing her legitimacy.
But Dorothea looked at him with calm eyes, as if she had already made up her mind.
“Ethan, if you remember, you know. I don’t deserve it.”
She has already caused many people to suffer once.
Raymond, Julia, Theon, many people, and even Ethan and Dorothea herself.
But now, pretending not to know about it, closing your eyes, and being greedy for the throne again was unreasonable.
Then Ethan tried to convince her again.
“It was just one failure.”
Anyone can fail once in a while. You can achieve greater success by learning from failure.
Now that she has all the conditions for success, she just has to move on…
“I’m sorry, Ethan. The weight of the throne is too heavy for me now.”
Dorothea shook her head.
‘Thinking about the path I had to walk to become an emperor, and the weight I had to bear after becoming an emperor, I felt like I was suffocating.’
It wasn’t that she couldn’t do it because of her conscience, but she didn’t have the courage to go down that path again.
Ethan saw Dorothea silently rejecting his wish.
‘In front of me, she said sorry, what else can I say?’
“I thought you would definitely want to become emperor.”
‘Because it was like that in my previous life. She was suffering from wanting to have the power of a spirit.’
“I thought you would be happy to have this power.”
He was delighted that Dorothea had gained the power of the spirit and hoped that she would understand his heart.
But she refused even the best gift he had prepared.
“It was all useless.”
He clenched his fists.
‘I thought I had done everything I could to give her, but even this was not necessary for her.’
‘What the hell was I going to give you? What did I have to do for you?’
Dorothea silently offered the Spirit Stone to him.
Knowing why he gave her the Spirit Stone, she had no choice but to return it.
Because she won’t be able to fulfill his wishes.
“The Spirit Stone…”
When Dorothea tried to return the Spirit Stone, Ethan shook his head.
“Someday you will need it.”
‘There was no need to get it back because it was a stone I found for her anyway.’
The fruit of his futile effort. He wanted Dorothea to accept that one thing.
If Ethan Bronte dies one day without leaving any blood, the right to contract with Lux will pass to her. Thus, Dorothea’s blood will become a source of great spirits.
“Because you have done such a big deal today, everyone is going to ask the princess to show them the spirit.”
Ethan asked her to think of it as revenge for what they had done.
Just then, the bell rang announcing the end of the debut circle.
It was the beginning of the banquet dinner.
Ethan calmed himself and smiled. as if nothing had happened.
“Cake, you have to eat.”
He offered his arm to his debutante partner.
* * *
“Ray!”
When Raymond returned to the debutante ball first, Julia ran to him as if waiting.
“What about Theon?”
As soon as Raymond returned, he checked Theon’s condition.
The sudden lights-out that occurred during the debut circle was due to Theon.
He hadn’t been feeling well since the morning and had lost control of the spirit power he was barely holding onto
“It’s okay now. It seems to have been resolved thanks to the spirit of the princess earlier.”
Julia took Raymond to the place where Theon was. Theon sat tiredly on an old chair on one side of the ball.
“Theon, are you okay?”
“Ray. sorry…”
Theon was sorry that he had caused a fuss.
Theon was trying to hold on until Raymond came, but the moment he saw Dorothea in the debut circle, he might have relaxed for a while.
“No. Fortunately, not everyone is interested in it.”
“By the way, what about the princess? That spirit’s power…Are you sure it is really the princess’s power?”
“Yes, because it was not the power of me and His Majesty.”
“then….”
“His Majesty decided to move Dorothea to a better palace. Maybe someone else will be hired.”
Raymond said as he sat down next to Theon.
Then Julia and Theon looked at each other for a moment before opening her mouth again.
“Are you okay, Ray?”
“Me? what?”
“I don’t know much about the power of spirits, but the power of Princess Dorothea seemed very strong.”
“Yes. It will be stronger than His Majesty and I combined.”
Raymond nodded.
Unlike him, who could barely summon the spirits by relying on the fading blood of Millanaire, Dorothea’s power was strong enough to remind him of the first Millanaire.
“So I mean…”
Julia hesitated, and Raymond laughed.
“Everyone is worried about me.”
“Of course. Not only me, but everyone gathered at the debutante is just talking about it.”
“I know what you’re worried about, but you don’t have to worry about that, Julia.”
“Are you sure that Princess Dorothea is not greedy, Rey?”
“No, I don’t know.”
Raymond shrugged.
The Dorothea he knew had always been cautious, but that didn’t mean she had no desire for the throne.
She’d always been sensitive about Raymond’s position as crown prince and Carnan’s position as emperor.
Besides, she is smart and has good abilities, so if she has the power of a spirit, there is nothing strange about becoming an emperor.
“Then why are you so nonchalant?”
Julia asked, tilting her head.
“I don’t know if Dorothea is greedy for the throne or not, but she knows my heart well.”
“Your heart?”
At Julia’s question, he only smiled.
“By the way, Theon, are you sure you don’t want me to help you now?”
Raymond turned around.
At that moment, the door to the ballroom that had been closed opened again. The ballroom, which had been buzzing with the spirit incident, became quiet in an instant.
Dorothea and Ethan had reentered.
Their entrance at the beginning of the Debutante had quieted the ballroom, but the silence now was different.
Not curiosity or interest, but tension.
But Dorothea and Ethan, unchanging, passed the ballroom without looking at anyone and stopped in the corner where they had been standing.
The two didn’t even talk to each other, they just stood there with a somewhat subdued expression on their faces.
The nobles, expecting them to come in with excitement, gossiped about them as they stood there in silence.
However, they did not have the courage to approach the quiet two first, so they were busy looking at each other.
And it was the one who broke the tension and crossed the line first.
“It was a very splendid and wonderful debut, Princess.”
It was Nereus.
“You know how to deal with spirits, but you’ve been hiding it until now.”
He was smiling, but it was clear that he had been twisted.
“It wasn’t hidden, it was an accident.”
“What do you mean by an accident? You suddenly turned off all the lights and exploded the spirit of light. It was really, really impressive. It was so bright that it almost blinded my eyes.”
“….”
“The princess’s debut will probably be talked about from generation to generation in the social world.”
Nereus said in a subtle tone that she couldn’t tell whether he was praising or sarcastic.
As he spoke, the other nobles also approached her, hoping that they had the courage to do so.
“I don’t know if the princess knows how to handle spirits, and I asked a rude question earlier.”
“After all, there’s no way the princess can’t handle spirits, but I didn’t expect her to surprise people with such a surprise, haha!”
Some even apologized for being rude, others brazenly trusted her.
“The debut circle was cut off in the middle… It was the princess’s turn to shine.”
“It was so beautiful to see the two of you dancing, please go up to the circle and show it again.”
The way of speaking, which had been lightly thrown until earlier, was now humbled and they were busy looking at Dorothea.
They were thinking that changing colors as quickly as chameleons was not a rude or unscrupulous act, but a flexible adaptation to society.
It may be true.
After all, this was a place where enemies at knifepoint could become teammates in an instant, and people you thought you’d spend the rest of your life with, could stab you in the back.
It’s pathetic to expect a consistent attitude from them.
Then the dinner started and the wine and food were brought in.
“Then why don’t we even make a toast to Princess Dorothea?”
When Nereus stared at Dorothea and asked the nobles, everyone turned to Raymond, who was on the other side.
The eyes beg for permission, asking if they can make a toast for Dorothea.
‘Oh, what are they thinking?’
Raymond muttered inwardly as their gaze was focused on him.
People understood Raymond and Dorothea’s relationship as a conflict as if they had made a pact.
Raymond picked up the glass with a smile for Dorothea.
At his permission, the nobles cheered and applauded.