Translator and Editor: Skye and Mikki

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Chapter 8

Arnoah asked again.

Having never noticed her unusual attitude, Vainas nodded with a big smile.

“You must have liked the play today.”

She said yes.

Standing next to him and leaning back, arm in arm. As if she was taking a look, Larissa glared at her with a suspicious look. Her side is quick to read.

“Come closer.”

Arnoah said to Rick with a warm smile. He also looked at her with a smirk. She had to admit that he was quite brazen. He built a career insulting Arnoah and had this kind of attitude.

He killed Arnoah several times in the play.

Today by sword, last time by death sentence, and before that, by throwing her off a cliff.

Every time the audience cheered. It was no exaggeration to say that Arnoah’s reputation and Rick’s reputation had exchanged.

“Greetings, Your Majesty.”

He smiled and bowed. His eyes seemed to contain ridicule as he was smiling at her.

“More.”

Arnoah said briefly. Rick raised his head and blinked.

“…Pardon?”“Come closer.”

Arnoah flicked her finger at Rick.

There was no space for him to get closer, as even slight hand gestures were hard to do in the tight space between them.

Rick faltered before her, embarrassed.

There was a rare bright smile on her face as she looked at the great actor. At that moment, Vainas’ eyebrows wriggled.

At last, Rick is a young man with dark blonde hair and light blue eyes.

He does look similar to Vainas somewhere, but he is as good as when he was younger. Arnoah smiled innocently and opened her mouth as if she had become someone else.

It was that moment when she prepared herself while watching the play.

“It’s true that you’re the most handsome man I’ve ever heard of in Dirhan.”

She whispered sweetly.

“P-pardon?”

Rick’s eyes widened due to her sudden remark. Vainas also looked at her with bewilderment.

“It’s just the way it’s been for a long time.”“Ah…”

Rick murmured as if he had realized something.

What she recited was a line in the play.

However, it was not a scene where the dying villainess like Vainas’ had expected. It was when the male protagonist fell in love for the first time.

Vainas raised an eyebrow.

What does she mean by the most handsome man?

Isn’t it inappropriate to directly say that to another man in front of her husband?

He could hear people buzzing from the surrounding area. However, the affectionate eyes of Arnoah did not move away from Rick.

“…Thank you.”

Rick gave his lines as if he were being pushed around.

“He’s like the king. Everyone here deserves to put their heads down for you.”

She blushed as if she was genuinely in love.

The audience felt cold at that moment.

Everyone in this country but the queen of Dirhan praised the man who left their house as a king and tightened her head.

It was hard to take this as a joke. Especially with the king next to her, the ladies sitting next to her opened their rabbit eyes and looked at Arnoah. Vainas’ face became cold.

“Your purple cape looks great on you.”

Arnoah continued his line regardless.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone who looks better in that color than you.”

She interrupted for a moment and opened her mouth again.

“At least… I haven’t seen Arnoah.”

Rick’s mouth opened, and someone gasped.

“Oh, I got the name mixed up, Your Majesty. I should have said ‘Ironiah’.”

Arnoah glanced at Vainas and smiled as if she knew nothing.

“Well, I’ll leave it at that.”

The surrounding area suddenly became quiet as if it had poured cold water. There’s not a single breath that resounded.

The purple color is the symbol of the royal family of Dirhan.

Technically, it is a color that should be avoided in the play.

However, as the actual main characters of the show were Vainas and Larissa, Count Estea deliberately dressed Rick with that color.

Rick is performing Vainas after all. His role is to shine for him as an actor.

It isn’t Rick’s job to pull off the purple cape better than Vainas. It should never have been like that.

Then he was told that the purple color suits him better than anyone else.

And in front of King Vainas himself. From his queen that wore the same purple costume.

The bigger problem is the fact that the queen who said it looked so sincere.With that kind expression on her face and voice as if she was a girl suffering from a first love that has never been seen by the king?

She just scratched the king’s pride.

The nobles, who had always been quiet, looked astonished, asking if she had suddenly gone mad. Vainas’ lips trembled slightly.

He looked like he was putting up with her actionst, but his face was clearly distorted.

“Queen…”“I want to give a gift to the actor who helped me. Is that okay?”

Vainas growled slowly, but Arnoah smiled innocently as if she didn’t hear anything.

“I’ve always been polite.”

What she said is true. Previously, after watching the play, she even had to drop off presents for the actor.

Vainas nodded his head as his face stiffened.

Instead of taking out his gold coin pocket as usual, Arnoah took out a ring from his finger.

“I want to give you a special gift.”

She spoke as sweetly as she did a moment ago.

Rick still had his mouth wide open. He didn’t understand the situation.

It is not the first time he and Arnoah met.

In his previous performance, Count Estea invited the king and his wife, and when the king asked for the queen’s review after the performance, she said, “I saw it well.”

However, the current queen is praising him in a rave that he should not dare to listen to.

He doubted for a moment that she was doing it on purpose, but her bright expression showed no ill intentions. He didn’t understand it.

‘Did she fall for me all of a sudden?’

Did this young queen have a moment in love with him and act speechless?

Is she that stupid to forget that his acting is an insult to her?

“I-I’m so sorry…”

Rick knelt down with one knee with a vague smile.

“I think sapphire would suit you.”

Rick, conscious of Vainas’s sad gaze, is thinking about whether to give up or not while Arnoah’s cold fingers wrapped around Rick’s wrist.

She dropped the ring on his hand, closed his open finger, and made him hold it.

‘Gasp.’

It was a tender woman’s hand, but she is so strong that it is not easy for Rick to resist. Surprised, he looked up.

‘Huh?’

Arnoah’s expression is slightly different.

There was still a smile around her mouth, but there was a chill in her gaze that he had never seen before.

It is so cold that he felt it all the way to his bone, which Rick had never felt before.

Rick trembled for a moment.

Starting with Arnoah’s wrist, his whole body felt frozen.

“May the memory of this good day be with you forever.”“…T-t-thank you. Your Highness.”

Rick said his gratitude and tried to pull out, but Arnoah stared at him.

“……Your Highness?”

Overwhelmed by her unfamiliar atmosphere, he looked up at Arnoah again. Speaking in a mosquito-like voice. The coldness in her eyes still lingered.

“…A-are you’re just going to hold my gift?”

With her unexpected attitude, Rick took the ring as a silent pressure on his hands.

The hall still felt cold. All the nobles were looking their way due to Arnoah’s unexpected behavior, but no one came forward.

No one could intervene unless the king stepped up, but Vainas, whose pride was hurt, was still looking at the two.

“Blue sapphire huh…”

After all, it was a common gift. Rick worked hard to organize his mind.

It is no wonder that the royal family gave a ring to an actor they liked. The recipient is right to wear the item the moment he received it.

So he had to put the ring on first.

That way, he would be able to get out of this awkward moment as quickly as possible.

Having managed to hold onto this mentally confusing moment, he answered and cleared his throat.

“I-I’ll take it as our heirloom. Your Majesty!”

He put the ring he had in his hand on the other hand.

Arnoah’s eyes slightly relaxed, but at the same time, he could feel the strength loosening from the hand that held him.

The next moment, her bright smile returned.

Rick, feeling relaxed, breathed a sigh of relief.

He felt unnecessarily nervous.

The queen just gave a gift to her favorite actor just like any other aristocrat.

He thought he was a man filled with intelligence.

With this in mind, he was thinking of changing the mood by dropping the coldness.

“You have a good eye!”

He raised his ringed hand high when he added a joke.

In the dead like audience, the large gem glowed in extravagance.

But the moment Rick went back on stage, he realized something was wrong.

Fellow actors, screenwriters, directors, as well as the distant Count Estea, the king’s mistress and his relative and cousin, Larissa Estea, all looked at his index finger with a look of astonishment.

It was because there was.

‘Huh…?’

Rick slowly looked at the ring.

‘Hooooooooohhhhhh.’

It felt like his heart was pounding. His spine felt goosebumps once again.

The ring, which looked bluish in the dark audience, is glowing with vivid purple under stage lighting.

What he received was a purple sapphire ring.

A purple sapphire, the symbol of the Dirhan royal family.

Owning something like this was permitted, but commoners may be punished for impersonating royalty if they wore it recklessly.

“P-p-p-please k-k-kill me, Your Majesty!”

Rick knelt down in front of Vainas, and then howled.

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