Anything But Study - Chapter 46

Charlette looked as if she were enjoying the situation unfolding right now. As if she knew exactly how things had come to this.

“…What do you mean?”

Normally, Melia would have responded to Charlette’s contempt with silence, but this time the question slipped out of her mouth before she realized it.

“I mean Anastasia Ribelline. She’s Hailon’s fiancée.”

Fiancée?

Her pupils shook violently.

Melia’s expression stiffened. Her eyelids trembled.

Reading her reaction, Charlette curled her lips into a greasy smile and shrugged proudly.

“Yeah. For thirteen years already.”

Charlette’s words drilled straight into her ears.

“Isn’t Hailon here today to see Anastasia? He would’ve needed a partner for that. And since Anastasia isn’t an Erpen student yet, she couldn’t apply for one.”

So you were just a disposable stand-in, Charlette sneered as if telling her to know her place.

‘That can’t be….’

She couldn’t be sure that it wasn’t.

Maybe that was why her mouth refused to open.

Melia couldn’t answer anymore.

“Wouldn’t it just get in the way if you stay longer? Why don’t you head home or something?”

Seemingly satisfied with Melia’s dazed reaction, Charlette brushed past her as if that was all she needed.

Left standing alone in the banquet hall, Melia felt foolish.

‘Hailon has… a fiancée.’

A fiancée.

Why hadn’t she ever thought of that possibility?

He was a man who carried the name Alfred.

Melia felt ashamed of the pointless hopes and misunderstandings she had entertained until now.

She wanted to deny it, but Charlette’s words rang true.

That Hailon had come to this party to meet his fiancée.

To attend the seasonal party, he needed a partner, and for that, he brought Melia along.

Someone who wouldn’t cause any misunderstandings for the fiancée.

‘…Maybe even dressing me up nicely was for Hailon’s sake.’

Every circumstance began to fall into place like pieces of a puzzle.

Even the jokes about the way back were just thoughtless remarks, but she alone had filled them with meaning, misunderstood them, and let herself flutter.

The emotions swelling inside her spun off negative thoughts at will.

Left alone, Melia no longer wanted to stay here.

Because Anastasia and Hailon walking away together looked too well-matched.

Even the purplish outfit she thought contrasted with her now looked perfectly suited to Anastasia’s violet dress.

With Melia… it didn’t suit her at all.

The House of Duke Alfred and the House of Marquis Ribelline.

A combination so perfect that anyone would nod in agreement. It looked too solid, too complete.

Her throat tightened.

Tears welled up.

‘No. I don’t want this.’

If she cried, it would only feel more miserable. She didn’t want anyone to see her like this.

Tap, tap.

Melia turned on the spot and ran out of the banquet hall.

The lavish food she’d never seen before, the beautiful music filling the space, none of it brought her any joy.

***

Anastasia and Hailon arrived somewhere with few people around. His expression remained blank.

“What’s wrong? Making such a scary face. To your fiancée, no less.”

Despite her teasing scold, Hailon looked down at Anastasia with a cold expression.

“If you’re going to spout nonsense, you’d better keep your mouth shut.”

“Hm? About you and me being engaged?”

Anastasia smiled enigmatically.

We already did it. Earlier.

She kept the rest to herself, not letting it leave her lips.

Earlier, Anastasia had already told the people surrounding her that she was Hailon’s fiancée.

They were probably all aware of it by now.

That was the reason she pestered her father and came here in the first place.

Rather than being introduced as a transfer student, making an entrance like the main character at a party like this was far more effective for making her face known at once.

And it wasn’t even a lie.

After the civil war, Ribelline moved to the Principality of Morain, so Hailon and Anastasia had never formally broken off their engagement.

So wasn’t there nothing technically wrong?

There was no reason for him to get this angry….

Ah. Could it be?

“Why, because of that girl next to you?”

At Anastasia’s question, Hailon’s face turned vicious.

“What, really?”

Ahaha. A laugh burst out.

From Anastasia’s perspective, it was ridiculous.

Why was he even paying attention to a girl like that?

When she briefly asked the people who had gathered around her earlier, the girl’s family did not seem like much either.

Wasn’t she just someone he played around with for a bit and then discarded?

“You and I are going to get married anyway, Hailon.”

“According to whose decision?”

His voice was colder than ice.

But Anastasia merely shrugged, as if she hadn’t noticed at all.

“His Majesty wants it too, doesn’t he? The union of Alfred and Ribelline.”

“There must be a reason you suddenly returned to the empire.”

“What?”

As the topic abruptly shifted away from the engagement, Anastasia frowned, unlike before. What was he talking about.

“I don’t know what purpose you came back to the empire for, but.”

He paused, then looked down at Anastasia with an emotionless gaze.

“You’d better not play pointless games.”

It was a clear warning.

Watching Hailon turn away as if there was no longer any reason to speak to her, Anastasia slowly lifted one corner of her lips.

‘No, Hailon. You’re thinking about this completely wrong.’

I’m the one you have to marry.

Anastasia liked this engagement very much. The House of Alfred, and Hailon himself.

It was perfect. The heir of a ducal house, with looks like that as a husband….

He suited her perfectly.

Her father might be planning to swallow Alfred whole through this engagement, but that was something to think about later.

No matter how things turned out, for now, all she needed was to keep Hailon by her side.

But that cold look earlier. She didn’t like that.

Hmm, let’s see. Anastasia crossed her arms and fell briefly into thought.

‘Is that girl really the problem?’

Then all she had to do was remove her from Hailon’s sight.

As if she had nothing to worry about, Anastasia’s steps were light.

***

Hailon returned to the banquet hall with a hardened expression.

‘…She’s gone?’

Melia was nowhere to be seen.

He was sure he told her to wait. Had she stepped away for a moment?

But his instincts were already telling him something was wrong. He had a bad feeling.

He immediately asked the doorman.

“Have you seen my partner?”

“Ah, if you mean that young lady, she already left.”

“…What?”

“She didn’t look well. I assumed she wasn’t feeling well and went home first.”

Wasn’t feeling well?

A sense of doubt crept over Hailon.

Had Melia ever acted like that before? No, she hadn’t.

Especially up until the dance, she showed no signs of anything being wrong.

Hailon scanned the banquet hall with a hollow expression.

No matter how he looked, Melia was nowhere to be found.

‘Why?’

They even talked about going back together, so for her to disappear without a word, something serious must have happened.

He felt frustrated, and worried as well.

Not knowing what Catherine had said, Hailon could not even begin to guess the reason behind Melia’s sudden departure.

***

“Haa….”

Only when the familiar sight came into view did Melia finally gasp for breath.

She didn’t know how she managed to make it home.

Throwing off the precious Charlette dress, Melia lay down on her bed and closed her eyes.

But there was no way she could fall asleep.

The chaotic thoughts tangled in her head and the nameless emotions would not settle.

‘He has a fiancée….’

Thinking about it, it was entirely possible.

He was the heir to a noble ducal house.

Members of noble families of that standing usually became engaged from a young age.

And Melia had never once heard Hailon say that he didn’t have a fiancée.

Anastasia Ribelline.

She was said to be the daughter of a marquis.

Her confident expression and flamboyant appearance shone far too brightly to be compared to Melia.

She was someone who suited standing beside Hailon more than anyone else.

Throb.

When Melia pictured Anastasia and Hailon together, pain spread through her chest once again.

A bitter laugh escaped her. In a way, it was only natural.

There was no way someone like her could ever suit Alfred.

‘What on earth was I even hoping for?’

She didn’t want to admit it, but no matter how she tried to think otherwise, Charlette’s words were the correct answer.

Clear tears welled up in Melia’s eyes.

The droplets that had quietly gathered grew larger, then slipped down her cheek.

Her heart hurt too much.

Once the tears began to fall, they wouldn’t stop, streaming down as if a dam had burst.

Only here, where no one else was present, could Melia finally cry as she let the feelings she had desperately tried to avoid even defining in her own mind spill from her lips.

“…I like you, Hailon.”

She liked him too much. The dam she had built by forcefully pressing it down finally collapsed.

But those feelings would never reach him.

Just like these tears she never wanted anyone to see, her feelings for him had to remain known only to herself.

“…I like you.”

The confession, with no one to hear it, scattered easily into the empty air.

As if warning her that her feelings, too, must disappear like this.