Egg goes cr-ack! (7)
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“Your Highness Tarkan, Princess.”
Dionna politely greeted the two of them.
‘Hmm, should I leave?’ Aristine thought.
She could explain to Tarkan later that she had dealt with what happened so it wouldn’t become a diplomatic issue. For now, it would be best to give the two of them time alone.
Such thoughts were running through Aristine’s mind, but Dionna spoke first.
“Princess, I am sorry, but may I borrow His Highness Tarkan for a while? I have something to discuss with His Highness.”
She was already thinking of doing that.
Aristine let go of Tarkan’s hand and was about to nod her head. But just as her hand was slipping away, Tarkan suddenly grabbed it.
He held her hand tightly as if saying he didn’t plan on letting go.
Aristine looked up at Tarkan in surprise.
However, he was not looking at her.
“My wife and I have something to discuss as well.”
Wife.
Dionna’s face paled when Tarkan said that word so naturally. But she gave a soft smile and nodded her head.
“I see. Pardon me, I was not aware.”
And then she bowed her head towards Aristine.
“I’m sorry, Princess.”
‘Wait, why are you apologizing to me?’
Aristine looked at Dionna, feeling somewhat absurd.
When she did this, it looked as if Aristine was blocking Tarkan and Dionna’s date.
‘Come on, I’m not the one who refused, it’s your boyfriend.’
Aristine didn’t want to be a third-party stuck between two lovers.
“There is no need to apologize to me. Actually, would you like to come along? What Tarkan and I are going to discuss isn’t exactly a secret.”
As she said that, her right cheek felt prickly.
Even without turning to look, she could tell that Tarkan was fixing an intense gaze on her.
‘What is this guy’s problem now?’
Even if she wanted to talk about something secret, she could do that after Dionna was gone. They both shared the same bedroom anyway, so they could just talk at night.
“Oh my, is that okay?”
Dionna asked with a pleased smile.
“Mhm. Let’s have some tea. With tart.”
Aristine sneakily exposed her ulterior motive.
“Thank you, Princess.”
Dionna’s eyes curved as she gave a deep smile.
Tarkan, who was watching this, called her. His voice was rigid.
“Dionna.”
“Yes?”
Dionna innocently looked up at him, as if to say ‘is there anything?’.
Tarkan stared at Dionna’s face for a moment then he frowned slightly and turned away.
‘So she’s planning on following us.’
Dionna was a sharp woman.
So she always understood Tarkan’s intentions and acted before he even said anything. Even now, she must have noticed that he was not happy with her following them.
‘It can’t be helped.’
Aristine was the one who suggested it first, but Tarkan couldn’t retract it. Because doing that would be disrespecting Aristine’s will.
Most of all, there was no real reason for him to send Dionna away and be alone with Aristine.
‘…Why do I feel annoyed though?’
“The Princess is now my wife, so call her Your Highness from now on.” [1]
At Tarkan’s cold words, Dionna’s eyes trembled.
Even after marriage, Aristine was still the Princess of Silvanus.
But now that she was the wife of a Prince of Irugo, it was certainly odd for the people of Irugo to refer to her as the Princess of a foreign country.
Nevertheless, she didn’t think that Tarkan would point it out.
Tarkan was never the type of man to care about such trivial things.
‘But why…!’
Why does he keep acting differently than usual when Aristine is involved?
Dionna hid her fists which were clenched tightly behind her skirt.
“Ah…I apologize. I got used to it…”
Of course, her calling Aristine ‘Princess’ was certainly not because she got used to it.
It was because she didn’t want to call Aristine, Tarkan’s wife. Because that position should belong to herself, Dionna.
Dionna’s sea-blue eyes reflected Aristine’s face.
She felt like there was a blade in her mouth as she moved her tongue to speak, “…Your Highness the Princess.”
That simple phrase alone seemed to cut the inside of her mouth and make her bleed.
Dionna was definitely smiling but with the expression she had, she was better off not.
Aristine wanted to leave this uncomfortable situation as soon as possible.
“Hm, right. Well, you can just call me correctly from now on. Shall we go then?”
When she quickly changed the subject, Tarkan nodded and began to walk. He was still holding Aristine’s hand.
His shoulders were broad, and his shoulder blades were well-developed. His waist was slender, and his straight legs were elegant.
Tarkan looked like a male deity and Aristine’s delicate figure standing next to him, made for a beautiful picture.
Even seeing their figure from behind made people’s hearts flutter because it seemed like a mysterious scene from a myth.
Dionna could see the court ladies who were staring at the two of them, completely mesmerized.
Among them were also court ladies who served Dionna closely.
“…”
Dionna bit her lips harshly.
Even to her, the both of them looked good together so it must be even worse for other people.
She remembered how the crowd was praising them at the wedding yesterday. Some of the people watching the wedding parade had even cried. A fan club had formed almost immediately.
And how did the newspapers behave?
This was the wedding of Irugo’s Prince and Hero, and a political marriage with the Silvanus Empire.
It was an event that was bound to make headlines.
However, the tone of the writing was strange.
Instead of discussing the details of the wedding, or the reactions of each class in the social ladder, or the political changes due to the arranged marriage, or addressing future expectations…
‘F*cking romance of the century!’
All it talked about was how good the two of them looked together, how they exchanged looks at each other, what kind of crisis they faced in the middle of the wedding parade and how they overcame it with love.
It was full of such useless things.
And imagine how many photos they published. It was to the point where she had to wonder if this was a newspaper or an illustrated romance novel.
Dionna couldn’t control her anger and ripped that newspaper to pieces. That wasn’t even enough to sate her anger, so she burned them and cursed those reporters.
Even after doing so, she obsessively bought gossip magazines to see if there were any bad rumors about Aristine.
However….
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First Night of the Newly Weds: The Bed Broke
The Condition of the Royal Couple’s Bed
[Exclusive] A Picture of the Royal Couple’s Bed.
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The gossip magazines published articles about Tarkan and Aristine breaking their bed on the first night, as if they had all promised to do so beforehand.
In fact, the gossip magazine which claimed to have an exclusive photo of the bed was said to have recorded the highest sales since its inception.
Dionna, who was crying like crazy after reading such gossip, couldn’t bear it anymore and came to the palace to see Tarkan.
Because she thought she would feel reassured when she saw him with her own eyes.
After all, there was no way Tarkan would give his heart to Aristine. That would absolutely never happen.
Tarkan clearly told her that his heart would never change.
Since this was a marriage for peace, it was not possible to omit the first night.
The moment the two of them used separate rooms, the whole country would be in an uproar.
The Queen’s faction would also attack, and above all, it would chill the hearts of all the people who were excited about yesterday’s wedding.
Hence, Dionna thought that by now, Tarkan would not be paying the Princess any attention and would be going about his duties as well.
However…
Dionna looked at Tarkan who was moving further away without looking back.
She was still standing here; she hadn’t even taken a single step yet he didn’t look back even once.
And he was still holding Aristine’s hand.
Dionna ground her teeth lightly.
A thunderous wave of anger erupted in her sea-blue eyes.
‘You think I will back down like this?’
No matter what happens, she will never back down.
‘His Highness Tarkan will be mine.’
Translator’s Corner.
[1] I believe I’ve explained this title situation before, but I’ll go over it again. What he really says is ‘the Princess is now my wife so call her Princess(My wife) from on.’.
The first ‘princess’ is the title for an Emperor’s daughter, the second ‘princess’ is the title for a ‘Prince’s wife’. In other situations, I translate this word to ‘Your Highness the Princess’. But he’s essentially telling Dionna to call Aristine his wife.
