Chapter 197: Reunion

The day she and Uriel visited Madame Jensen didn’t cross Apollonia’s mind until now.

Just before leaving the salon, Uriel had talked to Madame Jensen alone while ordering many casual clothes.

Did he order it without saying anything?

“He talked to me separately and even offered a detailed explanation. I thought you knew, Your Highness.”

Why would anyone have no interest in clothes?

Apollonia sighed softly.

“Let’s see it for now.”

When Apollonia uttered an ambiguous consent, Madame Jensen’s perplexed face brightened a little.

“You’ll love it once you see it! That’s right! I worked very hard on this piece.”

When Madam Jensen beckoned, her two assistants prepared to roll up the cloth covering the dress.

“We took orders from the palace and made Her majesty’s engagement gowns several times, but… the last time I saw you in person, I didn’t think you would have looked very good in those clothes.” Madame Jensen explained with a glance. “However, I think the design that Count Buiche ordered will fit perfectly.”

She beckoned once again and the cloth was peeled off, revealing the ball gown in her assistants’ hands.

Adrian covered her mouth and exclaimed. “Oh my!”

The gown hanging on the staff’s fingertips looked like a red flower——a powerful, red rose.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Wait. There’s more.”

Madame Jensen smiled satisfactorily and beckoned to the employee holding a luxurious blue velvet box.

“I searched all the jewelers in the capital to find something that Count Buiche had just described.”

Madame Jensen opened the box and showed it to her, trembling.

“Oh, my God!”

Adrian cried tears of admiration.

Apollonia, who was standing there nonchalantly, couldn’t hide a slight smirk.

The necklace was elaborate and elegant in the form of several small, transparent diamonds wrapped around one small gem.

“It’s similar to your eye color, Your Highness. There’s no gold, but——” Adrian said, her gaze alternating between her and the necklace but her expression looked more joyful with the jewelry.

“A famous craftsman from Ramant created this rare and sophisticated masterpiece, Your Highness. Count Buiche had described what suited you well and now I’m here.” Madame Jensen added.

As Adrian said, the necklace’s ruby pendant and her red ball gown resembled her eye color very much.

“So, Uriel knew.”

Apollonia had a piece of jewelry that the same craftsman had worked on with exactly the same shape as this one.

No.

She still had it.

She just stored it in a drawer because she couldn’t use it.

It was a memento of Princess Elenia, who had scratched herself to check if the diamond was indeed from Lishan Province.

Uriel remembered.

Chapter 5. Reunion

The banquet hall, where the victory celebration would be held, was more spectacular than ever.

Whatever the actual circumstances were, the Emperor tried to show everyone what the Kingdom had achieved in Paris’s name.

Rumors of what happened in Rajan Kingdom had spread widely, and he also had a plan in mind to bury those rumors with an even more ostentatious banquet.

Numerous nobles from the capital as well as from the provinces attended the ball.

Before the banquet ripened, guests were chatting in groups of twos and threes.

There were people like Caelion who arrived early and discussed business with various nobles at the corner of the banquet hall while the young peers’ private discussions were mainly about love and marriage.

“Have you heard rumors about His Highness, Paris, looking for a future wife? Is Lorelei, the daughter of Marquis Edwin, one of the candidates by any chance?”

A brown-haired woman with a mole near her lips tapped the wine glass in her hand as she asked a dark blonde lady in a white dress.

“Please don’t say that, Lady Layla. Lorelei already has someone else in her heart.”

A woman named Lorelai blushed when the auburn-haired woman standing next to her flipped her hair.

The young men and women standing next to them exchanged curious glances.

One of them, a brown-haired man uttered with a sigh. “It’s a pity that the rumor about Lady Lorelai Edwin, the flower of upper society, already has someone in her heart, is true.”

It was Simon Trion, the Marquis Trion’s eldest son and Layla’s sibling, who said it.

He appeared in a white uniform to match Lady Lorelei on purpose, but from the moment he entered the banquet hall, he hadn’t made a single eye contact with her.

“Don’t be shy, sister Janice.”

The noblemen around her age knew that she had Count Uriel Buiche in mind.

Count Buiche, a former commoner who became a knight, and Marquis Edwin had a wide gap when it came to power and status.

However, Marquis Edwin, who adored his daughter very much, was desperate to fulfill her wish somehow.

“It’s so romantic! You chose love regardless of origin or status. Count Uriel Buiche is blessed.”

When Janice remarked, the women around her nodded and responded

Janice Emen was a Viscount’s daughter and Lorelei’s cousin.