My Ex-Fiancée Is the Female Lead in the Romance Novel

9 – Trial (1)

The Empire is a country with a long history. As the huge land proves its history, it has been going on for over a thousand years.

That’s why there are so many nobles in the empire. The number of aristocrats naturally increased as they continued to give titles to those who made military achievements and those who made groundbreaking discoveries.

However, the so-called high-ranking aristocrats, dukes, and grand dukes were exceptions to that trend. This is because they were not given the status of a high-ranking aristocrat unless there was a fair amount of military service or discovery.

As such, there have not been many cases where marriage breakups have taken place in the Empire. There are few high-ranking aristocrats, and cases of broken marriages are not that common.

It seems that even the imperial officials were quite perplexed at the first trial held in their lives. They went through several procedures, such as submitting evidence, but their frustrating work took several times longer than expected.

Usually, these trials are supervised by the court, but this time the royal family directly participates, so the imperial officials are said to be preparing for the trial.

I couldn’t get rid of the feeling that the country’s system itself was running inefficiently, perhaps because it was still underdeveloped politically.

“Haa…”

Everything will be decided tomorrow. It is impossible to contact the 4 princesses who are confined to her palace, so it is not known if they have succeeded in persuading the emperor.

I wanted to stop by the 4th princess’s palace and ask her about the progress of her work, but if I revealed my friendship with her 4th princess, other princes might be wary of me and her 4th princess. Is reluctant to

For now, I’ve done everything I can. I submitted a lot of photos of Seria and another man as evidence, and I also submitted her letters that I had written to her unilaterally as evidence that I was treated coldly. But…

“I wonder if it will be that useful…”

“Lombardy Cesar.”

When I turned around at the sound calling me, I saw a familiar face I had seen before.

“The 2nd Prince wants to meet you.”

“I don’t like it.”

“Yes?”

Technically, there is absolutely no reason why I should meet her fiancée’s boyfriend. I was annoyed by the attitude of constantly calling me to his palace, saying that if I wanted to say something, I would just come to the Marquis’ place.

“But…”

The servant looked at me with a shocked expression, as if he was embarrassed by my refusal of the prince’s invitation.

And he seemed afraid of being reprimanded for not bringing me along at the same time.

The 2nd prince is not such a great person, but judging from the fact that he doesn’t know much about her, it seems that he has been serving her 2nd prince not long ago.

Seeing the expression on the servant’s face that looked like he was about to cry, I let out a deep sigh and answered the servant.

“Okay, let’s listen to what the prince is talking about.”

“Yes. I will guide you.”

The servant started guiding me to the second prince’s palace with a relieved expression on his face.

* * *

The 2nd prince greeted me in a different room from her parlor the other day. It is the second prince’s palace with so many rooms that it is hard to imagine that one person could use them. It is said that the palace was made by the emperor, who was a lover in the past, to present it to her empress. As the palace of the former 2nd prince, the room where the 2nd prince welcomed me was also a luxurious room exuding dignity.

“Lombardy Youngsik, are you here?”

“Meet the Little Sun of the Empire.”

I bowed her head slightly and greeted her second prince.

She was the 2nd prince. She must have been doing government affairs, with a pen in her hand and papers on her desk.

“I’m sorry. Because the situation on the Eastern Front is not so good right now. Because there is a lot of government work. I hope you will understand even if it is a little chaotic.”

“No. I am okay. Rather than that, can you tell me why you wanted to see me?”

2 The prince rubbed her eyes and put the pen she was holding down on her desk.

“Of course, as you might have expected, this is a story about the breakup with Lady Argenta. To put it bluntly, I do not want this breakup.”

“Why?”

“I don’t want the two of you to break up because of a misunderstanding sparked by me.”

“Don’t get me wrong… Even if the prince and Seria aren’t actually related, I will break off the engagement with Seria. I think the prince is aware of Seria’s atrocities so far, to some extent?”

Then the 2nd prince put on a troubled expression.

Of course, there’s no way that she didn’t investigate Seria, the second prince’s relationship with her. Her atrocities come out even with our family’s intelligence, but there’s no way she couldn’t find those atrocities with the imperial family’s intelligence.

Of course, my family tends to use the fact that I am Seria’s lover and the fact that I have a deep connection with the Argenta family to better grasp her Seria’s dynamics.

“I understood Yeong-sik’s words. It means that you are going to break the engagement not only because of your actions with me, but also because you are held accountable for your actions in the past. However, it is quite a burden for me that you, who are still popular with the citizens because of me, break up your engagement.”

In short, I almost failed to manage my expression at the second prince’s words, which were like a declaration that he could not still support Seria’s breakup with me, and would even interfere with it.

“I understand the prince’s intentions. If you have finished what you have to say, let’s go.”

I left the palace with a calm expression until the end. However, leaving the imperial palace did not mean all the people who bothered me disappeared.

“Cesar.”

Seria blocked my way while I was on my way to the stable to ride the carriage that was left at the stable in the imperial palace. She saw me somewhere and came running. Her cheeks were slightly reddened and she was breathing heavily.

It seems that Seria also came to present her evidence to the imperial palace. She was wearing a cumbersome-looking dress with lots of jewels on it, unlike the last time she had come to see me in a more comfortable outfit.

“Cesar, I still don’t understand why you want to break up with me.”

For some reason, I strongly felt that the previous conversation would be repeated, so I decided to avoid unnecessary conversations with Seria.

“Seria, if you are going to say the same thing as last time anyway, my answer will be the same.”

“Cesar, don’t you love me anymore?”

I couldn’t help but be taken aback by her words. It was a fleeting moment, but many thoughts came and went in my head. Looking at Seria’s expression, she had a serious face with her lips pursed.

And then another word came out of her mouth.

“Cesar, I love you. My heart has never been shaken.”

I saw her eyes as she said that.

Her eyes were shaking a bit, though.

* * *

Seeing Cesar’s face looking down at her in front of her, Seria felt uneasy for some reason.

She is Seria She told Cesar that she loved her, but Cesar didn’t change his expression or say anything.

When Seria was restless, Cesar finally opened her mouth.

“Seria, don’t lie.”

“Cesar! I’m not lying!”

Although Seria denied Cesar’s words, she felt a little remorse in her conscience. Ceria counted on her hands that she had never lied in her entire life.

The only thing he would lie about all his life was that he had been dating other men without Cesar’s knowledge, but he hadn’t asked about it, so there was nothing to lie about.

So Seria wasn’t very good at lying.

But Cesar was the opposite of her. While running the guild, he has seen countless people trying to trick him. And on the contrary, he was good at both telling lies and seeing through them, because he had tried to outwit others with lies if he needed to.

Seria loves Cesar. But she wasn’t always like that. She got tired of Cesar and went out with other men.

And that didn’t happen just once or twice.

Cesar knew that, so she couldn’t help but be dumbfounded by her lie that her love for him had never wavered.

Of course, Seria was also aware to some extent that what she said was a lie. But as a person, she even distorts her own memories in order to believe what she thinks is true.

In Seria’s mind, it had been a long time since she had already been distorted as a pure love that she had loved Cesar all her life. In the meantime, the slightest bit of remorse she felt caught in Cesar’s eyes.

“All right. Seria, I don’t think we need to talk anymore. See you at the hearing tomorrow.”

“Cesar, can you handle what will happen after you break up with me?”

Cesar smiled lightly at what Seria said in response to her evil, then replied.

“Seria, think about how you can win tomorrow in the time to make useless threats like that.”