Two people had their talk that morning. It was a discussion that should have finished within a minute, but due to the resentment one of the parties held against the other, it took more than ten minutes. By then, the sun was already rising, spilling beautiful blinding rays from the east.From start to end, Jiang Li never revealed himself to the woman, preferring to talk to her through the window screen. He even made his voice sound more robotic.
The first time he spoke in that way, it was to remind her that she was not the only one who knew how to make doppelganger and that pretending to be dead asleep was more effective when done personally.
"Naturally, a fake created through magic, even if they could carry out physical actions and act so well, will still reek of mana. But a real person gives off an aura unique to the living. Do you know about that?"
"Hmm. Considering you cast the same magic five times, the answer is obvious." The person with a stiff and weird voice clicked his tongue.
His action made the girl already annoyed at her became more irritated. She was eighty percent sure the person outside was the one who rejected her for so many times but here he was, not even a bit apologetic for what he did.
Jiang Li didn"t know the bitterness the girl was harboring, otherwise, he would have rolled his eyes and asked, had she been apologetic for hypnotizing his servants and trying to mind control him? If he remembered correctly, she never apologized for it. Only her House sent a letter of apology which sounded so perfunctorily and forced.
"On the day of the ceremony, no matter what happens, don"t do anything. Don"t interfere," he said in an authoritative voice.
Rumina"s mood turned sourer. She was officially ill, so why would she go to the ceremony in the first place? A second later, her eyes flickered to one corner of the room, a guess crossed her mind. "Is it about House Lilac?"
The disguised prophet refused to say more and might have even left already. The female lead was left there frowning.
Even without the other telling her, she would not say a thing to that slag man. Hah. Did he think she would want to help somebody who would definitely not appreciate it?
The female lead seemed to forget that the Rome of this lifetime was a bit more reasonable than the one from the previous lifetime. However, impressions burned in the back of one"s mind was very hard to change, especially if the person in question only had bad memories with her.
In the upcoming rebellion, she wanted to see how the proud crown prince would stand up by himself and create the "wise and competent" reputation to his future subjects. She would not help. If possible, she wanted to laugh at him from a concealed, high place.
When the girl dissolved her engagement with the future Emperor, she felt so at peace and had somehow walked out of her fear for him. Now, she could harbor thoughts like this against Rome.
...
The Emperor"s health had been deteriorating so fast lately so the one handling the preparation for the ceremony was mostly the crown prince, Rome Natividad.
The prince was excited to be a.s.signed such a heavy responsibility. Every day he would be seen visiting the large open amphitheater where the event would take place and talking to various church and government officials who were helping him with the matter. The busy days helped him forget his heartbreak over Rumina"s situation.
He was not aware that many were shaking their heads at him, not due to overworking or anything, but because while he was successful in showing his hardworking side, he was also displaying a bit of his incompetence.
It was another day when the male lead went to the church to talk with the Pope. Two royal knights in charge of guarding the prince chatted with each other in low voice. They were left outside so they dared to chat with each other. Those who could see them doing so were quite far so they paid them no heed.
"The crown prince should be busy this time and won"t make us engaged in group duels with the holy knights."
"I hope so. But who can tell?" A sigh was heard.
"The last time, the crown prince thought it"s a must for us to show our abilities first to convince the church to cooperate with them. But I"m sure that"s very unnecessary."
"Let"s not talk about it anymore. This issue is minor compared to the prince being so fussy about the stage and the program. He"s micromanaging everything."
"Yeah. He looks like somebody who would want to take over everything if he only has eight arms or many bodies."
"But he"s supposed to lead."
"Well..."
A few more words were exchanged between them and at the end of it, they simply shook their heads lightly, finding nothing more to say. They also purposely stopped speaking since they spot the subject of their conversation emerging from the Pope"s room, wearing a bright face as he walked with the beautiful and holy-looking Saintess.
The man who was merrily talking with his fiancee did not seem to notice that the many eyes were watching him attentively. He was the man who would become the Emperor. The palace spread that he was brilliant in all aspects and well, he did sometimes display good decision-making and intelligence. However, his inadequacies were also laid bare to the eyes of the majority...
Until now... He had yet to approach the prophet who would be the master of the ceremony. This was supposed to be the first thing to do. The prince seemed to be forgetting one more thing too. The task was not only for him to prepare his own wedding and coronation, but arrange the program and events for the Festival of Light.
...