My Fiancée Hates Me

I walked down familiar steps covered in red carpet. Below, a crowd of Nobles were chattering amongst themselves in small cliques. They took a moment to look at me and began chattering amongst themselves.

"You are the prettiest person here," Garett whispered.

I am embarrassed if he says that so easily...

"Ah, really..."

I cannot be cute in times like this...

We parted soon after walking down the stairs. I was suddenly bombarded with a large group of females.

"Lady Arielle is so beautiful today!"

"Her skin appears so milky white compared to her dress! It is lovely."

The number of similar comments bombarding me along with the heavy use of perfume and the loud noises started to make me dizzy.

"Lady Arielle!" Grace called.

"Grace!" I said as I tried to escape the ladies. "Excuse me as I privately talk to Grace."

"It was difficult for you?" she asked with a smile on her face.

"Quite..."

"Don't mind them... They are just curious about the young Duke's Daughter that rarely appears at these kinds of gatherings," she said with a light smile. She was wearing a lovely purple dress with pink roses.

"Your purple dress is very lovely," I said.

"Thank you, My Lady! I obviously cannot compare to your dress. It is rather daring. Without your curves, I would not dare wear a similar dress." "Garett feeds me well...Sometimes too well. I tried my best to fit in the dress."

"Heavens! Such a sinful man."

We shared a short laugh.

"Where is Charlotte?" I asked.

"Charlotte went to powder her nose."

"When was this?"

"Come to think of it, it was thirty minutes ago..."

"...Grace, you are coming with me," I said as I grabbed her hand.

We walked around quietly and watched the powder room from afar. A young Noblewoman had walked in by herself. Grace and I waited a bit behind some columns. A man with the appearance of a poorly dressed servant followed in afterwards.

"A man went in! How dare he?" Grace said.

Grace seemed as if she were about to run in. I stopped her by pulling her back.

If he were just some barbarian, he would not think of using underhanded tactics like using a servant's clothes were two sizes too small. They wanted to be hidden for a reason. "Let's wait a bit..."

I was only slightly armed. We were both female with smaller frames, and one of us does not have training in fighting with those larger than much less than any experience at all.

The fake servant had come out moments later with a large body sack over his shoulders.

"When can we intervene?" Grace asked.

Grace was growing increasingly impatient...

"Soon...Let's see where they are being taken. Charlotte may be there too," I said.

As expected, he led us straight to a storage room a short distance away from the hall. "My head feels dizzy..." Grace said as she leaned against a column in front of the man.

"... How about I take you somewhere to relax?" the man asked Grace as he helped her up.

They returned to the storage room. I used a blow dart tool and incapacitated him right after he unlocked the storage room.

"That must be where they are keeping them," I said as I came into the clear.

Charlotte and several other girls were kept tied up in the storage room.

"Thank you for earlier, Lady Arielle...I just have to wonder if you happen to always bring such things with you?" Grace asked.

"I do not bring things like this all of the time...I only brought them today," I said as I handed her the blow dart and some needles. "The use should be rather straightforward. If you prefer not to use it, please hand it to Charlotte. She is the one who first taught me how to use them anyways."

I quickly untied Charlotte and had Grace help me untie the others.

I lightly tapped Charlotte's cheek.

"...Arielle?"

"Charlotte, thank goodness you are fine," I said as I breathed out a sigh of relief. I pulled her up from laying on the floor. "How are you feeling?"

"...I was powdering my nose before I smelled something strange," she said as she rubbed her head.

I looked around and saw very familiar faces. They were all well-known beauties of the kingdom. I knew of them because I was once searching for possible concubines for my husband that were not lacking in beauty or brains.

Why would they be gathered here?

"...Kaya Ouchi cannot have other beautiful young ladies usurping her grand reentrance," I surmised.

"Kaya Ouchi? Is she coming back for you?" Charlotte asked frantically as she grabbed my shoulders.

"She wants to be Queen...I made things difficult for her, so she wants revenge on top of that. I need you to get moving and lead the girls to a safe place," I said as I handed her a map.

"No! Please come with-"

"Char...thank you for worrying about me, but I must return. The two greatest loves of my life are still in that room. I will be returning there," I said.

Charlotte hugged my neck tightly.

"I will be waiting for you to return."

"Yeah..."

I had slipped on a blonde wig to mask my noticeable pink hair and made my way to the smithing quarters where weapons that needed repairs were sent. The weapons that were done were to be loaded up on a wagon just outside before they would be delivered to the Knight quarters.

I complained that it was unsafe to lay weapons out like that when I was Queen. Since this is still before then, their habits have not changed...

I was able to successfully bring a short sword to my side under my dress along with several other weapons. I thought that I might as well hide a few weapons here and there if I might be roaming about.

I casually returned to the hall and hid near an exit I had several ways of escaping from.

The royal trumpets suddenly sounded for the appearance of everyone's hot issue. The person I convicted of murder proudly walked down the halls as if she got away with it.

Kaya Ouchi parades down a flight of stairs in a long pitch-black dress with an empire waist and lace cap sleeves. She also wore a black lace choker with twin pearl hairpieces on both sides of her head. No one could deny that she was beautiful with her young innocent like looks. Her heart was sadly painted in the same color as her dress.

Prince Erik appeared from a crowd of political leaders. It did not take long for her eyes to lock him on her radar. She quickly made her way towards him and latched her fingers on his person. Vance is nowhere to be seen either. If he plans to protect him, I wish he would stick closer to him or at least disguise himself because he was technically dead once.

I was suddenly pulled by my arm from behind. I was pushed against a pillar and had a man standing over me with his head by my ears.

"My Lady, it is me," Vance said into my neck.

"V-Vance, why are you talking into my neck?"

How did he find out it was me!

"Please play as my lover with me...Nobles are more reluctant towards looking at intimate looking scenes like these, and I do not suppose that you would prefer moving too far from here either."

His warm breath sent shivers down my spine.

I placed my hands on his neck.

"I understand...but please talk near my ear. It is a bit uncomfortable to talk like this."

"Very well," he said as he changed positions and moved one of his legs and wrapped his arms around me. "Forgive me a bit."

"...It's fine," I said as I undid his outer coat.

"Whoa! Hey, what are you doing there?"

I slipped in a short sword along with a few other weapons into his coat.

"It is easier to sneak in this way."

"You always did find a way to sneak stuff around... Could you fill me in on what has happened so far?"

A couple of girls passed our way and quickly left after seeing us.

"... Kaya Ouchi has associates that are willing to kidnap beauties of the kingdom for her," I said as I rested my hands on his shoulders.

"Kidnapped!" he exclaimed as he rose his leg slightly.

His leg grazed my inner thigh slightly. It sent a slightly tingly sensation. I slapped his cheeks together.

"K-Keep it down...I already rescued them and directed the girls that were locked up and have my friends taking care of anything that goes their way." "You are still in danger...How could I possibly calm down?"

"I do not think I am that much of an amazing beauty, right? It will be a while before any of her goons come after me if I do not flaunt my pink hair."

His eyebrows scrunched up slightly as he moved his face towards mine and cupped both of my cheeks with his hands.

"My Lady is very beautiful. You are probably the most beautiful woman in the whole world to me," he said as he leaned his arm against the wall over my head. "Should I describe the number of ways that you are attractive to you?"

My heart raced for a moment from his domineering presence. I pushed him away from me slightly because of some sort of feeling the need to retaliate.

"I am sorry..."

"What for?" Vance asked.

"Ignorance maybe?" I said.

He removed his arm from the wall and watched over me with his hand over the wall.

"You have no awareness for yourself and no care about your own safety as usual..."

"I do not expect you to follow every order I give to you. I am not your Master or anything... Since we can both influence the future with our memories, why not put our heads together to save the people most important to us?" I asked.

"Whatever I say...you would do your own thing anyways," Vance said with a sigh.☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐