For My Birthday, I Was Gifted Five Husbands - Chapter 79
Why didn’t Agatha, despite being Empress Silvea’s long-time maid, actively introduce her daughter, Apollin to Tristan? If the two of them had developed an interest in each other, Silvea, who viewed her grown son as an angel, would have likely overlooked a little ‘loss’ for the sake of the match.
‘But that kid is hopeless.’
Tristan Howard. The heir apparent to the Empire of Hermeland.
The Crown Prince, four years younger than Eugenie, was just as much of a public figure as her husbands.
Since childhood, with his striking golden blonde hair and smooth teal green eyes, the Crown Prince had been raised as the ‘angel of the Howard family.’
He was the turning point for Empress Silvea’s eventual victory over the Emperor, who had been constantly cavorting with women. So, in her eyes, he must have seemed absolutely perfect.
But both Eugenie and other women her age hated him and did everything they could to avoid him.
Even Apollin, though no different, purposely dug into old wounds to provoke Eugenie.
“Your friend, May Chester. The girl who was kind enough to keep you company back at the academy.”
“…”
“She’s still holed up at home since the debutante ball, right?”
Eugenie’s face darkened further.
May Chester. Her classmate, the only true female friend she had, whom she was supposed to graduate with. Eugenie could still vividly remember her gentle voice, and the sight of May’s brown hair, neatly tied with a ribbon.
She had disappeared without a word after the debutante ball.
But all the girls who had debuted with her that night remembered.
The innocent laughter of thirteen-year-old Tristan, and her friend, in a white dress, lying motionless on the floor of the lounge.
‘May!’
The smoke rising from the wall her friend had been leaning against. Eugenie, desperately trying to get to her, stopped by the palace guards.
Thankfully, her friend hadn’t died that day. The bullet fired by the madman had missed May by a hair’s breadth and hit the wall instead.
‘I only wanted to tease her a little.’
The young Tristan, his face scrunched up as if disappointed by the grown-ups’ reaction, held a shotgun in his hand—wherever he had gotten it from.
Even Silvea, who rushed over in a panic, was so flustered that she asked Tristan, right there in front of the other debutantes, why he’d pulled such a ‘prank’ on a lady he had just met.
The child’s answer was simple.
‘I thought she was the prettiest debutante today…’
And so, he explained innocently that he simply wanted to shoot like he was shooting a bird.
After hearing the Crown Prince’s answer, no girl among those present could have felt anything but a chill down her spine. They had all dressed in their finest, but from afar, their white dresses looked rather similar.
So, anyone could have been in May Chester’s place, and who didn’t know that while May had been lucky enough to survive, others might not have been as fortunate?
It had been the worst debutante ball ever.
Everyone there must have wanted to scream and run away.
‘Do you know what will happen if you speak of today?’
But no one dared open their mouth in front of the Empress, who smiled as she subtly threatened them.
Thus, Tristan’s ‘prank’ was brushed off as ‘May Chester being too fragile, fainting before the big stage.’
After that, the Crown Prince was said to have ‘grown up’ and no longer had to be feared, but May’s mental state never recovered. She didn’t even attend the academy’s graduation and spent an indefinite time recuperating in a distant countryside.
On top of that, Carter became distant after the confession incident, and her mother passed away the following year.
At that time, Eugenie was alone.
“Apollin Norton.”
Years passed, and even though she tried to forget, the time spent alone still stung like thorns.
“You’re crossing the line.”
But Eugenie was different from her younger self.
At least, now she wore dazzling rings on all her left fingers, and her left arm muscles, strengthened by her graduate school studies, were even stronger than back then.
“What do you think you’re—”
“I like to bite back.”
“Ah!”
And the large jewel-encrusted ring became a powerful self-defense weapon.
