Villain, Let Me Touch You! - Chapter 100
07. Medical Efficacy
Priscilla’s birthday celebration ended in complete chaos. It had started grandly, but it ended in utter disarray.
It was all because of Demyr.
After the tense exchange with Priscilla, Demyr had ascended the podium and made the public announcement of Helios’s engagement.
Naturally, I had assumed that Priscilla — or at least her attendants — had been consulted in advance about this shocking revelation.
But the moment I saw Priscilla after the announcement, I realized the truth.
Priscilla had no idea at all.
Our engagement had been exploited, used by Demyr to get back at Priscilla.
After the engagement announcement, Priscilla was pushed to the sidelines.
Congratulations and questions from all corners of the room drowned out the voices wishing Priscilla a happy birthday.
Priscilla couldn’t even take issue with Demyr’s assertive behavior. That was because of something Demyr had said at the end of her announcement.
‘It was approved by His Majesty the Emperor.’
Just exactly what kind of man was the Emperor?
What kind of person is he that he leaves the decision about the crown prince’s engagement to the Queen, allows the announcement to be made at the Imperial Consort’s birthday ball, and doesn’t even show his face at the event?
Come to think of it, there wasn’t much mention of him in the novel either.
He was only ever really a background character.
As time went on, the thought that Demyr was the real power behind the throne became more solidified. Priscilla had gone into debt to prepare the banquet, but it was completely stolen away by me and Helios.
Flustered, Priscilla used the excuse of not feeling well to quickly leave the banquet hall.
I felt a slight pang of guilt as she left, but I quickly brushed it off.
After all, Priscilla had done plenty to me and Helios!
I was someone with a longer memory than I thought. From that point, I started to enjoy the banquet. Fortunately, no one suspected that the curse of the imprint was involved in my engagement with Helios.
That was a surprising reaction.
Instead, the public seemed to have come up with their own spin.
A self-made doctor marrying the crown prince? Isn’t that the ultimate Cinderella story?
Perhaps because it was a story people would love, there was a huge article about me in the morning newspapers.
“‘Who is the beautiful doctor who captured the crown prince’s heart?’”
“‘Rising as a symbol of hope for the women of the empire.’”
“‘Mom, Dad, I want to become a doctor too!’”
Thanks to that, I became a prime target for Jamie’s teasing.
As soon as Jamie woke up in the morning, she came straight to the palace with a pile of newspapers.
From major publications to those with no signboard, just printed sheets of paper, every one of them had something about me in it.
There was no newspaper that didn’t feature my story, no matter how big or small.
“This is huge. There are so many funny articles. They’ve written about everything you eat, the clothes you wear, and even your accessories. Wow, how did they know this? The story about how you wanted to dye your pink hair black but His Highness stopped you from doing it — this is in here too! At this rate, they’ll probably even write about you resigning… oh wait, they did?”
The reporters’ information-gathering abilities were beyond my imagination.
“You might want to hide this one from His Highness.”
Jamie pushed a few of the newspapers away, keeping them out of sight just in case.
“How do you feel?”
I sighed as I looked at the stack of newspapers.
Is this the life of a celebrity?
It was a life I had never imagined, and I was already feeling tired.
And I felt a sense of anxiety rising within me. There were more eyes on me and Helios than ever before. That was a huge risk for someone like me, who had secrets.
The glances I felt at the ball, the envy and admiration, could easily turn into jealousy. And that jealousy could put me in danger.
“I think I’ll stay in the palace for now.”
I thought that as long as I didn’t act out of the ordinary, I’d be safe.
But I already stood out like a speck of dust on a smooth wall, a pink dot on white wallpaper.
In any era or country, there are always people who can’t tolerate anything out of the ordinary.
And it wasn’t any different in the novel.
