Renato delivered his accusations in a calm, composed tone, yet his voice carried an unmistakable anger. With a sharp tug, he pulled me closer and fixed me with an intense glare.
The problem is… I’m not Aida.
Caught in the sheer force of his strikingly handsome presence at such close proximity, I momentarily forgot to blink. After all, when else would I ever get the chance to admire such a face from this close?
“Have nothing to say for yourself now that your misdeeds have been exposed, Lady Aida?”
Renato narrowed his eyes and smirked. Oh… That smirk at this distance is downright lethal.
As I averted my gaze, I noticed a young man—one of Renato’s close aides—looking rather bewildered. In his hands was a stack of documents, no doubt containing the so-called "evidence" of Aida’s wrongdoings.
It was clear that Renato had been planning to dramatically present these documents as irrefutable proof before passing his judgment. And yet, here he was, unwittingly incriminating the wrong person.
Aida, eyes wide, was at a complete loss for words, while Eleonora, her pink-blond head buried in her hands, trembled with anxiety.
The murmurs of the surrounding crowd grew louder.
“What’s going on?”
“Did Lady Aida really do such things?”
Yet no one seemed able to grasp the situation entirely.
Renato, however, remained as severe as ever, still staring at me.
Fine. If this was how things were going to be—
I squared my shoulders, glared back at him, and wrenched my arm free.
“Your Highness Renato! Get a hold of yourself! Do you even realize what you’re doing?”
“Of course. As a prince of this kingdom, I cannot overlook your wrongdoings.”
“No, Your Highness. You understand nothing. The very first thing you need to do right now is—”
I seized both of Renato’s shoulders and declared:
“BUY YOURSELF A PAIR OF GLASSES!!”
“!?”
A heavy silence fell. Then—everyone in attendance gave a solemn nod.
* * *
I, Maria Annovazzi, am a duke’s daughter from the Muro Kingdom, a small nation nestled next to Rubini.
As the youngest of five sisters, I had once been the designated heir to my household due to inheriting a unique family trait. As such, I had been rigorously educated from a young age. However, at fifteen, my long-awaited baby brother was born.
With a male heir finally secured, the title I had been raised to inherit was immediately stripped from me. By then, all the eligible noblemen in our country had already been betrothed to my sisters, leaving me—trained only in the ways of an heir, yet now deemed an unsuitable bride—completely unsellable.
So, I turned to Aida, a distant cousin and childhood friend my age, and decided to study abroad in the Rubini Kingdom. The plan was simple: with Aida’s connections, I would find myself a suitable husband from among the high-ranking nobles surrounding her.
It had been two months since I arrived. I diligently attended my studies, participated in school events, and even made friends who affectionately called me “Mimi.” I had just begun to feel that my goal was within reach—
—when this engagement annulment scandal completely derailed everything.
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