I’ll Be the Heroine’s Competent Divorce Partner - Chapter 131

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 131

 

After purchasing two lanterns from the merchant like that.

 

The Crown Prince and I headed toward the riverbank.

 

Since it was quite late, there were hardly any people around.

 

Instead, lanterns sent downstream from upstream sparkled brilliantly on the pitch-black river water.

 

With candlelight shining through colorful paper petals, the lanterns looked like flower clusters made of light.

 

At that splendid sight, I unconsciously murmured softly.

 

“…It’s like a flower garden.”

 

“Indeed. I truly had no idea it would be this beautiful.”

 

His Highness the Crown Prince also had a face deeply moved by the emotion.

 

Standing rooted to that spot, he quietly gazed at the flower lanterns flowing down the river.

 

His face showed he was deep in thought about something.

 

I waited a little without disturbing him for now.

 

After doing so for quite a while.

 

“Well then, shall we try making a wish too?”

 

The Crown Prince skillfully struck a match.

 

After lighting my lantern first, he lit his own lantern as well.

 

Orange flames fluttered like butterflies inside the translucent paper lantern.

 

“Be careful not to get your feet wet.”

 

“Ah, yes.”

 

I stumbled from stepping wrong on the sandbar by the riverbank, and nearly dropped my lantern.

 

After various small incidents, we were somehow able to float our lanterns side by side.

 

With eyes closed and hands clasped together.

 

We each made wishes to the lanterns floating gently away.

 

And so, the first person to open their eyes was me.

 

‘What kind of wish did His Highness make?’

 

I was very curious, but I planned not to ask about it.

 

There’s a superstition that wishes don’t come true if you speak them aloud.

 

Still, I didn’t think he was the type to make wishes so seriously.

 

The Crown Prince kept his hands clasped together for quite a long time.

 

Just as I was repeatedly glancing sideways at the Crown Prince’s closed-eyed profile.

 

“Do you know something?”

 

The Crown Prince gently lifted his eyelids.

 

With his gaze fixed on the flower lanterns rippling on the river water, he suddenly spoke.

 

“Until now, I have never once experienced the lives of the Empire’s people. I was merely upheld as someone who would become emperor someday.”

 

“Your Highness?”

 

“So, everything I’ve done with Marchioness Lucerno… is a first for me.”

 

A first.

 

That word pierced my heart with a chillingly sweet sensation.

 

“Just today alone, for instance. Coming out to see the festival, eating street snacks, and.”

 

At that moment.

 

The Crown Prince suddenly turned his gaze to look at me.

 

His usual composed demeanor was nowhere to be found.

 

An expression of burning anxiety, nervousness, and impatience.

 

After briefly moving his lips, he stammered out his words.

 

“Even wandering around alone with someone of the opposite sex – the Marchioness was my first for all of it.”

 

“….”

 

“So… the Marchioness is a very special person to me. Thanks to you, my world was able to expand considerably.”

 

Having said that much, the Crown Prince suddenly looked like he realized something.

 

Then he hurriedly continued with rambling words.

 

“Ah, but it’s not simply because of those things that the Marchioness is special. What I mean is, well, that’s just one of the reasons why you’re special to me…”

 

The Crown Prince, who was usually eloquent, looked extremely troubled this time.

 

As if the words he wanted to say weren’t organizing themselves properly.

 

With an anxious voice, he trailed off several times.

 

And then.

 

“…I’m really being foolish.”

 

The Crown Prince gave a bitter smile.

 

“I don’t know why I keep becoming so stupid in front of you. So what I wanted to say was…”

 

After trailing off for a moment, the Crown Prince finally continued like a sigh.

 

“In my entire life, no one has ever been as special as you are.”

 

“….”

 

“Now, and in the future… you’ll continue to be special.”

 

Silence flowed.

 

After a heavy silence that felt like either eternity or an instant.

 

I slowly parted my lips.

 

“In what way am I special?”

 

“In every way.”

 

As if he had never even considered it before, the Crown Prince answered without hesitation.

 

“Someone I can respect as one person to another. And.”

 

But he couldn’t stop the trembling at the end of his voice.

 

The Crown Prince carefully met my gaze with a face clearly showing nervousness.

 

“…the woman I love.”

 

At that moment.

 

I realized like a bolt of lightning.

 

The wish I had made while floating the lantern had already come true.

 

And rightfully so, because my wish was.

 

‘Please let me break free from the original story and love someone freely.’

 

And that ‘someone’ I had been thinking of was exactly….

 

“Actually, you see.”

 

Finally, I mustered the courage to be honest.

 

Gripping the hem of my dress tightly, I continued with a trembling voice.

 

“I was truly happy that you clearly called it asking me on a date.”

 

“Pardon?”

 

“So, I am.”

 

A powerful impulse surged through me.

 

If it were my usual self, I would have tried to find reason somehow.

 

But right now….

 

‘I don’t want to do that.’

 

Rather, I wanted to surrender myself to this impulse.

 

I gently wrapped both arms around the Crown Prince’s neck.

 

The Crown Prince didn’t avoid my touch.

 

In an instant, the distance between us closed.

 

His violet eyes, shining like jewels, quietly looked down at me, filled with countless emotions.

 

And then.

 

“May I kiss you?”

 

At a distance close enough for our breaths to touch, I asked him that.

 

At the same time, the Crown Prince’s eyes seemed to darken completely.

 

His firm hand grasped my waist and pulled me tightly toward him.

 

“You’re truly mischievous.”

 

The Crown Prince gave me a reproachful look with a bitter smile.

 

“When you know very well that I could never refuse.”

 

With that whisper as the end.

 

The Crown Prince devoured my lips in one swift motion.

 

Was it because of the lingering sweetness of the honey wine I had drunk earlier?

 

Or was it because this man’s breath was sweet?

 

My mouth was filled with sweetness.

 

That sweetness was so enchanting.

 

…I felt like I might become addicted to it.

 

“Ah, wait….”

 

A sweet moan escaped from deep within my throat.

 

Only then did the Crown Prince pull his lips away from mine.

 

Looking at him with hazy eyes, I felt a strange sense of satisfaction.

 

Ah.

 

The Crown Prince, who had always been composed, was completely disheveled.

 

That thirsty gaze that looked only at me.

 

That’s right.

 

I had made that perfect man lose his composure like that.

 

That man who was desperately trying to reach me somehow, yet struggling to hold onto his reason at my every word…

 

‘How lovely.’

 

At the same time, the Crown Prince murmured softly.

 

“I never thought my wish would come true so quickly.”

 

“Pardon?”

 

“The truth is…”

 

Like a young boy helpless in the fever of first love, the Crown Prince slowly lowered his gaze.

 

His shy confession continued, seeming about to break off but never quite ending.

 

“Just as I think of you as someone special, I prayed that you would think of me as someone special too.”

 

I see.

 

You and I had the same feelings from the very beginning.

 

My chest swelled up as if I had swallowed a balloon.

 

I smiled brightly and wrapped my arms around the Crown Prince’s neck once more.

 

“Me too.”

 

With those words, we pressed our lips together once again.

 

I can say this with certainty.

 

Today was the most perfect day of my life.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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