For Your Failed Unrequited Love

……but it’s better than coming empty-handed.

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She was deeply grateful to Adrian for inviting her to the banquet so that she could find a sponsor.
Lucy wanted to express her gratitude even if it was a small gift.
Eventually she left, venting her worries about the gift.

After a while, she unexpectedly saw Felix standing in front of the presents.
To be exact, to where the book club members left their gifts.

He paced in front of it for a moment and seemed to pick up something.
Then he put it in his inside pocket and left.

Lucy could tell.
That the thing he took preciously was her gift.

* * *

As the night advanced, the atmosphere of the banquet was also ripe.

The members of the book club were scattered and each was having a good time.

Jemima and Rita were talking to a noble man.
Presumably from the blushing light on their cheeks, they seemed to really like the person they were talking to.

Colin, meanwhile, was reciting his own poems in front of some ladies.
The ladies held back their laughter as they watched Colin, who looked small and young, but read poetry deftly.
It was a great nudge.

In the meantime, only Lucy looked around with a nervous look.
Her feet were stuck in one place and kept walking around the banquet hall.

“Where the hell is Rosé?”

She wandered among the noble ladies in fancy dresses to find Rosé.
This was because before she returns to the academy, she needs to meet her uncle, Wayne Millard, whom she was supposed to introduce, and hand over her sponsorship application.

She will never have another opportunity like today.
So tonight, she had to get things done.

But Rosé was not seen anywhere in the banquet hall.
She’d be right on the spot with her always eye-catching, flamboyant looks.
Lucy opened her eyes wide and checked if Rosé was somewhere in the crowd.

But after dozens of minutes, Lucy still can’t find Rose. 

I can’t help it.
I’ll just have to find someone myself.

She decided to go around the banquet hall in person and look for someone willing to be her sponsor.

Talking to someone you don’t know first, and shamelessly asking if they could be her sponsor, was something she’d never done before.

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However, when she imagined her dad’s old jacket, her mom’s worn-out shoes soles, and the baron’s empty barn, courage that she didn’t have rose.

The first-person Lucy noticed, who was carefully walking around among people, was a lady.
The person, who is also the principal and educator of a women’s school in the capital, has also visited the Xenomium Academy once.

She was interested in women’s education and owned a fairly large scholarship foundation, so she seemed like she could be a good sponsor of Lucy if she could do well.

I’m lucky to meet you here.

Feeling her confidence rising, Lucy clenched her fists.

I can do it.

She exclaimed to cheer herself up.

As soon as Lucy finally made up her mind and approached the lady.
Someone stood in her way.
It was a man she had never seen before.

“How are you, lady?”

The man, who greeted Lucy tactfully, smiled somewhat uncomfortably.
Lucy faltered back in surprise when the road was blocked.
But the man continued, smiling, as if he didn’t care at all.

“I’ve been watching you for a while, but are you here alone?”

“Uh…….”

Lucy frowned at the sudden question.

“If you don’t mind, can I be your interlocutor?”

A look of embarrassment flashed across Lucy’s face.
This is because she has never faced a man who is so aggressive and blatantly approaching her at first meeting.

“No, I have to go somewhere…….”

“You’ve been hovering around here for a while.”

The man was persistent.
Lucy tried to escape from him, but he stood in the way with a relaxed gesture.

“I’m sorry, but I’m going through.”

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“Do you not like talking in crowded places? Then shall we take a walk outside? The duke’s garden is very beautiful.”

“No, I don’t feel like taking a walk with you.”

She tried to speak as firmly as she could, but Lucy’s voice, which was thin and trembling, was small.
And somehow that seemed to instill the man with useless confidence.
He grinned and this time stretched out his long arms to keep Lucy from running away.

Lucy looked around.
But no one seemed to notice her difficult situation.
Lucy’s eyes, looking for a chance to run away from the man who didn’t move out of the way, naturally headed to one place.

In the distance, Felix was talking to a nobleman with his back on her view.
Lucy looked at his back without realizing it.
She doesn’t know why she wanted him to look her way so desperately at that moment, even though she’s been avoiding him all this time.

“I don’t think you’re a noble from the capital…….
I think you’re from the countryside.
Which family are you from?”

The man looked up and down at Lucy and said,

“Get out of the way!”

Lucy shouted sharply at the man.

Tak~

Then a big hand stretched out from behind Lucy’s back.
The hand went straight in front of Lucy and gently pushed the shoulder of the man standing in front of her.
Lucy looked back.

“Adrian-sunbae.”

Lucy said with wide eyes.

Lucy was not the only one surprised.
The man saw Adrian standing behind Lucy and backed away.
His eyes shook uneasily.

“Prince Berg.”

He instantly erased his sly attitude and bowed politely.
But Adrian ignored the greeting and spoke.

“What are you doing?”

“It’s….”

The man’s eyes turned to Adrian’s hand, wrapped around Lucy’s shoulder.
Soon he faltered and opened his mouth.

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“Oh…… I didn’t know.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s… I’m so sorry, Prince.”

“You better go somewhere else.”

“Yes, of course, Prince.”

The man turned straight to the table where the other nobles were.
But Adrian’s low voice called him back.

“The other place I’m talking about is outside this mansion.”

His cool tone made the man look around for help.
But of course, there was no one to help him.
Eventually, the man left the hall reluctantly with a resigned look.

“Lucy.”

After confirming that the man was leaving the banquet hall, Adrian looked back at her.

“Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine.
Thank you, sunbae.”

“I thought you would be having a good conversation with the person you would like to apply for sponsorship by now.
I should have come and asked you earlier.”

Then he looked around the banquet hall as if he were looking for a noble who he could introduce to her right away.

“Oh, actually, Rosé is going to introduce her uncle.”

“Rose?”

Adrian touched his chin with his hand as if he were pondering something and said,

“Rosé’s uncle is Wayne Millard.
The owner of Wayne’s guild.
He’s pretty good.”

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When Adrian said so, Lucy was relieved.

“Yes, so I was looking for Rosé, but I couldn’t see her anywhere…….”

“If it’s Rose.”

At Lucy’s words, Adrian pointed to one place.

“She’s over there”

When she turned to where Adrian’s fingers were pointing, she saw Rosé, hiding behind a long curtain, having a conversation with a man.

She looked somewhat suspicious.
Considering her usual attitude, which likes to be noticed anytime, anywhere and always stands at the center of attention.

“Thank you, Adrian.
Then I’ll go to Rosé.”

Lucy thanked Adrian again and walked over to Rosé.

Closer to the curtain, Rosé and the man’s secret conversation flowed through her ears.
It wasn’t until she heard the conversation that Lucy knew why the two were talking in such a hidden way.

“Can you tell me exactly what your relationship with Prince Felix Berg is like, Lady Rose?”

The man showed enthusiasm to write down everything Rosé said, and asked a question with a pen in his hand.
Then Rosé smiled softly, shrugged her shoulders once, and opened her mouth.

“It’s true that there was a lot of speculation about me and Felix.
Well, I had to be.
Felix is known to be blunt and rarely expresses his feelings, but he is different when it comes to me.
He asked me to be his partner at the previous Literature Night event, too.….”

The man who listened to Rosé and quickly wrote down her words was none other than a reporter that managed to sneak up on this banquet

The Berg family’s servants didn’t seem to notice these two secretly doing an interview behind the curtain.
Lucy, who was looking for Rosé, had no choice but to hesitate.
It was because Rosé was so focused on the interview that she didn’t want to disturb her. 

Fortunately, Rosé found Lucy hanging around in front of the curtains first.

“Lucy!”

Rosé stood up from her chair and approached her, saying she was looking for her.
She drew Lucy close and whispered in her ear.

“I already told my uncle.
Go up to this floor.
He’ll be there.
There’s a client he really wants to trade with.
He came all the way here to work.”