Chapter 44

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter: 44

Chapter Title: Please Take Me With You

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He had come.

Erna, who had been sulking, thinking only that she'd been stood up, suddenly brightened and rose from her seat. It wasn't until Biern had crossed halfway through the drawing room that she sensed something was off.

The man who always walked with perfect posture and elegant grace was staggering slightly for some reason. His clothes were disheveled, and the smell of alcohol wafted from him.

No way.

Erna shook her head in denial of reality. Hadn't they made a promise? And this was broad daylight. It was hardly the right time for him to meet his fiancée in a drunken state. But as Biern drew closer, Erna's hopes faded.

"Hello, Miss Hardy."

Biern gave a slow, lazy grin as he looked at the stunned Erna.

"Sorry. As you can see, lunch might be a bit tough."

His gaze was thick with intoxication and drowsiness.

She knew she had to respond, but Erna couldn't find the right words and just stared at him blankly. She was receiving lessons from a royal etiquette instructor as part of her marriage preparations, but she'd never come across any protocol for dealing with a thoroughly drunk fiancé.

"Or would you wait?"

Biern, who had been silent for a while, asked with a sigh. His eyes flicked to the desk clock on the mantelpiece before returning to Erna's startled gaze.

"Dinner would be fine too, if that's okay."

"Pardon?"

Erna glanced at the clock Biern had checked, her brows furrowing.

"Ah... yes."

Even as she thought it was utterly rude, Erna nodded unwittingly. The situation was so bewildering that she could barely register what she was saying.

"Alright, then."

Biern approached her side, murmuring as if humming a slow melody.

"This is for you, Miss Hardy. A gift of apology. I kept it."

As Erna flinched back, Biern handed her the golden object he'd been clutching. It was etched into her memory, impossible to forget—the deer antler trophy that had started all this mess.

Clutching the trophy to her chest in surprise, it suddenly became the key to understanding this absurd situation.

Lisa had explained it was a trophy used at bachelor parties in high society. Tradition held that the one who drank the most at the party took it home. So, the prince had spent the night drinking at a bachelor party, winning the golden deer antler trophy and breaking his promise to his fiancée.

But he said he kept it?

He hadn't said he won it—he said he kept it. Did that mean Biern was the star of that bachelor party? How could that be? He wasn't a bachelor?

Erna reeled as if struck hard on the head with a sledgehammer. In the meantime, Biern collapsed onto the sofa like a sack.

"What in the world is this?"

Erna alternated glances between the trophy and the prince, asking in disbelief.

"Wolf horn."

Biern slowly opened his closed eyes and muttered the absurd words. Erna stared at him, breathless.

"Your Highness, wolves don't have horns."

"Is that so."

Biern replied indifferently and closed his eyes again.

"You're right. Now that it's been cut off."

With that drowsy whisper laced with a faint chuckle, the conversation ended. The slow, peaceful sound of his breathing and the ticking of the clock's second hand gradually filled the drawing room's silence.

Erna stared blankly down at Biern sprawled on the sofa, then plopped down into her seat as if collapsing.

She couldn't understand a single thing.

From the sudden marriage proposal to now, everything that had happened to her had been like this. The most baffling of all was the man before her—the prince who would become her husband next week.

Should she have refused after all?

But when Erna came to after fainting, their marriage was already a done deal. Her grandmother and Mrs. Greve had shed tears of profound worry and relief, while Biern smiled calmly.

'You're awake, my bee.'

At his joke as their eyes met, Erna nearly fainted again. A bouquet of thorny roses sat prettily in a vase on the bedside table, beside the bed where she lay—like embers spat from raging hellfire, gleaming red and redder still.

Erna gazed down at the sleeping prince with troubled eyes, then suddenly frowned and moved to the chair by the window. She hesitated but eventually cracked the window open a bit. Only then did the alcohol scent permeating the drawing room dilute slightly.

Erna watched her drunken fiancé, who had fallen asleep in a hazy stupor as if drunk on unconsumed liquor. In the pale, clear autumn sunlight pouring in, the trophy cradled in her arms gleamed.

A wolf horn like a deer antler, kept by the star of a bachelor party for a non-bachelor.

Whatever its true nature, it was clearly a bewildering gift in every way.

The first thing that entered Biern's eyes when he woke was a woman. A petite young lady cradling the golden deer antler trophy like a queen's scepter. Erna Hardy.

As memories surfaced one by one, Biern slowly sat up. The sunlight had already ripened to gold. It was late afternoon, nearing evening.

"Are you alright?"

Erna eyed him cautiously, as if he were a patient, and asked carefully.

"I hope I won't have to wait through lunch turning into dinner, and dinner into breakfast?"

Her follow-up question bristled with tiny thorns.

Biern leaned back into the sofa with a sigh-laced smile and nodded. To think they'd let him crash here in this state and sleep it off. Mrs. Fitz must be quite angry.

"Would you wait just a bit longer?"

Biern rang the call bell, massaging his stiff neck as he rose from the sofa.

"I need some preparation to dine properly with a lady."

"Yes. I'll allow that much, Your Highness."

Erna, who had been scrutinizing him, replied in a tone as if granting a favor.

Biern gazed amusedly at her, like a kitten with its tail puffed up in anger, then chuckled and left the drawing room. The smile lingered on his lips even as he showered and changed.

"Now, shall we go?"

Returning to the drawing room, Biern politely extended his hand to Erna, who was still sitting primly in the same spot. Her expression was prim, as if to say she wasn't fully over her anger, but she took his hand readily.

Instead of the grand dining hall, Biern led Erna to the garden room, usually used for breakfast.

He seated her at the pre-set table and took the seat opposite. Moments after signaling the waiting servants, the food began to arrive. Erna sensed something amiss only after they withdrew. The prepared dinner was a single portion. Before Biern sat only a steaming cup of strong coffee.

"Why aren't you eating, Your Highness?"

Erna asked, perplexed. Her innocent demeanor made Biern smile.

"Eat comfortably. This is enough for me."

Biern rested his chin on his hand at the table, watching her. His head throbbed from the lingering hangover, but his mood wasn't entirely low.

As the two silently regarded each other, the sunset deepened. The room, with glass on three sides and the ceiling, soaked in the warm light. The quiet crackle of logs in the fireplace eased the awkward silence's weight. It was a full autumn evening landscape, evoking the changed season.

After much hesitation, Erna finally took up her cutlery. Eating alone under his steady gaze was embarrassing, but she was famished enough to endure it. She hadn't eaten properly since breakfast, had been stood up for lunch, and waited idly until sunset—a full day of starvation.

"If you have something to say, please do."

Feeling the oppressive silence like indigestion, Erna spoke first.

"Well... nothing in particular."

Biern set down his coffee after a sip and smiled.

"But today's appointment was one you set, Your Highness."

"Ah. That was just... I thought we should share a meal before the wedding."

"Is that... all?"

"Why? Were you hoping for another reason?"

"No!"

Erna answered before the question finished, hastily dabbing her napkin at lips that held nothing.

She had a knack for stirring his playful side.

Biern watched her with newfound ease. Since the serious marriage talks began, she'd always seemed dazed, but today she had a lively spark that suited her.

Erna sipped some water and cautiously took up her fork again. Unlike her birdlike pecking appearance, she ate quite properly. Her elegant, etiquette-book movements made her youthful, chipmunk-chewing face stand out more.

Though glancing about uncomfortably, she slowly and neatly ate her portion. By the time dessert arrived, the tension between them had eased.

"Say what you want to say, Miss Hardy."

Biern gently prompted Erna, who kept meeting his eyes only to look away repeatedly.

Setting down her fork, which had been tormenting the innocent chocolate cake, Erna faced him with resolute determination.

"I want to bring my maid to the palace."

"Your maid? Ah, the hellgate warden."

Biern gave a wry smile, as if that was all.

"Do as you wish with her, Miss Hardy. Any other servants too, if you want."

"No. Lisa is enough for me. Thank you for permitting it, Your Highness."

Erna bowed her head and took a breath.

"And... one more request."

"Go ahead."

"The wedding. Our wedding."

"Yes. The wedding."

Biern fixed his quietly urging gaze on Erna, who was circling the topic. What could it be? She took several deep breaths before continuing.

"It's tradition for the bride to enter on her father's arm."

"That's right."

"But if I don't follow that tradition, would it be a great insult to the Lechen royal family and to you, Your Highness?"

Erna looked at him like a frightened child, yet desperately earnest.

"So, you mean you don't want to follow the bride's entrance tradition?"

"Yes. In a way."

Erna nodded slightly and straightened her neck.

"The only one qualified to walk the aisle with me is my grandfather, and he's in heaven now."

"But Viscount Hardy is alive and well, if my memory serves."

"Still, I don't want to walk the path to my new life holding the hand of a man who gave up being my father of his own accord."

"I see."

Biern quirked his lips upward, showing interest. Her pale cheeks flushed gradually, but the resolve in her eyes showed no sign of breaking.

"Yes. If it's a grave rudeness that would ruin the wedding, I won't insist. I can bear it and follow. But if there's another way..."

Erna clasped her trembling hands and drew another breath.

"Then I'd like to take your hand, Your Highness."

Her blue eyes, filled with courage as they held him, trembled like a rippling water surface. As darkness fell, the candelabra's light shone more clearly on the rebellious angel-faced girl.

"Please take me with you, Your Highness."