How About a Refill? ~The Elegant Tea Party of the Grand Witches~ - Chapter 53

Conversation with Ivan 2

“So, you see, both my mother and I do not want the throne. The one after it was my uncle Duke Saint Angelo, and the people around him. My uncle, in particular, has always had strong ambitions. He strongly opposed my mother when she pushed for the Count’s daughter to become the Queen and decided to become a consort herself. He locked her up in the house, not letting her go anywhere. Well, it’s another thing that my mother, being my mother, just broke out of the window and left…”

“I’m really curious about that story, but I was wondering if something happened that day you went to see the Duke?”

Ivan scratched his cheek as he realized he had changed the topic again. Ivan was someone who, once he started talking, became surprisingly chatty, and would go through one topic to another within moments. Miriam finally understood Dino’s feelings who always fretted over the prince. 

“That day, I told the Duke clearly when I met him. That I had no intentions of succeeding the throne and was willing to step down for my brother. I was planning on supporting my brother from the sidelines. That’s why it would be better to abolish the First Prince faction and the Second Prince faction. All these factions do is create a divide among the nobles and slow down the progress in the council.”

“Oh, I see…”

Ivan, thinking back to that day, clenched both his hands into a fist.

“My uncle lost his temper and began shouting at me. He said stuff like, are you an idiot or did you get cold feet, etc. Even though he’s the one who’s an idiot…”

Ivan chuckled at himself in derision. Miriam felt her impression of Ivan change when she realized he seemed to be struggling, contrary to what she had thought.

“That’s when I heard the rumor about my brother’s engagement with you. Well, I just heard that it was with the ‘daughter of the Caparoni family’. My uncle also didn’t know which daughter it was, but that seemed to make him even more indignant.” 

In the public’s eyes, the ‘daughter of the Caparonis’ was usually thought of as Alessia. Since no one had seen Miriam (actually they had seen her, but they never acknowledged her), it was as if she didn’t exist. Many people just assumed that it must be Alessia marrying Emilio.

“My uncle became desperate to have someone else take care of what I wasn’t able to accomplish myself. We failed to reach an agreement and were getting nowhere. So I decided to drawback for the time being and headed back home. And then I met that guy on the way back to the palace.”

“That guy? Who do you mean?” 

“The man with silver hair and golden eyes…”

“…Gilbert Dala de Feline!”

The man behind Alessia’s abduction. Ivan nodded slowly as Miriam shouted his name.

“When I looked into his eyes I felt a terrible amount of frustration build up in me out of nowhere. Even though I had no intention of succeeding the throne these thoughts kept running through my mind. That ‘If it goes on like this I will lose the succession, I will lose to my brother.’ The pain of losing was intolerable; I felt desperate to do something! In the end, I wasn’t able to think of anything other than ‘I have to do something about the Caparonis’ daughter who will make my brother’s ascension to the throne a reality’!” 

“That’s… it can’t be…”

“A few days after I had been gripped by those thoughts, the man appeared again and handed me this rare tea he said had been imported from another kingdom. He told me to gift them to one of your sister’s close friends. He told me to ask her to have tea with her close friends and tell me their impressions… For some reason, I didn’t even think it suspicious and just did as he told me to…”

Miriam wondered if he was being controlled by magic. She might be hearing an unthinkable testimony right now.

“After that incident, I noticed my blunder when I talked with my aide Dino. I spent the rest of the days feeling remorse… Now that I think of it, maybe that man was sent by my uncle to approach me… Well, it doesn’t matter;l whatever I say now is nothing but an excuse…”

Saying so, Ivan hung down his head in shame.

“So that’s what happened…”

“And this time even you were pulled into this. I really need to apologize to the whole Caparoni family…”

“No, judging from what you’ve told me it’s highly likely that you did all that under a spell. I should be the one apologizing for saying earlier that I can’t forgive you.”

Ivan quickly called out to Miriam who had bowed her head.

“Stop it. You haven’t done anything wrong. Please raise your head!”

“But…”

Miriam raised her eyes to see Ivan looking at her with furrowed brows. Looking at his face she could see he resembled Emilio somewhat. Even though they had different mothers, they really were brothers. She relaxed her expression at that thought.

“Okay, let’s put this apologizing behind us.”

Ivan smiled with relief at those words.

“You’re a strange person. Both my brother and the Grand Witches are interested in you.”

“That… ‘Wait? The witches…?’…..OH!”

“W-what happened?”

Hearing about the witches, Miriam suddenly remembered the magic spell that she always had to put up with.

“The teleportation magic! Prince Ivan! If I get summoned by the witches by teleportation magic, we’ll be saved!”

“Huh! I see! So we do have a way out!”

The two jumped up to rejoice. They were almost bouncing up and down with giddiness. 

But the maid who had been listening to them let out a bold laugh at them.

“I’m sorry to burst your bubble but that is impossible”

“W-what!?”

“It’s true that only the Grand Witches can teleport someone from a remote location. But even if they do so it will be dealt with. As long as you are within the grounds of this mansion, it is impossible.”

“No way…”

Miriam’s shoulders sagged at yet another dilemma thrust at her.