I Became the First Prince: Legend of Sword's Song
chapter-230-30041322

Chapter 230

Sometimes It Has a Softer Appeal Than a Sword (5)

The turmoil subsided. Even the musicians were captivated and stopped playing their instruments.

So, in the midst of that perfect silence, I saw a woman standing in the distance – with hair as black as ebony and a white face that contrasted with it perfectly. Her eyes shimmered like stars. She had perfect features without anything that needed to be added or subtracted. All were characteristics of a woman I knew.

Nevertheless, I wasn’t sure if she was really the person I knew. No way that she, who had said she would rather kill herself than be a sword-wielding harlot, would appear before me so unexpectedly, so beautifully dressed – there was no way.

I saw her, I looked at her again, and I admitted it in the end.

The woman was the same woman I knew: Arwen Kirgayen. She was the knight I trusted the most.

I was dumbstruck, and without being able to stop myself, my gaze followed Arwen. Unlike the other young women, who showed off their necklines and delicate shoulders, Arwen was dressed in an old-fashioned manner, her dress completely covering her neck and shoulders.

Her ebony hair was finely combed and straightened, held no special accessories, and dizzied my eyes.

A light blush had been applied to her cheeks to add a sense of vitality, and those cheeks kept attracting attention. The look of her eyes, like the night sky, contrasted clearly with her pale face, and it felt as if my soul was traveling to distant realms.

More than any fortress, even my immovable mind was shaken. Previously, I had thought Elder High Elf Sigrun was the best in terms of simple appearance. I had always thought that humans would always fall short of the faeries’ natural beauty. It seemed like I had to revise that thought today.

Sigrun’s distorted, twisted, hazy, and faded spirit couldn’t even dare to match Arwen’s. Arwen was, by far, more beautiful.

“Woo,” I took a breath. Then I suddenly realized that my surroundings were too quiet.

I turned my head and looked around. The condition of the men looking at Arwen, forgetting even to exhale, was terrifying. It looked as if a nymph had bewitched them.

‘Kwap’ I clapped my hands hard. I summoned clear energy, and it spread through the banqueting hall.

“Ugh!”

“Hah…”

The men gasped for breath, and light came back to their hazy eyes. It was shameful; it was really shameful. I quietly clucked my tongue.

I was relieved that Arwen was not interested in decorating herself overmuch. If she had, there would surely not have been less trouble. I was glad for Arwen.

It was very fortunate to me that her soul remained impeccable, without any distortion. I was grateful for her honesty, insisting on her own path without thinking of looking anywhere else for guidance. I was relieved by this, and then the musicians came to their senses and started playing their instruments.

In response, Arwen began to approach the platform. Her treads were quite strong, however. Arwen’s decorated appearance was one of grace, while her posture as she walked was that of a knight.

Where else in the world is there a person walking that way in a dress?

I stopped smiling. Her appearance, her outfit: it didn’t match who Arwen was to me. Even though her clothes were elegant like that, her essence did not change.

‘Shuck’ Arwen came before the dais.

“Sire.”

Then she greeted the king, with extremely knightly, modest movements. I saw Siorin wringing his hands behind Arwen, and I pressed down and held back the laughter that was about to burst from me.

“Your Highness.”

Arwen turned to me. I smiled and looked at her. There were many things I wanted to ask.

Why do you appear in front of me like this?

Who the hell did you dress up for?

But I didn’t dare open my mouth and ask because I noticed Arwen’s agitation only after seeing her up close – her tensioned shoulders, her subtly unstable aura. It wasn’t simply that the stiff dress and fancy appearance she wore instead of crude iron armor was awkward and uncomfortable. Something was weird with Arwen. She had lost her composure, and I decided to calm her.

‘Shh’ I reached out and grabbed Arwen’s awkwardly trembling hand – just as she had once done to me when I had lost my composure in front of the emperor in the Imperial Palace. I believed that it would bring Arwen back to stability like her touch had calmed me then.

But it wasn’t so – the moment I grabbed her hand, Arwen flinched. I felt her body grew stiffer, felt her unstable energy shaking all over the place. Arwen had an awkward expression, and her eyes shook as if there was an earthquake. Rather than regaining her composure, Arwen seemed more agitated. She tilted her head with an unfamiliar expression, so I spoke softly to her.

“Stretch your shoulders. Aren’t you a proud champion?”

Arwen’s eyes had been shaking back and forth, finding nowhere to focus on; they now turned to me.

Two contradicting emotions passed through her eyes: disappointment and relief.

They were feelings that I could not understand. Before I could ask Arwen why she felt like that, the emotions on her face disappeared as if they had been an illusion. At the same time, Arwen’s turbulent energy began to stabilize rapidly. Facial muscles that had been awkwardly stiffened now gently relaxed and the crinkles that had lingered around her eyes disappeared.

Arwen looked at me with a soft face, and I felt a sense of acceptance flow from her. It was a scene that I seemed to have seen before, a situation that I had experienced.

After pondering for a while, I finally found the answer. I had seen that face when someone had fallen into a dream and later brushed off the illusion. Arwen’s face was just like that.

“Your Highness is truly consistent,” Arwen said with a soft smile.

Now, I felt like withdrawing my hand, but Arwen gently grasped it, held onto it.

“That’s why I really like your Highness.”

She was speaking in a warm voice that I had never heard before. My eyes widened, and my heart tickled for some reason. In some ways, it was a similar sensation to when Muhunshi is activated. And in a way, it was a sensation similar to when an Aura Blade is raised.

But it wasn’t the same. This familiar yet unfamiliar sensation did not come from an artificial heart made of mana. I felt it from my true heart, made of flesh and blood.

It was weird indeed – mana can’t flow there.

* * *

Immediately after entering the banqueting hall, Arwen began to regret it. She seemed to have gone crazy for a while. There must be something wrong with her head. Otherwise, there would have been no way that she would have appeared before the Crown Prince. This was all because of what her father had said.

‘What does Your Highness think of Arwen?’

‘Are you willing to welcome Arwen in marriage?’

Arwen had accidentally overheard the conversation between her father and the prince.

At first, she was just angry with her father’s carelessness, with him trying to destroy her relationship with the prince. That was all, but after her anger subsided, a small question arose in Arwen’s mind: What would the Crown Prince’s answer have been had she not interrupted the conversation?

Her heart brightened. Even if Arwen tried no to be, she became constantly worried about the prince’s every move. She now had a private interest in him, different from before.

It was all because of her father. Arwen’s head had become cloudy when her father followed her out and spoke of strange things. She had been very displeased that her relationship with the prince had become awkward because of her father’s remarks.

The actions he took by giving meaning to something that did not exist were terrible. Arwen’s head was so cloudy that the Crown Prince had scolded her the next day, telling her to wake up. Arwen then tried hard to order her mind and let go of such thoughts. Still, the wasteful feelings couldn’t be shaken off, not until she had met Teuton’s knights and their swords. Only then could she regain her composure.

It seemed to Arwen as if she had fallen into a dream for a while, so she devoted herself to training, wishing never again to lose control. The king then summoned her. He asked her to attend the banquet, not as a knight, but to represent the Kirgayen family.

‘If I have to fight against the enemy, I will fight. Even if they are ten times more than me, a hundred times, I will not hesitate to draw my sword. But if your Majesty wants something from me as a woman, I can’t dare follow such an order. This is something his Highness the Crown Prince promised to me as well, so please consider that.’

Because it was an unacceptable order, Arwen strongly opposed it.

But the king did not give up and temped her with a cause she couldn’t deny.

‘Have you ever heard my son praise the blue sky? Have you ever seen him be spirited away by the bright starlight? Or, have you ever see him sink himself into the reflection of soft moonlight?’

‘All he knows is swords and war, your Majesty.’

‘That’s why I ask this. If my son is also a person, then how can he live by only looking ahead?’

The king’s words were precisely in line with Arwen’s concerns.

‘The way of the world is that if something is taut, it breaks. If something is hard, it breaks. And that’s exactly what I see in my son.

‘I want the child to look a little wider. My son needs to recover some sense of what life is. So I hope that he will be able to live a little happier.’

After contemplating it, Arwen said she would go along with the king’s wishes.

Her decision was purely out of concern for the prince’s future; she repeated this countless times to herself. And indeed, it was true.

She was worried about only one person, and all her thoughts returned to the ever-busy prince, who knew only of swords and wars, and whose only purpose in life was fierceness. It’s what Arwen did for the future, so what did it matter if she wore a dress rather than rags?

Arwen made up her mind and headed to the banqueting hall. Her loose hair and sky-blue dress were several times more awkward and uncomfortable than she had expected. And while suffering through that discomfort, Arwen stood in front of the Crown Prince. At that moment, she forgot about the suffocating makeup that covered her face, her cumbersome hair, the dress. Arwen felt strange.

Suddenly, when the prince held her hand, her heart started to beat faster, then pound.

“Stretch your shoulders. Aren’t you a proud champion?”

However, unlike Arwen, the Crown Prince was very peaceful. His gaze was full of trust, a clear gaze that didn’t show any confusion. Arwen was disappointed and relieved at the same time. She was sad, and regret filled her again.

Conflicting emotions raged in her heart until only one remained: a sense of purpose. Arwen’s mind, which had been cloudy, cleared only then.

“Your Highness is truly consistent.”

As he had promised from their first encounter, the Crown Prince still looked at Arwen with selfless eyes.

“That’s why I really like your Highness.”

Arwen was so glad that he was there. Her mood suddenly improved; it was a sudden change of emotions that she couldn’t even understand. She probably never would.

“Your Highness, I have a request.”

Arwen was feeling spontaneous.

“Would you like to dance with me?”

She requested something that she would never have asked for.

“I don’t know how to dance.” The prince frowned.

“I don’t know either.”

A questioning look arose on the prince’s face.

“But why-”

“I want to get rid of the delusions in my heart.”

The prince’s puzzlement grew deeper.

“Don’t you like the request?” Arwen returned to the matter at hand instead of answering the prince’s doubts.

“I don’t like it,” the prince replied with an embarrassed face. Arwen gave a small smile, then she suddenly reached out and grabbed the prince’s hand.

“Uh? Uh…” As the prince made spluttering noises, Arwen led him to the center of the banqueting hall, almost dragging him there. The musicians quickly started playing, and sweet music began flowing around them. The man and woman exchanged glances, and Arwen felt embarrassed by this.

She decided it was a good time to exhale. If there was a problem, it was the fact that neither of them knew how to dance. If someone has to dance first, I’ll do it, Arwen promised herself.

‘Shh…’

At that time, a couple of men and women appeared in the middle of the banqueting hall as well. Then they started dancing as if they looked forward to doing so. They danced with languid motions, making it easy to follow.

Arwen looked at a pair of dancers, narrowed her eyes as she studied their movements, then opened her eyes wide.

Her gaze was nailed to the man’s hand, which embraced the woman’s waist.

“Aha. You do that,” the prince suddenly said.

“Well, your Highness- Hold on-”

Without a moment’s hesitation, the Crown Prince strode over and wrapped his hands around Arwen’s waist as if to hug her. Their faces were so close that she could feel his breath. It was all so different from what Arwen had thought – all she had wanted to do was shake off her delusions with the dance invitation!

She wondered if this was the only way to be rid of such deluded thoughts. At least, if they didn’t grow greater, it would be a good thing. And while Arwen was organizing her thoughts, her feet moved with a will of their own as they deftly followed the prince’s steps.

“Relieve your tension. It’s easier than you think,” the Crown Prince told Arwen in a serious tone. Arwen didn’t know what he was thinking inside. She sighed and decided to relax her breathing and go along with things. How could she have done this?

Arwen decided she would be faithful today. It wouldn’t be too late for her once more to become Arwen Kirgayen, the knight, tomorrow. Everything does not always go as intended in the world, however.

‘Dwak!’

The door of the banqueting hall shattered open with a sudden bang – and a bundle of something flew in from beyond the smashed door.

‘Kudangtang!’ The lump rolled over the floor several times. “

Wagh!” Bernardo Eli jumped up and spat out blood.

“It’s bad!”

Before his urgent shouting was over- ‘Dang! Dang! Dang!’ there came the loud ringing of a bell. Its tolls were short and urgent, and it was rung to announce an enemy invasion.