A Fortune-telling Princess [Novel] Chapter 284

They were the party goods she had officially patented only a short while ago. Decorating an entire space like this brought in quite a lot of money.

They’re all the rage these days.

People were looking for them not only for birthday parties, but for important events like this as well.

And knowing that all of it was her profit made it impossible for Camilla to hide her pride.

“You like that? Of course you do. This business of yours is doing well too.”

At that moment, someone spoke to her in a slightly sour tone. It was the Duke of Jayvillan.

“Why are you picking a fight with someone else’s daughter the moment you see her?”

The one who stepped in front of the Duke of Jayvillan, blocking him from getting closer to Camilla, was none other than the Duke of Sorpel.

“What are you doing here?”

The Duke of Jayvillan glared at the Duke of Sorpel, still unable to hide his displeasure.

“Obviously I had to come. My two friends’ sons are graduating. Are you lot not going to come when my daughter graduates?”

“Hmph. Depends on how you behave.”

“Of course I’ll come. It’s a family graduation ceremony.”

“…Family? Why is our daughter your family?”

“A daughter-in-law is obviously family—”

“Shut up, shut up! Neither of you come! Neither of you!”

As the three dukes exchanged their friendly greetings, an announcement rang out, signaling the start of the ceremony. Everyone headed toward the seats prepared inside the auditorium.

There he is.

As she sat down, Camilla looked for Arsian.

He was sitting at the very end, wearing a disgruntled expression as if he found this sort of formal occasion thoroughly unpleasant.

At the sight of him, Camilla shook her head slightly. He wouldn’t cause trouble like that, would he?

Arsian had been wearing a fierce look, as though daring anyone to give him an excuse, but then he seemed to sense Camilla’s gaze and turned his head.

…Oh?

Camilla’s eyes widened slightly as she gave him a small wave.

The cold stiffness in his face melted the instant he saw her, softening as if it had never been there.

Watching it made her feel strangely restless. It was as if something were tickling at her chest.

“We will now have the valedictory address.”

Meanwhile, the graduation ceremony proceeded in order, and the representative of the graduates stepped forward.

It was Petro, his gentle smile especially striking.

Of course he’d be the valedictorian.

They said he had never once lost the top spot in all three years. Camilla thought it was only natural that he had been chosen as the graduate representative.

“That’s my son. Tall and handsome, just like me.”

Seeing his son step onto the platform as the graduate representative seemed to fill the Duke of Jayvillan with pride, and he nodded again and again.

“Don’t go rewriting history. He doesn’t look like you at all.”

“Are your eyes broken? He’s my son, so obviously he resembles me. Don’t you remember how popular I was when I was young? I was no less than my son is now.”

“Oh, I remember very well.”

“Right? Back then, I was so popular—”

“I remember every single young lady you chased after confessing to him instead of you.”

“……”

“Go distort your memories somewhere else. The two of us are living witnesses, so who do you think you’re fooling?”

“Grr.”

Unable to refute the Duke of Sorpel, the Duke of Jayvillan could only shoot him a barrage of irritated looks.

Old memories resurfaced, making his stomach churn all over again. What was so good about the Duke of Sepra, who could barely string words together? He could still vividly remember the line of young ladies confessing to that man one after another.

Tap, tap.

As if to console him, the Duke of Sepra lightly patted the Duke of Jayvillan on the shoulder.

“Still, isn’t it fortunate? Your son is a hundred times more handsome than you were in your youth.”

…A hundred times?

“…I think this every time, but you’re the worst.”

You bastard! You’re the one who irritates me the most!

What made it even worse was that the Duke of Sepra was not trying to mock him. He genuinely meant to console him.

After the valedictory address ended, the academy head’s congratulatory remarks brought the graduation ceremony to a close.

“Big brother!”

As soon as the ceremony ended, Rio pattered over to Arsian.

“Big brother, congratulations on graduating.”

Rio’s face was slightly flushed as he looked up at Arsian, as if the very idea of graduating seemed wonderful to him.

“I worked really hard making flowers too…”

Then, when he saw other people handing flowers to the graduates, Rio’s expression quickly drooped.

He had cut paper for days to make flowers himself, saying he would give them to Arsian.

But that morning, he had accidentally spilled water and ruined all the paper flowers.

“So, here.”

“……?”

Arsian looked puzzled when Rio suddenly cupped his own chin in both hands. What was he doing?

“When I told Big Sis Camilla I couldn’t bring flowers, she told me to come and do this.”

She said I was the flower.

“……”

Arsian stared silently for a moment at Rio, who was smiling brightly with his hands framing his face like a blossom. Then he gave a faint laugh and lightly stroked the child’s hair.

“Oh, of course. Where else in the world would you find such a pretty flower?”

Camilla, who had somehow come close, poked Rio’s cheek with her finger.

Ah, seriously, this was addictive. So soft.

After poking Rio’s cheeks for a while, Camilla handed Arsian the bouquet she was holding.

“Congratulations on graduating.”

Our Arsian, once called the academy troublemaker and pretty trash, had actually graduated safely.

“Thank you.”

As Arsian accepted the flowers Camilla gave him, a faint smile appeared on his lips, as if he were truly happy.

“Wow… He wouldn’t even accept them when we gave him flowers.”

At that moment, an incredulous voice rang out.

“Did he merely refuse? He even frowned and asked why we were giving him something like that.”

“He said the people who brought trash should dispose of it themselves too.”

It was Elisha, Juela, and Lila.

A little earlier, the three of them had tried [N O V E L I G H T] to give flowers not only to Petro, but also to Arsian, since he was at least a fellow club member and they thought they had some degree of friendship.

But he had looked at them with annoyance and asked why they were giving him trash.

And after acting like that!

Now he was accepting flowers from Camilla with a smile.

“Why carry something so heavy? You could have just come empty-handed.”

Whether the three of them were there or not, Arsian did not even spare them a glance and spoke only to Camilla.

“Why? You don’t want flowers from me?”

“You’re the prettiest gift. Why would I need flowers like these?”

“……”

“……”

“……”

The air turned cold in an instant.

“…Whoa. He’s lost his mind.”

“Ah, damn it. This is annoying.”

“I actually got chills.”

“Is it even right for words like that to come out of that man’s mouth?”

“Aaaaaah! Brother! Do something about that man. I can’t watch this with my eyes open! Tell him to go back to being that rude bastard from before! I think that was much better!”

“I can’t handle him either.”

Watching the group recoil in horror at Arsian’s single remark, Camilla let out a small laugh.

What? Our Arsian was only saying the truth. Why was everyone making such a fuss?

Huh?

Then, as she casually turned her head, her eyes widened slightly. She had spotted someone waving hard at her from one side of the graduation hall.

That little…

When did she get here?

[Camilla! I’m here!]

The being smiled even more brightly when their eyes met and waved with all her might.

It was the ghost Amy.

*****

[Um…]

“What? Want to put your arm down?”

[N-No.]

Under Camilla’s sharp glare, Amy gave an awkward smile and raised the arm she had been about to lower straight back up.

A little earlier, when Camilla had spotted Amy in the graduation hall, she had run over and smacked her on the back of the head.

“Huh? Camilla?”

“What are you doing all of a sudden? Why?”

“It’s nothing. There was just an extremely annoying bug.”

To everyone else, it must have looked as though she had punched the air.

Except for exactly two people: Arsian and the Duke of Sepra.

“……”

“……”

The two of them had clearly seen Camilla hit a dead soul. They were curious about what was going on, but since Camilla seemed to be hiding it from the others, they did not ask.

[Why, why? Why did you hit me?]

“Shut up and follow me.”

Be grateful I didn’t hit you with the power Arena gave me. If I had, you’d have ceased to exist on the spot.

Camilla took the bewildered Amy, who had just been struck, to a place where there were no people.

And now, she was considering how else to scold Amy while the ghost stood there with her hand raised.

“You know what you did.”

[That’s…]

“Do you have any idea how much trouble I went through because of you?”