Haruka The Holy Crown of Marielle Clarac

1. Auflage 2021
ISBN: 978-1-7183-2238-7
Verlag: J-Novel Club
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 250 Seiten

Reihe: The Tales of Marielle Clarac

Marielle and Simeon have finally settled into newlywed life. While author Marielle may seem plain and royal guard Simeon may look villainous, actually they're anything but-not to mention perfect for each other!
When Marielle travels to a distant region of Lagrange to attend a funeral, she's surprised to see Simeon arriving on a secret mission with Prince Severin in tow. What's going on? With war brewing, Marielle soon finds herself embroiled in another high-stakes international incident, as old friends and enemies return in a tale involving foreign royalty and a hunt for a sacred treasure.
The seventh volume in the adventures of the now happily married fangirl who obsesses over her husband and everyone around him!

Autoren/Hrsg.

Haruka, Momo

Weitere Mitwirkende

Maro

Reuben, Philip

Leseproben

Chapter One

My first foray into society occurred in the spring of the year I turned fifteen.

When girls from upper-class families reach marriageable age, the time comes for them to dress up beautifully and show themselves off before great numbers of people. Naturally, the primary goal of this is to find a husband. Though marriage is essentially arranged by a girl’s parents, families still need to make it clear which girls are on the market. Society is the place for the contenders to show off all their achievements: their beauty and charm, their refinement and cultivation, and their flair for the art of conversation.

By attending all sorts of social gatherings, people develop new connections and exchange information. This includes discussion of unmarried young ladies, which in turn leads to marriages being arranged. Even if the young man and woman concerned don’t find each other on their own, they’re often introduced by common acquaintances. For this reason, it’s necessary for a young lady to make her existence known to as many people as possible, in order to generate interest.

First impressions are everything, so a debut requires working especially hard to look striking. To that end, everyone at the event where I was making my debut had put a great deal of effort into their appearance. Everywhere I looked, I saw dazzling displays of beauty. Standing in a corner of the opulent ballroom, I was unable to contain my excitement as I took in the stunning scene.

“Oh, there’s Lady Aurelia! It’s been rather a while since I last saw her. She’s even more beautiful now. She already has the bearing of a princess. Her dress is magnificent, too. Any color would suit her, no matter how ostentatious, but she’s purposely chosen that deep shade of blue. Such elegant taste! It sets off her looks and her luscious golden hair so marvelously. How can I describe the faces of the men surrounding her other than ‘spellbound’? Frankly, I can understand their reactions!”

“Stop.”

“And there’s Lady Marguerite of House Delvincourt! I see the voluptuous figure she inherited from her mother is just as sensuously impactful as ever. Am I imagining it, or has she grown even more buxom since I last saw her? I wonder if there’s some secret to her success. Perhaps it is simply hereditary. Our mother is rather flat-chested as well...and the only voluptuous part of our father is his belly.”

“Marielle, are you listening?”

“Goodness, that couple over there—what they be doing? There’s definitely something suspicious going on. Oh my, they’re surreptitiously leaving the ballroom! Some sort of secret rendezvous? Perhaps I could follow them!”

When I casually took a step forward, my older brother, Gerard, pulled me back by the ribbon around my waist. “Stop it. That’s thoroughly improper.”

I turned to face him, and he stared back at me from behind his black-rimmed glasses; Gerard was bespectacled like me, though his glasses were half-hidden by the dense thicket of his bangs.

He sighed in exasperation. “Why are you acting this way?”

“How can I resist? It’s a real, adult romance! It’s nothing like the faint bittersweetness of being given a lizard by the boy next door. It’s a grown-up love affair bathed in rich sweetness! This is the very thing I’ve longed to see. To thrill the readers, I’ll have to know all about real love.”

“I fail to see what was so bittersweet about that business with the lizard. He threw it at you to torment you. A child who would celebrate that is certainly too young to be stealing glimpses at other people’s trysts. Besides, have you forgotten why you’re here?”

“I most certainly have not! Look, I have my trusty notebook and pen right here.”

“Ah, so you haven’t forgotten, you’ve just completely misunderstood! Stop focusing on other people’s love lives and start looking for a husband of your own. After all that effort to dress up, do you mean to go home without dancing with anyone? Wouldn’t you find that a bit sad?”

“You danced with me,” I replied, putting my notebook away. “I’m happy with that.”

As was usual for a debutante, I’d been escorted here by my brother. Per convention, he had led me in my first dance. It had also been my last, for no other suitors had come to ask me to dance. I’d expected to be thoroughly ignored, and those expectations had been met.

“Ignored” was generous, even. It was more that I hadn’t registered to them in the first place. The taffeta dress Mother and Father had given me was lovely, and it did make me look presentable in my own way. However, the moment I arrived here, I had realized the truth. Amongst all these young ladies bursting with beauty and charisma, even my best effort was equivalent to a tadpole sprouting legs. There were limits to how much a dress could achieve when worn by a plain girl with no presence whatsoever.

The faint hopes I’d been harboring had vanished within five minutes and I’d decided that I would have to dedicate my life to fangirl pursuits after all. That I would carefully and thoroughly observe this resplendent world and recreate it in vivid detail in my writing. Gatherings of lords and ladies were an exhibition of human behavioral patterns. All around, there were some people making reputations as shameless philanderers and others burning with secret passion. Over here, a new spark of love was being ignited. Over there, a relationship was falling apart. Human drama as surprising as any novel was unfolding everywhere I looked, and I couldn’t tear myself away from it.

“What are we going to do with you? Well, never mind. If that’s what gives you pleasure, then feel free.”

With those incredulous words, Gerard quickly threw in the towel.

“The average gentleman won’t approve of your personality and interests, anyway,” he added. “It’s probably better for you to keep doing as you wish rather than forcing yourself to enter that gaudy fray only to be hurt in the end.”

I glanced up at my brother. The truth, as I was well aware, was that he had his own reasons for being glued to a largely abandoned corner of the room. It wasn’t purely because he was escorting his inexperienced sister.

“What about your search for a wife? Mother’s been quite insistent.”

My brother was twenty-three years old. Rather than being so concerned about me, who had only just debuted, he should have been striving to make connections with young noblewomen. He would never be married if he simply stood and waited, as evidenced by the total lack of attention we were drawing here in our isolated corner. Like sister, like brother. He, too, was a plain man who attracted no interest from potential admirers.

He had bushy, unruly hair of the same brown color as mine. He should have styled it neatly with pomade or some such, but he paid it so little care that it lacked any sophistication at all. The black-rimmed glasses were also as far from smart and stylish as could be imagined. From his features alone, he could have been relatively handsome, but he went out of his way to hide them, so the ladies of society graced him with neither their gazes nor their interest.

The man himself seemed not to mind. If not for his duty of escorting me, he wouldn’t have attended this evening at all.

“Those women in heavy makeup smelling of perfume hold no appeal to me whatsoever. Compared to the natural scent of flowers and nature, they’re an embarrassment.”

“There are ladies who are more moderate and low-key.”

“Nor can I stand any who are haughty and proud. Don’t they feel ashamed looking at a flower that’s perfect from the moment it blooms without needing anything else?”

“There are kind ones too, I’m quite sure.”

“And any woman who lives for extravagant luxury is out of the question. Our family doesn’t have money to squander.”

I arched my eyebrows. “And yet you keep ordering your rare seedlings.”

“What’s wasteful about that? They have a practical value.”

“I honestly don’t feel you’re in a position to criticize me, Gerard. You should at least acknowledge that you, too, are rather odd for putting horticulture in pride of place above all else.”

“The ‘too’ there is telling. That means you’re aware of your own peculiarity. Anyway, there’s nothing wrong with horticulture. It’s a perfectly appropriate hobby for a nobleman.”

“Though a plant can’t measure up to the cuteness of a cat!”

“Why are we talking about cats all of a sudden?!”

Forgetting where we were, we lapsed into our usual sibling bickering. Then, nearby, someone softly burst into laughter.

As one, we stopped talking and turned to look. A tall figure stood in a spot that left him partly hidden by a flower vase and a curtain. The young blond man was covering his mouth with his hand.

“My apologies. Your good cheer was infectious.”

It looked as though he was taking a moment away from the gazes of the crowd. He put his glass down, bowed to us both, then walked off. When he appeared before the room again, all eyes were on him in an instant—including mine. His tall, broad-shouldered form gripped my attention.

“Gerard,” I said, my voice a whisper.

My brother heaved a sigh beside me.

“Who was that...