6 His Royal Highness, The Crown Prince!

You have to give it to him. Leon was a full-fledged protagonist. His presence seemed to illuminate the hall, maybe because his golden hair shined as bright as the sun. I felt like I had to protect my eyes or else I might go blind. He was only a year older than me but already bigger by a head. He was so handsome that even though I should have known better, my heart still betrayed me by beating faster at his sight. Don't get me wrong, I still want to give him a lesson and beat his ass, but an eye candy was eye candy still.

His sky-blue eyes skimmed the room briefly before they came to a brief rest on me. I could make out slight confusion in his eyes, and they seemed to say: what are you doing here?

Hey, don't look at me like this, I didn't want to be here either.

But it was understandable that Leon came rushing in. If we were to follow the script, Dahlia would come with the Duke and more or less demand the Royal Family to uphold the engagement. She would use the Queen's favourability on her to make an ally and pressure him to oblige his fate as a Prince.

Whatever he had in mind, Leon kept it to himself and instead greeted his parents before greeting their guests.

"I saw your Carriage and came to greet the both of you." Leon was the embodiment of courtesy and respect towards Father. He better be, Father had been his combat teacher before Leon went to the academy.

"Many thanks, Your Highness." Bad for our Crown Prince that he just dropped my father's only daughter like a hot potato which led her to cry her eyes out heart-wrenchingly in his arms. Also, he was never a person of hollow pleasantries. But as a true man of honour, Father kept to his impeccable manner on the surface.

"Dahlia, it's good to see you. Are you well?" Leon greeted me like we were old friends. To be frank, he never treated Dahlia otherwise. Leon was always of good manners towards her, friendly and just, but from the memories I got, it has always been the cute and lovestruck Dahlia who would take the first step and reach out to him and thus be too clingy for her own good.

He never had the need to stoop onto a lower branch to ask for anyone's favour. Why though, he was the future ruler of this Kingdom. It was natural for people to curry favour with him while he simply has to stand there and wait for people to flock around him. Not only was he the Crown Prince, but he also had the natural charisma, an indispensable amount of confidence and self-esteem. He was that kind of person who was never left alone wherever they went. He was the darling of the court. That's why Dahlia had been so profoundly infatuated with him. Even I, who knew that any form of love was but a bad daydream, couldn't help but observe him with high attention.

Inadvertly I clicked my tongue. I made this boy too perfect, didn't I? Where would a woman find a man such as this? I feel so sorry for all the young men out there in the real world who were compared to such a fantasy after reading my book! How much I wished I could step forward, break his halo and shake the stardust from him!

"I haven't had the opportunity to thank Your Highness for your care the last time we met." I curtsied and took a step back, hiding clumsily in my father's shadow (before this guys blending radiation would blind me), which surprised not only Leon but also his parents. Usually, Dahlia would have stepped forward and clung to him lovingly, call him 'Leon', 'Leon', 'Leon' all the way. The girl would pout whenever she had to call him 'Your Highness' or keep the necessary distance. Now she would actively seek shelter from him behind her father. The royal pair exchanged another look of disbelief.

"Look, now you've wronged your fiancée." The Queen laughed constrained, took my hand and patted it in a comforting manner.

Leon gave me a long gaze, but he didn't say anything.

Since Dahlia had always been looking at him, knowing all of his habits and ever tried to read his mind and fulfil his wishes before he could even think of them, I was quite experienced about this boy's train of thought. His squinting eyes towards me tell me that he was starting to suspect me of acting out a play in front of his parents.

He thought I was sabotaging him!

Well, I did plan to give him a hard time, but I haven't even started yet? I blinked innocently and put down my gaze bashfully.

"Mother, we've had been talking about this." I could tell by his clenched fists that he was only one emotional outbreak away from gnashing his teeth or hitting the table. His dignity as a Prince was the only thing that kept him together.

I guess he didn't have as good a talk as I had with my parents. And to his eyes, it seems now as if everyone present had ganged up against him.

Guess, being a Prince isn't all about glitter and gold.

Part in me felt bad for him; the other part felt Schadenfreude. That's a handy word I had learned in Germany. It means to find glee in another's misfortune and would describe that particular emotion with just one word. Truly uuseful in moments such as these.

"We have spoken to you, but what about Dahlia? How can you just one-sidely demand to break the engagement?" The Queen was trying to give me justice. She used the same line as in the book. With a bright smile, she turned towards me, waiting patiently for me to speak my mind. All eyes and ears were on me at that moment.

I looked questioningly up to Father. He encouraged me with a slight nod of his, so I said calmly and clearly:

"If it is his Highness' wish, I will obey and consider the engagement as lifted."

What followed was silence. I couldn't tell what kind of silence it was, just that you could hear the needle drop and even roll around.

The only one who seemed happily surprised was Leon whose eyes couldn't hide the delight at my words. He probably wasn't expecting me to submit to it this easily. Actually, no one besides Father had expected me to back out without a word of resistance.

"Dear, what are you saying? Are you perhaps upset because of what Leon said?"

"My friend, are you just going to watch this?"

The King and Queen - obviously the only ones who weren't coping well with this situation - were trying to figure out what was going on simultaneously. While the Queen was questioning me, the King broke his silence to seek reason from my father, but that doting parent was even more unreliable than me, he just nodded and put his hand protectingly on my shoulder as if he was prepared to defend my decision.

His hand on my shoulder gave me warmth and strength. I was more and more comfortable with calling him my father and felt the personal urge to save this family from the brink of termination as much as they were willing to protect me, this stupid daughter. And the first step to do so was to step down from the Protagonists' path towards happiness. If Leon and Ellie were happy, it would be a Happy End for us all, isn't that right? As long as I don't meddle in their affairs, I won't end up miserable, won't I? I will resign from being a villain. That way, the lovebirds can do whatever they want, and I can spend quality time with my family and try out all of our chef's master cuisine!

"His Highness Leonhard's happiness is my happiness," I said once more with determination.

As I was thinking about what to order tonight, I felt the hand on my shoulder become heavier. Simultaneously, the King sighed and said with undiluted firmness words, which were even heavier than his voice:

"This won't do. This engagement can't be annulled."