As the day of the engagement ceremony at the royal palace approached, the capital buzzed with anticipation.
As darkness began to fall, carriages streamed towards the palace, crossing the bridge to the heart island and entering the palace gates.
This continued for hours, highlighting the sheer number of nobles attending the engagement banquet.
Many citizens gathered to watch, gazing at the brightly lit palace, decorated for the formal engagement banquet, their hearts filled with envy.
“I really want to go in and see.”
“Me too.”
“I heard Princess Lucy will be wearing a formal dress.”
“If only I could catch a glimpse.”
“Don’t even think about it. Princess Lucy is about to be engaged to Viscount Buztout… no, I should say Earl Buztout.”
“Well… it’s just an engagement, right?”
“That’s right, just an engagement.”
“Who knows if the engagement will be called off later?”
“Exactly.”
Many people talked amongst themselves, harboring these somewhat embarrassing hopes, clinging to them like a lifeline.
After all, they still didn’t want to see Lucy marry another man.
Even if they couldn’t have her, they didn’t want others to have her either. This was a man’s base instinct.
As long as the goddess didn’t belong to anyone, she belonged to everyone. Countless people held this thought.
Perhaps, even if Lucy did get married, there would still be many in the world who admired and adored her, right?
The Kingdom’s treasure would always be the Kingdom’s treasure, deeply loved by the people.
They could only admire the princess while cursing Shien in their hearts.
Even though things had progressed to this point, and many had accepted reality, there were still many who cursed this incredibly lucky man—Shien Buztout. ꞦáNÒᛒÊⱾ
“Achoo!”
In the Buztout mansion’s hall, Shien sneezed loudly.
“What’s wrong?” Vivian looked at him with concern. “Did you catch a cold?”
Vivian’s words drew the attention of all the girls in the hall to Shien.
“Are you alright, Mr. Shien?”
Melika looked at him with concern.
“Did you really catch a cold?”
Lumia still looked timid.
“You can’t fall sick at a time like this.”
Diere couldn’t help but say.
Feeling the concern of the girls, Shien touched his nose.
“Don’t worry, I’m fine. I just suddenly felt like sneezing.”
Shien looked at the girls.
Four girls were gathered around him, dressed completely differently from usual.
The members of Vivian’s squad had all changed out of their usual adventurer attire and put on formal dresses.
Melika wore a long green dress that complemented her naturally flowing hair, looking like an elven princess at a ball, not stunningly beautiful, but definitely fresh, pure, and lovely.
Lumia wore a light yellow short dress, her fair legs exposed, looking smooth and delicate, making one want to pinch them. She had been feeling uncomfortable since getting dressed and was still fidgeting.
Even Diere had taken off her usual gloomy black robe and put on a simple yet stylish black dress, similar to Lumia’s short dress, but with off-shoulder sleeves. Her eye-catching purple hair was tied into braids and hung down her front, making her look like a cool little witch, although the mask still covering the upper half of her face somewhat spoiled the image.
And the most eye-catching one was undoubtedly Vivian.
Because Vivian had taken off her full-body armor, which she always wore, finally revealing her figure.
It was a curvy, alluring, and sexy figure, no less than Sara’s, truly stunning.
Vivian wore a dark blue dress and high heels, the skirt slightly long, so she held the sides of the skirt with her hands, giving her an indescribably elegant gait.
Shien still remembered that when he first saw Vivian like this, he was stunned for several seconds.
It couldn’t be helped.
In terms of beauty, Shien had seen more beautiful women than Vivian.
Both Lucy and Nien were more beautiful than Vivian.
And Shien had already “eaten” one and kept the other as a backup (Nien: Achoo!), so it was difficult for someone to surprise him with their looks.
The reason Vivian could achieve this was entirely because her current appearance was so different from her usual look, stunning Shien for a few seconds.
Looking at these four girls with their different styles, yet equally beautiful and charming, Shien suddenly understood why Vivian’s squad needed to be so wary of male adventurers approaching them in Larmigion.