Ch#13

Episode 13

Those were very dangerous words spoken in a suspicious tone, as if coming from a truly harmful person, weren't they?

I stammered slightly and retreated backward.

"Why, why are you saying that?"

"Because it's the truth?"

The retreat was blocked.

My hips and thighs were caught on an overly soft bed, blocking my path.

As I fell backward onto it.

"Eek!"

Arpad laughed as if finding it absurd, the sound like crystal beads shattering on the floor.

'Wow, what a truly unlucky man. Why does even his mocking laugh have to be so handsome and atmospheric?'

And the price for my momentary lapse in concentration was high.

Arpad, who had strode over to the bed, leaned over me!

"Gasp!"

Ah, I need to correct 'leaned over'.

Arpad's face came so close so suddenly that I misunderstood.

He wasn't lying on top of me on the bed, just standing at the bedside looking at me.

As if observing a very interesting object.

His red, delicate irises contracted, narrowing his reptilian-like, alien pupils.

I could tell very well that he was... intrigued, amused, and also suspicious.

The dangerous man uttered another harmful statement.

"Is this a clumsy attempt at seduction, or a ploy to make me let my guard down?"

"Seduction! What kind of ominous talk is that!"

I sat bolt upright like a pop-up doll.

And the sudden movement gave me dizziness.

'Ah, damn diet!'

My body, weakened by dietary restrictions for the wedding, was pushed to its absolute worst after three days of riding.

Arpad's firm arm wrapped around my waist, preventing me from collapsing.

Thanks to that, I avoided the unfortunate accident of my forehead crashing into Arpad's handsome one.

'But, we ended up in an even more dangerous position?'

I was currently wearing only a thin chemise.

Arpad was wearing only a red robe.

And the room was filled with a strangely sweet fragrance...

Behind us was a bed strewn with rose petals.

As Arpad whispered lowly, his strangely rich voice seemed to moisten my ear.

"You know too, right? What completes a marriage."

"......!"

It was a very, very dangerous and harmful statement!

Blood rushed through my entire body. My heart felt like it was pounding to my fingertips.

Just as my vision was turning white and my whole body was about to heat up.

I barely regained my senses and shouted.

"I know! Let's properly coordinate our request and contract terms!"

Snap.

I clenched my fist and desperately held it out in front of Arpad.

"Well, you've ruined the mood."

Fortunately, Arpad shed the slightly eerie and dangerous atmosphere from moments ago.

But his muttering was a bit odd.

"You'll have to pay this back with interest later."

'What nonsense...!'

Thanks to that, I managed to escape Arpad's dangerous embrace.

And I could sit face-to-face with Arpad across a clean table, not the strange rose-petal-strewn bed.

It had been an eventful process.

* * *

Arpad was sitting at the table in a very slovenly posture.

The elegant fingertips propping his sharp chin swayed listlessly.

The woman, soft like a cherry blossom cluster, flared up at his indifferent attitude.

"...Focus, please!"

"You want me to focus more on this boring explanation? Do you know how valuable my attention is?"

"If you keep acting like this, I'll just write the contract myself!"

That's right. Hilia was now very belatedly drafting the .

Then, not Crown Prince Arpad but Mercenary King Gerald emerged.

"The mercenary side also has the right to void a request form drafted with unilateral opinions. Client."

"Eek!"

The words were so spot-on that Hilia clenched her fist, which was about to shoot forward.

'Annoying! Disgusting!'

In terms of being a nuisance, my ex-husband and ex-fiancé Ludwig wasn't even in the same league.

'Well, that's why I caught this guy.'

It took someone as crazy as Arpad to break the marriage.

Hilia tried hard to regain her composure with deep breaths.

'No. If I keep getting provoked, I'll be the only one at a loss. The other party is insane. You shouldn't take a madman seriously.'

She forced strength into her hand that kept wanting to go slack and moved the pen.

"So... now that we've held the wedding ceremony, Your Highness has fulfilled the most important part of my request."

"The most important part? Not all of it?"

Hilia shook her head.

"At the very least, you need to maintain the marriage status until I no longer need it. That's a very important clause."

Swish!

Hilia underlined the clause written on the request form twice.

Because this was very important!

"You speak as if maintaining the marriage status will be difficult?"

"Of course. Ludwig won't just sit still."

"Well. Your marriage was groundwork by His Majesty to make Ludwig that bastard a counterweight against me."

Arpad crossed his legs the other way.

Since his bare legs were almost exposed, Hilia didn't know where to look.

'Surely he's not wearing nothing under the robe...!'

She didn't dare ask because it seemed the answer would be exactly that.

Forcing her gaze to focus only on the paper, she deliberately read aloud clearly.

"Also, the client has already paid the advance with Agrippina's Tear..."

Arpad chuckled softly at Hilia's visible floundering.

He leaned close and deliberately breathed into her ear to correct her.

"The correct expression would be 'paid with Agrippina's Tear and related information'."

"Gasp! Th-that's right!"

Hilia's hair and complexion were becoming hard to distinguish.

Covering her ears, which had turned a similar cherry blossom pink, and stammering was quite cute.

'Hmm. Her ears are sensitive.'

She would have made more of a fuss if she knew he was thinking this.

Hilia, whose entire body had turned pink, clung to the request form even more passionately.

Then Arpad made a mischievous expression and pointed out.

The very first line at the top of the request form.

"By the way, that's strange. Why are you 'Party A' and I 'Party B'?"

-Hereafter, the client Hilia Delphine shall be referred to as 'Party A', and the mercenary Gerald (Arpad Istride) as 'Party B'.

Surprisingly, there were words in this world's language corresponding to the Korean 'Party A and Party B'.

Hilia wrote it exactly like that on the request form.

And received a protest from Arpad, who became 'Party B'.

Hilia's eyes widened into triangles.

"Isn't it common sense that the client is Party A?"

"This isn't that kind of ordinary request. You seem to keep forgetting who I am."

"I haven't forgotten! Your Highness Crown Prince Arpad Istride!"

She muttered.

"If you're going to nitpick about such basic things, you should have focused from the start when we began drafting the request form!"

With her hands on her hips and the other hand's index finger pointed right at her nose, her posture was quite imposing.

Arpad burst out laughing.

"Alright. I'll let this one slide."

"Shouldn't I be the one letting it slide?"

Nevertheless, Hilia diligently continued writing down the clauses of the request form.

It was an achievement accomplished while fending off interference from Arpad, the 'Party B' and sole disruptor of the contract.

But upon reaching the final clause, Arpad's eyebrow raised.

"'If either Party A or Party B desires divorce after Party B ascends to the throne, divorce shall be granted immediately upon request'? What's this? Does this mean divorce is possible just because one of the two wants it?"

Hilia's eyes widened.

"That's right. Because by then, things will be roughly settled, so divorce won't matter."

"If I become Emperor, you'll already be Empress, won't you? And you're willing to divorce then?"

Arpad asked as if he couldn't understand.

Then Hilia nodded enthusiastically.

"Exactly! This is proof of my pure intentions above all else!"

"P-pure intentions?"

For the first time, Arpad's voice wavered.

Though it was less a tremor and more a sense of awkwardness, like finding half a worm in a nicely bitten apple.

"Yes! This proves I'm not making this request because I want the Empress position or power!"

Hilia was very passionate.

Like a salesperson explaining the most important sales point of a product.

But the buyer's reaction wasn't very positive.

"Why prove that?"

"...Huh?"

No, rather... it was quite on the negative side.

Hilia was bewildered.

'What? Why is he like this all of a sudden? What doesn't he like about it!'

This clause was included purely out of Hilia's goodwill.

'Anyway, you have or will soon have a lover!'

That's right.

Hilia clearly remembered the rumors that spread about Arpad before her regression.

"They say the Crown Prince went mad because he lost his lover."

"I heard he went completely insane after having his beloved taken away."

Etc.

She meant she would gracefully disappear when that devoted lover appeared.

Moreover, she was offering to step aside without coveting the Empress position, the very power itself, so why was he acting like this!

Translator: Nox