Ch#27

Episode 27

I smiled softly and comforted Viscountess Filern.

"Her Majesty the Empress will soon soften her heart and accept you back."

"I can only pray that happens. Sniff!"

Viscountess Filern cried even more sorrowfully.

Perhaps because I had already experienced it, I could read her behavior pattern like the back of my hand.

I offered the words she would most be hoping for.

"It may be insufficient to call it a replacement, but if you're okay with me, I'll be your friend."

Just like when we first met in the previous regression.

"If it's okay with you, would you be my friend?"

"Oh my, I would be so grateful, Your Grace."

Idis Filern teared up again, overcome with emotion.

It was the exact same expression as last time.

But I hadn't forgotten. How that very same face changed later, fabricating charges against me in my absence and accusing me.

"Did you really believe someone like you could have a friend who sincerely approached you? Just as Lady Evangeline said, you're foolish and greedy."

Viscountess Filern was a spy planted beside me from the start, acting on Evangeline's orders.

'It'll be the same this time too.'

The probability was high that her expulsion from the Empress's palace itself was a staged situation.

She was expelled too conspicuously, and the expelled party herself was loitering around the Crown Prince's palace as if begging to be seen.

It was impossible not to be suspicious of this.

I smiled innocently, hiding my true intentions, and said.

"I was just worried because I didn't do much socializing and had no friends, so I'm so happy!"

Keep friends close. And enemies closer.

Especially if this enemy was bait to catch a bigger enemy, even more so.

* * *

After sending Viscountess Filern away.

I returned to the Ivory Room feeling somewhat deflated.

There, an expected person was sitting and waiting in an unexpected appearance.

Originally, aside from me, only one person could freely enter the Ivory Room.

Arpad.

And the reason I said he was in an unexpected appearance was simple.

Because he really was.

After momentarily staring blankly at Arpad's annoyingly handsome figure, I asked.

"By any chance, did you hear a rumor somewhere that my preference is for scholars?"

At that, Arpad raised his glasses-wearing eyes, looked at me, and furrowed his brow.

"What kind of strange talk is that again?"

That's right. Right now, Arpad was sitting reading a thick hardcover book, even wearing glasses.

If one had a preference for scholarly types or intellectual men with glasses, it was a sight to completely fall for.

Of course, I don't have such preferences.

But... I admit his appearance like this is quite refreshing.

I answered as I approached with quick steps.

"Because there's no way you'd need to wear glasses to read due to poor eyesight."

The dragon's bloodline was so great that even Ludwig, whose blood was relatively thin, said he never even caught minor illnesses.

Wounds healed incredibly quickly, and unless there was a major accident, there was no chance of eyesight deteriorating.

Arpad, with the strongest bloodline, was even more so.

"Ah, so you were teasing me, saying I wore glasses to match your preferences."

"Well, I know a certain someone who tried to uncover secrets using handsome-guy tactics."

Arpad didn't particularly get angry.

He just chuckled, took off his glasses, and said.

"More than that, it's just to check ordinary people's eyesight. I don't know much about such ordinary senses."

A sincere exclamation burst out.

"How obnoxious!"

"Why am I being criticized this time?"

"Having such good eyesight that you wear glasses with the wrong prescription just to experience ordinary people's vision! That's like a rich person wanting to know how the poor live, so they steal a poor person's house to live in for a day!"

To that, I added one more impression.

"I'm jealous!"

"Of what? Your eyesight seems fine too, doesn't it?"

Well, it was fine now.

My whole body was very lively and my eyesight was intact. Because it was before I was harmed by Ludwig and Evangeline.

'But before regression, how inconvenient it was when my eyesight deteriorated after suffering like a dog in the temple or prison!'

So much so that the clearer vision was one of the reasons I immediately realized the regression fact.

I reaffirmed anew.

'This time, I'll eat lots of things good for the eyes, take care of my body, and live healthily to 100!'

Having experienced three premature deaths, this was my top priority.

Knowing how people with poor eyesight feel, Arpad's actions felt even more obnoxious.

Perhaps sensing my sincere grievance, Arpad spoke as if making an excuse.

"Too good eyesight isn't good either."

I shouted with 100% sincerity.

"The taller the man, the better, and the better the eyesight, the better!"

Then the privileged one spoke deceiving words.

"That's not necessarily true."

"No way!"

"If you're too tall, your head keeps bumping into doorframes, which is inconvenient."

"But the palace doors are all incredibly high and wide, aren't they?"

Arpad shrugged his shoulders.

"Facilities used by commoners aren't that high or wide."

Commoners' average height would be shorter due to nutritional status, and making ceilings higher and doors larger would also cost more money.

While Crown Prince Arpad might not have visited such places much, Mercenary King Gerald wouldn't be strange to have frequented them often.

"Still, there's no way having poor eyesight could be better!"

Do you know how frustrating it is to be scowling because you can't see well, and then get scolded more for why you always look angry?

Arpad stroked his smooth chin and replied quite seriously.

"Sometimes you end up seeing scenes you don't want to see either."

"Scenes you don't want to see?"

"Yeah. For example... the black pores of men with acne scars all over their faces."

"...!"

"Or the sight of men and women in a corner of the garden, preoccupied with productive activities."

"That... I can agree with."

If I saw that, I think I'd want to poke my eyes out too.

It was a conclusion from a very trivial and absurd conversation, but surprisingly, Arpad seemed to be in a better mood.

A smile without distortion or sharpness appeared on his lips.

"Why are you smiling like that?"

"It seems like the first time I've won so easily in an argument with you."

"Anyone hearing that would think I always try to win by being unreasonable."

"......"

Ignoring Arpad's silence, I glanced at the book he was reading.

"What were you looking... Ah, Istride Empire Founding History? You were looking at this?"

It was a high-quality bound book with a red silk ribbon marking the page he was reading.

It's a story every Istride Empire citizen knows.

「The dragon spoke. "My only flower and bride. The moment I saw you, I knew you could complete me. Thus, I could not resist the instinct to possess you."」

"......"

I nonchalantly closed the book again and handed it back to Arpad.

And when our eyes met, I noticed.

'Is he observing me?'

He was definitely watching my reaction intently right now.

A gaze so sharp it was hard to believe it belonged to the man who was just exchanging playful banter moments ago.

The tension tightened.

Then, Arpad reached out and grabbed my wrist.

And opened the book again.

"Since I was young, I really liked this part. Hearing you talk about Artanus and Istride before the Emperor reminded me, so I was looking at it."

"I see... ...Why do you like that part?"

Arpad chuckled lightly and made an expression as if looking at a distant place.

"Because I wished I had one too. Such an existence."

His fingertip tapped the letters engraved in the book.

"A fated counterpart, I mean."

It was a romantic statement.

But the eyes of the man reciting that romantic statement like poetry were saying something completely different.

"An existence that could complete me... I wished I had that."

Arpad elaborated further.

So I couldn't pretend not to understand.

"I wished so desperately. If there could be an existence that could save me from Madness."

Blood-colored pupils, too alien from humans, gleamed dangerously.

"And I always wondered. If such an existence truly existed, would I, like Artanus, be able to recognize it at first sight?"

The vertical pupils narrowed unusually thin.

As if, like needles. As if to pierce me right now.

"How lovely would that existence be? Or perhaps, it might be utterly hateful for appearing too late."

So which one was it for him.

Arpad asked like a snake placing cheese before a mouse.

"What do you think? Should I love such an existence, or hate it?"

A feeling as if all the hair on my body stood on end at once.

I couldn't help but wonder.

'Could it be that Arpad has already noticed?'

Noticed what?

'That I possess the power to stabilize the Madness passed down through the dragon's bloodline—that I am a 'bride'.'

Translator: Nox