Ch#6

Episode 6

At the same time, I strained every nerve in my body to observe his reaction.

How he would react to my blood.

But Arpad was only startled that I had thrown myself into a situation where I might die.

He showed no reaction to the spilled blood itself.

'Good. That means it's not time yet.'

I could confirm anew that Arpad was not yet fully engulfed in the Madness.

The Crown Prince, who had no way of knowing the reason or conclusion of my observation, was just looking at me as if I were absurd.

"I haven't heard that mental illness runs in the Delphin Ducal Family."

"Our humble family's human bloodline means there's no chance of that happening."

I was essentially saying this.

'Our house doesn't have a hereditary illness like yours, where you can't withstand the dragon's bloodline and go mad.'

It was like slapping the Crown Prince's cheek head-on.

'Well, what are you gonna do? You were the one who pointed a sword at me first.'

Moreover, Arpad had already proven it through his actions.

'He didn't really intend to kill me when he pointed the sword.'

If he had, he would have just let me be, whether I threw myself on the blade and died or not.

But he stopped me.

It meant he was at least curious about why I was acting this way.

'And it also means my proposal intrigued him a little.'

Arpad frowned for a moment.

Surprisingly, the inhumanly handsome man still looked like a sculpture even when using his facial muscles.

Life must be so easy for him.

Ah, no. He went mad and died three times, so maybe not.

"Alright. Confident and brave Duchess. How exactly do you plan to keep this mad Crown Prince from going mad?"

It seems he's aware he's a madman.

Surprisingly good at self-objectification, huh?

"No one has ever been able to cure the Madness passed down in the Imperial family. If you tell me the method, I'll spare your life."

"With just my mouth?"

The Crown Prince was at a loss for words.

I smiled graciously.

"If I tell you everything I know right now, you'll kill me, won't you?"

"......"

Hey, why aren't you denying it?

Were you really planning to kill me?

A chill ran down my spine, but I pretended as best I could that it wasn't there.

Arpad voiced a more blatant threat.

That itself was proof he was somewhat cornered.

"...If I kidnap you like this, lock you up somewhere no one knows, and torture you, you'll eventually talk."

"Ah, after monitoring and blocking everyone going from the Delphin Ducal Family to the Imperial Palace, right?"

When I said what he was about to say, Arpad's handsome face twisted strangely.

'Surely he didn't expect this level of response?'

I smiled brightly and retorted.

"There's more than one route to inform you of Your Highness's secret. Some of them are meant to be sent to Her Majesty the Empress's maternal family."

His stepmother, the Empress, is the Crown Prince's biggest political rival.

Naturally, information about the Mercenary King reaching the Empress would be fatal to the Crown Prince.

Arpad's handsome face twisted sharply.

He brought his face close enough for our noses to touch.

His breath touched my skin, and we were close enough to hear each other's heartbeats.

It would be natural to feel excited being this close to such an artistically handsome man......

'Excited, my foot. My heart's pounding because I don't know when my head might fly off.'

After staring at me for a long while, the words Arpad finally uttered, as if surrendering, were these.

"You're a strange woman."

"I'm just an ordinary woman."

"Ordinary women don't know my secret identity and threaten to tell the Emperor."

"......"

"And they don't sneak into an underground cemetery alone on a night when the ominous Crimson Moon rises. How did you know I was here?"

The Crimson Moon is called ominous partly because many past imperial family members who inherited the dragon's bloodline went mad and died around this time.

"Let's just say I... found out."

"So you have no intention of telling me."

I smiled slyly. How could I reveal all my cards from the start?

Actually, Arpad probably doesn't expect that either.

"But how do I believe your words? If I follow your threat and get tricked, the risk is too great."

Well, he's already in a precarious position, treated like a bomb that could go off at any moment.

If he's said to have abducted his sane cousin's bride, everyone will think this.

'The Crown Prince has finally gone mad!'

Well, it seems now is that timing.

'I've only wielded the whip, so I need to give a proper carrot.'

That should increase the credibility of my words.

I tried to speak as calmly as possible.

"If you let me go for just a moment now, I'll give you one advance payment for the request."

"What?"

"I'm not asking you to let me escape."

I wiggled the fingers of my right hand, which was firmly gripped by his arm.

"I'm asking you to let me move just one hand."

"......"

He glared at me with an expression that seemed utterly suspicious and unbearable, then finally nodded.

The hand that had been tightly gripping my wrist, preventing any movement, withdrew.

I took out a small velvet pouch from my bosom and held it out to Arpad.

"This is the advance payment I'm giving you. Mercenaries don't move without an advance, right?"

Arpad, still frowning, tore the pouch open.

Then, something shiny fell out with a plop.

Perhaps because he was a warrior with good reflexes, he caught the gem in mid-air.

A large blue pearl hanging from a shining silver chain between his pale fingers.

Seeing it, Arpad's red eyes widened.

I smiled a knowing smile and spoke the gem's name.

"Agrippina's Tear. One of the five blessed gems Your Highness has been searching for. Isn't this a sufficient advance payment?"

Agrippina is the name of the sea goddess. In other words, the pearl's nickname is the Goddess's Tear.

One of the famous gems known to have received a god's blessing.

'And it's one of the heirlooms from my maternal family that I inherited from my mother.'

And anyway, if I married Ludwig, it would become one of the countless treasures stolen by Evangeline.

But our Crown Prince Highness, also known as the Mercenary King, wasn't easily swayed.

He smiled crookedly and asked back.

"It's certainly a precious gem, but do you think I, the Crown Prince, would be so blinded by a gem of this level that I'd move?"

Even though he's been searching for it so diligently, his pretense of indifference was very natural.

I pointed that out with a bright smile.

"As I already said, I know Your Highness has been searching for this and all five of the blessed gems. And I just placed one of them in your hand."

His handsome eyebrow twitched again.

I could guess what he was thinking.

'How does she know such information? Did she plant a spy beside me? But even the Emperor doesn't know about this......'

I delivered the finishing blow to that.

"The advance payment I'm talking about isn't just the pearl. There's one more piece of information added to it."

The wariness and curiosity in Arpad's eyes reached their peak.

I shook my head and declared sharply, as if cutting with a knife.

"It's useless."

"What?"

"This pearl, and any other blessed gem or divine artifact, will be useless."

"......!"

"The information that such things cannot weaken or eliminate Your Highness's Madness—that, combined with this, is my advance payment."

I smiled while presenting the harsh truth.

At that moment, the man's expression hardened like a mask.

And then.

"Ghk!"

*Clang!*

I heard the sound of Arpad's sword, which had been pressed against my neck, being thrown to the floor a little later.

That's because Arpad's hand had choked my neck first.

It was completely different from when he lifted me by the nape earlier.

He was gripping my windpipe with genuine murderous intent.

He carved a blood-stained, wolf-like smile onto his lips.

"Calling words that anger me an advance payment, how bold."

"Kgh!"

"Then I'm curious how you plan to pay the remaining balance."

"I told, you! To make Your Highness not go, kgh! Ease your grip a little! I can't... even speak!"

Surprisingly, the hand choking my neck loosened its grip slightly.

So I could speak a little more comfortably.

"Cough, cough! Haah, I said I'll make Your Highness become Emperor without going mad."

"Explain the method properly. If you intend to make me do something close to political suicide with just empty talk."

If a Crown Prince already suspected of Madness abducts his cousin's bride for marriage, everyone will think he's truly gone mad.

If you call that political suicide, you wouldn't be wrong.

But I couldn't spill everything as he desired.

'How can I say I know everything because I regressed three times? If I do, it won't just be choking; it'll be a real beheading.'

I returned to being a client before a mercenary, not a Duchess before the Crown Prince.

"That's something you'll find out after accepting the request. Mercenary King, Gerald."

"...Are you telling me to pay the price?"

"Yes. I've already given the advance. Then what you have to do is choose whether to accept the request or not."

"...After threatening to reveal my identity if I don't?"

"Ah."

That was a valid point.

I winked playfully and retorted.

"That's all included in the request conditions."

Arpad made an expression that looked suddenly exhausted.

Somehow, he looked like someone who had been tormented by me for a long time, which was strange.

'I haven't tormented you at all! I'm being choked right now!'

"So you're saying I'll naturally find out after abducting you for marriage tomorrow?"

"Yes."

"This is driving me mad."

Arpad rubbed his face roughly.

To anyone watching, it would look like he, the one doing the choking, was in a tight spot, not me, the one being choked.

'But there's no other way! If it's not abduction marriage, and specifically abduction marriage carried out by a direct imperial family member, my wedding can't be stopped!'

I knew that fact all too well, having experienced it painfully through three regressions.

So I drove the final nail into the wavering Arpad.

"I can keep Your Highness Arpad from going mad. I swear this is true."

"Swear? Swear on what?"

Arpad asked mockingly about swearing and trust.

So he would never be convinced by the oaths or promises others talk about.

So I reached out my hand. Placing my finger on the divine artifact I had just given as an advance.

I recited a Divine Oath.

In response, the divine power from the artifact shimmered and seeped out.

A strange light flickered in Arpad's eyes.

"......!"

This was a basic skill I had learned during one of my three regressions when I briefly lived as a monk.

-Relying on the goddess's blessing, this humble servant makes one request. Please attest to the truth of these words.

As the Divine Oath ended, the divine power flowing from Agrippina's Tear condensed into a bracelet form around my wrist before disappearing.

I thrust my wrist, still bearing traces of divine power, toward Arpad and said.

"If I spoke falsely, my wrist will fly off. I can suppress your Madness."

"......"

Some time passed, but my wrist remained intact.

"A woman who stakes her own wrist on a truth judgment through a Divine Oath is a first for me."

"Well, you wouldn't believe me otherwise, right? Am I wrong?"

Arpad didn't deny it. But he didn't say he would believe me either.

However, he released my neck, which he had been gripping, and didn't stop me from returning to the mansion.

'That means he's become curious about the 'remaining balance' I'll give.'

Then it means he's also inclined to follow my request.

I desperately hoped so.

'If not... I might have to resort to even worse methods......'

With Sir Beltane's help, I returned to my room without anyone noticing, and then my legs gave way and I collapsed right there.

"Aah......,"

Belatedly, my whole body began to tremble.

Looking at myself in the mirror, clear red hand marks were visible on my neck.

I had clearly overcome a deadly danger and returned.

'This is a gamble.'

But I was in a position where I couldn't survive unless I won the gamble.

After washing up and changing clothes, I went to bed but couldn't sleep a wink.

In the end, I welcomed the morning of the wedding day with wide-open eyes.

Translator: Nox