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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 48
Chapter Title: Drunken Words
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“Father. Don’t you think our Majesty is handsome?”
…Right. How did it come to this?
I’m pretty sure I was caught by the former emperor, we had a few drinks, and then the sun set.
So, I used the communication stone to ask the Elders to look after Ariel.
And after that, only a moment, a very brief moment, had passed, but my mouth started spouting words of its own accord.
The former emperor, who had been staring into space, waved a dismissive hand at me.
“If you’re going to spout nonsense, you should go on up.”
“No, but it’s true. You’ve been staring at him so fiercely since earlier.”
Feeling the heat rise in my face, I pouted and cupped the face of Enoch, who was sitting beside me, turning it toward the former emperor.
“Ri-Riana?”
A thoroughly flustered voice escaped Enoch.
“Here, look! His eyes, his nose, his lips—they’re all so handsome. How can you not even crack a smile?”
“Riana, please…”
“What’s so novel about a face that looks exactly like mine?”
“Ah…?”
Unlike the mortified Enoch, the former emperor nonchalantly swirled his cup. I slowly fluttered my eyelashes.
“Sooo… you’re saying you’re unimpressed because you see his face all the time…?”
“That’s right.”
“…?”
He looks perfectly fine on the outside, but could he be drunk too?
His shamelessly bold reply left me speechless this time.
“And when I was young, I was a tiny bit more handsome than that boy.”
“Oh, come on… Mph!”
My tactless mouth was about to move on its own again when a large hand gently covered it.
“Alright. That’s enough. That’s quite enough, Riana.”
With a deadpan expression but reddened ears, Enoch shifted his gaze to the former emperor.
“Father, you should stop drinking as well. You’ve had more than enough.”
The former emperor glanced at the empty bottles Enoch gestured to, then tipped his cup back again without a word.
“Haa… Riana, please get up. We should go home.”
“Where are you going when she’s in that state? Just stay the night.”
Hearing his gruff tone, delivered without even making eye contact, I pulled Enoch’s hand away from my mouth.
“There you go again. I told you not to speak so coldly, didn’t I?”
“…If I’d known her drinking habit was like this, I wouldn’t have offered her a drink in the first place.”
Tsk. The former emperor clicked his tongue and needlessly blamed Enoch.
“Shouldn’t you have stopped her if you knew it would be like this?”
“You kept refilling her cup before I had a chance to stop her.”
“In any case—”
“Father!”
The former emperor, who was about to add another word, spotted me with my hands on my hips and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
“Tsk, honestly, where did something like this come from.”
Then, as if giving in, he cleared his throat.
“…Ahem. In any case, stay the night. The road is treacherous, so it’s dangerous to return now.”
“If we use a magic circle—”
“…It’s because I’m lonely.”
At the unexpected words, Enoch’s eyes slowly swept across the vast dining hall.
Was it because this place wasn’t used often?
After letting his gaze linger on the somewhat empty-feeling space, Enoch spoke with difficulty.
“……I understand.”
***
“Ugh. This feels nice.”
Plop.
Hearing the sound of the plump duvet compressing beneath me, I stretched out my arms.
My hands, trying to stretch out my stiff body, trembled for a moment before dropping uselessly.
“Everything’s spinning and spinning.”
Knock, knock.
Sprawled out on the bed, I staggered into a sitting position at the sound of a knock on the door.
“Who is it?”
“Riana, please open the door.”
Hearing the languid voice, I pouted and stumbled toward the door.
Click. As I turned the doorknob, eyes the color of moon-shadowed clouds appeared.
“Why do you keep calling me?”
“First, the door—”
Enoch tried to grab the door, which was open just enough for one of his eyes to peek through.
“Tsk! Where do you think you’re coming in!”
“…?”
At my scolding reaction, his long eyelashes fluttered rapidly over his gray eyes, a look of confusion on his face.
“Riana, it’s not that… This is my room, and yours is the one next door.”
“Hmph.”
“Haa, just open the door first. I’ll take you to your room.”
“This man, this man is dangerous, huh? At this late hour, hmm?”
“Ha, what did you say?”
Enoch, facing me with a door between us, let out a hollow laugh in disbelief.
“You’re always, like, sneakily lying in my bed!”
“If we’re going by that logic, you’ve lain in my bed too, haven’t you?”
“Th-that was because you moved me there while I was asleep!”
“I wonder who it was that jumped into my bed and started groping me on our first meeting.”
“Wow… you’re playing dirty, bringing that up.”
Left with nothing to say, I clamped my mouth shut and made my own declaration of war.
“From now on, I’m never sleeping with you again, Enoch!”
But despite my attempt at a stern warning, Enoch just chuckled, a deep rumble in his throat, as if he were soothing a whining Ariel.
“I can’t believe how much you drank, honestly.”
“What was I supposed to do when Father kept offering me more?”
Perhaps because of the sudden wave of intoxication, my words slurred and dragged.
“Father?”
Enoch shook his head at my familiar term for the former emperor.
“You seemed to hate it earlier, but now the title sounds quite natural?”
“‘Former Emperor’ is long and confusing. You’re ‘Your Majesty,’ and your father is ‘His Majesty.’ See? It’s confusing, right?”
“Hmm.”
As if being swayed by my peculiar brand of persuasion, his finely shaped eyebrow twitched.
Not a hint of tension, not a trace of a tremor. Staring at his perfectly composed face, my mouth suddenly spoke on its own.
“How annoying.”
“…Pardon?”
And at that, Enoch’s eyes widened slightly.
A gesture mixed with confusion and a sense of being wronged followed.
“What, all of a sudden? Are you sulking because I told you to switch rooms?”
“Is this a cold or something? Why did you pass it on to me and then get better all by yourself?”
He used to say his heart would race and he’d get a fever just from looking at me, that he couldn’t even hold my hand properly.
But the face of the Enoch standing before me now was utterly composed.
Far from being flushed, his face in the moonlight was so pale it was almost white.
My insides were in turmoil just from looking at him, so unlike me, Enoch, who seemed perfectly fine all by himself, was a little infuriating.
I looked at the man standing bewildered outside my door, then blinked in frustration.
“Enoch, did you know? The Elder gave me a book yesterday.”
“A book?”
“Yeah. It’s this thick—”
“Ah. Are you perhaps talking about the book the Black Elder carries? The one with the navy cover and a star on it?”
Knowing what I was talking about, Enoch quickly described the book.
“Oh? That’s right. You know it?”
“Yes.”
“Anyway, the book said that fire and ice ability users can influence each other and develop unusual symptoms, or something like that?”
“Mm. I believe I’ve read it. I hear such cases do occur occasionally.”
“Is that research really true? The symptoms seem really… how should I put it…”
I rolled my eyes wide before averting my gaze.
“They seemed very similar to what you feel when you like someone. Could it be that they mistook it for those kinds of feelings?”
“Hmm…”
As if carefully considering the answer to my question, his long fingers on the other side of the door slowly traced his sharp jawline.
“I doubt that’s the case. While they may appear similar on the surface, it was stated to be clearly different from the kind of feelings you mentioned, Riana.”
“I-is that so?”
I wasn’t sure what answer I had been hoping for, but my eyebrows shot up.
“Then what’s the method to get rid of the symptoms? That wasn’t in the book.”
“?”
Enoch, with an expression that asked why I was suddenly asking such things, mirrored me by raising one eyebrow.
“Well. I’m not aware of any particular method. I heard it disappears naturally over time.”
“Oh, come on, what’s that?”
So I have to live like this without knowing when it’ll get better?
Pressing a hand to my wildly beating heart, hidden by the door, I scowled.
“Then what about you, Enoch?”
“Me?”
“Yes. The healing crisis you mentioned before had the exact same symptoms as the book described, but you’re all better now.”
“…Do I look fine to you?”
“Yes, completely.”
Nodding emphatically, I narrowed my eyes at Enoch, who was just standing there with a placid smile.
“You have no intention of telling me, do you?”
So unfair. Getting better all by yourself.
I mumbled, then shot him a sullen glare before heartlessly shutting the door.
“You can go now. Good night!”
***
“…Ha…?”
What kind of novel drunken tantrum was this?
Suddenly given the cold shoulder, Enoch froze with his hand on the doorknob.
“Good heavens…”
The hand he’d raised to knock again hesitated a few times before moving to the nape of his neck.
Contrary to his face, which was so pale it looked almost sickly, his neck was mottled with red, as if it were on fire.
“But why would she suddenly ask something like that… Don’t tell me…”
Still clueless, Enoch massaged his neck, the corner of his eye twitching slightly.
[“They seemed very similar to what you feel when you like someone—”]
“Could she have noticed my feelings…?”
No, that can’t be it.
His trembling gaze unable to settle, Enoch slowly replayed their recent conversation before shaking his head.
“She must have just read the book and become curious.”
If she had noticed my feelings, she never would have said I looked fine.
Tapping his chest chidingly against the sound of his heart, which was pounding loud enough to hurt his ears, Enoch started walking.
Toward the room the former emperor had prepared for Riana.
“Saying I look fine. Is looking like my father a good thing at times like this?”
A large hand swept down his face, which he was sure wore the same gruff expression as the former emperor’s.
His thoughts were a tangled mess.
Half of him was relieved that his feelings hadn’t been discovered,
while the other half wished it was written all over his face so Riana would know how he felt.
Enoch ran a hand through his hair, his head a mess of these two conflicting emotions, and walked out onto the balcony.
The cool wind seemed to calm his turbulent thoughts, and he was taking a deep breath when,
Tring.
The communication stone in his pocket rang.
“Ah, Elder. How is Ariel?”
[“She is sleeping soundly. Did your conversation with the former emperor go well?”]
“…Better than I thought.”
Was this also thanks to Riana?
For the first time in a long while. So long, in fact, that he couldn’t even remember the last time.
He had conversed and eaten a meal like an ordinary father and son.
Enoch gazed for a long moment at the distant figure of the former emperor strolling slowly through the garden, as if out for an evening walk, before turning his attention back to the communication stone.
“Elder.”
[“Yes, Your Majesty.”]
At his call, the White Elder in the communication stone’s projection nodded.
“You told me before. That there seemed to be a faction that fed Hashen false information about the Empire preparing for war and supplied them with weapons.”
[“Yes, I did.”]
“Have you found who is behind it?”
[“We have not found them yet.”]
“In that case, dig into Gamel. Focus on Prince Karhel.”
