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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 66
Chapter Title: The Drunken Knight
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“……?”
I looked at Eric with a puzzled expression. The butler, his face a mask of horror, cried out to Eric.
“If you say that, the young madam will never agree to lessons! I know her!”
I know, too! I do!
I glared at the butler. But the butler just glared back at me.
That damn butler! He knows me too well! I’m going to have to kill him!
“So what if she doesn’t.”
As Eric muttered nonchalantly, the butler’s eyes widened as he exclaimed.
“Then the young madam will be ignored in high society, and that disregard will reflect upon the family! The honor of the ducal house will be….”
Ugh, not this again.
It was tiresome, but I supposed from Eric’s perspective, he had a point.
Lately, because of our chaotic wedding, not only Eric’s family but also Princess Ella were being dragged through the mud.
The newspaper headlines were a daily barrage.
Princess Ella, Defying His Majesty the King’s Royal Decree?
A Shotgun Wedding! Displeasure Shown in the Temple…
The Orleans’ Daughter-in-Law and Princess Ella, Actually Past Lovers… Rumors of a Threesome…
I mean, I could let the other headlines slide, but what was this about linking me with the Princess?
‘These nobles and their open minds!’
Well, putting all that aside, even if Eric and the Princess failed to punish the Duke, I could… well, I could just run away with my family if I had to, even if it meant living as a fugitive for the rest of my life.
But Eric had to remain in the Orleans household, live as an Orleans, as a nobleman in the capital for his entire life.
He was a man who had lived as a noble. A man for whom integrity was as natural as breathing, a man who could live or die for honor.
And yet, that very same Eric…
“If some ruffian scoffs at my wife for her shallow knowledge of art, we can just bury them with money.”
Bury them with money?
“……?”
I stared at Eric, dumbfounded. The butler, looking just as shocked as I was, shouted.
“Young Master! How could you say such a thing…!”
I tilted my head and asked.
“W-what did you just say…?”
What did he say? My noble and virtuous Young Master?
But Eric, the one who had thrown the butler, Nina, and me into a state of bewilderment, was the only one who looked at me with a perfectly calm face.
“You don’t have to do what you don’t want to do.”
I whispered to Eric.
“What about the Princess’s reputation? What about me being kicked out of the ducal family?”
Eric’s face contorted.
“No matter how much of a scene you cause in high society, the Princess is not one to have her throne easily taken, and I am not one to have you taken from me.”
I am not one to have you taken from me.
For a moment, his words left me speechless. Taken? What did he mean, taken…? It’s not like I was ever yours to begin with.
I stared at Eric, bewildered. It was a strange feeling.
“Now, then…”
But after spitting out those words, Eric himself looked shocked by what he had said, his mouth hanging slightly open.
He touched his forehead, his ears looking somewhat red. Then he waved his hands dismissively at the bewildered Nina and butler. It was a strange motion, as if he were batting away some invisible obstacle.
‘I thought you were supposed to be graceful…?’
My face crumpled. Eric said.
“……Dismissed.”
Dismissed, my foot.
The moment he shouted “Dismissed,” Eric headed upstairs. He disappeared with more haste than anyone, and I was left to face Nina and the butler in a truly awkward atmosphere.
Actually, it wasn’t just Nina and the butler in the ballroom. Leaning against the entrance was Lily, munching on an apple. When her eyes met mine, she gave a little shrug. A look that said, *I get it*.
I subtly avoided Lily’s gaze. If I looked at her directly, I felt like she’d see right through me.
See through me?
See what?
I pressed my lips together firmly.
Ah, seriously…
“Strange man…”
The strangest man I’ve ever met…
Left alone, I was overcome by a peculiar feeling.
That man, who didn’t know how to lie, who was kind even to a swindler like me, who was beautiful even with dark circles under his eyes…
I had an ominous feeling that even after this sham marriage was over, I wouldn’t be able to forget him for a long, long time.
I don’t have to do what I don’t want to do?
Other than Helena and Philip, Eric was the first person to ever tell me that was okay.
I thought all nobles were bastards…
‘…Well, what do you know.’
It seemed Eric would adorn a page in my life’s story as ‘the unusual noble who wasn’t a bastard.’
Yes. I had to admit that much.
I like kindness, too. In fact, I think for a very long time, I’ve needed a kind adult in my life.
Lily sidled up next to me and said.
“I believe I advised you not to tame him.”
I muttered.
“I didn’t realize that was advice…?”
Lily smacked her lips and retreated.
The butler looked despondent, his face screaming, ‘I didn’t raise the Young Master to be like this!’, while Nina, for some reason, had a rapturous expression. I gave them an awkward smile and said.
“Let’s… practice. What my darling meant was that if I want to do it, I should, right?”
At my words, the butler’s brow furrowed.
“You want to practice?”
I nodded.
“Now that he told me not to… I kind of want to do it?”
How strange. And more importantly…
‘Since Eric said he’d protect me, I should protect him, too.’
Even scoundrels have a code of honor. I couldn’t let Young Lord Eric be humiliated in high society because of me.
Watching the butler’s face rapidly brighten, I shouted.
“But! I’m only giving you one hour. Teach me the steps, quickly. Before I end up crushing your Young Master’s feet at the princess’s palace!”
✵ ✵ ✵
Eric entered the bedroom, his face flushed, and closed the door.
‘If some ruffian scoffs at my wife for her shallow knowledge of art, we can just bury them with money.’
He remembered the butler’s dumbfounded expression when he’d said it.
It was something his usual self would never have said. His mother and the butler had always taught him that the dignity and grace that flowed from a person could never be bought with money.
But what use was any of that now?
Eric had already shattered the sanctity of marriage, and his world was turning upside down.
Besides, seeing Imeline speak of the injustices she had suffered so casually, as if she were used to it, stirred something unbearable within him.
‘It’s obvious, isn’t it? They don’t like a commoner whose name barely made it to the bottom of the peerage registry because of her mother’s marriage.’
He really couldn’t bear it.
…Bear what?
‘…Sleep.’
He was sleep-deprived.
Eric glanced at the bed.
In truth, Eric hadn’t been able to sleep for the past few days. Thinking that sharing a bed with Imeline might be uncomfortable for her, he had even tried sleeping while sitting on the carpet.
Like standing watch.
Sleeping while sitting wasn’t particularly difficult for Eric.
It shouldn’t have been.
But whenever he was in this room… whether it was because of Imeline’s presence or not, he couldn’t tell, but sleep simply wouldn’t come.
If Eric hadn’t possessed the ability to use his aura to purify the fatigue in his body, he would have collapsed long ago.
Eric sighed. From downstairs, he could hear the sound of Imeline bickering with the butler.
“I told you, it starts with the right foot!”
“Didn’t I just put my right foot forward? Nina? You saw, right?”
“It was your left foot…”
“Aaargh! What am I supposed to do if my own body won’t listen to me!”
Hearing her voice, Eric thought that if he could just pass out right now, he might actually be able to sleep. At least Imeline wasn’t in the room at the moment.
‘Before Imeline comes back…’
Just then, his eyes fell on a reddish bottle that had been sitting on the bedroom cabinet for a few days.
‘Then try drinking what my mom gave you. She’s always been an expert when it comes to strange folk remedies…’
Folk remedies. He had no faith in them, but…
With no other choice, Eric opened the cabinet door.
‘I doubt she’d mix in anything strange.’
Eric picked up a glass and filled it about halfway. Then he downed it in one go. A frown creased his brow as he swallowed the contents.
“…She said it was tea.”
Something was wrong.
She had definitely said it was tea, but Eric could feel the distinct scent of alcohol traveling down his esophagus. His face crumpled.
The problem was—
‘So the Aura Prosecutor does get drunk after all? He’s resistant to other drugs…’
The problem was that Eric was a complete lightweight.
He was the type to get drunk off a single drop.
Back when he was a commander, the ‘Shadow’ knights used to get a laugh out of plying him with alcohol.
‘We might be able to beat him if we get him drunk, right?’
Of course, any knight who jokingly attacked a drunk Eric was immediately knocked to the ground. The moment he sensed a threat, the effects of the alcohol would vanish with surprising speed.
Still, being drunk was never a pleasant feeling, so Eric had always avoided alcohol.
But this…
It was strangely delicious.
“……?”
And it felt like his body was growing warm.
✵ ✵ ✵
I was exhausted from the butler’s relentless lesson when I finally entered the bedroom.
The moment I stepped inside, I was hit with the overwhelming smell of alcohol and covered my nose.
“……?”
Did someone spill a drink?
As I took another step into the room, wondering, I spotted a man leaning against the bed.
“…Eric?”
I blinked and moved closer to him. Eric slowly turned his head.
When he saw me, the deep frown on his face melted away.
“…You’re back?”
“You’re back?”
His casual tone, his unusually unfocused eyes, and most of all, the smell of alcohol on his breath every time he spoke—I realized with a start what was going on.
As I got closer to the bed, I saw an empty bottle and a glass on the floor.
‘Ah… this is…’
I ran a hand through my red hair, messing it up.
Just then, Eric patted the carpeted floor with his palm and said.
“Sit!”
“…You’re drunk.”
Right. This was all the behavior of a drunk person.
Damn it.
That bottle was definitely the one my mom gave me.
‘…So he can’t handle his liquor.’
I learned back when I worked at the tavern that drunk people reek of alcohol more than those who aren’t. I don’t know why, but it’s true.
“……?”
Eric looked down at the bottle in his hand and grinned.
“That’s right. I had a drink.”
“…This looks like more than just ‘a drink’.”
I shook the bottle, which was still half-full.
*Slosh, slosh.* As the red liquid swirled prettily, the scent of herbs mixed with the alcohol.
‘Hmm… This scent is very familiar…’
