Ch#81
At that moment.
“......Ha.”
Rudvil let out a hollow laugh.
It was a reaction as if he hadn’t expected such brazenness.
The corner of his mouth slowly twisted upward.
To sing him the lullaby she used to sing to that dead man, while still carrying his shadow.
That indifferent tone.
That expressionless face.
All that ‘calmness’ pierced his skin like red-hot needles.
An emotion of unknown origin eroded his reason.
Thud—
Rudvil’s hand slammed onto the dining table.
Veins bulged on the back of his hand from the excessive force, and the wine glass teetered precariously before finally falling to the floor.
Crash!
Glass shards scattered across the floor.
As the red wine soaked into the carpet and spread, it looked just like traces of blood.
Odellie let out a dazed “Ah” a beat too late.
“His name.”
“......”
“What was that dead man’s name.”
His voice pressed out each syllable deliberately.
The air in the room grew heavy in an instant.
A suffocating silence.
A precarious tension, as if everything would shatter the moment that name was spoken.
Odellie slowly looked up at him, then let out a scoff.
Her head swayed, drunk on the alcohol.
“Why do you care so much? He’s dead anyway, and even if it’s just a contract, the one I married is Rudvil.”
“......You want me not to care?”
No sooner had the words left her mouth than Rudvil’s gaze twisted coldly.
She knew exactly where to prod his nerves.
And yet she prodded it anyway, then told him not to care?
As if daring him to get angry. As if waiting for his reaction, calmly pulling the trigger with a smile.
Rudvil glared at her mischievous, alluring face.
“You shouldn’t care.”
“Why.”
“Because we have to. But still......”
Odellie dropped her head, then lifted it again toward Rudvil.
“It feels kinda nice that you care like this...... Hmm, but I shouldn’t feel that way......”
Odellie couldn’t even recognize her own emotions.
A giggling smile crept onto her lips without her realizing.
Only then did Rudvil notice something was off about her state.
The rage that had eroded his reason slowly subsided.
“Duchess, are you already drunk?”
The wine wasn’t even that strong, and how much had she drunk?
Rudvil reached out toward the wine bottle clutched in her arms, his expression baffled.
But Odellie hugged it tighter, desperately clinging to it.
“You said you wouldn’t take it.”
“I didn’t expect you to get drunk after just a few glasses.”
“I’m not drunk.”
She stated firmly, but her pronunciation was starting to slur.
Rudvil sighed and said firmly.
“Hand it over. Now.”
It was while the two were tussling over it.
Unbeknownst to them, the liquid soaking the carpet was spreading further, reaching the pattern etched beneath it.
At that moment.
The faintly reacting magic circuit beneath the floor flashed and activated.
“......Huh?”
Odellie looked up.
In her vision, faint lines drawn along the entire room glowed as if absorbing light.
It was a barrier circuit.
‘Uh....... Was there something like that?’
Odellie thought hazily.
An emergency isolation barrier that Rudvil had personally set up in the past.
A magic circle designed to activate automatically upon detecting external intrusion.
‘When was there an external intrusion?’
An assassin, maybe?
No, if something like that had gotten in, Rudvil would have sensed it before the barrier.
The impact was hardly anything...
‘The wine glass breaking?’
It recognized that as an external intrusion?
No way...
Odellie looked down and spotted the damp carpet.
It seemed the spilled wine had coincidentally stimulated the circuit.
Like how foreign substances sometimes caused malfunctions in magic tools.
‘What the...’
Before she could even feel absurd, the room vibrated faintly.
The hidden magic circle revealed itself in an instant, emitting blue ripples.
Rudvil had no idea what was happening, but his body reacted first.
He instinctively pulled Odellie into his arms protectively.
“Wait, if we’re together—”
Before she could finish saying it wasn’t allowed.
Bang!
A strong repulsion erupted from the center of the bedroom.
As if an invisible wall was pushing their backs, their bodies were forcibly shoved toward the center.
With no time to regain their senses, the two were flung onto the bed.
And at the same time, a hemispherical protective barrier formed around the bed with a ‘click’.
A transparent wall.
A complete isolation barrier that blocked all contact with the outside.
“......”
“......”
“......What is this?”
Rudvil muttered in disbelief, still holding Odellie.
*It’s the barrier you made.*
Odellie swallowed the retort and pointed to the magic circle under the carpet.
“It seems like a protective barrier. One that reacts to external intrusions......”
“External intrusions?”
“Maybe the carpet got wet from the wine and malfunctioned. That’s my guess.”
It was absurd, but the strongest hypothesis for now.
They couldn’t go outside the barrier to inspect the magic circle directly.
No, whatever the reason, it was certain no one had intruded into the room.
But more importantly right now...
She was trapped alone in the bedroom with Rudvil on the bed.
As Odellie squirmed, he let her go this time, apparently with no intention of holding on.
She quickly scooted to the edge of the bed and groped at the air.
A solid hemispherical wall met her hand.
Thud. Thud.
No matter how much she pounded it, only her fist hurt from hitting the barrier.
No matter how hard she tried to get off the bed, the transparent barrier didn’t budge.
“......”
The alcohol cleared from her system in an instant.
