Ch#68
Elric’s mind was a mess.
He couldn’t tell if her attitude stemmed from genuine goodwill or if it was a strategy of her own to keep him away from the battlefield.
Though he was tucked away in Wibin in the East, Elric had kept constant tabs on news from the West. He wasn’t ignorant of the clash between the Demon King and the Saint, the resulting tension among the Western nations, or his own strategic value.
However, he had no intention of heading to the front lines right now.
Because of that, his heightened senses were focused entirely on pushing Igret away and protecting Tiria. His release of killing intent was for that very reason, but perhaps because she was one of the Seven Strongest, Igret remained largely unaffected.
No, more accurately, her mind was so far in the clouds that she didn’t even notice his murderous aura.
‘My… it’s a bit troubling when he stares at me so passionately.’
Igret sipped her tea, her blush deepening.
Elric’s gaze was too intense. It was a look even more powerful than when they had met on the battlefield, and his face was now clean-shaven and handsome, unlike back then.
Even as the pressure mounted, a sudden thought crossed her mind.
‘…Could it be?’
Does he still like me?
Has he been unable to forget me even while living this married life?
Oh my goodness! To think I was the interloper between these two!
Clack!
Igret dropped her teacup in dismay.
It was the typical logic of an arrogant mage consumed by self-love.
Elric opened his mouth.
“Stop beating around the—”
“I’m sorry!”
Igret cut him off.
She squeezed her eyes shut. Turning her head away sharply, she blurted out:
“I can’t accept your feelings!”
Because you two look best when you’re together!
Because I’m satisfied just watching! No, I only want to watch!
“Please forget me!”
It was a cry filled with grim determination—a textbook example of what happens when communication breaks down completely.
To Elric, her words were absurd and utterly incomprehensible.
However, amidst the confusion, an instinctive emotion welled up.
Disgust. Skin-crawling revulsion.
With those feelings surfacing alongside a mountain of questions, he spoke.
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
His old habits from his mercenary days slipped out.
Since he was dealing with someone who wouldn’t listen to reason, he felt his only option was to draw his sword and threaten her.
It was right at that moment.
Knock, knock—
“Young Master, a-a-a guest has…!”
It seemed today was some sort of special occasion for interrupters.
The drawing room was crowded.
The atmosphere was thick with a gloom reminiscent of a funeral.
An enraged Elric.
An anxious Tiria.
Igret in her own dream world, and a terrified Edward.
Elbus, who watched the whole scene with interest, and the Prince, who had his fedora pressed down low.
In this scene of people dreaming different dreams, Elbus—the only guest who had revealed his true identity—spoke.
“Well now, it seems I picked a bad day. I didn’t realize it would be this bustling.”
Elbus’s gaze swept across the room.
Elric furrowed his brow. Edward adjusted his beard to ensure his disguise wouldn’t be seen through.
“Our meeting at the last banquet was so impressionable that I decided to pay a brief visit. I hope I’m not intruding?”
“…Had you informed me in advance, I would have put more care into your reception. I am merely embarrassed.”
“I wanted it to be a surprise.”
Elbus smoothly brushed off Elric’s remark and continued.
“First, I should state my purpose. I came to introduce this person to you… Could we speak privately for a moment?”
Elbus pointed to the Prince.
Though only the lower half of his face was visible, Elric recognized his identity immediately.
They had met before.
“…Dinner will be served soon, so if a brief moment is enough.”
“That’s fine. Then…”
Elbus’s gaze turned toward Igret and Edward.
Edward stepped forward.
“Ah, I actually came here to see the mage over there.”
“Huh? Me?”
Igret spoke with a hint of delinquency in her tone.
A vein popped on Edward’s forehead.
‘Yes! You! You!’
Because Igret had flown off without even listening to the full story, this disaster had erupted. He was filled with suppressed resentment.
His only sorrow was that he couldn’t show it in front of the others. He wasn’t brave enough to defy the Major Shareholder.
“Excellent. Then this gentleman can speak with the mage, and shall we have our talk separately?”
The situation began to settle.
Edward intended to shut Igret up first. Given the look on Elric’s face, the Prince’s goal likely wouldn’t be achieved anyway, so the person he really needed to worry about was Elric himself.
‘I have to survive. Should I just start by bowing my head? Thank goodness this woman didn’t just start casting spells out of nowhere.’
If he could somehow calm Elric down and offer an apology, everything would conclude neatly.
So, it was time to—
“Could you wait a moment?”
Tiria spoke for the first time.
She looked down at the floor with a calm expression and said, “I have something urgent to discuss with the Head of the family. I apologize.”
Everyone fell silent.
Elric, in particular, was greatly flustered.
Thump, thump.
His heart began to race.
She knew it was impolite.
Normally, she would never have made such important guests wait.
And yet, Tiria acted emotionally.
It was for a selfish reason. If she didn’t do this, she felt like she would suffocate.
“I-I’ve asked for the guests to be shown to their rooms.”
Elric’s expression as he spoke was quite awkward.
His posture was slightly hunched.
Tiria sat in the chair in the study and watched him quietly.
The more she did, the faster her heart beat. Her throat felt like it was parching.
“…My Lord.”
“Please, speak.”
“I believe an explanation is needed. Regarding those guests.”
In truth, she was afraid of the answer she might receive.
What if, as the girl said, the two of them really had promised to marry?
What if there were memories between them in a place she didn’t know?
What if she was to be discarded?
Naturally, her lips began to tremble.
She was ashamed of herself and tried to calm down, but it wasn’t working.
“I apologize. I know we agreed not to ask about the past.”
What must he think of me, clinging to him so pathetically?
Tiria clenched her fists and lowered her head. Her hair hid her expression.
At that, Elric’s eyes wavered.
“They are…”
There was little he could say.
To explain his connection to them, he would have to speak of the last ten years.
He hated that fact.
Just the thought of having to tell her what kind of person he had been felt like a thorn stuck in his throat.
His grip tightened on his cane.
Even so, seeing Tiria like that made his heart ache.
It was guilt. Guilt over the fact that he had been presenting himself with lies, and that she—who rarely showed emotion—was now visibly distraught.
Thinking he had to reassure her somehow, the words he spat out were a hastily constructed fabrication.
“My meeting with that Young Master Graham is just as you know, wife. The mage is someone I met during my travels. We are nothing special.”
It was a clumsy stopgap measure.
And excuses made without thinking are usually full of holes.
That was especially true in a situation like this. An incomplete explanation only deepened the misunderstanding.
“…If promising marriage is ‘nothing special’,”
Tiria’s expression contorted deeply.
“Then what exactly am I?”
Elric had never seen her make such a face.
She looked like someone drowning in a vast sense of despair.
Over her face, which craved an answer, Tiria etched a sorrowful frown.
She looked so fragile and pitiful, as if she might die at any moment.
When her unique aura of mystery was layered over it, what was burned into Elric’s retinas was like an oil painting depicting despair itself.
However, setting that aside, he thought:
“?”
What on earth does that mean?
Edward dragged Igret to the back of the mansion.
Igret, who had been following submissively until then, spoke up.
“You can let go now.”
At her angry voice, Edward immediately released her.
Then he fell to his knees.
“Noonaaaaaa!!!”
His voice was thick with tears.
In fact, Edward’s eyes were actually welling up. The face of a man terrified that he might die today was truly desperate.
However, it wasn’t an emotion Igret could empathize with.
She was a woman who lived in a flower bed even in the dead of winter.
Still, she was in a relatively good mood, so she offered some words of comfort.
“Don’t worry. No one found out my identity except Kasha. You think I’m that thoughtless?”
“That’s the problem! What were you thinking…?”
“Don’t chirp at me. You’re being noisy.”
Igret picked at her ear.
Even while doing so, she was thinking about Kasha and Tiria.
Recalling the sight of the two sitting side by side in the drawing room just moments ago brought a grin back to her face.
“Hey, Skinny.”
“Yes…?”
“Don’t those two look really good together?”
Igret, who had been smiling without reading the room, continued.
“I was originally going to take Kasha with me, you know? But seeing them together, I felt like I couldn’t possibly interfere. So I was just going to leave. But oh? It seems Kasha still has lingering feelings for me. I want to cut that off for good. You’re going to have to help me.”
For one thing, Edward couldn’t understand a word she was saying.
Consequently, the thought he had was:
‘Is she a crazy bitch?’
Ah, right.
Thinking back, Flame Demon Igret was a legendary crazy bitch in the West.
“Are you listening to me?”
Is it even worth listening to?
Edward nodded despite his thoughts.
Whatever the case, the Major Shareholder was god.
“So let’s do this. I happened to say something to the wife… hehe… to the wife as an excuse. I said I came here to find my fiancé. So, in the role of that fiancé…”
Swish!
As Igret waved her hand, a scrawny knight suddenly popped out of thin air.
“Ugh!”
“…We’ll use this guy. If I say there’s someone I like, won’t he give up too?”
He was Ricky, the Vice-Captain of the Seolyeong Knights.
The reason he was caught was obvious.
Even if she was past her prime, she was still one of the Seven Strongest; there was no way she wouldn’t notice a mere assassin’s concealment.
“Hey, stop pretending to be fainted and get up.”
Ricky looked up, trembling violently.
The reaper from a fiery hell was grinning at him.
Ricky had no idea what was going on.
He had simply hidden because Danal told him to, and these people had happened to come to the very spot where he was hiding and holding his breath.
And then he was caught.
‘Ah, so this is where my sorrowful life ends.’
It was at that moment of thought.
“You’re going to have to play the role of my fiancé.”
At Igret’s words, Ricky went blank.
“Pardon? Me?”
The response came out reflexively.