Chapter 159: A Strange Anger
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 159: A Strange Anger
“That is quite rude of you.”
I pulled my hand away from Lucion’s arm.
“They might seem a bit blunt at first, but they are all warm-hearted and kind people. In fact, I find Blenheim much warmer than the capital.”
“Warm-hearted Northerners, is it…? Your Highness the Consort, your heart is as beautiful as your appearance.”
His tone was too sharp to be a compliment.
Lucion stared down at his arm for a moment, then clenched his hand into a fist.
“The Grand Duke of Blenheim is truly a lucky man. To have met a wife who loves such a desolate territory so dearly.”
“I am the lucky one,” I countered, refusing to back down. “The Grand Duke is a very kind man. He treats me better than I could ever ask for.”
“Kind?”
That man?
He let out a sarcastic laugh, speaking as if he found the situation amusing.
“Does Your Highness know that the Grand Duke intended to divorce you?”
In an instant, the atmosphere around Lucion shifted. It was as if he had cast aside his gentle mask, revealing a piercing edge.
“Originally, the Grand Duke was supposed to marry my sister.”
His green eyes darkened as he stared at me.
“But because of Your Highness, everything fell apart.”
When I didn't react, he let out a sharp exhale.
“So, you knew. Well, I suppose…”
Since you were one of the parties involved in the marriage, it’s only natural.
Lucion muttered under his breath, one corner of his mouth curling upward.
“Then do you also know this? When the marriage fell through, the Grand Duke told my sister to wait for him, promising he would divorce you within a year.”
What Lucion said wasn't factually incorrect.
However, the reason the promise had to be deferred for a year was originally due to the mourning period for the Queen of Rondoris. Regardless of my involvement, the Princess would have had to wait a year anyway.
Furthermore, it certainly wasn't some tragic, romantic vow between Loik and the Princess, as Lucion’s tone implied.
“I’m not sure why you’re telling me this.”
More accurately, I wanted to ask why he was trying so hard to make me feel guilty.
“Does it not bother you at all?” Lucion asked, his lip still curled. “A man who had divorce in mind from the very moment he married you?”
His hand gripped the white fence next to a cluster of climbing red roses.
“No matter how I choose to take it, I don't believe it is something for you to worry about, Prince.”
I replied with a calm face. The reason I didn't get angry was simply that I couldn't understand why Lucion was acting this way.
Is he doing this because he’s worried about his sister?
“Are you angry with me because the Princess couldn't get married because of me?”
It was the most logical guess I could come up with.
At my words, the hand gripping the fence tightened for a moment, then his fingers suddenly loosened and dropped limply to his side. Lucion averted his gaze, his spirit seemingly broken.
“There is no way I could be angry with Your Highness.”
“I thought so. It certainly doesn't seem like something the Prince should be angry with me about.”
A long silence stretched between us.
Lucion, who had been staring at the ground, finally raised his head to meet my eyes. The heat from moments ago had vanished without a trace.
“I was exceedingly rude.”
His green eyes were still shaking with instability.
“Lately, I’ve been a bit… well, that’s no excuse. It seems I let my emotions get the better of me without realizing it.”
Lucion asked in a slightly strained voice, “Will you forgive me?”
“…I will accept your apology.”
For some reason, I felt that his unstable appearance just now was closer to his true self. It felt as though I had unintentionally seen what lay beneath his mask.
A person who shows no shadow isn't someone without one; they are simply good at hiding it.
Even someone as bright-looking as Lucion must have his own hidden anxieties.
At that moment, the garden lanterns flickered to life. I hadn't realized how dark it had become. The surroundings were instantly bathed in a warm glow.
“It’s late. I should head inside.”
With a weary face, Lucion let out a faint, hollow laugh.
“I suppose you should. If you stay any longer, I feel like your knight might cut me somewhere.”
Ah, Norton was there.
Only then did I look back to see Norton standing in the exact same spot where he had first stopped. His usual indifferent expression remained, but his jaw was set tight.
“Then, I’ll be going.”
At my words, which preemptively blocked any offer of an escort, Lucion gave a somewhat bitter smile and placed a hand over his heart.
“Have a peaceful evening.”
*
Late that evening, the expressions of the knight captains attending the emergency meeting were grim.
“So, what do we do now?”
Valkar, the Captain of the 2nd Knight Division, cautiously opened the floor.
Recently, the knights who had traveled to the border of Arsen had returned with soil samples where the Dragon had coughed up blood. After examining the soil, Enolius and the priest Miel had just delivered a confident conclusion: the Dragon’s power was weakening.
“Is there a need to do anything?”
Gamon, the Captain of the 3rd Knight Division, spoke calmly.
“Can’t we just wait for the Dragon to die? There’s no reason for us to go out and shed blood ourselves.”
“Wait for the Dragon to die?”
Demich, the Captain of the 1st Knight Division, snorted.
“‘Weakened’ is by a Dragon’s standards. It’ll be a thousand times faster for all of us to return to the Goddess’s embrace than for that thing to die of natural causes.”
“And is that something a Knight Captain of Blenheim should be saying?”
Tiern growled at Gamon.
“We need to end the contract as soon as possible so our Lord can be free from the Dragon’s mana!”
“Lower your voice.”
At Hedrick’s words, Tiern bit his lip, huffing in frustration.
The fact that Loik suffered from periodic mana overloads was known only to a very few among the knights, and the fact that his touch could kill a woman was known only to Norton. Most of the knights only knew that Loik was ‘enduring’ the mana, which explained their reactions.
Loik, sitting at the head of the table with his chin resting on his hand, remained silent. He was struggling to make a realistic judgment.
If he thought of Annette, he wanted to find the Dragon immediately, kill it, and be freed from the curse. But if he did that, the knights sitting here would have to risk their lives. There was no guarantee they would win a fight against a Dragon.
Above all, the fact that they knew so little about the Dragon despite being tied to it for so long was unsettling.
If only that old priest were still alive…
“Priest.”
Loik called out to Miel, feeling as though he were grasping at straws.
“Yes! Your Grace!”
Miel, who had been shrinking into a corner under the pressure of the knight captains, poked his head out.
“Did the old priest really leave nothing else behind? Records, books, anything?”
He was asking about the time of the priest's passing.
“Uh, no, nothing.”
“Perhaps you lied to honor the old man’s dying wish. If you confess honestly now, I will forgive you this once.”
Loik’s eyes flashed with a sharp light.
“There really is nothing!”
Seeing Miel’s look of genuine grievance, the knights sighed. Both before and after the old priest’s death, they had already ransacked the small library of the Pogen Temple several times, but they had only turned up a few useless bits of knowledge regarding the Dragon.
Just as Loik was roughly brushing back his hair in frustration, Miel spoke up cautiously.
“That… there might be something in the library of the High Temple.”
“The High Temple?”
“I heard that Priest Venemus wrote many books while he was at the High Temple. But when he came to the Pogen Temple, he brought nothing with him. He likely left most of them there. Among those, there might be something about the Dragon…”
As Miel trailed off, he quickly added more at the sight of the knights’ darkening expressions.
“…Of course, it’s not certain.”
Loik let out a heavy sigh. This topic had come up before. However, unless the Grand Duke visited in person, the chances of gaining entry to the High Temple’s library were slim, so they hadn't been able to form a proper plan.
“What about the monsters? Have we prepared for them?”
Demich scratched his forehead as if it were a nuisance.
“The problem is the Dragon hasn't appeared. If we just find it, can’t we just push through with brute force?”
“A Dragon is strictly a being of high intelligence.”
Enolius glanced coldly at Demich.
“If you charge in ignorantly like some people, there won't even be bones left to hold a funeral for.”
“Hey, Mage! There’s a limit to my patience!”
It wasn't a discussion that would reach a conclusion today anyway.
“Dismissed for today.”
Loik massaged the bridge of his nose, looking exhausted. At his words, the knights hesitated until Hedrick nodded, then they stood up to leave.
Loik, cracking his stiff neck from side to side, was about to stand up as well when Norton approached him.
“What is it?”
Loik’s eyes narrowed as he saw the tension in Norton’s brow.
“Did something happen to the Grand Duchess?”
“Prince Lucion approached Her Highness while she was on a walk a short while ago…”
As he listened to Norton’s report, Loik’s face gradually contorted.
“Lucion, that son of a bitch…”
Before Norton could even finish his sentence, Loik was already striding out of the meeting room.