My Fiancé 2
I let out a short groan as a faint headache crept in, probably from sleeping too long. Just how long had it been since I could sleep this deeply? Thanks to the assassins who came every single night, I had reached the point where even the rustle of a single sheet of paper would jolt me awake instantly.
When I groggily opened my eyes, an unfamiliar hazy scene greeted me. The place I had fallen asleep in was supposed to be a shabby, modest single-room quarters, yet the room I woke up in was a dazzling space decorated with luxurious furniture and extravagant, high-value artworks.
“Awake already?”
At the familiar voice, I turned my head. Werner wasn’t wearing the same worn-out clothes as yesterday. Instead, he was dressed in a high-end black robe embroidered with a golden lion using the finest thread. Unlike yesterday, it truly made me realize he was a mage of the imperial court. I was briefly amazed that a single outfit could change someone’s entire aura so drastically, but then a solemn voice came from outside.
“Her Majesty the Empress has arrived.”
The Empress? Suddenly? I quickly got up and straightened my clothes and hair. Yet Werner, despite hearing that the Empress had come, let out an irritated sigh and answered with a frown.
“Let her in.”
The door soon opened, and the Empress entered accompanied by numerous maids. The dignity and authority radiating from her appearance made me instinctively drop to one knee.
“I humbly greet the most noble lady of the Empire.”
I greeted her exactly according to the etiquette my father had taught me. But Werner simply sighed again and gave a slight nod. To anyone watching, it would have been a scene warranting execution for disrespect, yet the Empress smiled in response to his greeting and approached me.
“And who might this beautiful little lady be?”
“I… I am Glacia Winterhart, the eldest daughter of the Winterhart ducal family…”
“Oh my, then you are a distant relative of His Majesty. There’s no need to be so formal.”
“But…”
At a loss for what to do, I glanced at Werner, silently asking for help. Only then did he walk over to me.
“Don’t be so nervous. Even if you commit an offense serious enough to get your head chopped off, I’ll take care of it.”
“Hehe, please don’t be too tense.”
Even though she said that, it wasn’t easy to shake off my nervousness. The Empress looked back and forth between me and Werner before asking him a question.
“By the way, this is quite unexpected. To think there is a young lady who can visit Sir Werner’s office.”
“My office is a place where only beautiful women are allowed to enter, aside from myself.”
At Werner’s joke, the Empress covered her mouth with her fan and laughed. Then she gestured for everyone around to leave. I couldn’t figure out why, but since it seemed I was included, I tried to step out of the office. At least until Werner called me back.
“Don’t go.”
“But…”
“I really hate repeating myself.”
With no choice, I sat on the nearby sofa and tried to stay as quiet as possible. The Empress shifted her attention away from me and spoke to Werner.
“I heard that my great-uncle committed a rudeness toward you yesterday, Sir Werner.”
“Well… there were a few incidents, yes.”
“As a member of the imperial family and his niece… I offer my sincerest apologies.”
My head spun for a moment. From what I had heard yesterday, Werner had burned the clothes of an imperial relative and hung him from the castle wall. Yet instead of reprimanding Werner, the Empress was the one apologizing. It was rare for a member of the imperial family to apologize to anyone. Werner accepted the apology with slight embarrassment.
“Yes, well, I wasn’t entirely blameless either. By the way, I have a request, Your Majesty.”
“If it is something I can help with, I will do anything.”
“Please… don’t say anything to my older brothers or sisters about this.”
“If that is your wish, then I understand.”
After saying that, the Empress took out a small pouch from her bosom. It was a silk pouch about the size of an egg, bulging noticeably. She smiled as she spoke.
“This is both to commend you for your hard work and as an apology for this incident.”
“What is it?”
“It is an egg of a Snow Hawk. I hear one of these eggs is worth dozens of gold bars.”
I had heard of it before. The Snow Hawk was a mythical falcon that laid its eggs on trees so high no human hand could reach. With their low population and unknown habitats, the price was said to be whatever the buyer was willing to pay.
“Well, I don’t particularly like birds… but if it is Your Majesty’s kindness, I will gratefully accept it.”
“I’m glad to hear that. Then, since I have other appointments, I shall take my leave…”
“Farewell, Your Majesty.”
As the Empress reached for the doorknob, I once again lifted the hem of my skirt and bowed.
“It was an honor to be in the presence of the most noble lady of the Empire.”
The Empress waved her hand at me in response.
“It would be nice to see you again someday, Lady Glacia.”
Once the Empress had left, Werner approached with a face full of irritation and plopped down on the sofa opposite me.
“They sure dragged out a simple ‘take this and keep your mouth shut’ into something disgustingly long. What a fucking pain in the ass…”
“Pardon?”
His words were so irreverent that anyone overhearing might have charged him with blasphemy, but Werner didn’t seem to care at all. He wore a displeased expression, venting his annoyance. It was a complete one-eighty from the face he had shown around Lady Media yesterday. Instead of his usual playful look, it was an unpleasant expression as if something filthy had stained his collar.
I cautiously asked about the truth of the matter.
“Um… what did you mean when you said the Empress’s great-uncle committed a rudeness? I clearly heard that you burned his clothes and hung him from the castle wall…”
“That bastard beat up some random old man and then got angry about it, so I went to protest.”
“And then?”
“And then do you know what that son of a bitch muttered? ‘So even a lowly-born like him feels kinship with other lowly scum.’ He probably thought he was muttering to himself, but my ears are pretty sharp.”
Only then did the pieces start to fall into place.
“So I smashed his carriage, beat him up, burned his clothes with flame magic, and hung him from the top of the castle wall.”
“If something like that happened, you should have told the others the full story. They would have understood.”
Everyone was so kind. They would surely have understood Werner’s actions. But Werner had deliberately hidden the truth. I couldn’t understand why he would do that.
“Understood? They would have gone and beaten him up themselves, beyond just understanding.”
“Then why…”
“Because I don’t want that.”
“What? What do you mean?”
“Look, let’s say I told the truth and my brothers and sisters turned that bastard into a bloody pulp. Then everyone would be too scared to even open their mouths around me.”
“Yes, then no one would dare look down on you… Ah…”
I understood because I had a similar experience. The people who had insulted me as a half-vampire had been purged by my father and mother. Yet even so, I could never shake off the anxiety. Because what they feared wasn’t me, but my father and mother.
“That’s why, even though something like this happened, I just told my brothers and sisters that I caused an accident. It’s easier that way.”
“But even Her Majesty the Empress came to apologize to you. Doesn’t that mean she values you highly?”
“Ha! Those people value me?”
Werner snorted and began twirling his index finger in circles. Various magical crystals appeared around his finger. A crystal of flame, a crystal of wood, a crystal of steel, a crystal of water, a crystal of light, a crystal of lightning, a crystal of darkness, a crystal of ice, a crystal of earth, a crystal of wind. Soon those crystals merged into one, turning into a mass of mana that glowed with a clear light, before vanishing in an instant like a snuffed-out candle.
All ten elemental crystals merged into a single radiant mass of pure mana before dissipating instantly.
“Without this, I’m just a worthless orphan. What value could I possibly have?”
“How can you say you have no value to them…”
“If I didn’t have this talent… would my brothers and sisters have taken me in? They probably would have sent me to some nice orphanage and that’s it.”
“If it weren’t for the halo of my brothers and sisters, would I have ever seen the light of day?”
“If it weren’t for magic, I would have definitely died alone begging in some back alley. I wouldn’t have even been given the right to converse with a noble young lady like you.”
Werner’s eyes looked sad. Seeing that expression for the first time made my heart ache with pity. He looked like a little fox shivering in the cold, and I wanted to hold him close.
“The youngest of the heroes and the Archmage Werner. Everyone calls me that… but in the end, all they see is the ‘youngest of the heroes’ part and the ‘Archmage’ part. No one actually sees the person named Werner Alton.”
Because he possessed the talent of an Archmage, the heroes had taken him in. Because the heroes had taken him in, everyone looked up to him. In the end, no one saw him as a person in his own right.
“It’s the same for me. In the end, it’s because I’m the Duke’s daughter, because I’m the daughter of the Vampire Queen, that people treat me with respect…”
“But to your father and mother, you’re just their lovely daughter.”
That was true. Even if my father and mother hadn’t been nobles, they would still have loved me. But Werner was different. He had no family that loved him simply for being himself. Even though he seemed surrounded by the most people, once the sun set and everyone returned to their own homes, he would ultimately be left alone.
The man who spent every single night alone was far more lonely than I, who had at least received my parents’ love.
Werner smiled awkwardly.
“What am I even saying to a kid…”
Then he handed me the Snow Hawk egg that the Empress had given him.
“Hey, your birthday’s coming up soon, right? Take it. It’s a gift from me.”
“But this is something Her Majesty bestowed upon you…”
“That’s a bribe I received in exchange for keeping my mouth shut in front of my brothers and sisters, so I can use it however I want.”
I gently cradled the Snow Hawk egg he gave me. It was the first gift he had ever given me.
“Sir Werner.”
“What now?”
“Someday, I will definitely bring someone who can see you as Werner, just as you are.”
I didn’t bother to say who that person was. Unaware that the person was right in front of him, he laughed as if it were amusing.
“Sure, bring them someday. If it’s a pretty girl, I wouldn’t mind marrying someone like that.”
At the Winterhart family’s villa.
When Mother saw me cherishing the egg I had received from Werner, she spoke.
“Does our daughter like that egg so much?”
“Yes, Mother. I really like it.”
“Is that so? Then what name will you give it when the hawk hatches?”
I suddenly remembered how he always added extra sugar to his own cocoa when mixing it.
“Um… I want to name it Sugar.”
“…Oh, is that so…?”
Father, watching the scene, smiled and came over to stroke my head. I hadn’t known it before, but after meeting Werner, I learned that this happiness was not something to be taken for granted.
“Father.”
“What is it, my daughter?”
“Please teach me swordsmanship starting tomorrow.”
“Why swordsmanship?”
Because to become someone worthy of an Archmage, I needed to possess a certain level of martial strength. And because I no longer wanted to be swayed by others. I wanted to change myself.
“Because I’m not a child anymore.”
“Our daughter has grown up so much… This father is so happy he could cry…”
Father really began sobbing loudly, and Mother comforted him.
“And there’s something I want.”
For the first time in my life, I decided to throw a tantrum and ask my parents for something I desired.
“O-our daughter has something she wants? Really?”
“Tell us anything. This father will even bring you a dragon’s head if you ask.”
“That’s right. Mother will order her subordinates to obtain any treasure you desire.”
My parents made a huge fuss, boldly declaring they would get me whatever I wanted. And so I spoke the one thing I had desired for the very first time.
“I want Werner.”