Chapter 231
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 231
It was a familiar piece of paper.
“Do you remember this?”
“Of course.”
I continued slowly.
“It’s the 100 billion gold you brought when you proposed to me, Benjamin.”
“That is correct.”
Watching me out of habit, Benjamin pulled out a fountain pen. It was an expensive piece, adorned with gold and silver filigree.
“Originally, I intended to use this money to sell myself to you.”
“……”
“Though you did not accept.”
“……”
He drew a strike-through over the figures. It was a decisive movement, like a blade slicing through a heart.
“I had one thing I was curious about.”
Benjamin spoke as he meticulously struck through every digit, his head bowed.
“If you didn't like me, a simple refusal would have sufficed. Why did you have to wound me so deeply...?”
His voice was calm.
“No matter how much I pondered it, that was the one answer I could never find.”
I watched Benjamin’s long, golden eyelashes as he rescinded his proposal. His beautiful eyes were shrouded in thick shadows, casting a bleak light.
“Did you invite me here just to ask that, Benjamin?”
“No.”
“...?”
“It doesn't matter anymore.”
Benjamin smiled slowly.
“I intend to buy you, Lady Tulia.”
I looked down at the paper before me. Soon, my vision began to swim.
The staggering figure of 100 billion gold had been transformed into a completely different number by adding a single stroke to each digit.
-999, 999, 999, 999
* * *
Benjamin Fluers.
He watched Tulia intently as she stared at the paper in silence. Her light-green eyes were wide with shock.
He relished this change in her. To be surprised by someone meant one's guard was up, and a raised guard meant fear.
And humans only truly feel fear when they are about to fall into the position of prey.
Prey and predator.
To Benjamin, Tulia Frezier had always been the predator. More accurately, she was like the heavens to him.
He had been willing to mortgage his entire life to her—no, he had craved it. Even a priest begging God for salvation could not have been more desperate.
Tulia Frezier asked, “What is this money?”
Benjamin smiled.
“I will buy you with this money.”
Benjamin took in every detail as she looked up, seemingly doubting her own ears.
“I want to buy you as my master, Lady Tulia.”
Even as the words poured from his heart, his throat felt tight.
He realized belatedly that these words alone were his true feelings.
It was true.
Since he was very young, Benjamin had only ever wanted to say this to her.
Let me be sold to you.
Let me be sold so that you may possess me.
Like a warped tree, his obsession had grown into a grotesque shape within a small box.
Sometimes, he wondered.
What would it have been like if his life had been graced with a little more sunlight? What if there had been a more generous supply of fresh rain?
But there were no 'ifs' in life, and thus, Tulia Frezier was everything in Benjamin’s world.
Benjamin lowered his head and laughed.
“I know. You have no intention of doing so.”
He didn't want to look too closely at the complex pity that flickered in her eyes.
In truth, Benjamin had long since given up on many things.
“Once, I wanted to be with you even if it meant doing this.”
A bitter residue remained in his chest.
“But that’s enough. Since that day, what I want from you has changed.”
“What do you want from me, Benjamin?”
Benjamin wore a soft smile.
“I want you to die.”
Tulia stared at Benjamin for a moment. Then she asked, “Why?”
“Because you don't love me.”
Benjamin couldn't guess what she was thinking.
Would she be indignant at his ingratitude? Would she regret saving such a monster? Would she think he was daring to crawl over her head after she had spent money to look after him?
He smiled quietly.
None of it mattered anymore.
“Lady Tulia.”
Benjamin pulled a small glass bottle from his coat.
“Do you know how I amassed such a fortune?”
How pathetic, how cruel, and how destitute he had been while gathering this money.
It was money earned by sometimes selling his dignity and even his life, but Benjamin didn't want to explain all that.
He simply held the small glass bottle.
A honey-like gaze flickered across the glass before vanishing.
“I’ve done everything—unethical, immoral, every dirty job imaginable. As long as it paid, I took it and grew my merchant guild.”
He wanted to ask if she was disappointed in him.
“Thanks to that, I even obtained this rare elixir.”
He wanted to ask if he looked lowly to her.
“I was told it’s easier to understand if I call it the original version of the legendary love potion...”
Click.
Benjamin uncorked the bottle.
Into one of the two identical teacups—the one that was half-empty—he poured the colorless, odorless liquid.
Benjamin pushed the cup containing the elixir toward Tulia.
“They say if you drink this, you either fall in love with me or die of a broken heart. One of the two.”
“Mix it and give it to your target. They will feel eternal love for the first person they see.”
“It is a Sacred Relic that makes one suffer enough to die if they do not love. Even we only have a few bottles of this truly precious item.”
“Of course, you wouldn't drink it willingly. So, I brought some information that might pique your interest.”
Benjamin’s gaze lingered near Tulia’s neck.
“I’m talking about your Blue Diamond Necklace, the one that caused such a stir across the continent recently.”
Among the many things he traded, there were, of course, people.
“When that magnificent necklace vanished, the Grand Ducal House and the Imperial Family dispatched a massive number of soldiers.”
He had tried to find an even better diamond necklace, but it wasn't easy.
“However, contrary to public knowledge, it seems the knights of the Frezier Grand Duchy were also tasked with protecting young children.”
Tulia’s expression shifted slightly at his words. She looked a bit surprised. She realized it—that Benjamin had caught onto something.
Yes.
When else would he get to see her look so surprised?
This was enough.
The feeling that this was sufficient kept rising like a tide, and Benjamin struggled to suppress it.
“Lady Tulia.”
He brushed away his thoughts and wore a faint smile.
He encouraged himself, thinking there was no need to hide it anymore.
He had endured for so long.
He didn't have to pretend to be lowly or pitiful anymore.
He whispered to himself repeatedly that the chance to finally have her had arrived.
In truth, he had hoped some demon would possess him and whisper to him all along. Only then did it feel like he could finally reveal his twisted greed.
“I happened upon an interesting client. They wanted me to sell 'children' of uncertain origin.”
With his intellect, there was no way he couldn't deduce that the Frezier Grand Duchy and that secret client were in some sort of cat-and-mouse relationship.
“That information, the source, and even the exact location. I will give it all to you. If only you will drink this elixir.”
“……”
“Will you drink it, Lady Tulia?”
Her light-green eyes stared straight at him.
Benjamin elegantly tilted the teacup in front of him first. Then, he smiled gently, as he always did.
Unless the situation was exceptional, he always wore this smile. People were easily charmed the more the beautiful prince smiled.
Even the princesses who used to insult him would blush, and one of the King’s young concubines had even tried to crawl into Benjamin’s bed.
Benjamin had learned from a young age that the more fearful, terrifying, or unfamiliar the situation, the more he should smile.
And so, Benjamin had spent many years smiling like a clown. If he smiled while throwing away his pride, quite a few problems were solved. He thought it was convenient.
Did he really think it was convenient?
Then, on the day he finally put an end to this long, long yearning, it was only right that he should smile.
Did he really think it was right?
Benjamin’s hand, which had been resting neatly on his thigh, tightened slightly. He tried to push away the thoughts that kept surfacing.
Clatter.
Tulia abruptly stood up from her seat. Benjamin looked up with a smile.
“Are you leaving?”
She moved without a word. He thought she might slap him, or perhaps just walk past him and out the door.
However, he was struck by a slow wave of shock.
“……”
Because Tulia Frezier—that woman—was lifting the teacup to her lips.