Chapter 141
Chapter 141
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 141
Chapter Title: Joint Attack #1
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Mirna opened her mouth as if she were about to share something deeply embarrassing.
“Theo Gospel, I want to apologize to you.”
As she spoke, Mirna's red eyes darted不安 around the interior of the café.
It suddenly made me wonder if Mirna had ever had occasion to apologize to anyone in her life.
Having lived as a noble lady, she had always reigned from the position of receiving apologies rather than giving them, hadn't she?
That might be why this situation felt so awkward and humiliating for her—like she wanted to crawl into a hole in the ground if one appeared.
At that moment, Mirna added a few words.
“But I really thought you had done something like that with Professor Stella…! Because anyone would think the same upon suddenly hearing such news.”
“……”
That sounded like something you shouldn't say during an apology. If you had to rank it, those words would top the list of self-justifications that had no place in an apology.
A truly wicked blunder.
As I furrowed my brow, Mirna seemed to finally realize her mistake and hurriedly parted her lips.
“Of course, it was all a misunderstanding. It stemmed from my suspicion…. But if you give me a chance to apologize, even the shattered trust—I’ll somehow—”
Mirna was rambling incoherently.
I thought it best to wrap this up quickly before she threw herself into an irreversible spiral.
“Miss Mirna.”
“…Why do you call me?”
Mirna's gaze upon me was extremely uneasy.
Her eyes couldn't meet mine directly; they anxiously wandered over my lips, neck, shoulders, and such.
For a moment, I felt an impulse to tell Mirna, “I don’t think we can maintain a relationship without this trust. Let’s call off the engagement.”
I wondered how she would react. Would she explode in anger and try to smash my head with that fan of hers?
It was entirely possible.
Of course, I wasn’t foolish enough to say it.
Instead, I put on a deliberately serious expression.
“Everyone makes mistakes. I understand.”
“R-Really?”
“But spilled water from a mistake is hard to gather back up. To prove my innocence to you, Miss Mirna, I broke the trust I had with Professor Stella.”
“…….”
Mirna couldn't say a word. I added a few more words toward her.
“To me, my relationship with you is more important than my promise with Professor Stella. Proving my innocence to you mattered more.”
“I-I see.”
Mirna somehow looked pleased. But that lasted only a moment—her expression darkened at my next words.
“Thanks to that, I had to humiliatingly kneel and kiss her shoe.”
“That’s…”
“If we’re to marry someday, you must know that this is the time when trust between us matters most.”
“…….”
Mirna bit her lower lip lightly and released it, saying nothing. She was the one in the wrong, and I held the initiative.
This one-sided superior-inferior dynamic felt almost surreal.
Seizing the momentum, I added in a firm voice,
“Trust between us is crucial.”
Mirna reluctantly replied in a crawling voice, “I know.” As a devout follower of the Church of Radiant Flame, she would take the word “trust” more seriously than most.
Faith is built on belief.
Believing that God did it. Believing it will be so. Only when such belief forms a solid foundation can faith truly exist.
Thus, for followers of the Church of Radiant Flame, trust was the most fundamental and vital virtue.
Trusting each other.
Especially for a betrothed couple.
Mirna had violated that basic principle by doubting me, cornering me, and getting me scolded by Professor Stella. She must be feeling self-reproach in many ways.
Deciding this was enough, I extended a hand of forgiveness to Mirna.
“Of course, I’m at fault too.”
“Theo Gospel, you mean you’re also at fault?”
When Mirna asked as if she didn’t understand, I seized the moment to deliver the line I had prepared.
“The reason you couldn’t trust me, Lady Mirna, must be because I haven’t shown trustworthy behavior in the past. I’ll be more mindful of my actions from now on.”
Would this suffice as a sign of reconciliation?
When I glanced at Mirna, her face was flushed with various emotions, and she still seemed unresolved.
Should I ease her anger a bit more?
“Still, I didn’t expect you to take my side, Lady Mirna.”
I said it as if it were truly unexpected. Mirna bit the bait.
“Me?”
“You argued on my behalf in front of Professor Stella.”
“Well, Professor Stella’s audacity was so rude. She intrudes into someone’s room on her own and then yells at them instead. That’s why elves are…”
Mirna clicked her tongue. She seemed to have plenty to say about elves.
I scratched the bridge of my nose as if embarrassed.
“But it’s true that I broke my promise. I’ve lost credibility with Professor Stella now. What should I do?”
At my words, Mirna let out a small sigh, “Hoo-.”
“This situation arose from my misunderstanding and shortcomings. As a member of the Draco family, it’s my duty to take responsibility. I’ll help Professor Stella.”
“Help how? Will you assist with her research on thesis writing?”
“In any way. It might be good to make Stella Velhok owe us a debt this time…”
I see.
Mirna seemed intent on salvaging the situation and building a bridge to the Velhok family. Turning a crisis into an opportunity was quite wise.
Mirna spoke again.
“Theo Gospel, I’m sorry for misunderstanding you.”
Her voice was calmer than before, carrying genuine sincerity in the apology.
Sruk.
“Then, could you sit here next to me?”
I patted the spot right beside me on the sofa where I sat. Mirna’s hair bristled as if startled.
“W-What if someone sees?”
“Who’s going to see? There’s no one else on the second floor but us—”
I pointed to the screens surrounding our spot.
“And we’re completely shielded on all sides.”
“But still…”
“Should I come over there, then?”
I stood and sat right next to Mirna. A refreshing wave of her body scent wafted from her up close.
Apple mint.
Was it her shampoo, or a special perfume?
Anyway, that wasn’t important right now.
What mattered was that Mirna, who had been at a loss from guilt and embarrassment toward me just moments ago, was now fidgeting for a different reason.
“Miss Mirna, may I hold your hand?”
“…….”
Mirna said nothing. After a moment, she gave a tiny nod, as if reluctant.
It was a very small nod, but to my sensitive half-fairy senses, it felt like a grand gesture of permission.
Shuk.
Sitting facing the same direction as Mirna, I gently clasped her hand.
Her hand was slender, soft, warm, and plush—like an artwork crafted from every pleasing element imaginable.
Parrururu.
I could feel her body trembling faintly through our clasped hands. It might feel more pronounced because we weren’t speaking.
—Yesterday, the professor—
—What should we do during break?
The silence made even the conversations from the café’s first floor echo loudly.
Warm weather. A secretive nook screened off in the sunlit second-floor café. A man and woman holding hands. Faint warmth and fragrance.
It was the kind of situation that could induce a lazy yawn.
Srrrr.
Perhaps because I hadn’t slept well after the events of last dawn, drowsiness began to creep in. Shaking it off, I said,
“Sitting like this reminds me of that time.”
“……!”
Mirna visibly flinched in shock. She must have realized what “that time” referred to.
In truth, since the day we were trapped in that secret room, Mirna had deliberately avoided mentioning it. Bringing it up first must have thrown her into panic.
She glanced around furtively, then furrowed her brow at me.
“Didn’t we say that day’s events are a secret between just the two of us? You didn’t tell anyone, did you?”
I had already told Elga.
But Mirna didn’t know that. Nor did she know what kind of relationship Elga and I had.
If she did, the ones sitting at this table today wouldn’t be Mirna and Professor Stella—it would be Mirna and Elga. And my body would be in two pieces.
Pretending to know nothing, I replied,
“I haven’t told anyone. And it’s just the two of us here.”
“Phew-.”
Mirna seemed relieved, at least, that I hadn’t spilled the secret to anyone.
I understood. If word spread that Mirna Draco had an affair with a man before marriage, it would spell doom for the devout Draco family in many ways.
Then, as if struck by a sudden thought, Mirna narrowed her brow.
“You’re absolutely sure you didn’t tell anyone?”
“Are you doubting me again? After apologizing so sincerely just now?”
“No, that’s not it.”
Mirna jumped in surprise at my words. Then she muttered to me as if making excuses.
“Lately, Lady Lioness keeps bringing up premarital chastity in front of me, which is so strange. She’s not even a devout believer. I wondered if you had said something…”
That Elga. I’d deal with her later.
Burning with vengeance toward Elga, I shook my head as if clueless.
“I haven’t said a word.”
“Really? Not to Lady Lioness or even that Spider Queen? And nothing during confession at Sunday mass?”
“…Really. If you can’t trust me this time either, then I have nothing more to say to you, Miss Mirna.”
Shuk.
I tried to pull my hand away from Mirna’s. But she gripped it tightly, refusing to let go.
“I-I trust you. It wasn’t a misunderstanding. I was just curious.”
Mirna babbled excuses in a fluster. At this point, it was going beyond annoying into cute territory.
Soon after, she let the tension drain from her body, as if lamenting her own plight.
“I don’t know why I’m like this either. I don’t want to be, but… Theo Gospel, I keep obsessing over you.”