No Way, At Least One Must Remain
"Wh-what... did you just say?"
Rosewin, who had been standing there in a daze for a long while, finally asked the question in a trembling voice.
"I... I don't quite get it?"
She tilted her head as if struggling to comprehend, but she couldn't hide the way her face was growing paler by the second.
"I told you, Rosewin," Frey replied to her once more.
"I don't want to love you anymore. And I don't want to see you again."
"W-wait a second!"
As Frey turned to board the carriage after saying that, Rosewin quickly grabbed his arm and spoke up.
"Are you mad? Is that it? You're pissed at me?"
"........."
"Hmm, yeah, you're really mad, huh? Fine, I was wrong. I've been too harsh on you all this time. So from now on..."
"Rosewin."
Rosewin, clutching Frey's wrist with an apologetic expression and stepping closer, flinched when he spoke in a low voice.
"...Let go."
"Uh, um..."
As soon as he finished speaking, she slowly released his arm.
"F-Frey? What's wrong?"
She realized that the Frey who always wore that foolish smile in front of her was now looking at her with cold eyes, and asked as much.
"Y-you... Did they brainwash you at that weird detective agency or something? Or did you eat something bad? You're not acting like yourself."
"...Sorry, I'm kinda busy right now."
"W-wait!"
As Frey tried to enter the carriage again, Rosewin timidly grabbed the hem of his clothes instead of his arm this time.
".....!"
Frey turned back and met her gaze with those icy eyes, realizing something was off.
"Haa..."
He stared at her silently for a moment before letting out a deep sigh.
"How long are you gonna stand there?"
He furrowed his brows as he asked.
"...Something's weird."
Rosewin, wearing an utterly baffled expression, muttered while staring at Frey.
"Are you possessed? Or did they really brainwash you...?"
"...Tch."
"Th-there's no way you don't like me, right?"
Frey looked at Rosewin, who had blurted that out, sighed softly, and began to speak.
"...After confessing to you countless times, I finally realized I'll never be loved by you."
"Huh? But..."
"They say even the toughest tree falls after ten strikes, but you... even after a hundred... a thousand, you never budged."
Frey lowered his gaze as he said that.
"Still, I thought you'd accept my feelings someday... but no."
"......"
"I knew you were using me. I knew you treated me like a sucker... that you only saw me as a money source, that you actually despised and looked down on me."
"N-no..."
"But I didn't care. I'd always been treated that way by everyone around me anyway; it wasn't new."
Interrupting Rosewin as she tried to speak, Frey clenched his fist and continued.
"Even so, I wanted to convey my true feelings to you, even if it meant being used, being your ATM, being your fool..."
His emotions welled up, cutting him off mid-sentence.
"...Sorry."
He looked straight into Rosewin's frozen eyes and resumed in a quiet voice.
"You've had it rough because of me, haven't you?"
"Frey."
"You don't have to deal with the empire's top scumbag and loser hitting on you anymore; it was disgusting, right? No more suffering to entertain someone you hate."
"......."
"If I kept trying to show my true heart, mine would shatter, and I'd just burden you more. That's why I made this choice."
Silence hung between them for a moment after he finished.
"...Well then."
"Wait..."
"What now?"
As Frey tried to board the carriage for real this time, Rosewin blocked him a third time, and he scowled deeply as he asked.
"Wh-what about those women?"
"What?"
"The women... behind you."
Rosewin asked him again.
"Who the hell are they?"
Lulu, who had always been clinging to him lately, and Irina, whom she'd only just noticed today.
Their presence was a shock to Rosewin.
She had firmly believed no one could truly like a moron, loser, and wastrel like Frey.
Even if something like this happened, she figured a lonely Frey, unloved by anyone, would come crawling back to her like a rain-soaked puppy with drooping ears.
"Lulu and Irina?"
But today, the last safety net she had crumbled miserably.
"Lulu's been in my employ as a... servant for a long time, and Irina's the same. It's just a simple relationship like that. None of your business."
Though Frey explained it calmly.
""........""
The eyes and expressions of Lulu and Irina glaring at Rosewin from inside the carriage behind Frey's back were filled with superiority and mockery.
".....Ah."
From Rosewin's perspective, it was unmistakably the look of bitches who had snagged a male toyed with by others through sheer luck.
"What're you doing? Rosewin?"
Snapping out of her daze at Frey's words, Rosewin came to her senses.
"F-Frey. Can we talk alone for a bit? There's some misunderstanding..."
"I'm busy. Got places to be."
"Just a moment. Please wait..."
And for some reason she couldn't explain, as she kept blocking Frey from entering the carriage.
"You don't get it. Those women are... Huh?"
She suddenly noticed something and widened her eyes as she asked.
"Wh-what's that? Frey?"
Something on Frey's left ring finger was glinting in the sunlight.
"A r-ring...? You're wearing a ring? Why there...?"
As Rosewin pointed to her own left hand and asked, Frey looked down with a puzzled expression to check.
"Oh, this."
He answered her in a flat voice.
"You don't need to know."
"A ring on your left ring finger... That's..."
"I said you don't need to know."
But as Rosewin kept pressing and reached out, Frey raised his voice and pulled his hand back.
"No way... Is it an engagement ring?"
"Hoo."
As she asked that, he sighed and began to explain.
"Yeah, it's an engagement ring."
"With wh-who...?"
"Who else? Serena, obviously."
".....!"
Rosewin's face twisted in shock at his words.
"B-but... You... You badmouthed Serena to me every day..."
"You know that?"
Frey began to speak, gently stroking the ring.
"Until now, I wanted to put this ring on with you."
"...What?"
"Gross, right? Me, just fantasizing alone. You probably didn't even want to think about it."
"W-wait a sec."
"But since I'm giving up on you, to continue the Starlight line, I have no choice but to marry Serena. Clana hates me, so nothing else for it."
"Hold on..."
Rosewin desperately reached out to him.
"...Looks like you still don't get it."
But Frey stepped back, avoiding her touch, and spoke in a low voice.
"I don't like you anymore."
"Ah..."
"Every time I see you, my heart feels like it's breaking, so I don't want to see your face again."
"....."
"Got it? I won't burden you anymore. Thanks for everything up till now, Rosewin."
"Wait..."
"To save you... no, this is best for both of us. So I won't come looking for you again."
With that final nail, Frey slowly climbed into the carriage.
"L-let's talk! Where are you going?!"
Seeing that, Rosewin.
"Don't go!"
shrieked without thinking.
"".........""
And in the brief silence that followed.
"Talk?"
From between Lulu and Irina, who were sidling closer with bleary eyes fixed on Frey, he glanced at Rosewin outside the carriage.
"Talk, huh..."
He pondered for a moment, then spoke in a dark tone.
"If you really want to talk, bring the flowers I gave you and come find me."
"...Huh?"
And with that, the carriage began to move forward slowly.
"Otherwise, I don't think I'll ever see your face again."
With those parting words, Frey rode away from the Starlight Mansion's garden.
"......."
Rosewin stood rooted to the spot, sunk in silence for a long time.
"Ha."
As the carriage vanished from sight.
"Did I just... get dumped? By F-Frey of all people?"
She muttered with a look of utter disbelief.
"This is ridiculous. Who does he think he is? Following me around like a lapdog, and now he..."
At first, it was just anger and humiliation mixed in.
"Pushing me away... and... uh..."
But as time passed, Rosewin's voice.
"Those women—what the hell? No way. I was the only one who even paid attention to Frey..."
began to tremble more and more.
"Y-yeah. Go on. Like I care? I-I've got the hero already. I never even valued a loser like you..."
After muttering to herself alone in front of the mansion for a while.
"...Did I?"
She suddenly went blank and said that.
"Frey of all people... should never have mattered anyway..."
And from then on, Rosewin's voice completely changed.
"Wh-what... what's this..."
With a totally confused expression, she collapsed to the ground and started mumbling to herself.
"I feel sick... This feels so weird. Why? It shouldn't matter at all, right? Frey, who I despised so much, just left on his own..."
Stronger sunlight poured down, contrasting with the chill wind sweeping the courtyard as she kept mumbling.
"...Jealousy?"
Suddenly, she recalled what the mysterious detective at the agency had said.
"Am I... jealous over Frey...?"
And as she slowly stood up, muttering that.
"No way, that can't be..."
Though she denied it verbally, cold sweat beaded on her forehead, and her complexion darkened further.
"I-it's not jealousy, but... this feeling..."
Finally standing fully.
"Th-this isn't what I wanted... I might've been too harsh too... That sucker could get used by those idiots..."
She said that and began walking toward the mansion's exit.
"Y-yeah. The flowers. I'll take the flowers and talk to him again. Can't lose a VIP client like this. Definitely not jealousy."
Still mumbling to herself with no one around to hear, as she headed out.
"Wait."
She suddenly stopped and recalled all the flowers she'd received from him.
"Uh..."
The ones she'd burned with solar mana right after he left, given away to employees as gifts, or tossed into storage or the trash without a glance.
"...Grit."
Frozen in place, grinding her teeth anxiously for a long while, she finally started walking again, thinking to herself.
'It's fine, no problem. I can go to the guild and find one.'
Believing she could turn the situation around despite the massive screw-up.
'There has to be at least one left if I look hard enough.'
She headed to the carriage waiting outside the mansion.
'How many flowers did that guy give me? I got one just a week ago.'
Even though it was still early, the sunlight today felt unusually intense.
".....Ah."
As Rosewin pushed through the glaring sun, she suddenly remembered the golden flower from Frey that she'd trampled mercilessly.
"......."
It hit her right before she boarded the carriage.