The Sting of Betrayal
I'd spoken so boldly, yet I ended up making some clumsy excuse to send Beth and Ivetta home first.
Before leaving for the day, I'd left a note on the terrace just in case I ended up running late.
Something came up. I'll see you tomorrow.
Enough time had passed that Everett should have already found the note.
He must have gone back.
Our communication, once carried by messenger children, had long since become one-sided—Everett was the only one who came looking for me now.
I had no way to reach him first.
Even if I wanted to curse him as a bastard and slap him across the face, all I could do was wait for him to show up again tomorrow.
And I still believed in him completely…… What does that make me?
I didn't want to return to the detached palace right now.
I couldn't stand the thought of looking like a fool, waiting for a lover who had one foot in someone else's door.
Beth and Ivetta kept glancing back at me with worried faces.
Sensing the heavy atmosphere, the knights who had been keeping their distance while on guard duty finally revealed themselves.
When several of them offered to stay with me, the two women finally climbed into the carriage.
I wanted to be alone, but if I dismissed the knights, Beth and Ivetta would never leave first.
So I forced a smile until the very end and waved them off.
Once the carriage disappeared from sight, the tears I'd been holding back finally spilled over.
Among the knights Ivetta had left behind, the only woman spoke up, her voice laced with concern.
“Would you like a handkerchief?”
Helen.
She was the same knight who had helped me when that reporter from the Yellow Gazette had been tailing me.
This was only the second time I'd seen her. She was still a stranger.
“No, thank you. The carriage must have kicked up some dust when it left.”
I managed to hold back the tears that threatened to surge again.
It wasn't that I was particularly proud.
It was simply too humiliating to stand in the middle of the street sobbing over a man who was two-timing me—especially one who already had another woman and a child.
Fortunately, Helen pretended not to notice my childish pride.
Once I seemed to have composed myself a little, she asked carefully,
“Shall I take you home?”
Since I had no intention of going to the detached palace, going home made more sense.
But the words wouldn't come easily.
Whenever Everett had time, he always escorted me all the way home.
If I went home now, everything would remind me of him.
In that case, maybe the detached palace is better.
Even if I buried my face in a pillow and cried my heart out, at least the silk pillowcases there would make it look slightly more dignified.
But I don't want to go home either.
If things continued like this, I might end up crying every time I came home from work.
I should move.
It wasn't because of Everett.
I'd already been thinking about moving anyway.
“No. I'd like to go to Kirito Street.”
Coni lived on Kirito Street.
She was the only person I could barge in on, curse Everett's name, and cry without holding back.
It was also a place I'd never visited with Everett.
The knights escorted me all the way to Coni's doorstep, waited until I went inside, and only then departed.
“Did you cause some kind of trouble?”
Coni asked, eyeing the knights' retreating backs with suspicion.
She looked like she'd been about to fall asleep—wearing pajamas with an outer garment thrown on haphazardly, yawning widely with half-lidded eyes.
“For a second I thought you were still locked up in the imperial prison.”
Then, seeming to wake up a bit more, she scratched her cheek and corrected herself.
Even though there was nothing here that reminded me of Everett, and even though Coni's usual nonsense was exactly the same as always, my eyes filled with tears again.
“Wait, are you crying?”
Startled by my sudden tears, Coni asked in a panic.
“You were right. Everett really is two-timing me. That rotten bastard.”
I couldn't say anything more after the curse. I just burst into tears.
Coni had watched my dismal love life unfold right beside me all this time.
There was no need to feel embarrassed in front of her.
I'd already sold my pride at a discount ages ago.
Even with my curt explanation, Coni seemed to grasp the situation.
After waiting for me to calm down a little from my sobbing mess at the doorway, she led me to her room with a heavy expression.
“Come inside first.”
Coni sat me down on a chair.
Then, seeing my ruined face under the lamplight, she looked around, grabbed the first cloth she could find, and handed it to me.
“Ugh, you look kind of scary in this light. Wipe your face.”
I scrubbed my tear-streaked face roughly.
Only after rubbing until the delicate skin around my eyes stung did the tears finally stop for a moment.
After watching me in silence for a while, Coni asked,
“Want something to drink? I've only got water, though.”
There was no choice.
“No alcohol?”
I pouted, being difficult on purpose.
“All I've got is champagne.”
Coni answered, looking troubled.
It wasn't exactly the right mood for popping champagne, but it was still better than water.
“That'll do.”
When she opened the cork, it popped loudly and foam surged upward—the textbook way to open champagne, the kind that made you want to cheer and toast.
“Ah, this is leftover from some banquet…… Someone must have shaken it.”
The desk and chair got soaked in an instant, but Coni simply wiped them down with a discarded pajama top lying on the floor.
I sat with Coni, sharing the bottle of champagne and tearing into Everett Rohas instead of having any snacks.
“How can someone who's so meticulously two-timing someone else turn bright red just from holding hands? And why does his heart race like that?”
Everett Rohas should have been an actor, not a knight.
With that face and the acting skills to deceive both the crown princess and me, he could have easily landed the lead role in any theater troupe.
Looking like a puma but acting like a country puppy, huh.
I remembered the crown princess, pale-faced, happily bragging about her lover.
I'd thought I was done crying, but my nose started to sting again.
Coni picked up the towel she'd tossed aside earlier and handed it to me again.
I scrubbed my eyes with it once more.
“Want me to put in a request at the mercenary guild? Tell them to break both his legs for sure.”
Coni suggested.
The way she said it with the exact same expression as Beth made me laugh through my tears.
“I literally just heard the same thing a little while ago.”
“And instead of going to the mercenary guild, you came here?”
Coni huffed dramatically.
“Yeah.”
I laughed at myself.
The reason I'd come to Coni's house was ultimately just avoidance.
The fact that I had no way to contact Everett was just an excuse.
If I asked around, there were probably people who knew where he lived.
Or I could have followed Ivetta back to the palace, met the crown princess, told her the truth, and arranged a confrontation between the three of us.
Even if Velot was a small kingdom, it was still an ally of the empire.
The crown princess wouldn't tolerate such an insult, and the empire wouldn't ignore her desire for revenge.
Maybe it would cost him even more than hiring an assassination guild.
It wasn't like this idea had only just occurred to me.
I simply didn't want to do it.
Because it was only after being so thoroughly betrayed by Everett that I realized how much I liked him—how much I loved him.
I hated him enough to want him dead, but I didn't actually want him to die.
“Huuuueeeng.”
Maybe it was because I'd never properly broken up with anyone before.
I cried at how pathetic I was for doing something so stupid.
“Agh. It's fine if you don't go to the mercenary guild. Tomorrow—no, as soon as the sun comes up, I'll go with you.”
Seeing me suddenly start crying again, Coni grew flustered.
When she looked around to hand me a towel, I lifted the one I'd been clutching and scrubbed my eyes with it again.
The towel was soaked from all my crying.
This was already the fourth one.
Every single one of them had been a weird guy.
Up to the third one, I could at least blame it on being young.
I'd only gone on one or two dates with those guys anyway.
So I'd whined for exactly one day and moved on quickly.
But Everett……
It felt like a huge hole had been punched through the center of my chest, and cold wind was blowing straight through it.
Coni shook out the last of the champagne from the bottle and poured it into my glass.
“Just drink some more.”
* * *
When I arrived at the detached palace, Kyle was waiting for Beth, just as expected.
It was only natural—he'd already tried several more times even after the Oath of Mana had sealed his lips.
“Beth, what exactly have you been up to?”
Kyle smiled brightly.