Chapter 41 - Last Proposal (1)

Crunch, crunch.

Elisia bit her nails as she quickly moved down the corridor.

Judging by the fact that investigators weren't rushing in immediately, it seemed that the imperial family and the church had decided that catching Dale was more important than investigating the incident.

...Why?

Usually, it was a priority to catch those involved in the incident, but it was somewhat strange that they were taking no action and leaving it alone.

It felt as if they were urging her to escape on her own, giving her an odd sense of déjà vu as she moved forward.

She urgently called the servants who were fidgeting nearby and said, "Contact Father and Archbishop Mikhail as quickly as possible."

"Y-yes!"

They seemed to sense the seriousness of the situation, moving faster than usual.

She closed her eyes tightly as she watched the servants urgently spreading in all directions.

...What should I do?

If looking only at the 'truth', she had never caused a rift, so it would be right to maintain a confident attitude.

But as always, the truth wasn't that important, so the lie that she had really created a rift could become other people's truth.

Therefore, rather than leaving it alone, it would be right to quickly suppress it by asking for help from people around her, but

"G-Grand Duchess. The Wintreaven family is not accepting our contact."

"My lady! Archbishop Mikhail has refused contact!"

As if it had been planned, no one was accepting her contact and started pushing her away.

...This situation was too perfect to be a coincidence.

Moreover, Archbishop Mikhail had completely refused contact, so it would be right to see that he had drawn a line to avoid being involved with her at all.

As this conclusion came out, she could make one guess.

Perhaps the rift that occurred in the North was really artificially created, and there was a high possibility that the North, the church, and even the imperial family were involved in it.

"..."

If her guess was true, there was an extremely high possibility that they would try to pin all the problems related to the rift on her, so she needed a way to solve this.

For example...

Catching Dale and revealing the truth.

No, even if she couldn't reveal the truth, it would be fine to frame Dale by insisting that he had lied.

So for now, it would be good to catch Dale first.

She urgently ordered a nearby servant to gather information about Dale and then turned her gaze.

Second, making it so that the key figures can't abandon me.

The fact that the truth didn't matter meant that if she could create a reason why they couldn't abandon her, she could solve all problems.

She just needed to create a reason, but... the problem was that she couldn't understand why this situation had occurred in the first place.

Since there's too little information, I have no choice but to go to the engagement annulment ceremony and probe.

Even if she could get just a bit of information, it would be beneficial, so deciding to do so, she was about to return to her lodgings when

A servant came running from afar, delivering the worst news, "D-Dale has disappeared! They say only clothes or something were left on the floor, and he disappeared without a trace!"

"...What?"

"People who were watching say the hero received divine punishment and melted away, or ascended, but honestly, I'm not sure..."

"..."

She couldn't even guess how Dale had escaped through such tight security, but that wasn't important right now, so she quickly turned her thoughts.

If it's like this, the only option left is the second one.

This meant she had to stake everything on the engagement annulment ceremony, so she decided to prepare for it while biting her nails.

***

"Are you sure you searched properly? I told you to check every nook and cranny without missing anything!"

"Yes!"

"What's Team 2 doing! Why aren't you running?"

I looked out the window, listening to the commotion coming from everywhere.

Fortunately, it seemed Dale had taken the medicine and slipped away as planned, since the commotion continued without end.

Realizing that the plan had succeeded perfectly, I calmly turned around.

Then shall we go prepare for the engagement annulment ceremony?

There was a high probability that Elisia would come with a way to turn the situation around at the engagement annulment ceremony, so I just needed to prepare for that.

As I was moving my feet, thinking about the engagement annulment ceremony that could possibly be my last with Elisia, Siren grabbed my hand and spoke to me in a calm voice, "Damian. I'll always be by your side, so don't worry."

At this sudden confession, I silently looked at Siren.

Siren fidgeted her fingers as if embarrassed, then buried her face down and said, "...I just wanted to say that."

She probably said this to comfort me.

I was about to pat her head with gratitude when

"Myeong!"

Pak!

Daisy, who was on my shoulder, suddenly hit Siren's crown and started barking.

"...?!"

Probably because she was hit suddenly for no reason, Siren looked up at Daisy with a very wronged expression.

Daisy, for some unknown reason, was shouting, “Good!” with a very satisfied expression.

"...It's war."

"Myeong!"

I let out a hollow laugh seeing the suddenly started battle.

I calmed down the two who were clashing hands and headed to the lodgings.

***

As I headed to the lodgings, I saw Dasoon... no, Dale and Liana sitting there.

I waved my hand to them to show my appreciation for their hard work, and Dale muttered curses under his breath, "It's really fucked up. What should I do?"

He had done it because of the contract, but no matter how much he thought about it, he couldn't think of a way to fix it, and I saw him covering his face in despair.

Looking at Dale like that, I calmly told him it was okay.

"There's no need to worry too much. After all, what's important is not you but Elisia."

Probably in about a month, things would calm down to the point where no one would even care.

Of course, he wouldn't be able to act while proudly revealing his identity, but if he stayed as Dasoon, I thought there probably wouldn't be a big problem even if he revealed himself proudly.

Dale spoke to me with a very serious expression, "So what do we do now?"

"First, we need to proceed with the engagement annulment ceremony."

However, I felt quite uneasy about leaving Dale alone in the lodgings while the engagement annulment ceremony was taking place, so I made a request to Liana.

"Liana, can you take Dasoon around?"

"Of course."

"No, what the fuck is this Dasoon shit. You crazy bas..."

Liana dragged Dasoon away before he could finish his sentence.

I was taking a breath, seeing the surroundings quickly becoming quiet, when someone gently knocked on the door of the lodgings.

"Young Master Damian. I've come on Duchess Eleanor's orders to prepare your attire."

"..."

It must mean to dress up so as not to suffer shame in an official place.

Although it was annoying, since it was Damian's mother's words, I decided to accept it and sighed as I reluctantly agreed.

***

The last procedure of the engagement annulment ceremony, and the place to officially announce the end.

Whether it was made considering the end of everything or to calm heightened emotions, I didn't know.

I sat in a place decorated quite calmly and cozily, waiting for Elisia to arrive.

As I was sipping tea, looking at a man standing in the middle with a calm expression and closed eyes, I saw Elisia walking in from the opposite side, looking unkempt unlike her usual self.

An appearance that showed no self-care at all.

Realizing that she had probably been cornered to the point where she didn't even have the leisure to look back on how she appeared, I greeted her.

"You're late."

"..."

Elisia sat down, almost collapsing, in the chair opposite me.

The man who seemed to be the officiant saw this scene and immediately opened his mouth calmly, saying to us, "This is a place to shed the last remaining emotions. So please exchange only words of blessing if possible and sign the documents."

Probably because those who went through an engagement annulment ceremony were often nobles from prestigious families, it seemed this space was created to mean that rather than continuing to fight and turn red-faced, they should appropriately resolve their anger and move on.

I nodded to show I understood, and he politely bowed and went outside.

After a moment of silence, the first thing Elisia said was a question.

"...How on earth did you do it?"

Because I had done so many things, I couldn't even guess what she was asking about, so I responded vaguely.

"What are you talking about?"

Elisia seemed to think I was pretending not to know, so she slightly frowned and said, "...Don't pretend you don't know. There's no one else who could have done this except you."

At those words, I smiled slightly and said, "But is that important? It's all over anyway."

"...To say it's over when we've already crossed the line so far between us. Whether we like it or not, our connection will continue."

"I wish you'd just cut it off now."

At those words, Elisia, having no intention of cutting it off at all, calmly glared at me and continued speaking, "Fine. Then let's make a deal."

At the word “deal”, I carefully stroked the hammer I had put in my chest.

After regaining my composure by touching the characteristic feeling of bluntness and weight, I calmly opened my mouth.

"A deal?"

"Yes."

A deal was something that could only be made if both parties had something that the other would be tempted by.

I didn't have anything I wanted from Elisia, so I was very curious about what she would offer.

So, to satisfy my curiosity, I calmly nodded to mean “go ahead and say it,” then I gently placed my beloved weapon, the hammer, on the table.

Seeing this, Elisia momentarily hesitated, probably reminded of previous memories, and looked at it.

Then, slightly turning her gaze, she proposed the terms of the deal to me.

"If you retract the engagement annulment, I'll give you the North."