Chapter 36
"H-how did you find me here...!?"
Ray Albright's astonishment was plain as he darted his gaze around with a stiff expression.
Frieda studied her fiancé intently.
She had met him once before, outside House Albright's estate, but at the time the impression of his purple hair had been so strong that she had barely looked at his face.
Ray was a pale, somewhat thin young man. His complexion was so pallid that the white of his formalwear seemed to float against it.
His conspicuous purple hair was unevenly cut all over, and for some reason, the hair on the right side was longer than on the left.
(Come to think of it, that good-luck charm...)
Inside the charm pouch delivered by his familiar bat was something braided from purple hair.
He must have cut his own hair like that every time he made a charm.
Having understood the reason for his ragged hair, Frieda spoke.
"Come to think of it, we have not introduced ourselves yet. Strictly speaking, this is not our first meeting, but hello. I am Frieda Blanke. I have come from Valmvelk, a frontier region of a neighboring country, to marry you."
When she greeted him and stepped closer, Ray flinched and hunched his shoulders. Then, still crouching, he shuffled backward two steps.
Frieda remembered the stray cat that had taken up residence in her family's castle.
Cats became wary and fled if one tried to force eye contact with them. The trick to approaching one and petting it was to shift one's gaze slightly away.
Frieda shifted her gaze to a point just in front of Ray and stepped closer. Ray backed away the same distance. Frieda advanced. Ray retreated.
As they repeated this exchange, Ray's back eventually struck the mansion wall. Now was her chance. Frieda placed both hands against the wall, boxing Ray in.
At the thud of her palms striking the wall, Ray cried out tearfully, "Eek!?"
Frieda fixed Ray with her gray eyes and peered into his face.
"Why are you running?"
"Eek... I-I don't want to, I don't want to...!"
Ray muttered in a trembling voice, then abruptly realized what he had said and corrected himself.
"Ah! No, that's not it! It's not you I hate...!"
"Then what is it that you hate?"
Ray's throat jerked.
His restless gaze eventually fell to his feet.
"...I-I hate being disliked by someone..."
When Frieda blinked in surprise, Ray desperately pleaded with her.
"P-please... don't say you hate me... I know being liked by a curse mage like me is creepy, and that you might be cursed, and that you're scared, so... I-I won't say 'I love you' or 'love me' anymore... Just... don't hate me..."
At Ray's rapid-fire words, Frieda tilted her head, then straightened it again.
So Ray had been running not because he disliked Frieda, but because he was afraid that Frieda would dislike him.
(For that matter, how could he convince himself that someone he had not even met yet was bound to hate him?)
That must be a rather unusual position for a curse mage. Still, Frieda could not help feeling that about half of Ray's self-deprecation came from his own nature.
Regardless, misunderstandings were best cleared up quickly.
"I have no reason to dislike you."
Ray gaped at Frieda.
His eyelashes, which had always been lowered toward the ground, finally lifted. Ah, so even this man's eyelashes were purple, Frieda thought with quiet admiration.
"......You don't hate me?"
"No."
"...Really?"
"You sent me letters, medicine, and a good-luck charm, didn't you, my little bat?"
＊ ＊ ＊
Cyril, who had been watching Frieda and Ray's exchange from the shadows, muttered with a solemn expression,
"A miracle."
Ray Albright's behavior was by no means praiseworthy. Most women would have been disillusioned and turned their backs on him.
But Frieda Blanke said that she did not hate Ray.
"Looks like that white outfit really was a good choice after all. As expected of Mary-san!"
When Raul, who had also been watching from the shadows, said this with a broad smile, Monica and Isaac tilted their heads in perplexity.
Their subtle reactions did not faze Raul in the slightest. He rummaged around in his pocket and pulled something out.
"...What is that?"
When Cyril asked, Raul said, "Rose seeds!" and poured magical power into the seeds resting in his palm.
At once, the seeds sprouted and began growing at an astonishing speed.
In horticulture, growing roses from seed was extremely difficult. Even enchantment magic did not change that.
Raul made it look easy. He used a pair of gardening shears from his pocket to snip off the rose that had grown twined around his arm, then handed it to Cyril with a casual, "Here."
Cyril looked down at the red rose resting in his palm and furrowed his brow.
"...What do you expect me to do with this?"
"I want you to pluck off the petals."
"...Why?"
"Obviously, so that when those two hit it off, we can scatter them like a shower of rose petals to celebrate! Monica and Your Highness, you help too. Oh, you over there, too. Could you help pluck some petals?"
As he spoke, Raul snipped the flowers that continued blooming one after another and handed them to Monica, Isaac, and Glen...
"Glen Dudley!?"
Cyril's eyes bulged. A moment later, Monica cried out, "Glen-san!?"
The tall young man with curly golden-brown hair was Glen Dudley, the 〈Barrier Mage〉's disciple. He flashed them a friendly grin and said, "Long time no see!"
Isaac, apparently the only one who had noticed Glen's presence, cheerfully addressed Glen, who was standing beside him.
"Hello there, Dudley-kun."
"Oh, President, hey! Thanks for all your help when I was studying for the exam!"
"You're welcome. By the way, what brings you here? Were you invited to the party?"
At Isaac's question, Glen scratched his head vigorously, looking slightly awkward.
"Well... I don't exactly have an invitation, but... someone really wanted to meet the 〈Abyssal Curse Mage〉, so... But when I went to the curse mage's estate, they told me there was a party today. Then I remembered my master saying they were going to a party at the 〈Star-Seer Witch〉's estate, so I figured they would be there. When I came to check, I spotted someone with nice purple hair, so I landed!"
At Glen's completely incoherent explanation, Cyril raised an eyebrow.
"Can you not explain this somewhat more logically, Glen Dudley? In other words, you trespassed and brought someone here?"
"Uh... I brought that traveler over there, but... huh? Where'd he go?"
Glen looked around restlessly, then exclaimed, "Oh!" and pointed toward the garden ahead.
"That's him!"
At the end of his pointing finger stood a man in traveling clothes, approaching Ray and Frieda.
＊ ＊ ＊
Meeting the gray eyes fixed on him, Ray felt his pale cheeks flush crimson.
His heart, which had been pounding anxiously until now, began beating rapidly for an entirely different reason.
(...I-I'm not hated!)
Frieda had approached a man with hair as purple as this and curse marks surfacing on his skin.
She did not look away from Ray. She was facing him head-on, as his fiancée.
(Could I... maybe let myself hope? That she'll come to love me...!)
The self-deprecating voice in Ray's heart told him not to hope too much, while his nature as someone desperate to be loved made it impossible for him not to hope. The two impulses struggled within him.
But there was no question which one would win.
Ray Albright had always wanted—desperately wanted—to be loved by someone.
(...Love me.)
Just as Ray reached out toward Frieda with a hand trembling with hope—
"Pardon me. You are, I believe, Lord Ray Albright, the 〈Abyssal Curse Mage〉."
Someone was approaching them: a tall, spindly young man with an air of fragility.
Frieda turned around, her sharp eyes widening.
"Brother, what are you doing here?"
Indeed, the young man's dull golden hair and gray eyes closely resembled Frieda's. But their overall air was not much alike.
Frieda's brother looked like a handsome young man with an oddly unreliable air.
(M-my future brother-in-law...! What should I say? Should I greet him? 'May I have your sister's hand?' No, we're already engaged, so would 'I'll make her happy' be better?)
As Ray fretted over this, Frieda's brother placed a hand on the hilt of the sword hanging at his waist.
In an instant, his somewhat unreliable air transformed completely.
His sharply narrowed gray eyes were those of a wolf that had locked onto its prey.
"I am Henrik Blanke, brother of Frieda over there. Lord Ray Albright, 〈Abyssal Curse Mage〉—I challenge you to a duel!"
In a powerful voice, Henrik slammed his glove down at Ray's feet.
Ray leaped into the air and shouted in a shrill, strangled voice,
"D-d-d-d-duel!? Why meeeee...!?"
"Why, you ask? How dare you say that. Just how many women have you seduced with that mouth of yours?"
The word "seduced" made Ray reflect on his own behavior.
It was true that he had approached girls and begged them, "Love me?"
But if he had never once succeeded in winning anyone's love, could it really be called seduction?
As Ray clutched his head and groaned, Frieda stepped forward to shield him.
"Brother, Lord Albright is a curse mage. There is no reason for him to accept a knight's duel."
(She protected me! She's so kind! I'm the one being protected! This is love! I'm loved!)
"Therefore..."
Frieda looked away from her brother and removed her silk glove.
Ray wondered what she intended to do after taking off her glove. Then Frieda forcefully threw the silk glove at her brother.
"I was born into a family of knights, so I will accept the duel."