Chapter 42

“Roa?”

I was surprised by the voice that was calling my name.

Aaron was looking at me.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I was thinking about something else.”

It wasn’t a small thing to be distracted during a conversation, so I coughed.

“Anyway, I’d like to hear why you want to postpone breaking off our engagement, you’re not going to say ‘I can’t tell you why‘, are you?”

“I can’t tell you why?”

“It’s Aaron’s habit of speaking. It’s meaningful, but he cuts it off before I can ask.”

I’m sorry I can’t tell you why. I can’t answer even if you ask in detail. That’s not it. I can’t tell you the details of the situation.

“Hahaha, what’s that? That’s really…. “

Alice burst into laughter at Aaron’s words, but then her expression hardened. The sudden change in reaction was strange, so I looked around to see if someone appeared or made a strange sound, but nothing changed.

“Alice?”

“Nothing. I just remembered a person with a similar habit.”

“I won’t say that anymore, so please forget about it.”

“Oh. This time, ‘I’m going to say it today‘. Am I right?

“Roa…”

Aaron sighed my name.

What, I am what. He said everything by his own mouth.

When I shamelessly held on without a trace of shrinkage, he resigned himself to the point.

“I just met Lord Edgar.”

Alice, who was watching the situation as if she was observing, and I, who was excited to make fun of Aaron, hardened our expressions at once.

Who did you meet?

“You mean, you saw him passing through the ballroom, or you exchanged greetings, right?”

“No, I got into a fight.”

“You’ve been training a lot since the last time … Well, did you have any great enlightenment? Maybe you can swing the sword once and cut the mountain.”

“I’ve done it with my own calculations, so please don’t look at me like I’m crazy.”

I hope it’s too much for me.

“Nothing really happened. There was something I wanted to test about His Grace, and I got hopeful possibilities. But I’m not at the stage yet, so I can only tell you the details once I’ve come to a conclusion.”

“So, even if you say you will tell me someday, it’s like ‘I can’t tell you why‘ right now, right?”

“…sorry.”

“You see, you haven’t changed a bit. I’m a fool to believe.”

Aaron smiled somewhat awkwardly as I sighed out loud. Nevertheless, his mouth didn’t open further, he wasn’t trying to make fun of me, but he didn’t seem to have any intention of telling the truth either.

There’s something he wants to test on Nocton, it sounds dangerous.

I’m sure he’s a lot better than me, but considering Alice’s words and the incident in the drawing room, the difference is whether he will be killed in one second or two seconds.

To be honest, I want to stop him. He doesn’t tell me the details because he can guess what I’m thinking. It’s hard not to know that Aaron Claymore is an incredibly stubborn man.

It was true. There was no chance to stop him.

“What does the matter have to do with the breakup?”

“I think we need to keep our engagement to get more effective results.”

Why does that sound like he’s trying to test Nocton’s patience to the limit….

Maybe he’ll come back as a corpse.

I have a stronger desire to stop him, but Aaron may have an idea. He’s the one who started the fight, so he must be confident that he will not die … right?

“I don’t know what it is, but don’t let me regret what happened today.”

“I’ll keep it in mind.”

“And no matter how many times I say it, it’s not enough, but please take care of yourself. Maybe in the drawing room.…”

You could have been murdered. I swallowed the aftertaste with a sigh.

If he asked what was the basis for thinking so, I might not be able to answer. ‘I saw you killed in a precognitive dream.’ I can’t say that crazy thing.

Aaron looked at me in wonder, but I shook my head silently. Alice glanced at him, then she approached me and whispered.

“Shouldn’t you tell him, Roa?”

“What? In the drawing room, what was about to happen at a tea party?”

“No, but that Lord Edgar is….”

She covered her mouth with her other hand and only moved her mouth.

Black magic.

I read the word and nodded my head. Yeah, that should be fine. If he knows it, it would be good to be wary.

If Aaron asked me how did I know he was a black wizard, I didn’t have anything to say, but….

Ah, I don’t know.

Aaron is not the only one who can be silent about the reason.

“If you want to check on Nocton Edgar, you need to know something before that, Aaron.”

“Please tell me.”

“Nocton is a black wizard.”

***

Fortunately, Aaron nodded her head without asking why.

Perhaps he knew I wouldn’t answer. After parting ways with Aaron who had more work to do, Alice and I headed to our mansions. I got on the Limorand’s carriage because it was in the same direction until the middle, and there was something we need to talk about.

The topic to talk about was the white crystal, who was broken in vain.

“Of the relics that could be obtained personally, that was the best. Most of those are kept in the exhibition. Maybe I should try to get holy water.”

“Um, holy water, you know.”

“You said he drank a glass of holy water and vomited blood. Wouldn’t that be possible?”

“I mean, I still don’t understand why he drank the holy water.”

Althought Nocton said he did that to confirm there was no poison, I couldn’t believe it.

“Anyway, don’t be too hasty. Everything was fine. It’s just a little … I just saw it. Of course, Aaron vomited blood, but it’s not a big deal.”

“Thank you for comforting me, but Roa, you can say that because you haven’t seen my dream. I want to find a solution as soon as possible. I don’t want to be killed in vain.”

Alice was blatantly nervous.

I didn’t notice it on the balcony, but I think she was greatly shocked by the broken crystal.

In fact, her position itself is different from mine.

Now I had no intention of claiming that Nocton Edgar is innocent, but I never felt the threat of life directly. There was no clear reality, even thoughI was scared and I imagined that I would be killed sometimes.

I don’t know why, but he did not touch me despite the fact that he was obsessed with me. On the contrary, when the railing of the balcony collapsed, he saved me even though it hurt himself.

But Alice will be different. Even if it was a dream, since she witnessed herself being murdered, she would be dozens or hundreds of times more afraid than I painted vaguely.

Why was Alice murdered in the first place? According to the original story, Nocton would rather have to save Alice.

Since I drank the Memoria’s Seal, I have learned the original, but the confusion has not gone away.

A lot was going awry.

Nocton broke his engagement with Alice, and he didn’t seem to be particularly interested in power.

He’s just unexpectedly obsessed with me.

If so, was it because of me that Nocton killed Alice in her dream?

If Alice wasn’t next to me, she wouldn’t have had to go through this. She didn’t have to be afraid of being killed.

I wanted to appease myself with excessive speculation, but what I said was another word.

“Sorry.”

“Huh? Oh, no. I know you didn’t take this lightly, but you tried to comfort me. I did it because I was a little sensitive, I’m sorry.”

“That’s not what I said. It’s just….”

I think this all happened because of me.

Not just the thoughts, Aaron was actually hurt by me.

Considering that what happened in the drawing room was a transformed tea party, then Alice would have been killed for the same reason. Although my thoughts kept getting gloomy, I didn’t want to talk about the change of emotion myself.

I shook my head silently at Alice who looked at me suspiciously.

For a moment of silence, Alice sighed.

“I’ve never been so eager for dreams as I am these days.”

She leaned against the wall of the carriage and stretched her shoulders. Her body shook along the occasional rattling carriage.

“I wish the foresight would show his weakness. If I had that dream only once, everything would be fine.”

“Well, that would be great. It would be possible if you’re lucky.”

“I’ve been there so far. If there’s anything I need, if there’s a risk I should avoid, I definitely dreamt about it. So it’ll come out again this time. I can’t wait to dream.”

“Even if it’s not a dream, you’ll find a good way.”

Maybe nothing will happen.

I mumbled something in my mouth because it was contradicted by Alice a little while ago.

In fact, I didn’t think that anything would happen.

As long as Nocton is the villain of < He and Alice >, as long as he is obsessed with me, as long as Alice is my friend.

My intuition doesn’t fit well, so I wish I’d be wrong this time.

Both of us lost in our own thoughts, and we were in silence for a while.

Looking outside, it seemed that the carriage was almost at a crossroads. It’s time to transfer to Valrose’s carriage.

Thinking so, Alice called me.

“Roa, you’ve seen a lot of knights, right?”

“Huh? Knight?”

“I’m a little unfamiliar to them because I’ve only been in the capital for less than a year, but the way the knights speak is … is it as hard as Sir Claymore?”

“Aaron? It’s similar, but Aaron is a little more polite, and he’s quite sensible But why?”

Why are you asking me about Aaron all of a sudden?

I looked up to the expectations, but Alice’s expression was no different than usual. With a slight tilt of the head, she only looked like someone with light curiosity.

“No, anyway, he’s engaged to you, and you he looks pretty friendly, but he talks like that. When you look at the knights on Limorand, they’re really fun to be around and have fun.”

“Well, he can’t do it because he is a Claymore.”

“Is that so? Oh, right, Roa. You’re not going to the tea party hosted by Marquis Bornaine’s daughter, right?”

At Alice’s words, I recalled a schedule I had forgotten for a while. Not long before today’s ball was held, an invitation to a tea party came from Sheryl Bornaine.

It was the first invitation that flew in as soon as the news spread that the engagement between Nocton and Alice had been broken, I didn’t reply because I could see what was the intention.

She just sent me an invitation to scratch my insides, and she wouldn’t have really expected me to come.

But.

“I was planning not to go, but I’m going.”

“What? I’ve already refused.”

“You shouldn’t go. You don’t have to go because you’re the person of the rumor.”

“That’s the same for Roa….”

“Sheryl Bornaine, she was brainwashed by Nocton.”