Chapter 3

~ Chapter 3 ~

She started her day, drinking tea.

It was sent especially from her Older Brother, Yzhar. She complained about an unknown headache, back when she was still young, which is why Yzhar sends her the tea.

‘It was terrible.’

Her words should be special, but it was only forced.

I didn’t want to drink it. The taste was horrible, and after drinking all of it, I started developing strong dizziness. In simpler words, my headache hadn’t change at all.

But honestly, I seized every chance I had and tried to talk to him about it, yet it was his contempt for me that always comes back. He’ll always be like, ‘Is that how you’ll going to say to me after I took care of you the best I could?’

So I held it in and drank it silently.

But there was no need for me to do that anymore.

“You said that there are people living in the desert?”

“I’ve heard of it too! I mean nomads in the west. I heard that you set up a bonfire every night and fall asleep while reciting poems. Is that true?”

Because I sent Melissa, who brought tea every morning, to Lillian.

“Hmm, but it purely depends on the tribe. That was the tribe where I was.”

Melissa was heard making a fuss at Lillian’s gentle answer.

“Wow, so romantic!”

“It was more than a decade ago, but sometimes, I still remember it. The smell of burning firewood, the sound of playing the rut, and the sound of tribesmen reciting poems…. I would have stayed there if I hadn’t been fooled like an idiot person.”

Lillian was depressed, saying she had done all kinds of hardships while following the leader of the tribe.

“If it weren’t for him, I would have been tied to the mountain and lived as a maid.”

“Oh my god!”

“Dear, princess! That person’s name is Widnix Evo…”

Psychke sighed at the voices of Lillian and the maids from the window.

The garden is spacious, and there were many left spaces for her to enjoy her tea time.

‘Why do you had to be right down there?’

I listened to their voices with one ear and glanced at the clock.

There was not much time left before the man came out of the living room.

‘I must hurry up.’

Psychke stood in front of the mirror after touching her waist-length hair.

Her beautiful blue like cat eyes, yet expressionless and a little depressed, blinked.

Unlike the past, when she insisted on wearing colorful dresses to stand out, somehow, she was wearing a modest clothes today.

My taste was originally this blunt. It was also because there was no maid to dress her up.

They said that I can pull this rope connecting other maids, other than Melissa. But I didn’t want to put so much effort into it.

I brushed off the crumpled hem. She always wear accessories when meeting him, but now is different.

Without wearing any accessories such as earrings or necklaces, she left the room.

“Young Lord Silkisia, if you come out like this, we’ll be in trouble.”

“How can I go against the will of the His Majesty?”

Psychke headed to the living room.

I’m not sure if they’re done talking.

A man with dark hair with his cold face and Yzhar, with a very relaxed expression were coming out of the hallway.

“Ikaxia knows how dangerous northern horses are. But, you know. In order for us to move, we need His Majesty’s permis—”

“Do you think you is enough to persuade His Majesty?”

“We have no authority to do so.”

Yzahr is able to do it, but he doesn’t want to do so, although it was really possible.

“I don’t think I can walk you home because I have another schedule.”

The short silver hair that came down to the back of his neck quickly disappeared.

“… That punk. Why does he care about people’s garbage?”

The man who was left alone, spat and cursed.

Psychke, who was hiding behind the pillar and watched as the situation unfolds, came out and approached the man, pretending not to be surprised.

“Duke.”

Black hair that seemed to melt the night sky was waving finely. The tip of the cape over the shoulder drew a semicircle.

Duke Verndia Lestir, one of the three major dukes in the empire and the owner of the purple flame, turned his body around.

Annoyed look filled his purples eyes, but when he saw his fiancée getting closer, it instantly faded away.

He softly smiled. A fake smile that could be considered as treating his fiancée lovingly if a stranger witnessed it.

“It’s been a while. What brings you here?”

Verndia reached out one hand as if to greet her with a kiss on the back of her hand.

Instead of giving her hand, Psychke lifted her head and faced his purple eyes, which contained no affection at all.

Suddenly, I remembered the scene I encountered at the verge of dying.

The purple flame that wrapped around her body like a snake and blazed brilliantly.

However, I erased it from my head, thinking that it must had been a fantasy or a mistake from my memory.

“You’re having a hard time because of the Northern monsters.”

“The Princess don’t need to care about that, it’s nothing.”

“I can solve it for you.”

Verndia’s expression hardened. He straightened his slightly bent back and took out his hand.

“If you want to go somewhere else like before, that’s all it matters.”

“It’s not like that.“

I gave a negative answer, but my fiancé’s face did not calmed down.

It was what she expected. Verndia around this time, was not happy again with her.

Was it because of an unusual situation, where an almighty Duke and a mere fake princess were engaged?

He was always keeping an invisible distance from her.

At the beginning of the engagement, I didn’t even know about that fact, and even tried to approach him because I fell in love with the kindness that he showed to me that was different from my family. However, I found out later that he didn’t accept me more than a certain level.

So I tried to attract his attention, terrified that my marriage might be broken or that I would be kicked out of my family for that crime.

As a result, he came to hate me.

Before he return, he was in a very bad state due to some kind of incident.

Verndia now still had antipathy against me.

And some kind of incident was a kind of mistake. Psychke had no intention of doing it again. It shouldn’t have happened in the first place.

“I’m sorry Princess, but I’m a little tired today. I hope we can talk about it next time.“

“Turk, Ildia, ah.”

The man who was about to leave, turning his back on what she had memorized like a spell, stopped.

“They are the names of the higher-level monsters that appeared in the north.”

“I don’t know where you heard it, but you must have traded with a fairly competent informant.”

“I’ll tell you how to fight back. Without relatively much damage in return.”

Verndia eventually turned back and saw Psychke. Later, when he exhaled coldly, his bangs covered his forehead floated upward.

“All right. What about today?”

“I want you to promise me one thing, before I tell you.“

“What promise?”

“If you succeed in eliminating the monsters, I don’t think our engagement should be maintained anymore.”

There was only one reason why their unbecoming engagement could be established.

‘It was the high-level monsters that were pouring out in a bizarre amount.’

As the main culprit of Verndia’s current troubles, it was also the weakness of the duke captured by the emperor.

(TN: If anyone is baffled, this just simply implies that the monsters are troubling Verndia and his weakness which the emperor caught. (did I just re-translate it?))

Around a year ago.

Dungeons in Duke Lestir began to be filled with high-level monsters.

In the beginning, the case was how did they block it, but the next problem was…

It’s faster for a holy temple to fall down, than the monsters. Moreover, since many manpower was called into the battle, the land that had no one to take care of, was ruined.

Therefore, Verndia asked the imperial soldiers to join the Order.

In order to imprison him, the Emperor persuaded him to be engaged with Silkisia, who represented the imperial faction, and one of the people of the crown Prince.

Naturally, the crown prince and his subordinate opposed it. At that point, the Crown Prince’s mother, Empress, collapsed from illness.

The Northern case naturally fell away from the Crown Prince’s interest, and Verndia, who was in a hurry, decided to get engaged.

“Ah, you’re asking me to stay engaged.”

Verndia smiled as if he knew she would say that.

If the monster tormenting him disappeared, it would not be strange if their engagement was broken. No, rather it should be destroyed.

Not only are the factions different politically. She was not Lillian, a real princess, and there was no reason to maintain his engagement with a fake princess who did not know when she would be abandoned.

Although their marriage cannot be broken right away due to the attention of others, it will take some time.

Thus Verndia’s conjecture was reasonable.

“It’s not.”

However, Psychke denied the speculation with a single nod.

“I want to break up my marriage with you.”

“……?”

“As soon as the monsters disappears, break our marriage.”

“… Are you serious?”

I didn’t expect that at all.

Verndia responded a beat late.

Psychke lifted her left hand and tapped the gold ring on her ring finger.

“To be exact, I want to take this out.”

“… That is.”

What she pointed to was their engagement ring, Jarister heirloom.

When they are close, their rings resonates and shines, and they can share their location and feelings with each other from afar.

In order to take off the ring, he had to go to Vicente’s temple and declare the breakdown of his engagement under the agreement of them.

“If you want me to take it out, I will take it out now. Because the Duke hates me.”

“No, I have no intention of taking it out right now.”

“I know. You don’t want His Majesty to have his eyes on you.”

Did he hate being read his mind?

Verndia’s eyes narrowed. Psychke continued expressionless, lowering hee raised hand.

“But if the monsters is gone, you don’t have to be wary of His Majesty, so wouldn’t it be okay to break the engagement afterwards?”

“What would princess gain when she does that?”

Verndia was wondering about her incomprehensible words.

“Any trade is established when both parties benefit. But looking at the princess’s proposal alone, it doesn’t feel like a deal.”

“It’s beneficial for me to take this ring off.”

“I don’t understand.“

“It doesn’t matter if you don’t understand. If you are anxious, you can write a contract.“

Without this ring, I would have left Silkisia as soon as I returned.

She was like Verndia’s leash, which is now rumored to be difficult to handle.

So if she disappears like this, they would have looked for me with their eyes lit in Silkisia and the imperial family. With the tracking function on the ring.

‘Just before she died, the family and the imperial family forced the marriage to be broken, but it seemed that the Duke refused.’

Why did he do that?

It was an unexpected change that happened overnight. Psychke had no idea.

‘By all means, why?’

Now that I decided to break up my marriage, it was a good thing anyway.

So immersed in her own thoughts,

“… All right.”

Verndia, who was looking down from afar, looked up.

“I will write a contract. I will send you a message soon after.”

“Thank you.”

There is not much time left before leaving the Duke.

Psychke calmly smiled for the first time since her return.

His purple eyes that contained his fiancée’s face turned slender.