Chapter 30

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Before you read, (D)=Desian, (K)=Kaligo, (A)=Ashia, (T)=Teros

Chapter 30 – Excuse-like Explanation

Desian grumbled again, “Oh, it’s really cold. How long do I have to be like this?”

“…”

(D) “Crazy, what woman in the world treats the Crown Prince like this… Huh? What is that?”

Kaligo followed his gaze.

(D) “You know that person?”

“…”

Kaligo’s eyes widened.

– Oh, he’s my brother.

– He’s not my blood related brother.

– He’s a good kid.

– A responsible and diligent child.

He wasn’t her real brother, but he was a kind, diligent Imperial Knight or Holy Knight whatever, a child that everyone would want to have. It was Teros.

Looking at Kaligo and Teros alternately, Desian grew even more frustrated.

(D) “Who is that?”

(K) “. . .”

Kaligo could no longer hear anything.

(D) “Kaligo?”

A red aura leaked from Kaligo as he stared intently at Ashia’s shop. It quickly spread throughout his body, and as it got hotter and hotter, all the roots binding him were burned.

(D) “Oh? Hey! You said you couldn’t!”

It took him quite some time, but he was able to break free from the bindings. Ashes floated down to the snow. Then Kaligo walked straight to the shop without looking back, ignoring Desian’s desperate call from behind. He went inside the store, brushing off all the ashes left on his body.

(K) “Ashia.”

Upon entering the shop, Teros and Ashia came into view. The man was bowing his head towards Ashia while she was carefully trimming his hair.

(K) “…”

Her gaze on Teros’ hair turned to Kaligo. “Oh? You broke free.”

(K) “…People can do anything when they are pushed to their limits.”

“Limits?” She tilted her head, not quite understanding what he was saying, then brushed Teros’ hair softly again.

(K) “What… are you doing now?”

(A) “Can’t you see? I am brushing his hair. Your hair is done. Is it okay? Of all things, the sandbag happened to burst here.”

Both of Asha’s eyebrows drooped down. It was sad and pitiful, that tender gaze…

(T) “It’s okay… Ah.”

(A) “Why? What’s the matter?”

(T) “In my right eye…”

(A) “Did it even get into your eyes?”

(T) “I think so. It hurts, noona.”

(A) “Let’s see, bow your head again.”

Teros leaned his face towards Ashia. He (Kaligo) roughly knew what was going on, but nevertheless, his heart swelled in anger. He wanted to separate that man and Ashia right now. But did he have the right to stop her? She had been his wife, but maybe he was afraid that she would say they were nothing in this world.

(A) “Is it okay now?”

“Yes, I think it is.”

The hand brushing off the sand was as soft as a feather. Teros smiled lightly at her touch. Then, there was a dimple on one side of his cheek following that smile.

(A) “Our Tero, you came to help but you just encountered a mishap.”

Ashia caressed Teros’ cheek. For each of her actions, one was tasting heaven while the other was experiencing hell. She, who had built a wall around herself, approached that man (Teros) without any hesitation. He (Kaligo) didn’t like it, and on the other hand, his mouth tasted bitter.

At one point in time, Renna was also mad at him. When he returned from the battlefield with wounds on his body, she would look at him with a broken expression as if the world had collapsed. It was Kaligo that pushed her away everytime. All of his actions pushing Ashia away had a reason, but for Renna who didn’t know anything, she was repeatedly hurt even before her wounds healed. So Kaligo had nothing more to say.

(T) “Can I come over for dinner?”

(A) “No.”

When a large hand grabbed Ashia’s arm and started whining, Kaligo’s jaw clenched painfully.

“Then deliver potions to him instead.”

“I’ll treat you to something delicious next time. I have a customer now.”

Standing behind Teros, Ashia looked at Kaligo with crossed arms.

Teros slightly tilted his head and said, “He doesn’t look like an important guest to me.”

“Tero.”

Teros asked with a sullen expression when she called her with a tone of reproach, “Then when? Please set the date and time now.”

‘Lately, it seems that there have been quite a few times that I haven’t been able to eat with Teros on the pretext of being busy.’

“Uhm, would you like to eat with me on the weekend? I have no deliveries and reservations on that day. Let’s have lunch together by then.”

Teros’ face, which had just been sullen until now, glimmered. “Great.”

Kaligo glared at their pointlessly sweet conversation.

“I’ll see you then, noona.”

“Hmm, be careful.” Ashia sent Teros off and freed Desian, who was freezing in the alley.

She entered the store after putting him back in the carriage, glanced at Kaligo, then walked straight to the counter. “Why are you here?”

“…”

“You’re welcome, anyway. I finished the potion. I was just going to go to you by myself, but since you came here, you can take it back with you.” Ashia placed the box she had prepared in advance on the shelf. “The antidote and other potions will be available soon…”

“Do you remember?”

Ashia raised her head at his sudden question.

“…What?”

“That just by guessing… that day in the forest, I told you that I don’t want to create any misunderstanding between us two.”

Ashia didn’t reply. She opened the lid of the box she was fiddling with and showed it to him. “I made you a week’s worth of drugs in a hurry. Set a time and take one bottle a day. I will send you another month’s worth of drugs in two days.”

“Ashia,” Kaligo impatiently called her again.

“…He said it was a secret so it’s still too early to tell.” Ashia moved closer to him. “I’m not going to make assumptions on my own and build up misunderstandings.”

“…”

There were specks of black ashes on Kaligo’s face. He probably used his Aura to burn the stems that bound him. Ashia carefully reached out to his face.

“If you don’t get cold that easily… you can wait a little bit, but what is this?”

“…”

Kaligo widened his eyes at the hands that approached him first. Looking up at his startled face, she carefully brushed away the ashes from his face, hair, shoulders, and chest.

“And in the first place… I never misunderstood.”

It was true. Though it was unpleasant to hear from the Crown Prince Desian that Kaligo was attending his banquet, she thought that attending such a banquet was something she could not meddle with. The same was also true of his fiancée. It was clear that Kaligo’s opinion was never included judging from the words and actions of the Crown Prince.

Before Ashia could have misunderstood him, she focused more on the content that was different from the original novel. That was why her expression was dark, but Kaligo seemed to have misunderstood what was the meaning of her expression.

Kaligo opened his mouth carefully, keeping his face in her hands. “I didn’t know that even the Crown Prince would know about it.”

“…Even the Crown Prince? Didn’t you already know that? I thought you found out already when we came back.” Ashia blinked her big eyes and stopped stroking his cheeks.

“I received a letter before I followed you into the Fairy Forest.”

“A letter?”

As if fulfilling his promise of not creating any misunderstandings, Kaligo began to confide in her about the proposal that had come to him. There were a total of two marriage proposals that arrived, but he didn’t open the first one that arrived so he didn’t know who sent it.

“I didn’t even open the second marriage proposal, but I only found out because Redin told me.”

“…Kaligo.”

Asha’s hand fell down. She thought it didn’t matter what kind of banquet Kaligo was going to attend, who he would be engaged to, or who he would get married to. However, at his excuse-like explanation, it felt as if her heavy chest that was like a cotton ball soaked in water, had been opened.

Why…? Why was it?

Seeing her taking a deep breath, Kaligo continued talking, “None of what I said to you is a lie. It has been and will always be.”

‘There were things that I couldn’t say, but I said no lies.’

The truth might sound like an excuse, but he had to say it. If this excuse could quell all of her misgivings, then he was willing to do it all night and day.

Ashia was listening to him quietly, fiddling with the potion box on the counter. She was silent for a moment, then glanced at him and asked, “…Who is it?”

“Who?”

“The woman… who sent you the proposal. The one who suddenly became your fiancée.”

“…”

She was curious. Although he was famous for his promiscuous personal life, she knew that there were still many families who wanted their daughters to be his wife or force their daughters to be attached to him because of his accumulated wealth and power.

But what was power and wealth? His physical appearance might also have played a part. They may have thought that they could live happily with the rest of their life sponging off with that face.

‘But you don’t know what kind of hardships you may face…’

“I don’t know the details either. I only knew that she is the Third Princess of the Perthian Empire.”

“…”

Her fingertips stopped moving.

“I can’t even remember her name…”

“Aileen.”

Before he could finish speaking, a name came out of Ashia’s mouth.

“…”

“Aileen… Encherances.”

That one name that made her breath catch. She had forgotten it to the point that she was feeling very comfortable. Her plan to live without getting entangled with the original characters had finally gone awry.

The 3rd Princess of the Perthian Empire, Aileen Encherances — she was the female lead in the original novel.

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────