Chapter 46.1

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Chapter 46 – Then That Necklace

‘How is that mad man here!’

She wasn’t in a good physical condition and she was entranced by the knight that she didn’t feel the other presence in the parlor.

Theros took a step back from Lisa when he saw her face contort with embarrassment. “Then, I will wait at the door until you give me an order.”

“N-no! W-wait!”

Theros glanced at Kaligo, who was sitting on the sofa, and frowned as he walked out of the room. Only two people now were left inside the living room.

“…”

“You have poor hospitality towards your guests.” His ominous voice resounded through the quiet living room. “How long are you planning to stand there?”

Lisa closed her eyes tightly and bit her lower lip. She slowly turned towards the sofa after she took a long and faintly trembling sigh. She pretended to be calm as if nothing had happened, as if she was meeting him for the first time.

Time seemed to slow down a dozen times to that short distance towards the sofa. She couldn’t even move her feet, but that man’s gaze was making her body freeze. It feels like there was a weight on the hem of her dress sweeping on the floor. She walked slowly with twitching lips.

‘So what? What are you going to do? Are you going to kill even the Magic Tower’s master?’

Recalling the alliances the Magic Tower had with various empires, she tried her best to pretend to be calm. Barely reaching the sofa. Lisa sat down and spoke in a curt voice, “You came to visit me without contacting me first. Isn’t that too rude?”

Kaligo’s head tilted to one side. “I don’t think that’s what the person who came to my house without contacting me first would say.”

’Went to your house without prior contact? Me? The only house I’ve been to was when I recently visited the Grand Duke’s house for the Imperial Princess’ wedding…’

Lisa’s gaze that was staring at the floor dizzily, quickly turned to the man. “Don’t tell me…”

“I am Kaligo Etous.”

“…” Lisa’s eyes grew even bigger. The madman she met in the forest seven years ago turned out to be the Grand Duke Kaligo Etous, the man whom she longed to connect with Aileen.

No, wait a minute…

Lisa rolled her eyes again. Why was that man very calm now when he had lost his reason in that forest and yelled at her to bring out that necklace? She thought that that necklace must have been important based on his reaction, so wouldn’t it be normal if he rushed back there and found out about the whereabouts of that necklace?

It didn’t take long for all those questions to come to a single conclusion.

He couldn’t remember.

She looked back at him again and examined his expression. His red eyes turned to Lisa without any hint of distraction. He had an unreadable expression, no signs of madness anywhere

‘Indeed… he didn’t look sane that day.’

Besides, it had been a dark night.

‘You don’t recognize me. You didn’t even recognize me in the Imperial Palace.’

Lisa’s mind became more at ease when she thought up to that point. A faint but light smile showed on her lips, stiff due to tension.

“Ah… so you are Grand Duke Kaligo Etous. Nice to meet you. I am—”

“This isn’t the first time. Didn’t we meet at the Imperial Palace?”

“…”

He apparently saw her face even though she quickly put back her hood on.

“Is… that so? I don’t remember that well…”

“You don’t even have a good memory.”

Lisa’s eyes turned to Kaligo talking with a sarcastic tone. With his head tilted at an angle, he looked Lisa eye to eye and added, “Nor do you have the capacity to hold your own position by your own means.”

“…”

Cold air filled the living room. What was this wrenching feeling when he clearly could not remember her?

“You seemed to be offended when I visited the Grand Duchy without prior contact first, but I thought that I’d met you again.” Lisa forcibly pulled up the corners of her trembling lips and continued her conversation. “Oh, this shouldn’t be like this, you should meet the Imperial Princess. Since you came all the way here.”

Kaligo’s low voice cut off Lisa’s words. “Even now that the barrier of the Magic Tower is melting, you’re still preoccupied with matchmaking?”

“…Yes?” Lisa’s expression quickly hardened.

The barrier was melting?

Thud!

“Heok!”

Lisa vomited her suppressed breath and collapsed on the table. She raised her head and glared at Kaligo while grasping her chest with a pained expression.

“Wh… what is this!”

It was aura—a power different from magic. A red aura rose like smoke from Kaligo’s entire body.

“I am not going to listen to you. You, just have to listen to what I have to say.”

The immense pressure coming from the aura seeped into the air in the living room and pressed tightly on Lisa’s body.

“Have you… forgotten a…bout the alliance trea…ty?” Lisa’s voice came out sparsely from the pain squeezing her whole body, but Kaligo just smiled leisurely.

“Well, did I forget?”

“…Ugh.”

“Magic Tower’s master… I want to tell you that I am a person who doesn’t forget a lot of things – especially things or people related to me.”

“…”

“So, I’m telling you this.” Kaligo slowly raised his upper body. He then leaned over the table to the collapsed Lisa, and whispered in a heavy and low voice, “…Then that necklace… where is it now?”

“!”

Lisa’s eyes were instantly engulfed in fear. It was because the man’s red gaze, who had been indifferent until now, was filled with the madness that flashed in that dark forest that night.

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