CH 28

Open The Door

[It’s boring.]

Leschaux already heard those words for the 71st time from Nathaniel today.

〔Would you like to play cards?〕

Nathaniel lightly ignored his offer. It was also the 71st time that Nathaniel had ignored his suggestion…  Nathaniel then said for the 72nd time.

[It’s boring.]

Leschaux replied again.

〔Take a walk.〕

[Are you serious?]

〔Of course, I’ll go with you.〕

[You’re no fun.]

Nathaniel muttered again for the 73rd time.

[It’s boring.]

〔Take a hot spring bath.〕

[You’re so consistent.]

Nathaniel laughed. Since Leschaux was a little offended, he didn’t answer. He was responsible for looking after Nathaniel.

In the past, Nathaniel said, [I’m bored], and flew out to the middle of nowhere and killed numerous enemies. If he starts raging because [he’s bored], Leschaux was well aware that he was the only one who could stop it for even a second.

〔Still, it is a miracle that you are so quiet. I have to go to Kyrie Buchanan and say thanks.〕

Leschaux, who was locking the cuff, hesitated. He felt chilly in the back of his neck.

He turned around and noticed that Nathaniel was staring at him with a strangely cold face.

〔Are you angry?〕

[No.]

〔Then what’s with that chilly air? 〕(T/N: or tension)

As soon as Leschaux spoke, the tension that seemed likely to freeze the entire air in Sel Arellano relaxed. Nathaniel covered his face with a glass of wine.

[I wish I hadn’t woken up.]

〔…….〕

[They’re all boring.]

What Nathaniel was talking about was the Royal Family. Leschaux also agreed.

Nathaniel was talking about the moment he returned to the capital and visited Sel Arellano. As soon as Emperor Ginger Orwenbridge saw Nathaniel, he was busy trying to curry favor with Nathaniel. He seemed to know that he was asleep due to the magic of the founder, Vallabriga.

However, perhaps because he had not seen for himself Nathaniel’s mighty power, he was still wondering how he could use this amazing being as he pleased.

He was no different from the Crown Prince. Eden Orwenbridge was thoughtlessly and busily admiring Nathaniel. He even asked Nathaniel, who was sitting with a cold expression on his face, to come to his engagement party.

It was fortunate for them that Nathaniel was lost in his thoughts.

〔I thought you would kill the Emperor as soon as you saw him.〕

[I have betrayed the expectations of the Patriotic Knight.]

〔I don’t mean it that way. It’s just that the Nathaniel I know would definitely do something like that.〕

[I wish you could say what you really wanted to say, Leschaux.] 

〔Did Kyrie Buchanan stop you?〕

Nathaniel’s hand, which was shaking the glass in front of his face, stopped.

Leschaux felt odd. Strangely, whenever the name of Kyrie Buchanan appeared, he always stopped doing what he was doing. Now there were reasonable doubts about what she really meant to him.

[I don’t understand humans.]

Nathaniel murmured to himself.

〔We’re not human anymore. There’s no way we’re going to understand them.〕

[Haa.] 

Nathaniel laughed. At first glance, it had a cheerful sound, but the essence was close to ridicule. Then he crushed the glass by applying strength to his fingers.

The red wine dripped down his hand. Then the cup appeared again in his hand, and he broke it. The cup appeared again and again, and Nathaniel kept breaking it.

〔Nathaniel.〕

He didn’t stop doing it until Leschaux called him in a low voice.

〔Stop.〕

Nathaniel stared blankly at the wine flowing in his hands. Leschaux looked at the sight of the violence of raw things swaying from the fringe of too much beauty with mixed feelings and turned his head.

〔If you have nothing to do, go to the ball. Kyrie Buchanan will be there too. Because it’s a must for the top seven prestigious families to attend.〕

Nathaniel’s stiff smiling face turned to Leschaux. 

[Seven prestigious families?] 

[It’s the Crown Prince’s engagement celebration.]

[Aah. Is that so?]

From Nathaniel’s mouth, words of consensus that were not meaningful came out. As if he was thinking about something, a red tongue appeared briefly and disappeared through his narrow lips.

[Have you been in and out of places like that?]

〔It’s a deal with the Emperor.〕

[You can just kill him.]

Nathaniel answered casually, then yawned slowly and stretched his arms. From the scarless arm, the wine became a black silk snake and dispersed onto the floor.

Leschaux avoided looking at it. His gaze was one that harbored a strange and worrisome feeling rather than one of feeling gross.

〔I don’t want to do that.〕

[You still haven’t changed.]

〔And so do you.〕

Leschaux decided to change the subject and turned around.

〔If you’re not going, can you just stay put, even just for tonight?〕

[Woah, I didn’t say that I won’t go.] 

It was unexpected. Leschaux looked at Nathaniel again.

Nathaniel was pulling the collar of his neat, luxurious robes and had a staff beside his body. Leschaux caught a glimpse of a strange hesitation in Nathaniel’s manner.

〔Nathaniel. You…….〕

Leschaux tried to say something, but a faint realization stopped it.

In the past, Nathaniel always lived with words that he was bored. Nevertheless, he always lent his hand to the work of Leschaux and Vallabriga.

‘Then what you’re doing now is….’

[You still have a lot on your mind.]

Nathaniel, who had approached, shook his staff in front of him. Nathaniel passed by Leschaux and Leschaux silently followed.

*** 

Like Nathaniel, who possessed phenomenal power and liked the norms, they rode a carriage to the ballroom.

The moment the servant whose job was to announce each visitor’s name saw Leschaux, he tried to open his mouth with a very exalted face. The tip of Nathaniel’s cane touched the servant’s forehead. The words that were about to come out of the servant’s mouth went back in.

[Wait.]

〔Nathaniel?〕

Leschaux realized that Nathaniel was keenly aware of the activity inside the ballroom and followed it. A loud voice that didn’t need to be focused on resonated through the door. 

“Isn’t it tremendous! The relationship between her and the unknown man seemed very deep!  Yes, the relationship is already significant enough to directly engage in a duel with Gladioso Vermont. I can say.”

Nathaniel’s blue eyes became cold like ice in an unusually pronounced fierce appeal. Leschaux clearly saw the primordial cruelty dwelling in it. The speech did not end.

“It was simply terrible. He used his own tactics to force me to kneel down and not humiliate me in the duel, but as you all know, this Gladios Vermont is a man who never succumbs to external impudence.”

“So what do you mean after all?”

Someone stepped in and asked.

“Oh, yes, I’ll tell you. If you were a quiet girl in the first place, you wouldn’t be traveling alone with a man right after you broke up.”

“Can I take that as a sign that Miss Kyrie Buchanan is not quiet?”

Someone else asked.

“I don’t want to express it in such explicit words. However, I am determined that the Crown Prince should go through the facts of the case as I dare not insult the Royal Family.”

“Miss Kyrie Buchanan, is it true?”

The last was the voice of the Crown Prince.

The next moment, a flamboyant and clear beauty was heard. Leschaux did not miss the force of Nathaniel holding the cane.

“No.”

“Then what is Vermont’s testimony?”

“I can confidently say that, I’m not in an inappropriate relationship with him, and I’ve never done what I think is shameful during my engagement to the Crown Prince.”

Her voice was magnificent, but sounded tired.

“But it’s true, Miss Kyrie Buchanan, that you stayed in a villa with an unknown young man.”

“He was a guest in Buchanan.”

“Your Highness, this was a man I have never seen before. It doesn’t make sense to not know who will be a guest of the seventh family.”

The first speaker intervened again.

“Then who is he, Miss Kyrie Buchanan?”

“I can’t say.”

“You can’t tell?”

“I am not in a private relationship with him, so I can’t dare reveal his identity unless he wants to.”

“I am not asking as the prince.” (T/N: That person is saying he is not asking but it’s the prince)

“Even so, I cannot say.”

“Miss Kyrie Buchanan, I am now looking at you with the affection of the past when I was engaged to you.”

The prince’s tone became stronger. He seemed to be in a bad mood.

“If what Gladios Vermont said is true, I can’t sit idly by and watch this fact.”

“I’m sorry, I can’t say.”

“Miss Buchanan!”

“That’s not to say that my loyalty to the royal family has been compromised, so please don’t misunderstand.”

The Crown Prince laughed in vain.

“What matters now is that you haven’t said anything, so do you think such a good word will work?”

“To tell you the truth, with all my might, I have done nothing unjust.”

Kyrie’s voice was not shaken. A person with true conscience could not be bent in any storm.

All the characters who seemed to be the protagonists of the situation were silent for a while.

“Oh, I’m in trouble. Miss Kyrie Buchanan, this is something I can’t just let go of. I suspect, as a Crown Prince, that this was done to get a large amount of money for the Buchanan family.”

“Your Royal Highness!”

The new thing was the voice of Cesar Buchanan, who sounded somewhat sneaky despite the serious baritone.

“This is not true at all! It’s a complete deviation of my daughter’s life, and it has nothing to do with Buchanan!”

“Count Hana, first of all, the situation is…” (T/N: This person is talking with some other count)

The turmoil arose like a wave. Meanwhile, Kyrie Buchanan’s voice was not heard. The people buzzed like a swarm of bees, and only the fragmentary words they uttered bounced like a bouncing bonfire.

“More than it looks….”

“Where and how it rolled…”

“It turns out that afterwards…”

“The reason for breaking up…”

“Unexpectedly lustful……….”

Leschaux and Nathaniel took turns looking at the door.

〔Did you stop her from telling you?〕

[No.]

Nathaniel whispered coldly.

[She said she’d hide it for the time being.]

〔Then this is an unfair insult. I’ll come forward.〕

[Leschaux, what did you tell her?]

Leschaux, who was about to signal to the servant to open the door, hesitated.

There was no smile on Nathaniel’s face. Leschaux knew too well how terrifying it was. His face was different when he smiled not only because he was young yet mature, insidious yet noble, decadent yet ascetic. Nathaniel, who was not smiling, literally resembles the end of the world.

[Reply.]

A large, huge frozen beast had gathered its front paws and made eye contact with Leschaux. It was the dark blue eyes of the deep sea.

Leschaux took a deep breath and spat the words out with a low voice.

〔I asked her to stop you. By telling her what you were like on the battlefield.〕

[Was she scared?]

Leschaux hesitated to say the following words. But he was not just anyone else but someone who should be honest in front of Nathaniel.

〔Not really. She just said that what we did to you was not right〕

Nathaniel silently looked at the door, no, maybe over the door. Thin ice began to form at his feet.

[Yes, I did.]

〔Nathaniel.〕

[What the hell is that doing over there? That’s pathetic.]

If Kyrie had heard, she would have said, “You’re finally saying something that reveals your feelings.” It was no wonder that Leschaux was shocked. He opened his eyes wide and said nothing.

Nathaniel looked back at Leschaux and returned to his polite smile. He then ordered the servant.

[Open the door.]