Chapter – 21
“I fixed Hou for you, so please do one favor for me. I don’t want to marry Rodrigo.”
“What?”
“I actually have a pretty good reason. Something that can easily get past Prince Hiten’s pressure too….”
“Kiana!”
Skari shouted in disbelief. His face was clearly angry.
So… even ignoring imperial pressure right away is difficult, huh.
Joshua sighed deeply and was about to step in to support Kiana when—
“Kiana, wait. Listen to me first.”
“Please don’t be angry. I already thought it through….”
“I’m not angry because you asked me for a favor.”
Skari cut her off firmly.
“I’m angry because you didn’t need to fix Hou just to ask me for a favor.”
<What are you saying, Skari!>
Hou, who had recovered quite a bit and was now in the office instead of the greenhouse, flapped his wings and shouted with wide eyes.
<Fixing me was the right thing to do!>
“Of course that part was right!”
It was total chaos. Skari looked straight at Kiana and said,
“You just need to say one thing—that you don’t want to marry that bastard.”
“Pardon?”
“Remember this. From now on, you just say what you want.”
Kiana shrank back a little under his firm gaze and muttered,
“But the engagement with Melissa was real….”
“If she hadn’t become a saint, do you think she would’ve obediently married Rodrigo?”
Skari responded sharply. Kiana quickly nodded.
“Yes, Grandpa… you’re surprisingly insightful. She would’ve kept delaying the engagement for a year, spreading rumors with countless men.”
It was a very detailed prediction, and she agreed too quickly.
Skari slowly spoke again.
“Anyway, just ignore it.”
Then he tore Prince Hiten’s letter into pieces.
“….What?”
“Even if I make your marriage go your way, it won’t guarantee a good relationship with Prince Hiten.”
He tossed the torn letter into the trash and looked at Joshua.
“Why are you here?”
“Uh… well….”
Joshua realized he no longer had anything to do in this house.
“Then I’ll take my leave.”
He immediately closed the door and left the office. But after standing outside for a moment, he muttered loudly enough for them to hear inside:
“Still… shouldn’t someone see me off?”
Silence.
“Anyway, I’m a noble. I can’t leave alone without proper etiquette, right?”
Still silence.
“Grandpa’s leg is bad, so a young person should come out, right?”
Finally, the door burst open. Kiana came out looking annoyed.
Joshua shrugged.
“See? You couldn’t let me leave alone, so you came out to see me off.”
“Seriously?”
Kiana said flatly.
“Why would I see you off? I’m just going for exercise.”
Joshua quietly laughed inside.
“When I came to your house, I said the same thing when I was seeing you off.”
“Exercise? What kind? Walking exercise? Breathing exercise?”
Joshua teased her a little more.
Kiana glanced at him and walked straight ahead.
“Constant-speed motion.”
“……”
“It means moving at a constant speed.”
“……Magic engineering is doomed.”
Sezare’s marquis estate also received news about Rodrigo’s proposal.
“Laniac.”
Sezare, sitting elegantly with his chin resting on his hand, listened to the report and spoke lazily.
“I can’t ignore my benefactor’s trouble. I think I should take a night walk in the capital today.”
“W-what? Today?”
Laniac asked nervously.
“That seems… too sudden. You always said about the princess, ‘just a clean relationship of mutual use.’ So why go this far…?”
“It was something I was going to do anyway.”
Sezare smiled coldly.
“I’m just matching the timing.”
Joshua awkwardly got into the carriage.
“The servants kept staring at my head, so I needed to leave quickly.”
According to the spy maid, Joshua said something like, “If I come back here again, I’m not normal anymore.”
Kiana looked at him awkwardly as he sat in the carriage.
It was the first time seeing him since they parted awkwardly yesterday because of Ppiyak.
In other words, their conversation yesterday hadn’t been properly finished.
She used to think they were basically strangers, but now she realized they weren’t that distant.
Maybe… just maybe, she could trust him a little more than she thought.
“If my brothers had worked together in the past… things might’ve been different.”
But in the end, even in the future, they never cooperated and kept stabbing each other in the back, showing what a broken family they were.
Each of them was capable, but that was all.
They lacked even basic family unity.
“This time… I should at least try to cooperate a little.”
Instead of struggling alone, trusting her family even slightly might make things easier.
“Hey, brother.”
“Yeah?”
“You’ll look into the Crown Prince, right?”
Joshua answered differently from yesterday.
“I thought that well-fed, chubby Crown Prince was already dead. But I don’t know everything, so I’ll investigate.”
“Ah?”
“For example, I didn’t even know Hou was injured like that. I thought he was just staying hidden in the greenhouse.”
His eyes darkened.
“I thought he was just far away on Grandpa’s orders. He does that sometimes.”
True enough. A useless grandson who didn’t even care about his grandfather probably wouldn’t care about his summon either.
“And I don’t know when or why he was poisoned so badly either.”
“Grandpa doesn’t seem like he’ll ever tell that.”
Yesterday, when she subtly asked, he refused to answer. Hou also stayed silent on the topic.
“Then, brother.”
Kiana looked at him and said quietly,
“Can you also find out when Hou disappeared?”
“That’s easy enough.”
Joshua shrugged.
“Anyway.”
He looked at her from the carriage.
“Glad your marriage issue got resolved.”
“Not sure if I’d call that resolved….”
Kiana sighed.
Ignoring it wasn’t a bad solution. After all, she and Rodrigo had no official relationship.
But for her, who knew the future, it wasn’t a satisfying answer.
“There’s still Prince Hiten. I don’t want to give him any leverage.”
A polite rejection with a clear reason would be better.
“Also, Joshua… one more thing.”
She stopped him again.
“Find someone for me. He’s probably in the capital. I want to meet him, the sooner the better.”
“Finding people is my specialty. Who is it?”
“Sezare Levin, the marquis.”
“……Huh?”
Joshua blinked.
“Why are you looking for that annoying guy?”
……Annoying guy?
