As Brigitte left, a brief silence fell between the two.
Julian spoke first.
"You are mistaken."
"What are you talking about?"
"Bridget's purifying aura can bewitch people. It happens sometimes. You're not in love, you're just momentarily possessed. That's why I'm leaving you alone."
It was a firm line drawn.
Eric looked at Julian with a face that said, "Who are you to judge my heart?"
Eric didn't really want to covet Bridget either.
He was going to quietly embrace it until it gave up, but even that was denied, so he became angry.
"If you know that, doesn't that mean that Your Majesty was also captivated by that energy? Then what makes you so sure that what Your Majesty feels is truly love?"
Eric didn't know what kind of feelings Julian had for Bridget.
Many things happened between Bridget and Julian that defied common sense. Things that the two of them called miracles.
But Eric couldn't know that, so he just thought it was too much that Julian was quick to notice his feelings and treat him like a joke.
It's not like I'm going to do anything to Bridget.
"If you are so sure and good about it, why don't you divorce her and keep her? It seems like her husband is a piece of shit. If you want to encourage a divorce, you can do It, right?"
If you loved Bridget so much that you stole her from her husband, wouldn't it be better to keep her as a wife rather than a mistress?
Even Eric, after learning that Isaac was a scumbag, admitted that Julian's choice to break up a family was not a bad one.
But he still couldn't understand why she was left in this ambiguous position as the government.
"Wouldn't it be better to have someone in a position of honor even for a day? A government position is not so honorable."
The idea was to make Brigitte Queen.
But Julian just let out a deep sigh.
The reason he didn't make Bridget his Queen was because he hated her at first.
But now, paradoxically, he doesn't think about that because he loves her.
"What glory would there be if it were a place that was destined to sink?"
Julian, who had been looking down absentmindedly with his chin resting on his hand, looked up at Eric.
Julian chuckled.
"You did that in the past. You kept Bridget by your side out of selfish greed, even though you were going to die soon."
Eric pursed his lips.
"You're going too far when you won't be able to protect her after you die."
Julian's head bowed on its own.
"You stabbed me in the chest with such passion, and now you want to make her your Queen?"
Her forehead almost touched the ground.
"I was angry at that time."
"You were just angry when she said something that would tear your soul apart?"
"..."
"Huh. if you commit murder and then say it was a mistake, that's it."
"You're laughing at something that could be compared to murder."
Julian's face was filled with a mischievous smile. It was a rare, broad smile.
It was so satisfying and enjoyable to stab Eric's conscience with the dagger he stabbed him with.
"I can't cry, so I laugh. It's so amazing, my murdered soul has risen from the grave."
Eric was washing his face with his hand.
"You might as well kill me."
"Well, that can't be. If I do that, then I won't be able to beg for Millea's affection anymore and I'll be abandoned, just like you said."
"Even if I had ten mouths, I would have nothing to say."
Eric couldn't come to his senses at all because he memorized every word he said and kept reminding himself of it.
After getting his revenge, Julian returned to the story he was telling.
"If Bridget becomes Queen, she will never be able to rest in peace. Her life will be irreparably ruined. She will be bitten here and there. So it is right to leave her in a light position so that she can leave the palace at any time."
Then he added softly.
"Then it will be easier to remarry. It would be burdensome for anyone to take a woman who was a Queen as their wife."
"..."
Eric, who thought that Julian had brought in Bridget to be his comfort for the rest of his life, looked at Julian with complicated eyes.
He said in passing that he was laughing because he couldn't cry, but it seemed like that was his true heart.
'It was frustrating.'
Eric realized before it was too late that he wanted to hold onto someone and vent his frustrations because he couldn't bear it otherwise.
"Bridget was a person who dreamed of living a normal life, meeting someone she loved, having children, and living together."
"..."
"I'm lusting after her because I don't have much time left, but I want to live my life from now on as I originally dreamed."
Julian stared at Eric silently.
The eyes looking at Eric were filled with envy.
"I wish she could meet a guy like you."
Eric was the perfect person to make Bridget happy: kind, responsible, and affectionate.
But Julian again firmly drew the line.
"But you can't. Millea will object."
"..."
Eric asked cautiously.
"Are you not feeling well?"
"Autumn? Winter. Maybe until next summer. No, maybe that's just my wish."
The intensity of the outburst has increased.
The day he attacked Bridget, he didn't recognize her and felt the urge to kill her.
How much longer could he endure such a rampage and still maintain his sanity? Julian was unsure.
'Twice? Or...one last time.'
Fortunately, the Shadow Knights have been quiet lately.
If it had been normal, there would have been signs of a runaway by now... but judging by the lack of signs so far, it seemed like there was some room to relax.
Is it because Julian is extremely restrained in summoning Shadow Knights?
Or maybe they really were quiet after eating the magi supplied by Bridget.
'I don't know if it will work.'
Although it was not certain, Julian was holding on to a glimmer of hope and extending his life as much as he could.
Julian chuckled as he looked at Eric's gloomy expression.
"Looking at that expression, I guess I'm glad there's at least one person who will cry at my funeral."
***
"..."
I was eavesdropping on the conversation outside the parlor door.
I couldn't hear much because I brought my own refreshments.
It all started when Eric asked if things weren't so bad.
"Autumn? Winter. Maybe until next summer. No, maybe that's just my wish."
My heart sank.
I used so much strength in my hand holding the tray that my fingernails turned white.
'No, no.'
I won't let him die.
By any means necessary.
But how can this be done?
'We need to find the missing records of Queen Beatrice. They're out there somewhere.'
Diane said she saw a necklace with a snake wrapped around a lion's neck. She thought the person wearing it was the last person to touch the missing records.
'When will it be?'
A long time ago? Or relatively recently?
Anyone who can tamper with royal records is limited in scope.
You will be able to find it.
If only time permits.
Of course, it was unknown whether there was a method written there to break the shadow curse.
No, it is realistic to think that there is no such way. If Queen Beatrice had found a way, the curse would not have been passed down to Julian's generation.
Still...
'If only I could extend his life by just one day.'
I wanted to try anything.
A necklace of snakes wrapped around a lion's neck. And to track down a sorcerer.
There was no stopping or giving up, just a brief interruption because of Penelope.
***
At that moment, Isaac was sitting in an unfamiliar place, very nervous.
Outside the window, he could see endless farmland and herds of cattle grazing along dirt roads. It was the countryside.
In an old farmhouse with a creaking wooden floor stood a nicely appointed study.
Isaac took a deep breath and waited for the person who had called him here. It seemed like he had gone for a short walk.
'You invited guests and then went out.'
Isaac swallowed his internal grumbling and looked around helplessly.
One wall of the study was covered with all sorts of strange masks, and in another corner stood a wooden sculpture the size of a man.
The wooden sculpture was dressed in brightly colored clothing that looked like something some indigenous people might wear deep in the forest.
And the desk.
On the desk was a bizarre sculpture that was hard to tell whether it was a hand with folded fingers or a human head.
'It's definitely got eyes, a nose, and a mouth. Is that a face? Or a hand?'
And there was a necklace hanging from the statue.
It was a necklace engraved with a snake strangling a lion's neck.
He was just staring at it absentmindedly.
"Isaac Winston. I kept you waiting."
The Duke of Linchester came into the study, his boots dripping with mud, with a sullen, kindly, country father's face.
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