"Tell me. Why am I here?"
"Is it a problem for my fiancée to be in the room with her husband-to-be?"
"..."
At his blunt answer, Evangeline turned her head quietly. She thought it was too hot, and the fireplace was scorching excessively. She seemed to be suffocating, and she pulled the blanket away and gently folded her knees into her arms.
Apparently, Evangeline has known this guy for quite a long time.
She doesn't know what happened, but she thinks she knows what he did.
"...Have you met Kirion?"
"He said he was your friend. There's no reason why we can't meet."
"What did you say to him?"
"You're such an interesting girl to ask your fiancé how he's doing, whom you haven't seen in a long time."
"..."
The corners of his mouth twisted as if he were making an Indifferent joke. That was the end of it. Deccarno, who was holding up the papers on the table as if he had nothing more to say, Instinctively Jumped out of his seat.
"What if you suddenly stand up!"
"Oh..."
Evangeline's arms trembled as she tried to force herself to stand straight, and Deccarno supported her back. As soon as he touched it, he could clearly feel Evangeline's overly stiff body on his fingertips. The corners of his eyes, which seemed to show signs of nervousness, returned to normal in an instant.
"Do you mean that you have to fall down again to get rid of your intuition?"
"...Let it go."
"Then you know it's your loss. There's no such thing as your friend here that you can hold affectionately."
Unlike her voice, which was emotionless, the way she tightened her open gown was quite familiar. Her flinching reaction didn't move as much as before.
"Why, are you still so scared?"
"No, I don't. The Duke is always the same as before."
"Then what's the problem?"
He was satisfied that the words exchanged with his hands were not awkward. It is the same with her refusal to shake his hand. However, Evangeline's chanting immediately shattered his misunderstanding.
"Me."
"..."
"I think I've changed."
Even after a momentary sway, Deccarno tied the knot perfectly until the end. Instead, the look in his eyes that asked her to continue was quite different from the first time.
"Really? Then change it."
"Duke."
"You're going to change, because it's worth it."
It was his warning that nothing would change. But Evangeline just laughed. Shr didn't know how much that laughter turned a person's insides upside down, but she stared at Deccarno with a smile.
"Of course, you can. But I don't think so."
"It seems that you have a lot of thoughts after you get sick. The doctor told you to take care of yourself, so call the chef right away."
"Stop."
"..."
He stood up again and turned to Evangeline at an angle. He instinctively knew what she was telling him to stop, and that there was another meaning in those words.
"I want you to quit now."
"What?"
"...Everything."
Her eyes were empty as she smiled. If he pushed himself away in anger, he would have thought it was a grudge, but that wasn't the case. Het empty face, which had nothing to hope for, was as if it would melt if he touched it.
"I don't regret the last two years I spent here. I did my best. But if I drag out more time here, I think I'll really regret it."
"So now... Do you want to break up the marriage?"
"Yes."
Evangeline replied in disbelief. No matter what he said or what he asked, she didn't seem to hesitate.
"I'm going to break up the marriage. No, I'm breaking up."
"I don't know what you're talking about. Was it such an easy marriage for you?"
"You won't believe it now, but I was the one who wanted to keep this marriage and do well until the end."
"Then you can just do it."
"...It's late."
Her red lips were slightly parted, and she smiled a little deeper and more bitterly. Looking back, she doesn't remember it being particularly funny, but she still laughed strangely when she thought about it.
"I thought I could do that if I tried somehow. We spent a lot of time together, and we thought we knew each other so well."
"I'll pretend I didn't hear it."
Deccarno stood up, as if he didn't want to listen anymore. He was dressed perfectly from the beginning, so he could just go out like this.
"I don't know why you're doing this, but."
"You know"
"..."
"You know me as much as I know you. That I'm the one who doesn't say these things casually, and that I'm more sincere than ever."
Deccarno glared at her hard, realizing that she could no longer go back to what had never happened. But Evangeline just smiled as if she knew how he felt.
"If you're ready to talk seriously, come anytime. I'll wait."
***
Duke Theses did not leave his office in the Senate for several days. Originally, there were voices that he was crazy about his work, but now he has exceeded that level. He hardly slept, let alone ate. But the most frightening thing was that the speed at which things were done was getting faster.
"Get over it like this. They are asking us to raise the tax bill again for next year."
"It's easy. I'm really scared that he'll collapse like this."
Michael, who couldn't see the handing over of the pile of papers, cried. When he died, the nobles with his nose grabbed him and said, "Please stop the duke."
If even one mistake comes out, he would consider it humane, but he can't find even a speck of flaw among all the things.
Thanks to a monster, only ordinary people died.
Still, Michael held the trump card to stop him.
"Your Excellency. Let's take a look at this first."
"What is this?"
"We collected all of them before they were just distributed from the newspaper to the distributor."
The trap was that it wasn't a very good card.
"It almost made the front page today."
"..."
As expected, the word newspaper stopped the Duke for the first time and looked at him. The Duke's eyebrows twitched as he read the headline of the newspaper that Michael held out.
A Lady's Secret Outing
Last Friday evening. A noble lady visited a townhouse on Melkes Street. According to the informant, who did not reveal her identity, the lady was someone anyone could know at first glance and seemed to have a close relationship with the landlord...
"It seems that the caretaker who works in the house immediately sold the information. The captain threw the manager out, so I think everything would have been resolved..."
"Naive."
The Duke sneered and didn't look so bad. In a way, he seemed to be the most relaxed in recent years.
"They say you're a good man, and I think you're right."
"What do you mean?"
"You're still young. You don't know what the world is going to do, and you think everything will go your way."
The Duke drew a provocative headline in the newspaper. The nuance was strange to say that he was thinking of a young officer.
"After all, it's not bad for me."
"Your Excellency."
"What did you do to find out?"
"Ah, Captain Kirion's father, Count Lebel, was governor of the Addis Islands for almost 20 years. According to the reputation of the people around him, he is quite greedy. Now he's rushing to get his eldest son to come back to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Loark."
"It's better. If this happens again in the future, I'll send you there, not me."
"But what happens..."
"Thanks to his son, who knows no heaven and earth, he will spend his life hunting in the jungles of Addis for the rest of his life. If you don't like that, you can hunt your own son."
The Duke's tone was surprisingly plain. Even though he said yes, Michael got chills and wiped away his sweat.
He couldn't say anything, but the Duke was the perfect fit to take him to the middle of the jungle. Recently, the atmosphere that seemed to be beyond the scope of humans was very wild.
If you get caught incorrectly, your teeth will stick to your bones, like a beast of prey.
Comments
Post a Comment