SFBLFD - Chapter 67

Fabiana gritted her teeth and crumpled the paper she was holding.

"...Odelia"

The name leaked out between her lips. A name she thought she had pushed away.

Now it all made sense: the Emperor's curious diet of potatoes, and why he so adored them.

It was all because of Odelia. Because of this damn thing.

Fabiana threw the paper with all her might. Her cheeks trembled with anger, and suppressed tears welled up in her eyes. She whispered.

"Right now... Are you making a fuss over the potatoes that Odelia harvested?!"

Fabiana's face was completely distorted.

It was so shameful and childish that she almost laughed out loud.

***

At that time, Calix was in the garden. It was a place filled with greenery sparkling in the sunlight and the soft scent of the earth.

Calix, finally out of his office, put on gloves and worked directly with the soil, tidying up a small flower bed for the first time in a while. He casually shook the dirt off his hands and stopped in front of a patch of potato sprouts.

Henry approached from a distance with a fidgety look on his face.

"Your Majesty, why bother getting your hands dirty when you could just have someone else do it for you? And... what are you going to do with those potatoes? I didn't know you liked them so much..."

Of course, he ended up getting kicked out of the garden for speaking so thoughtlessly.

Calix quietly finished the final cleanup, digging up dirt from the tool in his hand. He looked at the potato sprouts that had grown luxuriantly over the past few days and smiled faintly.

Something felt different. Everything no longer felt as meaningless as before. In the days when inspiration and interest had waned, a change, like a potato sprout, was quietly sprouting within him.

As he was leaving the garden and heading back to the main office, he saw a familiar silhouette walking briskly from the end of the hallway in the distance.

The person walking toward him, her skirt billowing wildly, was none other than Fabiana. Her eyes were red, and her breathing was ragged.

"Did you think I didn't know?"

Fabiana cried out, gasping for breath.

"Did you think I was this stupid? It's a potato sent by Odelia. So why don't you just sit there and worship it like that! I told you. If you really care about her, you should ignore her and pretend not to see her. You know I'll become mean to you if you do that to me. Do you think I'll just let it be?"

After standing silently for a while, he answered quietly.

"Then try touching her once."

Fabiana looked straight into Calix's eyes. There was no agitation in them, only a cool determination.

"What?"

"It's good for me, I have an excuse."

"What..."

"She's in danger. You discovered her identity and used that as an excuse to take her hostage. So I'll protect her. It'll give me a reason to approach her again."

In the past, he would have simply gritted his teeth, endured his anger, and silently suppressed it. Calix was not a man prone to fiery anger, but rather a man who quietly swallowed his emotions deep within.

If she tried to stab Odelia, he would have blocked her path and taken his blows. But now it was different.

Seeing Calix's heart flutter over a few potatoes, over a few lines of writing, made her blood boil. She could no longer deny the change in Calix she had tried to ignore.

Just a few potatoes.

"If you want it, then go ahead and touch it."

Those few pills felt like proof to Calix that Odelia still remembered him and cared about him.

That small gift gave Calix his first "justification." It was a reason to convince himself to fight instead of endure.

Calix appeared to be submitting to the pressure exerted on him by the Duke of Devon and the nobles and Fabiana's forces, but behind the scenes, he was constantly increasing his own power and influence.

The Knights, who risked their lives on the battlefield and achieved great feats. And amidst the chaos of war, a new aristocracy, like the bourgeoisie, amassed wealth and grew rapidly. He spared no expense in providing patronage and support, gradually gathering new factions that the established aristocracy could not contain.

And he planned to gather all those forces in Tamaland, Odelia's.

With its abundant commercial resources and strategic military location, Tamaland was the perfect place to unite the Knights and the emerging nobility and consolidate their power.

Calix's plan wasn't simply to expand his power. He sought to completely remove them from the sphere of influence of the existing aristocratic faction and reorganize them into a loyal force centered around Odelia.

The power that grows there will only work for Calix and Odelia and will become a new spark that will shake up the empire.

Although it was still not enough to completely destroy the traditional noble faction led by the Duke, Calix was no longer the one who had been unilaterally defeated before.

The cards he held were large enough to create a considerable rift in the empire's political landscape.

And that small gift from Odelia became the pretext for all the preparations. The reconstruction of Talamand, the new power of Talamand.

Of course, Odelia still has a long and arduous path ahead of her, but with a 'just cause' in his hands that no one can doubt, Calix can finally draw his sword in front of Fabiana.

So, the moment Fabiana bit him with jealousy, he could no longer remain silent as before. In fact, he was secretly grateful.

Fabiana glared at Calix, who was provoking her.

It was exhilarating to realize that the relationship between them, once considered irreversible, could be so easily restored. The mere mention of Odelia seemed to nullify all her strategy and patience.

Doesn't every relationship between a man and a woman end the moment one side rejects a confession? You rejected Odelia's feelings and even got engaged to me as if it were a show, but Odelia ended up marrying another man.

Are you saying that it won't end like that?

'How much time has passed between that woman and that man that I don't know about?'

It was the potatoes that were most deeply scratching Fabiana's pride.

***

Odelia, who headed to the field with an excited heart, couldn't help but be surprised.

The ground was completely covered with debris, and the neatly lined crops were crushed and scattered everywhere.

"Has a wild animal descended?" 

Odelia muttered with a distorted expression as she scanned the night.

As she looked at her mangled feet, Odelia's frown deepened, and she exchanged glances with Gideon and Allan, who had come closer.

"It doesn't seem like it was done by a wild animal."

Odelia spoke first. Her voice was filled with conviction.

"These aren't wild boar tracks. The size of the footprints is strange, and the path they took is also strange. Even if a wild animal gets lost or is chased down, they don't usually walk around with their feet like this."

It looked as if someone had deliberately trampled on it. Odelia's gaze turned to the vast land in the distance.

Gideon and Allan also felt as if all their efforts up until yesterday had been in vain. They simply stared in the same direction as Odelia, saying nothing.

"I need to find out if there are any bandits nearby."

As Gideon said this and got on his horse, Allan followed right behind him.

Despite Odelia's suggestion to grab a shotgun from the warehouse just in case, Gideon and Allan returned that day without finding any clues.

It was from that day on.

As if determined to ruin the efforts of Allan, Odelia, and the people here, the ground became a filthy mess every night. Even the relief crops, not yet ready for harvest, were dug up, leaving the entire area a barren wasteland.

There were times when traces of wild animals remained, but since they persisted to this extent, Odelia could not help but notice them.

That this is not simply the work of beasts.

That something, or someone, is intentionally messing with this place.

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