When My Enemies Began to Regret

My eyes became clouded at the extraordinariness of Carl Andras that was revealed in every scene.

‘Even though his appearance and relationship with his family are fine, I think I can see why his engagement was broken up.’

“I think I know why he was broken up when his appearance and family are so fine.”’

‘He is a sad boy.’

But Carl made a worried face, mistaken that I felt sorry for myself.

“Is Lady offended by what I just said? I’m sorry. You listened to me so well that I didn’t notice it. Ah, I talked a lot today because I felt excited.”

“What are you sorry about?”

“Yes? Uh, because I’m weird. Everyone gets upset when they talk to me for a long time.”

As Carl spoke in a crawling voice, I shook my head.

“No, rather I feel good. You’re not telling me to stop taking revenge.”

“…”

“And the explanation of the weapons you gave me earlier was really interesting. It’s fun to learn because you speak fluently about it.”

Others may feel Carl’s words and actions were barbaric as he’s noble, but I didn’t feel the same way. Every time Carl spoke violent words, it made me shrug inside, imagining how good it would be to use them against my enemies.

“It’s not that you’re weird, but you have different interests from them. Maybe they felt uncomfortable because you’re talking about your favorite stories.”

“…Is that so?”

I stood up and grabbed the hand of Carl that had been extended to me. 

“But it’s okay because we have the same interests.”

Now it was time to go back.

* * *

My hands were heavy as I returned from Andras’s mansion.

“This is a book that summarizes the vital points of a person, and this is a medical book that contains information about which blood vessels produce a lot of blood, etc. And this one is about the toxicity of plants that you can find around…”

That was because Carl gave me several books as a gift.

“Actually, these three books are the books that contain information Lady Vanora needed.”

But the weight increased because he added the useless novel into the gift and then deceived me.

“And this is a novel that I enjoyed reading as a child. The main character is cool. He cut off the enemy leader’s head.”

“You read it when you were young? Then why give it—”

“Lady will be on a long road to return to your mansion. Wouldn’t it be nice to read some books on the way?”

I pulled out a physical training diary that Carl had handed over to me, written by the author of many books. 

“…”

There were quite a few easy-to-understand methods of training explained with pictures.

“It’s going to take a lot of time.”

I recalled my future schedule in my mind.

“A year from now… I’m going to be busy making my debut in the social world… Can I prepare well for the engagement ceremony?”

First of all, this was the most urgent schedule. After spending a lot of time, the new engagement ceremony schedule is approaching in a blink of an eye. Since my fiance comes from the Duke’s family, there was a sense that I wanted to unnecessarily delay it to show to the public.

‘I’m confident I can withstand the cold. I’ll take this opportunity to visit the North, which I’ve never been to in my entire life.’

The engagement ceremony will be held in none other than the heart of Duke Jalier’s territory. So I had to head to North as soon as this carriage arrived home. There was no reason to blame others because I rushed to make the tight schedule.

“…”

By the way, I am a little curious now.

‘How will the engagement go?’

In order to speed things up as much as possible, I entrusted Aloken to prepare for the engagement ceremony on the condition that he could ignore my opinion.

‘Even if I give my opinion, my family wouldn’t listen to me anyway. I would rather he discussed it directly with the Count.’

That’s why I knew very little about my engagement ceremony. However, I only need to sleep for a few nights and wake up, then experience it by myself. So, there’s no need to waste my time imagining the engagement ceremony.

There was nothing important on the road back to the mansion.

In the meantime, I slept every night dreaming that the assassin sent by Hanar put their dagger in my chin, but fortunately, what I worried about didn’t happen.

A few days later.

「She looked at the boy’s shabby clothes.

Vasago: I guess I’ll have to get some new clothes. I’m sure there must be a servant suit for your age to wear in our mansion. That’s right. Well done, my maid, now, please try it on.

Young servant: Can I really wear such precious and nice clothes? My body is dirty, so the beautiful clothes will get dirty very quickly.

Vasago: In the name of Vasago, I assure you, you’re no longer dirty. Do you want to look in the mirror? After taking a bath, your impression is different.」

Lately, a new character has been added to the midnight novel I saw.

“Is he that person?”

Even the proper name has not yet been given, but I’m guessing that he is the exclusive servant who will be by Vasago’s side in the future. This is because Vasago’s exclusive servant in the future had a similar impression to the brown-haired boy who appeared in the novel.

‘They’re about the same age. The servant Vasago carried with her looked quite young even though he may not be that young…’

In the novel, he was rescued and educated by Vasago while she was wandering in the slums. In the process, he fell in love with Vasago’s kindness. The servant who serves Vasago by her side is narrated as one of the characters in the ‘Dangerous Love.’

It may be possible to find out this servant’s weakness, or on the contrary, to find Vasago’s fault from this servant’s point of view.

‘Can I bribe this servant with something like money? No, I didn’t even negotiate often. Let alone convincing people to appease others.’

But this is only a shallow prediction. This novel only provides fragmentary information about Vasago, so it was difficult to do something right away.

Therefore I decided to stay curled up for now.

“Lady Vanora, they say we will pass through the gate soon. Let’s get back in the carriage.”

“All right.”

Even if someone doesn’t ask the reason, my body can’t help but curl up in this cold weather…

“Are you cold? It’ll be better if Lady wears a fur coat.”

“No, I tend to tolerate cold weather well, so I will get used to it.”

“But, Lady—”

“I don’t need it.”

This place was near the gate to the Northern, Hamel, where the home of Duke Jalier is located. These days, I was getting ready for the engagement ceremony and finally heading there. Of course, the people of the Celcius family departed more leisurely than me, and I didn’t have to worry about them.

“I will be the main character who comes last, so I’m sure I will get criticism.”

Looking out the window, I realized this place was completely different from the capital.

‘It’s been so long since winter ended, but the scenery is still like this?’

When people of the capital think about the North, they say it is a place where there is nothing to eat, dangerous places with many wild animals, barren land… etc.

“!”

But after a while.

With a jolt, we soon entered the heart of Duke Jalier’s territory, where the engagement ceremony would take place. As we crossed one of the fortress walls, the scenery I saw changed.

‘It’s better than I thought.’

When I entered the city, I could see people living there. Unlike in the capital, the roofs of the buildings here were light colors, gave off a frugal feeling, and the neatly arranged carriageways gave a good impression.

‘I heard that the North is a place where crops get frosty even in the summer, but that’s not the case.’

It’s only 5 a.m. right now. The temperature was chilly for a while, but the weather was so clear by the time the sun came up. The coolness that is quite different from the early summer experienced in the capital approached me positively.

“Lady, now that we’re in the city, I think you can close your eyes a little bit. I will wake you up when we arrive at the cathedral.”

At that time, Cecil, the maid sitting opposite me in the carriage, suddenly suggested it. Her personality is quite like mine, who had a business-like attitude as her expression didn’t show any emotions. But it was clear to me what those few words meant.

“Do I look so tired?”

Chronic insomnia I suffered from left a dark shadow on my face.

‘She must be thinking about how to cover her Lady’s face with powder.’

“The two families want each other anyway, so just because I look ugly doesn’t mean the engagement ceremony will be canceled. Relax your shoulders.”

I turned my dry eyes to the window. Perhaps she understood the attitude of me expecting nothing, and luckily, Cecil didn’t say anything more.

Rumble. Rumble.

The time of dawn when the noise of the wheel of a carriage and the faint sound of horseshoes mix. I couldn’t sleep, but my eyes hurt even when I stared blankly out the window. I spent some time closing my eyes tightly to protect my stuffy eyes.

A lot of thoughts came to my mind in the darkened vision. Should Naverius be cut like sashimi, grilled, boiled, or buried alive?

“Lady… Lady Vanora. We’re here.”

And not long after, Cecil woke me up. By the time I opened my eyes again, the scenery had changed.

“You mean my engagement ceremony will be held in here?”

Compared to a wedding, it’s customary for an engagement ceremony to be simple, just like only praying over water…

‘Why did he choose such a gorgeous cathedral?’

Somehow, it felt like something would be creaking from the first step I took.

‘No… I left everything to him in the first place. How can I disparage the person who prepared so hard? Let’s just take it lightly.’

I moved as the vassals of the Jalier led me without a single complaint. I was taken to the cathedral’s narrow passage and put on the yellow robe sent by the Duke Jalier. White is the standard for marriage and yellow for engagement, so it was a natural choice. After that, with Cecil’s help, she long braided up my hair and tied it, and by the time she managed to do it, she put the headdress sent by the Duke Jalier again.

“What did my family do?”

Having made it this far, I wondered what Bael Celcius had helped with the engagement ceremony.

‘He was obviously not interested in his daughter’s engagement, but…’

I bowed my head for a moment.

“It’s done, Lady Vanora.”

I got up from my seat when Cecil had done her touch. It’s the same that I’m not interested in this engagement, so there’s nothing left to postpone.

“Then let’s go.”

I got up straight from my seat without seeing my figure and followed the butler of the Jalier family. Even now, I just kept thinking, ‘After this is over, I will have to memorize the books that Carl gave to me.’

“The Lady of Celcius family is entering.”

But just a few minutes later.

When the door to the high priest’s room opened, I had to stop what I had been thinking about.

“…Then my prospective companion must have come. The witness stand seems to be filled, except for the rather slow ones, so let’s start without delay.”

A neatly combed hair. The engagement uniform, similar to mine, seems to have been tailored for today’s ceremony. The ceremonial sword hung over his waist was so glamorous. However, the reason why I didn’t look at the decorations was because his face caught my eyes.

‘Ah, I shouldn’t have dragged Aloken Jalier in.’

The dark-haired man found me and gave me his distinctive thin smile. At the same time, the unmarried ladies who sat on the benches of the cathedral lamented.

I was convinced by this.

‘I shouldn’t have been greedy for nothing. Now that I think about it, I should have used someone else to break up my engagement with Naverius.’

Aloken Jalier. He is more attractive than I thought. I had never heard of the Duke of North looking so handsome, and I regretted seeing his stylish appearance now. The fame of capturing him will one day return as envy and jealousy. Just because I’m trying to have a little higher power, that will make things go wrong.