Chapter 73 - 23. I will Lead The Story (4)

Her voice was so small, so the only person who could hear it was Carl.

“So don’t worry too much, Carl. And don’t try to change too much.”

“…”

“I need you to be like Andras.”

Carl put his hand around his chest and began to look troubled. Clearly, what Fanora brought out was a sentence to reassure him.

“Lad Fanora also hates being in pain, right?”

“Maybe?”

“…I don’t want to sadden such a kind person?”

“Pardon?”

“Why do I keep feeling like this these days…?” He tilted his head, questioning himself.

“Why? What are you feeling?”

“Somehow, I feel like I really want to spar with Lady Fanora? Please listen to my request.”

A chill went down her spine as soon as Fanora heard those words from him.

“I’m leaving now.”

I have an important task, but what if I accidentally break my leg? After making her judgment, Fanora started walking straight to her maid. Then Carl followed her.

“I-I will take you there!”

“Do you have time?”

“Yes. Anyway, I’m out of the next training anyway.”

He must know the map of the castle well, so he will be good at guiding. Fanora readily accepted his help.

“…”

However…

Carl is definitely barbaric, but he clearly distinguishes between enemies and allies. As they started to walk back through the castle garden, she fell into contemplation. He has a gentle personality.

She turned her eyes and saw Cecil and Carl walking behind her. When Cecil accidentally met Carl’s eyes, she turned her head away in fear. Instead of taking offense at it, Carl smiled mildly, feeling apologetic for some reason. That made Fanora have a little question.

“Carl, I’ve been curious for a long time?”

“Yes? Yes! Go ahead.”

Fanora stepped to the entrance of the garden with a rose tunnel. It was the place where she first met him sometime in the future.

“Is your engagement annulled because you are really assaulting your fiancée?”

“!”

It was a topic I was curious about in my past life and even after regressing.

“Ah, that.”

Fanora tried to say that if it was difficult, he didn’t have to answer it. But Carl’s answer was faster.

“That actually happened while sparring.”

“Sparing? With that lady?”

“My engagement started when the other person chose me.”

Carl took the lead, saying let’s move and talk.

“I asked when I met the lady from the Count family. Why did she want to get engaged to me? So at first, she said that my personality is good.”

“There’s no problem with the answer.”

“It would if she had been honest.”

Fanora just blinked. Carl turned around, walked to her, and said, “She just lied every time she opened her mouth. After asking for a long time, the real reason finally came out. She said she liked the way I looked.”

“…”

“But I couldn’t help it. Her family’s estate is a very good land, so when their family said they would accept a third son like me and told me to marry gracefully.”

“The family pushed for the engagement.”

Swoosh, Carl turned his body around again and looked forward. Fanora looked at his back, which was exposed in front of her. There was a physique difference between the two to the extent that he shaded her.

“So I told her. I don’t want to get married… The head of Andras’s family had been looking for a strong lady for generations, and my ideal type is a lady who knows how to fight.”

“Yes.”

“But that’s when she said it. She said that in fact she is also interested in martial arts.”

Huh? Isn’t this a good story? Fanora felt that the remarks he brought out felt like the beginning of a romance novel. Stories of people starting out with an arranged marriage, accidentally finding common ground, and falling in love were common.

“Then I asked if she could spar with me, and she said that would be nice too.”

However, the words of the engagement he experienced were fishy.

“So one day, I sparred with her, and as soon as she got hit by my wooden sword, she started crying and shouted, ‘I thought you’d let me win, but how can you hit me!’.”

Carl recalled that day and spoke in a calm voice. “What she was imagining was safe sparing, like with a swordsmanship teacher, right?”

“It must be embarrassing.”

“I know, right. From her point of view—”

“No. Not her, but you.”

Carl opened his eyes wide at those words. Because she was walking in the lead, Fanora couldn’t tell his expression.

“…I did it on purpose.”

“!”

“Because I knew she didn’t mean it when she said she was interested in martial arts.”

Carl quickly explained. He said that from the beginning, he planned to spare with her in order to annul their engagement.

“I see.”

Carl’s plan eventually worked. However, this one-sided annulment brought a lot of changes. He got labeled barbaric because his engagement was annulled as he assaulted his fiancee. And thanks to that, he became a man who didn’t come into marriage talks with other families.

“I’ve made up my mind about it. I’m not going to get married.”

“For the rest of your life?”

“Well, who would be happy to marry the man of Andras?”

Carl looked back again. There was a warm smile on his face.

“They hurt their wife all the time, don’t take good care of their children because they often go to war, and die early.”

He spoke casually. “It would be nice if this blood of Andras could be cut off soon.”

Fanora then vehemently denied his comment. “What are you saying? How big the world is, there must be at least one person with the same hobby as you.”

“So what?”

“Don’t give up already, Carl. You deserve to be happy.”

At this, Carl raised his eyebrows in doubt. “What do you mean I deserve to be happy?”

“?”

In response to his question, Farnora found the basis for what she should have said. Yes, of course… you have to make a normal family… But her thoughts never came out of her mouth. It was because they had reached the main gate of the royal castle.

“…”

Fanora glanced back and forth between the knights guarding the passage and Carl. After that, she quickly lowered her eyes and moved quietly.

“Let’s go back, Cecil.”

This was the end of their conversation.

As time passed, it already became night.

What kind of request did Lady Fanora write? After completing his schedule, Carl returned to his room and sat in front of the fireplace. He tore the envelope with his bare hands and began to check the contents.

[Please obtain a map of the Golden Palace, where the ball will be held this summer.]

The first sentence of the letter mentioned a specific place.

[Also, please get some ‘Rache Seed’ written in the book of toxicology.]

The second sentence was a request to prepare something.

If it’s a golden palace, is the building to the east of the royal castle? And isn’t Rache Seed for sleeping pill? For Carl’s, both were easy to prepare. However, he couldn’t help but be surprised when he reached the third sentence of the letter.

“…!”

For a while, he read the letter sent by Fanora with all his heart and soul. And, after reading all the orders from Fanora, he threw the letter into the fire without hesitation.

Oh my god.

Kiik. He immediately sat on a chair with an old sound and covered his mouth. Judging by the contents of this fake invitation…

What is Lady Fanora thinking?

At the ball this summer, surely someone is going to die.

* * *

“These days, Naverius doesn’t come to the ball, so seeing the dance is not fun.”

Meanwhile, in the heat of the social season in the Kingdom Kasius. Today, somewhere in the capital, nobles were enjoying a ball until dawn.

“I know, right. He is a good dancer…”

“He is handsome too! Hoho.”

However, recently a topic of conversation came to mind in Kasius ballroom. A man named Naverius Demangdwi, who had attended all the balls so far, had suddenly disappeared.

“Is he sick?”

“I heard he’s been depressed lately.”

“Are you depressed? Why?”

“I don’t know. Even if you were born that handsome, you must have your own hardships.”

An active person suddenly became less active. One by one, the nobles began to speculate on the reason why he didn’t come to the ball. But the most powerful rumors were that he seemed emotionally unstable lately.

“I heard strange drugs circulating in clubs where gentlemen go these days. No way, it’s not because of the drug’s effect, right?”

Did the nobles who were swept away by these rumors know? That it was none other than Fanora Celsius that created the current rumors.  

“Oh, come to think of it, he’s also a member of the card game club.”

There were always countless nobles next to the future Duchess. Fanora could easily create a herd of canaries to spread rumors.

“Is it because of that?”

“Maybe he’s caught by his family and is on probation at home.”

By the way, why did the healthy Naverius’s social activities shrink? Or, as the rumors say, he got involved with a new drug? No way.

Naverius! See you again?

It was a week ago. Fanora and Naverius met again at a banquet. Their conversation went like this.

“I have good news for you. That, how did Aloken, who loves me, know about the rumors back then? He started a search on his own.”

“What? Search…?”

“I don’t know what kind of Lord made fun of him. He said he would definitely find the person who started the rumor by asking the nobles.”

With a fan covering her mouth, Fanora’s eyes were smiling just like how her fiancé always did.  

A week ago, Fanora whispered to Naverius, who had stiffened.

“Now that he’s the Duke of the kingdom, he can easily punish a noble who falsely slanders his lover.”

This was the act of driving an animal in one direction for hunting.

“Isn’t this good news? With this, both you and I will fully restore our honor. Don’t worry about anything in the future! No one will doubt you anymore!”

A situation where you just realized how heavy a crime you actually committed with a light heart. To make things worse, Aloken began actively engaging in social activities after a while. Naverius naturally shrink more and more.

I’m sure the page around here is about this summer…

But there was still a missing piece. Having been to a ball with Aloken, she went through her own diary as soon as she got home.

Ah, there it is. This is the beginning of summer. And then?

In Fanora’s diary, it contained not her daily life but Vasago’s life. So she pointed out the scribble that she had written down from the midnight novel.  

<1. Ballroom (night)

Vasago was tired of the series of dance requests. To avoid the heat of the ball, she moved to the terrace at the far end of the second floor. There was no one on the second floor.

Vasago: I thought at least one lover would have a date, but they all seem busy building friendships.

Vasago leaned on the terrace’s railing and looked at the distant sky. In the meantime, as the clock tower bell rang, signaling 11 o’clock, a chuckle could be heard from outside.

Vasago: (What on earth?)

Vasago pulled back the curtains and checked behind the door.

Vasago: Duke?

Aloken appeared from beyond the door. Finding it on the terrace, Aloken smiled lightly and stood close to the door. Aloken blew the window and wrote, ‘open it.’>

After a while, Fanora finally found the last piece she needed from the midnight novel.