Beguiling the Enemy’s Patriarch - Chapter 101

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 101
“….”
Instead of an answer, the sound of teeth grinding echoed through the air. The Count easily deduced the response.
Right, it still hasn’t arrived.
The King of Lebovni certainly had audacity. To ignore a marriage proposal sent by the master of Belgot for months now….
As the Count recalled, he had first sent the marriage proposal to Lebovni last winter—around the time the Emperor had just arrested Chernata Rosel and thrown him into the Underground Dungeon. It was fortunate that the proposal had been sent quietly without informing the nobility, so it hadn’t yet spread through the Capital. If word got out that Lebovni had been ignoring the marriage proposal for nearly four months, it would be perfect fodder for embarrassing rumors throughout the Capital.
“So this is what it feels like….”
The Emperor murmured as if in pain. The Count tilted his head in confusion.
“Pardon? What feeling are you referring to, Your Majesty…?”
“Being rejected.”
“I beg your pardon?”
Aiven Count inadvertently raised his voice. It was certainly not something that should come from the Emperor’s lips. Even setting aside his position and status, Auredhian Belgot was not a man who would be rejected by any woman anywhere. Aiven Count murmured in bewilderment.
“Rejected, you say….”
Besides, even though considerable time had passed between the two of them, it didn’t seem to be going poorly at all….
“Weren’t you exchanging letters with her?”
“…Until last month, yes.”
“You mean this month you skipped…?”
The Count carelessly let the words slip before the crimson violet gaze turned sharply toward him, and his mouth snapped shut. The Emperor swept his hair back roughly with a weary expression.
“Surely you’re not trying to take revenge this way, Yerenika.”
“….”
“Trying to make someone’s blood run dry….”
It was truly an unrealistic thing to say, yet oddly plausible. Aiven Count recalled the Princess of Lebovni, who had treated the Emperor like a mere means of transportation and nestled against him comfortably, and laughed without thinking. But he quickly pulled down the corners of his mouth that had risen so high when he caught the sharp gleam in the Emperor’s eyes.
In any case, only that Princess had ever made the mighty Eastern powerhouse of Laigar, the Emperor of Belgot, pine away like this—both then and now. Who would dare ignore an Emperor’s marriage proposal and shamelessly disregard his handwritten letters sent personally?
Of course, this thought was only possible because Aiven Count was completely unaware of the subtle tug-of-war that had been happening between the Emperor and the Princess two years ago.
Auredhian left the Grand Hall while irritably loosening the cravat that had been choking his neck.
‘Am I being punished…?’
Was he being punished for coldly rejecting Yerenika’s marriage proposals multiple times two years ago? But even so, for contact that had been maintained well for over a year and a half to suddenly stop for more than a month seemed like an excessively harsh punishment, didn’t it? What on earth was she thinking? Had her feelings changed?
But in the last letter, there was no sign of such a thing…. Were her written words and true feelings different? His thoughts began spiraling in increasingly twisted directions. She had said she would keep all the longing for herself, and now she doesn’t long for him anymore? That couldn’t be right.
“In truth, she probably would have been satisfied with any powerful divine being, Your Majesty.”
Rosel’s voice kept echoing in his ears. The unease his words had left behind grew heavier with each passing day. Now it was no longer mere unease but clear anxiety.
That was why he had sent a marriage proposal to the King of Lebovni the very day he returned to the Imperial Palace from Hejad. He never expected to wait over three months without receiving a definitive answer.
And in the meantime, letters from Yerenika had stopped coming too, which was driving him mad. His patience was wearing thin day by day. Soleia Elad’s whereabouts had been unknown for four months now, which was unsettling enough, but now he had to worry whether her feelings had turned away from him as well.
This was not the time for this push and pull. Unable to see her face. Unable to hear her voice. Just that alone was enough to drive him to desperation. The woman who had stayed by his side like a dream two years ago was cruelly refusing to show her face even in his dreams.
He wanted to hold her in his arms and breathe in her scent, to kiss every exposed part of her. But this thirst that letters alone could not satisfy had accumulated like this. So what was he supposed to do if she wouldn’t even send letters? How was he supposed to endure? Or had that wicked witch already extended her claws? Was something happening in Lebovni?
“….”
His thoughts spiraled further and further toward the worst possibilities. Auredhian forcefully cut through the tangled threads of his racing mind. Then his thoughts found their own trajectory.
“Why not just confirm it directly?”
Like that time before, it was a trajectory slightly removed from reason and reality.
“I beg your pardon?”
Whether Aiven Count heard his murmur and was startled or not, Auredhian’s lips curved up with satisfaction at the thought that had just occurred to him. The nobility would surely be swarming around him, all desperately hoping for his marriage, and besides, the purification work was nearly complete except for Kelkita. By the time he brought her to Belgot, it would probably all be finished.
Whatever happens, I’ll need her permission first. Whether her heart has already drifted away or she still smiles at him with affection—either way, I’d like to hear anything from that voice of hers.
“…There’s no way she’d refuse when I’m standing right in front of her.”
Two years ago, I wouldn’t have dared entertain such a thought, yet here I was, already thinking it. I made my decision before even arriving at the office.
I’d wrap up only the urgent matters and go myself. To Lebovni.
* * *
“Father, is it really alright to keep ignoring them like this…?”
Tezebia watched her father, the King of Lebovni, with a deeply worried expression as he personally shredded today’s letter as well.
“It’s a letter sent directly by the Belgot Emperor….”
The letter, affixed to crimson silk satin, was torn into tiny pieces in the King’s hands. The fragments were so meticulously shredded that even reassembling them would render the letter unrecognizable, and they tumbled into the waste bin with a soft rustle. Her father, who had accomplished this great feat with tremendous concentration, brushed his hands clean.
“Well, well. If it were a letter sent as Emperor, that would be different, but this letter is merely from a thief eyeing our youngest, nothing more.”
“A thief….”
But the other party is the Belgot Emperor…. Tezebia barely managed to swallow those words before they escaped her lips. An ambiguous smile hung at the corners of her mouth.
Auredhian Belgot. Master of the empire that commands the eastern reaches of the Laigar Continent. That young emperor was undoubtedly among the finest marriage prospects on the continent. No matter how she thought about it, it seemed like kicking away a gift that had rolled right to her feet….
Yet her father remained resolute.
“My Yerenika must live with her father. How could I send her to the empire? That dangerous land.”
“But that’s….”
Tezebia exhaled softly. She understood why her father was like this. About two years and several months ago, her younger sister had been kidnapped to the empire by the Belgot Military in a surprise attack on the Royal Palace, and when she returned, she brought back a strange, unfamiliar illness.
The condition was called mana incompatibility. Despite the cheerful letters saying she was being treated with great care in Belgot and not to worry, Yerenika’s state upon returning to Lebovni was far from good. She had lost considerable weight, and she struggled to endure even the faint traces of mana or small mana tools that were scarce in Lebovni.
Moreover, once a month without fail, she took refuge in the Raulus Temple, where she had shown almost no interest before. The sight of her carrying holy water and praying as if she had already received her death sentence only deepened the King and Queen’s growing concerns.
‘But….’
But for someone who had endured all manner of hardship in Belgot, she seemed far too intimate with the Emperor…. Tezebia recalled her younger sister, who visibly brightened whenever letters arrived from Belgot. Her lovely sister, who blossomed more beautifully with each passing year.
Yerenika, the treasure of Lebovni who had just turned twenty-one this year, no longer possessed any corners that looked like a cute girl. Yerenika’s characteristic charm remained adorable and sweet, but the aura that composed her had matured somewhat.
Her younger sister, once fragile as a glass marble that would shatter at the slightest touch, had captivated every man in Lebovni since turning twenty. Sometimes when she seemed lost in thought, sinking into contemplation, she appeared so precarious as to vanish into the air itself, yet even that somehow drew the eye. Of course, she herself remained blissfully unaware.
“My beautiful daughter won’t be taken by anyone. Absolutely not.”
“It doesn’t seem like Yerenika would be safe in Lebovni either….”
Tezebia swallowed the rest of her words. She had already witnessed countless times how the knights of Lebovni flushed red as beets and peeked from behind pillars whenever Yerenika passed. It was commonplace for colorful flowers to appear one by one along the paths she frequented.
“Who keeps breaking off flowers and leaving them on the roadside anyway?”
Of course, Yerenika remained completely oblivious to those men’s affections and complained about it constantly. For someone not lacking in perception to react that way meant she had no interest in other men, didn’t it…? The King, who understood his eldest daughter’s heart not one whit, clenched his plump fist and reaffirmed his resolve.
“Even if they offer to raise Glucaman’s commission to ten percent, it won’t work.”
“Last time they said they’d raise it to twelve percent….”
“No, no. Absolutely not! I can’t send my daughter to her doom.”
Perhaps it was just her imagination that his clear sky-blue eyes trembled like a fragile boat encountering rough waves. Yet Tezebia had clearly seen the King in the office, hugging a velvet cushion and squeezing out tears.
“Twelve percent…. Sob….”
“….”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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