I’m Done With Unrequited Love - Chapter 35
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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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Episode 35
Diego Leonar was busy.
Not merely busy—desperately, frantically, overwhelmingly busy.
Just this month alone, how many cases had he taken on?
Patricide, divorce proceedings, inheritance disputes, wage theft…….
And piled on top of that: the custody case of Ernan Cleor.
To speak plainly, Diego would never have accepted that commission if not for Fidelía.
He defended the common folk of this empire—second-class citizens despised by the titled nobility.
He would not defend aristocrats who played at superiority; that was his rule. Even if an ordinary person stood at the heart of the matter, it made no difference. If the client was nobility, Diego refused. Period.
It was Diego’s rule alone, his cornerstone.
A law never to be broken.
So his decision to abandon that law and accept the commission from Ernan—that was purely because Fidelía had asked him directly.
She had said exactly that.
Diego was indeed the opposite of Siren, and that was certainly a shift born of schooldays’ bonds.
But.
‘It’s not only that.’
It had been seven years ago.
It happened in that space between finishing third year at the Public Academy and entering fourth year.
His mother, as head of the household, had delivered the news in a flat tone.
Diego had been deeply shaken.
But why? For three years since entering the Public Academy in the Capital, their arrangement had remained steady, unshaken.
Diego and Fidelía were the same year, the same age.
They crossed paths often at school, and while they didn’t cling to each other, they’d developed a warmth in their passing greetings.
Fidelía always wore an expressionless face, yet when she looked at Diego, a faint smile would cross it.
So Diego had……
‘Caught the fever of first love.’
That seemed to be it.
He had indulged a foolish delusion—that Fidelía felt some affection for him too, that she would welcome the union of their two houses.
…….
All of that was ancient history now.
‘Even if I can’t forget that past, I’m thrashing about trying to.’
That was one reason Diego had become a workaholic.
It was also the true reason he’d accepted the commission from Ernan and Fidelía.
And in truth, Diego was not alone in failing to leave the past behind.
Siren Marco.
The day Fidelía and Siren had formed their partnership, Siren had rushed to Diego and spoken.
At first he’d thought it was some kind of joke.
But it wasn’t.
For a moment, something like madness flickered in Siren’s water-blue eyes—those same strange eyes that had unsettled Fidelía.
Diego had told Siren long ago that he’d already shed his feelings for Fidelía, but Siren seemed not to have listened carefully.
In Diego’s experience, trusting Siren rarely led to anything good, yet he’d simply let Siren be.
It hadn’t worked out, but that was because the office had kept him far too busy…….
But had Siren truly attempted something after all?
Not long after, Fidelía visited his office.
……Was it really because of that?
Siren’s eyes back then had been a touch unstable, so it seemed plausible.
Ding—
The moment he thought that, Fidelía’s supposed object of affection opened the door and walked in.
Ernan Cleor. The man Diego had envied with an ache in his chest when Fidelía’s rumor first began to circulate.
‘Not that it matters now.’
Ernan swept the interior of the office with a single glance and opened his mouth with an indifferent air.
“Fidelía hasn’t arrived yet, it seems.”
“No, sir. Please wait here. Would you care to read the newspaper?”
“It’ll do.”
Ernan settled into one end of the sofa and unfolded the Corbally Weekly, and in that same instant—
Ding.
A clear bell chimed once more, and there appeared a figure with luxuriant crimson curls…….
“Hello, we haven’t met before, have we? Diego?”
……It was Sarubia, the Grand Duke.
“Your Grace.”
Prince Xavier, ten years old, was with her.
“Oh my. Ernan’s here too? Of course—I heard he’s been frequenting this office lately because of the custody dispute. Fancy running into each other like this.”
Ernan merely nodded without folding up the weekly he held.
“Indeed. Quite the coincidence.”
“Not glad to see me?”
“I wouldn’t say that.”
“How blunt! Still, aren’t we cousins of a sort?”
Diego felt a headache beginning and rose to offer a proper greeting.
“It’s an honor to meet you, Your Grace. What brings you to this humble place?”
“Oh, nothing much. I have a case I’d like to commission.”
“A case, you say…….”
“I want to sue Bruno.”
“I beg your pardon?”
* * *
Ding.
The clear bell chimed as I pushed open the door to Diego’s Law Office.
I’d come here today because of Rene’s matter.
Diego had asked Ernan and me to come because he had something to discuss.
So I’d had no choice but to drag my weary body here.
The exhaustion came from lack of sleep.
—Think back. Among those around you, who bears a color most like Kiara’s?
‘If I could sleep well after something like that, it’d be strange.’
After worrying about it relentlessly for days, I decided to set the matter aside for now.
—But with Rene’s situation alone threatening to split my head open, I couldn’t possibly afford to dwell on that as well. Isn’t that right?
Judeen was right.
Since it wasn’t urgent, I could ponder it slowly later.
In any case, I’d made it safely into Diego’s office.
I scanned the room for faces first.
‘Ernan is…… ah.’
There he is.
Sitting on the sofa.
And Diego—
‘—is sitting beside him……’
“There’s really no way to sue the Emperor?!”
‘……listening to Sarubia speak.’
What on earth is happening here?
* * *
“Fidelía……!”
At my entrance, Diego called out to me as though I were his savior.
“You’ve finally arrived.”
“Yes, I’m here at last. You look more exhausted than usual, Diego.”
“Ah, that’s…….”
Diego fumbled for words, then pressed his lips firmly shut. It must be because Sarubia, the very source of his fatigue, was present in the room.
“Fidelía! Is it really you?”
The moment Sarubia saw me, her face lit up with delight.
“I heard you and Ernan took on the child’s case. Ah, this is Xavier. Have you two met before? In any case, say hello.”
Here was the full account of what had transpired.
“I want to sue Bruno.”
Sarubia revealed that she had come to Diego with a commission.
One concerning the prosecution of Emperor Bruno.
“Pardon? …… Your Majesty the Emperor, do you mean?”
“That’s right. Bruno von Corbally. I’ve come to you because I want to press charges against him.”
“On what grounds?”
“Fraud.”
Fraud, she said.
The emperor of this vast empire, Corbally, had committed fraud against his own sibling?
But the truth was somewhat different.
“Because he won’t remove me from the records?”
“Exactly! My name is still sitting right there in the Imperial Family Register, can you believe it?”
Sarubia, genuinely aggrieved, reached up and patted Prince Xavier’s head vigorously.
In truth, when you thought about it, it was only natural that a member of the imperial family would have their name registered in the Imperial Family Register, simply by virtue of being born into it.
“Yet Your Highness is acting as though your name had been fraudulently inscribed there without your consent.”
When Ernan pointed this out, Sarubia nodded emphatically.
“Of course. I never authorized my name to be written there in the first place.”
Diego, so the account went, responded to Sarubia’s intention to prosecute the emperor on fraud charges in this manner.
“I’m afraid that alone would not constitute fraud.”
“Why not?”
“Fraud is only established when there has been financial loss.”
“Then, what if I’ve suffered emotional damage? The emperor made me a promise and broke it, shocking me deeply, and now I even have trauma from it.”
“Then an Assault Charge might be viable.”
“Wonderful! So with this……”
“But members of the imperial family receive Immunity from prosecution for any violation of the law save murder, so legal action would be difficult.”
……
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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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