The Problem Is, My Ex-Boyfriend and I Are Both Dating Other People - Chapter 4

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

Chapter 4

* * *

Lihardt had waited long for someone with the name Beluoa. Someone bearing the house name. So when he heard merely “Beluoa” and descended straightaway to the Reception Room, his brow furrowed the moment he caught sight of the familiar face.
Because the one waving his hand lightly, as though greeting an old friend, was Noah Beluoa.
“I never expected you’d come looking for me.”
“Well, since it was unexpected for me too, don’t be too hard on yourself.”
Noah shrugged and rose from his seat.
“To be honest, buying the mansion across the way was a bit too obvious. Oh, our young mistress—or rather, Her Excellency now. Did you not notice when Her Excellency came to have a look?”
……
“Don’t worry. Bella has no idea that you buying the house right in front of the Beluoa Ducal House is just a coward’s pathetic plea for her to finally come find you.”
Is he calling this consolation?
Had Lihardt not known Noah, he might have been confused. But he had dealt with Noah thoroughly enough to be sick of it.
The man was mocking him right now. And rather pleased with himself about it, too.
“Brighten up. Even by these standards, isn’t this a rather decent reunion?”
“In what respect?”
“That our positions have reversed? I’ve become someone who must now speak respectfully to a Count. Isn’t that satisfying?”
“Hardly.”
“Come now, surely you can sense my envy of the Count?”
“You’d have better luck coating your lips with spit and calling it honey.”
“This is exactly why I can’t stand people who know me too well.”
Lihardt twisted his lips as he watched Noah grin shamelessly.
As Noah had said, his position and Lihardt’s had shifted entirely from ten years ago.
According to the late Beluoa Duke’s plan, Noah should have become the next Beluoa Duke. That was why he’d been taken in as an adopted heir from the start. And Lihardt himself would have been a knight with no title to his name, bowing before him.
“In any case, for a mansion procured in such haste, it’s not entirely unpleasant. But you’ll need to hire new staff. Even in a rush, you ought to have a steward who can at least memorize the notable figures.”
“If you had any sense, you’d concern yourself with your own life instead of other people’s affairs.”
“What’s wrong with my life? Rather, it’s the Winston County House that’s the problem. Even for a Newly Elevated Count, you’re the Northern Region’s hero—surely the hero’s steward shouldn’t be unable to recognize the Beluoa Ducal House’s retainers.”
Lihardt sat in the middle of the Reception Room and regarded Noah’s taunting quietly.
The man had been inscrutable since childhood, but neither was he the type to concern himself with trivial matters. If Noah had come all this way, he had good reason. Lihardt examined him slowly, from head to toe.
His clothes were light, as though he were departing for a distant place. With the change of household head so recent, there was only one obvious reason for the deputy to absent himself.
“You’re on your way to the Beluoa territories, then?”
“……Is that all you have to say after I’ve come all this way?”
“Is there anything else for us to say to each other?”
Sigh.
Noah shook his head. He regarded Lihardt with an exhausted expression, unable to find where to even begin.
‘Even if the Grand Duke hadn’t opposed it, we would have parted ways eventually, I’m certain of that.’
And just like now, neither would have been able to speak first, and they would have circled each other like restless dogs, neither knowing what they wanted.
‘I really don’t like it, though.’
Noah clicked his tongue. Without a word of exaggeration, he was genuinely uncertain whether Isabella meeting Lihardt again was truly a good thing.
Mending a broken relationship was difficult. All the more so when that ending had been a catastrophe.
“Fine then. Let me tell you something the Count might find interesting.”
But.
“Why have you come back? I thought you’d given up five years ago. Or was that not true?”
They say a choice, after all, is merely picking the lesser of two evils rather than the best option.
“Or have you had some idea of marrying the Princess and becoming royalty yourself?”
At that moment, the contempt in Lihardt’s gaze was so nakedly apparent that Noah found himself speaking as though in his own defense.
“Everyone is whispering that the Count is clearly after the Princess’s side.”
“And I ask you: scurrying off to your territories like a rat at a time like this—are you trying to clean up the mess the late Duke left behind?”
Noah, who had been trying by every means to provoke Lihardt, suddenly froze.
“How did you even—! No, well. Never mind. Just answer: do you still have feelings for Bella?”
Lihardt’s head tilted slightly to one side. As though he couldn’t fathom why he should answer that at all. That alone was answer enough.
‘Just as I thought. Lucky. I can make use of this.’
The visit, carved from precious time itself, had borne fruit.
“If you still have feelings for her, help the young mistress.”
Lihardt’s eyebrows twitched. He ground out Noah’s words as though he’d heard something absurd.
“Help? Me? Dare I—the Beluoa Duke?”
“Yes. As it happens, only the Count can do this.”
He had told her to end things, but Daemon would not let Isabella go. Not from love, but because he had come to need her.
Yet the more entangled Isabella became with Daemon, the greater her peril. If luck turned against her, she might find herself burdened with the preposterous slander that she had seduced Daemon after coveting the Private Treasury.
To hide a tree, you must go to the forest. And so Noah had come to the Winston County House. He intended to use Lihardt to bury Isabella in the chaos of a scandal.
‘Fortunately, that fool still has feelings for Bella.’
Whether it was love, he couldn’t say.
Lingering attachment?
Perhaps a bitter affection?
‘It doesn’t matter. As long as I can use it.’
Noah twisted one corner of his mouth upward and watched the man approaching him with that thought.
It was natural that Isabella didn’t know. She hadn’t seen the expression on the face of the man who’d caught her as she fell into the grave.
Right up until they’d entered the cemetery, Lihardt had been the very image of the cold knight of the Northern Region. The gossiping nobles had fallen silent the moment his gaze swept across them, as if they’d never been speaking at all.
But then.
‘Now that I think about it, he seemed to want to look impressive in front of Bella.’
Ah, that unguarded bewilderment from five years ago, still naked on his face the instant Isabella’s body began to sway.
That was why Noah hadn’t resisted when Lihardt seized him by the collar. He could see plainly which way the scales tipped in this relationship.
Lihardt spoke softly, as if reading Noah’s thoughts.
“Noah Beluoa. If you think I’ll dance in your palm again, you’re gravely mistaken.”
“……Even if Bella might become empress?”
Ah. Of course.
Between the thick suspicion, an unmistakable glimmer of hope betrayed itself.
Sigh. Really, how alike those two were.
“Explain.”
“Is the reason what matters?”
“Then what does?”
“That the young lady—that Bella dislikes Daemon rather than loves him.”
Lihardt flinched.
“That she seems to still care for someone.”
Noah’s eyes narrowed as he watched the bones of Lihardt’s hand stand out under the force of his grip.
Was he nearly there?
But then.
“Ha.”
Lihardt let out a hollow laugh and released the collar he’d been holding. Noah, half-flung aside, rubbed the base of his neck.
There was no longer any hesitation or bewilderment in Lihardt’s face. The temptation Noah had spoken of was nowhere to be found—as if it had never existed. Only cold remained.
“You’re saying the Beluoa Duke favors me?”
“……Yes.”
Noah couldn’t fathom why those words should anger him, so instead of answering, he let his voice trail off.
Unfortunately, that was enough for Lihardt.
“She doesn’t love me.”
No, why are you so certain of someone else’s feelings?
“Isabella loves wealth and power.”
……Our young lady does like money and does like power, but she’s not quite that mercenary.
Besides.
Noah looked up at Lihardt with a sullen expression. He was indignant at the fact that Isabella didn’t love him.
Icy. Frigid. Cold.
In other words.
“……Is that why you swept away all the monsters of the Northern Region and received your county title? Ah, you said you made a lot of money too. Wealth and power, was it.”
So you still love her after all?
At Noah’s pointed question, Lihardt flinched. But his response came in a voice so cold not even a needle could find purchase.
“Me? Impossible.”
“Ah, of course. Then it wouldn’t trouble you at all if our young lady danced the opening waltz of the ball with His Highness the Crown Prince, would it?”
There was no answer.
Noah swallowed a sigh as he watched the man freeze over like the ice of the Northern Region.
“It’s nearly time for the young lady to enter the palace. If you wish to stop her, you’d best go now.”
At those words, Lihardt glared at Noah before spinning on his heel and striding from the room. He said nothing at all.
Noah leaned back against the sofa, letting out a sigh—rude though it was to abandon his guest. No argument could be made against it.
In any case.
“What on earth happened five years ago to cause all this chaos?”
he mused, thinking that matters of the heart were beyond understanding.

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