The Unfilial Heir Who Tries to Kill Me Tempts Me - Chapter 45

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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 45.

“…What a mess.”
Kaius rubbed his face with a dry hand.
The laughter of thoroughly drunk soldiers echoed through the Banquet Hall.
At the end of his gaze sat Charlotte Schmidt, her head buried on the table, fast asleep.
Despite Kaius’s objections, she’d drained three cups of wine in quick succession and promptly collapsed, showing no signs of waking.
“Charlotte Schmidt.”
“I’m not asleep!”
She bolted upright.
Charlotte sprang to her feet as though launched from her seat. Her voice rang out with authority, but her silver eyes were half-lidded, their focus blurred for some time now.
“I really wasn’t asleep. I was just leaning forward. I’m not drunk.”
Kaius dismissed her nonsense with a light wave and turned his head. Across the room, Eden occupied an entire table, stuffing meat into his mouth.
“You there, Demon.”
“Huh?”
“Handle the drunks yourself.”
“What? Why should I?”
Leaving Eden’s bewildered protest behind, Kaius grasped Charlotte’s arm and pulled her to her feet.
“Get up.”
“What?”
“Do you want me to carry you again?”
“Uh…?”
Charlotte’s mouth hung open in a daze. A moment later, her head shook slightly, and she looked around.
Her gaze drifted across to Arthur and Mary Vulcan, sitting side by side, catching up after years apart. She blinked at them, then suddenly gasped and covered Kaius’s eyes with her hands.
Kaius’s brow furrowed.
What kind of stunt was this?
“Right, I need to leave.”
Charlotte stubbornly seized his hand.
“I’ll help you escape.”
Escape?
The act made no sense whatsoever. Kaius studied her intently. After several seconds passed, he finally grasped what she was trying to make him escape from, and a dry laugh escaped him.
“But, um…”
“Now what.”
“The ground keeps swaying, so could you… go slow?”
“You really are something.”
Kaius chuckled and steadied Charlotte by her shoulders. She leaned into his embrace and staggered forward, one uncertain step after another.
They moved slowly through the Banquet Hall, and at the bottom of the stairs, Charlotte released a long, deep sigh.
“Phew… we made it.”
“I’ll grant you that.”
“What do you mean?”
“You really are well-connected.”
Kaius gestured with his chin back toward the Banquet Hall. Inside, he could hear Arthur’s and Mary’s names called out repeatedly.
Charlotte blinked slowly. Her response was sluggish, as though a screw had come loose.
Only after a long moment did understanding seem to dawn, and she trembled slightly.
“…That’s not it. You’re not the only one without family, Your Highness. I don’t have any either.”
“Ah, is that so.”
At her grandiose excuse, Kaius let out a languid sigh.
“I never mentioned family.”
“Oh.”
Charlotte brushed her own face. She shut her eyes tightly and tapped her cheek lightly with one hand.
“…Really. It wasn’t that I was worried about you, Your Highness. It’s just that sitting there any longer felt… uncomfortable somehow.”
“Fine, I understand.”
“I’m serious.”
Kaius walked slowly, leading the murmuring Charlotte along.
She stumbled now and then, gripping his hand firmly as she fought to keep her balance.
The raucous noise and cheerful music faded behind them. Stars hung thick across the night sky, threatening to spill down at any moment, and the cool night breeze, carrying the scent of grass, brushed past their cheeks.
How long had they walked?
As they reached the far end of the Garden, Charlotte suddenly stopped.
“Charlotte Schmidt?”
When Kaius turned, she was gazing out at the distant wavering light from the Banquet Hall.
A faint luminescence pooled in her silver eyes as though water were trembling on their surface.
“Doesn’t it look happy?”
Her voice was dreamy.
Kaius’s gaze followed her toward the scene.
“Actually, I’m used to this sight.”
Kaius didn’t bother asking which sight she meant. He knew her words required no response from him.
Wind tousled Charlotte’s hair finely. Her expression flickered between obscured and vivid, as though framed by a gauze curtain.
“When was it… I came home and sat alone in a daze, and suddenly light came pouring through the window. The neighbors must have come back as a family—I could hear their laughter drifting through the window cracks. For so long.”
Charlotte spoke slowly, as though recalling a distant past: that night she’d curled up in bed until the lights went out, had barely breathed, had felt reduced to an infinitely small point.
“There are moments like that, aren’t there. Usually you’re fine, but then… suddenly the fact that you’re alone overwhelms you with loneliness.”
Charlotte withdrew her gaze from the Banquet Hall and looked directly at Kaius.
“…That’s why I did it. I was afraid you might be lonely too.”
“…….”
“Whenever those moments come, I’ve always wanted to run away…. I didn’t know where to run to, so I never actually managed it.”
Kaius’s gaze drifted slowly downward.
There—pale, white hands gripping stubbornly at the hem of his garment.
With fragile arms that looked as though they might snap at the slightest touch, as though bracing against something, Charlotte held fast to him.
And so he found himself wondering what answer would be fitting.
In truth, he’d long ago forgotten loneliness and melancholy. There was nothing more meaningless than wallowing helplessly in the remnants of the past.
Yet Kaius could neither refute nor dismiss her words.
Her voice seemed to caress feelings deep within him that he himself did not recognize.
It was an unfamiliar sensation.
Charlotte Schmidt—of all people—was offering him a tenderness he’d forgotten for years.
In this moment, Kaius had to acknowledge the truth.
Charlotte was not a being to be defined by words like black mage or witch. Now he didn’t even know what to call her.
And so it was fascinating, and at once difficult.
He suspected it would remain so for quite some time to come.
Once he accepted what he’d so earnestly denied, his heart grew lighter.
“So, having escaped safely, what do you intend now? Will you console me?”
Kaius tilted his head and asked with deliberate lightness.
Charlotte seemed lost in thought for a moment, her eyelids drawing down.
“…No, rather than that.”
Her small white hand tightened around the fabric. Her lucid silver eyes looked directly into his.
“I’ll stay with you.”
Charlotte smiled radiantly.
A smile brighter than the moon in the night sky.
“Until you’re no longer lonely.”
In that instant, the wind that had stilled returned. Charlotte’s long dress billowed this way and that. Her silver hair swayed in a long arc like a meteor shower across the night sky.
And at the same moment, something within Kaius’s heart trembled with it.
He could not take his eyes from her for a long time.

***

“Ugh.”
My head is killing me.
I barely opened my eyes against the relentless sunlight pouring across my eyelids, then simply rolled over and collapsed face-down on the bed.
The room spun around me.
“Wow, what a hangover.”
What happened yesterday?
I remember draining a cup of makgeolli, but after that my memory was blank—as if someone had spliced out the film.
I hadn’t felt like this since I was twenty.
At least I was lying obediently in my room, so it seemed I’d managed to stumble in properly despite the drunkenness.
Thank God.
If I’d woken up sprawled in the hallway, how mortifying that would have been.
I groaned for a while longer before finally dragging myself up and out of the room. I went straight to the kitchen and took a smack on the back from Pepe, then drank some honey water and felt my scattered wits gradually return.
“M-Mage, you’re awake?”
“Welcome. Arthur Vulcan, you look perfectly fine, unlike me.”
When I reached the Courtyard, he was already prepared to leave. The massive Steel Golem’s helmet lay trussed up in rope atop a transport wagon. He hurried over toward me, wiping his hands on his trousers.
“Are you leaving already?”
“It’s been ages since I’ve had work like this, so I mustn’t delay. Father has entrusted me with full authority, so I’ll begin the work the moment I return.”
He handed me the contract, confirming he’d signed it without issue.
Perfect.
All that drinking yesterday had paid off after all.
I quickly tucked the contract under my arm and grinned at him.
“That’s a relief. I’ll send a Magic Messenger along with you. Feel free to contact me anytime.”
“Contact? Me?”
“Yes. If we need to do our part on this end, I can help quickly.”
“Ah….”
He drew out his words as he nodded, then glanced around cautiously before pressing something into my hand with a conspiratorial air.
“Here, this… please take it.”
It was a gem the size of my thumb. At first glance it appeared black, but when tilted at different angles, it shimmered with an enigmatic rainbow light.
“This isn’t… Blackstone, is it?”
You’ve already finished processing it?
He lowered his voice.
“This is a personal commission, isn’t it?”
“Ah, it shows, doesn’t it.”
“Since it wasn’t done in the formal workshop, I couldn’t remove all the impurities perfectly, but this should still be quite serviceable.”
“Wow, Arthur Vulcan….”
I was genuinely moved.
Without thinking, I looked up at him with shining eyes. His face flushed crimson, and he turned away hastily with an awkward cough.
Goodness.
The more I see it, the more hopelessly earnest he is.
I wonder what he’ll make of a political marriage.
“If you have any Blackstone ore, please send all of it. It’s not a difficult task, so I can handle this much for free on my end.”
“Really?”
What an unexpected stroke of luck.
“Excellent—I do love free work.”
Capable people truly do have generous hearts. I’m retracting everything ever said about him being arrogant and conceited.
Vulcan is the best.
“I’ll send the remaining Blackstone ore soon. It’s difficult to discuss it at length here.”
We were speaking in hushed tones when a voice cut through the air.
“What sort of scheme are you two plotting so intently this early in the morning?”
“Mother!”

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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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