Chapter 136

Request? A tremor briefly ran through the teacup Lumiere was holding. Esadien was a child who never asked for anything since he was young. It was a request from a boy who was bringing up treasonous matters.

“I’m very curious to know what it is.”

“There is someone I need to meet in secret. I would like you to arrange the meeting for me.”

“Why through me…?”

Even though she was suspicious, Lumiere’s mind was working quickly. Then, a word caught her, and she asked, half in doubt.

“…Is it a woman?”

“Yes.”

At the immediate positive answer, all her composure flew away. Lumiere stood up and exclaimed.

“A woman!”

He was a hermit, Esadien, who lived without any desires or wants. The boy she was secretly worried might become a monk had spoken of a woman for the first time. However, the curiosity mixed with joy was short-lived.

When the name of the person Esadien wanted to meet came out of his mouth, Lumiere froze as if her soul had left her body.

“Then I’ll be taking my leave.”

Whether she liked it or not, Esadien got up and left since his business was done.

“Oh.”

…Just as he was about to leave, a thought he really wanted to say came to him.

“Sister, don’t make your husband too disheartened. Especially, you should never bring in a man from the desert as a concubine.”

“What did you say?”

Lumiere was dumbfounded. What right did a boy who just asked her to secretly summon a married woman have to lecture her?

“You silly boy!”

‘Thud.’

Lumiere simply smacked the top of her brother’s head and sent him on his way, but she couldn’t forget his last words, as they struck a nerve.

In the office where she was left alone, Lumiere’s embarrassed muttering echoed.

“I have been a little… neglectful lately.”

If there was one thing Lumiere and Esadien had in common, it was that they didn’t hesitate to do what they set their minds to.

Duke Lambert, who was leading the Royal Guard training, was urgently summoned to the Crown Princess’s office.

And within a few days, a rumor spread throughout the imperial palace that the Crown Princess and her husband were getting along better than ever before.

***

Poisonous resentment lingered in Minuelle’s eyes. It was the moment she saw Esadien sitting alone in a tent set up in the Crown Princess’s private hunting ground. However, even as he faced her gaze, Esadien wasn’t hurt at all. He even thought it was strange himself.

At the same time, he felt a conviction that couldn’t be clearer.

‘This is not the world I belong to.’

If you broke down every single feature—the eyes, nose, and mouth—of the woman standing in front of him, they were all Minuelle’s. But no matter how long he looked into her eyes, he didn’t feel that she was Minuelle, and his heart didn’t pound so hard that his breathing became ragged.

Was it because of her stern gaze? No. Was it because her expression didn’t change even with Esadien in front of her? No.

‘Something… is fundamentally different.’

He couldn’t pinpoint it, but that was the feeling.

Esadien was disappointed, but more than that, he was relieved.

‘It’s a relief that Minuelle didn’t fall into this place.’

It was enough to suffer the confusion alone.

To Esadien, who was praying for Minuelle’s safety, the Minuelle of this world asked him coldly, “Did Your Highness demand for me?”

She was clearly talking about not only this meeting but also the relationship involving Theodore.

“No…”

Esadien, who was about to answer in a hurry, was blocked. Somehow, he didn’t feel like speaking to this person respectfully.

“…No. I didn’t.”

“You didn’t…”

Minuelle was stunned. Theodore, who rarely even met her eyes after taking Lapheche as his mistress, had suddenly come to her and said this.

‘Just wait a little. There is a person who will love you in my place.’

Coincidentally, Minuelle was in the middle of planning to get rid of Lapheche. She had come up with many ideas while spending lonely days, but the fastest one to implement was to put poison at a party the Crown Princess was hosting. It was also the stage with the greatest impact.

There was only one thing that bothered her.

‘But Her Highness is close with Lady Elga.’

Theodore’s visit came at a time when Minuelle was hesitating due to her guilt toward Elga and Lumiere. But to suddenly talk about someone ‘loving her in his place’… The words, which were something a person would say when handing over a leash to a new owner, made her feel deeply humiliated.

‘Was I just… a possession to this person after all?’

Something seemed to shatter with a crunching sound. Theodore, whom she looked at again, didn’t seem as good of a person as he did before.

‘Why am I like this?’

In the midst of not being able to sleep properly for several days due to her complex feelings, she was summoned by the Crown Princess and found Esadien sitting there.

He was the person she had broken off her engagement with several years ago.

However, Minuelle immediately realized that the person Theodore had referred to with a title was Esadien.

This whole situation felt like a bad joke, yet he was looking her straight in the eye and saying he hadn’t asked for her.

“Then whose words should I believe, Your Highness?”

Hollowness and exhaustion covered Minuelle’s cold but beautiful face.

“It seems no one will ever love me.”

The self-deprecating words were bitter and sad.

‘She’s really not the one.’

Esadien shook off the last bit of lingering doubt. The Minuelle he knew would never say such a thing.

‘We’ll love each other like this, on the same level. I’m not some saint or apostle of God bestowing my love upon you.’

The precious voice he treasured came to his mind.

The expression Minuelle had back then, the warmth in the air, even the shadow of her eyelashes cast on her cheek from the light above. Esadien remembered everything.

Putting the precious memory back into his heart, he opened his mouth firmly.

“Break up with Theodore.”

She wasn’t the woman he loved, but he couldn’t leave her alone when he could feel the thick scent of ruin hanging over her. Because she had Minuelle’s face.

“…What did you just…?”

“Don’t eat away at yourself. Love is not that kind of feeling.”

“I don’t know how to take that, coming from the most famous hermit in Preseria. Have you ever felt love?”

He had never loved anyone! As a hermit prince who didn’t even meet people!

Esadien was not affected by Minuelle’s sarcasm at all.

“Yes, I have.”

“What?”

Minuelle frowned intensely. This stone-like man, love? It must be a joke played by Plendena or God.

Esadien said with a faraway look in his eyes, “…No. I still am.”

That’s why he missed her so much.

Her smile like a spring flower, the way she sternly furrowed her eyebrows. Her flushed cheeks and soft scent. Even her voice calling him ‘darling’ playfully.

‘Ah.’

Esadien swallowed a groan.

Why did he get caught up in a world like this?

He would have preferred to fall into the past, into the time they went on a picnic together.

Then he would have beaten up his past self for being so serious with Minuelle and lived his life hearing that affectionate nickname.

That nickname that even Minuelle herself seemed to have forgotten now.

‘I miss you, Minuelle.’

Even with the same face in front of him, his heart ached with longing because the essence was different.

At that moment, Esadien made a decision.

‘I have to go back.’

In this world, everyone Esadien knew was here, but in a way, they were as good as not being there.

At the same time, Minuelle also stood up.

“What a tear-jerking friendship. So you called me out to make me break up with Count Tregonan after all.”

“Is that all you heard? I told you to break up with him not for Theo but for your own sake…”

“If you have nothing more to say, I’ll be leaving.”

“My lady, no, Countess…”

Esadien stumbled a little. He never thought he would have to address Minuelle with a title.

Minuelle, on the other hand, raised an eyebrow in displeasure.

“If you call me out like this again, I’ll show you how frightening the Karnian family can be.”

Even after her marriage, the name Minuelle put forward was Karnian, not Tregonan.

‘She doesn’t seem to realize how much that reveals her own unhappiness.’

Esadien pondered that fact and slowly opened his mouth.

“That’s for you to decide. But before I leave this place, I have to hand this over.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Whether it’s poison or a plan.”

“…!”

Minuelle was so surprised that she didn’t freeze. But it was no use now. She was clearly showing the expression of a person who was too exhausted and indecisive to carry out her plan.

“Whatever you’re planning, in time, you’ll come to think of it as a foolish act. You’re a smart person, so you must know that yourself.”

“…”

“I hope you’ll give up not for your family, but so that you don’t regret it when you look back at yourself later.”

Esadien’s words, along with her surprise, reached Minuelle’s heart calmly.

‘How did he know?’

Even if she had been caught with an anxious expression, she hadn’t said anything. But she wasn’t so foolish as to tremble and spill everything just because he had hit a nerve with his words.

Minuelle bowed slightly and hurried out of the tent as if afraid of being caught.

This time, Esadien didn’t stop her.

***

For a while, Esadien made sure to attend all the parties where both Minuelle and Lapheche were present. However, nothing special happened.

Ladies and young women flocked to Esadien like a swarm of bees when he appeared at the banquet hall, and a secret rumor only spread that Lapheche had come from the Prince’s Palace.

And a little while later.

‘The mistress of Tregonan has disappeared.’

It was unclear what happened inside the count’s house, but rumors began to circulate that Minuelle had left. Of course, Esadien was able to find out a little more deeply thanks to the Crown Princess’s people.

‘The poison… she ended up getting rid of it.’

Having confirmed the most important fact, Esadien left the imperial palace. He had prevented the person who looked like Minuelle from falling into a pit of unhappiness. So he had no lingering attachment to this place.

His destination was the coast of Rosos.

‘The way to solve a problem is always in its cause.’

The king of the sea tribe had played a trick, so the way back must be in their territory. Esadien rode his horse, minimizing his rest time. As a result, he arrived much faster than he had when he was in a carriage.

Swoosh.

On a high cliff from which the distant coastline could be seen at a glance.

As the salty sea wind hit his body fiercely, he felt a sense of liberation that he hadn’t felt in the imperial palace.

‘Esadien. Do you know that story?’

As he looked at the calm Hirobimi Volcano beyond the horizon, Minuelle’s voice came to his mind.

‘Once upon a time, there was a mermaid who fell in love with a human.’

It was on the boat heading for the mainland from Terju Island.

Minuelle, who was standing with Esadien and looking at the foam on the side of the boat, had told him a story.

A story of a mermaid who made a deal with a monster because she loved a human but in the end, couldn’t convey her feelings.

‘Did the mermaid return to the sea?’

‘No… She turned into sea foam and disappeared.’

Below this cliff, too, countless foams were breaking.