Chapter 125: |
“Rosaline. To protect something precious, I believe people can become strong.”
Ricardis’ thumb rubbed over her wrist.
“Rosaline.”
“…Yes?”
“Rosaline Esther.”
“Yes?”
“Rosaline Esther of the Radwiells.”
“Yes?”
It was a familiar phrase, Rosaline recalled with a sense of deja vu. She’d said those flavorful words to the Emperor after she won the martial arts tournament. Rosaline looked up slowly. Her gaze, freed from the necklace of Haqab, contained something brighter than its gold.
“My sharpest and brightest sword….”
Ricardis smiled. Rosaline stared blankly at him before opening her mouth.
“Yes, Your Highness?”
Ricardis gripped the hand he was holding tighter. It didn’t hurt, but it was very tight. Rosaline did not resist and also moved her hand to match his strength. Her outstretched hand gradually curled around his. Haqab’s necklace slowly disappeared between their hands.
“…Be strong for me.”
Rosaline’s hand reached out at that command. The necklace that had confused her mind with its brilliant gold color was no longer in sight. The man, who seemed fragile enough to break, seemed to have cast a layer of something off of her. Even though the hand he held shook, he himself never wavered. His tone was friendly and gentle, yet still unyielding.
“I will be strong for you.”
Ricardis’ words caused her resolve to balloon from where it had huddled in a corner. The melancholy that had filled Rosaline finally released in the form of tears. Her eyes dampened.
Even the thought of losing Ricardis struck her with fear. That was the source of her conflict over Haqab’s proposal. It was an emotion beyond her control.
The emotions she learned from the past ‘Rosaline’ burned inside her heart like molten iron poured into fresh cuts. Her instincts realized before her foolish thoughts that she could not endure such pain twice. She had decided to turn down the offer, but she didn’t know why she kept Haqab’s necklace within reach and in a position where she could retrieve it at any time.
It’s like…
A strange noise came from her hand. It was a screech produced when metal rubbed against metal under intense pressure. Ricardis felt Rosaline’s hand tremble in his grasp, but he could see that the tremors weren’t from her confusion. Bones stood out in her clenched fist. The trinket that fit between the gap of their hands condensed to its limit.
Clang!
Like metal falling on a pile of metal, the sound of the gold rending into pieces hit the quiet space like a wave before it disappeared. It was a powerful sound that left a ringing in one’s ears. The remains of the necklace fell from her hand. Half-deformed pendants and accessories fell one by one, catching the light of the red sunset as it came through the gaps in the curtains.
Rosaline clenched her fist and looked at Ricardis.
“Yes, Your Highness.”
***
As soon as he opened the door, Calyx was silently appalled by the sight he encountered— a naked man wandering around his room. What kind of crazy situation was this? Calyx quickly entered and locked the door, afraid of anyone watching.
A look of skepticism hung on Calyx’s face as he suddenly wondered at his actions of rushing to be alone with a naked man. His mind was restless.
The gray-haired man, who was as tall as Raymond, wandered around peacefully, found the wine cabinet, and immediately exclaimed brightly, “Oh, there’s a lot that looks expensive.”
The man took out a bottle without the owner’s permission. Calyx didn’t know how the man knew, but he’d chosen the most expensive wine on display in the cabinet.
The man slashed at the neck of the bottle with the side of his hand. The top part fell off, creating a sharp cross-section as if sliced by a blade. Perhaps worried about the glass pieces going in, the man blew the cut section, gulped down the wine, and made a loud, old-man-like sound.
As he watched his favorite wine decrease in real-time, Calyx didn’t say anything because it was ridiculous.
“…Macaron. When did you come?”
“A moment ago. Let’s do this quickly.”
Macaron sat cross-legged on the sofa. He looked comfortable, but Calyx didn’t like it because the center part of his body was especially noticeable due to his nakedness.
“Would you like some…clothes?”
Macaron thwarted Calyx’s desperate wish with a sluggish answer.
“No, I’m lazy. I’m about to fly soon.”
Calyx honestly didn’t want to see it, so as he walked to the table, he tried to ignore him as much as possible.
“You came just in time, Macaron. The item from last time has arrived.”
He rummaged through the drawers and carefully placed the leather-wrapped items on the table. Macaron roughly tossed the wine bottle on the sofa and picked it up.
“Oh, really?”
Calyx looked at the red marks on the sofa in vain and answered, “… Yes, it’s Fragments.”
It was the weapon used by the assassins of the Black Moon during the hunting competition and had already been shown to Rosaline before. He kept the evidence he obtained via the cooperation with Count Drywood within the Radwiell estate.
A few weeks ago, Macaron asked if there was any way to get any Fragments. He had just returned from a mission rife with opportunities to encounter Fragments, so why had he asked for it only now? Calyx quickly answered that question: another danger had come to the imperial castle— the delegation of Balta.