🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 26
“There are two ships.”
There was no way Kartiel’s people and Mirta would be using separate rooms, let alone separate ships.
It was just then that I raised an eyebrow.
―Whoosh!
“Huh?”
One of the two ships suddenly caught fire.
……What could possibly cause a fire in the middle of the sea?
Meanwhile, the water I was controlling continued to pull our ship rapidly toward the uninhabited island.
And as the island drew closer, I nearly forgot to slow down at the sight of the person standing there.
It was someone I never expected to see here.
“……Dielo?”
It was Dielo.
He was dressed in a pure white shirt and pitch-black uniform trousers.
His uniform jacket was nowhere to be seen, perhaps because it had been too hot and he had taken it off.
He stood there with the beret in his left hand, holding it at an angle to shield his eyes from the sunlight.
In his other hand, he casually held a longsword.
And something red was dripping from the blade.
“…….”
I watched as Dielo turned toward us.
Perhaps because he had crossed the deep sea to get here, or perhaps because there was red blood splattered across his cheek.
His pale eyes looked unusually deep and dark.
I couldn’t take my eyes off his cheek or his sword.
“……Dielo?”
Still holding the sword, he slowly approached me.
When I got off the ship and walked onto the sandy shore, I could see everything more clearly.
The person Dielo was leaving behind was unmistakably Mirta.
Mirta was already dead.
The moment made it clear who Dielo’s sword had struck.
And beside Mirta lay an unfamiliar person.
He didn’t seem to be breathing anymore, and judging by his appearance, he seemed to be one of Kartiel’s people.
“…….”
I stared at them before looking back at Dielo.
Up close, his eyes looked strangely different from usual.
Above all, it seemed that he, too, had never expected to meet me here.
“……How did you get all the way here?”
His voice was slightly subdued.
I answered without being able to tear my gaze away from the blood splattered across his cheek.
“I heard a report in your office that Mirta’s contract was burning…… But.”
How was Dielo here?
Hadn’t he gone out to sea?
Had he come immediately after hearing the news?
Well, if he had already been out at sea, it wouldn’t have been difficult for him to catch up with Mirta.
But……
I couldn’t continue.
Seeing him holding a sword was unfamiliar to me.
And yet, it looked so natural on him.
“……Ah.”
Perhaps he noticed that my gaze had returned to Mirta. He put the beret back on his head after having held it at an angle to block the sunlight.
Then he unfolded a handkerchief and covered my eyes with it.
I couldn’t tell whether he knew that a few drops of blood had splattered onto the edge of that pure white handkerchief.
“You saw something unpleasant, Krua.”
Warmth seeped through the handkerchief covering my eyes.
No, perhaps it was heat.
After a brief silence, Dielo spoke again.
“I didn’t expect you to come, Krua.”
“I didn’t expect to see you here either, Dielo.”
The answer that had been about to come out naturally got caught in my throat.
More precisely, I hadn’t expected to see him like this.
And certainly not with my own eyes.
Of course, I had thought it was possible.
He was the head of the family, after all, and he was the one who had personally signed that brutal contract.
But seeing it in reality was much more……
“…….”
At that moment, Dielo took a step toward me and gently embraced me.
He applied just enough strength that he wouldn’t put pressure on the bruised areas, then slightly turned my body to the side.
So that Mirta would no longer be directly in my line of sight.
Then he removed the handkerchief from my eyes.
The first thing I saw once my vision was cleared was Dielo’s distorted expression.
“Fulfilling a contract is a sad thing. You write one because you don’t want it to be broken.”
A look of sorrow appeared on Dielo’s face.
But the drops of blood had not disappeared.
“―Thank you for coming all this way on purpose, Krua.”
With the hand holding the handkerchief, he gently cupped my cheek.
His fingertips wiped away the seawater that had splashed onto my cheek.
He gave me a faint smile.
“I’m sorry you had to see something so violent.”
I couldn’t tell whether he was referring to Mirta’s corpse or to himself.
“Krua.”
Then he called my name in a whisper.
His voice was calm and composed.
A voice so tranquil that it was hard to believe he had just killed someone.
“Yes.”
At my answer, he tilted his head slightly.
“You said you were going to leave this place too, didn’t you, Krua?”
His tone was the same as always.
But if I merely shifted my gaze a little, I would be able to see Mirta.
……The person who had lost her life to his sword.
Punishing a traitor was only natural.
It was something Dielo, as the head of the Argenta family, was supposed to do, and it was explicitly stated in the contract as well.
It was natural.
It was something that had to be done.
But……
Was Dielo Argenta really this kind of person?
“……I did.”
I answered slowly.
“I won’t go around telling people about Argenta like that.”
There would be no reason for me to ever meet him again under unpleasant circumstances.
I looked straight into his eyes.
Dielo listened to me before suddenly saying,
“Just stay, Krua.”
“What?”
He smiled brightly.
“You’ve learned about Argenta too, haven’t you? About how our Argenta moves differently from the other families.”
He opened his hand.
“You belong in Argenta, Krua.”
―Drip.
At that moment, the blood gathered at the tip of his sword fell and stained the sandy shore.
The red color quickly disappeared between the grains of sand, leaving no trace, as though only a single drop of water had fallen.
“Not only me. Many people in Argenta want you, Krua.”
Dielo continued in his gentle voice.
“So please, become an Argenta.”
“That―”
It was already a closed matter.
No, it was something that didn’t even need to be discussed in the first place.
Once the real Pero appeared, I would no longer be the Duchess of Argenta.
Not only that, but if I wanted Dielo to properly awaken and defeat Aloze, I couldn’t interfere with the relationship between the real Pero and Dielo.
But Dielo gently interrupted me.
“I’ll persuade Pero.”
For some reason, the word persuade sounded particularly strange.
Dielo smiled.
“I believe in you, Krua. You’re someone who knows Argenta’s rules too.”
His words brought only one thing to mind.
“……Do it, or don’t.”
At my words, Dielo smiled beautifully again.
“Yes, Krua.”
As if I had given the correct answer, he held out his hand to me.
“Will you become an Argenta?”
Of course, I couldn’t return to Aloze.
Nor did I have any intention of going back.
Becoming an Argenta wasn’t a bad choice either.
……As long as he could awaken properly.
“……Dielo.”
I was about to say something when Dielo continued in his gentle voice.
“Pero’s wishes don’t matter, Krua.”
His words continued.
“I can make it so they don’t matter, Krua.”
A strange remark followed through the brief silence.
It was the moment I slightly parted my lips.
Dielo’s fingertips lightly touched my hand.
“Will you become an Argenta, or…….”
His blue eyes were softly veiled by his sorrowfully distorted eyelids.
The shadows cast by his eyelashes made his blue irises appear even darker.
“Will you make me…… sad?”
