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Chapter 38
I was holding a bouquet wrapped full of orange-tinted roses that resembled me, when I looked at the man in front of me with startled eyes.
The playful, teasing gaze he had worn all day was, at this moment, tense.
“Will you accept it?”
Seeing the nervous Kardin, I had no desire to refuse. As if bewitched, I placed the bouquet I was holding onto the table and lifted the small box resting in his hand.
As I touched the soft velvet box, Kardin waited for my reaction. Thinking he looked a little cute like that, I opened the box.
“This is…?”
“It’s a gemstone with a color most similar to my eyes—the one you said you wanted. I hope you like it. If, by any chance, you want my real eyes instead of a gemstone, as I said before, I would gladly—”
“No! I really love it. Thank you!”
I hastily cut him off, accepted the gemstone, and put on a show of delight.
While gauging his reaction, I looked at the gemstone, which shimmered in a mysterious violet hue just as Kardin had said. It was such an attractive jewel, strikingly similar to his eyes, that I felt as though I might be drawn into it.
At that moment, a gentle hand came to rest on my head.
“My goddess, Harna.”
I lifted my head. Seeing Kardin smiling softly and calling me that sweet nickname in a honey-dripping voice made my face grow hot.
“I’m happy to be with you—”
Crash!
With the sound of shattering glass, something flew toward Kardin. Unlike me, who was startled, he reflexively caught the object flying at him.
I let out a sigh of relief. Then, naturally, our gazes turned to the object.
“Ketchup?”
As we stood there flustered by the suddenly flying ketchup, a loud voice followed.
“Enough!”
“……!”
Startled by the scene unfolding before me, I jumped to my feet.
My father, who had entered in the exact same way as the ketchup—by breaking the window—was pointing a blue-glowing sword at Kardin. My brother, likewise holding a sword from which a faint light flowed, stood in front of me, shielding me with his body.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
I tried to push past my brother blocking me to step forward, but I couldn’t move because an arm barred me with overwhelming strength.
“I cannot permit you to approach my daughter, Duke Leturno.”
“Even if you are in an engagement, please observe proper boundaries, Duke.”
My head began to ache. I closed my eyes as I looked at the dizzying situation unfolding before me.
Kardin stared at the threatening swords infused with sword energy. Swordmaster Derek Jurn and his son, Haren Jurn.
Seeing the two of them directing killing intent toward him despite his being a duke, Kardin sighed, raised both hands, and took a step back.
Normally, he would not tolerate threats against himself, but they were Harna’s family. The one who loves more is the one who loses, so all he could do was concede to her family.
“So Father-in-law and Brother-in-law have come.”
Kardin glanced past Haren at Harna, who looked flustered, then spoke to Derek and Haren in an attempt to ease the atmosphere.
“Who is your father-in-law?”
“Brother-in-law, you say?”
At the unwanted forms of address, the two bristled, but Kardin replied with a relaxed expression.
“Would you please lower your swords? I’m fine, but Harna is frightened.”
At Kardin’s words, Derek, who had been pressing his sword close, turned his gaze toward Harna, who was bowing her head within Haren’s arms. Seeing his daughter’s pale face, as if she were terrified just as Kardin had said, Derek slowly lowered his sword and returned it to its sheath.
Haren, too, had no choice but to sheath his sword, though his eyes remained sharp.
“Thank you, Father-in-law, Brother-in-law.”
As Kardin once again used the very titles he had been told not to, Derek ground his teeth and Haren clenched his fists. Haren, furious, was about to say that those titles were inappropriate since they were not family yet—
A cold hand touched his shoulder. Haren naturally turned his head and met Harna’s terrifying expression.
“H-Harna?”
Haren flinched upon seeing his sister after so long. Her eyes, smudged like a panda’s, were emitting a monstrous killing intent, and her blood-red lips looked as though she would bite him if he blocked her path one more time.
Without realizing it, Haren stepped aside. With the clicking sound of her heels, Harna walked forward.
Sensing an unknown killing intent, Derek turned around and saw his beloved daughter standing there with a bright smile. She was clearly smiling, yet the sight sent a chill down his spine.
Harna naturally positioned herself in front of Derek and looked at Kardin.
“My family has been rude to you, Your Grace. I apologize on their behalf, so please forgive us.”
Holding the hem of her dress, Harna bent her knees and bowed her head.
“Harna!”
She heard Derek and Haren calling her, but Harna did not look back.
“Harna, I’m fine, so please raise your head.”
“Thank you for your understanding. And I will take my leave first today. I had a wonderful time.”
“The time I spent with you was happiness itself.”
Kardin extended his hand, and Harna placed hers upon it.
Seeing Kardin reverently kiss the back of her hand, Derek and Haren nearly lunged forward. However, Harna twisted her other hand behind her back and clenched her fist in warning, forcing them to suppress their anger.
“Thank you for the meaningful gift. Then, farewell.”
Harna smiled brightly, turned around, and took Derek’s and Haren’s arms—one in each hand.
“You should hurry and apologize to His Grace, right? Father, Brother.”
Harna’s choice of address changed. The familiar tone vanished, replaced by a voice brimming with formality, and the two men instantly realized it.
‘Harna is truly angry!’
The father and son, who had just been aggressively threatening Kardin, had no choice but to apologize while watching Harna’s hardened expression. Leaving behind the duke, who graciously accepted their apology, Harna and her family turned away.
After Harna and her family disappeared, Kardin, left alone, finally came to his senses and leaned his exhausted body against the wall. With an irritated expression, he forcefully threw away the ring he had been wearing on his finger.
The ring clinked as it bounced around before disappearing somewhere.
“What a fraud.”
It was his own fault for believing the claim that it would weaken curses. Kardin covered his head with his hands and bowed it, reproaching himself as he recalled the words and actions he would never have been capable of in his right mind during the time he spent with Harna.
The trivial flirtation and love confessions were one thing, but even the gemstone he had intended to give casually had ended up looking like an engagement gift.
‘Still, Harna was cute…’
As he recalled Harna being embarrassed by his actions, blushing shyly, and showing a touched expression, a faint smile appeared on his lips before fading away.
‘What am I even thinking right now?’
Even in this situation, Kardin felt pathetic for thinking about Harna and let out a low sigh. Just as he wondered whether he should simply turn into dust and vanish from the empire, he suddenly realized something.
Before possessing the ring, both his body and mind had acted as though they were completely hypnotized, and he had only realized it after Harna was gone.
But this time was different. His mind was clear, and he had acted with a degree of his own will. Realizing this, Kardin lifted his head.
“Was the ring the priest gave me actually working?”
Kardin hurriedly looked around. The small ring he had thrown away in anger was nowhere to be seen.
“Nothing ever goes right.”
Roughly running a hand through his hair, he knelt down to search for the ring. Kardin felt a sense of self-loathing at the sight of himself scanning the floor, but there was no helping it.
Harna stood while the father and son sat on the sofa, merely watching her mood. As they looked at Harna pacing back and forth with her arms crossed and an expressionless face, they thought,
‘Is she angry because we interrupted her date?’
But even if time were turned back, the two would have acted the same. They could not forgive Kardin, who had only hurt Harna—whom they cherished more than their own eyes—and was now making belated, underhanded advances.
After watching her mood for quite some time, Derek stood up to break the heavy atmosphere and calm his daughter’s anger.
“Harna.”
Even at the sound of her name alone, a frighteningly sharp gaze pierced him. Unable to bear the sight of his daughter’s face, made even more frightening by her smeared makeup, Derek lowered his eyes and continued.
“It’s not that we went there to interrupt your date. We were worried that Duke Leturno might hurt you.”
“That’s right. The duke has suspicious aspects as well.”
Haren, who had been silently listening to Derek, also stood and approached Harna.
“Isn’t it strange that the duke who used to treat you coldly is suddenly being kind? And the man who used to shout about breaking off the engagement whenever he saw me has changed as if he were a different person.”
“Exactly. He’s trying to use you to get what he wants.”
Listening to the unusually well-coordinated words of the father and son, Harna let out a scoffing laugh.
The two could not bring themselves to meet the gaze of the clearly angry Harna. Derek subtly turned around to check whether there was dust on the picture frame hanging on the wall, while Haren rubbed the toe of his shoe against the floor, brushing off imaginary debris.
“Do you really not know why I’m angry?”
“Harna, we know you like the duke, but—”
“We just didn’t want you to get hurt, so we—”
Excuses spilled out of the father and son at the same time.
Watching the two desperately explain themselves so as not to be hated by her, Harna let out a deep sigh.
“So that’s why you pointed your swords at the duke?”
An unexpected remark suddenly fell.
“Just because I went on a date with him, my father and brother drew their swords on one of the only two dukes in the empire?”
“……!”
The reason for Harna’s anger was different from what they had thought.
They had assumed she was angry because they had interrupted her date with Kardin, but in reality, she was angry because their act of pointing swords at Kardin was dangerous?
Fortunately, realizing that Kardin was not currently Harna’s top priority, a subtle smile crept onto the father and son’s lips.
“You’re smiling? I guess what I said is amusing.”
“N-No. We’re just happy.”
“Happy? Ha. You’re happy that your daughter was frightened?”
“That’s not what your father meant—”
“You’re the same, Brother!”
Harna shouted.
“From now on, we’ll eat separately.”
“What? No! You know that eating with you is the highlight of my day!”
“I just came home after a long time—”
Ignoring them, Harna sharply turned her head and walked out. Derek and Haren watched her retreating figure in despair.
