For nearly a week following her unexpectedly eventful conversation with Whitney, redia had been on edge, filled with irritation and frustration.
It wasn’t just the proposal itself—whose true intentions remained unclear—but sothing else had happened that had further aggravated her.
So, when she personally paid a visit to the Ringaarden estate a few minutes ago, the murderous aura she exuded was so intense that the maids greeting her could barely serve tea without trembling.
“It’s been a week since we last t in person, Lady redia.”
Just as she raised the teacup with chanical grace, Whitney strolled into the garden with his usual enigmatic smile and seated himself across from her.
“If I’d known you were visiting, I would’ve arranged a more proper welco.”
“Hah.”
Right beside him, a girl stood as if she belonged there—so much so that redia, montarily forgetting her anger, let out a dry laugh.
“You really are full of surprises.”
The girl was dressed in a convincing maid’s uniform, but redia imdiately recognized her.
Lunelle Misthylene. A knight cadet once ranked at the top of her class. Winner of the 138th Imperial Youth Swordsmanship Tournant, which had featured fierce contenders including princes and the Duke of Embergreen’s eldest son.
And yet, due to an absurd clause in her knight’s oath, she had fallen from grace overnight and beco a tragic spectacle for the Empire’s gossipmongers.
But the girl now standing at Whitney’s side showed ★ 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 ★ none of the despair redia rembered from the newspaper photos.
“I thought you had a twisted hobby—buying fallen nobles and using them as slaves. But I see you’ve outdone even that.”
She hadn’t been sure from afar, but now that they were close, she could feel it clearly—Lunelle’s mana resonating.
In fact, the resonance was so strong it was likely he’d perford multiple rituals. But the important thing was this: the mana of Lunelle, once hailed as the Sword’s Saint, had been restored.
And more than that—she was genuinely loyal to Whitney.
There was no way to fake that. Oaths couldn’t be forced or tricked. So it had to have been Whitney who restored her mana.
“I’ll give you that much. You really are quite capable, Whitney Ringaarden.”
With that realization, redia’s irritation from the past week began to give way to curiosity.
After all, unless soone crossed a line like proposing marriage out of nowhere, she tended to find unexpected developnts intriguing more than annoying.
“As I said last ti, if we can understand each other, we could make excellent partners.”
If she determined that these unpredictable events might work in her favor, redia could be surprisingly generous.
“However... I can’t just let this slide.”
“...Pardon?”
Her evaluation of whether the man in front of her would be an asset was not yet finished.
“I specifically asked to speak with you alone.”
“Ah, well...”
“And yet, you brought your guard? A female guard? One who has sworn an oath to you?”
Her unannounced visit had been precisely to confirm this.
“And this is just a week after you proposed to ?”
For a mont, the crushing weight of disappointnt and pressure pressed down on Whitney and Lunelle.
—Rrrrrumble...
redia had rely released a fraction of her suppressed mana, but already no one in the garden could keep their footing—except for Whitney, who remained seated, wearing an awkward expression.
“Looks like there’s been a bit of a misunderstanding—”
“No, that’s not the point.”
“Right...”
When redia narrowed her eyes and spoke in a chilling voice, Whitney had no choice but to fall silent with a sheepish grin.
“The point is that I feel insulted.”
“Ahaha...”
“...So.”
She pressed harder, inwardly adjusting her appraisal of Whitney for standing his ground, while also trying to discern what he was still hiding.
—Clack.
Just then, Lunelle, trembling beside Whitney, grit her teeth and glared at redia with eyes full of nace.
“Restrain yourself.”
The very next instant, she grabbed the knife from the tea table and in the blink of an eye, held it to redia’s throat.
A dead silence fell over the garden.
“Hoooh.”
Naturally, the poor maids nearby went pale from shock. They didn’t even have ti to blink.
But redia? She simply smiled, amused, her eyes locked on Lunelle’s.
“You can move... even like this?”
“Kh...”
“...Your body doesn’t even seem fully healed. Impressive.”
With her head tilted slightly, redia spoke softly. Cold sweat trickled down Lunelle’s brow, but she didn’t lower the knife.
“You were quite sothing, you know. Back when you crushed my brother’s pride at the tournant.”
Still, even with a blade at her throat, redia seed thoroughly entertained.
“Have you considered serving instead?”
“I refuse.”
“...Huh?”
Lunelle’s rejection was imdiate—and laced with bite.
“You’ll regret that.”
“That’s for to decide.”
Just as the air in the garden began to thicken with sothing dangerous—
“Miss Lunelle. Lady redia.”
Whitney, who had been silently observing the chaos, finally spoke, gently taking Lunelle’s wrist.
“Let’s ease up, shall we?”
All eyes turned to him, and once more, silence descended.
“We wouldn’t want any accidents now, would we?”
Only Whitney remained oddly cheerful, his light tone completely mismatched with the situation, as if he were trying to pacify a bomb.
***
What the hell is going on?
Even though I’d finally managed to open my mouth in this near-explosive atmosphere, my hands were still shaking uncontrollably.
I blacked out for a second and everything went to hell.
It made perfect sense. redia’s mana pressure had overwheld just before I passed out, and the first thing I saw when I ca to was that scene.
Not even reciting every mantra I knew for boosting ntal strength had helped. I’d still collapsed.
If I hadn’t fallen when I did, I’d probably be on the floor like the maids right now.
But I couldn’t let this situation spiral any further.
“Miss Lunelle, please head back inside and rest for now. I’ll continue my conversation with Lady redia.”
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
Just as Lunelle began to step away, her shoulders drooping, I quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
If things escalated here in the garden, it would only an more work for the poor maids cleaning up after the ss.
“Understood.”
Thankfully, even while she had a knife pressed against redia’s throat and a storm of killing intent swirled around us, Lunelle backed down without resistance at my words. She lowered the blade and retreated, giving a subtle nod before walking off toward the mansion’s rear entrance.
Her figure, oddly slumped, reminded of a loyal hunting dog punished for disappointing its master. I felt a twinge of guilt. But to be fair, holding a dull tea knife to redia’s throat was never going to restrain her—so she hadn’t really lost anything.
Besides, Lunelle had already served her purpose by being here. There was no need to provoke redia any further.
“Lady redia, would you mind withdrawing your killing intent now as well?”
“Is that an order?”
Now it was my turn to do so talking. I didn’t have power, influence, or any kind of backing—only my mouth. That made this tongue my best survival tool.
“I wouldn’t dare. I simply thought it would help clear up a needless misunderstanding.”
“Is that so?”
At those words, redia tilted her head slightly. The heavy pressure in the garden eased ever so slightly.
“Then, go ahead and explain.”
She fixed her gaze on and spoke in a near-whisper, a command thinly veiled as an invitation. Her expression was as cold as ever, but the faint glow in her eyes—praised as jewel-like across the Empire—was a good sign.
According to everything I knew as a forr player, that gleam ant redia wasn’t just angry. She was intrigued.
And that... was my only possible way out of this nerve-wracking situation.
“First, I had no intention of threatening Your Ladyship. Even if everyone in this estate banded together against you, I doubt it would matter.”
“And if Lunelle offended you, I sincerely apologize. If I had any ulterior motives involving her, I wouldn’t have paraded her in front of you like this.”
I knew how ruthless redia could be. But few people realized she was also surprisingly tolerant—and even amused—by unexpected developnts and challenges.
She had grown up getting everything she ever wanted. The things that bored her were the people who bent easily, or those who stood in her way without daring to push back.
“I rely wanted to show you how useful I can be to you.”
“......”
“Even if Lunelle has sworn herself to , I still intend to work with you. That only makes her a more reliable ally for you, doesn’t it?”
That was the real reason I brought Lunelle with today.
Ideally, I would’ve kept her presence a secret. But if I was going to align myself with redia, I would eventually have to show her everything anyway.
So I decided to gamble—use Lunelle as bait to draw redia’s attention elsewhere and deflect her suspicions.
Granted, the bait almost turned the garden into a cri scene, but all risky moves co with a price.
“And yet you conveniently left out your ‘achievent’—restoring a destroyed mana circuit, sothing no one in history has done before?”
Looks like redia’s attention had landed squarely on , not Lunelle.
“Haha, I’m sure soone like you could figure it out too, with a bit of research.”
“Don’t joke. If word got out, the entire magical community would be flipped upside down.”
All I’d done was copy a ritual from the ga’s lorebook.
And if redia started asking technical questions about the rite, it wouldn’t take long for her to figure out that I was bluffing.
“Then I’ll be blunt. I want to form an alliance with you, and I’m willing to accept most of your terms.”
“Glad to hear we’re on the sa page.”
Thankfully, redia spoke first this ti.
“But what the hell was that proposal?”
Her tone had llowed quite a bit, but the look on her face shifted to one of genuine confusion.
Only then did I realize—
That was why she’d co all this way today.
“To be honest, I was... blinded by your beauty and proposed on impulse—”
Crack.
“...Not really. I just thought it’d be a convenient way to mislead others.”
Now that we were getting to the heart of the matter, I tried to lighten the mood with so flattery—but the way redia’s eyes turned icy in an instant made switch gears fast and launch into my prepared explanation.
“I’ve heard you’ve been under constant stress lately due to all the marriage and engagent talk. Of course, no groom would ever be worthy of soone like you, but still...”
“Just don’t cause a scandal.”
“...Your true goal is to beco the next head of the ducal house, isn’t it?”
That, at least, was the publicly known objective.
But in the ga, redia’s real ambitions were never revealed. Most routes ended with her as the final boss, and even the ga over scenarios didn’t explain what ca next.
“For now, let’s say yes.”
As expected, redia gave a noncommittal answer.
It was a bit disappointing, but I’d never expected her to just hand over her real plans.
And besides, that wasn’t the priority right now.
“In that case, I’ll beco your shield.”
“...What exactly do you an by that?”
For the sake of a crumbling noble family.
For the sake of my younger sister’s future.
And above all—for the sake of my own survival.
This was the mont I declared my intent to walk a route no player had ever completed. No—one that no one had even attempted.
“Starting now, for as long as needed...”
A proposal that would shake not just redia’s fate, but the entire trajectory of this worldline.
“I’ll marry you and beco the Duke’s live-in son-in-law.”
...Assuming she doesn’t kill on the spot, that is.
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