Hunter and Mad Scien Chapter 162

Dianella was montarily at a loss for words. No, even so, how could he show such a reaction?

"...I'm not asking because I'm interested either! After being rejected this much, I have pride too. I'll tell Uncle that I was politely refused. But still, I have to show that I made an effort."

It wasn't that she had no lingering feelings, but clinging to a gentleman who had a fiancée and showed no interest at all hurt her pride no matter how she thought about it. Between lingering attachnt and pride, this was the best that nineteen-year-old Dianella could co up with in her immature mind.

"Is she a lady from an honorable family that I might know?"

There was no answer. Click, click, only the sound of parts engaging could be heard. His large, lean body was slouched improperly against the back of the delicate garden chair, turning chanical parts with one hand. Dianella persisted and continued speaking.

"Which family is she from? Is she pretty? Is she an incredible beauty? Or is she a great heiress? I hear many people make such marriages these days."

The last was a question deliberately thrown to provoke a reaction, but the other party still showed no response as if he hadn't heard. She had expected him to get angry at such a rude question.

Dianella made a tearful face and stamped her foot. She really had no bad intentions. Even if he said she was so pretty and lovely that all other won looked like weeds, she could respond wholeheartedly!

"Why won't you say anything? Are you worried I might harm her? I'm a lady who knows honor too!"

Click. As the last part fell into place, Cider stood up from his seat. Earlier he had seed to speak quietly, but his voice was gradually getting louder and it was botherso.

"Miss Renfrew. Even if your uncle stepped forward, he couldn't touch a single hair on my fiancée's head, so don't worry about that."

"Then why...?"

Cider, who stood up while buttoning his outer coat, answered without looking back.

"There's no reason to tell you, is there? I thought you'd leave if I let you chatter appropriately, but there's no end to it."

The sound of a cane tapping regularly echoed as it gradually grew distant. Dianella stood up, pouting her lips. This should be admirable enough in Uncle's eyes.

Still, she felt inwardly disappointed.

He was different from the crude and boring Dunbarton n. He was refined down to his sleeve cuffs, and even his attitude that was cold to the point of rudeness wasn't hateful. Though it actually was hateful... Her lips were parched. As she repeatedly opened and closed her hands slowly, the sensation like having a sour candy in her mouth gradually subsided.

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Whatever Dianella Renfrew's circumstances, Cider returned to the ballroom with quick steps. A group dance had just begun, so the area around the tables was quiet. Alastair Renfrew, who had run out earlier, was still nowhere to be seen in the ballroom. Instead, gentlen from Nine Holder who had co to Dunbarton for the sa reason as Cider discovered him and approached.

"Avondale! There you were. I saw you dancing with so lady earlier. Where is the lady?"

"Don't know."

The Nine Holder gentleman knew Count Avondale's bad reputation better than the Dunbarton people, so he could roughly infer the situation from that short answer.

Moreover, he had heard that the young lady who was supposedly his ward was in that kind of relationship with him. Of course, that was quite surprising too. In that there was a lady who could endure that temperant.

"Ah... I see. Oh, this is Captain Duke."

The gentleman pointed to an officer with a mustache. The officer, who appeared to be around thirty, showed a good-natured smile and bowed sowhat exaggeratedly.

"Ery Duke. Pleased to et you, Lord Avondale."

After shaking hands with the man called Captain, the gentleman who had first spoken said:

"Captain Duke is serving in the navy and says he knows well about this matter. It seems the navy is taking this matter seriously too."

They would have to. Cider thought indifferently. The great Osdern navy, which had reigned like masters of the ocean, was being pushed around by pirate rabble that couldn't even form a proper army, and how many ships had already been captured.

"Yes, of course. I hear the command is seriously considering it too. I don't know if they'll end up dispatching troops."

His tone was skeptical too. Unless the situation beca more serious, such a thing wouldn't happen. They wouldn't make a decision where winning would be breaking even and losing would lose all face.

"Actually, before coming here, I stopped by the naval base in Sterling, and there's new news. A ship that survived battle just arrived at port. It's the first ship to return since those pirates appeared. According to the survivors, there seems to be internal division among the pirates. Perhaps things might wrap up faster than expected."

It was hopeful news. But Cider didn't find those words convincing.

Duke Galliston had told Esperanza that Daria had gotten the pirates in her hands. The reason the pirates were doing well against warships wrapped in cutting-edge weapons was thanks to Daria. So whether internal division occurred among the pirates or not, there would be no problem with their military force. Unless Daria suddenly withdrew her hand. But suddenly letting a ship go? When she could just create a dungeon and sink it?

Looking at how things were going, there was no reason for Daria to collapse the castle she had built up. This looked more like one step back for two steps forward.

Of course, he couldn't share such stories with these people. Did Esperanza know this fact? How much had she learned? He thought with his eyes slightly narrowed. What was she doing about now?

"Lord Avondale, could you also make reconnaissance automatons usable on warships?"

Captain Duke suddenly asked.

"If I were to make them, it wouldn't be impossible. I'd need equipnt and a laboratory though."

"That much can be fully supported. Actually, what's needed is modification rather than developnt."

Captain Duke, having said that, lowered his voice slightly. So that other people wouldn't overhear.

"The command seems to want to confirm whether the pirates are really retreating. Of course, I shouldn't tell such stories to outsiders, but Lord Avondale isn't just any outsider."

Cider, who considered himself an outsider with no relation to the military, only showed a perfunctory smile. He understood what he ant. Since he had a record of receiving military requests in Nine Holder and was a person of certain status and identity, they would trust him.

Cider pondered for a mont. The magical engineering conference in Finley and the Sterling navy's request. The forr was definitely more interesting, but choosing the latter to learn more about the current situation wouldn't be bad either.

Either way, if he imrsed himself, the frightening emotions that suddenly surged up would also subside. That way, he could slowly distance himself from the cliff beneath his feet.

"When would be good?"

"The sooner the better."

Then he could also shake off the Duke's unpleasant approach.

'He seems to want to connect with Nine Holder high society through marriage ties.'

That's why he had arranged the engagent between Alastair Renfrew and Cordelia Mabelwood, whom he had never even t, and now that the engagent had broken in the worst possible way, he was trying to push in his niece.

The capital and connections and reputation built up over decades and centuries that Nine Holder's wealthy lords possessed, and their influence in parliant. Going through this incident, the Duke Dunbarton would have felt even more acutely the need to build up forces to counter the central and southern policy stance. More desperately than when he had thrown away the card called Cordelia Mabelwood to re ghost stories.

But of all people, to choose Cider Claiborne. The Duke seed to have arbitrarily assud that anyone would like his niece, who had good breeding and would bring a generous dowry, but he had chosen the wrong opponent.

It didn't matter if he lived as a bachelor his whole life. Unless it was one very special person. Unless it was soone who would pleasantly disrupt his peaceful and orderly daily life and perate it as they pleased, it would be aningless.

Cider smiled broadly.

"Then let's depart tomorrow. I'm looking forward to it."

There was still ti. Still, passion and specialness remained.

When the conversation ended, there was no longer any reason to remain here. Cider headed for the closed door without hesitation. The Duke, who had been conversing with his brother, spotted him and his eyes widened.

"Avondale!"

He had tried to leave quietly. Feeling gazes converging on him, Cider muttered harsh words under his breath. The Duke approached with a smile covering his face and slightly blocked the door with his back.

"Leaving early. Not enjoying the ball more. Where did you leave Diane to be alone?"

"I have to prepare to leave tomorrow. How would I know where Miss Renfrew is? You should ask her chaperone."

The Duke, who had been subtly trying to link his niece with him, furrowed his brow.

"Do you have sowhere to go? How about going with my niece? She knows this area better than anyone."

Cider pondered for a mont, then smiled. The Duke's face brightened a little.

"I received an urgent request. To be honest, it's botherso."

"What did you say?"

He had lowered his voice for the last words so that only the Duke could hear, but the Duke's anger drew attention anyway. Cider clicked his tongue and said:

"Look for another gentleman. This isn't fifty years ago, and who in today's world would be interested in arranged etings set up by adults?"

The Duke's face contorted with anger. Though he had shown an indifferent attitude all along, he apparently hadn't expected to receive such an explicit rejection.

That part was simply surprising. Did he really not know?

"Then I'll be going in now. Since it's such an urgent request, it beca difficult to et and bid farewell tomorrow, so I'm fortunate to have this opportunity to greet you."

"Look here, Avondale!"

Even as the Duke's voice rang out loudly, Cider passed by with unwavering steps as if he hadn't heard. The tangled voices and music gradually grew distant.

"What will you do now? Only Diane has been made to look foolish! If only you hadn't arbitrarily broken Alastair's engagent from the start...!"

The sound of the Duke's brother bursting with anger also beca faint. Cider let out a snicker. It seed certain that he was looking for marriage connections to establish ties with Nine Holder. That didn't matter to him. What beca certain from this was only that he needed to escape this stuffy castle as soon as possible. His steps toward the bedroom quickened a bit. In his mind, he was ruminating over the newly added schedule.

Sterling.

Daria's plan was probably also being carried out in the sea adjacent to Sterling City. If he thought about safety, it would be right not to go near Sterling at all. But threats to his life couldn't frighten him. At least not enough to suppress his desire for knowledge.

It was just as he was about to pass it off carelessly. Cider, who had stopped in front of the door that now filled his view, bit his lips at a sudden thought.

'If I die, what will happen to Esperanza?'

She couldn't imdiately return, and whether the title was reclaid or inherited, she wouldn't be able to stay in the mansion as she did now. Since he had revised his will, there wouldn't be financial difficulties, but...

Strength entered the hand gripping the doorknob. The corner of his lips twisted self-deprecatingly.

This was exactly the problem. The center of the world shifting. The sensation of thoughts and decisions escaping control. The realization that he was no longer master of himself.

That's why, all the more Sterling.

His heart pounded as if reproaching that decision.