"……You're saying it wasn't you?"
Leon, who had finally managed to speak, had turned pale. After thinking for a mont, Cedric hurriedly ran out of the room.
"Hey, where are you going!"
Leon chased after him with a bewildered look.
Where are you all going, leaving alone!
I rushed out of the room to find them, but they walked so fast that I couldn't see them.
As I was looking around absentmindedly, soone called out to .
"Bianca?"
I flinched and turned my head. There stood Countess Owen with a bright smile on her face.
"Oh my, my. You've grown up so beautifully! Lord Blua must be so pleased!"
Startled by the unexpected appearance of the countess, I hurried to show my manners, but she burst out laughing.
"Co on, no need for that between us!"
"H-Have you been well?"
"I'm always the sa. By the way, where did that Leon go without even greeting the guest?"
"He was just here a mont ago, but sothing must've co up suddenly."
"Still."
The countess sighed and shook her head.
She had always looked kindly upon .
'Strictly speaking, she probably saw as a potential bride…….'
"I heard the news from the count. Our Bianca seems to be struggling between the two, doesn’t she?"
"Not at all. It was sothing that should've been resolved long ago."
"You don't need to lie in front of ."
The countess scrunched her nose playfully and smiled smoothly.
"I'm just grateful you're doing what we couldn't."
She stepped toward the garden, suggesting we take a walk.
"Don't you resent us for not explaining Leon’s situation more openly?"
"……! No, that thought never crossed my mind."
"I told you, you don’t have to lie."
I swore to the gods I wasn’t lying.
"When the imperial family acknowledged the existence of the temple, several noble houses made a promise with them."
"You an the promise to raise their descendants as priests?"
The Owen family and the Glaster family were the most representative examples.
"Yes, that's right."
The countess let out a small sigh.
"But that wasn't so easy. Just look at Leon—he's not soone who can sit still in a stifling temple, right?"
"Y-Yes, that's true."
"We couldn't force Leon, who loves his freedom, into such a suffocating place."
Listening to her, I cautiously opened my mouth.
"Then when you said you'd pass on the title only if my brother earned top grades at the academy……."
"That was his way of showing he was willing to serve the imperial family. We planned to hold the knighting ceremony right after he graduated from the academy."
The countess lifted the shawl that had slipped from her shoulder and continued.
"But it seems the Glaster family misunderstood our intention."
She put a hand to her forehead, as if recalling sothing dreadful.
"Back then, the Glaster family was aiming for the position of Holy Knight. Since the academy usually selects recognized students, they thought Leon was going after that spot."
"……No way."
"What happened afterward, you already know."
She shook her head with a troubled expression.
"The temple was desperate to protect Eli's honor as a priest candidate, and the academy couldn’t do much either."
It was a story so ridiculous it made laugh dryly.
"His Excellency decided to cover up the matter instead and let Leon put down the burden he had been carrying."
……So keeping Leon from becoming a priest was the compensation.
"If I’d known it would cause him such pain, maybe sending him to the temple would've been the better answer."
I couldn’t answer. I wasn’t him.
Then the once-serious countess suddenly added in a joking tone.
"Hoho, I only heard this from the social circles, so it might not be accurate!"
"Don’t worry. I think I also heard this story from the social circles."
At my words, the countess smiled gently.
"Eli will soon fall. It's the natural end for soone who lived so selfishly."
* * *
‘It’s worse than I imagined…….’
After digging into Eli’s background, I was utterly dumbfounded.
Gambling was the least of it—his womanizing was filthy, and he’d committed practically every cri under the sun.
This guy proposed to ?
It was so horrifying I felt nauseated.
"Brother!"
I ran toward Cedric, but the person who usually holed himself up in his office was nowhere to be seen.
"Young lady?"
"Atticus, where did my brother go?"
"He said he was going to the temple early this morning……."
Without waiting for the butler to finish, I imdiately headed to the temple.
The odds of Eli being there were low. Besides, Cedric would surely scold for doing sothing unnecessary, but I couldn't help it.
‘I’m too angry!’
Because of this one man, Cedric and Leon wasted years!
"……Lady Bianca?"
Onyx seed genuinely flustered by my sudden appearance at the temple. But after a brief mont, he showed a pleased expression.
"Ah! Are you here to finish the conversation we left off last ti?"
Ignoring his words, I looked around and spotted Cedric heading toward the prayer room.
"Sorry. I’m here to find my brother right now."
I quickly moved toward him. Just as I got close to Cedric, I heard Eli's voice.
"Haha, I don’t know why you’re so angry. It’s a fact that the Marquis also looked down on Leon."
"You’ve got the wrong idea. The one I looked down on was you."
"Even though he spread bad rumors about , Leon still has such a generous evaluation of him."
"What kind of delusion are you having?"
Leon’s angry voice could be heard too. Cedric stepped in front of him, answering in his place.
"Wasn’t that sothing you brought upon yourself? It’s troubling if you call the truth a re rumor."
"What in the world is going on……."
It seed Onyx had followed without realizing.
Startled, I urgently raised a finger to my lips. He flinched and swallowed hard.
"All I see is you nitpicking because I dared to send a proposal letter to Lady Bianca."
"Why is Bianca suddenly being brought up here?"
"Am I wrong? Think about it, my lord. You ignored your sister all this ti, and now you’re rushing to shield her—don’t you think that’s laughable?"
My clenched fist trembled.
What do you even know!
"Looks like you didn’t even show her the proposal letter properly. If this was how it was going to be, you should’ve done so from the start."
I couldn’t take Cedric’s insults anymore and ran out.
"I don’t need your proposal! Why would I waste ti on soone who doesn’t even act like a human being?"
Leon and Cedric looked at with wide eyes.
"I’m actually grateful to my brother, so don’t speak carelessly when you don’t know anything!"
Unable to hold back my anger, I kicked Eli’s leg with all my strength.
"……!"
It must have hit directly; a vein popped on his forehead.
"How dare you……!"
Just as Eli reached toward , Leon and Cedric grabbed him at the sa ti.
Thwack!
The punch ca from Cedric. I could only mouth words as I looked at Eli collapsed on the floor.
"Yeah, how dare you."
Cedric gritted his teeth.
"Who do you think you’re reaching for?"
"Urgh!"
"What in the world is going on here!"
Onyx, who had been hiding with , stared at Eli with a look of disbelief.
Finally pulling myself together, I took out the docunts detailing Eli’s misdeeds from my bag.
"This is……."
Onyx blinked blankly at the papers he received.
"Just felt like soone didn’t quite belong in Cardiff."
Eli’s face started to pale.
"We’ll be going now."
At my words, Leon kicked Eli once more in the stomach.
* * *
Leon couldn’t take his eyes off Bianca’s back as she walked ahead.
It had started with re curiosity.
She looked just like Cedric.
Unlike her brother, who skillfully concealed his sensitivity, she couldn’t manage her emotions at all.
Afraid of crowds, always locked in her room—Cedric hadn’t paid her any attention.
Maybe that’s why, when he saw her crying, he decided he’d beco her family.
But as ti passed, she began to smile again and naturally followed him.
Pity turned into joy, and that joy beca a feeling he should never have held onto.
Even so, he deed it a disgraceful emotion and cut it off.
He had promised to beco her family. He didn’t want to beco a man who couldn’t keep even that promise.
A man should keep his word once spoken.
That was when Cedric’s indifferent voice reached him.
"How long are you going to keep waiting?"
"What?"
"You’re not really satisfied with just playing family, are you?"
It was uncharacteristically kind of him to explain, but Leon still didn’t understand.
Cedric was overly protective when it ca to Bianca.
Just the other day, he had sternly told Leon to stay away from her, not trusting him at all.
"……Do you even know what you’re saying right now?"
"Do I look like soone who speaks without thinking?"
Cedric let out a deep sigh.
"If she’s going to get married, wouldn’t it be better if it’s to soone I know well?"
"……!"
"Though that only works if she actually wants you."
Of course, it was true Leon didn’t quite asure up.
His sister was the most precious person to him.
No matter who it was, no one felt right for Bianca. If that was the case, it was better to choose soone who cherished her as much as he did.
Even if he repeatedly did foolish things, and acted in ways Cedric couldn’t understand—what could he do?
What mattered was that he was alive.
Cedric glanced down at his throbbing hand and let out a small chuckle.
Yeah, that was enough.
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