Chapter 104
Evan immediately stopped the horse after running around the road. After seeing Larias carriage finally vanish over the hill, he slowly turned around. Then, while gently stroking Lawrences cheek, where Larias lips had touched, he slowly brought his lips to the spot.
Hhiiinnnggg!
Lawrence then became very annoyed.
Dont get me wrong. Its not for you.
Saying so, Evan groaned softly.
I think of you as just a carrier, like air not really living. I dont even think of you as a horse now.
Hhiiing!
Lawrence, too, quickly became annoyed by its owner and started running as if protesting. Laria in the fantasy shown by the scroll book was so different from the Laria in reality that he sighed. It was even the worst environment for the truth drug.
It was not a magic tower, but a tower of trials.
Thank you, Sir
Had Laria known her whole story, she would probably have looked at him like a beast.
That damn book
While the scroll book was also a bookso it had no expression or faceits patheticity was dripping from the voice.
You pervert, how can you say such a cheeky thing
That was too accurate.
To be honest, he thought the scroll book would show the fantasy of Laria dying. On the contrary, it showed a completely different fantasy, saying, You win when you tell me to stop. So, it was like a very wild imagination that he was forced to go into.
Evan was completely helpless in front of Larias fantasy that the scroll book had shown him. There was no way he could tell the scroll book to stop. He didnt even know how five minutes had passed. To be honest, he was so disillusioned with it that it was not a waste of money.
However, Laria had seen the fantasy of his own childhood.
It was distasteful for him that she saw his most miserable and pitiful times. It was because, in a way, it was lamentable to see the woman he liked looking at him with sympathetic eyes.
Even at the masquerade, when he thought of her who frantically searched for him, remembering Ludva, he was very grateful though he was also sad at the same time. He wanted to be a nice guy she could rely on
It was almost impossible not to like Laria.
She had been a precious object since his reason was blurred, and from that moment on, there was only desire. It was probably around the time when his puberty came. From then on, seeing Laria made his heart flutter, and his body stiffened.
An intense possessiveness, which he had from his childhood, also became more apparent.
The letter he received on his fourteenth birthday was read several times and memorized, and the childrens book almost came to mind when he closed his eyes.
He wanted to use a separate room in case he acted like a beast because of his instincts. Still, when she was staying in the Dukes residence, he was so excited to be in the room next to her that he couldnt sleep well.
Would your life have changed a lot if Miss Matilda had been alive?
Perhaps, it would be. But, I dont want to talk to you about this.
If Matilda had lived, his life would certainly have changed a lot. He would, of course, have a happy childhood and never had to go to the academy.
Could I have married Laria?
The sudden death of Larias parents was unavoidable, so marriage seemed inevitable.
Nonetheless, it seemed that he wouldnt be as cautious as he was now. He wouldnt have trembled in fear that she might die giving birth to a child because of her weak body. He could have been a little lighter and a little more selfish in expressing his feelings and desires to her.
Since they were a couple, of course, because they didnt have a bad relationship, it was natural.
So, Evan didnt want to talk like that with Laria. He just wanted her to keep thinking that he didnt want to talk about having children because he didnt like being in touch with women. He wished she lived with him now without any blame and guilt.
Because of that, he tried frantically not to tell Laria what he wanted when he saw the effects of the truth-telling drug.
Yet he
Damn, youre a real bastard
Evan, in self-loathing, slapped his cheek once more while riding on Lawrence. It was because he was pathetic that he was still unable to escape from the fantasy that the scroll book showed him.
Besides, on the forest road which he used to hold her in his childhood
Frankly, if Laria had looked into his own head back then, he would have been hit for ruining her childhood memories.
Even though the truth drugs effect was already gone by then, he loved the little body held by him so much that he even lied to her. He didnt have the confidence to restrain himself, so he really didnt want to touch her fingertips. Still, he couldnt really push her away when she came into a hug.
Now that he hugged her once, he kept thinking about it like an addiction, and the next time they met, he would definitely want more
But, he liked it too much to regret it, and he didnt want to go back.
* * *
Kallaudin has been suffering from stress headaches since visiting the Imperial Palace a few days ago. He knew the Emperor well. He would certainly stir him up until the iron ore problem was resolved. However, he really didnt want to upset the place where Matilda rested
It wasnt long before he realized why the Emperor was chasing him. It was because Duke Orlando had secretly pumped up that Podilin would have some iron ore reserves.
Everyone knew that Matildas tomb was in Podilin. This was an openly prepared trap. It was the target that Duke Orlando set to separate Kallaudin from the Emperor. And the Emperor, thinking Duke Orlando was right, was testing Kalaudin to see if he would disobey his orders just because his dead wifes tomb was there.
Both Duke Orlando and the Emperor were conscious of Kalaudins influence, which had almost completely taken over the nobility.
The answer here was, of course, to start mining development
Although he avoided a difficult situation with Laria last time, he wouldnt be able to avoid it forever. However, after the masquerade was over, something unimaginable happened.
[ A large amount of iron ore landfill has appeared Hanuas reexamination. ]
[ Hanua, an iron ore production area. ]
All kinds of newspapers were in an uproar with the scoop. Iron ore began to be supplied to the raw material market, that had come to a standstill. The price that had been skyrocketing reached an upper limit.
Above all else, the justification that the emperor could use force to develop the mines disappeared.
I have a feeling that something good is going on with Duchy Icard.
What do you mean?
There have been times when crises that could have gotten bigger just passed smoothly. And, there are times when things can get a little more difficult, gets easily resolved.
He didnt know why the conversation with Evan came to mind. It certainly seemed like a crisis was approaching though there was a sense of it strangely fizzing. It was as if someone was really protecting him.
When Laria pretended to be sick and she dragged him out, he thought it was just a coincidence
If he had been held captive for hours to the end and he continued to refuse, there would be an irreversible loss of relations with the Emperor. However, when his thoughts reached Laria, Kallaudin buried his face in his hands.
Serena, the doctor, said she was really running out of time. Laria didnt even know herself, but from the beginning, as she said, she wasnt going to live long anyway
He thought he just had to let her die, so he brought her.
But, at some point, he really cared for her.
Since she went to Borotna for treatment, they have been seeing each other from time to time, and he just didnt think much of it because she was happy every time.
Serena also contributed to the fact that Larias condition apparently improved considerably. No matter how he expected her to die at any time, seeing Laria bouncing around was unrealistic. Then, time had already passed like this.
Laria was dying like Matilda.
It was then that Kallaudin realized how terrible he had been.
If she was a child who was going to die anyway, he thought it was okay for her to die here. Was it a punishment that he easily wielded her, considering the life of a child as a tool? Was he paying the price for arbitrarily judging that it was better to just stay here than to go back and forth at her relatives house?
His whole body trembled at the thought of losing a loved one once more.
In the meantime, Laria was so fine, it was unbelievable. However, when he met the Emperor and heard the news that Laria had collapsed, he realized how much the sky seemed to be falling
At that moment, it started to feel real.
And
How the hell could he tell that to Evan? He knew best what kind of eyes the child was looking at Laria with.
If I turn back time, it will all disappear anyway.
Those were the days when he ran with that thought.
However
Even so, there were still days when he had to go through Larias death.
Now, the only people who knew about her illness were Serena and him. Kallaudin, unwittingly, became distant, unable to raise his face for a long time. He stood there for a while, feeling as if he had been caught in a trap he had set on himself.