I Thought It Was Okay to Abandon You Back Then

The place Kailen arrived at earlier than the appointed time with Collen in tow was a members-only club located on the upper floor of a three-story building at the edge of the financial district.

Though different in character from the royalist nobles’ clubs, it wasn’t a casual place just anyone could waltz into either. A place where emerging capitalists, especially young blood, formed the core. In other words, a space where money and words flowed freely.

When the door opened, thick smoke and noise rushed in all at once.

Under dim lighting, men bent over each table shuffled cards while laughing, and cue sticks moved lazily over the pocket billiards table placed to one side.

For a meeting of upstanding businessmen taking place in broad daylight, it looked quite dissolute.

As he stepped inside, someone approached calling for Kailen delightedly.

“Oh, Belliche. No wait, Lord Belliche.”

Already drunk judging by his swaying gait and flushed complexion, his condition didn’t look good at all.

“You’ve been absent every time, and now you finally grace our gathering.”

It was Leverton, Baron Polsen’s second son. Always clinging annoyingly like he had something to scrounge, irritation surged up, but Kailen accepted the handshake without changing his expression.

“It’s been a while. I should have made time to see you sooner, but personal matters overlapped and I couldn’t.”

“Ah, I heard.”

Leverton clicked his tongue and shook his head.

“The world’s really going mad. How can such terrible terrorist attacks happen day after day?”

Kailen appropriately handled the staggering Leverton and several other people who approached afterward with a soundless smile. Then he moved toward the card room located at the end of the large hall.

Thunk—Egon Hafter, who’d set down his drink, jumped up from his seat to greet Kailen.

“You, what’s going on? Showing up this early.”

The person who always appeared at the appointed time showed his face unusually early. Surprised, he looked between Kailen and Collen alternately and raised his eyebrows.

“Did something happen?”

“No.”

Kailen answered as he took his seat.

“I just happened to have time.”

Egon Hafter. He expanded his business based on the newspaper company inherited from his father, and with Kailen’s support, acquired several newspapers and magazine publishers.

Thus, the current Egon had made a name for himself as quite a big shot moving about half of Varsen’s media.

“That’s a relief then. Here, sit. Collen, you have a drink too.”

Egon, who poured whiskey for Kailen and Collen, caught his breath like choosing his words for a moment. Then he narrowed his brow and carefully brought up the shooting incident that occurred on the wedding day.

“Kailen, I’m truly sorry to you. I should have been of help… My abilities are always inadequate.”

Egon, who had connections behind the scenes with the head of Radiant presumed to be behind the shooting incident, kept dwelling on not being able to relay information in advance that such a terrible accident might occur. He bowed his head again with an apology.

“Forget it.”

But Kailen, who’d tossed the whiskey in his glass into his mouth, received the words like it was no big deal.

“It wasn’t the kind of accident that could be prevented. Who could know in advance to avoid a mad dog biting in all directions?”

It was an excessively calm tone, hard to believe from the person involved in an accident where his life was in danger.

“Grasping all of ‘R’s movements is impossible from the start. I’m not disparaging your abilities.”

Kailen, who’d set down his empty glass, took out a cigarette case from inside his jacket.

“I never expected such things.”

At that expression that was indifferent to the point of being apathetic, Egon, who’d been reading the mood, slipped in a comment.

“This incident too… ‘R’ is indeed too dangerous to reach out to rashly. They’re all out of their minds without exception.”

Cigarette smoke flowed over the lips of Kailen leaning back in his chair and rose slowly.

“Egon.”

Kailen, who called the gentle-looking man’s name in a low voice, added.

“If they were sane from the start, they wouldn’t call themselves revolutionaries either.”

It was a tone asking if he only now realized that an organization advocating for republicanism and socialism under a monarchical system was a den of lunatics. At Kailen’s reaction that seemed tinged with faint irritation, Egon stepped forward to fill the empty glass.

“D*mn ‘R’ bastards. If they’re going to shoot, they should shoot well. Missing pointlessly just made things more troublesome.”

At Egon’s complaint, a crooked smile leaked from the lips holding the cigarette. But the smile ended there.

“What b*llshit.”

In the shadowed eyes that sank even deeper under the dim lighting, a brilliant strange light settled in his blue pupils. Egon reflexively closed his mouth.

“Die already for whose benefit?”

“…”

“They need to stay alive for now. I have so much to collect from them over and over.”

For a moment, heavy silence flowed. Egon quickly nodded, trying to clumsily patch up the atmosphere.

“Oh, right. You’re correct. I misspoke.”

Collen, who’d been pitifully watching Egon’s expression change moment by moment, slowly broke the silence he’d maintained until now.

Though it was hard to mention since it was an accident where Kailen’s life hung in the balance, he brought up that there were unexpected gains.

“Still, this incident caused greater turmoil in Ovel than expected. We can take the long view.”

Several higher-ups from the deeply-rooted royalist Ovel alliance had attended the wedding with the king. That day, they seemed quite shocked by the disgraceful behavior shown by the monarch they upheld.

Rather than displaying royal dignity to subdue the assassin and handle the situation, he showed the ugly sight of fleeing to save his own life.

And even the callousness of unhesitatingly using as a human shield the close aide he’d kept closer than family for over forty years and used like his own limbs. That image was clearly stamped in the eyes of everyone who was there.

Egon glanced around and asked subtly.

“Then will there be defectors from Ovel?”

“No, not yet…”

Still holding the cigarette that hadn’t gone out between his fingers, Kailen’s lips, which had been tilting his glass repeatedly, drew an elegant line.

“But a cracked cup can’t stay whole. It’s ultimately a matter of time.”

That night, the city’s lights went out later than usual. The subtle current that originated in the capital Varsen became thin threads of rain that soaked all of Krauben.

* * *

Though she’d become the mistress of this mansion starting today, everything felt unfamiliar. The title of ma’am, and the newly luxuriously decorated mistress’s bedroom too.

If she’d at least had dinner with Kailen, her mood would have improved considerably, but since he said he’d be home late due to work, she couldn’t openly resent him.

Adeline, who smoothed the soft bedding with a subtle fragrance once, laid her body on the bed.

Unlike her thought that she wouldn’t fall asleep easily since the sleeping place had changed, perhaps because of the prescription medicine she’d brought from the hospital, her eyes soon closed smoothly.

What made her, sleeping soundly, feel a sense of wrongness was that the bed she lay on seemed to be shaking. No, it seemed her body was shaking.

Adeline’s eyelids opened then, wondering if she was dreaming of floating in the middle of the ocean. Between her legs, in the intimate place no one had seen, she felt an unfamiliar sensation.

“Mmh…”

The first thing that entered her hazy vision still heavy with sleep was her feet floating in the air.

And next, the shadow of a man with black hair darker than the pitch-black night sky appeared before her eyes.

Startled, she opened her eyes wide and hastily twisted her body. But she couldn’t escape at all from the tremendous force gripping and pressing her folded thighs.

“Huk! N-no…!”

It was when a belated scream burst from her parted lips.

“You’re awake?”

A familiar low voice reached her ears as she shrank from the wet breath clinging below, making her shiver.

It was the voice of Kailen, who’d become her husband.

Even amid the complete mess in her head, unable to make sense of what situation this was, she felt slight relief.

“K-Kailen. What are you doing right now…”

When she called his name, unable to hide her confusion, he finally slowly raised his head from between her thighs.

“It was so tight I couldn’t get it in at all, so I’m trying to loosen it up.”

“Wh-what…”

His lips tilted at an angle were wet. His clear blue eyes in his half-closed long eye shape were also languidly relaxed.

“What do you mean what? You don’t know?”