“Don’t need to know…… me?”
Blair’s voice wavered slightly as she repeated it back. But Kalintz’s dark gold eyes remained indifferent.
“That’s right. You don’t need to know anymore, Blair.”
The low voice she had always found pleasant now sounded hollow and dry.
“Let’s end the contract here.”
Blair blinked, wondering if she had heard wrong.
“What…… did you just say?”
End the contract. What does that mean.
“Exactly what it sounds like. I’m saying I won’t maintain this contract marriage any longer.”
Kalintz said it with an unchanged expression, his face perfectly even.
“So don’t concern yourself with Duke Brienne or anything else from here on.”
“No, this is so out of nowhere—”
“We’ll discuss the procedures after we return to Eiron.”
His tone was as flat as if he were handling routine business.
“If there’s anything you want, it would be good to think it over in advance.”
“W, wait a moment. You’re saying you want to break the contract?”
Blair stumbled over her words, she was so taken aback.
“What is this all of a sudden…… what exactly is it that you’re unhappy with?”
She had expected him to be angry about Rashid confessing to her. He had always looked ready to lose his mind whenever Rashid was around, so this was hardly surprising.
But contract termination. That was far too extreme a conclusion.
“Even if you’re angry—”
“Blair. Do I look angry to you right now?”
Kalintz looked at her with a low, level gaze.
“No. I’m speaking in an entirely rational state.”
“If you’re being rational, how does that conclusion make any sense!”
Blair’s voice rang out sharply. But Kalintz was unmoved.
“You said it yourself yesterday. That our ending is already decided. You were right. We each have clear goals. I’ll fake my death and abandon my identity, and you’ll live the free life you want.”
He continued with a blank face.
“Those aren’t things either of us could easily give up for something as fleeting as feelings.”
At the murmured words, heat flooded Blair’s head.
“Something as fleeting as feelings……?”
Her whole heart was so full of him it felt ready to burst. And he was calling it fleeting.
All those moments of conflict between desire and hesitation, the burning kiss two nights ago, all of it was just fleeting feelings?
“How can you say that?”
Blair’s voice trembled with anger. But Kalintz answered in a rigid tone.
“My feelings couldn’t give you any certainty, and yours were something you could cover up as a drunken mistake. If that’s all it amounts to, fleeting feelings seems about right.”
“That…… you know why I said that!”
He knew perfectly well that the claim of being drunk had been nothing but an excuse. He knew why she had told such a transparent lie.
That was exactly why he had been so angry with her.
“Didn’t you say you were waiting for my answer?”
“I already heard it. In the forest yesterday.”
“Pardon? What do you mean? I haven’t given you any answer yet……”
Blair was staring at him in bewilderment when his expression stopped her cold.
It was only for a moment, but he looked lonely, like someone who had been hurt.
“So you don’t need to say anything to me. I understand what you want.”
She had no idea what he thought he understood, and she was about to ask, but Kalintz gave her no opening.
“And I’d appreciate it if you didn’t threaten to come to a room full of men in your nightgown again. Keeping your reputation intact in Eiron will work in your favor when you go to the Armos Islands.”
“Pardon? The Armos Islands?”
Where was this coming from. Blair stared at him with a deep frown, but Kalintz walked out of the sitting room with the air of someone who had nothing more to say.
Left alone in the now-quiet sitting room, Blair murmured with a baffled expression.
“What exactly did he hear yesterday……?”
❀❀❀
Kalintz lay stretched out on the sofa in Ernst’s room, one arm covering his eyes and forehead, and let out a long breath.
Right. This was the right thing to do. Rather than keeping Blair tied to a contract and making things hard for her, letting her have what she wanted was the right choice.
‘Honestly…… being with you wouldn’t be a bad choice for me either. To be honest, my head is a mess, and I have no certainty about how this relationship will end.‘
Blair’s words to Rashid kept circling in his head.
‘When I think about it that way, maybe going to the Armos Islands would be better.‘
It was a rational decision. Going to the Armos Islands with Rashid would mean no more unnecessary danger from Duke Brienne, and no more having to play the role of princess consort.
All of it made sense, but it ached.
Walking away from a conversation he had no need to hear any more of, he had come back wrapped in a heaviness he could not name.
And through all of it, he could not afford to let his guard down about Willer Brienne. Talking through preparations with his knights, receiving Ariela’s report on the ‘Leaf of Youth,’ the day had passed before he knew it.
In the meantime, the decision to end the contract with Blair had only grown more solid.
She had no reason to be caught up in this danger. Going to the Armos Islands and living freely in comfort would suit her well. Just as she wanted.
But then he had seen those green eyes waver when he said the words, and his resolve had shaken all over again.
The way she had bristled and raised her voice at the words fleeting feelings, as though she had been wronged, had nearly made him hope for something foolish once more.
“Haah.”
Fleeting feelings. The weight of loss already pressing down on every part of him made Kalintz let out a short, hollow laugh.
❀❀❀
“This is unbelievable, honestly.”
At Blair’s muttered complaint, Tilda quietly glanced at her while preparing the tea. Whatever had been said between her and Kalintz the night before, Blair had been in a low mood all day.
Blair had not slept a wink, turning over Kalintz’s words and actions from the night before. By the time the early morning light had barely begun to thin, she arrived at one conclusion.
He definitely didn’t hear the whole conversation.
Kalintz thought she was going to follow Rashid to the Armos Islands.
She had said things that gave that impression partway through, so if Kalintz had only heard up to that point, the misunderstanding was understandable enough.
But still. To break the contract without a single word of discussion.
That was what made Blair angry. He had cut off the conversation at the wrong point, drawn his own conclusions, and simply informed her of the result.
“He’s the one who said he wasn’t satisfied with just burying it.”
He said he would wait for her answer. He hadn’t even heard it from her own mouth yet.
Blair let out a sigh that was equal parts frustration and exasperation.
Tilda came over carefully with a tray of tea and cookies.
“Try some of these. They’re baked in the traditional Valian style.”
“Thank you, Tilda. I’m not really in the mood to eat right now…… oh.”
Just then, Lady Miller emerged from her room.
“Lady Miller, are you feeling better now?”
She bowed her head with a drawn face.
“I’m sorry to have caused you worry, Your Highness. I was careless and fell……”
“Not at all. It’s a relief you weren’t badly hurt.”
“That’s right. It could have been so much worse!”
At the encouragement from Blair and Tilda, Lady Miller gave another small bow and spoke.
“Your Highness, the hunting competition is this afternoon. It may be time to start getting ready.”
“Oh, right. That’s today.”
The hunting competition. One of the biggest events of this birthday celebration. But also an unsettling one.
Ernst had let something slip, clearly implying something would happen at the hunting competition.
Blair frowned, remembering those words. Nothing had happened at the masquerade, so the ‘violent method’ Duke Brienne had mentioned was likely to unfold at the hunting competition.
The reason Kalintz had been holding such frequent meetings with his knights was almost certainly to prepare for the duke.
“Lady Miller, is there a riding outfit with leather reinforcement among my things?”
“It isn’t very thick, but…… there is one.”
“I’ll wear that one.”
Tilda asked with a surprised look.
“Won’t it be a bit heavy? You only need to look the part, really.”
As she said, most ladies and noblewomen either enjoyed riding or hunted small animals, so there was no real need for protective clothing.
But today, Duke Brienne would be there.
“It is a hunting competition, after all.”
Better to be prepared.
Lady Miller quickly found the outfit Blair had asked for. It was a garment with tough leather sewn into the torso below the chest, fastened with laces.
“Lady Miller, could you tighten the laces just a little more? No, not there, a little more to the right…… oh!”
Blair was trying to indicate the part near her waist that was hard to reach when she lost her balance and lurched.
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JTLovesYah
I may have to revisit this when the chapters are free. I’m frustrated enough to drop it completely, but I may press on later. Right now I just can’t spend any more coins on a story that’s making me so angry. Blair already knows he overhead her conversation with Rashid. Why is she acting like she doesn’t know why he wants to break the contract? Why is she acting like she doesn’t know why he’s bringing up Armos? Again, this is a character who is supposed to be so clever she has repeatedly impressed the crown prince, the queen, and the duke or Armos, but she can’t put two and two together that Kalintz heard her disloyal comments from the night before and concluded, albeit wrongly, that she wanted to run away with Rashid. What’s even more frustrating, is that it’s probably being set up in this way so that when everything hits the fan, Kalintz will take responsibility for the misunderstanding. It will be his fault for forming his own conclusions instead of talking it out, not hers, even though she’s had opportunity to clear things up and is instead acting like she has no idea where his cold behavior is coming from. I can’t spend money on a story where the plot is driven by contrived misunderstandings and idiocy. So annoying!