Pardon the Abduction, Holy Knight - It's an Emergency - Chapter 2.4

***

“What you said back then, Sir.”

At my words, Adriel raised his head and looked at me.

“You know, about true love or something… do you remember?”

“I remember.”

Adriel nodded as if telling me to continue.

“Honestly, I didn’t understand those words back then. But after handling this request, I think I understand a little.”

I paused before continuing.

“I wondered how long love obtained by denying oneself and conforming to the other person could last.”

Echo acted as the Marquis couple wished, and as a result, she was able to receive love.

But when Echo behaved differently, the Marquis couple changed instantly as if it had never happened.

In the end, it meant that Echo would have to live her entire life as the Marquis couple wanted in order to receive love.

“I admit there was a problem with my approach.”

Don’t whine, don’t talk back.

Advice to become a doll like this doesn’t serve as a solution.

“But still, I don’t think everything done to receive love is forced.”

If there was a problem with my way of helping, it’s something that can be improved.

“If sincere feelings eventually reach the other person, wouldn’t it be possible to obtain that true love you spoke of, Sir?”

I looked straight into Adriel’s eyes.

Adriel quietly gazed at me without blinking, then slowly opened his mouth.

“…I see.”

Hearing Adriel’s response, I smiled slightly.

Then I took out Lucian’s letter that Echo had delivered.

[I wanted to stay longer, but I have busy matters and can’t come for a while. Don’t cry if you miss me.]

What nonsense.

As I was clicking my tongue in disbelief, Adriel asked me.

“Are you going to reply?”

I looked back and forth between Adriel and the letter.

“No?”

Am I crazy?

And I immediately threw the letter into the fireplace. The paper quickly turned to ashes.

“Kekek. Kekekek. It’s burning, burning! Lucian Berto is on fire!”

It’s like some kind of demonic ritual…

I looked at Wit cheering in front of the fireplace and then quietly turned my gaze away.

Then I happened to see Adriel’s face.

“Why are you smiling, Sir?”

“…What do you mean?”

“You just smiled. Your mouth was turned up like this?”

Then Adriel replied with a serious face.

“I did no such thing. My lady, your eyesight must be poor.”

Why is it that everyone around me seems to be trying to upset me?

…Of course, Echo is an exception.

“Do you return to the Count’s mansion when the sun sets?”

While I was lamenting my poor luck with people, Adriel asked an out-of-the-blue question as if trying to change the subject.

As I looked at him, he, sitting at the table, nodded towards the bedroom.

“You must have a separate place to sleep. This house only has one room, and I’m using it.”

Ah… Adriel didn’t know that I had run away.

I spoke nonchalantly.

“I’ve just been sleeping on that couch over there.”

At that, Adriel’s expression slightly hardened.

His face, which had shown disbelief, was briefly touched by a faint sense of guilt.

“…Isn’t it uncomfortable?”

“Why? Did you suddenly think of giving up your spot?”

I jokingly asked, even though I had no intention of taking Adriel’s room.

“This….”

It was so quiet that I thought he was going to ignore my joke.

Suddenly, Adriel’s face turned red and his gaze towards me sharpened.

“Shameless….”

“…Pardon?”

Me?

***

The veins on Adriel’s sturdy hands, calloused and scarred from years of wielding a sword, bulged.

“Why? Did you suddenly think of giving up your spot?”

Adriel couldn’t understand Rosemary’s words.

But soon after, as he grasped their meaning, Adriel’s face flushed red.

Rosemary was proposing to share a bed with him.

Asking him to make room beside him.

The villainess, who had been strangely quiet since they started living together, was finally showing her true colors.

“Um, Sir? I’m asking because I don’t understand. Why am I being called shame… well, that, no, such a thing?”

As Rosemary asked with a bewildered look, Adriel’s gaze deepened.

Her attitude of feigning innocence after uttering such vulgar words was laughable.

Adriel bit his red lips.

It was shameful. He wanted to run out of this place right away. But he couldn’t, given that a demon was by the villainess’s side.

Adriel lowered his long eyelashes that shimmered faintly.

This was a terrible ordeal.

It felt as if God was testing him.

So Adriel took a slow, deep breath, thinking that God somewhere up there was watching to see how he would endure this trial.

He mustn’t act rashly.

The best he could do was to humor the villainess while waiting for an opportunity.

“……”

“……”

“…Sir?”

His thoughts had gone on for too long.

Rosemary, looking at Adriel like this, was at her wit’s end, wondering what kind of misunderstanding this person was building up on his own again.

Tick-tock. Along with the sound of the clock’s hand moving, Adriel finally opened his mouth.

“…will.”

“Pardon?”

“I said I will do as you asked.”

Adriel gazed at Rosemary, withdrawing his sharp energy.

It was humiliating. But this was an unavoidable choice to humor that villainess, so he had to endure it.

“…Really?”

Rosemary asked with a dumbfounded face.

Adriel nodded heavily.

Even if his body were to be defiled, he vowed that at least his heart would not be broken. With that determination.

“Master, do you have something to worry about? Adriel said it’s okay. Kekek.”

“Hmm… I’m just worried that our Sir might say he doesn’t want to later, even after agreeing so readily.”

“Don’t worry about that, Master! Wit will tie Adriel up nice and tight!”

“Is that so…?”

The corners of Rosemary’s mouth, which was stroking her chin, slightly turned upward.

Deep into the night.

Adriel, who had entered the room, focused all his nerves on the tightly closed door.

Thump-thump, his heart was racing wildly. It must be due to anxiety and fear.

He had never been this tense even during the past war with the demon beasts.

Rosemary was a woman far more unpredictable and impossible to deal with than any enemy he had faced.

Creak-

At the sound of the door opening, Adriel’s broad shoulders tensed up. Taut muscles revealed themselves over his rigid frame.

Thud-thud-

Adriel’s Adam’s apple bobbed greatly at the sound of Rosemary’s footsteps.

He must endure. He must endure this trial given by God….

“What are you doing?”

A question arose in Adriel’s eyes, which had been filled with resignation.

“Aren’t you going to move?”

“……?”

He couldn’t understand Rosemary’s intentions. But it wouldn’t be strange for an evil woman to have peculiar tastes.