CHAPTER ELEVEN.

Perfect Match

Bellota sat facing Geril in the luxurious reception room. Anger and betrayal settled heavily on Geril’s face, making him tremble. Bellota calmly met his gaze without avoiding it.

Early in the morning, Bellota had slipped out of Seiden’s embrace while he slept, declared her position at the temple, and headed straight to Geril’s mansion. Then, to Geril who greeted her with natural expectations, she gave her answer of rejection.

“I cannot accept your marriage proposal, Duke. I’m sorry.”

At that moment, Geril’s eyes, which had been full of expectation about becoming the Saintess’s husband, froze for an instant, and his complexion turned pale. Geril was glaring at her with such a fierce expression that it was hard to believe he was the same man who had been looking at Bellota with such sweet and gentle eyes just moments ago.

“……Why?”

When Geril demanded an explanation as if he couldn’t comprehend it, Bellota’s gaze briefly lowered before rising again to meet his eyes.

“I respect you, Duke, but I don’t love you.”

It was an extremely polite and reasonable answer, but that very answer dealt Geril a fatal blow. Geril’s eyes flashed as if he was losing reason. Barely suppressing his excitement, a cold sneer soon flowed from between his lips.

“Don’t love me? Is that all? Me, who fulfilled the oracle?”

Geril asked mockingly, but Bellota didn’t answer further and simply lowered her gaze with a face that seemed ready to accept all his anger. However, she could no longer maintain her composure at the sinister question that followed.

“Do you love the Knight Commander?”

When Geril asked while twisting his pale lips with anger, Bellota’s startled eyes turned back to him. Why is he suddenly bringing up Seiden? Seiden’s pleading face flashed before Bellota’s eyes. Her throat tightened terribly as she imagined what might happen if Geril knew about that.

Bellota clenched her fists and barely managed to answer in a calm voice.

“This has nothing to do with Sir Seiden.”

“It has everything to do with it!”

Finally exploding, Geril violently struck the table between them with a thud as he stood up. The table shook, causing the teacup in front of Bellota to fall sideways. With a loud crash, it shattered into pieces, making Bellota’s breath stop.

“It has everything to do with it, damn it!”

Still not satisfied, Geril now picked up the teapot and hurled it forcefully at the wall. The jarring sound of breaking porcelain echoed through the room once again. Blood had now rushed to Geril’s face as he shouted in anger. Bellota looked up at him with a frightened expression at his violent behavior.

“Duke……”

When Bellota called out to him in a thin voice, it turned Geril’s insides upside down in his loss of reason. That desirable woman. He had almost had her. She had almost been in his grasp! That man had ruined everything. Every time he tried to win Bellota’s heart!

When a dark man so persistently interferes with another man’s affections, there can only be one reason. Because he too lusts after that woman.

Moreover, it was now clear that Bellota showed dangerous affection beyond mere goodwill toward him. Though he had tried to ignore this fact, he could no longer deny it. Hadn’t it been proven already on the day of the hunting festival! When she took that man’s side and personally proved that he had caught the kurkroll, that was the evidence.

Moreover, that day, the fact that he survived must have been due to Bellota’s abilities. Otherwise, there was no way Bellota would have returned with him.

“Think what you will.”

Remembering that man’s arrogant face as he answered like that made his blood feel like it was flowing backward. For a moment, as he imagined Seiden, unlike himself, winning Bellota’s heart and embracing her in bed, the veins in Geril’s neck bulged prominently. That must never happen. A mere holy knight possessing the Saintess—it was absolutely unacceptable.

Geril barely exhaled a calm sigh while running his hand through his disheveled golden hair. A cold and heavy silence flowed between the two. Bellota remained in her seat as a final courtesy to him, suppressing her desire to leave this place immediately.

Soon, Geril’s voice, now markedly different from before and calm, was heard.

“If you reject me like this and leave this room, from that moment on, the entire empire will doubt the Saintess’s faith. Are you alright with that?”

Though it sounded like gentle concern at first glance, what it contained was petty blackmail. Bellota too had long pondered the things Geril was saying.

“For that damn reason, just because you don’t love me, such a ridiculous and stupid reason, are you fine with ruining everything you’ve built until now?”

As Geril said, Bellota knew she wasn’t in a position to bring up something as childish and emotional as love.

“Ha, fine. Fine. I’ll respect the Saintess’s pure, no, naive sentiments. But I love you. You know that.”

The end of Geril’s urgently pleading voice was still trembling with the anger he hadn’t fully shaken off.

“I’m confident. You will come to love me. Trust me, yes? I will bring anything in this world to lay at your feet. You won’t have to live wandering through places ravaged by stinking monsters anymore.”

Geril sat back in his chair and leaned his trembling body close to Bellota as he made an intimate and desperate proposal.

“It’s not too late. Let’s pretend the rejection just now never happened. Just think of it as a contract. I get the Saintess whom I love endlessly, and in return, you are guaranteed a comfortable life.”

“……”

“What do you want? Should I expand the Grand Temple? I’ll speak to His Majesty and get permission. Also…… ah, yes, that’s right. Should I build a temple for you? If you wish, you can continue living there as you have until now. Nothing will change.”

At those words, Bellota’s composed eyes, which had lost even the fear beyond disappointment, quietly looked at Geril. Feeling that indifferent gaze, heat rose to Geril’s head again.

“Damn it, damn it all! Tell me what you want! I’m saying I’ll do anything!”

“What I want,”

When Bellota, who had been silently listening to Geril, couldn’t hold back and opened her mouth, a dizzying tension that seemed to freeze the blood flowed between them. Bellota moved her parched lips while looking into Geril’s fierce eyes that seemed to be demanding she withdraw her rejection and agree to marry him right now.

“……is something you cannot give me, Duke.”

Therefore, she ultimately could not accept his proposal. Because she couldn’t look forward to a future with Geril at all.

When Bellota showed her unchanged resolve, Geril’s eyes, which had been looking at her with last hope, froze terrifyingly cold.

“Ha……”

Until a cold sigh escaped from Geril’s lips, Bellota simply kept her mouth shut and looked at the teacup that had fallen to the floor and shattered miserably.

Soon, an unfamiliar and cold voice that she had never heard before was heard.

“……Won’t you regret it?”

Bellota’s gaze left the shattered teacup and turned back to Geril. Many things lay beneath that quiet single sentence. Many things that would turn into regret from the moment she left this room. Bellota knew all of that as well. Nevertheless…….

“I won’t regret it.”

Geril saw eyes that showed not even a fraction of wavering in their firmness. At that flawless rejection, Geril gritted his teeth.

* * *

After ending the difficult conversation with Geril and returning to the temple, it was naturally Seiden who was waiting for Bellota. Bellota looked around in surprise, but whatever method Seiden had used, not even an ant could be seen below the west tower where the two were standing. It was just quiet.

“……”

Seiden seemed to have been waiting for her for quite some time. Bellota, who had been wondering what to do, tried to quickly pass by him. But such a thing would never work with the man before her. Seiden very brazenly followed Bellota as she entered the tower with her head bowed low.

At this rate, it seemed he would follow all the way into her room, so finally Bellota, who hadn’t managed to climb more than a few steps, turned around. Her view caught Seiden’s face as he looked at her leisurely.

“Why…… are you following me.”

Bellota questioned without properly meeting Seiden’s eyes. Then he finally bounded up three steps at once to stand right in front of Bellota and answered.

“Because the Saintess is ignoring me, I have no choice.”

Struck right at the core, Bellota pressed her lips shut. Though it felt unfair to call it ignoring, it was also true that she had no other way to express it.

Bellota remembered all of last night. Including how she had clung to Seiden and cried, begging him several times not to marry the Imperial Princess. That was an extremely selfish and ugly feeling that should never have been spoken aloud. She was mortifyingly embarrassed, as if her inner thoughts, which were disappointing even to herself, had been completely exposed before Seiden.