I Don't Want to Break off my Engagement... Translation

46. Conviction

After that, I was taken by His Highness to the Royal Palace of Talia to greet the king.

Finally, I would be able to return to my own kingdom.

It should be a nice thing—but that wasn’t what I felt.

Then, we headed towards the guest room. Kevin and the guards from the Kingdom of Haulfa followed.

There, I saw an unexpected person.

“Luka!?”

“Huh!? Who are—Fern!?”

Both Luka and I were shocked by our unexpected reunion.

It seemed that Luka couldn’t immediately ecognize me because I now had silver hair and red eyes, but he concluded my identity through my voice and facial features.

It was none other than Will who interrupted us.

Will hugged my shoulders and peered into my face.

In his beautiful emerald eyes, I was reflected—I stiffened.

“Tia, are you and the King of Talia associated with each other?”

“The King… of Talia!?”

Who!? King!? Where?!

Will stared at Luka with a grim expression.

“I think a proper introduction is needed. I’m Williant Haulfa, the first prince of the Kingdom of Haulfa. Right here is my fiancée, Tiarize Merfan. It seems that the two of you are already acquainted with each other, and I hope it will continue to remain so.”

“…Your, fiancée?”

Luka was astonished—his eyes went wide open.

I was uncomfortable, but still stared back at him.

“I’m, I’m sorry for deceiving you. I’m the fiancée of the prince of Haulfa, Prince Williant Haulfa. I’m also the daughter of Duke Merfan, my name is Tiarize Merfan. Forgive my ignorance until now…”

“No, but… you’re also Fern, right?”

Luka said, confused. While avoiding Luka’s eyes, I smiled weakly.

“It’s an alias. I’m sorry, there are complicated circumstances.”

Will told me what happened to some extent in the carriage that brought us here.

By the way, when I praised him about his previous magical showdown, Will was uncharacteristically laughing.

That was when I realized, I liked seeing Will’s troubled face.

However, if I didn’t conceal that, I would surely be in trouble…

I loved seeing Will’s flushed face.

Will stepped forward, in addition, Luka reluctantly straightened his posture.

“…I’m the one who’s been uncouth. I didn’t know you are a lady from another kingdom. Once again, let me introduce myself—I’m Larsen Luka Talia, King of Talia.”

Luka was the king. Usually, the middle name would be omitted. He purposefully took said middle name as his alias.

I suddenly remembered about the previous battle—

—he said something about dispatching knights in large number to fight the Aliuster.

Yes, it was strange for an adventurer to know so much.

Also, if I thought about the way he talked until then, it was indeed the way someone who ruled the kingdom would speak.

But at that time, I was in a hurry, and didn’t have much time to dwell on it.

I knew the name of the King of Talia—it was taught in class.

The name of the current king was Larsen Talia. So I never suspected Luka to be His Majesty the King.

Despite my shock, Will spoke to Luka.

“King of Talia, I want to inquire about something, is that alright?”

A strong tone—I wondered what Will wanted to ask.

The king and the crown princes that came from neighboring kingdoms were always respected. But that wasn’t the case with Haulfa.

Because Haulfa was such a big kingdom, no one could oppose it.

Luka nodded—his indigo eyes were still.

“…I know what you want to inquire—it’s about Sudi, right?”

“I’ve captured a living witness.”

“…you managed to catch one?!”

Astounded, Luka raised his voice.

Will laughed lightly at Luka.

His cold smile made my back tingle.

“Even if it can only be considered a lizard’s tail, it was still a great catch. I’m akin to a silver bullet for her.”

“Then, where is she?”

“I have restrained her using magic—Kevin.”

Kevin quickly turned on his heels and left the room.

Soon after, a girl was brought before us.

Light pink hair akin to dissolved magenta with eyes of the same color.

The girl, with adorable features that could be considered otherworldly, was now restrained and had something put around her neck.

I felt like I had seen that face before…

I wonder where?

That adorable and refined look…

You’re Tiarize Merfan? Of the Duke Merfan…

A surprised expression and a confused voice.

Man and woman who quarreled. She suddenly hugged him, to my surprise. …Vioris.

That was right! Vioris’ girlfriend! I met at that evening ball…!

Why was she here?

When I glanced at Will, he was smiling.

He looked excited, but his eyes weren’t laughing at all—he seemed scary.

“Maria Lilybell, do you have anything to say?”

“…”

“Your plan has been destroyed. In your current state, even your ‘Charm’ won’t help you. Rejoice, your death sentence awaits. This is your just desserts for your hobby of massacre. The kingdom shall reward you with death.”

The girl—Maria—towards Will’s cold voice, raised her face vigorously.

Then, spit flew from her.

“Me?! I’m going to be rewarded with death by the kingdom?! The kingdom!? This me!? Again!?”

Again? I didn’t know what that meant, but Will laughed quietly.

“Suspected of inciting national treason against the second prince of Dirlia, and aristocratic cases in Haulfa—lastly, causing human trafficking in Talia… do I really have to remind you of all that?”

“Where’s the evidence?! Are you going to execute me under false charges?! What would the people say!?”

“You can still say that despite your situation? How amazing. You don’t know why Schmia was executed, right? …If you don’t have the evidence, you can always forge it.”

With a chilling voice, Will uttered something I couldn’t believe.

Maria paled immediately. Her small body shook as she was held by the guards.

“This is the only way a sinner like you can repent.”

Maria stared at Will again—

“—you people wouldn’t understand!”

“The people, huh… Maria, how do you think the people would receive this information?”

“Huh?”

“As of the moment, I’m here, and my fiancée is also here. Oh, right, you’re also under the suspicion of attempting to assassinate my fiancée. How hopeless for you. I’ll be waiting to give you a happy future soon.”

For some reason, I felt terrified and even trembled at his words.

Was Will always this scary?

He was quiet, expressionless, and I couldn’t catch a glimpse of what he was thinking about…

Even though he was supposed to be a pretty gentle person.

I didn’t know this scary, terrifying, Will.

Will shook me suddenly and gently hugged me.

My trembling subsided slightly due to the warmness—

—even though he was the exact reason I was trembling.


***T/N: Umm… we’re not going to talk about how Luka ditched your sorry ass in a 3 minutes ago battle and seems to be relaxing inside the castle instead of gathering large number of knights to battle those IKEA dragon-thingy(s)? No? Okay…

SO LUKA IS THE KING–who cares. I can’t even fake excitement anymore I feel numb.

But this does get a reaction from me tho;

“You can still say that despite your situation? How amazing. You don’t know why Schmia was executed, right? …If you don’t have the evidence, you can always forge it.”

HOLY SHIT SCHMIA IS DEAD, Author can’t be bothered with her anymore she just killed her off and for what, exactly? The only vibe I am getting is how much of a ruthless guy this Williant dude is. I WAS RIGHT HE FORGED EVIDENCE.

And Williant? That’s not something you would wanna say out loud after basically having 0 likeability and good traits within your character throughout all the chapters until now. One of the instance where forging evidence could be justified is when you’re dealing with an elusive big villain boss–now, does Schmia deserve that condemnation event? Perhaps, she’s a thot who disrupted countless engagements after all. But did she seriously deserve to die? When you’ve already established that she’s innocent of all the murder charges you throw at her?

–that’s why you forged the evidence, isn’t it?

Your assumption is all you have, and it so happen that Schmia does use ‘Charm’ to entice people. You can just expose her right there and then, but there’s a reason you can’t–because it will also drag you down. And at this point in the story, we already know how much you value your image. You’re getting cozy with Schmia, you never actually stop her advances towards you–you enabled her advances. Proving that people were under her ‘Charm’ magic would also require you to address your immunity towards said spell to them, which, in return, would be an indirect confession towards your own infidelity. Hence, you then planted that forged jewelry into her, acted like you don’t know anything and is a victim of the charm spell, and depicted her as a power hungry, fascination spell using woman–but why stop at that?

Why risk getting exposed through sparing Schmia?

Thus, the condemnation event, so you can also accuse her of those false charges–it’s your word, the Crown Prince, against her–the freshly accused power lusting woman. With those false murder charges, you have enough basis to execute her.

However, Schmia was actually innocent of those charges. That was why you have to strike the iron while its still hot. When the condemnation event is still fresh in people’s mind, you rushed to execute her–normally, normally, people would question this. Because there’s actually a long route towards execution unless you’re ruled by a tyrant–detainment, hearings, and all that, but Schmia was executed within one month after her imprisonment.

For you see, the circumstance within that one month wasn’t exactly normal. Your fiancee was missing, which you chalked up as being bedridden due to sickness. Then, you acted the forlorn, grieving, lover part in front of everyone, causing positive rumors about how good of a lover you are to circulate amongst the people. When people are convinced you’re preoccupied with your lover, you proceeded to get the job done. HASTA LA VISTA, SCHMIA. People wouldn’t question it–or at the very least, won’t link you to it.

This is a killing done out of self-interest. This is MURDER, plain and simple, thus I hereby rest my case.

Long story short, here we are. Just like the execution, he also arrived to the public affair on time and fetch his fiancee on the way, convincing the little sass with a little waterwork to follow him home without question. Williant is an ideal leader. And I have to applaud him for that–since someone has to rule after all. You guys probably are getting tired by me saying how much of a not-queen-material Tia is. I also learned she isn’t obliged to learn how to be a good ruler, or how she actually doesn’t have to rule–

–well then someone has to, and Williant is the guy this kingdom didn’t ask for, but deserve. You have to give it to him, he is trying. Unlike all the other aristocrats who were utterly in the dark and as dumb as Tia.

My trembling subsided slightly due to the warmness—

—even though he was the exact reason I was trembling.

My advice is quite simple Tia–Run. The only reason your head is still attached to your neck right now is because he still find it adorable, when he doesn’t anymore, he’ll Anne Boleyn the shit out of you.

E/N: I’ve been wondering, but hasn’t the F/L of this story become the translator what with all he T/N’s??  She’s clearly stolen the spotlight from Tia…

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