Everything Was a Mistake - Chapter 46

“Ok, you’re healthy today.”

“Alroy, is collecting landmines your hobby? While searching for a fiancé, what kind of flaws are there this time?”

“I did some background check this time, but nothing came out.”

“Nothing’s coming up? That can’t be right? Roziks Elford….!”

I was going to shout the subject in high spirits and talk about his flaws one after another, but I couldn’t think of anything. He is a tough talker, a follower of Sheryl Bornaine, taunts and sneers at those who he doesn’t even know well, and he makes a false rumor.

He’s noisy.

There are a lot of personality flaws, but there are no serious problems.

For example, as Terrops Andante did, cheating on her or revealing that he likes another woman….

Oh, liking a woman, a woman.

“The esteemed son of Count Elford likes someone else. Are you going to marry a guy who likes another girl?”

“What … I didn’t expect that to come out of your mouth, Roa.”

I shuddered at her shrugging shoulders. I have nothing to say about that.

Aaron also likes other woman.

But I was thinking of breaking our engagement before the marriage, and I’m still going to end it, and it was only a little delayed….

And Alroy doesn’t know that Aaron likes anyone else, does she?

A series of excuses that Alroy could not hear flowed into my mind.

“You don’t have to worry about that, but I have to pay attention. Elford is fine.”

“That’s fine? What in the world are the standards?”

“Because it’s not a greedy family, and Count Elford is a wise person. If the other person doesn’t reject it, I’m not interested in whoever he likes. But if they meet again after marriage, it will be a problem.”

As long as he has the ability to make offspring, it’s fine.

I couldn’t laugh at all at the natural joke.

“Still, Alroy!”

“I know he said a lot of mean things to you.”

“You know….”

“In fact, that’s why I put him on the top list of potential candidates.”

Alroy smiled affectionately. It was a strange dark smile.

“Don’t worry, I’ll educate him well.”

Aside from whether educate is a good word for a fiance, it at least matched well as if it were a pair with Alroy’s smile.

***

Aaron headed to where Edgar’s butler guided him.

He thought he would head to the parlor of the main building, but the place where his footstep was heading was an annex, deep inside the mansion. It was as neat and antique as any other place in the mansion, but the more he went, the atmosphere became dreary and desolate.

As he walked, he fidgeted with his sword in his waist.

Aaron did not fully believe Nocton Edgar, but he came to his mansion. To know the Duke’s true intentions and to mediate between Roa and the Duke.

Roa, it was clear that even if she denied it, she still had feelings for the Duke.

It must be deeper than mere affection.

Otherwise, she would not have been so afraid to talk to him face to face, approached him when he vomited blood, looked after his safety, talked on the balcony, then cried her eyes out.

Although Roa’s most intense feelings for the Duke are fear, nothing else can be ignored.

That’s not the way it should be.

“I don’t know, Aaron. I don’t know what did I think of Nocton.”

On the day Aaron proposed their separation, she said she didn’t know her heart, but Aaron was able to get a glimpse into it. Roa was vaguely sad when she thought Nocton Edgar was just a villain, if he really cherishes her, there will be a way to turn back even if the path is rough.

Even though he knew it was too much, Aaron thought so. Because he had a light heart to do something for her.

An image of someone came to his mind.

Alice Limorand. A friend of Roa Valrose….

“Ed, you know who I am, right? You know, you notice.”

“Alice, I am.”

“But pretend you don’t know. I don’t know who you are and it’s unfair that only you know me. Please do that, if you can’t, I can’t meet you anymore.”

The person that Aaron loves.

“If I may, I’ll swear it as a knight’s oath.”

Aaron laughed bitterly, recalling what he had said in Ernhardt. He regretted his oath at that time. He regretted it hundreds and thousands of times.

However, even if he turn back time, Aaron will be forced to make the same choice. If he sees Alice on that day, that moment. If he looks at the terrible emotions in the face of Alice Momont.

Therefore, even when he came up to the capital and found Alice, he remained silent, he avoided her without telling of his existence, he had endured without even putting her as his match on marriage talk.

He intended to do so all his life.

But at the first slip of his tongue, Roa Valrose noticed all the circumstances and urged him to get close to Alice.

Aaron endured the intense temptation, but in the process of courting Roa, the temptation got stronger as he exchanged a few words with Alice. He felt ashamed of himself and felt guilty toward Alice, but the truth was that he got more greedy for love.

As time went by, the lights toward Roa piled up.

If it weren’t for Roa, he would say goodbye to his beloved, whom he could never have met in his life.

Thus, while he stood up for Roa Valrose, in reality, Aaron was acting for himself. In order to relieve his guilt and debt, as if this gave him a justification to approach Alice.

He realized his cowardice and desperation, but it wasn’t new.

Aaron fiddled with the sword again and laughed bitterly.

Then suddenly, he realized that the Duke’s servants did not show much interest in his sword. Far from being annoying and unpleasant, they didn’t even look at it as if it were a problem.

That wasn’t the only weird thing.

It was natural to behave and speak, but each person he encountered had a blurry look and expressionless.

The moment he noticed an abnormality in the scene he had seen calmly until a while ago, the horror came to his thought.

What on earth is this mansion? What is Nocton Edgar doing here?

As suspicions grew in his mind, the butler finally stopped walking. It was not known how many doors he had passed, but the last door opened and the owner of the mansion stood inside.

Knowing that Aaron was coming, the Duke of Edgar saw him without a hint of agitation.

“You’re here just in time.”

The contrast between his black hair and pale skin was seen more clearly in the dark. Perhaps due to the people who he had seen before he arrived at this room, Nocton Edgar’s face looked dim like a fog.

Aaron looked across his colored eyes, and soon he discovered that there was another person behind the Duke. The room was dark, but it wasn’t hard to identify the figure because it wasn’t without fire.

Like the servants of the mansion, someone was sitting on a chair with a cloudy look and misty eyes. Even though the hands and feet weren’t bound and there was only a Nocton Edgar in front of him, he was like a man tied to a chair.

With the gap between rigid form and hazy expression, Aaron gulped his dry saliva.

The figure Duke Edgar was looking furiously….

“Can this person be?”

“This is Terrops Andante. He is the poor second son who is now on the verge of being expelled from House Andate.”

“He is the ex-fiancé of Marquis Valrose’s heir.”

“I guess you know roughly. The reason why this man was dismissed is because of his conduct.”

The Duke’s voice was dry as a dry branch.

“A man who’s greedy for women. He was engaged to the Marquis’ heir, but he wanted to know if he liked Valrose’s appearance. And there was another woman. Eventually, he was caught by the Marquis’s heir. The engagement was over and he was kicked out of his family.”

“So that’s what’s going on—”

“This is a superficial reason, and in fact, what Terrops Andante really did was he had Valrose in mind. Before that, he touched a few lives, but left no evidence.”

“What?”

“As greedy as he is, he’s scared, so he’s a person who covets Baloz but can’t put it into practice.”

The Duke continued to speak with an insensitive voice, as if it was an obligation to tell this story.

“Even though the insides were dirty, but he wouldn’t do it on foot. He didn’t even look at Valrose, and he lived like a good and sincere man, such a crooked life.”

Then for the first time, Nocton Edgar raised his head.

“But do you know why this man could have done such a thing?”

The Duke’s eyes were so dim that he could not notice them if he did not look closely.

He smiled sideways as much as the color of his eyes.

“Because he is hypnotized.”

“Nocton is a black wizard.”

Aaron muttered a word that came to mind without realizing it.

“Black magic—”

“You know it well. Did Valrose tell you?”

“Did you do that?”

“Well, usually in this situation, everybody would think so.”

“It’s strange to induce them to think so. And I don’t know much about black magic, but it’s not your magic, is it? There is no prejudice.”

“It’s a new answer, but it doesn’t matter whether you have prejudice or not.”

“You were worried that Roa might be prejudiced.”

His elegantly outstretched eyebrows tilted. The face, which was foggy, was overshadowed by a human’s expression.

The change in expression was not significant, but the atmosphere changed, making Aaron less nervous.

However, it was only for a short time that his tension was relieved.

“You’re mistaken for what I said, Sir Claymore. I’m the one who made him behave like that.”

“….why did you do that?”

“Because it’s necessary.”

Looking down at the man’s hand groping the sword again, Duke Edgar curled his mouth.

It was a ridicule.

“If you’re scared, you can take out your sword. I can’t guarantee that iron will help.”

“Did you allow me to visit, in order to kill me?”

“I don’t know how that makes you so self-conscious. It’s the same reason why I called on you, Sir. Because it’s necessary.”

“Because of the engagement … you allowed me to visit?”

“It didn’t have to be you. But, thanks to you, I didn’t have much trouble. It’s kind of bothersome to find someone who’s willing to stand for me without hypnosis.”

Speaking of unknown words, he turned his eyes to Terrops Andate.

“I knew the engagement was over. It’s  ridiculous to sit at the bargaining table with a throw-out card.”

When he mentioned engagement with Roa, he seemed genuinely angry.

Was everything a mistake?

Aaron looked suspiciously at the man in front of him, but there was nothing he could tell by his expression.

“Terrops Andate is a fairly decent man on the surface. What does his real nature matter? No matter how rotten his inside is, if he doesn’t act, he doesn’t need to be recognized as the new bad guy.”

As if taking a breath or controlling his emotions, the Duke slowly closed and opened his eyes.

“But then he would have married the Marquis’ heir and worked with them.”