Chapter 4 – 4
4 – 4
Melione, staring intently at Euro, who remained silent with a frown as if he had made a mistake, replied in a surprisingly light tone.
“You won’t die immediately.”
“I didn’t mean it in that sense… I apologize. I misspoke.”
“It is fine.”
Melione seemed indifferent. As expected, he appeared not to care about the other person’s gender. It made sense, given that it was common knowledge that Melione suffered from madness.
The madness of the Spioren Dukedom was the result of a long-standing curse passed down through generations. Consequently, not only were heirs rare, but early death was the default; despite being the only Dukedom in the Empire, they always struggled with marriage.
If it were simply a matter of dying young, noble houses would have been desperate to marry off their children and produce an heir by any means necessary.
Once an heir was born, the husband or wife would inevitably die young, allowing the survivor to wield the Dukedom to their liking using the young child as a puppet.
However, the curse placed upon the Dukedom was not so simple. The curse did not only target those related by blood; the spouses also fell ill with mysterious ailments and wasted away until death.
In the original story, the death of Clope Leches became an issue because she was not found to have died of illness, but had been murdered.
Until then, no one who entered the Dukedom had ever been murdered by someone’s hand; they had always died of disease. Thus, it had been believed that ‘the curse of the Spioren Dukedom is contagious to the spouse.’
Of course, this too was later used in the Emperor’s plot to suddenly brand the entire family as a group of murderers.
Even so, Euro had always wondered why Melione never protested that he wasn’t the one who killed her. Since he had possessed a body in the past, it wasn’t something he could ask right now.
Melione gazed steadily at Euro, who was fidgeting and wearing a sheepish grin, and spoke first.
“Still, I am curious. Surely you didn’t come here without any intention at all.”
“…….”
“I am sincere when I say it does not matter whether you are [visit our site]a man or a woman. What use is a spouse’s gender to me at this [stolen content]point? If I had intended to leave descendants, I would have fathered children anywhere.”
At the Duke’s words, Euro nodded slightly and swallowed hard. Indeed. The Spioren Dukedom had proceeded with marriages regardless of whether the partner was a noble or a commoner, and if that failed, they produced bastards.
The age of twenty-nine was extremely young, but it was an exception within the Spioren Dukedom.
Therefore, the fact that he had no children until now could be seen as a sign that he had no intention of producing an heir at all.
Even if the Emperor hadn’t pushed for the marriage between Melione and Clope, the assets of Silon and the Dukedom were scheduled to revert to the Imperial Family after his death. This was because there were no collateral branches left in the Dukedom.
The fact that the Emperor forced this marriage meant he desperately wanted to block the union between Clope and Gail.
“I assume you are aware that the end for those who come to the Spioren Dukedom has not been particularly pleasant.”
“……I am aware.”
“Therefore, I have no desire to make someone clear away two corpses without a special reason.”
“…….”
“Tell me. What is the reason you have come this far?”
At the blunt question, Euro swallowed hard. He had prepared words for the moment he expected the man to ask, but for some reason, they wouldn’t come out.
No matter how much he had agonized over it, this was the only way, but it was a reason that made no sense no matter how he thought about it.
However, he couldn’t simply deny having a reason, so Euro took a deep breath and spoke as if he had made a decision.
“……All the way here, there is only one thing I hoped for. That Your Excellency would not remember me.”
“…….”
“Of course, since our first meeting wasn’t particularly pleasant, I had no expectation that you would have forgotten, but……”
Euro swallowed hard as he spoke. Then, as if brainwashing himself, he began to mutter repeatedly inside.
‘This is acting. I am acting right now.’
None of the words he uttered were sincere. Everything was nothing more than a scheme devised solely to survive. Yet, it was still difficult to move his lips.
Eventually, Euro picked up the cup in front of him and gulped down the hot tea. In an instant, his mouth and throat burned, and tears welled up in his eyes.
As Euro set the teacup down roughly, Melione narrowed his eyes and spoke.
“It is hot. Be careful……”
“I fell in love with you at first sight back then.”
“……What?”
Melione asked back as if he were hearing nonsense, and Euro, rubbing his throat where the hot liquid had slid down, began to blurt out whatever came to mind, deciding to just let it happen.
“Th-at, ah… hot! I mean, I fell in love with Your Excellency at first sight back then!”
“…….”
“Do you know that feeling? You know, when you don’t want to admit you’ve fallen for someone, so you act mean to them for no reason, that kind of thing.”
“…….”
“That’s what I did. At the time, I hadn’t learned proper etiquette and was practically a wild brat, so I didn’t understand these sudden emotions and took my frustrations out on Your Excellency.”
Because his throat felt like it was burning to death, the nonsense flowed out of his brain without filter. He was so distracted that he didn’t even notice what kind of expression Melione was making.
As Euro continued to repeat that he liked him like a parrot, his face flushed bright red, Melione let out a small sigh and looked toward the door.
“Hey, if there’s anyone outside, bring a glass of cold water.”
Shortly after his shout, the butler, Raymond, opened the door and placed a glass of cold water on the table.
“Drink.”
At Melione’s word, Euro quickly picked up the water and began to gulp it down. Only then did the heat in his mouth [visit our site]subside, and he felt he could breathe again.
“Thank you.”
Setting the glass down carefully this time, Euro gave a slightly embarrassed smile. The butler looked bewildered, and Melione remained silent, his eyebrows slightly furrowed.
“It may be hard to believe, but I am sincere. As soon as I received His Imperial Majesty’s edict, I thought of it as an opportunity.”
“…….”
“I have long admired the Duke.”
At Euro’s words, Raymond failed to maintain his composure and his eyes widened. Melione met the gaze of Euro, who was looking at him with sparkling eyes, and let out a small sigh.
“You came all this way alone simply because you fell in love at first sight?”
“Yes.”
“Even though you might die?”
“Yes.”
“Ha……”
Euro smiled as brightly as possible while facing the Duke, who was staring at him with a frown. He knew all along that the man wouldn’t believe him.
Everyone knew why the Emperor was pushing the marriage between Clope and Melione. Since it was obvious that this was to prevent the marriage with Gail, Euro’s words were nothing more than a ridiculous excuse.
But so what? Euro thought this excuse was quite plausible. It was obvious that marrying Melione was a death sentence anyway.
Therefore, wouldn’t Melione prefer that Euro Leches, who had been rude to him, come and die rather than Clope, who held no particular grudge?
He was a man who wouldn’t feel a shred of guilt regardless of who died, but it would be better if someone who was an eyesore died. Even in the original story, Melione had ruthlessly killed Euro Leches when he stormed in demanding his sister be released.
To him, Euro Leches was someone whose death didn’t matter. That said, unless there was a justification, he probably wouldn’t actually intend to kill him, so keeping him by his side like this wasn’t a bad thing.
Furthermore, if Melione knew the Emperor’s intentions, this was [visit our site]an even better proposal. Getting entangled with Clope would only invite the Crown Prince’s wrath.
No matter how short one’s life was, no one wanted it to be miserable while they were alive.
It was fine even if he was sent back for being unbelievable. He didn’t have a great attachment to Norden, nor did he wish to return, so if that happened, he could just live in hiding regardless of how the world turned.
He would be chased while he was alive, but who knows? Perhaps Gail would find Euro’s decision to marry in Clope’s stead quite noble and leave him be.
“Therefore, Duke. If it truly doesn’t matter who it is… would you marry me?”
“…….”
“As you can see, I wouldn’t be very welcome if I returned to Norden, and even if I did, I wouldn’t live long.”
Euro clasped his hands together and acted as pitiful as possible.
“As a bastard born of a mistress, once one of my two older brothers succeeds to the throne, I am honestly as good as dead.”
Despite the continued pleading, Melione said nothing. Just as described [unauthorized copy]in the novel, he truly was a man without blood or tears. How could he maintain such a dry expression [stolen content]in front of someone who claimed to have risked death out of love?
However, unable to back down, Euro thought of every sad thing he could and, with tears welling in his eyes, cried out earnestly.
“So please, Your Excellency, show me mercy so that I may spend my final moments by the side of the person I love. Please?”
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