By Zephyria 
Even with the mention of a solution, Aska’s eyes remained fierce. In fact, they seemed even more bloodthirsty than before, so I averted my gaze and shifted my body, pretending not to notice.
“Peep.”
Pipi, apparently squashed under my arm, let out a pathetic squeal. I quickly lifted my arm, revealing the bird buried in the blanket, flapping its wings.
Before I could even react, Aska reached out, grabbed Pipi, and tossed him aside.
“Squeak!”
Pipi flew in an arc and landed in the bushes. He was so small that there wasn’t even a sound when he fell.
“Why did you throw him?”
Aska usually treated Pipi even rougher than that, but he had never been hurt. It would probably be the same this time, but it felt like Aska was venting his anger.
“He’s been making noise next to me since earlier.”
He was quiet until just now… And the brief chirping was because he was squashed under my arm.
However, I quickly dismissed Pipi from my thoughts and pondered the marriage issue. I had lied about having one or two solutions, so I needed to come up with something quickly.
As I pretended to doze off while racking my brain, Aska spoke up as if he had an idea.
“What about spreading rumors?”
“Like what?”
“Like you’re a cannibal… Wouldn’t everyone avoid you then?”
“…”
No, what about my image then…?
I sighed in disbelief.
“No matter how bad the rumors are, if the King issues a decree, you can’t refuse it. It’ll just ruin my image.”
“So, we make them believe you’re the worst piece of trash in the world, so they want to divorce you. Then, we keep you in your room for a few days and release you at the right time.”
“…”
Once again, I was speechless. It was a solution, but I didn’t really like it. Even though I had lived recklessly, I didn’t want to become trash willingly. Of course, I was already known as trash, but still.
Aska frowned when he saw my unpleasant expression.
“Then, should we scare them? What if we turn Talim into a haunted house? Make ghostly wails echo every night, cause lightning to strike from a clear sky and damage objects, levitate dishes and furniture…”
“…”
“You don’t like that either? Goddamn it. Then what do you want me to do? You don’t like this, you don’t like that, what am I supposed to do? Stop just rolling your eyes and suggest something. You’ve been doing it since earlier…”
I ignored Aska’s cursing beside me and sank into thought. Mixing the two methods Aska had just mentioned seemed like a good idea.
In fact, unless I wasn’t getting married at all, there was no need to send anyone away, no matter who it was. Instead of stirring up trouble by talking about divorce, it was better to have them live quietly as if they didn’t exist.
But somehow, I couldn’t bring myself to say it. I felt like Aska would hate it.
“Hey.”
Growing impatient with my silence, Aska grabbed my hair. It didn’t hurt, but my head was forced up, and I frowned involuntarily.
“Are you listening to me?”
“Don’t be rude.”
“What are you going to do? Can’t you just call it off?”
“If I could, I wouldn’t be worrying about this.”
Should I just get married? That seems like the best option, but is he worried about losing favor? But Aska has already gone beyond that category… What should I say?
I couldn’t find the right words to express it, but it felt completely different. Marrying one or two more people wouldn’t change anything.
Nevertheless, I couldn’t easily tell Aska these thoughts. It just felt like I shouldn’t say it.
“First of all, you don’t have to spread bad rumors.”
“Why?”
“There are already plenty of rumors about me.”
“Like you kill people who don’t listen? That’s just because you’re royalty. I’m talking about specific rumors about you. Rumors about you, not just because you’re royalty, would be more effective.”
I was dumbfounded as I watched Aska rattle on as if he had been waiting for this.
“You want me to be rumored to be such a piece of trash?”
“Not just trash. You’d have to be an irredeemable human wreck. Since it’s come to this, let’s beat Khalifa with bad rumors.”
“…”
I don’t know what the difference is between trash and an irredeemable human wreck. Isn’t it just a difference in the number of syllables?
Still, spreading rumors again might be okay. Most of my rumors are old, after all.
I said with a reluctant expression.
“Anyway, if rumors spread, they’ll be scared and try to stay as quiet as possible. Then, like you said, we can make them see hallucinations… Anyway, we’ll make them mentally and physically weak in a way that doesn’t harm them as much as possible and send them away for recuperation.”
“Recuperation? What about divorce?”
“Divorce isn’t that easy. Historically, there are only a few cases of royalty getting divorced.”
“Not just one or two, but several? That’s a lot.”
I recalled a few cases and said.
“Most of them are divorces due to royal assassination. They divorce to strip them of their status and execute them, not to leave it on record.”
“Then what are the other divorce cases?”
“I don’t know, maybe it was a whim… Anyway, they didn’t end well.”
As I tilted my head, not remembering well, Aska suddenly said.
“Then let’s rewrite history.”
“…”
I wanted to say more, but seeing his determined expression, I didn’t think he would listen. I was too lazy to persuade him, so I just nodded.
“Okay, anyway, let’s just do it that way…”
“Or we could just run away together.”
My eyes widened at the thought of a method I had never considered, and Aska added.
“If you don’t like this and you don’t like that, and you don’t like anything.”
So, run away? Just because of this?
I didn’t intend to, but I asked out of curiosity.
“To where?”
“Anywhere.”
His face looked more sullen than before as he averted his gaze slightly. I stared at Aska, who was glaring at the air with a sulky expression, and said.
“Then where are you going to get ice every day? You’ve never bought it with your own money, so you don’t know, but it’s incredibly hard to get and expensive.”
“Ha…”
Aska’s expression twisted at my words, and a long sigh escaped his lips. I couldn’t help but laugh at that.
“Just your food expenses alone will be enormous.”
“Don’t you have money?”
“I have a lot. But there won’t be much I can use properly in that situation. If I sell land or mines, it’ll be discovered in less than half a day, and cash is inconvenient to carry, and crossing the border in the first place…”
As I was calculating realistically, Aska suddenly screamed.
“Ah, forget it!”
“I might have to sell myself to feed you.”
“I only need blood. And if we don’t have enough money, we can work. If that doesn’t work, we can steal.”
“You’re going to steal to make a living day by day?”
As I asked, holding back my laughter, Aska’s expression turned cold.
“Forget it. Why are you saying this if you don’t even plan to leave? It’s annoying.”
“Have you ever worked?”
I asked, imagining Aska and me selling grilled chicken skewers on the street.
“I carried charcoal when I was young. What about you?”
He said he was annoyed, but he answered the question well.
“No. But I’m pretty good at gambling, so if you carry charcoal and get paid, I can multiply that, right? If I multiply it tenfold, the amount will increase anyway, so this is also a job search in a broad sense.”
“You’re talking such nonsense…”
I deliberately induced this answer, but it was funnier than I thought. His eyes were like looking at trash on the street, and Aska’s expression twisted even more as I shrugged my shoulders and laughed.
I thought he would swear, but Aska asked briefly with a very annoyed face.
“And then?”
“What?”
“What are you going to do with the money you multiplied tenfold by gambling?”
I answered without hesitation.
“I have to buy bread and meat for you to eat.”
“And then?”
“I have to buy clothes to cover your face. We’ll have to live as wanderers, so we’ll need lodging fees… And we should have some emergency money, right? Just in case.”
I had never spent money while thinking, so it was difficult to make plans in this direction. Still, if we could just solve the basic needs of food, clothing, and shelter, the rest would somehow work out.
The most important thing is to avoid being tracked, so it would be better to go to the outskirts rather than big cities. But would Khalifa not know this? Hiding in crowded places might be a way.
If that doesn’t work, we can hide in the rocky desert. There are many bandits, but they are not much of a threat to me or Aska. Ah, but Aska gets too hot, so that won’t work.
Then, if we can cross the sea as soon as possible, it won’t be easy to track us from then on…
As I thought, I was seriously making plans.
Then I suddenly felt a gaze. When I turned my head, Aska was staring at me.
“…”
“…”
The Greenhouse was generally dark because the sun had not yet risen. The faint lights connected from afar created long shadows that fell over Aska’s face.
Peep.
I could hear Pipi crying softly in the distance.
Chirp, chirp.
The sound of insects and the small noise of leaves and wind touching, which I hadn’t heard because I didn’t consciously listen to them, the breath flowing out every time my chest rose and fell, the red gaze running wildly and colliding in the darkness, the beating…
Surprised, I put my palm on my chest, and my heart was beating faster than usual.
The moment a hand wrapped around the back of my head and gently pulled me, the eyes that flickered like candlelight came closer and touched.