Chapter 11.3

Chapter 11 – Part 3

“Are you saying we can’t get engaged…?”

“It seems that an all-out war with the Roheim Kingdom will begin soon. His Majesty doesn’t seem reluctant to be engaged to a member of the Roheim Kingdom under such circumstances or to accept him as an adopted daughter.”

“That…

After telling Olivia about the engagement sooner or later, the Duke planned to have Leon dance to her sixteenth birthday party if she accepted. If she did not accept, she was to be announced to the public as Princess Deorc.

At this point in time to draw conclusions, the news the Duke brought was like a lightning bolt.

“Rather, His Majesty says that the woman should be returned to her Rohaim Kingdom.”

“Isn’t that the same as telling her to go and die?”

Leon, who had been educated as a warrior, knew that the emperor would destroy the Roheim Kingdom. Olivia had no parents. If she returned to the Roheim Kingdom, she would most likely die. She had no protection, and her life would be miserable.

“How can I convince His Majesty?”

When he asked, the Duke bit his mouth with a gloomy expression. Leon was sure his father knew the answer.

“Father, please tell me. What should I do?”

At his dull prompting, the duke opened his mouth.

“The thing that His Majesty worries the most is losing the battle against the Roheim Kingdom. That means he needs someone he can trust to go there.”

“….”

“If you want to bring in a woman from the Roheim Kingdom, it is His Majesty’s command to point your sword at the Roheim Kingdom and prove your loyalty.”

“….”

“Looks like you have to make a choice. I don’t want my children, my only son, to be put at risk.”

Leon was silent for a long time. He thought of something and asked cautiously.

“Are you saying that if I go to war, I just have to go out and win?”

“Yes.”

“Then, I will go.”

“Leon, this is something to think about for a long time. Your life is at stake.”

“There is no reason not to go.”

“….”

“It’s to protect my fiancée.”

At that, the Duke lifted his head and saw the face of his son.

Leon’s face was undistorted. Olivia would be deported if he did not go. However, when he came back victorious, she could be here—whether she is Princess Deorc or his fiance.

“Leon. you, don’t tell me…”

“I love her.”

He thought it was love, because only a torrent of intense emotions will be called love. He realized that just as the dry land is wetted by rain, it can also be love that slowly seeps in.

The time he realized true love was when he danced with Olivia.

Where he reached for her slender waist, where her own hands had clasped his. Eyes facing each other, the warmth of their body touching lightly. Gazing into the watery, olive-colored eyes, he realized that his heart had grown out of control.

Seeing Olivia’s smiling face as she stood in front of him, Leon could feel a strong urge to kiss her on the lips. Realizing that impulse, he realized that his heart had grown out of control.

Little by little, without him knowing, his heart grew like this.

That small person. A weak person who was likely to break if something was wrong. Still, she was more beautiful than anyone else.

Leon then thought from then on, ‘I like this person. I want to win this person’s heart. However, the first step has already been misplaced. So, we could get engaged and start a new relationship.’

They may not have a bright and colorful love like his mother and father because she wasn’t as cheerful as his mother though Leon loved Olivia’s stillness, the subtle smile that shyly revealed in her stillness.

If love needed trials, this would be the one he will have to overcome.

If this was romance, he was willing to choose childish romance.

“Are you not interested in women?”

At Eric’s words, Leon frowned.

“I’m not interested.”

“It’s obvious that a guy like you has one lover you left behind.”

“….”

“I can tell just by looking. Are you a virgin?”

When Leon didn’t answer, Eric giggled and laughed.

Eric, who served as the commander-in-chief on the battlefield, was an abandoned prince of the Imperial Family. The Emperor didn’t really care if the third prince lived or died. The problem was that he knew it, too, so he gave up his life.

Leon knew well how many women were going in and out of Eric’s tent. What Eric liked to do was bully the officers in this way, and he was no exception.

“Why a virgin? Is she conservative?”

“….”

“No. Is she young? I must have done that when I was young. What’s the age difference? One, two, three years…?”

“….”

“If Lord Deorc liked it, wouldn’t she be beautiful? Apparently, since you were away from women, are you thinking of your lover’s hot body and comforting yourself?”

‘This punk…’

Leon’s face changed suddenly, and he grabbed Eric by the neck. Seeing that, Eric widened his eyes.

“Wow, that was true. It was true.”

“Don’t speak rudely about her.”

“….”

“One of the assassins who comes to you might accidentally stab you in the neck.”

“Ha!”

When Leon let go of his neck, Eric laughed before adjusting his attire and asked, “But, it seems that Sir doesn’t exchange letters?”

At his words, Leon turned his back and walked away as if it wasn’t worth the fight, and Eric followed him around.

“Is it unrequited love?”

Leon glared at Eric because he was choked after being stabbed in the right direction.

“Huh? Was it real?”

As he strode, Eric said he was sorry and ran after him. Though Leon didn’t want to have any more conversations with that prince.

After that, Eric kept calling Leon and bullying him. Forcing a woman to hold him, or having him guard outside the tent where he was having an affair, or ask more about Olivia. It was fortunate that he had met Jane and had not done that so much.

The five-year gap left Leon exhausted. His father, whom he trusted and followed, died of illness. By order of the Emperor, he was unable to attend the funeral even after the death of his father, and was forced to devote himself exclusively to battle.

He knew his father’s death was strange, but he could not even return due to the imperial order. Even the assassins who thought they were targeting the Third Prince began to attack him. He sharpened his teeth at someone who was aiming for him.

Then, Eric held out his hand.

Finally, the Roheim Kingdom was destroyed and Eric moved. He marched them all to the Capital on the pretext that all soldiers mobilized in the war should receive a prize.

After fighting together for five years, the noble children who became “comrades” with Eric were a powerful force. This was a point overlooked by the previous Emperor, who wanted to kill his son, and the First Prince, who tried to kill his brother.

The foolish Emperor opened the gates defenselessly, and Eric struck his father and his brothers in the neck. Under Eric’s judgment that it was not wise to reveal their alliance yet, he returned home after cleaning up the Roheim Kingdom.

The Capital that he returned to after a long time was really warm and beautiful.

After a brief stop at home, he was told that Olivia was still sleeping. She slept until late, and Leon became worried if she was ill. But, he didn’t want to wake her up, so he headed to the Imperial Palace.

He still hated Eric, whom he had not seen in a long time. Eric was curious about Olivia and, with Jane, hurled a barrage of questions and held Leon for a very long time. Leon, who barely escaped from Eric, ran straight to the Duke’s mansion.

And, he met Olivia.

When he met her again, Olivia was more beautiful than when he last saw her. Her face was already completely out of the girl’s shape, and her cheeks shone like a rose.

When he met her after a long time, he almost hugged her because he was overwhelmed.

Looking at her, she always avoided Leon’s eyes. He realized her distance from him anew. However, at the meal he had with Olivia, he felt great joy at the words she said, ‘I am glad you have returned safely.’ He thought maybe he had hope.

Though that hope was terribly shattered as Kevin and Olivia mixed bodies.

“Uhhng—! Huh!”

Olivia moved her back in Kevin’s arms through the crack in the open door. The naked body and the sound of her scream, leaking through the lights, was the most bizarre.

She sat on top of Kevin and had her eyes closed.

“Uhhng, Kevin!”

“Olivia!”

Kevin let out a groan, then he laid her down on the bed and embraced her like a beast. A woman who was so precious that she couldn’t even speak her words properly, he did it so harshly…

Suddenly, Kevin stared at the door and smiled at him.

Leon realized that he had deliberately left the door open. He wanted to show off that he had Olivia. At that moment, he had never had such fierce murderous intentions with anyone.

On that day, when the fresh singing voice in his ears became a coquettish voice, and her slender body became a ripe body, and indulged in Kevin’s hands. The slender neck, outstretched arms, and swaying voluptuous breasts.

His body shivered from anger, and he was astonished to see the condition of his body.

His body was excited.

In the midst of this, he developed a passion for Olivia’s body.

…Lust, Leon had almost forgotten the word. He even thought it didn’t belong to him.

He learned what Olivia’s face was and what she sounded like when she was held in a man’s arms. No matter how hard he tried to forget it, it was not forgotten. Looking at Olivia, her body changed without him knowing like a rutting beast.

So, he was troubled every time he met her.

“…Miss Claudel seduced the Young Master.”

“It’s embarrassing to say such a thing, but it seemed that the Miss could not live without a man.”

At the same time, Leon investigated what had happened to Olivia. He did not believe his employees, although they gave similar testimony as if it was deliberate. At first, he thought about the possibility that she had been forced. Kevin’s reputation in the capital was not very good. He was willing to punish Kevin.

“You saw it, too. She cannot live without a man.”

“….”

“She pleaded with me to marry her. I said it wasn’t something I could do in my line.”

Kevin scratched his head and made excuses.

Leon wanted to break his neck, but he struggled to swallow his anger although he couldn’t contain his anger, and he ended up asking Olivia.

The reason he passed on to Olivia the contemptuous words Kevin or the maid had said was because he wanted to know of the denial and anger and Kevin’s wretched disrespect for the woman he slept with. Because he wanted her to know about it.

However, Olivia sneered at Leon and admitted it as it was.

That meant one thing.

She liked it. Yes, because she liked Kevin. Otherwise, she had no reason to sleep with him.

Leon felt that his thoughts had been hardened with certainty, and he felt a deep sense of betrayal. He risked his life for her, so why didn’t she wait for him?

Not even once, Olivia had never once had him in her heart.

Five years, five years he painted her… He spared her life during those years and returned home, and she repeated over and over again, saying that it would be okay if he didn’t see her.

Nonetheless, Leon overestimated his own reason. He went crazy when his love was betrayed in its worst form without ever returning.

For the only reason that she loved someone else, Kevin.

“I will visit you when the moon tilts west.”

So, Leon fell to Olivia’s provocation. He couldn’t control his own heart, his lust for her, and he wanted to hold her. He wanted to carve his mark on Olivia’s body and to carve himself deep into her heart.

That was how a twisted relationship began.

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