Chapter 153

“Do me a favor.”

“Please go ahead.”

“I would like to grant your father Duke Kling’s request.”

Marianne shook her head at that.

“Your Majesty, I already told you that I’m not going to stay out of this fight, and that you can’t change my decision.”

“I know. And I understand your decision fully. No political strategy or threat can change your mind.” Eckart spoke with a sigh.

“So I’ve come here not to order but to request you.”

At that point, his mouth felt dry.

From the moment he was born, he was a ruler that would rise above everyone. It was his destiny that his life was more accustomed to commands than requests. While he was confident of strategically pushing his opponent to get the desired result, he did not know how to change his opponent’s heart without any tricks or underlying intentions. Actually, he believed that he didn’t need to know how.

“At first I was going to use you as a giveaway card. I needed Lennox, along with your father’s power and intelligence.”

Had he known that there would be a day when he would confess a terrible excuse like this, he would have studied how to anyway.

“Are you disappointed? But I, too, am nothing more than those who disguise themselves in terms of using any means and ends to achieve my goal. I’ve been doing so, and probably will do so in the future.”

She had no answer and simply looked up at him.

He stiffened and swallowed dry saliva as if he was caught by her eyes. Right now he wanted to tell her something honestly that he had put off mentioning, which he had never told anybody before, but he found it so hard to do so.

However, he finally opened his mouth, “Marianne, I’m not making this request as a politician or a monarch, but just as a fellow human like you.”

This was also part of his politics in the broader sense, she thought. It was natural for him to remove any card that had a destabilizing factor.

Unfortunately Eckart brainwashed himself even at this moment. She knew he was racking his brain now to overcome various complicated thoughts such as whether it was okay for him to say this, what to do if she rejected his request or whether his actions were right or wrong.

But it was only her eyes that stimulated his desire to speak his mind this time.

While his eyes trembling with ridiculous anxiety were reflected in her eyes, her eyes were just as nervous as his. However, they were lovely and pure.

“I don’t want to lose you in the process of this nasty political fight.”

Marianne held her breath for a moment. She tightened her grasp on the collar.

“It’s not because you are an important hostage, nor the daughter of Duke Kling, nor Ober’s old lover. I just…” His blue eyes trembled sadly.

Both Marianne and Eckart knew what kind of implications his next statement would have. Whatever form or expression he would use to express it, he would have only desire in it.

“I need you desperately.”

It was love, which was the meanest and most sacred human desire.

Her heart sank suddenly. All the scenery around her lost color, and even the sound of the wind blowing through her ears disappeared.

“Marianne, you are now my greatest weakness.”

Marianne held back the urge to cry surging from deep inside.

She was happy, but at the same time tormented. She knew now that loving someone was difficult but exciting. It was not her first time feeling love, but she trembled with the weight of feelings troubling her mind.

“They always prayed for me to stick to something and become weak because they felt that once they take it away from me, they could easily break me down. Someday they will certainly take you away from me too.” Eckart heaved a short sigh.

“By now you know very well how you feel when your loved one is sacrificed in the process of a power struggle, right?”

Eckart could not accept the assumption that he might lose her. Just one, his late mother who appeared in his occasional nightmares, was enough for him.

“Marianne!”

He reached out to Marianne who was silent for a while. His cold hands slowly wrapped her slender wrists.

“Please…”

Eckhart pleaded with her the same way he did with a desperate look and sincere voice on the night they fell from Benoit Falls.

“Your Majesty,” Marianne smiled as best she could with moist eyes.

“I like Your Majesty too. I like you too much, really, very, very much. I miss you every day. I always miss you desperately. I hoped that one day you could tell me that I have become your dear lover. But…”

After she made a candid confession to him, she barely pulled her wrist from his hand. He was looking at her in shock. It took some time for her to continue as if she was glad she could reject his request.

“I’m so sorry, but I won’t run anywhere.”

“Marianne, you don’t necessarily have to get revenge on them on your mother’s behalf.”

“Right. Maybe it’s my father’s role.” She nodded meekly.

“What I want to do is to get revenge for myself in the past. Your Majesty, lots of things that we can’t understand are happening in the world. For example, a man who almost died of sickness came back alive like a miracle, a man who was a young man until yesterday became an old man, or a man who believed that he was drowned but returned to the past when he woke up…”

Marianne didn’t finish her last words. She didn’t know whether it was due to the mystical spell created by the night or the closed airflow of the greenhouse, but some strange power touched her deeply.

“You really don’t believe it? But all these appear in fantasy story books.”

She now looked down. What came into her eyes first was the ring on her left hand.

In Roshan, they put on the rings and swore so before the gods. If he remembered that promise, could he understand her feelings? Even if he couldn’t trust her completely, could he understand why she was so stubborn because they had become partners they could lean on?

“But it’s a reality for me.”

Making all kinds of excuses, Marianne raised her eyes again.

In fact, she just wanted to talk to anyone. She wanted to get his or her understanding and comfort. Even just one word would be enough for her.”

“I’m living a second life now. I was Ober’s wife in my previous life. I loved him, I lost my father after I was deceived by him, and I was murdered by him after he took everything away from me. Why? Because I found out so much about him. I found out that he was responsible for fabricating my father’s wagon accident, that he would soon abandon me, and that he was seeking to dethrone you…”

“…”

“On the eve of the ball, you asked me in the bathroom why I was trembling with fear. Giyom drowned me in the lake. Ober ordered him to kill me, and I had to be drowned in the water before his eyes. I paid the price for my stupid life.”

Eckart listened to her silently. He clenched his teeth more firmly.

Indeed, he felt what she just confessed was ridiculous and groundless, but he didn’t feel like she was lying to him. Her story was too ridiculous for her to improvise it on the spot, but it was too plausible and reasonable to ignore it as a dream or delusion.

He recalled the words she had spoken to him all the time, referring to places that were not real:

previous life, last, occasional dreams, present life, the last grace received from the goddess, the old days when nothing wrong happened to her, and some secrets that she might have wanted somebody to detect by chance.