Chapter 218

"What are you doing?"

I said, removing Perez's hand from the necklace.

His eyes still felt hot, but I didn't make any more eye contact.

"Like this."

I covered the necklace with the shawl after returning it to its place.

And then I pulled the string hard and tied it up.

The glowing red ruby was no longer visible.

"I'm burying it."

I spoke as calmly as possible.

"There is no future between me and you. It's just a relationship that will end someday."

"Deputy Patriarch."

Perez tried to say something but I cut him off.

"Now that I've succeeded Lombardi, I can take a breather, but what about the Emperor?"

Perez kept his mouth shut with his eyes full of words.

My heart ached at his sorrowful face.

"You must defeat the Empress and you must be appointed as the Crown Prince. And then you'll have to spend your time as the Crown Prince safely and become the Emperor. Are you still going to continue your relationship with me, who can't be an Empress?"

I shook my head.

Even with Perez, there are limitations.

"At this rate, Your Highness will achieve nothing."

When I saw Perez, my heart that's pounding again was slowly sinking.

It was right to sort out here for the both of us.

"There is a long way to go for the Prince to become the Emperor. And the Imperial knights were divided in half right now, right?"

Perez nodded silently.

I am glad that you are taking my words well.

But apart from that, another throbbing from heart ache came.

I put my hand on Perez's chest, hiding my expression as much as I could.

It was the place where my heart ached.

"That's why I'm burying it. We each have something to accomplish. And then at some point..."

It'll all go away.

I was going to say that.

But my lips won't open.

I couldn't bring myself to say that.

It was because I wasn't sure myself either.

Will this mind really forget as the time passes?

Will all the desire to hurt a person like this disappear?

At that time, Perez held my hand in his chest.

It was a frighteningly warm hand.

And slowly, he pulled my hand and gently rubbed his face with it.

With a deeper gaze fixed on me.

At that moment my heart seemed to sink.

It was because I realized that what I said a while ago did not push him away, but instead stimulate him more.

"If I bury my heart, it will not disappear."

Unlike me, Perez said with conviction.

"Deputy Patriarch."

A voice that was as hot as my body temperature called me.

"Is it okay for me to accept someone else as the Empress? Can I stand side by side with her while we smile at each other?"

There was something that came to my mind.

Perez and Ramona standing together in front of the crown and crossing their arms.

It was a memory from my previous life.

My heart hurts incomparably more than before, so I had to grip my teeth.

Meanwhile, Perez came closer.

"Am I allowed to have children with someone else and grow old together for the rest of my life? Is the Deputy Patriarch confident to watch it from afar?"

I'll be able to watch.

But whenever Perez is happy and laughing with someone else, I'll be crying without anyone knowing.

It was the time that I closed my eyes tightly to erase the dark future that seemed to be being painted in front of my eyes.

Perez carefully lifted my chin and made me look at him.

We are now looking at each other with a distance of a breath away.

"I can't."

His voice became murky.

"No one other than me can stand beside you."

Perez's red eyes glowed over me, like the ruby I hid a moment ago.

"Just imagining that the Deputy Patriarch is marrying someone other than me...."

Perez's words, as if biting something, shook dangerously.

"I'm getting angry."

Like I did a little while ago.

Perez put my hand on his chest.

Thump. Thump.

A strong beat, not fast, but is pounding dangerously as if it were going to come out of his chest.

"If I don't pierce the heart of that man, who doesn't exist, I'm going to explode like this in anger."

Perez whispered in my ear, as if his lips were touching mine.

And he just kissed me.

The tight-fitting lips have inevitably been intertwined.

Once, twice.

It engulfed me like a wave that came over me countless times.

Perez, who kissed me in one breath and at some point it looks like it would last forever, stopped.

And he said lightly to me, touching my forehead.

"Like this, I will put my lips on the Deputy Patriarch."

Perez's lips dug into my exposed neck.

"I'm the only one who can do this."

The vibration of his talking lips tickled my flesh.

"It must be me. No one else."

Perez, who slowly pulled away, looked at me with unbearable eyes.

"And there's one thing you're misunderstanding."

However, my hair and clothes that had been messed up by the kisses, were as sweet as the well-tamed wolves.

"The Deputy Patriarch of Lombardi is exactly what I want. Neither being a Crown Prince nor the throne, but you."

Perez's fingers lightly brushed my lips.

"You being mine. That's exactly what I want."

Perez, who said so, smiled slightly.

"The rest are just delightful by-products, Deputy Patriarch of Lombardi. And I'll do anything to get what I want."

"Perez, you..."

Who are you?

The guy in front of me were unfamiliar.

For a moment, it seemed that I saw the dark side of the guy I hadn't known before.

Click.

Perez leaned towards me and opened the door behind my back.

Woosh.

The cold air outside blew into the office.

My body trembled and it gave me goosebumps.

It was like waking up from a dream.

"Then, shall we go save the Deputy Patriarch's cousin?"

Before I knew it, Perez came back to his usual form and asked me.

****

(Florentia's POV)

"I'm not going!"

What are you saying, you shitty asshole?

Bellesac, who sat with his arms tightly crossed, said stubbornly.

"I'd rather be safe here where the Imperial knights can protect me!"

"Aren't you packing up to go back to Lombardi?"

I said as I looked up at Perez.

"It seems like there is a change in your mind."

Perez said with an expressionless face.

But I know.

That he is annoyed. Very annoyed.

Perez's eyes were slightly tapered.

"Haa.."

I, too, had no choice but to sigh in irritation.

I'm already annoyed at the fact that I have become a Deputy Patriarch and my first job is to get Bellesac out of custody.

"Bellesac Lombardi, you'd better think about it properly."

You're refusing my help?

Bellesac, slightly flinched at my words, looked at someone with anxious eyes.

I quickly followed that gaze.

Imperial knight?

What Bellesac looked at momentarily was a Knight standing silently with his hand behind his back at the door.

"Sir, what is your name?"

"...I'm Olka Baraport, a member of the 1st Knight Division."

Aha.

I had a rough idea of what was going on.

I spoke to Perez.

"Will you send the Knight out for a while, Your highness?"

"....Get out."

At Perez's command, the Knights emptied the room.

Now it was just me, Perez, and Bellesac in the interrogation room.

"Hey, Bellesac."

I looked down at Bellesac, who was sitting and said, "You idiot."

"Ah..again, you idiot...."

"Even if I give you a lifeline, the fact that you don't even know that it's a lifeline, you really are an idiot."

I clicked my tongue.

"While Perez was away for a while, what did that Baraport Knight tell you?"

Bellesac did not answer. 

I was just wondering if he would talk to me with that stupid head.

So I told him instead, "Not the Empress, I would have said that Perez and I were trying to make you the culprit."

"Well, that...!"

"If you followed me back to Lombardi, you could have said that the people of the Empress like you couldn't help you. Or you just stay here."

I didn't even have to ask, 'Am I right?"

Bellesac's eyes were shaking nervously.

"And that's when you fall for it, you idiot."

At my last words, Bellesac went berserk but shut up again.

"I don't have enough affection to force someone who doesn't want to go."

But I am the Deputy Patriarch of Lombardi.

At least, as long as Bellesac still carries the surname of Lombardi, he is also under my responsibility.

"So I'll give you just one chance, Bellesac."

I sighed loudly and said, "Take your bag and get on the Lombardi's carriage."

Bellesac's fingers wiggle nervously.

Bellesac, who had been thinking about it for a long time, eventually said, "I'm not going. I said I'm not going."

"You've finally decided to trust them."

"I'm sure mother and the Baraport family...."

"Mother?"

You mean Serral?

Before I could ask anymore questions, Perez intervened.

"Leave it, Deputy Patriarch."

Perez's gaze was cold as he looked at Bellesac crouching down.

"Didn't you say it's safer here?"

Perez is pissed off.

"As long as you say that you won't go, then we can't force a witness."

That's the rule, though.

I shook my head.

And spoke to Bellesac.

"It's your decision. Don't regret it."

"Regret....I will not."

Bellesac said stubbornly.

"Stupid."

Bellesac, who doesn't have a brain to figure out the situation, can only build up his self-esteem.

He hasn't changed since his previous life when he slapped me on the cheek.

****

Bellesac was asleep after a long time.

Since he was detained, he couldn't fall asleep easily because of his anxiety.

He drank the drink that came with the dinner and fell asleep comfortably.

He didn't want to get out of his worry-free dreams.

In an instant, he felt like his body was turning upside down.

"Gasp!"

Bellesac opened his eyes with a terrible pain on his throat.

There was still nothing but darkness in the room.

"Haa! Uh! This...!"

As he struggled because he couldn't breathe, someone's knees pressed against his back suppressing Bellesac's body deeper.

And

His throat tightened, unable to breathe with a small sound of pulling something.

"Die fast, you bastard."

It was Olka Baraport, a voice that Bellesac knew.

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N/A: OMG 1000x! The first part of this chapter is really something! (TT.TT) I wanna scream while typing and editing this, I'm telling you. I'm just stopping myself from doing so since I'm not alone while doing this. LMAO. 

Perez is sooo sweet! <3