A Practical Guide to Ending a One-Sided Love - Chapter 51

* * *

“Sir Todd. What did you just… say?”

Todd Cameron was trying to find an appropriate answer in the greatest terror of his life.

“Well, you see, the whole family gathered after a long time, and my cousin, who is well past marriageable age, had just returned after succeeding in business…”

Bjorn Schmidt, radiating a dark aura as if he were not a paladin but some demon god, was truly frightening despite being a superior Todd had served for quite a while.

“I, I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you in advance. The idea of introducing another man to Miss Bailey suddenly came to mind, and it seemed like a very, very good method, so…”

“So you asked that bastard named Piache, no, your cousin, to seduce Miss Leila. Is that what you mean?”

“Yes, that’s correct. I never dreamed that you’d change your mind so completely, Vice Commander… if you had shown even the slightest sign earlier, I would never have done it!”

“Ha…”

At the sigh rising from deep within Bjorn’s abdomen, Todd’s shoulders twitched again.

Todd, who had been in rear support during the holy war, was not particularly close to Bjorn who had been on the front lines, and still felt uncomfortable around him.

He only spoke with him because his mentor Allen got along well with Bjorn, but to Todd, Bjorn was still a difficult person.

Especially when he was furious like now.

“I’ll tell my cousin to stop immediately. So please calm down…”

Todd chattered with a trace of grievance, but Bjorn didn’t listen to the end.

“Fix this.”

He only spat the words with a gaze that looked ready to kill someone.

“Right now.”

Though hardly a request given the savage tone, Todd fled from Bjorn’s sight at once. Arguing right and wrong with a man whose divine power was boiling and steaming into the air seemed like a very bad idea.

Watching Todd run away as if it was for his life, Bjorn barely suppressed his directionless anger.

So that bastard’s sudden appearance was also the result of Bjorn’s own wrong judgment and actions. Admitting that felt bitter.

At least now that he knew the man’s identity and intent, he could respond. But that didn’t solve everything.

Above all, what struck Bjorn hardest was Leila’s reaction itself.

For some reason she had not rejected the man who approached under Todd’s instigation. Her words about seriously meeting that scoundrel left a painful wound in Bjorn’s chest and an even greater anxiety.

So anxious that he locked himself in his room, one leg bouncing up and down in his seat, biting all ten fingernails, and glaring into the air with bloodshot eyes, yet he couldn’t calm down.

Until recently, the only man she met ‘seriously’ had been himself. He didn’t know what she was thinking, but the fact she allowed another man into that place left him deeply hurt and sorrowful.

To dine, drink tea, and walk together as she had with him, to share that warm and sweet time with that bastard as well, and even the possibility she might allow a kiss…

Bjorn consciously stopped his thoughts there. He steadied himself before his rampaging divine power destroyed even the temple statues.

Speculation only bred misunderstanding and distrust. He needed to talk with Leila.

‘It’s already late today, so tomorrow without fail…’

After shutting himself in from shock and then hearing the full story from Todd, evening had already come.

For a different reason than yesterday, a hellish wait began. Naturally, sleep did not come. As he stayed awake all night in tense alertness, when he barely dozed he dreamed a nightmare of Leila holding another man’s hand and bidding him farewell.

Awakening in cold sweat, Bjorn began biting his nails again.

Once, he had wished Leila would give up on him and transfer her affection to anyone else. But absurdly, now that it became reality, he felt like he was going mad.

Leila, no longer looking at him. Leila, being with another man instead of him.

Though he had long denied it, his heart had already grown accustomed to her one-sided love. Therefore the thought that she no longer harbored sweet affection for him felt the same as his world collapsing.

He wanted to meet her immediately and relieve this terrible anxiety. Only by confessing his sins and regaining her affection would it subside.

But growing fear gnawed at his reason. What if her heart wouldn’t return to him even after he confessed everything? No, what if it earned her hatred instead?

The deep night bound Bjorn tightly in chains of pessimism and despair. Time flowed as slowly as eternity, the world was still and silent at dawn, and only when his troubled mind nearly consumed him did morning finally break.

As soon as day dawned, Bjorn left his room. Unlike yesterday, he didn’t care about his appearance at all as he rushed out, none of yesterday’s happiness or anticipation remained.