Chapter 155
Enoch had lost his mind, thrusting a caramel at me out of nowhere, and I couldn’t hide my bewilderment.
On top of that, he said he “couldn’t stop thinking about me”?
I pulled my best scowl and spat out something suitably prickly.
“Oh, so you can’t stop worrying I’ll come for revenge?”
Enoch shook his head and tried to explain himself, but what he’d say was predictable.
“You said I’d regret letting you go, so why does it seem like you’re the one with regrets?”
“That’s not—”
“You can’t even bring yourself to openly criticize or hate me, can you? Stop mistaking it for lingering attachment.”
I rapid-fired everything without giving Enoch a chance to get a word in edgewise.
Today was a day I absolutely could not be late.
The special meal that came around just often enough to keep prisoners from passing out was being served today: potatoes fried in lard.
Still, I couldn’t neglect stacking my kill-intent[1], so I opted to rapid-fire my piece and leave.
“Look, I want to talk—”
“Not interested, not curious, so just get lost. You’re such a pain, always starting drama right at mealtime.”
I stomped hard on the fallen caramel and walked right past him.
Damn shame to waste it, but if I can’t have it, nobody can.
“It’s about the Mare’s Heirloom.”
That one sentence stopped me in my tracks.
“Do you know why Marquis Farsene wanted it?”
This had better not be something trivial.
I turned back with disinterested eyes. Enoch’s lips curled upward.
“Because it’s something extremely important to you.”
“I already know that.”
So there was something to it after all.
But I could also tell he didn’t know the details.
He grabbed my arm.
“You don’t know the exact reason, do you? I can tell you.”
“‘In exchange for telling you, do this for me~’ the same usual routine, right? I’m off.”
Ugh, predictable.
I shook off Enoch’s arm and left. He stood there staring after me, hand still outstretched.
Then, on my way, I ran into Viviana standing dazed in the corridor.
It seemed she’d overheard our conversation and was in shock.
I breezed past her, firing off my words at full speed.
“A man who tosses people aside the moment they’re no longer useful. Did you really thinkyou’d be any different? What? You’re not like me? Keep watching and see how it turns out.”
I preemptively delivered auto-completed responses to everything Viviana would have said, based on my running analysis of our prior conversations.
Viviana glared at me with bloodshot eyes, but there was no clear murderous intent.
Could I play along with Enoch’s game and then turn Viviana against him?
It might just be possible…
“Ugh.”
A flash of pressure squeezed my chest, and a shooting pain lanced through.
“Must be an angina.”
I thought nothing of it and walked on.
***
Viviana, who had been glaring at Kido’s retreating back, turned her head.
At the end of her sharpened gaze stood Enoch, rooted to the spot like a stone statue.
“Enoch.”
When Viviana approached and called his name, Enoch flinched out of his frozen state and looked at her.
“Viviana. I was waiting for you.”
Liar. You were waiting for Kido, not me.
Viviana asked casually:
“What were you talking about with Kido?”
The careful lilt she always maintained to sound pleasant had gone flat.
Enoch glanced nervously at Viviana, then noticed the caramel flattened beside her foot.
Viviana’s cold gaze followed his line of sight to the floor.
Since she wasn’t asking about the caramel, she must have seen everything already.
Enoch shrugged, feigning nonchalance.
“You said it yourself. You were looking for a way to pressure or threaten Kido. Wouldn’t it be faster if I approached her directly?”
“How so?”
“I’d tell her the heirloom is important to her and get close to win her trust. She’s a calculating woman who only keeps people around when they’re useful to her.”
When Viviana stared at him in silence, Enoch’s guilty conscience pricked, and he spoke in a soothing voice.
“You think I enjoy exchanging words with a venomous snake who does nothing but grate on my nerves? I’m sacrificing my pride for our future together.”
Tears began to well in her red eyes.
Enoch panicked internally but kept consoling her.
Like a man marching to the frontline for the woman he loved.
Since Viviana was backed by the bishop, she still had value to him, he had no choice but to coax and placate her.
“Vivi, it’s all for your sake. Even when I was forced to maintain the engagement before, it was to get my hands on the fortune Kido stood to inherit. You waited patiently for me back then too, remember? Do you want to spend the rest of your life as a prisoner in this place?”
Viviana dabbed her tears with her sleeve and sniffled.
“I’m not crying out of jealousy. It just breaks my heart seeing you treated so coldly, hearing such cruel words from that woman…”
Enoch adopted a deeply moved expression and pulled her into his arms.
“You’re too kind. It’s alright. For you, I’d endure any suffering.”
Having twisted and stolen away many relationships in her time, Viviana was keenly attuned to subtle shifts and warning signs in other people.
What a joke. Who does he think he’s fooling?
Translation Notes
[1] ↩
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