Chapter 6 Part 7
“…Wait, what is this-“
“Rosiel Laté, I decided to respect your methods.”
Hyle was still saying incomprehensible things.
Looking now, Hyle’s demeanor seemed somewhat different from usual.
His eyebrows, usually straight, seemed slightly furrowed… Indeed, no matter how you looked at it, it was a face that had complaints about me.
“What are my methods?”
“Things like this.”
As Hyle gently flicked his hand, I felt a transparent holy power orbit intensely wrapping around my neck where he had stroked.
Even I, with my somewhat slow perception, could tell this was unmistakably a ‘restraint’.
“…Shackles?”
Even without having to touch it, I could immediately tell that what was on my neck was a shackle made of holy power.
Unfortunately, this kind of thing could simply be undone with magic.
“If you use black magic, there will be no contact for a while.”
Hyle opened his mouth firmly while lightly shaking his head as if he knew exactly what I would do.
How unfair to threaten with life… When did he lecture me about valuing others’ lives…
Being from House Laté, being imprisoned in enemy House Feros’ basement was certainly a dangerous situation.
And having holy power restraints on my neck meant I was under threat to my life, which wasn’t wrong either.
But strangely, I wasn’t scared or afraid.
That was probably because there was absolutely no aggression or malice in any of Hyle’s actions toward me.
Even the holy power shackles on my neck were quite loose for restraints and didn’t hurt at all.
It was almost like he was deliberately playing around.
So… like he was getting revenge for when I put magical restraints on him before.
“Where did you learn this kind of thing?”
“From you.”
When I asked with an affectionate smile, Hyle answered simply with calm eyes.
“Well… I never taught such sloppy kidnapping. Your learning is still lacking.”
“…Pfft. Right, I’ll try harder.”
Hyle, who answered readily even to my irritated protest, had a much softer expression than before.
And seeing his lips slightly raised, it seemed his mood had improved a bit thanks to my playing along.
Fortunately, it didn’t seem like he had really changed his mind and kidnapped me to eliminate House Laté.
I had been internally worried given my impressive record of various misdeeds against House Feros, but it seemed I could relax.
“Well, fine. Let’s hear the reason first. Why are you doing this?”
From his expression and tone, Hyle clearly had some unknown complaints about me, big and small.
But I couldn’t figure out what they were about.
We hadn’t been in much contact lately so there shouldn’t have been anything to get angry about, so then what…
“You said you wanted to break off the engagement, but you’ve been sticking close to the Crown Prince all this time.”
“…Huh?”
Why is Abel being mentioned here?
Clank-
When I reflexively moved my body in surprise at the mention of an unexpected person, the chain of the shackles made a firm sound as it restrained me.
Only then did I look down and see that the shackles on my neck were connected to the bed, severely limiting my range of movement.
At most I could only sit on the bed, so even though Hyle was right in front of me, I couldn’t touch him with even a fingertip.
So… this really seems like revenge for when I kidnapped Hyle to the basement before…
Anyway, Hyle leaned against the wall just as I had done last time and opened his mouth calmly while meeting my eyes.
“I heard the reason the Crown Prince skipped the temple prayer ceremony was to go see you.”
“Ah, that…”
I only wanted to confirm whether Abel really liked me because I wasn’t sure…
Since Hyle didn’t know those circumstances, it wasn’t strange for him to misunderstand.
But since the result was ‘Abel really does like me’… somehow I feel like saying this would make him even angrier, what should I do?
“Rumors are rampant about your frequent meetings in the Imperial garden. Thanks to that, I’ve become the one intruding between the close Crown Prince couple.”
Ugh, now I get it. So that’s why he was angry.
Though nothing in Hyle’s words was wrong, he was firmly misunderstanding a very small but clear fact.
I was not on good terms with Abel. Good my foot, rather we were heading toward catastrophe.
There was no way we could get close when Abel would immediately reject whenever I sent engagement cancellation documents.
The affectionate appearance shown publicly was just the necessary level of pretense according to responsibility.
Of course, it might not be the case for Abel who said he liked me, but at least it was for me.
“I heard you even met recently at the Laté duchy?”
Hyle’s words, coming from his thoroughly misunderstanding state, were filled with sharp thorns throughout.
By recent, does he mean two days ago? That was just him coming to tell me about the delegation’s visit…
More than that, how does Hyle know about this? Abel has never “officially” visited the Laté duchy even once.
Abel was one of those who came and went secretly and quietly to Laté.
Even though I was his fiancée, since the other party was House Laté, he knew that making noisy visits wasn’t a very good action.
“Hyle, first of all, that’s all a misunder-“
“So, do you like the Crown Prince?”
I opened my mouth to clear up Hyle’s misunderstanding, but unfortunately my words were completely buried under his heavy misunderstanding.
“What? No! What are you saying? That’s impossible!”
“For someone who doesn’t, you seemed to be properly enjoying your dates.”
…No, wait. Hearing this, it feels unfair?
I’m sorry for causing misunderstandings, but I don’t think I did anything wrong enough to deserve being shackled!
“But Hyle, why are you angry at me?”
“…When did I.”
When I pouted my lips with an unfair nuance, Hyle tilted his head with a face that seemed unsure.
This man really…! Just until a moment ago he was getting irritated and questioning me without even trying to listen to what I had to say!
“Anyway, Abel and I are nothing to each other.”
In any case, breaking off the engagement with Abel was inevitable for Hyle to easily treat my heart.
Therefore, my feelings toward Abel weren’t really an important issue.
“…Well, let’s say that. Let’s get to the main point. I brought you here because it’s not something to discuss outside, so I’d prefer no other misunderstandings.”
Ugh, it’s not just “let’s say that,” we really are nothing to each other…
“Alright, then first untie this.”
When I roughly pointed at the shackles on my neck, Hyle gently shook his head with calm eyes.
Don’t tell me he’s still sulking…
