Chapter 73
It wasn’t difficult enough to make him feel suffocated or unbearable enough to make him run away, but it was distinctly different from before.
-Clink.
Lione, who had no intention of drinking but was adding ice to his whiskey glass, pondered how to bring up the topic.
In truth, the answer was practically predetermined.
His friend claimed to have fallen so hard at first sight that he’d forgotten the one he’d been pining for so long—Lione couldn’t very well flaunt his marriage to her right in front of his friend.
But still…
Wasn’t the situation excessively extreme and strange?
Lione trusted his only friend, but he wasn’t a fool.
A friend who had been harboring unrequited love all this time suddenly confessing to a young lady he’d barely exchanged words with, committing every possible rudeness in the process—all because he’d fallen for her at first sight?
The friend he knew wasn’t that kind of person.
He could understand falling in love at first sight.
People could magically, impossibly take someone into their hearts at first glance.
But such a confession?
‘I fell in love with you at first sight. So intensely that the long-held love in my heart vanished in an instant.’
He’d never even confessed to the one he’d been pining for all this time…
On top of that, there was the grating sense of discord he felt from his friend, who had been so aggressively pursuing the young lady he claimed to have fallen for.
“…one. Lione.”
Lione’s unfocused eyes returned to clarity at his friend’s call.
“Ah.”
“What were you thinking about? I called you several times but you didn’t hear.”
“Sorry, I invited you but then let my mind wander.”
“There’s no need to apologize for such a thing.”
The unspoken continuation would have been “between friends.”
And in that moment, Lione felt that grating discord again.
Had his friend ever referred to him as a ‘friend’ before?
But Lione set aside his uneasiness at his friend’s next words.
“I can guess why you called me, but shall I speak first?”
“Of course.”
Lione somewhat expected what would come from his friend’s mouth.
Something about the baron’s daughter.
And perhaps how they might compensate for the transactions between their houses if this engagement fell through…
But at his friend’s next words, Lione couldn’t even continue his thoughts properly.
“An engagement proposal has come in.”
“An engagement proposal?”
Seeing Lione’s undisguised bewilderment, his friend lowered his head to hide the satisfied smile that momentarily surfaced and reached out his hand.
He picked up Lione’s ice-filled glass.
Though Lione hadn’t touched it to his lips, since he’d been holding it continuously, the friend seemed to feel his warmth from where the ice had melted.
“Rather… sudden.”
Only after draining the glass full of strong whiskey did his friend exhale with heated breath.
“Yes. A count’s family with considerable power in the borderlands. An engagement I absolutely cannot refuse.”
At this, Lione briefly recalled his own fiancée—the one his friend claimed to have fallen for at first sight—but quickly dismissed the thought.
There was no need to bring up that story now.
Most importantly, what would he do, how would he handle it, if he brought up those words?
It might have been different if his friend’s engagement hadn’t proceeded like this.
Lione shook his head.
He believed that this friend before him wasn’t someone who would be blinded by love and ruin an engagement involving four families.
Hadn’t he always said this when watching those who had become obsessed with Lione, neglecting their family promises and responsibilities to engage in romantic conflicts?
‘No matter how much they claim to love, to go charging in with such blind desperation—I can understand it, but I cannot condone it.’
Having said such things, his friend… In fact, even at today’s meeting, Lione had intended to confirm something.
If his friend truly wanted it, he would call off the engagement.
But first, he needed to confirm whether his friend really wanted that.
The subtle discord he felt toward his friend remained like sediment, still pooled within him, so Lione picked up a new glass without looking directly at his friend and spoke.
“You’ve also reached that time in life, like me.”
It was something anyone could say, and Lione didn’t mean anything significant by it.
And naturally, congratulations followed.
“Though it’s sudden, it’s good news.”
But those light words struck his friend’s heart like a dagger.
Good… news.
It became crystal clear that Lione felt none of the emotions he himself had been experiencing.
Downing whiskey without ice in one gulp made his dizzy stomach feel pressed down, and Lione let out a long breath.
After squeezing his eyes shut and opening them again, Lione sincerely patted his friend’s shoulder.
“Congratulations on your marriage.”
His sincerity was conveyed to his friend without a filter, and his friend felt like he was going insane.
Because Lione was genuinely happy.
He knew it. The fact that Lione only thought of him as a friend.
His only friend.
That’s what he told everyone.
But he had no desire whatsoever to spend his life hovering around him, playing the role of a good friend.
If that had been the case, he would have given up his feelings for him long ago.
He had simply been waiting for his only friend to someday become his only love.
But what was this situation now?
“You’re… congratulating me?”
At his friend’s question as he stared down at the empty glass, Lione’s sincerity returned.
“Of course. It’s a good thing.”
In that moment, nauseating emotions boiled up within his friend all at once.
‘Why won’t you understand?’
‘Why don’t you think of me the way I think of you?’
‘Why? Why!’
Veins bulged on the back of his friend’s hand as he gripped the glass crushingly, but Lione couldn’t see his expression with his head bowed.
And immediately after, Lione patted his friend’s shoulder lightly, as if suddenly remembering something.
“This means we’ll be getting married together. Marriage around the same time as my only friend. Could anything be better than continuing as friends through future generations?”
It was something friends commonly said to each other.
The kind of thing real friends could receive with laughter, whether joking or serious.
But…
“That will never happen.”
The answer that flowed out in an excessively low and gloomy voice was a complete denial.
He hadn’t intended to destroy all the time he’d so carefully invested so suddenly like this.
Especially not by his own hand.
Wasn’t all his effort until now too meaningless to be destroyed so easily, so simply?
Thinking rationally, he should have endured and persevered through this moment.
As he always had, staying by his side, watching for opportunities while planning to break not only Lione’s engagement but his own as well.
He should have endured, but he couldn’t stand it.
He truly couldn’t bear the heart-tearing pain and the myriad emotions that rampaged and stirred within him any longer.
Perhaps this moment had been foreseen from when Lione’s engagement was decided.
The emotions that had been bubbling and boiling since then, accumulated and rotted, were tearing through his mask and flowing out.
“What did you just say…”
His friend slowly removed Lione’s hand from his shoulder.
He took Lione’s hand and gently rubbed his palm, repeating:
“I said there will be no such thing as you and I marrying different people and having children.”
It was almost like a declaration, so Lione could only stare at his friend with an indescribable expression.
Eventually meeting eyes with his friend, who slowly raised his head, Lione froze completely.
His friend, who caressed Lione’s cheek in passing, spat out his words before turning away.
“Friends, indeed.”
The eyes of his friend moving away from Lione glittered with madness—a mixture of obsession and twisted love, anxiety and rage all tangled together.
In the place left empty after his friend disappeared, Lione stared blankly at where he had vanished.
His vision spun in circles.
What on earth had just happened?
‘That will never happen.’
Right… up to there, it could somehow be packaged as meaning they should each be faithful to their respective families.
But…
‘Friends, indeed.’
It would have been an utterly ordinary phrase.
But the things that raged in that tone and voice…
“Friends, indeed.”
Though he spoke the same words aloud, he remained utterly confused.
Lione just stared endlessly at the empty space his friend had left.
How much time had passed?
A hollow laugh escaped between Lione’s lips.
“Ha… haha.”
Wasn’t that retreating figure, that ending, exactly like those others who had grown close to him only to become twisted in the end?
There was no way Lione couldn’t have noticed.
But he couldn’t easily accept the fact that even the friend he’d truly considered his only one had ultimately been the same as all the others.
That’s why Lione had unconsciously and desperately tried to find other reasons.
‘My friend turned away—I must have said something wrong or done something to hurt his feelings.’
But no matter how much he thought about it, the grating discord and his final words were undeniable…
“Young Lord Bartorio?”
At the sudden call, Lione reflexively raised his head, and his eyes filled with transparently piercing blue eyes looking down at him.
Horribly transparent yet so deep he couldn’t see the bottom—Lione felt momentarily dizzy and swayed.
“Oh my.”
The hand that caught his arm was slender, but the supporting strength was solid, so Lione barely managed to steady himself.
Managing to raise his head with difficulty, Lione opened his mouth with an almost corpse-like complexion.
“Miss Bolshevik?”
