Chapter 74
Riina grabbed Lione’s arm and pushed him onto the sofa, asking.
“Are you alright?”
It was something anyone could have said upon seeing Lione in his current state.
He looked like he might die at any moment.
How else could one explain Riina personally pouring him lukewarm water and silently urging him to drink it?
“Whew.”
As the lukewarm water moistened his parched mouth, Lione let out a long, deep sigh.
“You seem a bit better now.”
“I apologize. I always end up receiving help.”
“It’s just a glass of water.”
When Riina nodded lightly and made a gesture as if to leave, Lione urgently spoke up to stop her.
“Um, Miss Bolshevik.”
It was a voice filled with anxiety and desperation, yet even in his state, he maintained perfect courtesy by not laying a finger on her—how very like Lione.
At this, Riina looked at him briefly before settling in front of him.
Though she said nothing, her attitude of being willing to listen to his story caused Lione’s tense shoulders to relax somewhat.
Eventually, silence fell between them.
They had met only a countable number of times, and briefly at that.
Moreover, wasn’t she someone he’d encountered in nothing but unpleasant situations, far from anything that would inspire favorable feelings?
Yet strangely, this silence with her was far more comfortable than the silence with his friend.
Realizing this fact, Lione raised his bowed head and gazed steadily at Riina.
Her expression as she looked at him was utterly expressionless, and her blue eyes were transparent, without even a speck of dust to be found.
Those eyes, which held no expectations, no excitement, not even any fondness, were perhaps more comfortable for Lione in his current state.
That’s why he impulsively opened his mouth.
“You asked if I was alright.”
Was it because it was a chance and a sudden meeting?
No, it was because his meeting was with Riina.
Someone who had looked at him directly with unchanging eyes from their first meeting until now.
“I’m… not alright.”
At his answer, Riina said nothing, but she didn’t leave either.
Repeatedly running his hands over his face, Lione instinctively began voicing the sudden trouble that was too difficult to handle alone.
“I thought of him as my only friend…”
For a while, Lione continued to pour out his stained past, his friend, and the fact that his friend had ultimately changed just like that past, regardless of his own wishes.
“In the end, he too. No, it’s not certain yet, but…”
The moment he said that far.
He realized clearly.
The fact that his friend was no longer a friend.
No, perhaps he had been the only one considering him a friend for a long time.
Lione, who had fallen silent from bitterness and emptiness, belatedly realized he had poured out too much and bowed his head deeply.
“I apologize. To unilaterally speak of such things…”
“Don’t worry about it. I was the one who asked the question.”
Though she hadn’t expected him to reveal so much, it was certain that he had felt discord from the one wearing the mask of a friend.
No, he had felt discord to the point where his so-called friend had even revealed through his words that he had never once considered Lione a friend—enough for Lione to notice.
Though the one pretending to be a friend, who had worn such a thick mask, had crumbled faster than expected, he would have already been shocked once by the Young Lord Bartorio’s engagement.
As expected, he probably thought there was nowhere left to retreat.
“Young Lord Bartorio.”
“Yes.”
“You want to confirm that your friend is not really a friend, don’t you?”
Riina boldly voiced what Lione hadn’t said, what he didn’t want to believe.
At her unrestrained words that didn’t beat around the bush, Lione felt a kind of liberation and nodded his head.
“I’ve tried to deny it until now, but yes. That’s right. I want to confirm it clearly.”
As his lips, which had been smiling as if crying, pressed into a firm line, Riina spoke.
“I don’t want to presumptuously interfere, but…”
She paused briefly and looked directly at Lione.
Her piercingly blue eyes were transparent enough to see all the way through, yet their depths could never be reached.
“How about trying this?”
As if enchanted by those eyes, Lione nodded, and Riina told him of a plan.
Lione, who listened quietly to her words until the end, didn’t open his mouth for a long while.
Riina didn’t rush his answer either, merely leaning back and sinking deeply into the sofa.
By the time the ice in the whiskey glass his friend had drained in one gulp had completely melted and disappeared.
“I’ll do that.”
An affirmative answer flowed from between Lione’s lips.
He let out a dry laugh and nodded his head.
“As you said, if I hear it properly and clearly from my friend’s own mouth, I won’t be able to deny it even if I try. The timing to create the situation is also…”
As Lione trailed off, Riina shrugged lightly.
“Other than my engagement ceremony, would there be an occasion for the Young Lord, his friend, and the Young Lord’s fiancée, the baron’s daughter, to gather in one place?”
“There… wouldn’t be.”
Even if his friend hadn’t struck Lione in the back of the head today, the baron’s daughter would avoid meeting with his friend.
She hadn’t hidden the fact that she loved Lione.
Yet he had tried to break off the engagement with her for his friend’s sake.
No, what a despicably cowardly thought.
Lione mocked himself.
Even if not for his friend, hadn’t he had no desire to marry her?
Marriage to someone chosen by his family when the time came.
Since it wasn’t so disgustingly repulsive, he had just let things flow, watching as if it weren’t his own affair.
“Miss, may I ask you one thing?”
“Yes.”
“Love can be like measles—something you suffer through terribly before it passes, can’t it?”
Though it took the form of a question, he wasn’t truly seeking an answer.
That’s why Riina remained silent.
“Most of those who said they loved me recovered as if they had been ill and gotten better.”
That could be the case. How many people would hang onto unrequited love for their entire lives?
Just like recovering from an illness.
Love that gradually fades away, leaving only lingering traces, until even the echoes are forgotten and it becomes a memory treasured alone.
Riina, who had intended not to answer, unconsciously opened her mouth.
“Yes. It might just flow away.”
And the moment her words, almost like a monologue, fell.
A figure hidden in the shadows a few steps behind unconsciously leaned toward her before stopping abruptly.
Einar, who had come here with her but hadn’t revealed himself, pulled his half-emerged torso back into the shadows and tilted his head.
Why had he wanted to rush out at those words, grab her shoulders, turn her around, and look at her face?
As Einar looked down at his empty hands, Lione’s voice reached his ears.
A voice that had somehow become lighter, and solid as if he had resolved something.
Setting aside his inexplicable behavior for the moment, Einar turned his attention to Lione.
Lione stood up from his seat and bowed respectfully toward Riina.
“Thank you. I suppose I too need to conduct myself properly.”
“You’ve always conducted yourself properly, Young Lord.”
It was just a passing remark, showing no signs of comfort or flattery.
But the sincerity felt in that brief statement.
Lione had poured out even things he had never told anyone, not even his friend, yet Riina remained unchanged—rather, she was helping him. He smiled as if about to cry.
“Haha, somehow I always seem to meet you in unpleasant situations. And I always end up receiving help.”
Lione laughed weakly and then bowed.
“I have received help from you several times. More than can be repaid with mere words of gratitude.”
Slowly straightening his back, Lione continued.
“I will receive help again this time.”
If he arranged the situation as Riina had advised and it worked out, he would be able to settle things with his friend definitively.
Though things had become somewhat clear while talking to her, he should still make things definite.
“I will definitely repay this kindness in some way…”
But before Lione could finish his words, Riina cut him off sharply.
“That’s burdensome.”
At this, Lione widened his eyes for a moment before bursting into laughter.
Who would give such an answer to someone saying they would repay a kindness?
It was even a sincere refusal with no ceremonial pretense, and she wouldn’t have been unaware of that fact.
“I don’t know if I should say this, but no, I will say it. You’d tell me not to ask for permission anyway.”
Lione spoke theatrically while bowing exaggeratedly toward her.
“You are the first person to treat me this way.”
And not disappointing his expectations, Riina responded calmly with an expressionless face.
“I’ll pass on love that starts from such a reason.”
At this, Lione almost had a fit and stepped back.
“What? Absolutely not! If His Highness the Second Prince hates me any more than this, it’ll be troublesome for my family!”
At his outcry, a faint crack appeared between Riina’s brows.
Why was Einar suddenly brought up here?
