A Fake Marriage? Sure! …Wait, Is It Actually Fake? Something’s Not Right Here! - Chapter 29

Lidoria had been thrown into a dungeon beneath the building used by the royal women for their official duties.

How long had it been since she was confined?

Her stomach was rumbling, so probably several hours had passed.

The shin where she had been struck was swollen like a lump, and now, in addition to the pain, there was a burning sensation. This also helped measure the time since the injury.

When she was first thrown in, she had been surprised, thinking, “So a place like this exists,” while cautiously looking around her surroundings.

But now she was completely bored.

And again, her stomach rumbled.

“To think you’d get hungry at a time like this. Even though we don’t know when we might be killed.”

Evan, whose gag had been removed and whose hands were tied in front of him, sounded exasperated.

“No matter how you look at it, a confinement incident like this will expose the culprit immediately.”

As for Lidoria, her hands were tied behind her back, both her ankles were bound, and the rope around her waist was tied to a pillar in the cell.

To anyone looking, it was immediately clear which of them was the violent one.

“I was supposed to go to His Highness the Crown Prince on an errand from Her Highness the Crown Princess. Both the Unicorn Knight Order and the Winged Lion Knight Order know that. But if I don’t show up at the Crown Prince’s place and don’t return to the Crown Princess’s, everyone should be suspicious. You too, Lord Evan, right? Didn’t you come to this building on some business?”

Lidoria sat with her legs stretched out, leaning her back against the wall. She hated putting her back against the grimy wall, but after being restrained for so long, her posture was uncomfortable. Plus, her swollen leg throbbed with pain.

Her hands, her feet—lately, it had been one thing after another.

“I was summoned by Lady Sena. She said she wanted to discuss our engagement once more.”

Evan looked down, seeming reluctant to speak.

“But it was a lie, and I was restrained by men.”

Lidoria didn’t say, “And you still manage to serve in the Winged Lion Order?” He was probably the most aware of his own incompetence.

“Are you breaking off the engagement?”

Instead, she asked that.

“That’s my intention. Lady Sena isn’t accepting it, though.”

“Hmm,” Lidoria replied disinterestedly.

“I heard you two got married.”

“Yes, well. Thanks to that.”

When Lidoria responded, Evan laughed self-deprecatingly.

“To think I’d lose to Alex even in a place like this.”

“Isn’t it because you think in terms of winning and losing that you get deceived?”

She was the same.

She had been in a hurry about marriage and, because of some strange complex, was almost tricked by Sena and made a fool of.

“About Lady Sena, I think she lied because she didn’t want to be disliked by someone she loves?”

Lidoria wriggled her stretched-out legs. If she didn’t do that periodically, her legs would stiffen up. If she didn’t keep them loose, she wouldn’t be able to move when it mattered.

“She’s probably learned her lesson by now, so why not forgive her?”

“Could you forgive it? What if Alex lied to you?”

She tried to imagine it when he said that, but she couldn’t really picture the situation. Lidoria shrugged.

“I don’t think Lord Alex would lie.”

“…Yeah, right. You found a good marriage partner.”

Just as Evan muttered with a sigh, the area beyond the iron bars suddenly brightened.

Then, the sound of several footsteps could be heard.

Evan was clearly tense, and Lidoria strained her eyes in the poor visibility.

“…Just as I thought Princess Melissa is involved in this, isn’t she?”

The ones who appeared, with many torches carried by men, were Princess Melissa and Sena.

The men weren’t royal guards; they were probably hired from somewhere.

Their clothes didn’t match, and they had a somewhat disreputable air. They occasionally glanced at Melissa and Sena with leering, smirking eyes and whispered something among themselves in low voices.

Sena probably noticed this too. Her eyes were frightened, but Melissa was completely indifferent. She likely didn’t think that anything would happen to her, a member of the royal family.

“You haven’t been responding to my requests, so I had to come get you like this.”

Melissa lifted her chin haughtily and looked at her through the iron bars.

Lidoria looked at Melissa again.

She closely resembled Crown Prince George.

She even thought they looked like twins.

“Divorce Alex. And leave the royal castle.”

Melissa said it very directly.

“Um… even if I were to propose a divorce and part with Lord Alex, I don’t think you and Princess Melissa would get married right after that, do you?”

When Lidoria conveyed this cautiously, Melissa batted her long eyelashes.

“Why not?”

“Why…? No matter how you look at it, it would seem unnatural. Everyone would think Princess Melissa was clearly involved in the divorce matter, wouldn’t they?”

Melissa laughed. “Hmph.”

“That’s not true.”

“Why?” Lidoria wanted to retort. How could she be so confident in this sloppy kidnapping and coercion scheme?

“And you, do you really have feelings for Alex? It doesn’t seem like you love him.”

Melissa stared intently at Lidoria. Lidoria’s heart thumped loudly.

“W-wh-wh-wh-wh-wh-why would you think that?”

“Because you look at Alex with about the same intensity as I do.”

“Intensity?”

When Lidoria tilted her head and asked, Melissa nodded with a childish gesture. “Yeah.”

“I want to marry Alex to stay in this country. So, I can always be by my brother’s side. So, really, anyone would do as long as they suit my status. Hey, your eyes look the same as mine, don’t they?”

Anyone would do for marriage.

Was she implicitly saying that?

Calming her wildly pounding heart, Lidoria shouted, “That’s not true! Both Lord Alex and I are often said to have little expression, but the two of us love each other!”

“Hmm. Really?”

“Y-y-y-y-y-yes! I don’t really want to say such things, but Lord Alex diligently took care of me when I was injured! Or rather, that tent leg collapse incident was your doing, Princess Melissa, wasn’t it?!”

“Hmm. Well, yes?”

Melissa said with a smile.

Crown Prince George often wore a similar smile, but while he was an angel, she was a devil, Lidoria thought, stunned.

“Well, it doesn’t matter now. If you don’t agree to the divorce, I plan to set it up as if you ran off with that man over there. I’m ordering these men to kill you both right now.”

“Huh?!”

It was Evan who let out a bewildered cry at Melissa’s proud declaration.

“Lady Sena, is that true?!”

Although his hands were tied, unlike Lidoria, he had considerable freedom.

He stood up and clung to the iron bars.

“B-because! You said you were breaking off the engagement, Lord Evan!”

Sena pleaded with tears in her eyes.

“I begged you so much! But you wouldn’t retract the engagement annulment! So, I nominated you as Lidoria’s elopement partner!”

“I’m breaking it off because you lied to me!”

“You could overlook one or two lies, couldn’t you?!”

“No, the extent of those lies is outrageous!”

“Breaking off the engagement, something so shameful…! I can’t stand it! So just die!”

Sena screamed.

Lidoria looked sympathetically at Evan’s back as he stood clinging to the iron bars.

He had frozen upon being told to die by his former fiancée.