I Wasn't Trying to Seduce with the Male Lead - Episode 55

“…Wake… up.”

A voice drifted from beyond her hazy consciousness.

Eleanor didn’t want to open her eyes, but the hands shaking her weren’t going to let up.

She slowly opened her eyes, furrowing her brow.

“You’re awake. Thank goodness. Are you alright?”

A voice, lower than a woman’s would typically be, with a clear Minaz Abrote accent, was looking down at her, asking.

She turned her head to look around and saw that she was in the bed in the bedroom she remembered.

“I’m sorry for waking you. More than an hour had passed, and you weren’t moving at all, so I was worried something was wrong.”

She had heard that time still flowed the same way when using a warp stone.

The fact that she was back in 30 minutes but hadn’t woken up right away meant she had fainted.

“You must have passed out from the warp shock. Do you want some water?”

“No, I’m fine.”

Eleanor said in a hoarse voice as she sat up.

She felt nauseous, and everything was awful, but she couldn’t afford to be a crybaby when they had cooperated to give her this opportunity.

“Do you have the answer?”

“Yes.”

After nodding, Eleanor thought for a moment before she started to speak.

“Before I give you the answer, there’s something I’d like to ask you.”

“Hm? What is it?”

“If the Count of Calabria has or has not made the Oath of Subjugation, what will the two of you do?”

Minaz’s eyes narrowed, and Claude, who was standing beside him, raised an eyebrow.

“You’re worried about it now? You should have asked that before you went and took the one-time opportunity we offered you.”

“I know it was thanks to you two that I was able to meet the Count, but I cannot reveal anything recklessly.”

The two Dukes’ brows furrowed at the same time.

“You know that you’re in the middle of my mansion and could disappear without a trace, right?”

“Yes. I suppose so.”

Eleanor nodded nonchalantly.

She wasn’t safe even if she left this place anyway.

The threat to her life had become so familiar by now that it felt like an everyday occurrence.

As Eleanor openly took a defiant stance, Minaz raised his eyebrows and started to speak, as if to himself.

“As a diplomat, I don’t like to reveal my inner thoughts. In the first place, I think ‘revealing one’s inner thoughts’ is a trick to make it seem like you’re accommodating the other person.”

Minaz, who had been smiling, changed his expression and became as cold as a different person.

The experience of a diplomat who managed the world was evident in his quiet speech with his nose turned up.

“It’s not like we know each other any better. I don’t want to go into the nitty-gritty of our feelings or circumstances, and it’s a waste of time anyway. Even if our words are sincere now, circumstances can change at any time. Can you trust what we say?”

The last part sounded more like a rhetorical question than an actual one.

Claude, who had been listening silently, opened his mouth.

“There’s no need to rush her for the results. After all, there’s someone who needs to know before we do.”

“Hm. You’re right. We can decide whether to tell her or not after we meet with that person.”

As the two of them came to some kind of unknown agreement, Eleanor tilted her head and asked, “Who is that?”

“The Duchess of Floyd. She’s here, on the floor above.”

“The Duchess?”

To a surprised-looking Eleanor, Claude explained.

“The Duchess of Floyd asked us directly for this favor.”

“Right. It’s difficult for us to even get a warp stone in the first place.”

Upon hearing that, Eleanor felt some of her doubts clear up.

It had been strange that they, who were just strangers, would spend a treasure worth a whole territory and rush to do this when they could have just waited for Lian to return.

“You’re not going to hold back the answer from the Duchess, are you?”

“No. I’ll meet her.”

Shaking her head, Eleanor got up from her seat.

“You have a face full of questions.”

That was the first thing the Duchess said when she and Eleanor sat across from each other.

It was true.

Countless questions floated in Eleanor’s mind: why the Duchess was here, what happened to the banquet, and if she already knew about Rian’s oath.

But Eleanor calmly swallowed them.

The Duchess must be as nervous as she was, if not more.

“I’m sure you have something you want to ask me as well, Your Grace.”

The Duchess of Floyd let out a slight laugh and stretched her arm out.

Now that she looked, there was a wine glass and bottle on the table.

“Did you find the imprint?”

Her tone was almost normal, but the last word trembled slightly.

Before Eleanor could even answer, the Duchess of Floyd took a small sip of wine.

“Yes.”

It was a low, short answer, but she knew it had been conveyed when the Duchess’s hand hesitated.

“Where?”

“It was on his tongue.”

“I see.”

After saying that, the Duchess repeated it as if muttering to herself, “On his tongue.”

The Duchess’s face was expressionless as she stared at the table, but countless emotions were evident.

After a moment of being dazed, the Duchess of Floyd gave a faint laugh.

“I wish it had been on his finger or toe, don’t you think?”

“I do.”

“Well, at least it’s a relief it wasn’t anywhere else, I suppose.”

The Duchess muttered in a joking tone, as if so shocked that she was feeling hollow.

This time, Eleanor posed a question to her.

“Does the fact that you sent me here mean that the Count of Calabria made the oath without your knowledge?”

“I went to the northern territory immediately after giving birth to Lian. The only time we lived together was when he was six and staying in the north before entering the academy.”

Six years old was a sufficient period of time to make the oath.

“I was worried that he would return, so I thought it would be better to check beforehand.”

Now that she thought about it, for the past few days, the Duchess had been saying she was tired and had even refused to receive reports, not leaving her room at all.

In that short time, she had prepared the warp stone and planned this whole thing for her son.

“I’m sorry to have to be the bearer of such difficult news.”

“No, you don’t have to be. His Majesty told me himself today.”

“His Majesty?”

A shiver ran down her spine.

Perhaps the Emperor’s guards were waiting outside this room to capture her?

“Are you going… to do that?”

“Well. I don’t know if I have a choice.”

It was a vague answer, but the truth was clear.

She was nothing to the Duchess, no, she was a woman who was an eyesore to her.

Just as she was tensing up, thinking a command to drag her away might be given at any moment, the Duchess asked an unexpected question.

“Are you going to keep running away from Lian like that?”

Running away.

Eleanor thought that word was a very poor fit.

“I don’t know if I have a choice either,” she said, returning the Duchess’s words with a self-deprecating laugh.

“Why? Because of the difference in your status and position?”

“Don’t you think that’s important?”

She was about to say that if the Duchess said it wasn’t important, it was only because she had everything.

“It is important,” the Duchess conceded simply.

“But there’s something more important.”

The Duchess refilled her empty wine glass herself and continued.

“I married a Duke of high status, but he didn’t care about anything but his own business. I could’ve worn a chastity belt for seven years after giving birth, and he wouldn’t have noticed.”

The pace at which she emptied her glass quickened, and the Duchess opened a new bottle of wine.

“He’s full of nothing but the thought of protecting his power. My point is, what good is it for Lian to marry a princess?”

Perhaps it was the alcohol.

Eleanor flinched at the Duchess’s unfiltered words.

“My son doesn’t need to marry a princess. I can have a wine fountain dug for him and build him a mansion out of cake. If he needs one, I can build him a harem of three thousand beauties in the backyard, so why would I send him to marry into the imperial family and make him suffer?”

The Duchess grumbled and reached for the wine bottle again.

But Eleanor reached for the bottle first. The Duchess’s hand was shaking.

As Eleanor skillfully poured the wine, the Duchess raised an eyebrow.

“Are you happy that I’m thinking like this?”

“I know that doesn’t mean you accept me.”

Her mind was so full of Lian that the future seemed bleak.

Eleanor shrugged her shoulders and cut her off to avoid looking like she had some strange expectation.

Then, the Duchess muttered in a low voice.

“Well, I’m not sure.”

The Duchess’s face was tilted slightly, as if intoxicated.

“I’m so afraid of the harsh fate my son must bear. It’s hard for me to decide anything.”

A voice that sounded like it was breaking echoed in the room.

“That child is my everything. If I could die right now and set him free, I would do it in a heartbeat.”

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