“Whose engagement ceremony?”
At my dumb question, Jian glanced at Curtis who was next to me.
“Me and Curtis.”
Come to think of it, she was informally calling Curtis’ name now. Did their relationship develop that much while I wandered around begging in Sharma?
It’s none of my business, but thinking of Edith made my mouth taste bitter. At that time, Curtis cut in between and corrected Jian’s words with urgency.
“The ordination ceremony. The ceremony for knights and ladies to take their oaths.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I don’t like the word ordination ceremony,” Jian apologized cutely by biting her tongue and smiled sheepishly. “But Priest Roloane explained that the ordination ceremony for a knight to his saint was no different from a sacred betrothal ceremony.”
It wasn’t necessary to call the ordination ceremony as an engagement ceremony, but what Jian said wasn’t very wrong. In the empire, aristocratic men usually served their fiancée. That was why Edith, who was Caballero’s lady, was treated as a reserve Grand Duchess.
“I didn’t come all the way here to attend His Highness’ ordination ceremony, but congratulations.”
Curtis bit his lips as if he didn’t know what to do with my dry words. I looked at the mine entrance whether he was embarrassed or not. The mine, which seemed to have been dry of gold, let alone rubies, was already empty.
Well, the Marquis Abina confiscated all of Edith’s properties that could be of value, so it was natural that if the mine remained for her, it would be an abandoned one.
“Huh. I don’t know whose mine this is, but it’s completely ruined. Pitiful.”
I entered the mine with Jian muttering in one ear. Behind a rope that was barricaded, a child’s crooked handwriting caught my eye.
– Edith Abina’s Secret Base –
Curtis put his hand on my shoulder as I looked through the writing because I couldn’t believe that this vicious evil woman also had a childhood.
“This is where you often came to play when you were young. Do you remember it now?”
Edith’s memory lingered in her body. I had to look a little more closely to find out what actually happened and what emotions I felt, just as if I actually remembered.
‘Why did I go into such an abandoned mine at an age when I should be playing house with a doll?’
I was just about to become absorbed with curiosity about young Edith’s mind.
“Aaah! A bat!”
With Jian’s shrill scream, a group of bats flew up with a swoosh.
“Hey, Young Lady must not be scared.”
Jian was surprised to see me looking at the passing bat. A faint halo of light spread like a paint from her slender fingertips.
“Not really.”
“Young Lady!”
“There’s something scarier.”
Jian, who was screaming as her hand pointed at the bat without listening to my reply, reached out to me.
‘It’s this evil of human beings.’
Jian grabbed my forearm and threw me into the depths of the cave unknowingly. I looked back at Curtis momentarily, but he was covering his eyes with both arms because the bat that Jian sent away as she screamed rushed toward him.
“Be careful, Young Lady!”
The corner of Jian’s mouth rose when she thought she’d succeeded in knocking me over. I didn’t miss the moment when she smiled and I held her hand firmly.
“Yes. I was actually being careful.”
It was already suspicious when she screamed all of a sudden and used the bats to cause a commotion. I knew Jian could do magic, so why not be careful?
“…!”
Jian, whose eyes met me, widened her round eyes.
I used the rebound of the fall to change positions with Jian. In other words, the person who went to the other side of the cave was Jian, not me.
THUD!
“Argh!”
The place where Jian hit her ass went out. Crumbling. Looking at the ‘heroine’ who was instantly crushed by a pile of stones, I shrugged.
‘So, who wants to touch the sleeping villain’s nose hair?’
Jian’s white hands were disappearing over the dark curtain.
* * *
KUKUKUKUK!
The ground collapsed and the rocks poured down at the place where Jian fell. It wasn’t far from where I was, but I wasn’t hurt at all.
It was thanks to Curtis, who destroyed the bat herd at the same time as the space collapsed, wrapping his arms around my body.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
Unable to even think of shaking off the stone chips that accumulated on his back, he urgently looked at me. Curtis breathed a deep sigh of relief only after confirming that I didn’t have a single scratch on my body.
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