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n—

n“I gave that to you.”

nThere was a moment of silence. My husband, leaking the dark aura of Satan’s incarnation came into my blank view.

n“Hey, you son of a b*tch, why are you looking at my sister like that? Why are you trying to get into a fight with me?”

nIt wasn’t unreasonable for Sir Ivan to get angry and act like this.

nI genuinely wondered if the cocoa from before had something in it.

n

n

n“It is one of the seven sins to covet others’ belongings.”

n“What do you mean? This b*stard, trying to act pure all of a sudden… What’s wrong with having some pudding? Ah, so cheap. Leah, just eat something else!”

n“Yes, I don’t mind eating something else.”

nUnexpectedly, Leah nodded her head and pulled the strawberry pudding plate.

nAri, who was staring at her cousin with a blank face, also pretended to go back to eating.

nNo, I’d never heard of this sin. I didn’t want to eat this!

n“Come on, eat.”

nEllenia, who became as dumbfounded as I was, sighed.

nTherefore, I, who was caught up in the awkward mood, scooped up the giant chocolate pudding and put it in my mouth.

nA sweet lingering taste spread throughout my mouth.

nHa, it’s really delicious.

nI couldn’t help the habitual reluctance, but it’d been a while since I tasted something so delicious.

n“Is everything alright now?”

n“It seems like the temple wants to catch the ice dragon and put him in the gladiatorial match.”

n“Is that possible?”

n“Because he’s still a young dragon, Princess. We can deal with it, but it’s a common opinion to let him go for now and watch.”

nI listened carefully to the conversation between the two Paladins and Ellenia.

nThe dragon was still a kid.

nBut a gladiatorial match? What kind of trap is that for an endangered species that’d been around for decades?

n“The trainees have dried up searching, so if the dragon has some awareness, he should be fine.” Izek, who muttered sarcastically, suddenly glanced sideways at me. Why me?

nEllenia, who knew nothing, looked tense.

n“It’s fair to say, but the more active dragons are, the more monsters there are.”

n“Not necessarily. The amount of monsters killed is about as good as the number of dragons killed.”

n“I’m more worried that ambitious youngsters will go out for a fight to become a dragon slayer. We’d only be struggling to find their bodies later, won’t we?”

nIt makes sense, but look who’s talking. Who were the ones who had a scuffle with me in front of an angry dragon?

n“My lady, do you like dragons?”

n“…ahahaha. Well, what about you?”

n“Dragons are cute.”

n“Yes, they’re cute. Pitiful, but cute.”

nAri and Leah seem to imagine that dragons look like those cookies. Or the clumsy pretending-to-be-dumb creatures in fairy tales.

n“But are you still not going to use the wreath?”

n“Why, you want to try it on?”

n“If the day comes when Iz wears a wreath on his head, I will lie down on all fours at the front gate of the temple and bark like a dog.”

nIn a weirdly peaceful atmosphere, I finished eating the chocolate pudding, scraping every last bit.

nIt was in the spirit of being prepared for whatever storm that might come in the future, after having done things I had never done before.

nAfter the refreshment time, Leah returned with Sir Ivan, and Princess Ari also returned to the royal palace. And I…

n“Is it okay to move around like that?”

n“Sergey told me to walk more than half an hour every day… I couldn’t walk properly earlier.”

nI had a walk with the monster alone.

nWhy did I feel like a chick being dragged to a slaughterhouse, even though it was just a walk in the yard? Of course, I knew that my husband had a problem to talk about separately.

nWhether it was about the monsters and me, how to dispose of me, or the case of Freya’s poisoning, which got buried in my escapade’s disturbance..

n“He’s a quack.”

nI see. Mr. Sergey was a quack. Why the hell did his family have a quack doctor, then?

nA stormy silence hung between us as we walked through the garden, which appeared more like a wild forest than a garden.

nSweat slid down from the palm of my hand, which was held tight by him.

nI wanted him to interrogate me or something. This delay was suffocating.….

n“About your runaway friends.”

n“What?”

n“Was that the first time you met them?”

nRunaway friends. I cleared my dry throat and thought for a moment.

nI did meet Griffin for the first time then, but it wasn’t the same for Popo.

nTo explain my first meeting with Popo, I’d have to bring up the horse riding incident..

nGosh, why was he asking this question from the start? He was too good at torturing people.

nIzek, who was looking at me with a slight frown, tilted his head a little. His silver hair looked blond in the sun.

n“From the look on your face, I don’t think so.”

nIt was a cheat to be so tactful at times like this. I had no choice but to be frank. The rest is up to fate.

n“I first met Griffin there.”

n“What about Popori?”

nPopo’s name was Popori? It fit perfectly.

n“At the horse riding party. I was riding a horse on a forest road and got dragged into some kind of vine. When I came to my senses, I realized that Popori..”

nSo, I stuttered and talked about my first meeting with Popo.

nI also explained how I ended up running away from home.

nI went to the temple to visit them, and was in bad condition, so I went out to walk around for a while and met Popo. Then, I lost consciousness.

nIzek didn’t say a word until I finished talking.

nHe looked expressionless and said nothing, which made me feel more anxious.

nI feel uneasy about my hand, which was held tightly by his hand, like a pot-lid. I felt as if he was about to crush it in one go…

n“Is that all?”

n“What?”

n“Did anything else happen? Did you run into someone near the temple?”

nWhat kind of trap was this?

nOf course, I didn’t run into anyone. I overheard the terrible conversation between Lorenzo and Andymion in the middle, so I guessed that it counted. Why was he asking me this question?

nSensing my curious eyes, Izek squinted and uttered a strange sound.

n“Now that I see, you didn’t run away, but got kidnapped.”

n“I don’t think it was kidnapping…”

n“My trainee told me something strange.”

n“Strange?”

nWhat did Andymion talk about? Did he see me back then? Did he catch sight of me before I hid behind the pillar?

nLorenzo was obviously a stranger to me…

n“What did Lorenzo sing to you?”

nHubby, what kind of unexpected question is this? Isn’t that already over?

nThe story of his song was not a welcome topic for me either. Even if people don’t believe it at all, if they keep talking and remind others, they’ll naturally care.

nIt was even worse if Izek started to care about those rumors about me.

nEven if it was just about my ex-fiances… Lorenzo is Freya’s brother, and it might seem like I was trying to drive a wedge between them.

n“No, it’s done. You don’t have to say it if you don’t want to,” He muttered while letting go of my hand and sat on a nearby rock.

nThen, he looked at the distant mountain with a thoughtful face. I waited for a long time, but there was no sign of another question.

nIs that it? Hey, hey, hey. Isn’t it good to finish the interrogation at once? They said to strike the iron while it’s hot. It’s better for it to be beaten when it’s hot.

nAs I was nervously looking at him in silence, my eyes were drawn to his prominent thighs.

nIt was hard to understand why that reminded me of our first night. I was too–

n“H-How is Lady Furiana?”

nAs soon as I started to talk about her, my husband looked back at me right away.

nWhy did he look so tired all of a sudden? I was the one having a hard time!

nSuddenly, I remembered what he said to me in the frost forest. At that time Izek said he was sorry to me.

nHe was out of his mind, but he certainly said so.

n“Drinking some magic stone solution won’t kill the Northerners.”

nI see. That was the spirit of the great Northerners. Well, after all that fuss…

n“You haven’t caught him yet?”

n“There are no specific clues, so we’re slow. Well, that’s the government’s problem, not yours.”

nWas he being serious? His sharp tone, cutting the conversation short, was somewhat unfamiliar.

nWere all the speculations related to me just being buried like that?

n

n

n“More than that, there’s something I need to know for sure right now….”

nThe tension came back and I gulped, waiting for the question.

n“Tell me all the beings you met in the frost forest.”

n“…What?”

n