Volume 8 Chapter 1 Part 3
Fiancée of the Wizard
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Translation by Goma
Editing by Team Foxsunes
「Edi? 」
It was a lie, right? It had to be a lie. Wasn’t it one of my random nightmares in which you were taken away by the priest? Please, Edi. I, I……
I could not stop looking at Edi’s fixed and hardened smile. The man then weakly lowered his arms. Clank. A disturbing noise strangely rattled loudly. Shifting my gaze towards the noise, I saw the man’s wrists being laden with rugged silvery-white cuffs connected by a thick chain. It was a magical tool of suppression used for criminals. I did not understand why such a thing was constricting Edi’s hands. I didn’t even want to know. Yet, even as I denied it, I did in fact know the reason. I was the primary cause of this situation.
Reaching out unconsciously for Edi, I found myself only grabbing thin air.
The man had moved from my side to somewhere far away where I could not reach. He looked at me with an unbelievably calm gaze. I wondered why. The calm gentle gaze was much more horrifying than if he had simply glared at me with anger.
「Wait, please wait, Edi, wait」
It’s me. It’s all my fault. I was to blame for housing Noct. The princess said this man had shifted the problem and allowed himself to be the scapegoat to shift the blame. That is, to protect the baby and I. Logically speaking, it did make sense. But my emotions would not bear accepting it.
Even though I am at fault; I am wrong; why was he only blamed? What a bad joke. Yet, Agedilus shook his head while gently smiling in a way he rarely does.
「It is fine, Filmina. It is not your fault. You only need to wait.」
「No, no!」
Edi! My shouting voice could not make another sound. Agedilus drifted away further and further. My hand and my voice could not reach that kind, beloved smile.
The surroundings became pitch-black, and I was left in the darkness once more. I could neither see nor hear anything. The jet-black that penetrates even the darkness; the color of the morning glow that wipes out the gloom; they were nowhere to be found.
————-I screamed into the lonely void
＊ ＊ ＊
「———-!?」
On top of my noiseless scream, I heard the wail of the winds. The gusts blew strongly between the trees, and its distant wail tore through the silence. Despite not being directly exposed to the wind, goosebumps formed all over my body. But somehow I only felt the goosebumps distinctly as if not my own, while I felt my eyelids become strangely heavy.
No, not just my eyelids; my entire body became as heavy as lead, fastened to the ground. That being said, I could not remain like this, yielding to the situation. Exerting strength from my fingertips, with surprisingly great effort, I slowly shifted my body.
Someone had somehow made me lie down. Forcibly lifting my unbearably heavy eyelids, I lifted my upper-body upright. Whilst slowly regaining my senses, I once again looked around to understand my current situation.
Predictably, the object I had been lying on was a bed. That is, a luxuriously built bed. I could not but tilt my head with confusion at the unexpectedly fine treatment.
……I had a bad dream. In a way, this nightmare was far worse than the cursed nightmare I had before. No, I could not say with confidence that it was merely a dream. Rather, it was a very crooked dream; a mixture of my hopes and the reality.
The dream within my dream——the “dream” that I had explained to the man was, in fact, real. Whatever the reason was, the fact that we had housed a demon had us expelled from the capital. We had arrived at the hero’s hometown, the Schtorenvihein territory. Oh, how bright had the days been living there. However, the rumor that spread throughout the capital did not allow us peace for much longer, and the main church’s priest came tracking down the reports. The priest had tentatively given up the chase after capturing my husband, but that did not guarantee my safety; even though I had been left behind.
A few days later, even though I had obediently waited and believed in the man’s words, a request came: a summon for I, Filmina Veer Adina. At that moment, Noct, who had disappeared from the capital, appeared. Then along with my servant girl, I was brought out from the Schtorenvihein estate and then———・・・・ Upon thinking this far, my body shivered. Almost instinctively, I hugged my body.
What appeared in my mind was the dark hair and eyes, the color of the evening. Thinking about what “it” made me feel as if I had just bathed cold water.
As I gulped another breath of air, I finally gazed across my surroundings. It was a dim room with only a countable number of precious magical spheres faintly glowing on the wall. Neither was the room similar to the jail I had been careless enough to be imprisoned in, when kidnapped by Ms. Lunamerie; nor the secret space in the main chapel I had been trapped into with Sir Klanven. Rather, the room resembled the guest room in our Lancent estate or in the Schtorenvihein estate. The neatly decorated ornaments looked obviously extravagant even in this darkness. Additionally, the room was too spacious to live alone. The room resembled a noble’s estate.
Vroooooom, the wind blew. Rattle rattle, the glass of the windows shook furiously. Reprimanding myself for being scared of mere noises, I gently got off the bed and headed towards the window. There was a balcony outside the huge swing-open doors, but the windows did not budge. When I sighed, my breath clouded the windowpane white. Even after wiping that off, the sky I could see through the windows did not have any moon. From the moon’s absence in the night sky, I confirmed that not even one night had passed after I was brought here.
「……That doesn’t mean I lower my guard, right?」
My thoughts accidentally spilled out of my mouth, though it emptily melted away into the air. Perhaps by now there would be panic at the Schtorenvihein estate. Whether or not the truth about Noct was disclosed, the fact that “the wife of the magician wanted by the church had escaped” would greatly trouble Sir Yuri and the rest. Even if I had not intended to do so, that is. Merely thinking about that distressed my heart.
Please let those kind people not be faulted for a crime. Frustration welled inside me at how powerless I am; I could only pray for them. Then, I softly placed my hand on my abdomen area.
Although I could not feel anything yet, the baby the man and I had was still here. No matter what happens, I must protect this baby. No matter the person who intends to harm this child. Yes. No matter if that is the church, or…… At that moment when I clenched my fist,
「Ah you have finally awoken. How are you feeling? 」
「!?」
Bewildered, I quickly turned my whole body towards the sudden voice from the back. I had not sensed its presence at all. Barely managing to not twitch my face, I noticed “it” in the direction of my stare. “It” was the girl who had been serving me until I had fallen unconscious. Accompanied by Noct waiting behind her, “it” was standing with a smile.
The woman was about the age of a girl, with loosely draped dark hair that almost touched the floor. Though being gorgeous and alluring, the woman’s beauty somehow had a tint of fear that one could not articulate. “It” suited the description of a “woman” much more than a “girl”.
The light that shone in her dark eyes was not that of a youthful girl, but rather of a cunning and sly nature that a person of greater maturity would have. Her black dress’s gaping neckline showed a cleavage of the full breasts which laid bewitchingly; breasts that had the fullness of ripe fruits, ready to be devoured. The hem of the dress had a deep slit that peeked into her thighs.
Her pallid white skin exposed to the cold air was rather ghostly. Gleaming in the grey darkness, the “woman” …… or rather, the enemy of men; the demon curled its red lips and grinned sinisterly.
Despite being a beautiful smile, a chill ran down my spine. As if enjoying my reaction, the demon cackled softly.
「Please don’t be frightened. I won’t do anything to you. At least for now… 」
Meanwhile, Noct had been waiting behind the sniggering demon. Alike a well-tamed slave, he took a chair, one of the room’s ornaments. Unknowingly, I was stunned by this sight.
Then, I vividly recalled what I had seen before I fell unconscious. I had assumed that Noct had come to help me in his own way. But I was wrong. I had been utterly mistaken. Noct’s yellow eyes had not even glanced at my direction even once. Instead, Noct wielded a yearning and a somewhat imploring gaze towards the demon in front of me. The sight slipped me with the unspoken realization that Noct was the demon’s associate. I wanted to call him, but the words were tangled in my mouth; I could not utter a sound. Then, I finally registered how paralyzed I was.
–––Noct….. You were…. From the beginning……?
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