Chapter 23

Chapter 23

“… Hnnnggg.”

With one of her hands cupping her chin as she eavesdropped on our conversation, she tapped her cheek with her index finger.

She looked apoplectic, but in the end, she laughed a little for sulking and being aggressive earlier.

One smile a month was the only price for using the name of Yukline’s great noble.

Her fingers curled out of cringe, but Deculein sounded honest, making the scene not entirely bad. However, Julie couldn’t even answer back, causing her older sister unbearable frustration.

If it were her, she would have already caused mines to explode. “Let’s wait a little longer…”

Josephine wanted to kill him. She waited for Julie to request having him killed herself, but she was such a nice kid that she couldn’t even imagine her saying that. Hence, as her older sister, she couldn’t stop herself from acting any longer.

“Of course.”

However, the sincerity Deculein displayed today was passable.

Josephine could differentiate the color of voices apart depending on their intentions. He definitely wasn’t lying when he said he had no intentions of forcing their marriage onto Julie.

She decided to let it slide this time and put it off for a while.

“… Brother, what do you think of Deculein?”

Zeit yawned on the table on the first floor, then raised his eyebrows as he replied with a question of his own. “What about you? What do you think of him?”

“I haven’t thought about it. I only follow Julie’s wishes. You?”

“…” Zeit’s expression hardened as he massaged his temples a few times and swept his hair back.

“Josephine, in chess, the king can’t move like the queen, the knights, or the pawns. I would be really disappointed if it were revealed that what I thought was a queen was a knight all along.”

Zeit wasn’t keen on marrying Julie off to Deculein from the start.

“But Deculein isn’t just a piece. He’s the chessboard himself. He might have some cracks, but that doesn’t mean pieces can’t stand on him.”

“Go on.”

Zeit looked at the window of the restaurant. The embers of war constantly blazed and raged in his eyes. “I haven’t forgotten father’s death yet, Josephine.”

Zeit clenched his teeth. At that moment, his terrifying presence weighed down the whole place so much that the nobles at the restaurant started coughing without knowing why.

“Father was worth more than all those fucking bastards behind their desks put together, yet they treated the knight’s honor as nothing more than a mana stone.”

Josephine just nodded quietly.