Chapter 18: Chapter 18

‘why is everyone… so generous like this?’

luna sighed and rubbed her head. she didn’t feel upset or have any intention to stop antes. on the contrary, she felt grateful and wanted to bow in appreciation.

after a while, luna was able to ride antes’ luxurious carriage to seira’s mansion. antes sat opposite her, but it was henry who drove the carriage despite antes claiming he would do it himself.

“if no one other than the merchant guild can drive the carriage, then why are you not driving it?” luna asked, raising an eyebrow.

antes nonchalantly responded, laying a metal plate.

“that’s right. i’m inside, so it’s fine. if i wasn’t here, there would have been chaos.”

luna couldn’t help but ask.

“seriously… is that what animals do? aren’t you human?”

well, there are all sorts of people in this world. he was on the same level as the complete package, fersen. if fersen struggled to communicate, antes was shameless enough to respond without any rebuttal.

antes lacked persuasive power, so he relied on his appearance. unfortunately, there was nothing as persuasive as a beautiful appearance. luna couldn’t argue much since she was in a position of receiving help.

she thought to herself that he was a strange man who could help yet still make people uncomfortable. luna shifted her gaze outside the window.

then, as if he had been curious about her profile all along, antes, who had been staring intently, opened his mouth.

“so, you borrowed money from the young lady granada? unexpected. seems like you two are close.”

it was a question that she couldn’t avoid answering. saying ‘yes’ wouldn’t be true, and saying ‘no’ would require an explanation. the reason he asked despite already vaguely denying it last night was simple – he was curious about the details.

“she gave me money without asking me.”

“why?” antes pressed on, genuinely curious.

luna hesitated for a moment, contemplating whether she should explain her unfortunate circumstances to him, but then she realized there was nothing to hide as they were heading to seira’s mansion together.

she asked me to take this money and get away from fersen”

“what?”

“she asked if it was because of the money that we were sticking together. it was a significant amount. i was furious and determined to seek revenge, but in the end, i needed money for that revenge too.”

“so that’s why young lady peils asked for checks in advance?”

antes’ gaze turned cold as he asked.

it felt strange, as if he was expressing anger on her behalf. luna couldn’t think of anyone else who would do such a thing besides the baron’s servants.

even they couldn’t sympathize with the intricacies involving fersen. luna awkwardly smiled and replied.

“yes, that’s right. i demanded an advance payment because of that. honestly, it’s pathetic, isn’t it? going all the way to the baron’s territory to mine gold for such a trivial matter. it would have been enough to vent my frustration and move on. if i had just let it go.”

“no, it’s not like that.”

yeah, luna thought he would answer like that.

to be honest, she purposely said it that way because she wanted to hear his response. but as she watched antes expressing his anger, she felt a sense of relief.

“if it were me, i would have snapped their neck right then and there. ah, it’s a rare opportunity, so burying the body wouldn’t be a bad idea.”

antes’ expression grew even colder.

no, no, please don’t. don’t go there.

since fersen was the one who provided the cause, luna didn’t want to go to such extremes with seira, who was a victim. so she extended her hand as a gesture for antes to calm down.

“it’s okay. today, i will throw the check and give her a stern warning. and i will make sure she can never do such a thing to me again because i’m going to have an escort.”

“an escort knight? why do you need that? just be with me.”

“here we go again.”

instead of getting angry and comforting her, antes’ words made her feel grateful. but then it escalated like this again!

because of his nonsense, luna became annoyed and turned her gaze outside the window.

antes, with a smile in his voice, muttered to himself, ‘i’m serious, though.’

“it better be.”

“yeah, i am.”

they continued on for a while until they arrived at the carriage rental station. after henry got off there, luna boarded the carriage led by antes and headed towards seira’s mansion.

‘now i have the money. i have to express my anger firmly.’

but as she made up her mind until she got off the carriage, she couldn’t say anything when she saw seira with puffy eyes, as if she had been crying all night.

“…what?”

she wanted to ask, ‘what happened to you?’ but she and seira weren’t on such terms.

seeing seira’s face, which looked like something bad had happened, made luna extremely uncomfortable.

however, she couldn’t just turn around and leave. luna remembered her father, who had been devastated by the broken carriage, and responded firmly to seira.

“i brought three times the amount of the check you gave me before, as i promised.”

luna threw a bundle of checks from her pocket to seira’s chest.

if only the notes weren’t torn, she would have thrown them at seira’s face.

but since she had already thrown checks at her before, luna tried to console herself by pretending it was fine.

“so, never underestimate me with such cheap tricks again. i’m not so insignificant to be treated like that by anyone. and as i said before, i’m not interested in fersen, so stop deluding yourself. he may be attractive in your eyes, but not in mine.”

seira looked down at the checks scattered in front of her and stared at them for a while. meanwhile, the bodyguard knight drew his sword, treating luna as if she were nothing but a pest.

“what is this?”

“what are you doing? we’re having a conversation here. and that lady, lana, is talking too, so don’t go off-topic, okay? unless you want your wrist broken.”

antes swiftly grabbed the wrist of the bodyguard knight. even though it was just a wrist grab, the knight couldn’t move and let out a silent scream.

ignoring the knight whose wrist was held, seira turned her puffy eyes towards luna and asked, while rubbing her swollen eye.

“whatt?”

“i have something i want to ask.”

“…what is it?”

“why did you call for fersen yesterday? no, even before that, why did you keep calling for fersen? you said you didn’t like him. you said you wouldn’t meet him. why… why do you keep behaving in contradictory ways? is it to torment me? if so, it’s enough. stop it now!”

unable to suppress a chuckle, luna couldn’t help but smile at the probing gaze and tone that seemed to interrogate a husband’s mistress.

“me? i swear on the heavens, i have never once called for fersen. why would i call for him and subject myself to these misunderstandings and interrogations? did you personally witness me calling for fersen?”

although seira showed no reaction, luna took it as a response and continued speaking.

“no, it’s not true. i haven’t done anything like that, so you must have never seen it either. and as i had said, i really dislike fersen. why would i go through all the trouble to obtain this large sum of money if not to prove it?”

seira, unlike her usual self, bit her lower lip silently without her usual outburst. she still didn’t respond, but sensing a rare opportunity for a conversation, luna seized the moment and continued speaking.

“and even if i did call for him, isn’t it strange that fersen would come? why would he behave in a way that i could be misunderstood as his lover? even when you are with fersen, you don’t go meet other men just because they call you, do you? isn’t that not normal?”

“…”

“if you want to be angry, direct it at fersen. not at me. use your brain, you know who is the real problem in this messed-up situation. of course, i haven’t done anything to fersen. absolutely not. never misunderstand me. i’m innocent. i like fersen so much that i’ll live alone forever.”

after venting her anger to prevent any possible misunderstandings, luna added a lengthy explanation. it was a rather pitiful attempt at a retort, but seira still remained silent.

rather than suspicion or anger, her expression wasn’t that of someone who doubted but rather someone who was deeply wounded and broken.

‘what is it…? did i say something too harsh?’

it wasn’t like that, but she was a little embarrassed.

unexpectedly, tears welled up in seira’s beautiful emerald eyes, and a transparent tear rolled down her cheek.

“sob…”

after shedding a few tears of sorrow, seira couldn’t control her emotions any longer and began sobbing uncontrollably, sliding down to the floor.

could it be because of me?

startled by the unexpected situation, luna took a step back.

why is she crying like this?

the maids rushed over, not knowing what to do, and tried to console seira by enveloping her shoulders.

“why are you crying as if we did something bad? who is the one who should be crying? if you have such the audacity, why don’t you apologize to lady luna?”

annoyed by seira’s tearful outburst, antes, who had been fiercely gripping the knight’s wrist, expressed his disgust towards seira.

in response, seira buried her face in the maid’s bosom as if questioning why she was being treated this way.

‘what did i do to make her cry like this? it’s driving me crazy.’

unfortunately, crying was the endgame. there was no way to win against someone who was crying.

in the dynamic of the perpetrator and the victim, sympathy naturally flowed towards the one shedding tears.

no matter how strong and powerful antes was, even if he defeated the hapless knight and poured out a torrent of factual words to the crying seira, it would only temporarily make him feel better without any real improvement.

luna sighed and blinked her eyes. at that moment, her eyes, which had been filled with venom, unexpectedly filled with disappointment.

despite feeling frustrated until the very end, revenge that didn’t feel like revenge was now over. there was no point in saying anything further; it wouldn’t be taken seriously.

“…now that it seems you’ve understood, i’ll take my leave. do as you please with the checks. thanks to lady seira’s cheap sympathy, i’ve become a rich person finding a gold mine. i appreciate that much. i hope we never have to meet again.”

luna’s sarcastic remark served as her final words as she turned her back without any regrets.

with this, she would lead a life completely separate from seira and fersen, hoping that seira would also break free from fersen and live her own life.