Chapter 237

Yelena had imagined that Sidrion would be all shriveled up because whenever she contacted him, the response she always got back was that he was losing his wits over the analysis of the gem powder.

Yelena was taken aback by Sidrion’s clean appearance, which contradicted her imagination.

“No, it doesn’t mean anything. I heard you’ve been working very hard.”

“No, not that hard. I often conducted research like this in the past. But I was dealing with quite unfamiliar territory, so it’s true that I was busy.”

“Really? Well, it’s good to hear that you haven’t been overworking…” Yelena trailed off.

Since a little while ago, she had been feeling a mysterious emptiness. Where in the world was this emptiness coming from?

Yelena contemplated and then she found her answer.

“Where’s my older sister?”

“Pardon?”

“Did my sister not come with you? I heard that she visited the Black Tower not too long ago.”

No, that wasn’t right. Yelena realized this only after she spoke the words out loud.

It wasn’t “not too long ago.” It had already been almost a month since she had heard the news from Edward. One month was more than enough time for her sister to have returned home already.

‘When did time… No, more importantly, why did I think that it was a given that Black Tower Owner and Liliana would come together?’

She had tied those two together without even realizing it, as if they were two peas in a pod.

Yelena opened her mouth again, meaning to correct herself.

“If you’re talking about Miss Liliana, I took her back to the countdom before I came here.”

“…”

Yelena silently closed her mouth.

His response hadn’t been long. But there were three things that Yelena just couldn’t overlook from his concise sentence.

One.

‘He calls her by her name.’

He had definitely called her Miss Liliana. He could have called her Lady Sorte if he wanted to be more formal.

Two.

‘If he took her home before coming here, that means they spent at least one month together.’

One month? Liliana’s trip to the Black Tower hadn’t been brief; it had been a sojourn that had lasted for a whole month.

And lastly, three.

‘When he says he took her back… does that mean he personally brought her home?’

Yelena’s eyes narrowed. Her head spun. She opened her mouth.

“Black Tower Owner, what do you happen to…”

“…?”

“No, never mind.”

Yelena bit her tongue lightly. She had almost asked Sidrion what he thought of her older sister.

‘The time isn’t right.’

It was still too early. Everything was just her speculation. The situation was super suspicious, but uncertain nevertheless.

‘I shouldn’t jump to conclusions.’

Even though she knew she shouldn’t, Yelena’s imagination ran wild on its own.

If, by the slightest possible chance, her older sister and Sidrion got together, what would happen then? If Sidrion became Liliana’s husband… would Sidrion become a part of Yelena’s family?

“Why are you looking at me with that expression?”

“My expression? What’s wrong with my expression?”

“I’m not sure. It’s hard to explain…”

Sidrion appeared to be thinking long and hard. Then, as if he had found a suitable analogy, he continued speaking.

“Should I say that you look as if a monster asked to be your friend on your first encounter?”

“…”

“I felt a tremendous sense of repulsion coming from you.”

“No, well…”

Ahem. Yelena cleared her throat. She was embarrassed that she had shown that much disdain.

‘A monster? I wouldn’t go that far.’

Fine, from an objective standpoint, Black Tower Owner becoming Liliana’s husband… wouldn’t be terrible. One could even say that based solely on his specs, he was actually an excellent choice.

Status? He was the master of the Black Tower, an independent entity that even the royal family couldn’t mess with. Check.

Looks? It was true that he was an objectively beautiful man that was hard to come by. Check.

Personality… Well, that was more or less a problem.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

‘Seeing how he’s polite when interacting with me, he probably knows how to act around my sister as well.’

No matter how nasty his temper was, he was bound to be gentle in front of the person he loved.

‘And he’s friends with my husband… With that in consideration, well…’

Yelena snapped out of her thoughts. She had said this before, but nothing was certain yet.

‘I keep getting ahead of myself. I should stop thinking about this.’

Yelena shook her head, shaking away her trivial thoughts. She changed the subject.

“Anyhow, what brings you to the ducal castle? Are the results of the gem powder analysis out?”

“No, that’s not it,” Sidrion answered and put a pair of bracelets on the table. “I have something to give you.”

“What’s this?”

“I heard that Kaywhin will be going to the northern border soon.”

The gemstone that was forged into the bracelet shone.

“You can communicate over long distances with these bracelets.”