NOVEL NEXT Chapter 32 - 11. I (4)
Fanora’s eyes became clouded at the extraordinariness of Carl Andras that was revealed in every detail.
Even though his appearance and relationship with his family are fine, I think I can see why his engagement was broken up. He is a pitiful person.
But Carl made a worried face, mistaken that Fanora felt sorry for herself.
“Is Lady offended by what I just said? I’m sorry. You listened to me so well that I didn’t notice it. Ah, I talked a lot today because I felt excited.”
“What are you sorry about?”
“Yes? Uh, because I’m weird. Everyone gets upset when they talk to me for a long time…” As Carl spoke in a crawling voice, Fanora shook her head.
“No, rather I feel good. You’re not telling me to stop taking revenge.”
“…”
“And the explanation of the weapons you gave me earlier was really interesting. It’s fun to learn because you speak fluently about it.”
Others may feel Carl’s words and actions were barbaric as he was a noble, but Fanora didn’t feel the same way. Every time Carl spoke violent words, it made her shrug inside, imagining how good it would be to use them against her enemies.
“It’s not that you’re weird, but you have different interests from them. Maybe they felt uncomfortable because you’re talking about your favorite stories.”
“…Is that so?”
Fanora stood up and grabbed the hand of Carl that had been extended to her.
“But it’s okay because we have the same interests.”
Now it was time for her to go back.
* * *
Her hands were heavy as she returned from Andras’s mansion.
“This is a book that summarizes the vital points of a person, and this is a medical book that contains information about which blood vessels produce a lot of blood, etc. And this one is about the toxicity of plants that you can find around…”
That was because Carl gave her several books as a gift.
“Actually, these three books are the books that contain information Lady Vanora needed.”
But the weight increased because he added the useless novel into the gift and then deceived her.
“And this is a novel that I enjoyed reading as a child. The main character is cool. He cut off the enemy leader’s head.”
“You read it when you were young? Then why give it—”
“Lady will be on a long road to return to your mansion. Wouldn’t it be nice to read some books on the way?”
Fanora pulled out a physical training diary that Carl had handed over to her, written by himself.
“…”
There were quite a few easy-to-understand methods of training explained with pictures.
“It’s going to take a lot of time.”
Fanor recalled her upcoming schedule in her head. “A year from now… I’m going to be busy making my debut in the social world… Can I prepare well for the engagement ceremony?”
First of all, this was the most urgent schedule. After spending a lot of time, the new engagement ceremony schedule was approaching in a blink of an eye. Since her fiance came from the Duke’s family, there was a sense that it was unnecessarily delayed to show it to the public.
I’m confident I can withstand the cold. I’ll take this opportunity to visit the North, which I’ve never been to in my entire life.
The engagement ceremony would be held in none other than the heart of Duke Jalier’s territory. So Fanora had to head to North as soon as this carriage arrived home. There was no reason to blame others because she insisted on keeping her schedule tight.
“…”
Anyway, at this point she was a little curious about how the engagement ceremony will be?
In order to speed things up as much as possible, Fanora entrusted Aloken to prepare for the engagement ceremony on the condition that he could ignore her opinion.
Even if I give my opinion, my family wouldn’t listen to me anyway. I would rather he discussed it directly with the Count.
That was why Fanora knew very little about her engagement ceremony. However, she only needed to sleep for a few nights and wake up, then experience it by herself. So, there was no need to waste her time imagining the engagement ceremony.
There was nothing important on the road back to the mansion. In the meantime, she slept every night dreaming that the assassin sent by Hanar put their dagger around her neck, but fortunately, what she worried about didn’t happen.
A few days later.
<She looked at the boy’s shabby clothes.
Vasago: I guess I’ll have to get some new clothes. I’m sure there must be a servant suit for your age to wear in our mansion. That’s right. Well done, my maid, now, please try it on.
Young servant: Can I really wear such precious and nice clothes? My body is dirty, so the beautiful clothes will get dirty very quickly.
Vasago: In the name of Vasago, I assure you, you’re no longer dirty. Do you want to look in the mirror? After taking a bath, your impression is different.>
Recently, a new character has been added to the midnight novel Fanora saw.
“Is he that person?”
Even though his name hadn’t been mentioned yet, Fanora guessed that he might be the exclusive servant who would be by Vasago’s side and take care of her in the future. This was because Vasago’s exclusive servant in the future had a similar impression to the brown-haired boy in the novel.
They’re about the same age. The servant Vasago carried with her looked quite young even though he may not be that young…
In the novel, he was rescued and educated by Vasago while she was wandering in the slums. In the process, he fell in love with Vasago’s kindness. The servant who served Vasago by her side was narrated as one of the characters in the ‘Dangerous Love.’
It might be possible to find out this servant’s weakness, or to find Vasago’s fault from this servant’s point of view.
Can I bribe this servant with something like money? No, I didn’t even negotiate often. Let alone convincing people to appease others.
However, this was only a shallow prediction. This novel only provided fragmentary information about Vasago, so it was difficult to do something right away. Therefore, Fanora decided to stay curled up for now.
“Lady Fanora, they say we will pass through the gate soon. Let’s get back in the carriage.”
“Alright.”
Even if someone didn’t ask the reason, her body couldn’t help but curl up in this cold weather…
“Are you cold? It’ll be better if Lady wears a fur coat.”
“No, I tend to tolerate cold weather well, so I will get used to it.”
“But, Lady—”
“I don’t need it.”
This place was near the gate to the Northern, Hamel, where the home of Duchy Jalier was located. These days, Fanora was getting ready for the engagement ceremony and finally heading there. Of course, the people of the Celsius family departed more leisurely than her, and she didn’t have to worry about them.
“I will be the main character who comes last, so I’m sure I will get criticism.”
Looking out the window, she realized this place was completely different from the capital.
It’s been so long since winter ended, but the scenery is still like this?
When people of the capital think about the North, they say it is a place where there is nothing to eat, dangerous places with many wild animals, barren land… etc.
“!”
But after a while, with the rattling sound of the carriage, they soon entered the heart of Duke Jalier’s territory, where the engagement ceremony would take place. As they crossed one of the fortress walls, the scenery she saw changed.
It’s better than I thought.
When they entered the city, FanoraI could see people living there. Unlike in the capital, the roofs of the buildings here were light colors, gave off a frugal feeling, and the neatly arranged carriageways gave a good impression.
I heard that the North is a place where crops get frosty even in the summer, but it seems that’s not the case.
It was 5 a.m. in the morning. The temperature was chilly for a while, but the weather was so clear by the time the sun came up. The coolness that was quite different from the early summer experienced in the capital approached her positively.
“My Lady, now that we’re in the city, I think you can close your eyes a little bit. I will wake you up when we arrive at the cathedral.”
At that time, Cecil, the maid sitting opposite her in the carriage, suddenly suggested it. Her personality was quite like mine, who had a business-like attitude and didn’t show any emotions. But it was clear to Fanora what those few words meant.
Do I look that tired?
Chronic insomnia Fanora suffered from left a dark shadow on her face.
She must be thinking about how to cover her master’s face with powder.
“The two families want each other anyway, so just because the bride look ugly doesn’t mean the engagement ceremony will be canceled. Relax your shoulders.”
Fanora turned her dry eyes to the window. Perhaps Cecil understood the attitude of her expecting nothing, and luckily, Cecil didn’t say anything more.
Rattle. Rattle.
It was dawn when the noise of the wheels of the carriage and the faint sound of horseshoes mix. Fanora couldn’t sleep, but her eyes hurt even when she stared blankly out the window. She spent some time closing her eyes tightly to protect sore eyes.
A lot of thoughts came to her mind in the darkened vision.
Should Naverius be cut like sashimi, grilled, boiled, or buried alive?
“Lady… Lady Fanora. We’re here.”
And not long after, Cecil woke her up. By the time she opened her eyes again, the scenery had changed.
“Are you sure my engagement ceremony will be held here?”
Compared to a wedding, it was customary for an engagement ceremony to be simple, just like only praying over water…
Why did he choose such a gorgeous cathedral?
Somehow, it felt like something would be creaking from the first step she took.
No… I left everything to him in the first place. How can I disparage the person who prepared so hard? Let’s just take it lightly.
Fanora moved as the vassals of the Jalier family led her without a single complaint. She was taken to the cathedral’s narrow passage and put on the yellow robe sent by the Duke Jalier. White was the standard for marriage and yellow for engagement, so it was a natural choice. After that, with Cecil’s help, she long braided up her hair and tied it, and by the time she managed to do it, she put the headdress sent by the Duke Jalier again.
“What did my family do?” Having made it this far, Fanroa wondered what Bael Celcius had helped with the engagement ceremony.
I expected that he wouldn’t be interested in his daugther’s engagement, but…
Fanora lowered her head for a moment.
“It’s done, Lady Fanora.”
She got up from my seat when Cecil had done her touch. It was the same that she was not interested in this engagement, so there’s nothing left to postpone.
“Then let’s go.”
Fanora got up straight from her seat without seeing her figure and followed the butler of the Jalier family. Even now, she kept thinking, ‘
After this is over, I will have to memorize the books that Carl gave to me.’
“The Lady of Celsius family is entering.”
But just a few minutes later, when the door to the high priest’s room opened, Fanora had to stop what she had been thinking about.
“…Then my prospective companion must have come. The witness stand seems to be filled, except for the rather slow ones, so let’s start without delay.”
A neatly combed hair. The engagement uniform, similar to her, seems to have been tailored for today’s ceremony. The ceremonial sword hung over his waist was so glamorous. However, the reason why Fanora didn’t look at the decorations was because his face caught her eyes.
Ah, I shouldn’t have dragged Aloken Jalier in.
The dark-haired man found her and gave her his distinctive thin smile. At the same time, the unmarried ladies who sat on the benches of the cathedral lamented.
Fanora was convinced by that.
I shouldn’t have been greedy for nothing. Now that I think about it, I should have used someone else to break up my marriage talk with Naverius.
Aloken Jalier. He was more attractive than she thought. Fanora had never heard of the Duke of North looking so handsome, and she regretted seeing his stylish appearance now. The fame of capturing him would one day return as envy and jealousy. She was just trying to have a little higher power, but things would get messed up.