Chapter 81
“You’ve returned, Your Majesty!”
The nobles welcomed the king and his escorting knights as they arrived back at the hunting headquarters. It had already been over an hour since the time people had begun gathering for the closing ceremony, so the hunting grounds were packed.
Everyone’s gaze passed over the handsome blond king and instead went to the large pouches strapped to the horses’ thighs. The first-place winner was already obvious. The hunting tournament existed solely for the nobles’ enjoyment—royalty could participate, but they were excluded from the rankings. Still, everyone was curious about what the king had hunted.
Eleusis dismounted. His escort knights began unloading the beasts he had hunted throughout the day. Every single one was massive—huge wolves and savage boars.
“Sir Glyn.”
While the crowd was marveling at the king’s prey, the event officials cautiously approached Glyn. Their faces were stiff.
“What is it?”
“We believe you should come with His Majesty.”
They were speaking quietly, clearly wanting to keep things discreet.
“I need to find Lady Chanel.”
“Your Majesty. This may be more urgent.”
Glyn forcibly led Eleusis away from looking for Chanelrica and followed the officials. They told the waiting guests that the king had stepped away to change.
Eleusis and Glyn followed the officials deep into the innermost tent within the hunting headquarters.
Once they arrived, Glyn couldn’t stop a groan from slipping out. Everyone’s faces hardened.
No wonder they had called them quietly. Behind the tent, in the open space, lay the corpses of glowing bears. They were the mystical creatures of Mount Siret—the Blue Bears—that Eleusis had spent all day searching for without catching even a glimpse. And there were three of them.
“Who hunted these?”
“Well…”
“Answer.”
“…The Duke of Kartel.”
The worst of all possibilities.
Glyn clenched his teeth. As expected, Eleusis’s face wasn’t just stiff—it had turned completely dark.
Of all people, it had to be Chanelrica’s former fiancé, Derwin Kartel, who caught the Blue Bears. Whether intentional or not, he had perfectly disrupted Eleusis’s entire proposal plan.
“The Duke hunted them himself? No one else from House Kartel accompanied him?”
“No. Lady Chanel went out in the morning and returned early to rest… We told him he had to go out per tournament rules, so he left.”
Their voices sounded bitter, as if regretting having told him so. But who could have expected things would escalate like this?
Thinking the whole situation absurd, Glyn continued questioning.
“He caught them in the afternoon?”
“Yes.”
“We stayed deep in the mountains where Blue Bears are said to appear often. Yet we saw no trace of them.”
“Yes, we found it odd too. The Duke returned with the bodies in under an hour.”
Glyn’s face went pale at the ridiculous statement.
“In under an hour, he caught three of them? In terrain this close to the headquarters? There’s no way Blue Bears would appear somewhere so populated!”
“It’s the truth,” one of the officials answered, wiping away sweat. Which also meant that Eleusis and his knights had spent the entire day wandering the mountains for nothing.
“It’s fine, Glyn.”
Perhaps Eleusis’s agitation had spread to Glyn. But now, calmness returned to Eleusis’s blue eyes.
“Who saw the Duke bring in the Blue Bears?”
“All the nobles who were here at that time witnessed it. We moved the bodies here as quickly as possible to avoid drawing more attention.”
“I see. Then returning empty-handed is fortunate.”
“Your Majesty?”
“Isn’t that right, Glyn?”
Glyn immediately understood Eleusis’s meaning. If he had caught only one Blue Bear, people would compare him to Derwin, who caught three. In that case, not only would the grand proposal be ruined, but the king’s honor might be dragged through the mud.
But since he returned empty-handed, there was nothing to compare.
Only the escort knights, servants, and officials knew he had been hunting Blue Bears. Eleusis could simply claim he’d spent the day enjoying the hunt.
“You’re correct, Your Majesty.”
“Yes. It’s time to break old traditions anyway.”
Eleusis smiled formally, but his eyes remained cold. His blue gaze showed just how much his pride had been wounded.
“The proposal will proceed as planned.”
Every noble present—including Derwin—would witness the king’s public proposal. Eleusis’s gaze deepened.
You may not have her, but I won’t let you take her either—was that his mindset?
Eleusis tried to guess Derwin’s intentions. Derwin had returned triumphantly with three mystical Blue Bears, clearly showing off. He could only assume it was an attempt to assert his presence as her former fiancé.
But Eleusis didn’t particularly care. He was confident the proposal would succeed.
A few months ago, when he’d tried to stop Chanelrica from leaving, she’d agreed to stay a bit longer. And unlike before—when it seemed she could vanish at any moment—she had gradually opened her heart to him.
Eleusis had been careful with her, yet occasionally pulled her closer with bold gestures. Each time, she accepted it without pushing him away. In fact, over the past month, when he dropped subtle hints about marriage or their future together, she didn’t avoid the topic but accepted it rather naturally.
There were good reasons for deciding to propose. Yes, it was sooner than tradition dictated, but only after observing Chanelrica carefully and feeling certain did he move forward. Glyn had warned that a public proposal being rejected would greatly damage the royal family’s prestige—but Eleusis did not believe Chanelrica would refuse.
His pride may have been bruised because of the Blue Bears, and Derwin could posture all he liked—but none of that mattered. She would be by his side.
His instincts as a man told him that Derwin still had feelings for Chanelrica. And seeing him catch the Blue Bears today only confirmed it further.
All the better, Eleusis thought. He would make it clear right before Derwin’s eyes. Chanelrica was his woman.
After changing into formal attire, Eleusis stepped out into the wide clearing before the hunting headquarters and seated himself in the highest seat. The participants filled the area completely.
Once everyone was accounted for, the officials began announcing the rankings in order, and finally, it was time to reveal the grand winner.
“The final winner of this year’s hunting tournament is… the Duke of Kartel!”
Applause echoed through the mountains. Only Chanelrica, seated beside Eleusis, tilted her head.
The officials had said, as a Duke of Honor, Derwin also had to go hunting. She had considered stubbornly refusing to let him go, but decided against it. And while she took a nap, he had gone and returned. She hadn’t asked what he caught, but now she knew—three bears with oddly mixed blue and silver fur.
“Just three bears, and that’s considered first place?”
Unable to suppress her curiosity, Chanelrica whispered to Eleusis. Others had hunted over ten large beasts—so she couldn’t understand why Derwin was the winner.
“Haha.”
Eleusis burst out laughing at her reaction.
It was true he had felt pathetic all day for failing to catch even one Blue Bear. And seeing Derwin’s trophies only worsened that feeling. But when Chanelrica questioned it like that, he couldn’t help but laugh. What was regarded as an extraordinary mythical creature by others was, in the eyes of a foreigner like Chanelrica, simply “just a bear.”
“Hm? Your Majesty, why are you laughing?”
Chanelrica puffed her cheeks when Eleusis just laughed without answering.
“Don’t laugh alone! There’s someone who caught five giant wolves and another who caught over twenty beasts in total—so why is someone who caught three bears the winner?”
“Pff. It’s because they’re hard to catch.”
Eleusis managed to contain his laughter and explained kindly. His gloomy mood vanished at once, replaced by a refreshing lightness in his chest.
“They don’t seem special aside from their color… are they that difficult to catch?”
It seemed Chanelrica was not pleased with Derwin’s victory. That too felt delightful to Eleusis. Thanks to that, his steps toward presenting the award to Derwin were light as air.
After completing all the awards, the officials asked Eleusis to make the closing declaration. Eleusis stood, and everyone present turned their attention to their king.
“Huh?”
Murmurs spread when the king didn’t make the declaration. Instead, he turned to look at Chanelrica beside him.
“Lady Chanel. There is something important I wish to say to you here and now.”
The vast clearing went silent as death. Everyone understood immediately what was happening.
“It hasn’t been long since we began living together, but ever since then, light has entered my life.”
Eleusis’s blue eyes trembled. Chanelrica blinked her long lashes, staring at the man who bent down to meet her gaze, even though she was still seated.
“Thank you for staying by my side. Just having you near me makes me feel like I possess the entire world. But now, I want to make you the most noble woman in this land.”
Chanelrica swallowed dryly. Eleusis’s gaze was so intense it seemed it might pierce straight through her. It was filled with a powerful yearning. His cool blue irises overflowed with a fiery red passion that didn’t match their color.
“Lady Chanel. Will you remain by my side for the rest of your life? As my queen?”
With those words, Eleusis knelt.
There were only two moments when a king would kneel before someone: to acknowledge defeat in war—or to propose to the woman he loved.
SMAK.
Eleusis gently took Chanelrica’s hand and placed a long, trembling kiss upon it. His heated lips lingered on the back of her hand.
The King of Campton—Eleusis Odvan Campton—had proposed marriage to Chanelrica, a foreigner.
Everyone held their breath, waiting for her answer.
For a moment, in the quiet forest, only the chirping of birds could be heard.
