Chapter 31
“You’ll Go Crazy”
“Br… break off the engagement….”
My eyes widened into circles as I looked at Renard.
Renard met my gaze.
“You mentioned breaking off the engagement from the moment you met me in the imperial palace, Your Highness. But at the time, I wasn’t certain. I wondered if you might simply be saying something you didn’t truly mean in order to win the favor of a prince you had just met.”
“……”
“But looking at your expression now, I understand. You truly do not want this engagement. If that’s the case, then I will help you. If the engagement is broken, you will become free. Then you’ll be able to return home without worrying about losing your ankle. Please trust me just this once. I will make sure your engagement is broken.”
Breaking off the engagement.
It was an incredibly sweet proposal.
Breaking my engagement with Olendo was something I had to accomplish someday anyway.
And if someone was willing to help me?
It could make things much easier.
“But how exactly do you plan to break it off for me? This engagement is what His Majesty the Emperor desires. Even I can’t refuse it, so how could you possibly…?”
“His Highness the Prince wished to test your words. Your claim that you have no desire for the position of Empress. So he gave me an order—to make you fall in love with me.”
“…Ha.”
“So in order to break the engagement, when the time comes later, Your Highness will simply need to pretend to like me. I’ll create a situation where the engagement has no choice but to be broken. I’ll say that I like you as well. There’s a chance this will move His Majesty’s heart. Because His Majesty… no, it would be better if I explain that later.”
It seemed he intended to take advantage of the fact that he, too, carried the emperor’s blood.
After all, Emperor Ternut’s goal was to take me as his daughter-in-law.
As long as I married one of his sons, it might not matter to him which son it was.
However, there was something I hadn’t known, even though I already knew Renard was the emperor’s son.
Olendo ordered Renard to seduce me….
No matter how much of a scoundrel prince he was, I never imagined he would order someone to seduce his own fiancée.
My already disliked fiancé became even more irritating in my eyes.
Still, if his behavior could serve as an excuse to break the engagement, it wasn’t a bad outcome for me.
But there was still one concern.
Renard’s betrayal.
This proposal offered many benefits for me, but none for Renard. Because of that, I found it even harder to trust him.
“I refuse.”
Perhaps he hadn’t expected my answer, because a flash of surprise crossed Renard’s face.
I looked straight at him and continued.
“You said it was obvious from my expression, so I won’t hide it. Yes, I want to break off my engagement with His Highness the Prince. So of course it would benefit me. But your proposal… no matter how I think about it, there’s nothing in it for you. Yet you say you’ll help me break it off? Are you planning to trap me here with a false promise?”
In truth, even if Renard later pretended nothing had happened after making such a promise with me, there would be nothing I could do except feel resentful.
If that moment came, I would regret it.
I would think that I should have run away instead of listening to him today.
After all, it would surely become much harder to attempt escape again after today.
The guards around me would obviously become stricter after I tried to sneak out.
At that moment, Renard rested his chin on the back of the hand that was holding the hem of my skirt.
Then he curled his lips into a smile and looked up at me.
His gaze seemed to say he could see straight through my thoughts.
Then he said something unbelievable.
“If you distrust me that much, I will make a Mage’s Oath.”
A Mage’s… Oath…?
A Mage’s Oath.
It was a kind of contract that forced mages to keep their promises.
Having read the original story, I knew what it meant.
If a mage who made such an oath failed to keep the promise, they would lose whatever they had pledged during the oath.
Because of that, there was no better way to determine a mage’s sincerity.
But for the same reason, mages rarely made such oaths.
A promise was something that could sometimes become impossible to keep. If they made a Mage’s Oath, they would inevitably lose whatever they had pledged unless they fulfilled it.
Unless they truly intended to keep their promise, it was something they would never do.
“Judging by your expression, it seems you already know what a Mage’s Oath is…”
“Why? Are you planning to stake your ankle on it or something?”
“I’ll stake my life.”
“…Don’t joke.”
“I’m not joking.”
“That’s ridiculous—”
“I will stake my life on breaking Your Highness’s engagement.”
A small orange light appeared in the air.
Like fireworks, it scattered tiny sparks around itself before rapidly circling Renard’s neck.
A ring of light formed around his neck like a glowing choker.
If Renard doesn’t keep the promise… will that light kill him…?
“This is the Mage’s Oath.”
At his words, the light around his neck vanished instantly.
The ritual was over.
It was exactly the Mage’s Oath I had read about in the original story.
Is it even possible to fake a Mage’s Oath…?
That couldn’t be the case.
No matter how hard I thought about it, I couldn’t come up with any reason why Renard would help me break the engagement while staking his life on it.
At best, the only benefit for him would be gaining a little more of my favor.
As if he understood my confusion, Renard leaned his face against his hand again and smiled faintly.
He seemed to find my confusion amusing.
“I don’t understand.”
“What is it that you don’t understand so much?”
“There really isn’t anything you gain if my engagement to the prince is broken.”
“Why do you say that I gain nothing? I already told you. I like you, Your Highness. You were my first love, and I think I still like you now. Even if we agreed to be friends, I can’t erase those feelings.”
“……”
“Don’t tell me you forgot my confession?”
Renard’s brow furrowed slightly.
In truth, I had almost forgotten.
Perhaps the fact that we had become friends had stayed more strongly in my mind.
Renard tilted his head and observed my expression.
Then he spoke again, sounding genuinely hurt.
“Don’t tell me you really forgot? I didn’t think you paid that little attention to me… after you’ve been in my arms so many times.”
“That’s because you were the one who hugged—”
“You can forget everything else, but remember just this one thing. Because I like you, helping you break the engagement definitely benefits me. What man would refuse the chance to stop the woman he likes from being engaged to another man? There’s probably no one in this world who wants your engagement broken more than I do.”
The expression on Renard’s face as he looked at me was serious.
His reddish-brown eyes seemed to hold sincerity mixed with moonlight.
Renard is really good at acting, I thought.
His skinship with me was because of his nightmares.
And saying he liked me was just an act to use me.
Even so, the whisper carried by the night breeze sounded like the sincere love confession of a bard deeply in love.
My head, which had been tilted in appreciation, suddenly froze.
A thought flashed through my mind.
But regardless of his intentions… he staked his life on it…?
I still couldn’t understand Renard.
But it was certain that if he failed to break my engagement with Olendo, he would lose his life.
For me, however, it was a deal where I had nothing to lose.
After finishing that cruel calculation, I nodded.
Only then did Renard smile, looking satisfied.
Soft moonlight settled along the curve of his slightly raised lips.
“So gaining Your Highness’s trust requires staking my life, it seems. Still, if I’ve earned at least a little trust, I suppose that’s fortunate. Now, would you come down from up there? As for the letter you need to send to your family, I’ll make sure it arrives at dawn.”
Renard held out his hand toward me.
He smiled brightly.
“Trust me and jump. I’ll catch you.”
His hands were raised toward my waist.
It seemed he planned to snatch me out of the air if I jumped.
Instead, I shifted my gaze away from him and looked at the ladder lying beside the tree roots.
I hoped he would set it up so I could climb down myself.
But Renard noticed and firmly shook his head.
“No. Come into my arms.”
He was a fox of a man who never forgot about his nightmares for even a moment.
“My arms are getting tired. Hurry.”
Urged by Renard, I let out a light sigh before jumping down from the tree.
Renard easily caught my waist in midair.
Still holding me, he spun around once on the spot.
Then he suddenly collapsed onto the grass with me in his arms.
“Renard?!”
“Oh my, you’re heavy. I’ve run out of strength.”
Renard chuckled as if it were amusing.
When I tried to get up, he grabbed the back of my head and pressed me into his chest.
“Stay on top of me for a moment. I need compensation for catching the heavy princess. You know what I mean, right?”
“……”
As soon as I stopped struggling, Renard’s lips curved in satisfaction.
After holding me quietly for a while, he suddenly whispered to me.
“Did you know something? You smell like a baby, Your Highness.”
A baby smell?
Did he mean baby powder?
I hadn’t realized. I didn’t use any perfume.
“If a queen smelled like a baby, what do you think would happen to me?”
“A queen? What are you suddenly—”
“Tell me. What do you think would happen?”
“What do you mean?”
“I’d go crazy.”
Renard suddenly pulled me tightly into his arms.
His body was burning with heat.
