I Regret The Kindness I Gave You - Chapter 77

Sano, that name was quite beloved by the people of the Ifero Kingdom.

A family that has maintained a neutral position unchanged for a long time, from the first head of the family to the current one.

When other families competed and fought amongst themselves, they always stayed in their own domain and focused on caring for the people of their territory.

To the point where a playful tradition arose of asking if someone of impeccable integrity was from Sano.

Sano was always a symbol of innocence and uprightness, to the extent that even Magnus, who did not trust his own confidants of over a decade, did not bother to scrutinize them.

The only family with great power that did not possess greed or desire.

Even if they knew a divine object had immense power within it, even if they knew where that divine object was, they would not covet it.

King Iker must have known this.

“Your Highness. Use Fondo to attack Sano.”

Rena and Magnus’s eyes met. Rena smiled. As cunningly and greedily as possible. For Magnus, who harbored something identical to her, to resonate with her.

“All the infamy will belong to Fondo, and Your Highness will become the protagonist of the great prophecy.”

“What is it that you want?”

“For you to recognize the value of my loyalty to Your Highness.”

“Is that all? You’ve given me valuable information, so there must be something you desire in return. It’s better to be honest. I dislike lies.”

“Remember that my loyalty came first. Let Aquila become a meritorious retainer of the new kingdom.”

Only then did Magnus burst into laughter.

He called a servant to open the windows wide, and left them open for a long while to let the cold air fill the stuffy room completely.

New air. New kingdom. New king.

Turning his head away from the vast land and sea spread out beyond the window, he sought out the easternmost land.

East, the direction where Sano’s main territory was located.

When violence tramples and destroys Sano, a new king will be born afterwards.

“Summon Werner Fondo.”

With eyes sunk black with greed, Magnus ordered.

On the eighth day since leaving Fondo, Merche arrived in Benenum.

Karla, who had been whimpering in the running carriage about why they had to march so hard, had long since collapsed and fallen into a sleep-like unconsciousness.

Almost everyone who had set out on this journey was similar to Karla.

“Where are you going again.”

Rude grabbed Merche’s hand as she was about to leave.

Despite having participated in the harsh forced march together, he was incredibly energetic, showing no signs of fatigue and remaining robust.

As if it were his own home, he had sat inside Merche’s mansion without taking a single step out, causing Merche to spend over half a day with him before finally managing to separate.

“The head of the family has summoned me.”

“What summons when your eyes are half-closed with sleepiness. Look in a mirror, see what your face looks like. There’s one person here who’s dying to sleep.”

Come to think of it, she really did feel tired. Merche looked at Rude curiously.

It was strange that he could immediately notice her drowsiness when she herself hadn’t even realized it.

He spread his fingers from his folded hands and subtly interlocked them. It was a spoiled gesture meaning “don’t go.”

“Let’s go to bed. Let me hold you and sleep a bit too.”

“It’s inappropriate for an unmarried couple to share a bed.”

“How old-fashioned. What kind of talk is that for someone so young, like something an old geezer would say?”

“It’s late. I really need to go.”

“…Go then, go. Just go away forever and don’t show your face again.”

Yet he pulled on her hand until the very end, reluctantly letting go.

With his face scrunched up in displeasure, he somehow looked just like a child, causing Merche to make eye contact with him while wearing a faint smile.

A pair of slightly unfocused purple pupils blinked at her dazedly.

“I’ll return soon.”

One left the space where only the two had been, and the one left alone crawled to the bed and buried their entire body in the blankets.

He pulled the pillow over and pressed his cheek against it, then suddenly got up again and headed to the bathroom.

He needs to douse himself with cold water. That’s the only way this damn heat will subside.

Anyway, the problem is a woman who smiles recklessly without knowing how scary people can be.

More seriously, it’s himself who gets feverish like a madman from just one smiling face.

In any case, the root cause of the problem was Merche, who smiled purely at him who was not pure at all.

He muttered small curses as he washed his face with cold water, as if slapping it.

When Merche entered the familiar office, Mariette was not shuffling through documents or busily writing something, but sitting on the sofa to welcome her.

She looked like someone who had been eagerly waiting all day just for Merche’s visit.

With the passage of time, her face was full of wrinkles, but her eyes remained sharp as she silently watched Merche sit down to her right.

“What did Prince Magnus say to you?”

Struck speechless by the question that flew at her as soon as she sat down.

Merche stroked the round exterior of the teacup placed in front of her for a moment, then answered calmly.

“I have not had the occasion to meet His Highness the Prince separately.”

“So you’ve been thoroughly threatened.”

“…Madam.”

“That’s enough. I can roughly guess what that prince bastard must have said to you.”

Haah, Mariette let out a long sigh.

“Merche. You can’t run away forever.”

“……”

“For now, you might be safe if you hide here like you’re dead. But until when? Blinded by your determination to protect your people, you never once look back at yourself.”

“Wanting to protect the people I cherish is my true self.”

“Nonsense. That’s not your real self, it’s just the self you wish to be. It’s nothing more than a facade.”

She stared at Merche’s side profile as she averted her gaze with dark eyes.

Poor child. A child who would tear off even her own flesh to protect what she has barely managed to scrape together.

From the first moment they met, in that brief instant, she knew. That Merche was a child starved for affection.

While staying in Benenum, the visible deficiencies gradually filled in, and soft flesh filled out the once-gaunt cheeks.

It was only after seeing that remarkable change that she realized a smiling face suited her better than an expressionless one.

There was another unexpected thing.

That Merche had a nature of cherishing her people terribly.

Unlike her cold exterior appearance that seemed as if even her flowing blood would be chilly, Merche’s interior was as soft as a newborn baby’s head.

“You only know how to sacrifice yourself. Just because you say you’re sacrificing for your people doesn’t mean it’s unconditionally right.”

Mariette clicked her tongue and said.

Those who sacrifice excessively tend not to take care of their own wounds. Merche was exactly that type.

Whether her body became worn out and tattered like an old shoe, or whether red blood and pus oozed continuously from her scraped knees.

It was a talent, if one could call it that, to make the observer more frustrated by never seeming to look after herself at all.

“Merche. You can’t protect everything you cherish.”

“Madam.”

“Keep listening. I’m not finished speaking yet.”

For some reason, looking at her made her feel more attached than even to her own granddaughter, so she had never once spoken harshly to her until now.

But she felt that if not now, it would be too late forever.

In any case, it was something that needed to be said at least once.

“Rarely does everything end just by blindly avoiding fights. You’ve just been lucky so far.”

“Not everything can be resolved by confrontation and fighting. If someone yields their intentions and works to reconcile opinions, unnecessary fights can be avoided.”

“What if someone is determined to fight you? What will you do then?”

“…Such a thing…”

“It will definitely happen. At least once in your life, that time will come. When that time comes, will you still just sacrifice yourself and avoid it?”

Mariette resolutely pulled Merche’s hand. The caught hand stiffened and couldn’t escape, trapped in Mariette’s hand.

“Magnus… That man is not one who will refrain from killing you just because you hide. Merche. If the prince tries to kill you, you too must fight back and try to kill the prince. Remember my words.”

The color drained from Merche’s face.

An ominous feeling like a thick fog was rolling in from a very distant place.

A precarious sensation as if the ground might give way at any moment irritated her nerves, but she ultimately ignored it.

That night, Merche had a nightmare. An inexplicable, creepy sense of foreboding kept gnawing at her, crawling up her body.

Finding it difficult to endure, she dug her nails into her curled-up arms, scratching until she saw droplets of blood on her skin.

“…The lake.”

The Mirror Lake in the north. She had to go there. As if entranced, Merche left her bed and walked towards the north.

It wasn’t very cold outside.

With the approaching spring, green sprouts had emerged from the ground, so it wasn’t particularly painful or sore even though she was barefoot.

It was when she reached the lakeshore after walking for a long time.

Strong arms embraced her waist from behind and pulled her forcefully.

“Merche.”

The skin touching her was hot. His neck, with veins standing out, exhaled rough breaths, and his hard chest repeatedly swelled and deflated greatly, rising and falling without rest.

“What on earth did you hear to make you like this? Why have you been acting as if something’s wrong in your head ever since then…”

Even as he shouted, he suddenly knelt at her feet.

As if it were natural, he took off the slippers he was wearing and put them on Merche’s feet. The shoes, too big for her small feet, awkwardly wrapped around her feet and spun around.

“I… even if I was a coward, I wanted to protect everyone. Even if it meant running away forever. Even if that’s what it took to protect others…”

Merche muttered weakly as if talking to herself.

For a moment her body swayed and tilted, but large hands firmly grasped her slender shoulders and supported her.

“Don’t worry about that scrawny bastard. He’s fake, and you’re real.”

“…What do you mean?”

“Isn’t all that bastard’s power coming from that divine object or whatever? Then that’s the divine object’s power, not his power. You manage to make those divine beast guys kneel without any of that stuff.”

Rude raised one eyebrow as if to say his words were correct.

And judging by the words that followed without hesitation, it was clearly a complaint he had harbored for a long time.

“Videntia or whatever, the head of that place where everyone who made a prophecy once got their heads chopped off and died, that was his prophecy, right? That a king more outstanding than the first king would come. But that bastard? Outstanding my ass. He’s just using the power of the first king who died with that whatever divine object thing he doesn’t even understand. How does that make him a more outstanding king?”

Her muffled ears gradually cleared, and Rude’s unique slightly scratchy low voice became increasingly clear.

At the same time, her foggy mind also became distinctly clearer.

“Just any dog or cow becomes king if they have the divine object. I’d be king too if I just wore that red-hot ring and laurel wreath. What a great king we have.”