Love Me Just Once - Chapter 27

“By betrothed, do you mean the Duke of Aglante?”

“Yes.”

At that, his master looked up at the empty sky and sighed. Ah.

“He… has become Ophelia’s betrothed.”

Bahamal, noticing the faint shock in the young man’s voice, hastily added.

“The princess clearly seemed to want to come alone. But the duke who was by her side…”

“Hush, Bahamal. You must show respect. He is the Duke of Aglante.”

And the young man muttered in a sad voice. Unlike me, he is a king with a country.

Bahamal saw the beautiful young man lean against the ship’s railing with powerless steps. The twilight sunlight pouring behind him added to the faintness.

And Bahamal felt hostility towards the duke who had disheartened him.

It had been nearly ten years since his master had held the princess of Leden, a childhood friend, in his heart.

Bahamal knew how hard his master had tried to make her his bride. Because he trusted and used him as his confidant, even though he couldn’t reveal his inner thoughts to others.

But why was the result like this?

Unable to contain his rising indignation, Bahamal spoke as if spitting it out.

“How could the prince of Leden do this? After all Your Highness’s efforts…”

“We can’t blame the prince. It’s because I was lacking.”

And the young man added in a faint voice. The prince might not like me. I’m of illegitimate birth, and also…

“The Duke of Aglante is also of illegitimate birth, is he not?”

“But he has a country.”

And his master frowned. Bahamal read the pain etched on his beautiful brow. He hurriedly approached his master. The closer he got to him, the more vividly Bahamal could feel his pain.

Kneeling before his master, Bahamal looked up at him. As if revering a deity, he began to comfort his master.

“Your Highness, please don’t be too sad. The prince of Leden surely made the wrong choice. You are no less than the duke.”

Then the young man looked down at him with a sad face and placed his hand on his head.

“No, Bahamal. I am inferior to him.”

Because the pain he must have endured to say those words was so vivid, Bahamal bowed his head and sobbed. His master gently stroked his head.

That act felt so sacred that Bahamal could not control his own emotions.

Netepel Luntalis placed his hand on his follower’s head and looked up at the sky. The sky was dyed red with the light of the setting sun.

Looking up at the red and blue sky, he muttered.

“At least for now, I am inferior to him.”

It was a chilling remark that did not evoke any of the previous faintness, but Bahamal was too immersed in his tears to hear it.

In the carriage heading to a nearby lord’s castle, Idren observed Ophelia sitting across from him. She was resting her chin on her hand, looking out the window. Her blue eyes flecked with golden sunlight blinked regularly.

Looking at her cheek half-dyed by the twilight, Idren recalled what had happened before boarding the carriage.

“So choose. Come with me, or don’t.”

To be honest, Idren thought Ophelia wouldn’t like those words.

Before time turned back, during their three years of marriage, Netepel Luntalis was always Ophelia’s guest.

Idren knew but couldn’t say anything about the young, unmarried prince freely coming and going between Sigrasal Castle and his wife’s villa.

First, because he didn’t have the courage to interfere in Ophelia’s relationships, and second, because he knew well that they were nothing to each other.

While he had never spoken directly with the prince, Ophelia was always someone he lived face to face with.

Separate from not being loved by his wife, Idren was in a position to instantly recognize if she fell in love with someone.

But Ophelia’s blue eyes were always calm. Always, until just before she died.

The face of someone in love couldn’t be like that. It was something he naturally realized from looking in the mirror every day.

Nevertheless, Idren intervened between Ophelia and the second prince of Egelbamath. It was out of pure greed.

In his previous life, he had disliked Netepel Luntalis visiting the castle. It was unavoidable even knowing Ophelia had no romantic feelings for him.

But he didn’t want to be like that again in the past he had returned to. So he was greedy.

But Ophelia, who he thought would naturally be displeased, agreed to his words without any concern.

“Why would I need to choose over something like that?”

Saying that in an indifferent tone, Ophelia instructed the second prince’s attendant before he could say anything.

“Go tell your master that my betrothed will be joining as well.”

It would be a lie to say he felt nothing at those words.

Even knowing there was no emotion in Ophelia’s words referring to him as her betrothed, Idren felt a bit of joy at those words. He didn’t mind at all that she treated his suggestion as unnecessary.

Ophelia glanced sideways at the man who was grinning for some reason that seemed to please him so much.

Unlike him, who seemed so at ease inside, her mind was complicated. If Netepel had also come to Leden in her previous life, she wondered why he hadn’t come to see her.

Netepel and she had known each other for a very long time. Luntalis, Sigrasal, and Mevasa gathered in Egelbamath every year for a meeting, and they met there.

Netepel, who was the second prince of Luntalis but not the empress’s child, had always lived being bullied by his siblings.

The crown prince of Egelbamath, who was his half-brother, was at the forefront of the bullying, and his other sisters turned a blind eye to it.

Because of this, Netepel was always alone. And it was the same for her.

Ophelia knew how timid she had been as a child. Until she met Haslen, she didn’t even know how to converse with people. Because no one in the palace would talk to her.

It was, in a way, natural for these two outcast children to stick together.

Of course, Mahanas was not very pleased with her playing with Netepel. His demand was that if she were to be friendly with anyone, it should be with the princesses of Egelbamath or the princes of Aglante.

But Ophelia did not want to do as he demanded. She didn’t get along with the princesses of Luntalis, and the princes of Aglante were like little Mahanases.

They giggled and said vulgar words without a care. Trampling on those weaker than themselves was a bonus.

So Ophelia associated with Netepel behind Mahanas’s back. Since children’s and adults’ gatherings were clearly separated at the meetings, Mahanas didn’t know she was doing this.

Of course, on the way back to Leden after the meetings, Mahanas would fly into a rage after hearing reports from the attendants he had placed in advance about who she had been associating with.

Ophelia was sufficiently afraid of this, but she couldn’t bring herself to turn her back on Netepel.

The boy who couldn’t mix with anyone and was always shrinking back was like a mirror reflecting herself. He was wounded in the same place, always drifting, understood by no one.

As time passed, Ophelia gained Haslen. Her first betrothed taught her kindness. By meeting him, Ophelia gained hope that she could escape from the grasp of Mahanas and Dares.

Although she came to realize that hope alone couldn’t achieve anything, at that time, it kept her alive.

Meanwhile, Netepel was always alone.

She began to find the meetings where she couldn’t see Haslen increasingly tedious, but Netepel lived all year waiting only for these meetings.

When she realized that the size of their hearts treating friendship was different, Ophelia felt guilty.

Now she could confidently say she wouldn’t shed a single tear even if she saw someone die, but back then, she was someone who would grieve even at inflicting invisible wounds on the heart.

In the end, Netepel noticed the change even before she could hide anything.

In the summer of her twelfth year, the boy sat in the field where they always met secretly and said to her.

“Is it me who’s the problem?”

It was in the form of a question, but what it contained was certainty.

“Everyone has someone by their side, but I have no one. My family hates me, and they say they’d be happy if I weren’t around.”

And the boy mumbled, looking down. So many people can’t be wrong.

Ophelia, trying to comfort him, said. It’s not that there’s something wrong with you. But apart from being certain, she didn’t know how to prove it.

When she said that, Netepel turned to her with red eyes and asked.

“But if I’m not the problem, why am I the only one alone?”

“What do you mean you’re alone, you…”

“You don’t have to comfort me, Ophelia. I’m glad you’re engaged.”

I actually knew it. That unlike me, there’s nothing wrong with you.

And Netepel got up first, leaving her in the field.

Ophelia didn’t see his face at the banquet held that night.

People said he had finally disappeared, having read the room. They said it was an undeserved position to begin with, and that finally, the surroundings were clean.