44. Forgotten Thing (2)
“Regina!”
It wasn’t difficult for Ivan to catch up to Regina.
Not long after, Ivan caught up to Regina, who was running ahead, and stopped her by grabbing her arm.
“Regina, I’m sorry. I’m so sorry!”
Anyone could see that the current situation was entirely Ivan’s fault.
Regina had asked him to come meet her, and Ivan had promised he would.
While there were circumstances, they weren’t urgent enough to break his promise—and more importantly, Ivan had completely forgotten about it.
Thus, this situation was rightfully Ivan’s mistake.
“Regina, I’m so sorry. Please look at me, okay?”
Despite Ivan’s pleading voice, Regina didn’t turn around.
Held by Ivan’s hand, Regina refused to face him, standing steadfast.
Feeling increasingly agitated, Ivan moved in front of her and looked at her face.
“…Don’t look. You idiot.”
“I’m sorry, Regina. Please?”
A transparent tear rolled down Regina’s cheek.
In truth, Regina had waited for a long time at the stop for Ivan.
She repeatedly wondered when he might come, glancing toward the dormitory time and again.
She clutched the bundle containing the potion she intended to give him as if it were the most precious thing in the world, waiting for hours.
But all she saw when she finally looked up was Ivan alighting from a carriage alongside Karla.
“How long do you think I waited for you?”
Ivan was speechless, unable to utter a word.
He had no idea what to say.
“How long have I been waiting, thinking when you’d come…”
Regina wiped away her tears with the hem of her sleeve.
Holding Regina’s hand, Ivan could only stare at her blankly, unable to say anything.
“…I’m sorry, Regina. I’m so… sorry.”
It was all he could manage after great effort, a simple apology.
Ivan had no idea how to console Regina as she cried or what more he could say.
Sniffing and wiping her tears, Regina couldn’t bring herself to smile.
It was hard to laugh—but seeing Ivan so flustered and apologetic, her anger was fleeting. Despite everything, she couldn’t stay mad for long.
She was angry, yes—she had been angry.
When he arrived, she had been ready to explode, ready to ask why he had been so late.
Hitting him might have been a bit extreme, but since he was late, she had thought she should at least scold him for making her wait.
Her frustration, however, dissipated like dust in the wind when she saw Ivan’s face.
“What were you doing with Karla?”
Of all the things to ask, Regina’s first question was this.
Though she wanted to sigh, she couldn’t deny her curiosity.
What had they done to end up alighting from the same carriage?
“That, that…”
Ivan mumbled incoherently, trying to evade a clear answer, which irritated Regina again.
Her cheeks puffing out, she mirrored her irritation.
“Did you go on a date or something?”
“No, no! It wasn’t like that, nothing of the sort…”
“Then why were you together? That carriage came from the commercial district.”
“Well, Karla didn’t have a uniform. She had to buy one. And… undergarments…”
“…What?”
Regina’s eyes widened.
Why didn’t Karla have a uniform? And why did she need to buy undergarments?
“So, why did you have to buy that, and why were you even with her, Ivan? I’m curious about that.”
“Ah, well… Karla had run away from the mansion, remember?”
“Yeah. So what? You both said she’d stay at the dormitory and then went back earlier.”
Regina’s voice started to grow colder.
Ivan wondered if he had said something wrong, but instinctively he knew better than to reveal that Karla was staying in his room.
“Karla’s going to stay in the dormitory now, so she didn’t have any clothes or necessities. That’s why I went with her. You know how Karla is—she doesn’t have friends. So, I offered since her arm is still sore.”
“Ah… so that’s what happened.”
Regina seemed to be convinced, but she still couldn’t shake off the feeling that Ivan was hiding something from her.
A vague discomfort lingered, but Regina shook it off, forcing a smile as she stood beside Ivan.
“Let’s go then. Did you have lunch with Karla?”
“Come to think of it, I didn’t.”
It was only then that Ivan realized how hungry he was, letting out a long sigh as he instinctively rubbed his stomach.
“Anyway, let it be. It doesn’t matter now. Let’s go. The student cafeteria will soon transition to dinner, so come on. Let’s eat together. That’s fine, right?”
“Yeah, that’s fine. There’s no reason it wouldn’t be.”
At last, a smile bloomed on Regina’s face.
Overjoyed at finally being able to spend some time with Ivan, Regina beamed.
“Karla probably didn’t have lunch either. Should we invite her to join us?”
Regina’s smile froze.
“I thought about that, but since I’ve done something wrong too, I think it’s okay if we eat just the two of us.”
As Regina smiled brightly again, Ivan couldn’t bring himself to return it.
*
“…Even a country bumpkin ignoring me? Pfft.”
Lucas glared out the window, clicking his tongue again.
Who was he, if not the head of the Shaiskeil family, one of the two pillars of the empire?
Even though there was an enormous barrier known as Cascata, once Karla became his wife and he managed to deal with Fabio, Cascata would undoubtedly become his.
With control over both pillars of the empire, the situation unfolding now certainly didn’t sit well with him.
“One problem after another with that commoner, too…”
How dare someone call him a bastard?
He would never forgive that.
However, at the time, Ivan—the commoner—exuded an overpowering presence that intimidated even Lucas.
The atmosphere, his momentum, the oppressive vibe—it was all there.
But it was absurd that a mere commoner could intimidate Lucas, so he couldn’t bring himself to admit it.
—Knock knock.
“Who is it?”
—I’ve come to clean the room.
A low, male voice.
Annoyed by the reply, Lucas snapped.
“What time is it to start cleaning now? I don’t need it. Get out!”
—Oh my, yes sir. Then I will leave then.
“Get out at once—what?”
Lucas gave the man who had opened the door a stupefied stare.
He had clearly told him to leave, yet the man walked right in.
As the man entered, Lucas barked at him again to leave immediately.
“Dear Master of the Shaiskeil family is usually such a respectable individual… [Suppression].”
Lucas, about to yell at the man, closed his mouth.
Something was pressing down on the surrounding space—not just him, but the entire area.
Reacting to the sensation, Lucas quickly attempted to form seals.
He channeled mana through his body, trying to conjure magic orbs from each finger—but he couldn’t.
“W—What is this…?!”
In panic, Lucas tried forming the seals again.
The mana that should have surged from his fingers seemed blocked, swirling around but unable to burst forth.
“Do our stubborn young master not recognize this spell?”
The scruffy cleaner stood by the door, his lips forming a peculiar smile.
His left eye was black like a piece of glass, while his right, partially hidden by his hair, glowed with a menacing red light.
“…Who are you?”
“You don’t need to know.”
“Black sorcery… Kiara!”
Lucas shouted for Kiara, who was supposed to assist him and counter such sorcery.
If she were nearby, she might have a way to deal with this situation.
But the man only stood there with his arms crossed, smirking confidently.
“You should look around you.”
Lucas felt doubt creep in.
Kiara’s room was right next to his, so her lack of response indicated that his call hadn’t reached her.
“…What have you done?”
Lucas asked the man in a shaky voice.
The once warm evening sunlight, glowing orange as it filled his room, was now transformed into the color of dirty brown mud. Everywhere he looked, dark brown muck bubbled disgustingly, sticky and grotesque.
Lucas instinctively understood.
No matter what he did, he couldn’t defeat the man standing in front of him.
Just then, the door to Lucas’ room slammed open, and the person he had desperately sought appeared.
She—Kiara, with her black hair tied up in a white ribbon…
“Master!”
“Ki… Kiara! Why are you so late? You useless girl! Deal with this—this, this…”
Lucas’ words faltered.
Rather than rushing with urgency, Kiara walked toward him with a calm composure.
Each step she took, her black hair began to turn white.
With two steps, her blue eyes began to turn red, glowing with a fiery intensity.
By the time she stood before Lucas, it was clear—this was not Kiara.
A woman with white hair and crimson eyes.
“Look, one-eyed one. He’s scared now. Don’t scare him too much. She’s different from that girl, isn’t she?”
Lucas shivered.
The woman with faded white hair and crimson eyes smiled like a devil and caressed Lucas’ cheek.
“Don’t be so scared, boy. I didn’t come here to kill you. Right?”
She asked the man.
With a sigh, the man replied,
“Venere, don’t push your jokes too far. If this kid refuses our proposal, what will we do?”
Venere shrugged.
“Not gonna happen. You need to sharpen your eye for people, Mercurio. Would this boy refuse our offer? That’s impossible. Isn’t that right, boy?”
To Venere’s question, Lucas couldn’t answer.
