Translator: nevermoorian
It was a rainy summer day.
On the day when the sky was cloudy and the atmosphere was gloomy, I was reading next to Nocton when I visited him as usual.
In fact, it was more appropriate to say that I was just looking at things than reading.
By then, I was completely distracted by the other side.
“Can you stop calling me Valrose now?”
When I think about it, I was a little over confident.
It was a time when I knew enough about Nocton and I was under the impression that he had special feelings for me.
There was a test at the time, but I thought it was an evidence that I was special.
That"s why I was unhappy that Nocton didn"t call me in friendly way.
“You are Valrose.”
“My name is Roa. That is my family name.”
“Why do you make such a fuss? There"s a lot more work to be called the Marquis Valrose"s daughter.”
“Is that the same?”
“Well, does that matter?”
“Then I wouldn"t mind calling you Edgar, either.”
I might have been childish and I wanted to say it, but the reply left me to forget my embarra.s.sment.
“It"s difficult.”
“Why?”
“There are two Edgars above me.”
“Alloy is also a Valrose—”
As soon as I raised my head in a flash, my eyes met his.
The smiling face was not different than usual, but from the way he looked at me, not at the book, I could clearly read it.
Don"t test me.
Nocton was saying so.
It"s funny in retrospect.
I can"t do that, it was a selfish thing for a kid to say, but I couldn"t say anything.
Remembering past life doesn"t necessarily mean that mental age follows.
Come to think of it, there were so many sincere and humorous decisions.
I was skeptical that I should live like this, realizing the limits of my patience, but the conclusion was the same for other reasons.
Growing up, I realized that I had no compulsion of fate, but I still had a chance.
I was glad to see the rise of status next to a powerful man whom even the Emperor could not afford to offend, however I could not help but wonder that he would regard me as special.
As we spent a long time together, various kinds of emotions were piled up.
Unlike when I was a child, I could not help but feel the pain in my heart, and if I felt a little excitement, Nocton would test me again with his bad habit.
Will you still stay by my side?
He was the one who promised to meet again each time.
Every time he did that, I would recall.
That"s what I mean for Nocton.
I am not a dear friend he care about, but a better entertainment than anyone else, who have spent many years together.
No one would want to test a person who is precious and doesn"t want to leave.
I felt offended and frustrated many times.
As that time went on, the emotion toward Nocton turned into something subtle, neither here nor there.
Not love, and not hate.
Although it was affectionate, but it didn"t feel precious.
I don"t know if it"s because I"ve been stuck with my pride even though I"ve been treated like that, but I guess Nocton Edgar must have thought I was in love with him.
The relationships were getting sick.
When I realized, I didn"t bother to get away from it.
It"s because I"m lazy, rather than because I was concerned about Nocton.
The long-established relationship had stability in itself and I didn"t want to give it away even if it wasn"t worth caring for.
Like not throwing away an old, useless doll.
The lazy, dull thought changed not long after my debutant ball.
“By the way, when is young lady"s engagement?”
I wouldn"t care if it were the Marquis of Bornaine, the Count of Elford, the gossip lover, or someone who hated me.
It wasn"t just Nocton Edgar who believed I was in love with him.
They were all wondering why I would approach such a landmine. But after Nocton"s recognition, our relationship was treated differently by everyone.
I"m someone who holds up a person who doesn"t like me and seeks his love, and Nocton can"t refuse me because of his childhood affection.
Many were so interested in other people"s business that they often asked when we would marry for the purpose of filling their curiosity or mocking me.
But this time, it wasn"t that kind of person who asked when my engagement was.
Even for those who do not enjoy gossips and do not intend to mock me, that"s what I and Nocton now look like.
I would have laughed at the former, but this was different, so I only said that I"m a friend of Nocton.
I"m not making excuses. The high-ranking lady listened with a nod.
“I see. But it"s not a good idea for a friend to postpone your engagement too much. Both of you are old enough to have a fiancé.”
When I saw the unbreakable belief a few words could not break, I shut my mouth.
Then a lot of things came to my eyes.
After making my debut, there was no talk about getting a fiancé. And no one asked me to dance when I went to the ballroom.
At that point, I felt the seriousness of the problem.
The parties have no intention of doing so, but the misunderstanding had spread like a wild fire, perhaps because it has been too long.
The Duke of Edgar was a very special compared to other dukedoms, and yet marriage seemed to come in quite a bit.
Valrose, an ordinary marquis, has only blown dust.
I was only trying to survive by doing some weird things, but my shot was blocked.
Not getting married won"t ruin my life.
However, because I have an older sister, I cannot inherit the Marquis" t.i.tle.
She"s about to get married, so if I stay at home, I"ll live like a widow.
Thinking about it, my future seemed so grim.
By then, the Valrose house had its first marriage.
Like my, my father had a complicated mind, and he brought in many personal connection.
My father, as well as my mother, said, ‘You should marry too."
I couldn"t help but wonder if I had a mind of my own.
Even the man who came into the marriage talk surprised me even more.
Aaron Claymore.
He was a sub character who fell in love with Alice in the original story.
Since the name of the lead character was ambiguous for me, there is no way I remember the name of the supporting character.
However, the image of a white-blond knight in the story was quite clear to me.
He had a great background and his appearance was as good as Nocton. As soon as I saw him, I was sure of who he was.
Anyway.
Although I approached Nocton, I never thought I"d end up next to a male supporting character.
In fact, I never met him expect for a moment or two at the ballroom.
When I first saw him, I gasped in admiration. But his presence had faded because he hadn"t been in society for years, perhaps because of the knight"s practice.
It was an unexpected proposal, but honestly, it was still very sweet.
His appearance was as white as radiant light, and really suitable for a knight. The man whose eyes were bright red like the sun was rumored to be good in character, even though he was not speak very often.
Although there was a huge disadvantage that he might have loved another woman, he was charming enough to take into account.
Due to the fact that Roa Valrose was changed, it was a big temptation to think that the world doesn"t necessarily flow with the original story.
Maybe this person loves me, not Alice.
He"s not a male lead, just supporting role, but it"ll be easier than Nocton.
It wasn"t without any worries, but I accepted the marriage proposal and got engaged.
When I was preparing for my engagement, I realized that nothing was going on my way, but let"s put it off first.
Alice rose to the capital unscrupulously and became a part of Duke Limorand"s family—although it was hard to pretend to be amazed at an immature act.
I don"t know what happened in the middle, but we"re on the verge of her engagement with Nocton.
Based on the original, all that remains is the burning of Roa Valrose, Aaron Claymore falls in love with Alice somehow, and the marriage of Alice and Nocton.
I didn"t think I was going to be burned now, and I"m not sure Aaron Claymore was going to fall in love with Alice because there was something wrong with him, but one thing was for sure.
Nocton and Alice will soon be engaged.
Well, I"m sure the engagement of the two main characters is coming soon.
In other words, the rest of story is now a foregone conclusion.
I"m sure it is, I"m sure it should be….
“A foresight dream … I"ve seen it … That"s why Nocton is a villain….”
At this point in time, what is this nonsense?
I"ve pa.s.sed through the epic of Roa Valrose in my head, but I don"t even have a clue.
If the main character of the original story had this kind of ability, I wouldn"t know it in the first place….
Well, I"m not sure about this, but it"s hard to believe Alice"s words, apart from my inability to trust my memory.
That"s why I doubted the other side.
Alice"s alcohol tolerance was stronger than she looks, but the best suspect at this point was drunk.
I carefully opened my mouth, looking at her complexion.
“Alice, did you drink that champagne before? How many—”
“I"m not drunk.”
Well, a drunk person never says he"s drunk.
“I swear, I didn"t even drink a gla.s.s.”
Alice flatly denied how she knew what had not been taken out.
“I know you won"t believe it up front. That"s why I haven"t been able to tell you this before.”
“So you mean … are you serious?”
“A little later, Duke Edgar will be looking for you. Don"t be sensitive about it. He"s not calm so he might do something serious.”
“Oh, that"s a very fable-like advice.”
I looked over the railing for a moment as I couldn"t figure out what to say.
“I don"t really believe it. Nocton has never lost his reason. I don"t know if being calm means anything else.”
“Even if you think so, Roa—”
“Even if he came to terrace, he would be coming to see you, not me. It"s only natural when you"re about to announce your engagement.”
“Ah….”
“I thought you were here to talk about your engagement.”
I tried to keep it secret until Alice spoke first, but her resolution crossed the fence so easily.
Even though I waited for her, I didn"t think she would ever talk about her engagement.
As if I"m the only one who thinks they should tell Roa Valrose about their engagement.
A wailing heart burst out.
“Even if I had a heart for Nocton, I wouldn"t have had any regrets when I was already engaged to another man. In the first place, I"ve said many times that I didn"t love him. Why did you have—”
Didn"t you"re going to tell me that you and Nocton were having a marriage talk?
T/N: and here comes the main story….
I"m sorry for the late update, I"m just losing my mood for translating for the past weeks. But I"m back now.
Also, as usual, I apologize for the bad quality of translation. I know I should do a double-check to make sure everything is right but … after hours of translating, I"m just too lazy to do it— so I hope it"s alright with you.