It was as if he was asserting that Valentin was a gold digger and marriage hunter seeking only the best match. That statement just made Valentin snort.

“I didn’t know you’d remember so well what I said in my foolish days.”

Should I be touched? Valentin sighed and retorted without backing down. This made Evener look even more irritated.

‘Why is this situation happening…’

They were better off not seeing each other’s faces. How idle and with nothing to do must he be to come all the way here to pick a fight… He had such a strange personality that it was impossible to understand what he was thinking.

“As I said five years ago, I had already completely given up on the idea of getting engaged to Prince Clifton then. You must have known that too.”

“You mean when you refused in your family’s name?”

“Yes. It wasn’t accepted in the end, and it dragged on until recently due to the Empress’s circumstances.”

“Ha!”

“But in the end, it was accepted and everything went as you wanted.”

Valentin looked straight into Evener’s eyes and said,

“So I really wish you’d stop, Evener Luwin.”

It was a sincere and earnest request.

The sight of them sniping at each other started to look suddenly pathetic. Valentin took a step back with a big sigh. It meant there was no reason for them to fight like this when everything was over.

But the other party didn’t accept the ceasefire proposal.

As if he had come to vent his anger, Evener kept talking endlessly.

“No, I’m just saying this because I’m really surprised.”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you have some kind of antenna? For finding good matches, good alphas?”

He came right up to Valentin, his eyes bulging, and continued to spout whatever he wanted to say.

“Is it because you thought it wouldn’t work with Prince Clifton, so you turned in this direction? That’s what I want to ask.”

Was that exaggerated shrug and those words really his true purpose…

“You’re clearly misunderstanding something…”

“And you wanted to keep the Prince’s heart unsettled until the very end, right? Enough to ride in a carriage together after Count Osborne’s charity concert?”

Now his eyes seemed to be spinning with madness.

‘How did he know about that…?’

Looking at those eyes that already seemed to have gone off the deep end, Valentin felt dizzy, not knowing where to start explaining or how. The nausea and migraine that had already come due to pregnancy seemed to be getting worse.

“I wonder what on earth you babbled about in the carriage, I heard the Prince even sent flowers the next day. I really want to know how you were born with such a skill for enchanting alphas, I’d even pay money to learn it.”

“…This is absurd.”

“No, I’m really curious. Let me know too.”

“……”

“What did you say that made the Prince send flowers?”

Evener must have also placed an informant, not fully trusting Clifton, his lover. The nuance was as if he had heard it from a third party, not the person involved… Valentin let out a hollow laugh as he heard him reciting the superficial facts that had existed between himself and Clifton in detail.

It’s frustrating… Valentin unbuttoned near the collar of his shirt and opened his mouth.

“I understand well what misunderstanding you’re having. But it seems you don’t know Prince Clifton’s true feelings, so I’ll tell you here today.”

He couldn’t bear the sarcastic remarks any longer. Evener had found the wrong person to be angry at.

Valentin couldn’t resist the urge to accurately tell him about Clifton’s statements and speculations that he had heard.

“Listen well. I’m not the one you should be picking a fight with.”

“……”

“The Prince bluntly said he wanted to maintain the engagement with me, separate from being lovers with you.”

“What?”

“I also bluntly refused when he tried to persuade me, saying I would be a great ally in his political move towards the throne.”

Remembering his words again made Valentin’s teeth clench. He had to be the most shameless and worst alpha he knew. Remembering Clifton’s shamelessness made Reynard’s shamelessness seem cute in comparison.

“And he even spoke about you. He said, ‘Evener is smart, he’ll understand everything.'”

But the face of the one hearing this truth right now didn’t look like he understood at all. Rather, his eyes looked shocked, but Valentin ignored this and continued speaking.

“Can you believe it? When I asked if he wasn’t sorry to you, that’s how he answered.”

“To me…”

“And to that, I firmly refused. I said that since five years ago, the only thing I wanted was not to be engaged to His Highness, and that thought is still ardent now.”

“……”

“I even told him how much effort I put into nullifying that engagement, and how relieved I felt when it actually happened.”

Once the floodgates opened, the stories that had been frustratingly pent up until now flowed out ceaselessly. Cracks were forming in the dam of his heart, and they were invading through those cracks and over the top. It was on the verge of overflowing.

“This can’t be…”

Evener shook his head with a bewildered face.

“Right. You never believed me from the old days. Shouldn’t you have believed what I said after that more than the immature words I said at 15?”

He couldn’t understand why he lived so bound by the words a foolish boy had said. Valentin looked at Evener’s trembling eyes and drove the nail in.

“You’ve always been like this, haven’t you? As if your Prince is some incomparable, great jewel. As if I would covet him until the end.”

It’s pouring out.

It’s pouring down.

The honest feelings that had been pressed down and stored up were finally overflowing, breaking the dam and pouring out.

It was unstoppable.

“But Evener Luwin. I’ll say this last thing, so listen very carefully.”

“……”

“He might be a jewel to you, but he’s absolutely not to me. I’ve known that since five years ago, and even if someone forced it into my hands, I don’t want it. No! Rather, I absolutely decline.”

The merciless flood attacked the one facing it without mercy.

Valentin’s head was burning hot with anger. Who would want to take on a death flag? Who would choose to hold a bomb that would explode with time? It might be the pitiful point of a reincarnator bearing the truth of the original story alone, but truly, he had never been this angry and frustrated before.

‘How long do I have to endure this humiliation?’

Moreover, such a nasty person. An opportunist who arbitrarily uses others’ hearts and an ambitious person like that is declined from this side. He was someone who would discard people at any time when their usefulness was over, even if they were by his side. Without a shred of conscience.

The dam completely burst and the poisonous truth poured out.

“I won’t take it even if you give it to me.”

Absolutely not.

As those words were spat out from Valentin, the nervously trembling eyes were once again filled with madness.

“How dare you…!”

The absence of reason revealed the reality of madness as it was, blatantly.

Evener’s eyes instantly reddened and his pupils constricted. His lips twisted and the white teeth in the mouth spitting poisonous words were revealed threateningly, like the fangs of a beast. Although there didn’t seem to be any particularly sharp parts like canines, it was enough to reveal an aggressive feeling.

It felt like visually experiencing a person suddenly going mad. Valentin was witnessing the sight of his own collapsed dam of reason destroying even the other person’s reason right before his eyes.

It was the contagion of venom.

The mind that had been thinking only of all kinds of negative things destroyed each other with words.

Evener, trembling all over his body and both hands, raised his fingers and grabbed Valentin’s arms. The strong grip that seemed to have transformed into hooks dug into his arms. As if wanting to tear and destroy something, very strongly.

“Ah!”

Evener, who seemed to have changed into a different person, opened his mouth.

“How dare you say such things? How dare you, not knowing your place…?”

“Let go of this…!”

“You, from a nouveau riche family with nothing but money…!”

“Evener Luwin…!”

Madness-filled eyes were burning right in front of Valentin. His body was trembling, and blood vessels were bulging all over.

“How dare you look down on me, you who have nothing but that precious trait and a pretty face?”

His voice was so rough that it was impossible to think it was the gentle and kind voice he used to deal with people. The content was also close to a quiet scream. Although it was a small voice that only Valentin could hear, chewed up close, the desperation was enormous. There was not a trace of his angelic appearance that he always had in front of others.

He gripped so tightly that the held arms felt like the skin was being torn even though he was wearing clothes. And Evener shook those hands roughly while still gripping tightly. With both arms caught by him, who was larger in build than himself, Valentin could only shake helplessly like a dry branch. The seams of the loosely fitted ceremonial clothes were torn and burst. Thread ends stuck out messily.

“Did you get cocky because the Empress favored you? What? You won’t take it even if it’s given to you?”

“…Calm down!”

“How dare you! The Prince! And how dare you pity me!?”

Fingers like a raptor’s claws now came up and started to grab and tear at Valentin’s neck area. The first button near the neck flew off due to Evener’s pulling force. As his hands moved to the neck, Valentin tried to push Evener away with his freed arms, but it wasn’t easy. The strength of a person who has lost their reason was so strong that Valentin’s strength simply couldn’t stop it.

“Have you lost your mind because people want you and support you?”

“…It hurts! Stop, please…!”

Valentin’s words, trying to dissuade him while shrinking back in front of someone who looked like he might strangle him at any moment, were cut off before he could finish.