“When I was young, I just endured without saying anything, but now I won’t stay still like a fool.”

What…?

Valentin was dumbfounded and could only gape.

‘When did you ever stay still…? Not only me but you also did all kinds of counter-attacks…!’

Remembering the incident at the last social gathering, the tea party 5 years ago, where he had to receive a tea baptism on his head from Evener’s follower and the trivial multiple retaliations, Valentin pounded his chest with both hands like King Kong in his heart.

‘Now you won’t stay still like a fool…’

Valentin felt his mind going blank, not knowing from where and how to explain and clarify his position to Evener and his group.

Could they really believe him even if he persuaded them with logical and eloquent language like a politician giving a speech in the square for election, doing his best? Valentin couldn’t give up the assumption that even that was an overly hopeful thought.

They were not people who would be persuaded by a few words from him and say, ‘Ah, that was your position.’

‘Moreover, if I say something wrong and incur more resentment…!’

Valentin couldn’t open his mouth at all, fearing that if he mumbled and made excuses in front of that face that seemed full of resentment even now, he would gain double the resentment.

Really, this place was a true jungle.

People who wore all kinds of refinement and manners like armor and tore and stabbed the other person with sharp thorns from their mouths, unlike the innocent friends of Sorencia who only knew paintings and sculptures…!

“Ahem.”

Feeling like he had fallen into a jungle crawling with beasts for the first time in a while, Valentin fake coughed and opened his mouth very carefully.

It was an extremely timid attitude befitting a reincarnator who feared saying one word wrong and incurring more resentment.

“It’s truly regrettable that the timing is coincidental.”

I heard that they can’t delay the engagement announcement of the 3rd Prince who already became an adult a few years ago. Valentin expressed deep regret inwardly about the information he heard from Dalton.

Although he couldn’t say it in detail to others, it was a clear truth that he was the person who felt the most regret regarding that part. It’s really unfair, so unfair!

“Ha…! Regret?”

However he took the word ‘regret’, Evener’s expression changed to an even more provoked one.

“I’ll say it clearly one more time, but I have no feelings for His Highness the 3rd Prince.”

Valentin unintentionally held out both palms and explained. Look, see. I have no gun here. I’m really harmless because I have no weapons! It’s unfair, really!

“I mean it.”

Did he feel some truth in those words? Evener’s face softened for a moment. But a few seconds later, as if reaching some conclusion, he suddenly opened his mouth, frowning more fiercely than before.

“Is this something that can be done this way or that way with your feelings?”

The eyes containing hostility visible on Evener’s contorted face… And at the end of it, a whisper of “Her Majesty the Empress…” was spat out between his gritted lips.

What the heck…!?

You already knew everything…!

He seemed to already know that none of this was Valentin’s fault and that it happened because of the Empress’s greed.

Then what the heck do you want me to do?

As Valentin stayed still with a wronged expression, a small but more vicious sound than anything else leaked out of Evener’s mouth.

“If you disappear, everything can return to its place….”

“……?”

*

Thump thump thump.

Valentin ran out of the gallery in a fluster like someone who encountered a ghost, without even looking back.

“Take me to the Wiche Viscount residence.”

His appearance, speaking in a low voice close to the ear so his followers behind him couldn’t hear, with an expression like a messenger from hell who would devour Valentin at any moment, was no different from a crazy person.

‘It’s really dangerous…! He’s out of his mind…!’

Madness could be glimpsed in that appearance.

Moreover, Evener was as big as average beta males…. When someone taller and more built than him pressed down with intimidation, would it be unmanly to say Valentin had no choice but to shrink?

Valentin, who had rapidly become anxious and timid since 5 years ago due to the trauma of a future overshadowed by death through reincarnation…. However, it was fortunate that the fact that his unmanly aspects were no longer that important to him.

Because after recalling the original work, it was his newly established life philosophy that the most important thing was ‘life’, even if he couldn’t become a confident and cool man.

‘What kind of ill-fated relationship are that kid and I entangled in that even meeting harmlessly like this after so long, he can’t hide his murderousness unlike himself…!’

Were we enemies in the previous life too? Or is it the influence of the default setting value set by the author…?

Rubbing his goosebump-filled arms and shivering, seeing Evener whose hatred and resentment hadn’t faded at all during the 5 years Valentin was out of sight, making his escape life meaningless, Valentin felt chills.

He’s a devil. A devil just for me.

Really…. He became even scarier.

I have to avoid the engagement no matter what.

Seeing that appearance, it seemed Evener wouldn’t change no matter how Valentin treated him. It would probably be the same even if he really became a saint like his name. If Valentin’s name kept being attached next to the 3rd Prince’s name like before, Evener would undoubtedly intend to harm him like in the original work.  

Evener’s appearance as if his mere existence made him want to die.

Valentin’s determination that he absolutely must not set foot on the dark path of the original work by any means was further strengthened.

*

What greeted Valentin back home with a scared and shrunken heart was even more of a nightmare. Somehow knowing he had returned, an invitation came from the imperial palace in the name of Empress Beatrice, requesting a light tea time with the 3rd Prince.

An invitation sent from hell…? Trying hard to suppress the creepiness, he tore off the seal of what Dawson presented on a silver tray and checked the contents.

Valentin had no idea he would encounter the two main causes of his greatest fear all today. 

Valentin trembled in fear after reading it.

The Empress definitely wants to proceed with the marriage between Valentin and the 3rd Prince somehow.

If not, there’s no way she would have invited him to a tea time held in the central rose garden of Adellon Park, a place where imperial family members publicly court the person who will become their spouse.

Empress Beatrice who wants to engage him with her son, the 3rd Prince, by any means, and Evener Luwin who will undoubtedly use any means to have Valentin killed and destroy his family if they get engaged.

What is this yoke that he absolutely cannot escape…? 

Is this the power of the original work that he can’t break free from?

It seemed everything in the capital was trying to push him into a terrible future.

‘What the hell should I do? How the hell do I avoid this path…?’

Valentin irreverently threw away the Empress’s invitation and sat down holding his head.

The only thing that swiftly greeted him as soon as he returned to the capital after coming back home was darkness.

Calamity brought upon himself

An old cathedral built over several hundred years by monks, priests, artists, and famous architects of the time. The stained glass attached to the old church windows, which were like relics or works of art, were transmitting the sunlight, drawing shadows of a brilliant and colorful hue on the floor.

The state religion of the Heston Empire was Anglicanism, and the Wiche Viscount family traditionally served the Anglican denomination like any other noble family. Especially due to the Viscountess’s devoutness, it was a weekly occurrence for all family members to attend Mass on Sundays unless a natural disaster occurred.

According to her faith, not attending Mass at the church on Sundays was a very irreverent thing to do.

On this day, like any other Sunday, Valentin was sitting nicely next to his mother, pretending to be docile.

Although his mind was somewhere else, his body was that of an obedient son.

The air was profound, and the bishop’s low but powerful voice penetrated the stillness and dominated the space, but people seemed to be consumed and possessed by the Sandman (* the fairy of sleep; sprinkles sleep sand to make people drowsy) sprinkling sleep sand rather than the voice.

However, there was someone who was not succumbing to the bishop’s sermon saying one must do good deeds to obtain true salvation here, nor to the Sandman sprinkling fine sleep sand… our protagonist, Valentin.

‘Evener Luwin is already wrong.’

His anger and pent-up resentment towards Valentin resembled a huge rock that did not easily disappear and had a clear presence.

It seemed better to give up on persuading him. Because he knew well how unchanging humans were from the human figures he had seen since his previous life.

‘Unless you are reincarnated with memories of your previous life like me or experience a terrible trauma like death, it is impossible for a person to change overnight.’

Valentin knew himself accurately.

Because he himself was a human who wouldn’t have changed like a different person if he didn’t know what his own ending was like in the original work.