He looked at the situation and determined that it was impossible to continue his mission, so he took out the parchment he had kept in his pocket.

It looked like he was going to run away.

‘Is that a warp portal?’

However, neither Meldon nor Cedric did anything even after seeing him trying to escape.

Rather, Meldon looked at Dalia in the midst of this and made an ‘oh’ sound, and kindly raised his hand to block her view.

‘I’ve already seen everything though.’

The man eventually tore the parchment.

His whole body was enveloped in green light and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

“What are you doing?”

Cedric asked Meldon sharply, who had covered Dalia’s eyes. He answered blandly as he lowered his hand.

“No, just in case he got cut in half.”

“…….”

The side effects of warp portal.

It can separate the upper and lower limbs with a 1% probability.

Dalia was grateful. If it had happened right in front of her eyes…… she didn’t even want to think about it.

“Ah, no, by the way……why do you let him run away?”

Cedric, who was pulling her towards him, smiled at her question. The smile looks chilly for some reason.

“I’m sure he will meet Hikan by now.”

She didn’t know what he meant by that.

However, Cedric didn’t seem to have any intention of interpreting his words right away.

“Let’s talk about it later. More than that, Dalia.”

“Yes?”

“But, should you leave them alone?”

Cedric pointed toward Meldon and Adrisha with his chin.

‘Oh, I forgot about that side.’

Dalia looked over the other side in fear.

She doesn’t know when, but both Meldon and Adrisha were staring at each other fiercely.

The tension between the two was high as if it would break at any moment.

Adrisha spoke to Dalia without taking her eyes off Meldon.

“Dalia, did this person help Dalia?”

It was a calm and gentle voice.

No matter how bad their relationship was, she couldn’t say that he didn’t help her when he actually did.

Dalia nodded awkwardly.

“Yeah. I asked for his help.”

“…….”

“I’m sorry.”

“There is nothing Dalia should be sorry about.”

It was a clear voice. Meldon laughed and asked in an openly sarcastic tone.

“Unknown lady, I saved your tenacious life as well. Isn’t this kind of treatment too much?”

“Meldon.”

Adrisha called him.

Meldon’s body stiffened hearing his real first name. Perhaps he was surprised by the fact that Adrisha called his name.

Dalia also looked at Adrisha in surprise.

Regardless of the two gazes on her, Adrisha spoke calmly.

“Stop it.”

“…….”

“We know each other.”

Meldon’s expression hardened. It was the first time she had seen him like that.

But it’s only for a moment, he soon calmly smiled then turned away from Adrisha and turned to Dalia.

“I’m late to introduce myself again. As the miss’s lady-in-waiting said, my real name is Meldon. As you might have expected, Viscount Arthur Pendleton is the name that I bought.” (*t/n: I use ‘lady-in-waiting’ instead based on the comment suggestion from the few previous chapters hehe.)

“…….”

“This is what your lady-in-waiting wants…… ”

“I’m not ‘your lady-in-waiting’, I’m Yustia.”

“…… Shit. You are really crazy.”

Meldon spat out swear words and turned his head around to stare at Adrisha.

Yustia was Adrisha’s real name in the past, which had not appeared for a long time. Dalia looked at her in surprise.

She faintly smiled.

“We’re friends now, right?”

Her heart felt strangely proud. Dalia smiled and nodded.

“Yeah, that’s right.”

This is fine.

Dalia was somehow convinced of that.

Meldon looked at Dalia in disbelief. His gaze did not fall off easily and continued to cling onto her.

While she was slowly feeling burdened under his gaze, Cedric cut Meldon’s gaze by covering Dalia’s face from behind.

And he said with a soft smile to Dalia who had turned around.

“The two of them must have a lot of things to talk about separately, right?”

“…….”

Dalia quickly nodded. Cedric smiled as if he had been waiting for that response.

“Then, shall we go? If you don’t mind, I’d like to look around this mansion. I heard that you can see the silver beach well from the balcony?”

‘……Does anyone who wants to look around the mansion blow up the entire floor of the first floor?’

However, she held it in because it didn’t seem polite to the person who had come to save her.

She gave up going to the stairs because of the other one that was still sprawled out in front of the stairs going up to the first floor.

Instead, Cedric cast a flying spell on her. He held Dalia’s hand as he stood behind her, and said.

“Lightly stamp your feet.”

Dalia did as she was told. Her body soared in an instant. She lost her balance and stumbled.

“Kyaa!”

Cedric, who flew together, smiled and gave strength to the hand he was holding and helped her to balance.

Thanks to this, the two settled in the hallway on the second floor.

“Is it okay to leave them alone?”

Dalia looked down.

She left because she thought that it was okay, but it bothers her for some reason.

‘No, Adrisha has changed, so it’s okay.’

Didn’t she just say it herself about her past that she never tried to admit before?

Now, there is a high possibility that it will not be like the original. If their emotional gaps don’t deepen, Meldon won’t be obsessed with Adrisha and the story won’t go the way it was.

Besides, there’s Cedric to prevent any situation.

“Both of them will need some time alone.”

Once he said that, Dalia asked with her eyes wide open.

“Do you know what their relationship was?”

“No.”

“Then how do you know if it’s okay?”

“Actually, I don’t know. It’s a lie.”

It’s an absurdly quick confession.

Before Dalia could say anything, Cedric smiled at her.

“I was just annoyed when I saw Meldon looking at you.”

“…….”

He stops Dalia from speaking more like this again. She then changed the subject.

“How did you get here?”

“Of course I came to save you.”

Why did she ask such an obvious question?

Somehow, she was relieved to hear that.

Dalia looked at the boy who eventually died on all routes of the original work. Never loved anyone on any route.

He came to save her.

That fact evoked indescribable feelings for Dalia.

She thought he was going to say something casually again, but unexpectedly, Cedric just smiled and didn’t say anything more. Then-

“Dalia, I’m sad.”

His words shocked her.

* * *

“Kyaa!”

After Dalia and Cedric disappeared leaving with only her scream, only Meldon and Adrisha were left in the basement, which was now the first floor.

Meldon turned to Adrisha, gritted his teeth.

“Did you go crazy while we haven’t seen each other? You said that you would give up the name from your hometown and us for the rest of your life, but now you’re saying that name in front of me again?”

“……I just realized that running away is meaningless.”

“Ha.”

Meldon chuckled.

The ‘us’ he refers to were the children from Adrisha’s hometown where she grew up as a child.

Among them was Meldon. Together, they grew up under Verix.

Some were sold to other countries, some died, some went missing, and some were rescued by the Emperor’s relief work.

Meldon chose to become Verix’s adopted son in order to survive early.

Adrisha didn’t understand him who chose the easy path. For betraying their colleagues, she despised his choice and said that she would break ties with him. She said that she would fight back even if she had to die.

However, instead of dying in the fight, she survived through the Emperor’s relief work and lived with a false identity under the Emperor.

Only both of them that were still bound by their hometown.

When they met again, he resented and hated her, but acted like a stranger.

He despised her for surviving shamelessly and accused him of betraying everyone. At the same time, he turned away from her.

Pretending to not know her past at all and living a new life alone. But now she’s going to accept the past?

The woman named both Adrisha and Yustia looked up at him.

When he saw her again at the folk festival, he didn’t want to make eye contact with her. He couldn’t figure out what on earth happened in that short time.

‘Dalia Pesteros.’

Perhaps that girl changed her. It was certainly that.

‘What kind of person is she?’

How could Cedric look at her like that, and even get jealous of her talking with other people?

Then, Adrisha said.

“I haven’t forgiven you yet.”

“Who asked for your forgiveness?”

“But I know that I’m not a proud human being.”

At her words, Meldon shut his mouth.

He felt something strange. It feels like he has been back for a very long time to hear these words. Or, he felt like he had to go back.

Adrisha’s calm words continued.

“We came from the same hometown. We used to be close. But not anymore.”

Adrisha closed her eyes.

“It’s late, but I’ll admit it.”

With those last words, there was no more word between the two.

Meldon thought of Dalia Pesteros.

The person who smiled casually and made Adrisha brought up her past. He wanted to know what she was like.

At that moment, Meldon’s gaze, which had been wandering on the floor, stopped somewhere. There were red marbles that were randomly thrown over the magic circle that Adrisha had drawn.

‘Did Yustia make it?’

It looks like some high-level magic that has been condensed.

Translator Note: So um..Cedric..are you sad bcs Dalia went for the trip without you??? ☆⌒(ゝ。∂)