Chapter 190: You're Forgiven!
Chapter 190: You’re Forgiven!
On the southern side of Rosa City lay the vast Sorofyas’ manor. Charlotte Sorofya stood beside a window, listening to the light chirpings of a morning bird beyond the windowpane. The sun’s rays gently shone in on her, making her auburn hair look like flickering flames.
It had been two hours since her presentation in the meeting room. With her mind preoccupied with Roel, there was no way Charlotte would loiter around the meeting room afterward. In fact, she rushed all the way back to her residence as soon as she could. She knew that Roel should be waking up any time now based on the effects of the spell,
Three days ago, ever since she cast a spell to knock out Roel on the mountain peak, she had been feeling very uneasy inside.
She knew that her actions didn’t just bring about external problems; Roel’s own reaction could pose a problem too. There wasn’t much gender discrimination in this world as the presence of mana and transcendents meant that women were no weaker than men, and this was reflected in their standing too. However, the pride of a ruler was still extremely important, and there was no doubt that Roel carried himself in the manner of a ruler.
The Ascart Fiefdom spanned huge swathes of land, and its military prowess far surpassed that of a typical small country. It wouldn’t be inaccurate to deem it as an independent little kingdom on its own, and Roel was the proxy fief lord of such a place. It went without saying that he was bound to be somewhat prideful.
Charlotte’s forceful method of kidnapping Roel, if taken badly by him, could destroy the feelings they had built up thus far. While she did have a good grasp of his personality after all they had been through, this move was still very risky. She dared not take any chances, so she was determined to try to make it up to him in any way possible, just as she had promised him under the starry sky that night.
Hundred Birds Gallery was a huge garden situated in the southwest region of Rosa City. At one point the location was used as a military command center, after the city defenses had been breached by the Austine invaders, and the area was kept under tight security. However, as peace settled in, the military defense ramped down, gradually relaxing. Now, the former base had become the private property of the Sorofya House.
To be more specific, it had become the private residence of Bruce and Charlotte. As Bruce was constantly busy with work, it had pretty much become Charlotte’s personal property.
Hundred Birds Gallery was named after the hundred species of birds that lived in its gardens. These birds used to be trained to relay critical military intelligence to the various sentry posts located throughout the city, which was why it was used as a military command center. One must know that the archers in this world had their arrows augmented with magic, which significantly boosted the accuracy of their shots. Ordinary birds would be easily shot down by a decently trained archer. For that reason, Rosa could only purchase avian demonic beasts and tame them in order to do the job instead.
Knowing that each avian demonic beast had its own weaknesses and counters, the Sorofyas chose to vary the species as much as possible, thereby ensuring the reliability of their military intelligence system as much as possible. As the war dragged on and on, the bird population continued to grow more and more diverse. Before long, there were already a hundred species in residence.
Then, all of them got retrenched all at once.
When the war came to an end, the soldiers returned to their own homes, but the meritorious birds had nowhere to go anymore. Out of nostalgia, the Sorofyas chose to raise them in their own home. They even erected tombstones for a few of the birds who relayed critical intelligence in trying times. These birds were heroes.
Charlotte had grown up accompanied by her servants and these birds, so she was very fond of this place. She hoped that her lover could share her feelings too. Also, the soothing presence of these birds could aid his recovery.
However, to Charlotte’s surprise, it seemed like she had miscalculated Roel’s condition…
“Darling isn’t awake yet? How could that be?”
Hearing the words of the servants, she quickly rushed into her bedroom and headed right toward her bedside. This room had always been her private territory. To date, not a single man had entered this place before. Unless she gave explicit permission, even the servants of the residence could only report to her from outside the room using communication magic. The only one who had the right to knock on her door was Grace.
But there was an invader in her private territory at this very moment.
Charlotte looked at the sleeping black-haired boy with a worried look in her eyes.
Why hasn’t he woken up yet? Did I fail to control the spell properly? Or is Roel’s body weaker than I estimated?
Charlotte frowned in confusion. Just as she was about to take a closer look, she suddenly noticed something different about the little bottle she had placed beside Roel’s pillow. It was the Golden Soul she had concocted as soon as she returned so that she could deposit a spell in it to serve as a sedative to alleviate Roel’s condition whenever she wasn’t around. However, it was now slightly misplaced from how she had remembered it…
This is weird. I remember placing it vertically, but it’s horizontal right now. This is…
Staring at the glowing bottle, Charlotte’s lips curled into a smile. Without saying a word at all, she slowly walked over and lightly pinched the nose of the ‘sleeping’ boy.
It might be impossible to wake a person only feigning sleep, but there were always ways to deter the behavior. For instance, causing a lack of oxygen.
Five seconds…
Ten seconds…
When Charlotte counted to the fifteenth second, the ‘sleeping’ boy suddenly quietly opened his golden eyes to stare into Charlotte’s emerald ones. Then, he raised his hand and lightly slapped her hand aside.
“Pfft!”
Charlotte couldn’t help but chuckle at this situation. Surprisingly, Roel didn’t criticize her for that. He sat upright and looked at Charlotte with a polite smile on his lips. As if someone who had just woken up and didn’t know anything at all, he greeted her with a composed tone.
“Good morning, Miss Charlotte. Pardon me, I didn’t think that I would sleep for such a long time. May I know where we are at the moment?”
Roel’s attitude, smile, and words were impeccably polite, but it only caused Charlotte’s heart to sink.
Politeness was a weapon that Roel hadn’t used against Charlotte for a long time. It was used in the circle of nobility to achieve one’s purpose without revealing any openings for others to fault. Even though they used this weapon against one another at the start, they swiftly dropped it as they got closer to one another.
Yet, Roel chose to bring it out at this juncture. This could only mean that he was really angry this time around.
This maneuver was an indication that their relationship had regressed to a point where they needed common civility in order to prevent relations from deteriorating any further. It was similar to how countries, for the sake of maintaining peace after signing a ceasefire, despite truly wanting to obliterate one another, chose to bury their rage deep in their hearts and maintain a smile on their faces.
The situation probably wasn’t as severe as that with Roel, but Charlotte was still greatly concerned about it. It was also the reason why she rushed back in the first place.
“Darling, you said that you would forgive me…”
Faced with Roel’s silent reproach, the esteemed Charlotte lowered her head silently before speaking with a slightly choked up voice. It made Roel’s expression loosen for a moment, but he swiftly tensed it up once more right after.
As Charlotte had an important meeting to attend, she wore a formal light-blue dress which gave her a mature charm. The earrings and necklace she wore were carefully chosen to compliment her dress, accentuating one another. She tucked her auburn hair by the side of her shoulder, which made her look more graceful than ever.
Without a doubt, Charlotte was intentionally dolling herself up for Roel. She was dressed differently from the traditional Sorofyas’ attire, sporting a more conservative look than usual. However, dressing this way made it easier for her to earn goodwill as well, making one unable to bear berating her.
Roel could see through her intentions, but admittedly, her little tricks were indeed useful. When she turned her glistening eyes away and silently wiped her eyes, he found himself sighing helplessly as well.
For someone as young as Roel’s age to accrue significant accomplishments as the proxy fief lord, there was no doubt about his competency and decisiveness. However, when it came to dealing with those whom he was close to, he always ended up faltering. He was simply too much of a softie when it came to the people he cared about.
Roel was aware of his own shortcomings, and he had been wanting to overcome them all this while. However, those whom he was soft-hearted toward simply didn’t make it any easier for him, be it Alicia who always stuck by his side or Charlotte whom he had been through difficult times with.
There was no way he could bring himself to hurt them, so after a long moment of silence, he found himself unable to say anything hurtful to her at all.
“Haaa. Tell me why.”
Under Roel’s questioning, Charlotte finally revealed her thoughts, from her worries that they would never be able to meet again to the necessity of the Golden Soul in his treatment, and the clues they had heard regarding the Twilight Sages Assembly. The reasons she came up with surprised Roel, leaving him at a loss of words.
Hmm? She seems to be making a lot of sense here?
Roel didn’t allow it to show on his face, but his anger had slowly receded after hearing her explanation. Most of what Charlotte said was rather objective, and they were problems Roel failed to consider due to his poor condition in recent days.
If he had returned to the Ascarts’ manor injured, Alicia was likely to kick up a huge fuss, and Nora would definitely use this matter to attempt something. Now that he thought about it, it might be a good thing to have come to Rosa with Charlotte.
With such thoughts in mind, Roel sighed softly. Charlotte, on the other hand, sharply noticed Roel’s expression softening a little, so she made full use of this opportunity to push her agenda ahead.
“Darling, you said that you would forgive me as long as I’m willing to make amends for my mistake.”
“I did say such words, but that depends on the context as well. Do you think that the same can be applied to this situation?”
Thinking about the conversation they had under the starry sky in the Worun Mountain Range, Roel clutched his forehead and shook his head. He should have known that she was up to something when she asked a question like that.
Make amends? For a fiasco of this level, how exactly do you want to make amends?
Roel’s response made Charlotte panic a little. She quickly picked up a bell on the bedside table and shook it lightly. A few seconds later, the doors opened, and the servants pushed a huge cart filled with multiple crates into the room.
“Darling, here are a million gold coins. It’s my own private possession. I know that you might think that my actions are a little crass, but…”
“… Say no more.”
“Ah?”
Bedazzled by the golden mountain before him, Roel waved his hand grandly and spoke with conviction.
“You’re forgiven!”