Chapter 53 How To Seduce Him
After returning from the factory, Delphine kept to herself for a while.
To avoid raising any suspicions, and to keep an eye on Ioannes’ behavior for the time being.
With the massive amount of phosphorus she’d brought with her, she didn’t need to go to headquarters for a while.
As it turns out, the risky move was not in vain.
The biggest topic of conversation in the capital these days was the suddenly galvanized movement to liberate the Wall.
Ioannes spent more and more time away from his manor as the days passed.
It seemed as if there was no hiding it anymore, and newspaper articles about the reactionaries of District 3 were appearing daily.
Most of them were negative, claiming that they were harming the glory of His Majesty the Emperor and the well-being of the Empire.
“… I see you’ve been very busy lately.”
And so it was that she sat down to breakfast with Ioannes after a long absence.
As Delphine sipped her strong black tea gracefully, she nudged the man sitting across from her.
It’s been a while since she had breakfast with him, and it’s been a while since they had this conversation.
“… Yes.”
The man, who showed no signs of fatigue despite his grueling work schedule, lifted his lips gracefully and smiled.
“It’s almost the end of winter, isn’t it, and it’s rat season.”
His tone was nonchalant, as if he were actually a rat catcher.
If she stabbed him with a dagger instead of a needle, she didn’t think she’d draw a drop of blood.
Now that she had a vague idea of what he was doing out there, Delphine couldn’t help but feel a shiver run down her spine.
The mask he wore was thicker, colder, and more solid than she had imagined.
‘Do you think I can completely unmask such a man?’
Staring at him with a shaky gaze, Delphine recalled what had happened a few weeks ago when she teleported from the human factory to their headquarters.
***
“The Marquis of Pride is a man of inhumanly sharp senses.”
Belly told her, before Lynn teleported her back to the manor.
“I would suggest that Lady… no Delphine stays in the manor, as we may be on his tail for a while.”
Nodding her head in agreement, Delphine told them all about Ioannes’s past, something she hadn’t been able to tell them until now.
That Ioannes was actually a commoner slave working in her manor.
That he had been sold for pennies by his mother, who, as far as he knew, worked in a brothel in District 3.
… And that they had shared something resembling a childhood friendship.
The look on Belly’s face when she finished telling her story.
He always had an angelic smile and a kind way with words, but he seemed like a different person then.
He looked like a street gambler or a cold-blooded hunter.
For a long moment, he remained silent, contemplating something.
“Lynn. Would you mind giving me a moment?”
A puzzled Lynn looked away, and the two of them were alone in the room.
When Belly finally opened his mouth to speak, what he said was a bit too shocking.
“… Delphine. You have agreed to join us after today.”
As she nodded with determination, he added with a grim expression.
“My first command is this:… Pride. Make him fall in love with you.”
Delphine’s eyes widened at the unexpected command, like a sailboat in a storm.
Love?
Belly, who had been watching her with a silent gaze, asked her nervously.
“Can you do it?”
Could she?
When she couldn’t come up with an answer easily, he repeated.
“As I told you last time, the greatest enemy of the Wall Liberation Movement is Pride, the man.”
“…”
“If we can capture that man, we’ll be able to get a lot of information out of him.”
In other words, he wanted her to act as a mole close to the Emperor and Ioannes.
She does.
Another order that makes sense.
Belly, as always with his orders.
It was also a role for which she could think of no one better suited.
Delphine hesitated for a long moment, then finally nodded.
“I see… No, I get it, Belly.”
It was time to stop bickering now that they were comrades in arms.
Belly smirked at the answer that revealed his resolve.
“Don’t let anyone else know about this mission… Especially Lynn.”
A faintly guilty smile flickered across his face as he added the last part.
***
“Please don’t forget, this is all for the greater good.”
… It’s been two weeks since she heard those orders.
It’s the first time she had a proper conversation with him in all the time she spent in the manor, with Ioannes too busy to notice.
To make him fall in love with her… How could she do that?
“… I think you’ve dried out a bit, My Lady.”
Ioannes said suddenly, watching her rummage aimlessly through the food on her plate.
“Perhaps I should tell the maids to mind their meals.”
Delphine looked at the man before her without replying.
He is sweet.
He cares terribly for her, sometimes sacrificing his own body to save her.
But can you really call that love?
… No.
Her heart sank heavily as she questioned herself.
How can love be a feeling that is masked and built on lies?
The unexplained devotion and obsession he had shown her were too low and corrupt to be associated with the sublime emotion of love.
They were the product of a childhood long past, now rotting in the mud.
The question she asked him on the night of the full moon, “You liked me, too,” was wrong at its core.
In hindsight, he had never even liked himself, let alone loved.
It was just a sense of entitlement from a miserable childhood, a longing for something she didn’t have.
And a twisted sense of self-satisfaction.
… But even if his feelings were nothing more than an obsession, Delphine didn’t really want to go this far against him.
For the sake of the beautiful boy who was her only comfort. For the memory of their once innocent childhood.
‘You can’t do this.’
To steady herself, Delphine recalled Ioannes’s face from that day.
The way he’d looked at the human carts with his icy gaze.
‘Let’s bury our guilt deep in our hearts.’
As Belly said, for the greater good.
From now on, all she cares about is making him truly love her.
“… I’m fine, you’re the one who seems to be struggling.”
At her words, his hand, which had been gracefully tilting his teacup, paused.
This is a good time for her, while the man is busy trying to single-handedly stop the barrier liberation movement from bursting out all over the place.
Delphine added, smirking slightly at the man.
“Cheer up.”
The man’s cold eyes instantly warmed.
But, as if not wanting to reveal that his heart had melted at her words, he feigned a nonchalant tone and said, “Oh, My Lady.”
“My lady, I see you have something you want from me again.”
Ouch.
For a moment, her heart sank.
Delphine forced herself to maintain a graceful smile.
“What do you mean by that?”
“You always ask me so sweetly when you have something you want, like going to the recital.”
She had noticed it then, too.
But it was something that could be passed off as ordinary wifely affection.
Delphine laughed, her emerald eyes twinkling with emotion.
“I’m embarrassed for you, if you must be.”
For once, he didn’t bother to hide his expression, and the corners of my mouth twitched.
“… So, what do you want this time?”
He asked, sounding a little choked up.
Delphine spoke up immediately.
“If I tell you, you’ll listen, right?”
“Anything.”
He replied immediately, then added with a serious face.
“I told you, My Lady, that I would give you whatever you wanted, whatever it was, in three days.”
He had whispered so sweetly that he would give her anything, but when she begged so earnestly, he had not given her a shred of truth.
She made her face the horrors of man-hunting herself.
So she doesn’t believe him.
‘Make that man love me?’
Does he even know what love is?
Is he even capable of loving someone properly?
“What I want is…”
She doesn’t want all that jewelry, she doesn’t want a fancy dress, she doesn’t want a comfortable life in a manor.
All she wants is freedom and a true life.
… And for that, she’ll have to take his heart.
But instead of saying so, Delphine smiled brightly and suggested.
“Let’s go… Out.”
“Oh, no. I thought I told you you were welcome to do that.”
She lied.
He’d given her an escort and a maid to keep an eye on her every move.
In the past, she would have retorted, sharpening her blade.
Then again, this gentle, peaceful atmosphere would have evaporated in an instant, and the man and himself would have snarled at each other like bared-toothed beasts.
So instead, Delphine batted her eyelashes and whispered softly.
“… Why did you marry me?”
The man made a slightly uncomfortable face at the somewhat offhand remark.
