Chapter 4. Breaking off the Engagement
Even while in seclusion, the duke handled affairs with remarkable speed.
He elevated me to the status of the adopted daughter of Count Mares, a loyal retainer, and formally engaged me to Rikael.
The engagement pledge was delivered to both the Grand Temple and the government office, making it officially effective. It took less than a week for all of this to be accomplished.
In an instant, I became the esteemed daughter of Count Mares and the fiancée of the empire’s most handsome man. My name also changed from Roella to Ludia.
With this, the fate I had twisted was beginning anew.
I was fortunate not to be dragged away by my uncle, as in the original story, but I knew better than to let my guard down.
Roella’s abilities manifest at the age of twelve. My uncle and the High Priest, who need my abilities, must be watching me.
The novel I was reincarnated into was a romance fantasy titled ‘The Chronicles of Ailen’, which wasn’t particularly accessible to readers.
I possessed the body of Roella, a supporting character who dies in the middle of the story. Though I hadn’t read to the end, I had read far enough to know her fate, which was fortunate.
For some reason, she suddenly lost the powers she had once used effortlessly. Because of this, she was neglected by the temple and became prey for Prince Ramella.
She knew that her abilities had temporarily stagnated due to the clash of two types of magic within her.
However, after she fell for the prince, she pretended to have lost her powers on purpose to avoid returning to the temple.
Ultimately, deemed useless, she was used in the empress’s scheme and then eliminated.
If Rikael, who was adamantly against marriage, refused to wed me once he reached adulthood, I would have to leave this ducal residence at sixteen.
However, as long as I avoided getting entangled with the prince, there wouldn’t be much of a problem.
It wasn’t as if I had been expecting a comfortable or easy life anyway.
I may have come to another world, but once a soldier, always a soldier.
I would live boldly in this world, embodying the spirit of ‘If it doesn’t work, make it work,’ just as I had before.
More than anything, having magic would make me an even better soldier.
The knights of this family were responsible for defending the empire by stopping the northern monsters from advancing south and keeping the barbaric Gent tribe at bay.
Even if I couldn’t marry Rikael, becoming a knight in the north didn’t seem like a bad option.
That’s why I never neglected my training for a single day.
To one day train alongside the knights, I needed to build my stamina, so I focused on my basic physical strength.
Every morning at dawn, I secretly did military calisthenics and strength training without rest.
Yet despite my efforts, my body was still as soft as a rice cake.
Today, as always, I walked while pretending to take a casual stroll, holding a lollipop that Lisa had given me.
Repeating the cycle of walking and running with my still-weak legs was no easy feat.
Before I knew it, I had reached the central garden, filled with cherry blossom trees. The blossoms had just begun to bloom, adorning the branches beautifully.
Underneath that scenery stood a beautiful boy.
As the midday sunlight filtered through the cherry blossoms and cast its glow upon his face, his beauty reached its peak.
I had thought I wasn’t greedy, but every time I saw him, I couldn’t help but feel a desire stir within me.
I stood there, hesitating between bowing my head or waving my hand, when he suddenly strode toward me and spoke bluntly.
“Break off the engagement.”
His still-clear yet deepening voice rang out coldly.
True to his future as the ruthless and icy Grand Duke of the North, he had no mercy even for a five-year-old.
But you know what? I’m not easy to deal with either.
“Sorry, but that’s not happening.”
I faced off against the nine-year-old boy head-on. Now that I looked closely, he wasn’t just good-looking…his shoulders were already broad, and he was remarkably tall.
Despite his young age, his eyes held an overwhelming intensity, and even a murderous aura flickered within them.
I was then reminded that this boy, as an aura user, was considered the strongest character in the original novel’s world.
It was probably best to lower my gaze, so I relaxed my tense temples slightly.
“Don’t you want to go home? If you just send a message to the Count and say, ‘I want to go home,’ you can return anytime. So why are you staying here, where no one knows you?”
What he didn’t know was that Count Mares wasn’t my real father.
And that place wasn’t my home.
“It doesn’t matter if no one knows me here. I have my own circumstances, so please understand.”
“Understand? Stop talking nonsense. Just break off the engagement.”
“No. In my dictionary, ‘breakin’ off an engagement’ doethn’t exitht.”
In my urgency, I responded informally as well.
It felt satisfying to say, but he looked as if he had just bitten into a bitter bug.
Maybe he was shocked by my boldness, or maybe he was just bewildered by my lisp.
I hadn’t read the novel to the very end, but thanks to spoilers from other readers, I knew how it concluded.
The protagonist, Duke Chris Felic, ultimately executed the prince and his maternal family, the Marquis of Baluja, and ascended to the throne.
Rikael played a significant supporting role in that process, achieving great military feats.
Interestingly, despite Chris being the main character, Rikael was far more popular.
Chris was disciplined and righteous, while Rikael was a war fanatic with a bad-boy persona who remained single until the very end.
His tragic family background also earned him sympathy—losing his parents was bad enough, but even his younger brother, Jake, had died, leaving him with an aversion to having a family of his own.
That was probably why I had liked Rikael more.
In fact, Rikael was the one who later built a proper grave for Roella.
When they happened to meet, Roella had told him about the engagement pledge that Lady Adele had made between them.
Upon hearing those words, Rikael showed no reaction at the time.
Of course, she hadn’t expected him to.
Regardless, Rikael had pitied the deceased Roella and had taken the body, which Aunt Dorothy had secretly buried, and reburied it in a sunnier spot.
He claimed it was out of respect for his late mother, but the author wrote that he had felt sympathy for Roella.
I quietly gazed into his eyes. He had cold, blue irises that resembled the deep sea.
Judging by the look in them now, he didn’t seem like someone who would ever feel sympathy.
“If you won’t break off the engagement, you’ll have to catch snakes, wolves, and even tigers. Can you do that?”
“What are you even talking about?”
“I refuse to live with someone who can’t do that.”
Oh! Now that was something interesting to hear.
So, if I caught those things, could we at least live together?
Thinking about it, one of the reasons Rikael disliked women was that he saw them as weak and bothersome.
In fact, whenever women confessed their feelings for him, he would tell them to catch a snake first if they wanted to live with him.
And without exception, those women would pale and run away.
But who was I?
I had been a member of South Korea’s Special Forces, holding third-degree black belts in Taekwondo and Judo, a second-degree in Special Combat Martial Arts, and proficiency in various self-defense and lethal combat techniques.
How could I possibly be afraid of something as trivial as a snake?
The thought of catching snakes, wolves, and even tigers made my heart swell with excitement.
“So, if I catch a snake, a wolf, and even a tiger, will you not break off the engagement?”
“No.”
He denied it without hesitation. True to his character, he was firm in his stance on staying single until the end of the novel.
Then why did you say something that got my hopes up?
My heart had already swelled with determination! What was I supposed to do now?
“Then why did you bring it up?”
“To scare you. So you’d leave on your own.”
Sorry, but you’ve misjudged me. That kind of thing won’t scare me.
Just wait…I’ll catch a snake with one hand and throw it right in your face.
Of course, that wasn’t possible at the moment. Which meant that, until then, I had to play along and keep him in a good mood.
“I know I’m not to your likin’ now, but if you watch, you’ll see I’m diff’rent. I’ll do my best, so please consider it k’in’dly.”
“…Financially?”
“No, kindly.”
Sorry. My tongue is short. But there’s nothing I can do about that.
I looked up at Rikael with the most polite and pitiful expression I could muster.
It was an attempt to appeal to his sympathy, but he simply let out a short laugh and walked past me.
Well, you can’t expect results right away.
If we see each other often enough, some kind of bond will form.
And when the time comes, if he still doesn’t want me as his fiancée, maybe he’ll at least accept me as a knight.
I was about to resume training when I remembered what Lisa had said—it was almost time for my nap.
Apparently, since I was still young, I absolutely had to take naps.
I didn’t want to agree, but she wasn’t wrong.
There had already been several instances where I dozed off without realizing it while walking around.
No matter how mature my mental age was, I couldn’t push my body past its limits.
I decided to walk just a little more before heading back when I spotted Andy approaching from afar with a maid.
Andy, the youngest of the three brothers, had a small, delicate face and was an adorably cute child.
We saw each other at dinner every day, but the atmosphere was always heavy, so we never had a proper conversation.
I ran over to him and handed him the lollipop I had been holding but not eating.
“Here. It’s candy.”
“Candy? Andy… for me?”
“Because you’re cute.”
The little boy’s face turned pink with shyness as he smiled brightly.
His light green eyes shimmered like fresh spring sprouts beneath his black hair despite his embarrassment.
Unlike his two older brothers, who had violet eyes, Andy’s green eyes probably meant he took after their mother.
“Andy is cute?”
“Yeah. Andy is really cute.”
Andy was the same age as me, but the novel had described him as a slow speaker.
His mother had passed away, his father suffered from depression, and his brothers were always busy with sword training—who would he even have to talk to?
I should be his conversation partner so he could practice speaking more.
“You’re cute too, Nuna.”1Nuna means big sister and is used by younger male speakers.
His blushing cheeks were as pink as peaches as he shyly gave me the compliment.
He was so adorable that I didn’t want to let him go.
“Nuna? I’m not your Nuna.”
“Then what are you? My little sister?”
“No, I mean, I’m your sister…in-law?”
We weren’t married yet, but people sometimes addressed their betrothed with such terms early on, didn’t they?
“What’s a sister…in-law?”
His bright green eyes sparkled with curiosity as he repeated the unfamiliar word.
The way his eyes gleamed showed that he found this conversation fun.
Alright, then.
I might as well start by making this youngest one my ally.
