HTNSA 13

Chapter 13

Eila decided a slight performance was necessary—agitating Kadin further right now would serve no purpose.

“Kadin, why are you suddenly so angry…?”

“Was he the reason you broke off our engagement? You threw me away for this peasant?”

Under his interrogation, Eila feigned flustered hesitation before speaking.

“‘Threw you away’? I don’t understand. Felix got injured helping me—I was just treating his wounds.”

For a moment, the rage clouding Kadin’s mind stalled.

‘Was it… just a misunderstanding?’

Her genuinely confused expression cooled his temper. Now that he thought about it, the idea was absurd.

A woman of her former status wouldn’t suddenly develop feelings for a lowborn nobody.

‘Right. Eila could never be interested in anyone but me.’

Just as he reassured himself—

“But…”

Eila’s next words punched through his chest.

“Didn’t we agree to annul the engagement? The families have practically finalized it.”

She stared at him, baffled. “Who I see now is none of your concern.”

Kadin’s pupils trembled.

“……”

Logically, she was right. They were no longer tied.

Yet the thought of her with another man coiled like poison in his veins.

‘Why does this infuriate me?’

He didn’t love her.

But the possibility of her slipping away paralyzed his reason—as if Felix, a commoner, had stolen what was his.

“No. I have every right to interfere.”

He strode forward and seized her wrist.

Eila winced at the pressure, but Kadin didn’t relent.

“I told you to stay by my side. I never permitted you to leave.”

‘A fragile commoner like you—

‘—could never defy me, in status or strength.’

He didn’t voice it, but his warning glare should’ve sufficed. Eila had always been perceptive.

Then—

“Let her go.”

Felix wedged between them, forcibly prying Kadin’s grip loose before shielding Eila behind him.

Kadin’s face twisted.

“What strength—”

Disgust curdled in his stomach at the sight of this peasant acting like Eila’s protector. Worse, being physically overpowered by a commoner burned his pride.

“Can’t you see she’s uncomfortable?”

“Uncomfortable?”

Only then did Kadin properly observe Eila: cradling her reddened wrist, tears glistening as she stared at him with—

‘Since when were her eyes this cold?’

The woman who once gazed at him with adoration now looked at him like he’d wounded her.

“You… truly despise me now?”

Unthinkingly, he reached to touch her cheek—

She flinched away, hiding fully behind Felix.

Kadin could only watch, hollow.

“……”

Eila, too, was baffled.

‘Why’s he acting like this? I thought he’d give up once I made myself clear.’

Kadin had flaunted his dalliances with other girls before, snapping at her if she protested:

““Doubting me again? You’re insufferable.”*

“If you’re so unhappy, go find someone else.”

‘Insufferable’—his favorite word for her.

‘So why this reaction?’

His devastated expression—as if she’d betrayed him—almost made her laugh. But she leaned into the act, summoning a sorrowful tone.

“I told you last time, Kadin. We can’t be together. Unless you renounce your title.”

(Of course, she’d never take him back, even as a commoner.)

‘Not that he’d ever stoop to that.’

Her words seemed to strike home. Kadin staggered back, then turned without another word.

Status wasn’t a barrier he could dismantle now.

“We’ll talk later.”

“No. We’re done.”

He left, his earlier arrogance shattered.

Once Kadin was gone, Eila exhaled.

‘Ugh. Dealing with him is exhausting—wait, no. This works.’

‘Now I don’t need to explain myself to Felix.’

She needed Kadin out of her way. Along with Roshia and Freya, he was an obstacle to her academy life—one she’d need Felix’s help to dismantle.

Felix, ever the knight, frowned in concern. “Are you alright?”

‘Good. The act worked.’

This version of Felix was predictably chivalrous, softhearted toward the vulnerable.

She offered a fragile smile. “A bit shaken, but I’m fine. Thank you, Felix.”

His blue eyes narrowed behind his glasses. “What are you?”

“I told you. Eila.”

“Why ask me to fake a relationship?”

She scratched her cheek sheepishly. “You saw how my ex-fiancé harasses me.”

Felix grimaced. “He’s… pathetically persistent.”

Eila stifled a laugh. Now wasn’t the time.

Summoning her most pitiable expression, she continued:

“Kadin was my fiancé. When he learned I wasn’t the Blanche heiress, he demanded I become his mistress.”

Felix’s face darkened.

“I refused. Now he won’t let go. I don’t… want to be his plaything.”

As a knight-in-training, Felix couldn’t ignore a woman in distress.

“Other nobles would side with him. You’re my only hope.”

“But I’m a commoner. I can’t even use mana.”

Guilt pricked her. She’d approached him precisely because she knew his future potential.

‘Soon, you’ll be neither commoner nor mana-less.’