Chapter 20: 20

—Aileen went on a date.

In one of the rooms of the royal villa, Maynard is playing chess alone and heaves a deep sigh to himself.

Berland has yet to return since his departure to the capital.

The recent week has been full of happiness, having been able to get along with Aileen while weeding, but all his gaiety took a sudden nosedive last night after being informed that Aileen went to the bazaar alone with Firman.

Berland is not here to hear his grumbles, and amusing himself with chess alone is not working either. He was seriously considering spending the entire day sulking in bed.

If it weren’t for the saintess selection debacle, he would’ve still been right beside Aileen.

‘…You damn old fart.’

The one who had their engagement called off was his father, the king.

His father may have been hardpressed to make a hastened decision due to the quick deterioration of the late Saintess Sanya’s health, but that doesn’t change how unreasonable it was to Maynard.

There is no rule that saintesses must be married to royalties.

However, marrying saintesses would inevitably boost a house’s social standing and give them a stronger political voice. This makes it even worse to give them to the church, which is already meddling with politics as they are.

That’s what it means to acquire a Saintess.

Because of that, all of the previous saintesses were wed to the royal family, and their chosen partners are those with the highest standings.

The reason for that is that there are many aristocrats who will install the saintesses’ spouses to the throne.

When the previous saintess was chosen, Maynard’s father, the current king, was already wed to his beloved wife. It didn’t go as far as forcing him to divorce his wife—his younger brother being chosen instead—but unluckily for Maynard, he was not yet married during the selection.

Thus, it became the consensus of the royal family to have Maynard, who is the closest to the throne, obtain the saintess for his own.

When Sanya departed to the afterlife, Rina was said to be the likeliest to become the saintess. The Church, or the Pope, himself, even judged Rina to unmistakeably inherit the title.

The King judged it better to have his Maynard engaged to Lina before the selection in order to avoid the risk of having the lady stolen by another man while they were preoccupied with canceling his previous engagement with Lina. As a result, the prince was not able to resist. 

At the very least, he wanted to keep quiet about the royal family’s consensus.

Having been engaged to Maynard for eighteen years, he couldn’t make it in himself to tell Aileen, who has been bound to the royal family for that entire time, that it was all decided by the royal family.

If he does, she’ll just tell him that there’s nothing that can be done about it.

She’ll compromise and accept everything with the words, ‘It can’t be helped.’

Maynard would hate to hear that from her.

Even if it was inevitable, if she easily backs down just like that, it would sadden him to think that their relationship could be discarded by those words alone.

If that’s the case, he’d rather just be hated instead.

He would rather be hated for being selfish.

—The truth is, Maynard wanted Aileen to chide him when he informed her of the cancellation of their engagement.

He wanted her to insist that it was not just a political marriage, and argue that love has to be factored in it too, but on the contrary, Aileen obediently backed down.

He was disheartened for not being rebuked, but knowing he did not even have the right to feel sad about it made him despair even more.

‘But then… Aileen became the Saintess. Just what was everything for then?’

Maynard mutters to himself as he puts away the chess pieces.

He couldn’t possibly make excuses now and reveal everything.

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If he does so much as to explain the significance of the saintesses to the royal family, Aileen would just accept everything with a sigh and say, ‘I guess it couldn’t be helped, sir’, too.

But Maynard doesn’t want to hear those words from her in this regard either. So instead, he spoke of love for her with all the words he could fumble together, but they were all met with disdain.

Berland called him awkward and foolish for it, but how could he blame him?

Maynard’s first love was Aileen, and he has never experienced any other love than with his former fiancee.

He didn’t need to coax Aileen to get her hand in marriage either, so he doesn’t know of any other means to do so.

He can’t tell her the truth. He doesn’t know how to make advances. The more he talks to her, the more she becomes disdainful of him. He doesn’t even know what to do anymore.

He thought that he was able to earn small forgiveness from her with his weeding endeavors, but then he was told that Aileen went on a date with Firman.

‘This is too much…’

He knew of the mountains of marriage proposals for Aileen.

However, he didn’t think it possible that the lady would be able to immediately find a lover.

Surely, Aileen treasures me deep down—such pride had narrowed Maynard’s vision.

Aileen keeps on bringing up Lina repeatedly, but he doesn’t care about her.

He threw all sorts of complaints to his father— the debacle being his fault for not refusing, but not whining about it would make him mad—and insisted that he would regain Aileen even at the cost of the royal family’s honor. With respect to the circumstances, his father allows it, willing to turn a blind eye to his efforts, and would likely eventually slate the engagement clean if he leaves it be.

The engagement with Lina was not his idea in the first place.

The whole thing was forwarded by his father to Lina’s father, the viscount, so there is no need for him to show any good faith—Not explicitly none, but for now, he can ignore it.

It’s not like he does not feel apologetic to Lina, but if the lady wasn’t so loose-tongued about his engagement with her, or deceitfully spread that she was the saintess, everything would’ve been in order.

Maynard falls prostrating on the chessboard that he was about to put away.

The scattered chess pieces on the surface of the board drop to the floor one after another.

‘Aileen….’ 

The ones he ought to resent are the royal family who wishes to obtain the saintess and his own foolish self.

‘You’re still not done brooding?’

A repulsed voice came from behind prompting Maynard to turn his eyes to the door while remaining prostrated over the chessboard.

Berland who seems to have returned from the capital was leaning on the door frame.

He was one of the few people who knows all the circumstances.

Maynard wanted to explain everything to his other friend, Aileen’s older brother, Orpheus, but if he does tell the young lord, everything would certainly fall into Aileen’s ears so he chose not to. As result, he has completely earned his fury and cannot talk to the young lord presently.

‘Aileen went on a date…’

‘With Firman Adler?’

‘If she has another man other than Adler, I would seriously cry.’

‘Don’t. That would be annoying.’

Berland heaves a sigh and then puts on a serious face.

‘About Firman Adler. I have grasped his background, that man is—’

Maynard raised his face and immediately turned to frown.

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