<Wasn’t this a strategy game? Chapter 122>

Eden’s ears turned red at the blunt remarks added in. She barely regained her composure and made a persistent attempt.

“I’ve hardly made friends with the servants of the mansion yet. How can the future mistress of the mansion not even know the names of the servants?”

“Ah.”

At that, Jepar let out a short exclamation of understanding.

Did it work?

As Eden’s eyes sparkled, he burst out with anticipation once again.

“There’s no need to worry about that either. In a hundred days, you’ll be with me the whole time, so it’s perfectly alright if the Saint doesn’t know everyone in this mansion. I’ll be your hands and feet.”

The relaxed look in his eyes, as if he knew all her intentions, made Eden feel a prick of anxiety.

‘…There’s no way he really knows, is there?’

Eden swallowed her thrilling tension and managed to smile as if nothing was wrong.

“I worry that if this continues, the Grand Duchy’s work will come to a halt, and the citizens will get frustrated. They likely welcomed the arrival of the Saint, but what if they think that the Saint is stealing the Grand Duke’s precious time every day?”

She was definitely speaking in circles, but contained within was a message to stop talking and get back to work.

Jepar understood all of that yet didn’t erase his relaxed smile.

“Didn’t you tell me to do my work?”

“Yes! Now it’s time for the Grand Duke to do his work too.”

“The most important task for me right now is to do what pleases the Saint.”

His sweet yet deadly words hit out of nowhere, leaving Eden speechless.

He raised his voice slightly, looking at Eden, who was at a loss for words.

“You might not believe it right now, but…”

“…”

“I truly need the Saint.”

His voice, devoid of any habitual hint of smile, felt strangely quiet.

His gaze, directly fixed on Eden, seemed intensely affectionate, almost as if he was genuinely confessing.

For a moment, it made her heart ache.

‘No need to waver at such words. Get a grip.’

Eden coolly avoided his gaze and steeled herself. What Jepar needed wasn’t herself. What he required was a ‘Saint’ who could figure out the information on monsters at a glance and eliminate them with just a touch.

Regardless, there were others who needed her.

“…”

Jepar gazed at Eden, who coldly turned away, for a long while before returning to his usual tone.

“And I’m sure the citizens of the Grand Duchy are hoping for the same. The existence of the Saint will be a source of pride for this Grand Duchy.”

He extended his hand to Eden with a gentle smile.

“Shall we go?”

There were no more words of refusal left. Defeated, Eden blankly stared at his hand before suddenly noticing the brooch on his chest.

‘He wears that every day…’

Instead of a lavish and exquisite brooch, a cheap magic stone brooch given by her was pinned to Jepar’s chest, and it was without exception no matter what he wore.

Could it really be that this shabby gift moved Jepar’s heart to instigate such ridiculous obsession?

With no way to figure out Jepar’s true feelings, Eden reluctantly took his hand and stepped onto the carriage heading to the festival.

As the carriage started moving and gently rocked her body, a chaotic war raged in her mind.

‘Ugh! I can’t waste any more time…!’

If this continued, she wouldn’t be able to handle Jepar, so she needed to think of another way quickly.

Hagen’ti raised his heavy eyelids, as if waking from the depths of the sea.

Somewhere at the entrance of a deepening swamp of death, he felt like he had seen Eden. The embrace that held him felt indistinguishable from dreams and reality.

Eden.

The moment he recalled her, a burning thirst arose. It felt as if seeing Eden was the only way to quench this thirst.

Hagen’ti suddenly sat up and looked around. In the vast room were only a bed and a rickety chair, a space he knew all too well.

‘Did I collapse here?’

That accursed curse once again had consumed him, dragging him back here as though it was instinct.

As he attempted to rise from the bed to go find Eden, the door swung open, and Chediak entered, carrying a tray.

Spotting the awake Hagen’ti, Chediak jumped back in shock, letting out a weird sound.

“Uh…!”

Chediak froze like he’d seen a ghost, finally managing to squeak out a voice.

“You’ve finally… woken up…! Finally!”

A mix of emotion, shock, and exhaustion surfaced on Chediak’s face.

“I… how long I’ve…”

Why on earth is he here?

Hagen’ti frowned for a moment but soon rose as if it didn’t matter, attempting to bypass the frozen Chediak.

No, he intended to, but Chediak’s urgent voice held him back.

“You can’t leave!”

Chediak placed the tray, stacked with hot soup and bread, carelessly on the empty table and hurriedly blocked Hagen’ti’s path.

Hagen’ti looked at the clueless mage blocking him with an indifferent gaze.

“Step aside.”

“No, I can’t. I promised the Saint… I mean, Ms. Eden.”

At the mention of Eden’s name, a spark of light flickered in his previously dull gray eyes.

“…Eden was here?”

“Yes. The Saint entrusted you—no, Hagen’ti—to me before she left.”

With that statement, a heavy sense of yearning surged up from deep within him. As if he sensed it, Chediak quickly added.

“She said she had urgent matters to attend to. She promised to come back. So you must wait.”

Ignoring him, Hagen’ti used teleportation magic to effortlessly pass by Chediak.

“Gah…”

As Hagen’ti started to walk away, Chediak shouted after him.

“You can’t! Are you going to find the Saint? Do you even know where she is?”

Ignoring his shouts completely, Hagen’ti continued walking until Chediak finally pulled out his trump card.

“If you step even a foot outside, you’ll never see her again!!”

At those words, Hagen’ti’s steps suddenly halted.

‘So it works…!’

Chediak, with a triumphant expression, added.

“The Saint told me to convey that those who don’t believe in her promise to return are unnecessary.”

The follow-up remark hadn’t actually come from Eden, but Chediak excitedly exaggerated her words.

The expression frozen in place was filled with deep contemplation.

Having gained the upper hand through Eden’s message, Chediak crossed his arms and spoke cheerily.

“So if you leave now without caring about this, I’ll make sure to report every detail about your escape.”

With that threat, Hagen’ti, who had been frozen in place for a moment, turned to Chediak with cold eyes.

Ronpell was strolling around the eerily silent castle, like always, taking a leisurely walk.

The lifeless quiet of the castle made it seem like it had never known a time of raucous noise.

Since coming here, the castle had been this silent, except for one instance.

‘…When the Saint was here, it felt completely different.’

Remembering the chaos of that day when things got broken and shattered to an extreme degree made him feel a bit faint.

‘Perhaps that pink-haired mage as well…’

At that moment, he thought of the two men glaring at each other as if they only wished to vanish from this world. It sent a chill down his spine.

No, to be precise, each man wanted to disappear from Eden’s side.

“Sigh…”

The tangled love triangle gave Ronpell a pounding headache.

He’d sensed long ago that the sudden appearance of an apprentice priest was shaking the very foundation of his lord’s life.

How many foolish men had he witnessed falling apart and spiraling down into ruin because of a woman?

So, indeed, it was concerning, but Eden and his lord’s relationship was distinctly, no, remarkably different from those types.

“Surely, if it weren’t for the Saint, it would’ve been difficult to come this far…”

Ronpell nodded to himself.

If Eden hadn’t appeared, Asmun’s original plan would have begun, and looking back now, it was a terribly risky plan that wouldn’t have gone smoothly at all.

Thus, the presence of Eden was like a shining sun for Asmun and them, yet that sun also had a deadly trap hidden within.

It burned so fiercely that if the temperature rose even a bit higher, it could consume everything in flames.

“…”

So when Ronpell heard that Eden was going to the Yuren Grand Duchy and that she intended to marry Grand Duke Jepar, he thought his head would explode.

He fervently hoped it was just a rumor, yet when the Saint really left for the Grand Duchy, he felt he might have to surrender to premature resignation.

However, even after Eden left like that, Asmun remained unscathed. He was bizarrely indifferent.

Because of that, the knights, who still remembered Asmun after Eden disappeared, were feeling that his calm demeanor, unchanged from that excited figure, was truly terrifying.

They knew their lord held a unique obsession with the new Saint.

“Is he perhaps truly resigned…?”

Ronpell muttered in confusion, then mocked himself and shook his head.

“No way.”

Ronpell clearly remembered the time he’d seen Asmun’s eyes go wild when the rumors of Eden disappearing from Reblem’s coast started circulating.

There were only two things that could instigate such uncharacteristic greed in his normally cautious lord.

The throne and Eden.

Therefore, Asmun could never let go of Eden so easily.