Chapter 160: Decision
After that incident, Carli apologized to me repeatedly. He felt guilty for not being able to figure out the empress and Paul’s connection due to his lack of ability. Read the translation on itsladygrey.com.
From my perspective, the apology was somewhat unnecessary. The incident wasn’t Sigren or Carli’s fault; the empress must have racked her brain a lot this time. She did quite a good job. No one knew Paul was her pawn. She dealt with Sigren and me separately from the beginning. It was no wonder that Sigren and Carli couldn’t figure it out.
Well, I had been a bit careless too. I thought she would work in a more secretive manner.
Now that I knew the truth, it was understandable why Sigren kept Carli in the palace. Carli followed the empress’s orders and pretended to seduce Sigren to gather information for her.
Yet, there was one reason I still felt angry, even though I could understand the truth: he hadn’t told me at all.
Why didn’t he tell me? Could it be that he couldn’t trust me? Ah… maybe. I was hiding quite a few secrets from Sigren. My secretive behavior might have made him distrust me. Perhaps that was why he wanted to establish an information network that I knew nothing about…
When I considered it that way, everything made sense.
But I had a lot of questions. Why did Carli risk his life to help Sigren? Was he taking revenge for family, unconditionally? I would say that was a weak motivation. Read the translation on itsladygrey.com.
Also, regarding Carlia… she hadn’t even appeared before. She was just part of Sigren’s backstory. Of course, in this world, those background settings were completely different.
A few days passed as I pondered these thoughts while going about my daily life. Abel took care of Paul’s problems, and there was no doubt he would clean up more decisively than I could.
Every night after that day, I noticed footsteps in the garden outside my room, and I recognized their owner.
I grew grumpy hearing them, so I tightened the security of the mansion and randomly changed the patrol route, yet those footsteps didn’t disappear. What a talented guy! How did he manage to come here every day without being noticed?
In the end, one night, as the unextinguished candles slowly dwindled, I opened my window, stepped out onto the terrace, and looked down.
“You don’t want to see my shadow either, so I don’t know what to do.”
So, that was why he only came at night? I felt conflicted by his sincere thought. This straightforward and naive aspect of Sigren weakened my heart. Eventually, I could only reply with a deep sigh. Read the translation on itsladygrey.com.
“Come in.”
I was dumbfounded when I saw Sigren just staring at my window.
“Come in!” Finally, I grabbed his wrist and yanked him inside, then closed the terrace door. If Abel found out I had dragged Sigren into my room at night, there would be a lot of trouble. Wait, no. It was more likely that Sigren would get scolded for hanging around the garden in front of my room for several nights. Even so, I couldn’t avoid seeing him for the rest of my life.
I sat down on the bed and looked up at Sigren. “Do you have something to say?”
Sigren shrugged his shoulders. “If you have any questions, I’ll answer them.”
Was he an NPC that gave quests in some game? Just hovering around a certain area until I talked to him?!
“Anything?”
“Anything.”
But he didn’t have to. There were plenty of things I didn’t want to say either. There was no obligation to tell me everything just because we were lovers. Still, I couldn’t deny that his answer made me feel a little better. Read the translation on itsladygrey.com.
“Why did you hide Carli?”
“It’s a long story.”
“I’ll listen to it all.” I tapped the space next to me.
After my signal to sit down, Sigren seemed a bit relieved. He then sat on the bed at a careful distance.
“First of all, Carli’s mother—my aunt—is dead.”
“I see.”
“My aunt died because she was helping my mother escape with me.”
“….”
“So Carli wanted to get his revenge.”
“And you too.”
“Right, me too.”
Sigren admitted it easily. “That was why Carli dared to pretend to be the empress’s subordinate. He wanted to be someone directly under the empress so he could find out who obeyed her.”
“There must be some nobles in the empress’s faction, right?”
“Yes, I guess.”
Even so, there were many candidates. Counting all the families in the empress’s faction, it wouldn’t be just one or two. Read the translation on itsladygrey.com.
Hearing his explanation, I understood why he had hidden everything about Carli.
Sigren confessed, “I didn’t want anyone to know that I wanted to kill someone and that I was planning it, especially you.”
Everyone knew that counter-aggression was a different scale of action. That was it. Most people wanted to present the best version of themselves to their loved ones, and that was the same for Sigren.
He didn’t want anyone to know that he desired or was plotting something that could lead to the death or complete destruction of a family. This was the deepest part of his heart. Though it had not been revealed to me until now, it clearly existed within Sigren: a murderous intent accumulated from malice and hatred.
If I were him, I would also find it difficult to confidently admit that I was planning to kill someone.
As you go through life, you always have parts of yourself that you do not want to reveal to others. No one is willing to expose their ugliest and most distorted sides to their loved ones.
That was why Sigren hid it from me. Read the translation on itsladygrey.com.
This was his confession.
God, I never thought there would be a day I would find myself in conflict with Sigren.
I glared at him.
This time, Sigren didn’t avoid my gaze.
I covered his mouth with my hand. Read the translation on itsladygrey.com.
Ah, I lost.
Check out my Patreon to read advanced chapters!
