Chapter 16: Ruben Berner.

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Translated and Edited by: luccayn.
Enjoy!

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My squires approached me, worriedly calling out my name, “Master Ruben.” In response, I loosed the grip on my chest and shook my head lightly, showing I was okay and that they shouldn't worry about me. Keep your hand over your mouth; close your eyes, and breathe. Slowly, I recited inwardly.

“What are you doing? Oddball… Oh yeah, there's something I really want right now—”

My eyes met Lulu’s figure.

In front of me stood the woman I once devoted my heart, whole, to. She was one of those cutesy girls and was the love of my life until recently. But now, in my eyes, that elegance gargled into a demon of thin nails and blood, clattering and hissing her own desires as some sort of mantra. As if she was birthed only to fulfill her own wants and wishes.

With a scroungy exhale, clear words parted my lips.

“I won't revoke the breaking off process.”

“—And that's the thing I… Huh?”

“Why should I accept an offer from the derelict, to begin with?”

“What are you…?”

“I'm certain you've been briefed. However, if you still don't understand, let me be clear: I am the one who broke off the engagement, not you. The discarded party of this process was, in turn, you… Which means, I've abandoned you.”

“Huh? What are you talking about?”

“I've abandoned you. I don't want or need you in my life anymore. Marrying you again? That's ridiculous. Don't mix up your wanton delusions with reality. You know, looking at the real world once in a while is good for the mind.”

She was so tongue-tied, I snorted a laugh.

“…W, what are you even on about?! You left me? Impossible! Y, you've abandoned me? No, no, no, you can't just abandon me. You can't—!”

“Do you want to know why I dumped you?” I interrupted her idiotic ramblings. “It was because of your repeated and unwarranted heterosexual dalliances—to put it bluntly, your cheating. I've warned you about it numerous times, yet you never listened. Being engaged to another means one should be loyal to their partner, be it man or woman. That was reason enough to warrant the breaking off.”

“For that?! Ruben, I told you many times before, didn't I? I am loved because it's only natural for me to be loved. That wasn't cheating. If being loved is called cheating, wouldn't that mean you were also a cheater?”

I've heard her selfish theories more times than I wish I had. Each time I explained to her the situation we were in, namely our formal engagement, she would answer with the same novelette. Honestly, I just wish I could get the time I wasted back.

“I don't care about your ramblings. Let me be clear, again. There will be no recission of our broken engagement. No matter what words you say, in what order, with whatever meaning they hold—it's over. I made the decision to break off our relationship, and the process happened without any hiccups. Thus, you left my life…” I cocked my head slightly. “Ah, forgive me. I left yours.”

It was then that I understood the probable reason why she wanted to see me.

“You said it was only natural for you to be loved, right? But do you really think they ever loved you? The letters, the sweet whispers of passion that lingered, you answered them too, didn't you? Did you ever receive a reply for your letters that ever satisfied you?”

“—!” Her face crooked terribly. “…There were replies.”

“Were all of them apologies? Words of goodbye, perhaps?”

“No, they only said they couldn't see me then! They still think about me all the time!”

“And yet, there was no man who would dare defy the Count of Camell to rescue you.”

“That's…”

“After that, you heard you were being taken to a nearby territory…”

Lulu must've been in a hurry. I've heard she was cured in the territory she was being sent to when she was sick in the past, so perhaps the image of that place conjures bad images in her mind. That is to say, she probably doesn't like the northern territory.

Moreover, she had no contact with her dependable grandparents. The responses she received from them, whom she believed loved her, were not good in the slightest. Neither her parents nor her sister would provide any assistance as well.

So, driven to the edge, she came up with the idea of using me—her former fiancé. Lulu wished to meet me and use my likeness to her advantage, and so that she could go back to the regal life she had.

“Did you really think I would be at your beck and call? That I would be a stool?”

She honestly believes she is owed forgiveness for any act she commits. Haha, how much were your soles licked, I wonder?

My name is Ruben Berner. I am the eldest son of the Count of Berner and have been raised to become the next head of my family. I had instilled in me the essential principles of being a nobleman and ruling over its people.

In the Berner territory, where the sea encroaches and recedes ever-constantly, it was primal to learn how to defend oneself against pirates and other nations' interferences. They are all part of the code of those living by the sea.

That's, perhaps, the reason why the nobles of my family are called the People of the Great Sea. As the impetus of that name and like the raging sea, once angered, we are not easily subdued, regardless of how calm we once were.

Lulu didn't know that, even though she was engaged to a man of that house.

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My dude's a Chad. Damn.

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