#7. The Courage for a Drink
2023.08.07.
The one who had been giving her a headache for the past few days was none other than Chase.
Chase, whom she had expected would agree immediately if she asked to break up, clung to her pathetically, contrary to her expectations.
After returning to the royal palace, he kept sending gifts and letters.
At first, the gifts came once a day. On the second day, they came twice, morning and afternoon. From the third day on, they began arriving without end.
‘Is he trying to win through sheer volume?’
Ellis didn’t even bother looking at them, but she could roughly guess what they said.
‘I suppose he finds me hard to let go of.’
A considerable amount of what Chase possessed, he had gained thanks to Ellis.
‘He must see me as a subordinate he shouldn’t lose, even if he doesn’t love me. Still, I didn’t expect him to cling this much.’
Even when Ellis ignored his letters and sent back his gifts, Chase’s courtship continued.
So, in between reading gossip magazines, Ellis schemed for a way to break up with Chase.
‘He won’t let me break up with him over trivial reasons.’
Ellis knew Chase’s stubbornness well. He rarely went back on a decision once made.
‘He doesn’t have a damn thing going for him, and I suffered so much because of that stubbornness.’
Recalling the past, Ellis let out a sigh.
To overturn the engagement, she had to disappoint Chase enough that he would completely let go of her.
Something he couldn’t hold onto even for the sake of his pride.
‘If that happens, it will become difficult for me to survive in this country.’
Because Chase would threaten her. And who knew what Count Warton would do.
When she should be trying to get in the royal family’s good graces, she was about to make an enemy of them; she didn’t know if they might try to kill her.
She might be imprisoned before she even began her revenge.
But it wasn’t as if there was no way to survive.
A way to annul the engagement with Chase as if it never happened, a way to protect herself. And moreover, a way to repay a debt of gratitude.
Ellis’s eyes blazed fiercely.
“Congratulations, my lady. You’ve turned twenty now.”
“Ah….”
While she had been preoccupied, the new year had arrived.
“What’s so special about the first day of the new year?”
“Even so. This year is special. You’ve become an adult, my lady.”
Warm families would commemorate the first day of the new year or specially celebrate their child becoming an adult, but the Warton family was not such a family.
‘No. It’s not that. I’m just the one excluded from the warm family.’
In the past, she would have felt hurt, but Ellis wasn’t hurt at all. She smiled faintly and said,
“Regina, I’m going to sleep early tonight.”
Regina, who had been tidying Ellis’s room, turned to look at her.
“Are you sleepy already? You took a nap until late in the afternoon.”
“Yeah, I’m strangely tired.”
“Are you unwell? Shall I call a doctor?”
“No, Regina.”
It wasn’t just that she was pretending to be sick; it wasn’t as if the family physician would come just because Ellis called at a late hour.
In Count Warton’s household, Regina was the only one who listened to her and did as she asked.
“If I still feel unwell tomorrow morning, I’ll see a doctor then. And I want to sleep in tomorrow morning, so don’t wake me until I call for you.”
Ellis gently coaxed the worried Regina.
“Promise me.”
After promising, Regina prepared Ellis’s bed.
She burned incense said to improve sleep quality and warmed the bed with hot stones.
Her preparations were exceedingly meticulous.
Regina put twice the usual effort into preparing the bed.
Because she was worried about Ellis, who had somehow changed recently.
She had always been a bright, spirited, and positive young lady, but lately, Ellis seemed like a person shrouded in faint mist.
On top of that, she had said she would break up with Chase, whom she had liked, and kept trying to be alone.
Regina forced herself to hide her worried heart and left the room.
And a few hours later, when the moon showed its face, the door to Ellis’s room opened quietly.
To find the person who would help her escape from Chase, Ellis secretly slipped out of the count’s mansion.
***
Inside the noisy pub, a man turned his head and fiddled with his glass.
His large frame and skin that seemed slightly tanned by the sun looked different from the people of Bedroka.
Difference often becomes a target for attack.
“What is a barbarian bastard doing crawling all the way here? Get lost, bastard!”
“Do you even know the taste of alcohol? Shouldn’t you be drinking monster blood instead?”
When he didn’t react to the provocation, the mockery toward him crossed the line.
The man raised his head. Those who had picked a fight flinched at the chilling gaze emanating from his deep eyes.
“H-how dare this bastard look up! You filthy bastard!”
Fear should have been the instinct that protected one’s body, yet the one who had picked the fight ignored his instinct and raised his hand.
Alcohol breeds recklessness.
The corners of the man’s mouth twisted into a smirk. Those who had picked a fight bristled at the overflowing composure in his smile.
“Lower your eyes, bastard!”
At last, the drunk man swung his hand.
‘I should take one hit.’
The man called a barbarian thought so. However, he missed the opportunity to be hit.
Slap.
Someone intervened and grabbed the drunk man’s wrist.
“What do you think you’re doing? Discrimination against Tetrisians is forbidden by continental law, is it not?”
The clear voice that followed overflowed with dignity.
“What stray wench is butting in?”
The drunk man was furious, perhaps finding it absurd that a mere woman had grabbed his wrist.
Despite hearing such harsh curses, the woman remained calm.
“I am.”
The woman removed the hood she was wearing. Golden hair cascaded down, and her pale face was belatedly revealed.
Several people who saw the woman’s face flinched. The barbarian man who had been watching her was no different.
As if showing off her face, she slowly looked around before finishing her introduction.
“I am Ellis Warton.”
Ellis released the man’s wrist and looked down at the man who had been ignored until now.
‘As expected, you were here, Karan.’
The barbarian man, Karan, looked at her in puzzlement.
Karan Lisandro Tetris.
The prince of Tetris who had come to find the dying Ellis.
He was the one who would save Ellis from her current situation.
She had figured out he was here by delving into her memories of the past.
In the year Ellis turned twenty, Bedroka had invited the Tetris royal family to a banquet commemorating the coming of spring.
Tetris had sent Prince Karan.
It had been unprecedented for Bedroka to invite Tetris, and for Tetris to accept that invitation.
And Karan, who had arrived a month before the banquet, had brutally beaten a Bedrokan in a tavern.
The capital had been in an uproar over the violent incident committed by a foreign prince.
Because Chase, who had been in charge of Karan’s protocol during his stay in Bedroka, had suffered greatly, Ellis remembered it vividly.
Ellis looked at the drunkards pitifully.
‘You should be grateful to me.’
When Ellis stepped proudly in front of Karan, his eyebrows rose. His gaze fixed on her.
“Warton? House Warton?”
The drunkards belatedly grasped the situation and panicked.
Even if they were laborers who frequented shabby taverns, they knew of the Warton family.
Because the head of the Warton family was notorious for his foul temper.
Count Warton, who ran several minor businesses, often interacted with commoners and laborers.
He treated commoners and laborers like stones rolling on the roadside.
He trampled them until they broke, and discarded them when they broke.
He was also known for showing no mercy when those beneath him made mistakes.
So people avoided him. Out of fear? No, because he was filthy.
“Yes. Count Warton. That is my father’s title.”
“H-H-House Warton!”
The people’s faces went pale.
“Oh my, we have been discourteous. But what brings you to a place like this….”
His attitude was completely different from when he had picked a fight. Ellis looked indifferently at him as he hunched his shoulders and rubbed his hands like a fly.
That indifference made the men cower.
“We apologize, my lady.”
“You should apologize not to me, but to him.”
Ellis slightly turned her head and pointed at Karan.
He neither stepped forward nor retreated, but simply watched, as if the situation wasn’t even bewildering.
“What? Apologize to him, I mean, that person?”
Ellis gave a single nod.
The men’s faces twisted. Even those who lived hand-to-mouth had their pride.
To bow their heads to a barbarian who was said to eat people when there was no food—it was unthinkable.
“You won’t, will you?”
Ellis asked. The men merely glanced at one another furtively.
Pfft. Suddenly, Ellis let out a light laugh.
“I thought as much. In that case, I shall apologize.”
Ellis turned her body.
Ellis bowed her head to the seated man. Very respectfully.
A great ripple passed through Karan’s eyes.
“Please forgive the discourtesy committed by a Bedrokan.”
The clamoring tavern grew quiet as if cold water had been poured over it.
Her appearance itself was unconventional, but for the daughter of a count to lower her head to a barbarian man…
It was an incident that would turn high society and the senate upside down.
Several people rubbed their eyes, wondering if they had seen wrong.
The man furrowed his brow, seemingly unable to believe the current situation, and pondered for a long while before opening his mouth.
“It is not the young lady’s fault. However, I cannot let such a precious apology go to waste, so I shall accept it.”
He bowed his head politely with a gentle gaze unlike the one he had directed at the riffraff.
‘Does he recognize me?’
Ellis paused. Because his tone was excessively familiar. It was almost wistful, as if he were meeting an old friend.
‘That can’t be. I first met Karan at the banquet that will be held this time. Or perhaps he’s heard of House Warton?’
That didn’t make sense either. Why would Karan have looked into House Warton?
In any case, the respectful attitude he showed was uncharacteristic of a Tetrisian.
A long-standing enmity had created an implicit code of conduct between them, one of which was that Tetris nobles did not bow to Bedrokan nobles.
“The seat beside you is empty. May I sit?”
Those hovering around them quickly moved away. Once the surroundings had settled, Ellis placed her hand on the back of the empty chair.
“This is not a place fit for a young lady to stay. If you are lost, I shall escort you to your destination.”
“No, I came here intentionally.”
Ellis gently placed her hand over Karan’s, which was reaching for his coat.
Karan pulled his hand away in surprise. Ellis was also startled by the excessive reaction.
‘Does he dislike touching me? Well, he didn’t like me very much in the past either.’
Was the first impression not good? Her confidence plummeted.
‘I can’t back down like this. Even if he doesn’t like me, we can still make a deal.’
Until Ellis finished her thoughts, Karan watched her in an awkward posture.
He didn’t look like the most barbaric of barbarians, the one called the Wolf of Tetris.
Rather, his bashful appearance was like that of a large puppy.
Recalling her plan, Ellis suddenly felt like a wicked person leading an innocent man down a bad path.
“Shall we have a drink together?”
Ellis summoned her courage. Karan’s long, narrow eyes grew thinner.
It was not a particularly friendly gaze. Ellis tensed up.