Episode 198
"W-what... did you just say?"
Rosewin, who had been standing blankly in place for a while, asks with a trembling voice.
"I don't quite understand?"
After that, she began tilting her head as if finding it hard to comprehend, but her increasingly pale face was something she couldn't hide.
"I told you, Rosewin."
To her, Frey answers once more.
"I don't want to love you anymore, so I don't want to see you in the future."
"W-wait!"
As Frey turned around and tried to board the carriage after saying that, Rosewin quickly grabbed his arm and spoke.
"Are you sulking? You're sulking, right?"
"......."
"Hmm, you're really sulking, aren't you? Fine, I was wrong. I've been too harsh on you until now. So from now on..."
"Excuse me, Rosewin."
Rosewin, who had grabbed Frey's wrist and stepped closer to him with an apologetic expression, flinches when he speaks in a low voice.
"...Let go."
"Uh, um..."
As those words ended, Rosewin slowly released his arm.
"F-Frey? What's wrong?"
She asks upon realizing that Frey, who always used to wear a foolish smile in front of her, was now looking at her with cold eyes.
"D-did you perhaps get brainwashed at that strange detective agency? Or did you eat something wrong? You're a bit different from usual."
"...Sorry, I'm a bit busy right now."
"W-wait!"
When Frey tried to enter the carriage again, Rosewin, instead of grabbing his arm like before, timidly clutched the hem of his clothing.
".....!"
She realized something was wrong when Frey looked back and gazed at her with cold eyes.
"Haa..."
Frey, who had been staring at such a Rosewin, let out a deep sigh.
"How long are you going to stay here?"
He asked with furrowed brows.
"...Something's strange."
Then, Rosewin, who had an expression of utter incomprehension, began muttering as she looked at Frey.
"Are you possessed by a ghost? Or really brainwashed...?"
"...Tch."
"There's no way you don't like me, right?"
Frey, looking at Rosewin who finally said those words, let out a small sigh and began to speak.
"...I realized after making countless confessions until now, that I can never receive your love."
"Huh? But..."
"They say even a tree falls after ten axe blows, but you wouldn't fall even after a hundred... a thousand blows."
Frey, who said that, lowered his gaze.
"Still, I thought you'd accept my sincere feelings someday... but you didn't."
"......"
"I knew I was being used by you, I knew you treated me like a fool... I knew you only thought of me as a wallet, that you actually loathed and ignored me."
"N-no..."
"It didn't matter. I was always treated that way by those around me, so it was nothing new."
Frey, cutting off Rosewin who was trying to say something, clenches his fist and speaks.
"Still, I wanted to convey my sincere feelings to you, even if it meant being used, becoming a wallet, becoming a fool..."
Then, overcome with emotion, Frey stopped speaking.
"...Sorry."
Before long, looking into Rosewin's frozen eyes, he resumed speaking in a low voice.
"You've had a hard time because of me until now, haven't you?"
"Frey."
"You don't have to feel disgusted anymore by the empire's foremost scoundrel and pathetic wretch approaching you without knowing his place. You don't have to struggle to entertain someone you hate."
"......."
"I made this choice because if I tried to convey my sincerity any longer, it felt like my heart would break and I'd cause you trouble too."
After those words ended, silence flowed between the two for a while.
"...Then."
"Wait..."
"What is it now?"
Frey, who was finally about to board the carriage, frowned deeply and asked when Rosewin blocked him for the third time.
"Th-those women, what are they?"
"What?"
"The women... behind you."
To Frey, Rosewin asked again.
"What exactly are they?"
Lulu, who had been constantly attached to him lately, and Irina, whom she had only discovered today.
The existence of those two was nothing short of a shock to Rosewin.
Because she firmly believed that no one would genuinely like a stupid, pathetic scoundrel like Frey.
She had thought that if such a thing happened, Frey, who would become lonely from receiving no one's love, would eventually return to her like a puppy caught in the rain with its tail between its legs.
"Lulu and Irina?"
But today, her final insurance crumbled miserably.
"Lulu is a servant... who's been employed by me for a long time, and Irina is the same. Just that kind of simple relationship. You don't need to concern yourself with it."
Although Frey explained with a calm expression.
"........"
The eyes and expressions of Lulu and Irina, who were glaring at Rosewin from inside the carriage behind Frey, were filled with superiority and mockery.
".....Ah."
From Rosewin's perspective, that was clearly the look of females who had taken for themselves a male that someone else had been playing with.
"What are you doing? Rosewin?"
Thanks to that, Rosewin, who had been blankly staring, came to her senses only after hearing Frey's words.
"F-Frey. Shall we talk for a moment, just the two of us? There's some misunderstanding..."
"I'm busy right now. I have somewhere to go."
"Just a moment. Just wait a moment..."
And, for some reason, Rosewin found herself unconsciously preventing Frey from entering the carriage.
"You don't understand something. Those women are... huh?"
Before long, discovering something, she widened her eyes and asked.
"W-what is that? Frey?"
On Frey's left ring finger, something was sparkling and shining in the sunlight.
"A r-ring...? You're wearing a ring? Why there...?"
When Rosewin pointed at his left hand and asked, Frey looked down with a puzzled expression to check.
"Ah, this."
Before long, he answered her in a calm voice.
"You don't need to know."
"A ring on the left ring finger... that's..."
"I said you don't need to know?"
But as Rosewin continued to ask and reached out her hand, Frey raised his voice and pulled his hand back.
"Don't tell me... an engagement ring?"
"Hoo."
When Rosewin asked that, he let out a sigh and began to speak.
"Yes, it's an engagement ring."
"W-who with..."
"Who else. Obviously Serena."
".....!"
Hearing those words, Rosewin began to show an expression of shock.
"B-but... you used to curse Serena every day in front of me..."
"You know what?"
To her, Frey began to speak while stroking the ring.
"Until now, I wanted to put this ring on with you."
"...Huh?"
"Disgusting, right? Having delusions all by myself. You probably didn't even want to think such thoughts."
"W-wait a moment."
"But since I've given up on you, to continue the Starlight family line, I have no choice but to marry Serena. Klana hates me, so there's no other way."
"Wait..."
To such Frey, Rosewin urgently reached out.
"...Seems like you still don't understand."
Frey, who stepped back to avoid her hand, spoke in a low voice.
"I don't like you anymore."
"Ah..."
"Every time I see you, it feels like my heart will break, so I don't want to see your face anymore."
"....."
"Understand? I won't cause you any more harm. Thank you for everything until now, Rosewin."
"Wait..."
"To save you... no, this is best for both you and me. So I won't look for you again."
Finally, having driven the wedge, Frey began to board the carriage.
"Let's talk! Where are you going!"
Rosewin, seeing that sight.
"Don't go!"
Unconsciously, she screamed.
"........."
And a brief silence that followed.
"Talk?"
Between Lulu and Irina, who were sidling up and looking at Frey with bewitching eyes, Frey, who glanced at Rosewin outside the carriage.
"Talk..."
After contemplating for a moment, he spoke in a dark voice.
"If you really want to talk, bring the flowers I gave you."
"...Huh?"
And, the carriage began to slowly move forward.
"Otherwise, I don't think we'll have occasion to see your face."
With those final words, Frey, remaining in the carriage, exited the Starlight mansion's garden.
"........"
Rosewin, who stood rooted to that spot and remained in silence for a while.
"Hah."
When the carriage disappeared before her eyes.
"Did I just... get dumped? By Frey of all people?"
She began muttering with an absurd expression.
"This is ridiculous. Who does he think he is? When he used to just follow me around, and now he's..."
At first, only anger and shame were mixed in.
"Pushing me away... and..."
As time passed, Rosewin's voice.
"Th-those women too, what the hell. That can't be right. I was the only one who gave Frey any attention..."
Began to tremble more and more.
"Y-yeah, let him go. Who would even care? I already have the Hero. Originally, I didn't even value someone like him..."
Like that, she who had been muttering to herself in front of the mansion's yard for a while.
"...didn't."
Suddenly with a blank expression, she says that.
"Frey of all people... shouldn't have mattered either way..."
And from then on, Rosewin's voice completely changed.
"What, what is this... what the hell..."
With a completely confused expression, Rosewin, who sat down on the spot, began muttering to herself.
"I feel sick... my mood is strange. Why? Why? It shouldn't matter anyway, right? It's just that Frey, whom I loathed so much, left on his own..."
Facing the increasingly strong sunlight, and in contrast, the cold wind blowing through the yard, Rosewin muttered something.
"...Jealousy?"
Suddenly, she recalls the words spoken by an unidentified detective at the detective agency.
"Am I... jealous of Frey...?"
And, slowly rising from her seat, Rosewin mutters that.
"No way, that can't be..."
Though she was denying it in words, her complexion, which had begun to break out in cold sweat, continued to darken.
"E-even if it's not jealousy... this feeling is..."
Having completely risen to stand, she.
"T-this isn't what I wanted... originally I was a bit too harsh... and that fool could be taken advantage of by those stupid kids..."
Saying that, she began to slowly move her steps outside the mansion.
"R-right. The flower. I'll bring the flower and talk to him once more. I can't let a VIP customer go like this. It's definitely not jealousy or anything like that."
Rosewin, who continued muttering to herself even though no one was listening, headed outside.
"Wait."
Suddenly stopping her steps, she recalled all the flowers she had received from him over time.
"Uh..."
The flowers that were burned with solar mana as soon as Frey left, the ones given away to staff as gifts, or the ones stuffed in warehouses or trash bins without even a glance.
"...Ugh."
Thanks to that, she, who had been frozen in that spot grinding her teeth anxiously for a while, moved her feet again and thought to herself.
'It's fine, no problem. I just need to go to the guild and find one.'
Thinking that the situation, though greatly wronged, could still be sufficiently turned around.
'...If I look well, there should be one left, right?'
She moved her steps toward the carriage waiting outside the mansion.
'I received so many flowers from him. I even received some as a gift just a week ago, right?'
Despite the early hour, the sunlight was particularly strong today.
".....Ah."
Recalling the golden flower of Frey's that she had trampled mercilessly, Rosewin.
"........"
It was just before boarding the carriage.