SPTTF 07

Chapter 7

“Ugh!”

As I struggled to breathe, Leonhart whispered to me.

“Ibrante Duke, aren’t you curious why I hate you?”

“T-This… please… l-let… go… Ugh!”

“Honestly, I have no interest in becoming Crown Prince. I don’t care whether you secretly support the First Prince or the Second Prince.”

“Ugh! W-Wait…”

“Of course, dealing with the assassins you send is quite troublesome, but I don’t hate you for such a trivial reason.”

It was certain now.

The person responsible for turning Leonhart into such a prickly person was none other than Adrian.

‘Ha, this is driving me crazy! I’m Adrian now!’

Leonhart’s voice became extremely low.

His eyes, which had been completely empty until now, suddenly gleamed a vivid blue.

It was a look that went beyond anger and revealed even hatred.

“So think about it. Think carefully, trembling with anxiety every hour, about what you did to make me act like this. Preferably while shut away in your mansion.”

My vision darkened completely. I was on the verge of passing out.

‘This isn’t going to work!’

Unable to endure it any longer, I was just about to gather my mana to summon a spirit when I remembered something I had temporarily forgotten.

I must not let him discover my identity.

‘Damn it!’

No matter which spirit I summoned, there was no way Leonhart, my old companion, would fail to recognize it.

And spirits had such loose lips.

The moment they saw Leonhart, they would probably blurt out everything about me being possessed.

‘I can’t summon a spirit until I make sure they know how to keep their mouths shut.’

Blood rushed to my face, and my eyes throbbed painfully. The threat of death was approaching from right behind me.

“Ugh…”

Desperately, I grabbed Leonhart’s hand.

I placed my hand over his large hand, slipped my fingertips between his fingers, and gently rubbed them.

‘Please, please…!’

Had my desperate plea worked?

The hand that had been choking me suddenly loosened.

My body collapsed helplessly.

Thud.

As I lay there and looked up, Leonhart was staring down at me with his eyes wide open.

I moved my lips.

“Damn…”

If he wanted to take out his anger on someone, he should have done it before I possessed Adrian.

But no sound came out.

I lost consciousness.

It was my third time fainting.

Six years ago, Leonhart was nothing more than an inexperienced swordsman.

There was no one weaker than Leonhart among the expedition members.

Even if you excluded Adela, the spirit swordsman, Owen, the priest with powerful divine power, and Ruspel, whose level of mana was comparable to that of a great archmage.

That was why Leonhart had to risk his life even when fighting insignificant low-level monsters.

There wasn’t a single day when his body was uninjured. Before one wound could even heal, another would appear.

Every day was a struggle, and the ordeal would only end when he was barely able to breathe.

Leonhart grew faster than anyone else through those extreme circumstances.

And now…

After earning the title of Sword Master, he had unquestionably become the strongest person in the Empire.

The nobles who had once looked down on him could no longer even meet Leonhart’s eyes.

Even though his gentle personality had changed into something cold and ruthless, no one dared to resent him.

Everyone was too busy avoiding him.

All of this had been possible because of Adela.

She was the one who saved Leonhart whenever he was in danger of death.

Whenever he was injured or suffered a fever from monster poison, Adela was the one who stayed by his side throughout the night.

‘She used to hold my hand just like this.’

Even now, Leonhart remembered exactly what that feeling had been like.

The warmth of her palm covering the back of his hand, her fingers tightly intertwined with his, her fingertips gently rubbing his hand as if soothing him…

Even when his fever became so high that he could no longer tell whether he was dreaming or awake, the sensation of her hand remained vivid.

Even while writhing in unbearable pain, he never let go of her hand.

But now, that was impossible.

He could no longer be saved by her, nor could he fall asleep feeling comforted by her warm touch.

Because Adela no longer existed in this world.

‘That’s what I thought until just now…’

Then why couldn’t he breathe when Adrian’s fingers slipped between his?

For a moment, it felt as though it wasn’t Adrian who was suffering, but Adela.

‘Why?’

Adrian’s touch was far too similar to the sensation he had never been able to forget, even in his dreams.

It made no sense.

Leonhart knelt on one knee in front of the unconscious Adrian.

He picked up her hand, which was lying carelessly on the dirt, and examined it closely.

A pale, delicate hand without even a single rough cuticle.

Her fingers were as thin as reeds. They looked as though they would break if he held them even slightly too hard.

She had probably never lifted anything heavier than tableware.

They were the hands of a thoroughly pampered noblewoman.

The only thing they had in common with Adela’s rough, scarred hands was that they both had five fingers.

‘Then what was that just now? Why did her touch make me think of Adela?’

Leonhart irritably suppressed his violently trembling emotions.

‘Was it just my imagination?’

Thinking about it again, Adrian had merely struggled desperately to survive.

He was the one who had given that moment too much meaning.

“…Damn it.”

It was ridiculous.

How could he possibly think of Adela when looking at a woman like this?

‘Have I gone crazy because I miss her so much?’

As though he had touched something filthy, Leonhart released Adrian’s wrist.

Then he took out a cigarette and put it between his lips.

“I heard smoking for a long time can cause asthma. So I quit. Asthma is a very painful disease, isn’t it?”

“Hoo…”

As Leonhart slowly exhaled a long stream of hazy smoke, the corner of his mouth curled up.

It was the most ridiculous bullshit he had heard in a long time.

When he heard the cold words and sensed concern for the asthma he had suffered from as a child, he even let out a hollow laugh.

“What kind of trick are you trying this time?”

Adrian was the person who had ruined Leonhart’s childhood.

She had tormented him relentlessly.

At the academy, she bullied the children who became friendly with him until she forced him to spend his days alone. After he left the academy, she began isolating him in earnest.

There were countless times when she manipulated the princes into beating Leonhart and publicly humiliating him.

Whenever a noble approached him, she would investigate them and threaten them with whatever weakness she could find.

If a woman even happened to make eye contact with him, Adrian would somehow find her and take revenge.

She even spread rumors that he would soon die from asthma.

She was also the one who eliminated what little support he had.

There was no one around Leonhart.

Even when he couldn’t get out of bed because of his asthma, no one came to check on him.

All of his attendants and maids had been bribed by Adrian.

Once Leonhart had been completely isolated, the ridiculous thing Adrian did when she came to see him was propose marriage.

“With Your Highness in your current position, you can’t even dream of becoming Crown Prince. Wouldn’t it be better to become a son-in-law of the ducal family? I’ll speak to His Majesty myself, so Your Highness can simply stay out of it.”

At the time, Leonhart knew that everything happening to him was Adrian’s doing.

The way Adrian shamelessly talked about making him a son-in-law without even realizing that he knew was utterly disgusting.

To her, Leonhart was not an equal human being.

He was merely a suitable stallion for producing heirs to the ducal family.

Leonhart hated Adrian so much that he was sick of even thinking about her.

Just hearing her voice was enough to make him break out in hives and feel nauseous.

And she wanted him to marry her?

There was no way.

So he volunteered for the Demon King expedition.

He thought it would be better to die than marry her.

But in the end, he survived.

He was no longer the weak Third Prince who was only suitable for becoming a son-in-law.