Chapter 21
“I thought so at first too. But somehow, while talking with you, I ended up getting a few drinks out of you. And then I spilled everything to you—about the succession, about marriage. And then you said…”
“…Yeah. Fine, I’ll marry you.”
She muttered the words that surfaced in her mind without realizing it, then clapped a hand over her mouth in shock. Only then did Violette remember everything, and her face drained completely of color. Reeling from the impact, she staggered and collapsed back against the backrest.
“So I was the one who suggested marriage…? My god. And ‘Pretty’ was you, Narcissa. Unbelievable…”
At the bizarre nickname “Pretty,” he frowned one eyebrow and tilted his head in confusion. After a brief pause, Narcissa let out a deep sigh and continued slowly.
“Right. After that, a marriage proposal came from your family. I naturally assumed it was something you’d initiated. You seemed too frivolous, so I rejected it—but when the proposal came again, I thought you must be taking this marriage quite seriously. So I told my parents that I’d found a woman I wanted to marry.”
What followed was a story Violette already knew. She had absolutely no memory of that day, so of course she hadn’t asked her father, Argon, to send any marriage proposal.
However, whether by coincidence or sheer chance, among the thirty families Argon had secretly selected without her knowledge, the House of Duke Kegrainer was included. At that moment, a memory flashed through Violette’s mind.
“Honestly, it’s more surprising that the duke’s house accepted. I really thought that one would never work. Father just sent it on a whim, thinking ‘maybe.’ We were shocked when we heard they’d accepted!”
It was a conversation she’d had with her older brother, Kersha, before the marriage. She hadn’t shown it at the time, but Violette herself had found it astonishing that Duke Kegrainer would accept someone with a reputation as terrible as hers.
‘So from Narcissa’s perspective, the matter was already settled between us.’
Still, there was something Narcissa couldn’t understand either. With his arms tightly crossed and his brow furrowed, he asked in an incredulous voice,
“I thought all this time that you just didn’t remember the conversation we had because you were drunk. But if you don’t remember that day at all, then why did you act like you knew something when you came here? You clearly said you were a little drunk that day. Then which ‘day’ are you even talking about?”
“Th-that is…”
Caught off guard by the question, Violette darted her eyes around in panic. But at this point, avoiding it wouldn’t change anything. In the end, having given up entirely, she scratched her head awkwardly.
“Actually… the day I signed the pledge. I was kind of drunk that day too. Honestly, pretty drunk. To be really honest—extremely drunk. So until the day before I came to your house, I didn’t even know I was engaged to you.”
“Haah…”
Narcissa squeezed his eyes shut and slumped back against the sofa, looking utterly drained. Months of carefully planned marriage maneuvers had just been revealed to be a complete one-man show.
He glared at Violette with an irritated expression for a moment, then seemed to give up, running a hand through his hair as he let out a deep sigh.
“Fine. Well, whatever. In the end, we did get married… That’s what matters. The outcome. The outcome.”
“If you see it that way, I’m grateful…”
Feeling unbearably awkward, Violette avoided his gaze and offered a sheepish smile. More precisely, it was the guilt stabbing at the corner of her heart that made it impossible for her to look him in the face.
“…Have you ever thought about quitting drinking?”
“What?”
Quitting drinking—where on earth had he learned such a horrifying phrase? At his casual remark, Violette’s face turned pale. She was already making a serious effort to keep to the three-times-a-week drinking limit imposed after their marriage.
She’d even reduced her smoking to less than a third of what it used to be. And now quitting entirely?
“No. I already cut back because of that damned contract! I’m keeping the three-times-a-week promise—why would I need to do more?!”
Violette scowled and shot him a glare, clearly unwilling to back down. But Narcissa, resting his chin on his interlaced fingers, spoke far more seriously than she expected.
“That was when I didn’t realize how serious things were. I’m genuinely worried. If what you’re saying is true, it means there have been more than one or two times you drank so much you blacked out. What if something terrible happens? More than anything, it’s really bad for your health.”
Unlike before, Violette couldn’t bring herself to answer. Annoyingly, not a single word he said was wrong. In fact, before marriage, she’d blacked out from drinking more times than she could count. If anything, it was harder to find days she fully remembered.
Golginus, which she frequented like a second home, offered unlimited premium alcohol to VIPs like most casinos did. And in the immensely wealthy Marquis Rascal’s household, getting alcohol was as easy as breathing.
“It started out lightly, but now…”
“But now what?”
At first, she’d begun drinking just to play the role of a delinquent. But in the moments she was drunk, she didn’t have to think about anything complicated.
She could focus entirely on the present without worrying about possession, Terso, or execution. If cigarettes and gambling were pleasures she indulged in for enjoyment, then alcohol, for her, was a means of escape.
“I’ll help you. I know quitting outright will be hard. Let’s slowly cut back from now on.”
Narcissa’s gentle tone was enough to soften her heightened defenses in an instant. After hesitating for a moment, Violette nodded slowly.
“I’ll… try.”
No matter how reckless and lawless Violette might be, she still had a basic sense of decency toward others. She couldn’t bring herself to outright reject the suggestion of a man who’d spent months struggling over a promise she herself didn’t even remember.
And since Narcissa genuinely seemed worried about her, she had even less to say. She wasn’t confident she could quit drinking entirely, but at least her promise to try was sincere.
“Alright. Let’s head back soon. I hadn’t planned on staying here, but the schedule got delayed.”
“If someone hadn’t gotten so completely wasted, we’d have arrived at the Navian territory yesterday. And while we’re at it, you shouldn’t really drink outside either, Narcissa. How can you get that drunk off so little? I mean, no matter how young you are, I didn’t think you’d be this bad with alcohol!”
Embarrassed, Violette shook her head with an exaggerated, teasing tone. To be fair, Narcissa’s tolerance wasn’t actually that low.
It was just that Violette was far beyond the range of a normal person.
“…I’m not that bad at drinking. And compared to some people, I’d say I have pretty decent drinking habits. I’m not the type to go around proposing marriage while blackout drunk.”
Narcissa shot back without backing down. Unlike Violette, who became cheerful and lively as she drank, Narcissa tended to fall asleep when he got drunk. But Violette, who remembered yesterday all too clearly, pointed at him in disbelief.
“What? Do you know how yo—”
How seductive you were?
She couldn’t bring herself to say the rest. The moment she recalled yesterday, the feelings from that time resurfaced as well.
His smooth skin up close, the warmth and breath against her own, even the faint grassy scent that still seemed to linger at the tip of her nose.
Violette flushed instantly, withdrawing her hand and avoiding his gaze. Not noticing her reddened face, Narcissa tilted his head in confusion.
“Yo what? Why’d you stop talking?”
“Yo— you fell asleep so noisily! It was such a hassle moving you from the dining hall to here!”
“It’s not like you carried me alone. Someone must’ve helped.”
“Well, that’s true. But I had the egg hidden under one arm and you leaning on the other. It was exhausting.”
She shook her head dramatically. As her gaze shifted between Narcissa and the egg resting on the bed, Violette’s face suddenly froze.
“Aaaahhh!”
“What now?!”
When Violette clutched her head and screamed, Narcissa panicked and followed her line of sight. At that moment, his face turned deathly pale at the unbelievable sight before him. His hand, pointing toward the bed, trembled slightly.
“Where did it go…?”
The egg that should have been at the head of the bed was gone—leaving behind only half of an empty shell. Without a sound, without a trace, it had vanished. Violette and Narcissa stared at each other in horror.
“Where did it go?!”
