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Chapter Eight: His Jewel
With Zumiano safely restrained, Wellmy could finally go home to Aides’s secondary residence. She must have been exhausted, as she fell asleep in the bath while her waiting maids massaged her.
When she next opened her eyes, it was already morning. She woke up in her bed, with Aides’s arms around her. Her fiancé had left immediately after dropping her off last night, heading to the royal palace with Zumiano.
“I’m sorry. You were still working, yet I fell asleep,” she said, squinting at the morning light streaming through the window.
Aides shook his head. “It’s all right. You must have been tired.”
His hair was a little damp, and he smelled of soap. Perhaps he had just returned home.
Ẇeb ǹōv e l Е̊ n̄ u m̃a
“What will happen to Zumiano?” Wellmy asked.
“As we planned, we won’t publicly reveal his involvement.”
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So the public story would be that Lord Turgis, blinded by his love for Lady Darristea, had done something reckless and stupid.
“But are Lord Turgis and Lord Shizolda fine with this?” Wellmy added.
Their reputations would be tarnished, while Zumiano would be protected from society’s reproachful gaze.
“They have agreed, yes. It’s not our place to interfere,” Aides replied.
W̄ ẽb̄ň о v́ё l Еn̄ um̆ а̌
From what Aides had told Wellmy, he and the lord of security had apprehended Turgis long before the party at the royal palace. That was when they noticed that he, too, had been wearing a strange bracelet. They’d had Clartes disenchant it, meaning Turgis had been back to his regular self at the party. This explained why Aides had been able to immediately assign him to follow Wellmy.
“Then I suppose it’s fine,” Wellmy said.
Her eyes had finally adjusted to the light, and she looked up at Aides—only to notice that his cheek was red and slightly swollen.
“What happened to you?!” she exclaimed, reaching for her fiancé’s face.
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An awkward smile curled on Aides’s lips. “Ah... Iora slapped me when I went to deliver Zumiano to the king.”
“Iora did?! Why?!”
Е̄.ǹu m_a.. і̃ d
“Leo told her everything. She was worried about you. I didn’t even get a chance to explain before she hit me,” Aides said, then began recounting the events of the previous night to Wellmy.
※※※
“This is exactly why I was against this plan in the first place!” Iora exclaimed, furious.
She had been getting ready for bed after the party when Leo had come to inform her that Wellmy had been abducted. It was all because they’d made the poor girl act as a decoy for her...
I should have tried harder to stop them, she thought, anger whirling in her chest.
“Iora...” Leo called out to her.
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She took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself, at least a little, clasping her hands tightly in front of her stomach. “What is the current situation?”
“Aides is on the way to rescue her. He said she’s likely not in danger,” Leo replied.
“We can’t be sure of that, can we?” Iora snapped.
People didn’t always behave the way one expected. Lord Aides might have been convinced that Wellmy was fine, but they couldn’t fully trust whoever had kidnapped her.
Iora’s waiting maids entered the room to help her prepare for bed, but her aide Orea and the head maid sent them away.
If the worst were to happen to Wellmy...I would never forgive anyone involved.
Ĕ ṅumа . іd́
After spending the entire night praying for her sister’s safety, Iora received news around daybreak.
“I’ve been told Aides is back,” Leo informed her. “Should we go see him?”
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“What about Wellmy?!” Iora cried.
“She’s apparently not with him.”
Iora took in a deep breath and nodded. “Take me to him.”
“Sure. This way.”
W.ѐ b̃ n̈оv̊ ё.l Ẽ n̆ u̇m̀ а
The two of them headed to the nobles’ prison inside the palace. Iora spotted a familiar silhouette with silver hair, standing with his back to them, and she walked up to him.
“Lord Aides,” she called out.
The man had barely turned when she brought her hand down with all her force, striking his left cheek. A sharp slap echoed through the room as Lord Aides’s head snapped to the side. For a brief moment, the palm of Iora’s hand tingled. Then, the sensation went away, and it just felt hot.
“Iora?!” Leo exclaimed.
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Iora lifted her hand in a silent command to stay back. “I was against it. I only accepted because you promised you would protect her. So what is happening here?!”
Lord Aides only looked at her.
Еnu m̂.ã
“Where is Wellmy?!” she pressed.
“She’s safe. Not a single scratch. She’s resting at my secondary residence as we speak.”
Iora closed her eyes briefly. Thank goodness...
Lord Enderlen, who had been speaking with Aides when Iora arrived, turned to her, a grave expression on his face.
“My deepest apologies, Lady Ernest. It wasn’t Lord Aides that the mastermind duped, but us—”
“That does not matter, Lord Enderlen,” Iora interrupted him with a glare. “I entrusted Wellmy to Lord Aides.”
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The lord of magic nodded. “I will not make excuses. My actions caused you great worry. I apologize.”
“Be warned, Marquis Aides Ormirage: If this happens again, I will use any means necessary to drag you down to the depths of hell.”
“I promise there won’t be a next time, future crown princess,” Lord Aides assured her.
He sounded sincere. Iora took in a deep breath, finally feeling her anger ebb. Then, she realized the gravity of her actions and felt the blood drain from her face.
Wh-What have I done?!
She, a mere countess, had slapped the kingdom’s most powerful marquis and shouted at him. While she’d lost her temper out of concern for her sister, that didn’t excuse her behavior.
W̊ė bn о̇ṽеl Е̇ n̂ũmа̄
“I-I’m terribly sorry!” she quickly said, lowering her head.
Lord Aides’s lips twisted in a bitter smile. “No need to apologize. I’m reassured to see our future queen is so resolute,” he said, brushing the fingertips of his gloved left hand against the cheek Iora slapped before glancing at Leo.
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The crown prince looked uncharacteristically grave.
“Iora. You shouldn’t have raised a hand against him before even hearing what he had to say. You went too far,” he admonished his fiancée.
“You’re right...”
“Sorry about that, Aides. I’ll send you an apology gift later,” Leo said.
W е b̊ ň ó_v еl Е ǹu m а̀
“As I just told Lady Ernest, that won’t be necessary, Your Highness. I appreciate her unique perspective on the matter,” Lord Aides replied. He wasn’t usually so formal with Leo, but they were in public.
The lord of magic threw a glance at Iora, then shifted his attention back to the crown prince, the smile on his lips turning mischievous. “Despite her meek and tame appearance, your sweetheart seems to be just as spirited as Wellmy, Your Highness. You ought to be careful lest you end up a henpecked husband.”
“Thanks for the warning. Since you don’t need an apology gift, I’ll buy her something nice to lift her mood instead,” Leo replied, playing along.
“Yes, I believe that would be for the best.”
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Iora let out a small cry, her cheeks burning with humiliation.
This was her punishment for raising a hand against the lord of magic.
Е n u ḿ а̂..ї d
※※※
“Not fair! That’s not fair, Aides! I also wanted to see Iora act all cool and adorable!” Wellmy exclaimed, writhing in bed as she pictured the scene. “Why didn’t you take me with you?!”
“You were so tired, you fell asleep in the bath,” Aides reminded her.
“My fatigue would’ve vanished the second I laid eyes on my sister, obviously!”
“Besides, I didn’t think that she would be up so late.”
“I mean, you have a point, but...!” Even so, Wellmy still regretted not having been able to see that side of her beloved sister.
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“Cheer up,” Aides said, gently stroking her puffed out cheek.
Wellmy pondered something for a moment before asking, “Hey, Aides? I worked really hard this time, didn’t I?”
“You did.”
“I want a reward for it!”
“You’re the one who insisted on going to confront Zumiano alone,” Aides pointed out.
“I did, but it doesn’t change the fact that I worked hard,” Wellmy retorted.
Ẁе b n ô v̂еl̃ Е̇n u̇ m̆ а̀
“You’re being selfish. But fine. What do you want?” he relented.
A grin broke across Wellmy’s face. Resting her head on Aides’s arm, she looked up at him. “There’s something more to this case, isn’t there? Tell me all about it.”
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If the whole issue boiled down to Zumiano using mind-control drugs and herbs, there’d be no reason for Aides and the others to cover it up. Sure, Lord Turgis and Lord Shizolda had insisted on keeping the matter under wraps out of guilt, believing it was their actions that had pushed Zumiano to do what he’d done, but they didn’t have the authority to make that decision. But Wellmy knew who did.
“There’s no reason for you and the lord of security to go so far as to hide the true culprit just because Lord Turgis and Lord Shizolda asked you to. There’s something bigger at play, isn’t there?”
What reason could Aides have to keep Zumiano’s involvement a secret? The first time Wellmy had asked him about it, he had told her that the case of the mind-control drugs and items was confidential, sidestepping her question.
“I’ve cooperated with you this entire time. That gives me the right to try to negotiate for you to tell me about the case.”
W e b̆ ǹo̊.v̄ ӗl̀ Е́n̄_ū_m̈ a
“What a clever girl you are, Wellmy. I wouldn’t have expected any less from you,” Aides said, stroking the top of Wellmy’s head as if to praise her.
She had a nagging feeling he was making fun of her. “If you don’t tell me about it, I won’t let you touch me anymore!”
He had agreed to give her a reward, yet wouldn’t even answer her questions. Fuming, Wellmy tried to get out of bed, but Aides wrapped his arms around her, preventing her from leaving.
“Let go of me!”
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“I’ll tell you everything you want to know, so stay still and let me spoil you for a bit.” Aides dropped a kiss at the base of her throat, and Wellmy’s shoulders tensed up.
Perhaps Aides had noticed her ears reddening, as he let out a soft chuckle. “You’re adorable, Wellmy.”
Ѐṅ u m̆ а̀..їd́
She didn’t grace him with a reply, puffing out her cheeks once more.
Aides gently patted her head. “Don’t sulk.” Then, after a pause, he finally told her about the case. “There were whispers that the Baslam Empire was involved in this matter. That’s why we chose to keep the identity of the mastermind a secret.”
“The Baslam Empire?” Wellmy knew that was where the drug originated, but she’d had no idea there was more to it. “Wait. Was this case an actual, full-blown conspiracy to cause a split in Lionel?”
“That’s what we thought at first, but... Zumiano confessed that he was manipulating civil officials of the empire. He suggested that we use the actions of the people he manipulated as leverage to tip the balance of power in Lionel’s favor, and the king agreed to it.”
Wellmy hummed. “In other words, the king is going to tell the empire it’s their fault things ended up this way.”
“Precisely. Zumiano has been planning this since the very beginning.” Aides’s smile vanished. “Don’t lower your guard around him, Wellmy. He’s shrewd—perhaps even more so than you and I.”
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“Really? Is he so clever that even you feel threatened by him?”
“Yes. The only reason we defeated him this time was that he intended to lose all along. He went as far as to create a weakness for the empire and expose it to the king of Lionel. From that alone, it’s clear his schemes go far beyond anything you or I can imagine.”
“I’ll be careful,” Wellmy assured him, regaining her focus.
Aides playfully tickled her chin.
“What now?” she asked.
“On another note, I wanted to talk about the reason I suggested you act as a decoy for Iora. I had a personal goal in mind, you see.”
Wё b̃ n̊оv̊еl È ñ u̇ m̈à
“Huh? You did?”
“Indeed.” Aides sat up and rearranged Wellmy in his embrace so that she lay down sideways across his lap. She placed her head on his shoulder, and he gently stroked her cheek. “I wanted you to expand your circle of friends,” he whispered, a small smile playing on his lips.
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Wellmy hadn’t been expecting that. She blinked a few times, confused. “Um... Is that the ‘personal goal’ you mentioned?”
“It is. Up until now, you’ve only ever seen people for what they could do for you, haven’t you? And you mostly associated with shady characters for the sake of your plan.”
“I did. What about it?”
“In other words, you don’t have any friends you can rely on.”
Ě ṅ ûm̄а̃ ..і̄ d
Aides’s words got Wellmy thinking. The only two people she still talked to now that she had graduated from the noble academy were Leo and Karla. Iora and Clartes didn’t count as “friends,” since they were family.
Even then, she didn’t know if she could call Karla and Leo her friends either. Leo was just her future brother-in-law (much to her annoyance), and they bickered like cats and dogs. As for Karla, she was Iora’s friend. She and Wellmy had never been particularly close.
“You...may have a point,” she conceded.
“You need lasting relationships, friends you can count on and vice versa to survive in high society. I figured the best way to help you find those was to have you take action directly.”
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“Oh... Is that why you had me dispel the mind-control spells on Zumiano’s targets instead of asking father?”
“Exactly.”
Е̃ ṅ ũmа
“What a roundabout way of going about it,” Wellmy commented.
“Well, friends aren’t something you make just because someone told you to. I wanted you to mingle with other young lords and ladies and choose those you genuinely liked.”
“I see. But you know, Aides, there’s already someone I want to help and support—other than Iora and father.”
“Oh?”
Did he never notice? Wellmy wondered, confused.
“It’s you, Aides.”
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A look of surprise crossed her fiancé’s face, and he looked down at her in silence.
“Wh-What is it?” Had she said something strange?
But Aides’s eyes suddenly softened lovingly. “Wellmy, I appreciate the sentiment, but I’m not your friend. I can’t give you what you would get from socializing with friends.”
“I don’t really understand,” Wellmy said after a brief moment of hesitation. “You said I needed someone I could count on and who could count on me.”
“No. I said you needed lasting relationships with friends you could rely on and vice versa.” The tip of Aides’s fingers brushed against Wellmy’s lips. “Of course, Iora and I can share your burden to some extent. But the more people you can count on, the better. I won’t be able to accompany you to women-exclusive settings, and once Iora becomes crown princess, she won’t be free to do as she pleases either.”
“I understand...” Wellmy mumbled. She was a little embarrassed to be so clueless when it came to friendship, so she decided to shift the topic to Aides instead. “What about you? Do you have friends?”
Ӗn̆ûm̆ а
“Of course I do, Wellmy. I have Clartes, Leo, and Malefident, whom I saw earlier. They are my precious friends. I could entrust you, my jewel, to them and feel perfectly at ease.”
Wellmy’s gaze wandered listlessly. She hadn’t expected Aides to call her his jewel out of the blue, and she didn’t know what to do with herself, a mix of happiness and embarrassment swirling inside her.
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Now is not the time for this, Wellmy! she chided herself.
Did Aides want to know if there was someone she would feel comfortable entrusting him to? No... That didn’t seem quite right. A friend would be someone she was close to and whom she’d trust to watch over Iora. She quickly made a mental list of possible candidates (with Karla at the top), but quickly realized that they were all close to Iora, not her.
“I really don’t have any friends...”
“That’s because you couldn’t afford to make any with the way you chose to live. But things are different now,” Aides assured her.
Ẅ e b̀ ñ оv̌ е̇l̊ Е́n̆ũ m а̀
“But since I’ve never needed any... I don’t know how to make friends.”
“Up until now, you tended to avoid the people you liked. So you just have to do the opposite: actively socialize with them. You have a good eye for character, after all.”
So she would need to interact with the people she took a liking to...as friends? In all truthfulness, Wellmy still wasn’t sure she really understood how to go about this, but since Aides said it was important, it had to be true.
“It seems hard...” she mumbled.
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“Just take it easy. Think about the people you met recently. Was there anyone you wanted to talk to again? Anyone you found yourself curious about?”
“Theresalo and Seyfalt, I suppose? I like Lady Darristea and Lady Hildentrai too, but the feeling likely isn’t mutual.”
Ŵ е bǹ ŏ v̈ е̂ l̃ Е n u ṁ а
There was just something about Theresalo that made Wellmy want to protect her. As for Seyfalt, she felt like she could relate to him, but would he want to be friends with her? She’d found that he and she had similar ways of thinking. They had both forced themselves to live in ways that others might deem wrong. Wellmy had strongly sympathized with him.
If possible, she would love to have a normal, regular conversation with the two of them.
“You should pay them a visit when things have calmed down. I’m sure you’ll find it quite fruitful. Theresalo and Darristea, in particular, likely have some very interesting things to tell you.”
“Like what?”
“Ask them directly. You’ll likely have the chance in the future. That’s part of getting to know someone,” Aides replied, the smile playing on his lips both amused and fond.
Why is he being so nice to me? Wellmy wondered as she stared at him.
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All her life, she had never really belonged anywhere. The Ernest estate had been Iora’s home, and Wellmy had always felt as though she was taking her sister’s place.
Yet, here, with Aides, she felt at home. He had given her a sense of belonging—a place that was hers and hers only.
“What is it?” he asked.
Wellmy reached up and stroked his inflamed cheek, just like he’d been doing to her earlier. It was slightly warm.
“You’re not going to heal it?”
“It’s the punishment I received for putting you in danger. I can at least give your sister the courtesy of keeping it until it fades.”
Ẅ ë b̆n̊ о v е ĺ Е̌_n.ú m ӓ
Proud and cold as he was, Aides was an upright and earnest man.
Wellmy felt her chest grow warm, and her lips naturally curl into a smile. “I l-like that side of you?” she said, the words coming out sounding more like a question than an affirmation. She’d suppressed her shame to make that declaration. “I’ll need to clear the misunderstanding with Iora too. You did nothing wrong, it was all my fault.”
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For some unknown reason, Aides’s smile deepened at her words. “Really? If you say so, then I suppose there’s no need for me to reflect on my actions or show any restraint.”
Seeing the sadistic glint in her fiancé’s eyes, Wellmy snapped back to her senses. She tried to remove her hand from Aides’s cheek, but he grabbed it, keeping it firmly in place.
“Um... Aides?”
“Now that you mention it, I’ve also worked hard, so you ought to reward me as well. It would be unfair for you to be the only one to receive something for your trouble, wouldn’t it?”
Еńu m̈ а
“Huh? Ah, uh... Wh-What do you want?” Wellmy asked, her cheek twitching despite herself.
Aides leaned in, clearly amused. “I want a proper, grown-up kiss from my lover, who’s been making all these unnecessarily seductive comments.”
With that, Aides captured Wellmy’s lips with his, his tongue slipping into her mouth.
Wellmy’s face flushed at the sudden sensation. “Mmh! Mmh, Aide— Mmh!”
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Despite her protests, her fiancé continued to ravage her mouth. She gradually felt herself melting under his touch—although she was starting to run out of breath. These sensations mixed with the embarrassment she was feeling. By the time Aides released her lips, her consciousness had grown hazy.
“Fwah,” she sighed.
Ė_n̄u̇ m̌а̀.
“You said I did nothing wrong. So there’s no reason for me not to enjoy my reward, is there?” Aides asked, licking his lips suggestively, an infuriatingly smug smirk on his face.
“You idiot! I hate you!” Wellmy exclaimed, turning her face away from him.
“That’s not true now, is it? What you ought to say is ‘I love you.’”
“No! I hate you!”
“Don’t lie, Wellmy.” Aides leaned in and whispered in her ear, “Should we try kissing again? See if it makes you honest?”
“Eek!” If he does that to me again... I won’t be able to stand! Wellmy’s body already felt like jelly as it was.
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Mustering all her courage, she whispered a quiet little “I like you,” but that didn’t seem to satisfy Aides.
“Again. Look at my face and say it properly. You can do it, can’t you?”
“You big meanie...!” she grumbled, hiding her face in her hands.
Yet Aides, despite his teasing, didn’t rush her. He waited patiently for her to say it. She peered at him from between her fingers and steeled herself.
“I...love you, Aides.”
But even though she’d done as he’d asked, he still captured her lips in another kiss.
Еn̈um̂ а .іd
Her body refused to move for quite some time after he was done.
