Even If You Tear Me Apart - Chapter 49
The chapters are split like this so that the TL can update more consistently over time (✿ ＞◡❛)
An heir, was it.
“I’ve devoted myself to magic, and I’m already forty. The saddest thing about mages is that just when they become skilled enough to be recognized as such by others, they die.”
The Marquis liked to talk, but in the end, the meaning was simple.
He was impatient with desire after seeing his beautiful and young bride-to-be, and wanted to do something with her before the wedding.
He had wanted to play the role of a generous husband. And now, barely days later—this? It was nothing short of repulsive.
Ezekiel opened his mouth, doing his best to keep his true thoughts from showing.
“I apologize, but our duty is solely to escort Lady Quilluxia. We cannot accommodate any personal requests.”
“Come now, Sir.”
The Marquis sighed as though frustrated.
“You may not care as a paladin, but I am truly in a hurry.”
“I understand your urgency, Marquis, but I’m afraid it’s not a matter we can be involved in.”
“Not involved, you say!”
Ezekiel’s brow faintly creased. The Marquis, having raised his voice, belatedly glanced at him to gauge his reaction.
“Ahem, my apologies. I got carried away. In any case…”
Perhaps he remembered that Ezekiel, though now officially disconnected from the imperial family as a paladin, had once possessed noble blood.
“Even last night—it was just a conversation between a future husband and wife, and yet you reacted as if I were some kind of criminal…”
“There’s a misunderstanding.”
Ezekiel cut him off.
“I heard Lady Quilluxia’s voice through the door, and couldn’t tell who she was speaking to. She sounded uncomfortable, so I intervened.”
At the mention that she ‘sounded uncomfortable’, the Marquis’s face twisted.
“It’s not like I was going to harm the young lady. Once you saw it was me, that should’ve been enough.”
“She was troubled. That’s what mattered.”
“A woman saying no in front of others is just a matter of decorum!”
He clearly didn’t understand a word. Ezekiel said nothing more, and the Marquis clicked his tongue.
“Or is it something like this? Because she’s the Emperor’s adopted daughter now, and you’re siblings or something? A sense of sibling loyalty?”
Once Iris became the Emperor’s adopted daughter, she and Ezekiel would technically be ‘siblings’. But Ezekiel had never seriously considered such a thing.
As a result, he failed to keep his expression in check, unable to hide his disbelief.
“…Ties of the world hold no power before an oath sworn to Udal.”
He belatedly forced his expression into composure and offered an explanation, but the problem was that the Marquis had already seen that flash of emotion.
“For someone with no feelings, you sure didn’t look too pleased, hm?”
“That is not true.”
He denied it immediately, but it was useless. The Marquis’s mood had clearly soured. Perhaps he’d sensed that Ezekiel had looked at him like one might a crawling insect. Still, he didn’t give up.
“Then as long as my future wife doesn’t say she dislikes it out loud, don’t get in the way.”
“To begin with,” Ezekiel replied, “Lady Quilluxia is not your wife yet.”
“How pedantic!”
The Marquis, growing agitated, asked again and again,
“If your job is to guard her, then focus on that. Don’t interfere. Understood?”
“I’m only fulfilling my duties as an escort.”
He answered flatly.
“If it concerns your private matters, the principle is neither interference nor cooperation.”
***
The Marquis approached Iris right after his conversation with Ezekiel.
Having dismounted from his carriage, he stomped over to bang on the window of Iris’s carriage. When she opened it, he said,
“Lady Quilluxia. We need some time to get to know each other.”
“Time to get to know each other…”
“Our marriage was decided so suddenly—don’t you think we should at least talk a little?”
With that, the Marquis climbed into the carriage without waiting for her consent. It was clear he intended to ride with Iris until the next village. As the maid panicked and tried to pull Henri away, the Marquis gestured.
“Henri, wouldn’t you like to take a look at my carriage?”
Even young Henri could tell the Marquis had no intention of simply showing off his carriage. As he looked back and forth between his sister and the Marquis with anxious eyes, the maid quickly moved to distract him.
