Chapter 8. Blues blowing in social circles (8)
Caan. With a sound, the swords collided with each other for the last time and then fell.
As Georg’s bulky body collapsed, Ludwig brought his sword up to his face.
A bitter smile formed on Georg’s lips as he acted as if he were asking if he wanted to do more.
It was at that moment that a girl burst into the gymnasium.
“Georg!”
“Scarlett!? How are you?”
It was Georg who asked back with a clear tone of bewilderment, but she had no time to answer it.
Entering the gymnasium, Scarlett hurriedly checked Georg’s condition.
The one in the hand of a childhood friend, and the one in the hands of the man who confronted him, no doubt a true sword.
Could it be that you have been seriously injured? My heart just trembled.
“Scarlett, right now in the middle of a duel… … !”
“No, there is no need for that.”
Not knowing that the sword pointed at him had been recovered, he tried to dissuade Scarlett.
However, he had no choice but to turn his head at Stefan’s low voice.
“Everyone can see that it seems to have come to an end. Isn’t it?”
“… okay. You are right.”
If it had been a life-and-death duel, his own head would have fallen off.
Recognizing that fact, Georg nodded without an excuse.
It was only when Stefan decided the winner and loser of the duel that Emilia rushed to Ludwig’s side.
“Ludwig… ! What a relief.”
“Cheup… ! that, that’s right I am very fortunate.”
It was embarrassing for Ludwig as he hugged him tightly up to his neck and pressed his whole body closely.
I’ve been used to hugging a few times, but this posture, where you can clearly feel the curvature of her body, was too stimulating for a man in his prime.
The tense tension, which felt like walking on ice, was relieved at once, and Georg, who had been clumsy, finally faced Scarlett properly.
Stefan’s mouth opened as he gazed at the two couples happily.
His voice was directed not to anyone else, but to a girl standing by Georg’s side.
“By the way, is that the daughter of the Zellier family that I’ve only heard about?”
Even if he wasn’t closely related to the Rahethofen family, he was aware of the fact that there was a candidate for a daughter-in-law that Haschel-Lünker had picked out in advance.
In addition, the red hair and the stigma engraved under the right side of the chin were the proof of the Zellier family.
Scarlett came to her senses at Stefan’s words and hurriedly got up from her seat to greet and apologize at the same time.
Even if there was no Amman situation, it would be like saying I didn’t know about a giant like this in front of my eyes.
She had to barely endure the shaking of her limbs.
“Bar, meet Lord Bayemurn. I sincerely apologize for not being able to say hello.”
Bondi Scarlett did not have a large liver.
Normally, just meeting a man named Stefan would make my heart beat to its fullest.
In addition, the tension was about to double because he made a mistake from the beginning.
“There is no need for that. Because I saw your heartfelt behavior. They are a really good pair.”
“Thank you… … .”
Even in the midst of this, did he happily accept his good words?
The look of a girl in love with her cheeks dyed red and bowing her head in greeting was just the same.
Stefan thought it would be better for them to have their own time rather than sorting things out right away.
Stepping back for a moment, he approached his future son-in-law and daughter, and passed Haschelünker a small pat on the shoulder.
Taking over his turn, he quietly headed to his son’s side.
It was a car that I still couldn’t understand the situation and my mind was quite confused.
“Ludwig, are you hurt?”
“Emilia was watching too, right? There are no injuries, so don’t worry.”
“Nevertheless. I can’t help but worry.”
Around the time the other three were having their own time, this side was also spending their own time in their own way.
Emilia, in particular, witnessed the duel situation in real time, but only recited her worries about it.
I asked if I could forget, and if I could forget, I asked again.
But Ludwig didn’t find this repetitive question annoying at all.
On the contrary, it felt like she was conveying her concern for him, and it filled me with a sense of satisfaction.
“I’m not a fool enough to leave behind my fiancé, who I just got today.”
“Don’t even say that. I’m really going to get angry.”
“Ha ha, that is difficult. Okay. I apologize, Emilia.”
As the momentum surrounding Emilia’s body rapidly cooled, Ludwig immediately raised the white flag.
He was not a fool enough to handle her wrath with a body tired of dealing with Georg.
“It is as you say. I would never have forgiven you for doing such a thing to a precious daughter of our family.”
Stefan interrupted their conversation, joking around to lighten the mood.
Ludwig stares at him with strange eyes and raises one corner of his mouth.
Soon, the words that came out of his mouth caused a stir around him.
“You are doing too much, Sir Stefan. It is not persuasive to say such a thing from the person who created this situation.”
“Well?”
Stefan reacted as if he was talking about something he didn’t understand, and Emilia, who had been listening to the story, also widened her eyes.
Are you the one who created this situation? What does that mean?
It sounded as if Ludwig and Georg had a secret plan to fight.
“There is no point in pretending not to know. Because I know that you matched with Prince Rahethofen.”
Ludwig asserts as if there is physical evidence, not speculative remarks.
At that, Stefan’s eyes seemed to open wide, just like Emilia’s, but then he burst into a hearty laugh.
“Heh heh, this is won… How did you know?”
Stefan didn’t even deny it and meekly admitted the truth.
I knew you were smart, but I couldn’t believe you would even guess about yourself.
His eyes were full of confidence to consider it an unfounded poke.
“I was just speculating based on the circumstances before and after. At first, it was only Prince Rahethofen who was suspicious, but after that I began to think that Sir Stephen was also wearing one.”
The sense of incongruity that Ludwig felt towards Georg in the invitation screen. The first start was from there.
Of course, with an exaggeration, he expressed that he was the one who did this to Stefan, but in fact, it wasn’t that much.
If I had to express it, it would be correct to express it as an accomplice who knew that this would happen a long time ago and turned a blind eye to it.
Meanwhile, Emilia couldn’t understand this situation, so she asked urgently while grabbing Ludwig’s arm.
For that rude ruffian and his respected father to match their words?
I couldn’t keep up with it with my own head.
“You are so kind, Emilia. It means that Prince Rahethofen openly quarreled with us, and Lord Stefan later appointed himself as mediator, all of which were planned.”
“That means… The actions of Prince Rahethofen… … ?”
“Yes, it was an act.”
For what reason?
Emilia shifted her gaze to Georg, who was laughing while standing up before he knew it.
Like her father, he was smiling as if he had been caught.
Haschel Lünker, standing next to him, watched the situation with a dumbfounded expression.
“Yonke noticed it too. Since when?”
“As I said, I had doubts from the beginning.”
Ludwig responded lightly to his act of admitting the truth.
Perhaps if he hadn’t known anything about Georg, he might not have noticed this.
However, he was a huge fan of the original work, and he remembered the personality and words and actions of the main characters who appeared heavily.
‘It wasn’t too Georg-like.’
In the original work, a man named Georg shows the opposite side of his older brother, Wilhelm.
In a sense, the appearance of a politician is also revealed, and he is a personality who enjoys hiding behind the scenes without making enemies as much as possible.
In other words, it means that he is a man with excellent ability to hide his hostility to the extent that he can make the enemy he is targeting believe that he is an ally.
In that respect, the behavior he showed today was very awkward.
It was as if he was putting on the mask of ‘villain’ and moving his body accordingly.
Even exaggerated behavior and tone as if she wants people to see her as an enemy.
‘If it wasn’t for Scarlett, I might have passed on it.’
In addition to that, Scarlett, who appeared out of nowhere, did a good job.
After falling in love with Emilia, the Georg of the original work gradually grew distant from Scarlett, his childhood friend and future fiancée, to the point where they fell apart.
However, when she appeared today, the behavior Georg showed was a strange affection for a man and a woman who had fallen apart.
His eyes look like a warrior leaving for the battlefield worried about his wife he left behind at home.
From there, Ludwig put together the rumors he had heard about Georg and what he had experienced today, and began to make assumptions in his head, and eventually came to only one conclusion.
“Did you deliberately try to be humiliated?”
“… right.”
Georg appeared as the main villain in the original work, but he did not remain an ugly villain until the very end.
In the situation where he was being killed by Emilia’s hands, he finally closed his eyes after seeing her one last time, repenting of his sins, handing over an apology.
There were even readers who called the final scene a Georg-esque finale.
So Ludwig made a small assumption in the corner of his head.
If Georg was truly a character like the original, he might have changed his mind through some incident and broken his feelings for Emilia.
And what if that person is a long-time close childhood friend and fiancee?
In my head, the puzzles fit together and fell apart. However, it was just a question of what the truth was.
“For atonement?”
“… … .”
This time, Georg replaced the answer with silence.
It was obvious why Ludwig had done this.
It was probably to apologize and reflect on the things he had done to win Emilia’s heart over the past three years.
There were obviously twisted actions to see it as simply passionate courtship, and there were things that could not be regarded with kindness.
The fact that Ludwig had heard from Tanya alone was considerable, so the stress Emilia must have been under was unimaginable.
“Originally, my plan was to retreat like 10,000 tails after being defeated by the Princess of Bayemurn in front of everyone else. That would be more comfortable than an apology.”
In the first place, Georg hadn’t even thought of competing with Ludwig.
The reason why he acted as if he was arguing against Ludwig instead of Emilia was because he thought that she would accept the duel instead of protecting his fiancé.
All he had to do was defeat her in the most ugly way possible. That was all.
On the other hand, he looked down on Ludwig.
He was a gisaeng brother who was so insignificant even at first glance that he knew that he would not come forward while hiding himself in the width of her skirt.
In a sense, all plans collapsed when Ludwig accepted the duel.
“You meant to give your honor in exchange for an apology.”
“Are you saying it’s excessive?”
“I don’t think the word excessive is appropriate. Rather, Prince Rahethofen, I am a little disappointed in you.”
Disappointment?
Georg’s eyebrows twitched slightly at his meaningless words.
For aristocrats, honor is the same as life.
I wanted to dedicate such existence as an apology. what’s wrong with that
“You just didn’t have the courage to hand over an apology. Even the courage to meet my fiancé’s eyes and bow properly. Otherwise, I would never have thought of inventing such a cheesy play.”
Ludwig was offended by that fact.
Perhaps if the story had worked out as he had planned, Georg would have turned his back on Emilia as a loser without even apologising.
It wasn’t that he had the courage to hurt his own honor.
He just ran away because he didn’t have the courage to meet her eyes and apologize, and he just excused himself for doing his duty.
“What would have changed if I had gone back to that state? At least Sir Stefan would have noticed this fact.”
If he wanted to do something like this, Stefan would have been the first person he had to recruit.
So I had to tell him the truth as it was.
Given her circumstances, she will do this to apologize to her daughter-in-law. I must have asked you to be as close as possible.
Due to Stefan’s personality, he would not have ruthlessly rejected a young man who wanted to atone for what he had done.
Rather, he might have liked it as a manly spirit, but at least in Ludwig’s eyes, it was just a simple escape from reality.
“If you truly want forgiveness, please hand over it right now. That is what you have to do.”
Long platinum hair appeared behind Ludwig’s back, who carefully stepped aside.
She was making no expression.
That face, like a blank sheet of paper, devoid of expectations, worries, gentleness, and coldness, disturbed Georg’s mind.
‘I should do it.’
Now that you’ve come this far, if you truly want to repent of your sins, it’s the right thing to do.
He knew better than anyone else that what he had done today was an escape from reality that had spread out of vague fear.
He quietly approached Emilia.
Then, the red hair caught my eye as they were walking side by side.
“Scarlett.”
“I will do it with you.”
Are you saying that you will bow your head together for this self without any guilt?
If it was him, he would have pushed her away until the end and tried to hand her an apology.
However, it wasn’t like today.
Georg smiled faintly and cautiously reached out and took her hand.
A small hand that could be half of her own. Even so, for some reason, a reassurance was conveyed.
‘I’m sorry, Scarlett.’
Before lowering his head towards Emilia, he first conveyed his apologies to a girl in his heart.
If you wash away this sin today, there is something I want to tell you.
I don’t know what kind of expression you’ll make, but I hope I can open my mouth on my own without borrowing your hand at that time.
“I sincerely apologize for my foolish behavior until now, Princess Bayemurn.”
“I apologize for my friend’s mistake.”
A white mass did not rise above the two heads that were bowed down in front of Emilia’s eyes at the same time.
smile. Recognizing that fact, the corner of her mouth drew a small arc.
Upon checking the smile on her lips, Ludwig was able to sigh in relief.
Only today, the bad relationship that had been tough has been broken, and another relationship has been born.