Episode 7.
Tok, tok—
Every time Adrian tapped the empty desk with his long fingers, calloused from gripping swords and guns, a dull sound echoed through the room.
It was the third day since Adrian Oberon had been appointed as Vice Admiral, yet he had not received a single document from Elisa.
Even when he caught passing sailors to ask questions, they only repeated the words, “We have received no orders from the Admiral,” showing not even a hint of intent to obey Adrian.
Unfortunately for him, the solidarity of the Southern Navy, with Elisa as its focal point, was far firmer than he had imagined.
If Elisa intended to isolate him within the Navy, she possessed more than enough ability to do so.
If he wanted to crush the sailors using power and rank, he could have willingly done so, but that was a method he ultimately could not use, as Elisa would then hate him to a truly irreversible degree.
Well, it seemed Elisa’s loathing of Adrian Oberon was the same even now.
Adrian pulled a document stamped with the Queen’s seal from his drawer and stared at it for a long time.
The problem was, there wasn’t much time left to persuade Elisa.
Three days was generous enough. Adrian thought he had been as patient as he could be and had accommodated her convenience as much as possible.
Adrian stormed out of the Vice Admiral’s office, where he could do nothing, and strode toward the building where Elisa was located.
And the moment he was about to knock on Elisa’s office door, clear laughter flowed out from inside.
“Hahaha, Enoch, are you really serious?”
It was the kind of laughter she had never once let the man who was actually her fiancé, Adrian Oberon, hear.
That was extremely bothersome. The fact that the person was Enoch Fitzgerald, who had been following Elisa around since their academy days, made it even more displeasing.
It was simply because of that. That he flung open the door to Elisa’s office without even knocking.
As the price for that impulse, he had to watch as Elisa’s golden eyes, from which laughter had completely vanished the moment they landed on him, soon distorted with contempt.
“Enoch. Did you bring what I asked for before?”
“Yes, it is right here.”
Enoch, standing in a disciplined posture and looking quite tense, handed a bundle of documents to Elisa.
“You must be busy, thanks for the hard work.”
“Ah, no, it’s nothing!”
Elisa focused on the documents Enoch brought, unaware that her tied-back red hair was slipping down. However, the more she turned the pages one by one, the more Elisa’s expression crumpled mercilessly.
“The second son of Marquis Shakran is a half-wit, and the third son of Count Heslica is famous throughout the kingdom as a scoundrel. I heard his engagement was broken off because he fooled around with a ballerina?”
“…….”
“And the second son of Viscount Mierna? Even last year, he declared an annulment at a social gathering just because his fiancée wore low-cut clothing. Meanwhile, he himself almost had his wrists cut off while committing adultery with noble ladies. Rumor has it that there are more than one or two nobles aiming for the Viscount’s son’s life. There’s a rumor that Viscount Mierna pulled up the very foundations of his territory to offer as a bribe. It was quite a spectacle.”
The documents Elisa had requested from Enoch a few days ago were a list of candidate fiancés to replace Adrian Oberon.
However, the people written on the list were all unsatisfactory individuals. Every time a page slipped through Elisa’s fingers, Enoch’s face turned pale.
“Look at this? My goodness, Enoch. You even put in a position for a second wife? And with a guy more than double my age?”
“Do you think I put it in because I wanted to? But… among the nobles of the Sepia Kingdom, finding a noble who has enough power to persuade Her Majesty the Queen and who would also understand that the Admiral must continue her naval work was like plucking a star from the sky!”
At Enoch’s final words, Elisa couldn’t help but be a little surprised. She didn’t know he had been looking for a husband candidate who would understand her remaining as a sailor.
To think Enoch had thought that far.
As Elisa remained frozen, Enoch, interpreting her reaction differently, reached out to snatch the bundle of documents from her hand.
“S-Stop! Look only that far. If you didn’t like the people at the beginning, you’ll be even more dissatisfied with the ones at the back!”
“There’s only one page left anyway, what more could be left……”
However, Elisa lightly dodged Enoch’s movement. And the moment she saw the name written on the next page, she couldn’t hold back her laughter.
“Puhaha, Enoch, is this why you told me not to turn the page?”
“P-Please stop. Don’t tease me.”
On the last page, the name Enoch
Fitzgerald was written.
Enoch turned bright red from his neck to the tips of his ears.
However, for a while, Elisa’s clear laughter and Enoch’s desperate pleas to stop teasing him intersected inside the office.
Once she had teased Enoch enough, Elisa now had to face the cold reality before her.
“To think you are the best candidate among them.”
The Fitzgerald Count family was one of the wealthy and historic families capable of providing benefits to persuade the Queen in place of the Oberon Ducal house.
Furthermore, it satisfied the most important condition of being able to recognize Elisa as a naval admiral even
after marriage.
On top of that, he was close to her age, and even younger. While possessing all those conditions, it wasn’t a position for a second wife.
At the words Elisa muttered like a sigh, Enoch’s nape instantly turned red and his innocent green eyes widened.
“I-Is that true? That I am truly the best—”
However, before Enoch could even finish those words, the office door was flung open with a loud noise.
At the door that opened with a bang, Elisa’s golden pupils rounded.
However, the moment she confirmed that the person who had rudely kicked the door in was Adrian, even the last trace of a smile vanished from Elisa’s lips as if she had never been laughing joyfully.
It felt as if even the air inside the office froze in an instant.
“Who dares barge into the Admiral’s office without even knocking?”
A low, sunken voice flowed from Elisa’s mouth, but Adrian, without a hint of fear, only then tapped on the already fully opened door.
“I was preoccupied, so I ended up being rude.”
Clearly, in terms of content, it was a perfectly polite apology, but when combined with Adrian’s actions, it was no different from deception.
“Vice Admiral Oberon shouldn’t have any assigned work, so for what business did you barge in so rudely?”
“No work? I have a very important mission bestowed upon me by Her Majesty the Queen.”
“…….”
“As the Admiral knows very well.”
She knew it very well, without ever forgetting for a moment. Even without him coming here to remind her like this, very well.
As he said that, Adrian glanced at Enoch, who was standing beside her, and jerked his chin. As if he didn’t want to discuss matters related to marriage in front of Enoch Fitzgerald.
To Elisa, Adrian was no different from a time bomb. Because he was the one who knew the most pathetic and messy
appearance of her academy days.
And Elisa did not want to show that appearance in front of anyone in the Navy.
Even if it was Enoch, who, being from the academy, had heard and knew all the rumors that Adrian Oberon had toyed with Elisa.
“Enoch, you go outside for a moment.”
“But……”
“Please.”
Enoch, though he kept his guard up against Adrian with dissatisfied eyes, ultimately had no choice but to step back. Because it was Elisa’s request, not anyone else’s.
“……Yes, Admiral.”
Soon after, with the sound of the door closing, Enoch left.
Clearly, even though she had sent Enoch outside as he requested, Adrian’s expression was stiff with some other dissatisfaction.
“Does an Admiral use the word ‘please with a mere Colonel?”
“Just state your business.”
Adrian’s gaze, which had been glaring at Elisa, eventually landed on her desk. Before Elisa could stop him, Adrian snatched up the bundle of documents Enoch had brought.
“A list of husband candidates, I see……”
“…….”
“Elisa, how long do you intend to keep this up?”
She had no intention of stopping. That meant her answer would be: until the end. Until this marriage was completely nullified.
Whether he understood Elisa’s silence as something else, Adrian spat out a warning to her.
“Don’t overdo it. There is a limit to my patience as well.”
“Then don’t be patient.”
“What?”
“Don’t be patient, and disobey orders. You want to go back to the North too, don’t you? You don’t want to be stuck in this southern corner, getting soaked in the smell of salt. And then there’s the marriage with me. It’s simple anyway. If both of us just find other suitable marriage partners, Her Majesty the Queen will also—”
“Pfft, ahaha.”
However, before Elisa could finish her sentence, what came out of Adrian’s mouth was laughter. A blatant sneer.
“Sorry, Elisa. I couldn’t hold back my laughter because you were saying something so incredibly naive.”
“What?”
“Elisa Shooter. Do you really think everything will be that simple?”
“…….”
“I hope you aren’t that much of an idiot.”
His elegant fingers lifted a piece of paper. The movement was so graceful, beautiful, and natural that I didn’t even think to restrain Adrian Oberon.
Riiiip—
Along with a chilling sound, the data that Enoch had spent many days organizing for Elisa began to be torn apart miserably by Adrian’s hands.
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