Episode 8.
Small pieces of paper fluttered down from Adrian’s hand and piled up on the floor. Elisa could no longer endure it and sprang up from her seat.
“What do you think you’re doing right now!”
Despite Elisa’s sharp shout, Adrian nonchalantly brushed off his hands as if even the paper he had torn to shreds was filthy.
“Elisa. If you had any choice in this marriage proposal to begin with, Her Majesty the Queen would not have specifically picked me out of all the many noble sons in Sepia and told me to marry you.”
“How did you…!”
Adrian knew everything. From the cause of this marriage proposal down to the very words the Queen had handed to her in Duke Roserica’s office.
As Elisa stood there speechless, merely staring at him, Adrian let out a smirk and mocked her.
“So, Elisa Shooter, stop whining like a child and accept it.”
Like a child, without whining.
Adrian had a talent for picking only the words that would provoke Elisa.
While Elisa was struggling to suppress her boiling inner rage, Adrian snatched her hand. Elisa applied force to break free, but she could not overcome his grip. Adrian persistently pressed an envelope into her palm.
Elisa certainly intended to hurl what he gave her onto the floor the moment Adrian’s hand let go.
“Why don’t you stop? Believe it or not, that is a letter from royalty.”
However, she could not help but pause at Adrian’s snide remark.
Just as Adrian said, an ominous seal was stamped on the front of the envelope. She had certainly seen it once before.
A horse pierced by a spear.
Elisa’s brow narrowed.
“Is it a letter from Shulid?”
“To be precise, it’s a letter sent by Schultz Tugrahan to Her Majesty the Queen.”
True to Adrian’s words, the seal already showed signs of having been opened by someone. Was that the only sign? The corners of the letter were even crumpled, as if someone had already been enraged while reading it.
[Schultz Tugrahan of Shulid delivers this to the Queen of Sepia.
I wish to hear personally the reason why Admiral Shooter rejects the royal marriage with Shulid. Therefore, I must meet Elisa Shooter and have a conversation.
Accordingly, I request the opening of Roserica Port and entry permission for the Shulid delegation.]
Only then did she seem to know who had been enraged upon seeing this letter.
It was clearly Her Majesty the Queen.
She had gone so far as to involve the Grand Ducal House of Oberon just to prevent a single illegitimate child from leaking to Shulid, but regardless of those efforts, she ended up drawing Schultz Tugrahan into Sepia.
“Since there was no justification to refuse, Her Majesty eventually granted permission to open the port.”
“The official document to open Roserica Port has not arrived yet.”
“It will arrive within a few days.”
Elisa bit her lip as her vision seemed to turn dark. But Adrian continued speaking without concern.
“Before Schultz Tugrahan arrives in Sepia, we must create evidence that this marriage has officially proceeded. This is Her Majesty’s command.”
“…….”
“Meaning, you won’t have the leisure to go around rummaging through pathetic losers like these.”
Adrian trampled the torn papers thrown at his feet as if he didn’t even want to look at them. Elisa ignored those blatant actions that revealed Adrian’s mood and spat out only business-like words.
“So, when is Schultz Tugrahan coming here?”
Sighing, Adrian spoke through gritted teeth. It was as if even the mention of Schultz Tugrahan was unpleasant.
“Within a month.”
“What?”
“They say if he catches the west wind, it might not even take three weeks.”
At this time of year, if one were on the path to Roserica Port across the Salaway Sea, one could certainly catch the west wind.
That meant Elisa Shooter had to create evidence of being in a deep relationship with Adrian Oberon within three weeks. No matter what, absolutely.
Damnably, Adrian’s words were all correct. There was no longer any way to avoid this marriage.
Adrian looked down at her with his tall stature. His shadow cast long over her.
Even such an unavoidable thing was unpleasant, but Adrian persistently added one more sentence that clawed at Elisa’s anger.
“So stop acting immaturely and accept it, Elisa Shooter.”
“Admiral, how many personnel should we deploy for the military unit?”
“Pirates have recently appeared in the eastern sea route. To avoid diplomatic conflict, it would be better to dispatch our navy.”
“But the delegation from Shulid will be coming, so we cannot send too many forces out to sea, can we?”
“There is no need to subjugate them with full force immediately. Just threaten them enough to chase them out of the eastern sea route. If we just show that those pirate ships are not Sepian privateers, we can avoid conflict with the Empire for the time being.”
Damnably, Adrian Oberon’s words were all correct. Exactly two days later, an official document came down to open the port, stating that they must welcome the Shulid delegation coming with Schultz Tugrahan.
And the Southern Navy became very busy. And, naturally, Elisa, who had to command all of it, was even busier.
It was bearable. Since such things had happened once or twice while Elisa was in the navy, she was used to it. And she had never failed.
That is, if it weren’t for Adrian Oberon, who watched Elisa all day long, sitting with his legs crossed, chin resting on the armrest of his chair, lounging at his leisure.
“Elisa, you must finish by five o’clock. Remember that you haven’t even had a fitting for the welcoming ceremony dress, let alone the engagement dress.”
Elisa tried her best to ignore Adrian, who was an eyesore at the edge of her vision, as she gave orders to her unit members.
“Greg, go to Enoch and ask how much of Her Majesty’s escort force has been prepared.”
“Yes, understood.”
However, as if testing the limits of Elisa’s patience, Adrian did not stop there.
“Elisa. You haven’t forgotten again that Madame Catherine’s shop closes at six, have you? You must not forget that because you couldn’t keep the time yesterday, you couldn’t even set foot in the jeweler’s.”
“…….”
When Elisa ignored him without even giving a reply, Adrian started mentioning Her Majesty the Queen.
“Surely you aren’t going to cancel the shop I reserved today as well, are you? If you continue to delay the engagement preparations like this, I will have no choice but to ask Her Majesty to send a designer personally.”
“…….”
“It seems my precious fiancée finds the jewelers and dress shops of the South unsatisfactory and rejects them all, so what other choice is there?”
Since the letter came from the King of Shulid, Adrian Oberon had strictly kept his word.
He was faithful to the role of a fiancé, as if he were truly going to show her that he would marry her.
Very unfortunately for Elisa.
When she ignored Adrian without a single word, the unit members felt even more uneasy.
But Elisa acted as if he were not in this place, except for the one time she glanced at him when Adrian barged into the office.
She knew in her head. That her unit
members were not being intimidated by Adrian, but were tensing up because the name of Her Majesty the Queen was brought up.
However, Elisa, who had become extremely sensitive because of Adrian sitting in her office all day scraping at her nerves, found even that bothersome.
She was resentful of her situation where she could not kick out Adrian, who was idling like a loafer in her office and no other place, and anger surged toward the members who were needlessly looking at Adrian’s face instead of hers.
Elisa slammed the fountain pen she was holding down onto the desk. As the wooden desk and the pen collided, making a sharp sound, the unit members flinched and moved out of her sight.
But Adrian merely looked at her as if wondering what the problem was, even giving a shrug. He even went so far as to smile as if satisfied when her gaze met his. Because of that, the corners of Elisa’s mouth twisted bitterly. She felt a bitter taste.
“I’ll finish by five o’clock by any means necessary, so shut up and get out.”
“I shall follow your orders, Admiral.”
Adrian even took off his hat in a mock bow, ridiculing her until the very end before
leaving the office.
Once the tall Adrian Oberon left, the office finally seemed a bit more open. Then, the piles of document folders stacked high on the desk caught Elisa’s eye.
Elisa knew better than anyone that it was absolutely impossible to finish by five o’clock.
However, she had to pull it off somehow.
She had already spat out the words, and she could not become a laughingstock to that damn Adrian Oberon by failing to keep her word.
From then on, Elisa began to concentrate on the documents with terrifying intensity.
Just like back in her academy cadet days when she stayed up all night until her nose bled, vowing to somehow surpass Adrian Oberon’s grades.
☆▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎☆
