Ch 19.
Only then did Adrian discover for the first time that Enoch was there, and he glared at him with narrowed eyes as if it were bothersome.
“Because I thought I shouldn’t just stand by and watch anymore. It is because it seems the Vice Admiral treats the Admiral far too carelessly.”
“Enoch Fitzgerald. This is dare not a place for you to interfere.”
“Well, I do not think that is a matter for the Vice Admiral to judge.”
With eyes that looked as if they would challenge each other to a duel right away if someone threw them a sword, the two did not take their eyes off each other.
As she kept watching, every single part of the conversation they shared was displeasing. The most displeasing thing was Adrian, who held her wrist even in the midst of this and wouldn’t let go, but before that, first of all,
“Enoch Fitzgerald, go inside.”
Enoch was too insolent.
Elisa still had many things to be grateful to him for, and Enoch was her subordinate whom she cherished the most, but that was that, and the discipline of the Navy was discipline.
“Admiral!”
“Let go of that hand. It is an order.”
Even while looking at Elisa with aggrieved eyes, Enoch was not letting go of the hand that had been restraining Adrian.
“Is this insubordination?”
Elisa’s eyebrows were lifted. Then, the strength in Enoch’s grip that held Adrian’s arm slowly drained away.
“……It is not.”
“Who do you think you are to order the Vice Admiral around like this and that? When and who gave that level of power to the position called Colonel?”
“I am sorry. I will correct it.”
“Go inside.”
“Yes.”
In the end, Enoch even apologized to Adrian, departed from the deck, and returned into the ship’s hull.
Only after Enoch’s figure had completely disappeared did Elisa turn her gaze to Adrian.
Adrian, after watching this entire matter, stared at Elisa with a displeased expression. His snake-like red eyes, the corners of his eyes that had been sleekly drawn out, were roundly widened.
“……I did not know you would take my side.”
At the first words Adrian uttered, Elisa regretted acting harshly toward Enoch because of Adrian. She should have chased that bastard out instead of Enoch!
My side, my side indeed!
She wanted to smash Adrian’s head, who was muttering such words that were nothing short of childish.
Furthermore, was it even plausible for Adrian Oberon and Elisa Shooter to stand on the same side? Does that bastard really not remember that he blew away all the opportunities to do so with his own hands?
“Does this look like taking a side right now? Does it not cross your mind that I corrected a sight where the discipline of my Navy was going astray?”
Even when she corrected his wrong thought, the blank expression on Adrian Oberon’s face showed no sign of being erased. She did not know what kind of stupid imagination he was making on his own, but it was extremely unpleasant.
When Elisa opened her mouth to somehow divert Adrian’s attention elsewhere, Adrian questioned her at the same time as if pressing charges.
“So, what is the reason you came out all the way here?”
“Why are you together with that man here?”
Ah, should she have just let Enoch hit Adrian Oberon a blow? Looking at Adrian, who referred to Enoch as ‘that man’, Elisa regretted once again that she should have dampened Adrian’s spirits, not Enoch’s.
What on earth is contained inside Adrian Oberon’s head? Exactly what must he think of me for having a little conversation with Enoch to look like a scene of being together with a ‘man’?
Elisa, barely swallowing down the boiling anger, asked.
“Do I even have to explain the Admiral and the Colonel being together?”
“The Admiral and the Colonel.”
Adrian re-recited the words Elisa had spoken exactly as they were, mockingly.
“Elisa Shooter, you seem to be under the illusion right now that you are performing your role well, don’t you?”
“What more am I supposed to do here.”
“Is that so? If you don’t know, I should show you.”
Saying so, Adrian pulled Elisa’s arm and formed an escort posture. Even while doing so, Adrian did not forget the task of firmly fixing her arm to his body so that Elisa could not escape.
“Let go immediately, what kind of act is this right now.”
“I told you. Since you say you don’t know, I must teach you. Is there any choice? Though I did not know my fiancée would be ignorant to this extent, that is.”
Completely ignoring Elisa’s words to let go of this hand immediately, Adrian gave a nod of the eyes to everyone passing by their side, letting them know that the two were in an engagement relationship.
“Is the rumor that the two of you really got engaged true?”
“Yes, she is my fiancée. While preparing for the ceremony, it was delayed a little because of the rumor that the King of Shulid is visiting.”
When he spoke like that, they all left the spot with displeased expressions, telling them to be sure to invite them to the wedding.
They seemed to wish to participate in the wedding of Adrian, who would inherit the Grand Ducal House of Oberon, but found the fact that they had to treat the illegitimate child together in that place displeasing.
Not satisfied with going around giving greetings like that, Adrian dragged Elisa back up onto the floor in the end, as if openly declaring it to everyone.
“Take your hand off my body immediately.”
Elisa barely soothed her boiling inside and whispered quietly. Every action of Adrian felt just like an animal putting its saliva over its food, to the point of being sickening. Elisa felt goosebumps even at Adrian’s body heat being in contact with her body.
However, everyone was paying attention to them from all quarters, so she could not shout as she did on the deck a moment ago.
As if completely piercing through such an Elisa, Adrian smiled brightly.
And while placing a kiss on Elisa’s forehead, he affectionately tucked her hair behind her ear.
The place where his hand had touched and passed by throbbed hotly as if it had suffered a burn. She wanted to wash it clean with cold water right away.
It felt as if a convulsion would occur in her face from managing her expression. Elisa grit her teeth and growled at Adrian.
“Do not pull dog tricks.”
“Shouldn’t one do at least this much to be able to say that they acted?”
“Since when were you and I in a relationship where we did this kind of thing?”
“Do you intend to disobey Her Majesty the Queen’s command?”
“…….”
“Elisa. Do not act stupidly. You know, don’t you? What you have to do.”
Right, acting as the fiancée had no way of ending with just a single dance. Furthermore, Elisa was the only woman who danced with Schultz Tugrahan. Was that all, she had even come down alone while leaving her half-sister and Adrian on the floor.
With the acting Elisa had done so far, no one would have believed the fact that Adrian Oberon and Elisa Shooter were engaged.
If Adrian had not dragged her up onto the floor right now and put on this play, Schultz Tugrahan might have had doubts.
However, even so, she hated saying with her own mouth that Adrian performed the role better than she did more than death.
Whether he read such a heart of Elisa, Adrian looked down at her with a crooked smile.
“Admit it. Or try to prove that you can perform it better than I can.”
“Prove what?”
“Show it in front of people.”
The corners of Adrian’s mouth subtly went up. He possessed skin as white as the snow blossoms of the North, despite being a knight who rolled throughout the training ground. Therefore, when Elisa saw him for the first time standing erect on the platform at the academy entrance ceremony, she thought that he was like a princess in a fairy tale.
Pitch-black hair, red lips, white skin. Down to a pretty body line that was firm and balanced as expected of a knight, yet not rugged.
Watching Adrian, who was much younger than now, there was also a time when she thought like that, wishing that a child as pretty as that princess would talk to me.
So did he talk to her back then?
It seems there was such a time.
Ah, right, there was. For sure. That boy approached me first, me who couldn’t even approach properly and was just staring blankly.
Whenever that young and pretty child met eyes with her, whenever he laughed lowly at her nonsensical jokes, she had thought like this.
I must have become that child’s special person, indeed.
From his body approaching close, a faint scent of wine came along with a refreshing body scent. He lightly placed his lips against the nape of her neck, took them off, and then shrugged his shoulders while looking at her.
“Elisa, it is fine even if you don’t do it.”
The soft voice was just like a snake’s temptation. The red eyes tightly held Elisa’s gaze so that it could not move anywhere.
Adrian, who wrapped his arms around her, tickled her ear with his fingertips. Strangely, it felt as if heat were rising. Right now, Elisa could not distinguish whether this emotion was anger or a reaction to Adrian’s teasing.
“If you can’t do it, you can just admit it, that I did better than you. That you are inferior to me.”
Adrian whispered lowly. At that provocation, the fine hairs on the back of Elisa’s neck stood up in goosebumps.
Elisa did not want to hear any more words of any kind.
She only had the thought that she wanted to block that man’s mouth right now, who was ruining the young and pretty princess inside her memory.
Elisa tightly closed both eyes and slammed her lips onto Adrian’s lips.
☆▪︎▪︎▪︎☆
