I Became the Male Lead in a Romance Fantasy Novel

57. Royal Banquet (6)

“Owen.”

A voice overlapped with a scene from the novel.

Owen’s gaze automatically followed the voice.

“Wasn’t it Sylid Marquis Yeong-sik? What did he talk about?”

Approaching him in a dress not red but a deep wine color, Lucia touched his arm naturally.

“It wasn’t anything special, just…”

“Just?”

“He asked about you, Lucia.”

“…About me?”

Her delicate eyebrows furrowed.

Owen reached out and lightly touched her forehead.

It was a gesture he learned from Lucia.

“Weren’t we engaged before?”

“We were. But that was three years ago.”

“Right. He asked about that.”

Owen nodded lightly and added,

“He asked if you were being used out of necessity. It seems like he was curious after three years.”

“I see.”

Lucia seemed to understand his explanation, making a sound of realization.

“I would actually prefer it that way, wouldn’t I?”

With that, she burst into laughter.

Although the words she spoke seemed sincere.

“It seems Owen wanted to discuss the fact that his marriageable age is running out. So, he welcomed me according to the occasion?”

“Probably.”

“Hmm, turning the conversation around.”

“He used that kind of rhetoric. Unlike Edelt.”

At Owen’s added remark, Lucia burst into a small laugh.

“Comparing me to Louis? Well, they’re both young. But compared to Seld Hujak Yeongsik, Louis falls a bit short.”

“…Is that so?”

His brow furrowed.

As Owen had said before, Lucia placed her hand on his forehead.

“Yes. Louis seems a bit childish and naive, making his thoughts quite obvious.”

“While the public might express that as simplicity.”

“Or stupidity, perhaps?”

Lucia did not bother to argue with Owen’s words.

Instead, as if acknowledging she knew well, she continued with an explanation.

“Nevertheless, Louis wouldn’t do something like staining my hands with blood. Not easily, at least.”

“….”

Knowing the future, Owen fell silent at her words.

That was all in the past.

Of course, a future that had now vanished….

Surely, in some timeline, Louis would have killed Lucia.

“No, that’s not it.”

Louis didn’t kill Lucia.

He only led her to her death, but he was the one who actually killed her.

He directly-.

“…No. Not me.”

Once again, Owen’s presence from the original work sharply surfaced.

The recurring confusion was disorienting.

What he had recently realized was that even when he was thinking, he couldn’t distinguish.

Precisely naming the male protagonist was a thing of the past.

Now, both the original and himself.

He simply referred to them all with the name Owen without distinction.

“But Seld Yeongsik isn’t like that. He doesn’t even treat lower-class people as humans. He takes human lives lightly.”

Amid the confusion, Lucia’s words continued.

At the sound of her voice, Owen suddenly snapped back to attention.

“The reason I decided to break off the engagement was because of that. A maid made a small mistake and I poured hot tea over her head.”

“She could have been burned? Wouldn’t it be a big deal if that maid got hurt?”

“Right. But Seld Yeongsik didn’t even care. He said the punishment should be taken as a matter of course. It seems he didn’t even care about the consequences that followed. He didn’t even think it was immoral.”

Owen finally understood why Lucia considered Seld Yeongsik worse than Louis.

Seld Hujak Yeongsik was more of a scoundrel than she had thought.

“I did some more investigation. Originally, I had only requested information from the Information Guild, but I went to the Assassin Guild and paid for some information. That’s how I found out right away.”

Lucia was also a VIP who frequented the Assassin Guild.

However, she didn’t use the Assassin Guild for the purpose of assassination.

She quietly gathered information on someone, monitored and attacked the assassins others had hired.

“I had already made dozens of requests. All of them were confidential matters. Since what the Assassin Guild considers confidential is quite obvious.”

She was someone with a track record of killing dozens of people.

As soon as Lucia realized this, she told Edelt Viscount, who without hesitation approved the breakup.

Even though he didn’t spare his daughter, he wasn’t the kind of person to force a murderer into marriage.

It wouldn’t benefit the family either.

It would only bring harm if anything.

“I need to be careful.”

Unaware it would be to this extent, he lightly brushed it off.

Yet, he wasn’t afraid.

Seld Hujak Yeongsik wasn’t even a knight or a magician.

He was simply a noble with a cruel temperament.

But….

“He’s not someone you know what he might do.”

I couldn’t predict what kind of nonsense he would come up with due to his temperament.

If he made a mistake, it seemed like he might resort to threats or even kidnapping.

Naturally, he wouldn’t dare do such things towards the two high-ranking dukes, but it was possible for the servants under the dukes.

Unfortunately, even with Lucia and Owen.

Both of them were quite friendly towards me, so they might move as I wished if I orchestrated something like that.

“I’ve been quiet for the past 3 years… Could it be that I mistakenly thought I would change my mind during that time?”

“It seems so.”

“Goodness. Isn’t it an overestimation of my self-worth?”

Lucia was startled when Owen affirmed.

“It seems you think I couldn’t like you.”

“No matter what, that wouldn’t have happened. Besides, Owen already loves me.”

Lucia grabbed Owen’s hand and asked.

It was a question seeking reassurance in being loved.

“Yes.”

Owen thought that Lucia’s attitude was like a baby bird seeing its mother for the first time when it hatches from its egg.

Just as the image of the mother bird is imprinted on the baby bird the moment it sees its mother, Lucia, who first received affectionate love, constantly wanted to indulge in that feeling.

“I love you.”

“I said that before, didn’t I?”

“If it was before…?”

“I said nothing to worry about would happen, that I wouldn’t look at anyone else but you.”

“Oh.”

It was a conversation they whispered before encountering Viscount Celid.

“I thought you wouldn’t hear.”

“I didn’t hear. The distance was quite far. But I could see your lip movements.”

“Even so, you know.”

It was difficult to accurately guess what someone was saying just by lip movements alone.

Unless it was telepathy, understanding the entire story solely through lip movements was impossible.

“That was what I wanted to say. It’s said that thoughts are reflected in speech.”

Lucia kindly added an explanation.

Her smiling expression was full of sincerity.

“Is that so?”

“That’s the idea.”

There were still many nobles around.

Whether Lucia deliberately bit her lip or not, the group with her was watching them from a distance.

Even the gazes of nobles from other countries who had come as envoys were fixed in their direction, indicating that they were indeed public figures.

Both Owen and Lucia.

Life was truly tiring and bothersome in many ways.

“Lucia.”

He briefly thought about diverting these gazes.

Perhaps they could be alone for a moment if they went to the terrace.

Since stepping into the central palace, he had been attentively listening to every gesture of people.

So, although fatigue was accumulating, it was what he had to do for the next few days.

The same applied to Kyle.

It was more of a mental fatigue than physical, so there wasn’t a big issue.

Apart from the fact that the annoyance and discomfort were more pronounced than usual.

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“Shall we go to the terrace?”

“Oh, are you tired?”

Lucia’s hand touched Owen’s cheek.

“It seems you get tired quickly in crowded places, Owen.”

“I’m not fond of crowded places.”

“Right. You said that last time too.”

Lucia recounted a conversation that came up at the previous social gathering.

“It’s not the event itself that I look forward to at gatherings.”

“It’s because of you, always.”

Owen reiterated the story from that day.

The form of words was different, but the meaning was the same.

“All the noises and gestures of people. It’s all tiring. It shouldn’t be shut off from senses, especially because of that, but…”

His body had an excessively healthy and helpless talent, but that also led to some downsides.

The Swordmaster’s body was overly sensitive to all senses.

Vision and taste being excessively acute might be one thing, but having a heightened sense of smell, hearing, touch, and intuition was tiresome in many ways.

The sensation of flesh being sliced by a sword when killing monsters, the smell of blood piercing the nose, words being heard even when not wanting to listen, the sound of footsteps coming from afar…

All these things stuck to him as if they were natural.

When his body was inexperienced, it was somewhat less intense, and even in everyday life, living with only half of his senses open was fine.

During hunting competitions, there was no need to heighten all senses.

Monsters were not so intelligent as to require that level of ability.

But the royal banquet was different.

To understand all the people in the banquet hall, it was necessary to fully open all senses.

“It makes me happy to be with you like this.”

“…Yes.”

Lucia responded slowly to the sincere words.

For some reason, she found such words quite awkward.

Not in a negative sense, but she made a face as if she had heard something immense, like being hit by a storm.

As Owen, it was surprising that this seemed to have a greater impact than saying “I love you.”

“Eek!”

It was a moment when the two looked at each other in silence.

A scream suddenly burst from one side of the banquet hall.

“…It’s the debutante ball, such a sad occurrence.”

The voice of the screamer was unfamiliar, but the subsequent words were familiar.

“Bella Taylor.”

She was a saint and the heroine of ＜The Empire’s Flower＞.

“Are you going to ignore it? The delegation from the Kingdom of Yuria.”

“What are you talking about, Your Highness?”

At Bella’s indication, the delegation from the Kingdom of Yuria stepped forward.

“It is regrettable that Your Highness the Saint was almost harmed, but this has nothing to do with us. They came as a diplomatic delegation and committed a breach of etiquette. Who would do such a foolish thing?”

It’s you.

Owen wanted to reply like that, but he held his tongue.

It seemed better to observe how the situation unfolded and make a judgment.

“Topju has been watching your actions closely. Perhaps Duke Verdine has as well.”

Suddenly, his name was mentioned.

While Owen was taken aback, Bella walked to the center of the banquet hall.

“Emperor, I request the suspension of the imperial banquet.”

In other words…

It could be said that this chapter clearly demonstrated, ‘The heroine was strong, very strong and smart, even kind and charming.’