Are You Satisfied That I Am Dead? - Chapter 2: Day One (Part One)
“Llorona has died!?”
Bellevuet, who was in his private quarters, widened his eyes and stiffened. He unconsciously staggered, falling and clinging to his seat. The news was like the final stab against his already exhausted physique.
“Why does it have to be now....”
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Bellevuet wearily holds his head in frustration, clicking his tongue in annoyance.
“If only she had died sooner!”
He furiously kicks the desk, startling the servants inside the room, causing them to cower in fear.
Just a few moments ago, Bellevuet has just finished explaining his broken engagement to the King and Queen. As a result, he was given a long scolding. No matter how unbecoming of a fiance Llorona was, to annul the engagement without any discussion beforehand was Bellevuet’s biggest blunder. He was tired of being chided, of how a proper royalty should have taken the proper procedures, and to not cause a strife.
Fortunately, after confronting them with the evidence of how unfitting Llorona was, they couldn’t fault him for wanting to break the engagement.
“What a waste of a talk with father and mother.”
It felt unpleasant for going through all the trouble he shouldn’t have been doing, but Bellevuet relaxed again after thinking how the talk went faster than expected.
The annulment procedures are simple, but unexpectedly time consuming than he thought to be. In a way, noble marriages are like a contract. Through official papers, approval from both nobles and temples, an engagement can be established. If the couple decided to break it, both parties are required to provide documents of their consent and the necessary forfeit fee for it.
However, it is a different story when the other dies. When separated by death, it does not breach the contract.
Bellevuet was relieved that he didn’t need to pay for the necessary annulment papers and the costly forfeit fee.
“She really did one last good thing in the end, huh...”
Bellevuet smiled as he said that, not a single trace of his princely quality can be seen from it. While he did view Llorona as a fiance, it wasn’t as if he had no feelings for her.
The family Llorona hailed from, the Luce family, although an ordinary noble family enriched with a long history, they don't bring any particularly significant influence. Even so, the reason why Bellevuet and Llorona was able to form an engagement was simply due to a conflict with the neighboring country a decade ago.
At that time, the Luce family contributed greatly. As a reward for their outstanding achievement, the royal family promised them that they would welcome their daughter Llorona as the imperial Consort.
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At the time of their engagement, Bellevuet was only five years old, while Llorona was 4 years old. To Bellevuet, who had only few opportunities to talk with children of his age, Llorona was the only person he could interact with.
When she finally came of age, he escorted and danced with her.
Between those long 14 years, they have spent so much time together as an engaged couple.
"..."
In an instant, bitterness crawls through Bellevuet’s chest. The feeling was foreign to him and he twisted his face hard.
As a child, he knew that this is the person he would eventually marry, and also the person he would greatly care for. However, as they grew older, Llorona’s composed look, attitude, became more than he could, and it irritated him.
Either way, once Bellevuet becomes king, he will be swamped by many supervising duties, so it should be fine for him to slack off for a bit. However, such a boyish wish was cut off by Llorona’s “don’t”. Bellevuet was also annoyed at how his fiance came to nag about him with his parents and teachers instead of siding with him.
Besides, he too, felt his pride wounded by Llorona’s doll-like beauty.
Llorona possessed a celestial-like appearance to the point where you question if she was even alive or not, and it scared Bellevuet to touch her. The more he thought if reaching out might crush her or not, the creepier he found her to be. At some point, there was a gap between them he could no longer bridge.
“...Nevermind that. With this, I will be able to marry Lumina. As she is also the daughter of Luce, that doesn’t necessarily mean I’m breaking the promise.”
He muttered as if whispering to himself, and Bellevuet repressed his welling up emotions.
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