The Transparent Fiancee and the Fragile Night

“Let go.”

“Ah, you answered. Sir Judas, do you know that was your first response in thirty sentences?”

“…….”

“In terms of time, it is the first response in an hour.”

“…….”

“Sir Judas, if you keep refusing to answer, I will just stay like this, you know?”

“…Let go.”

Judas answered a beat late. The reluctance in his voice was unmistakable. He spoke again, his face filled with contempt.

“Prince Raphael, I will never consent to your participation in this subjugation team. What do you intend to do if you come? You are a person of high status; it is not as if you can directly participate in the battle against the Demon King anyway. I do not know what scheme you are hatching, but you would be wise to give up.”

“Ju—”

“I find every thought inside your head disgusting.”

“Sir Judas….”

The atmosphere, which had felt somewhat like a romantic comedy, froze into something lethal in an instant. I shouldn’t have just grumbled; I should have left this place earlier. Why am I still here?

Judas bit his lip and forced a twisted smile. It was the most miserable expression I had ever seen on his face.

“How can you say such things to me?”

Raphael hunched his shoulders pathetically in front of Judas, looking like a fragile deer. Even though he was much larger than Judas, he acted as if shrinking his body would make him appear smaller and younger in the knight’s eyes.

“You were the one who told me to become like this. You said that to be a wise monarch, I must act by coldly weighing gains against losses, did you not?”

“…….”

“And you said that no matter how precious something on the scales may be, I must not be swept away by private emotions.”

“…….”

“The one who taught me that was you, Sir Judas.”

As he spoke, Raphael looked up at Judas with tear-filled eyes.

“Then even if everyone else condemns me, you should at least support me, Sir Judas.”

Without a doubt, Raphael was the most skilled gaslighter I had ever seen among game characters. I wondered if I should step in and help Judas escape this awkward situation. But when I looked closer, Judas had the face of a man who knew perfectly well that those words were preposterous.

“Prince Raphael.”

“Yes, Sir Judas.”

“Is it fun for you to put on such a performance without a shred of sincerity?”

Judas laughed. Considering the emotions he was projecting, the word ‘laugh’ didn’t quite fit, but his mouth was certainly curved into that shape. He looked like a man on the verge of coughing up blood from his very soul. However, he did not bleed; instead, he continued speaking like someone withering away from thirst.

“Stop pretending to be stupid on purpose. Did Your Highness ever actually follow my teachings?”

Raphael reached out and slowly took hold of one of Judas’s hands.

“Your Highness was already someone who knew right from wrong. Did you not understand better than anyone else exactly what I meant and in what context I spoke those words to you back then?”

As if filled with lingering affection, Raphael pressed Judas’s hand against his own cheek. Judas’s hand remained motionless, like an inanimate object, but Raphael savored the touch as if it were the warmest hand in the world reaching out to him.

To put it simply, Raphael didn’t seem to be listening to a word Judas said.

“I am sick of this. Why do you keep appearing before me? Stop acting this way. Is my reaction really that entertaining to you?”

“I like it because you are talking a lot, Sir Judas. As expected, your pronunciation has a unique rhythm to it.”

“Do not ignore me.”

Raphael let his shoulders droop sorrowfully, looking up at Judas from his hunched position.

“Then, Sir Judas, how about this?”

“……?”

“If it feels like I am becoming a significant burden to the group, or if a problem arises regarding my safety, I will return immediately. Of course, I will leave the weapon behind for the expedition.”

“Even so, I cannot—”

Then, dropping his head like a dejected young animal, Raphael added:

“And after that, I will never appear before you again.”

“…….”

“I will go out of my way to avoid places where you are, and even if we meet by chance, I won’t acknowledge you or speak to you.”

Raphael finally let the tears fall.

“If I promise that, will you let me join?”

Given his looks, seeing him shed tears in such a situation did look quite pitiful. Meanwhile, Sir Judas showed no emotional change at his tears. He seemed to be on a completely different dimension from Raphael, who was expressing his emotions so fervently. To be precise, it felt like looking at a composite screenshot where two people had been edited into the same room.

However, the condition Raphael proposed…. Even for Sir Judas, it seemed tempting. Who wouldn’t be tempted when someone who had destroyed their loved ones and persistently harassed them in such a misunderstood way offered to vanish forever?

“I will think about it.”

Judas said that and stood up. Raphael tried to follow him flittingly, but when the door slammed shut in his face, he gave up easily and turned around.

“He’s almost convinced. I look forward to working with you.”

His face was clean and radiant, as if he had never shed a single tear. I felt goosebumps and rubbed my arms.

Because Judas had been leaving early lately due to Raphael, the only ones gathered at night were the other knights, Azrael, and me.

They say you don’t notice someone’s presence, but you certainly notice their absence. I tucked the extra portion of food I had reflexively made for Judas into my inventory and cleared the dishes of the knights who had finished eating.

After finishing the cleanup, I focused on a book for a long while. When I finally looked up, only Azrael and I remained in the room.

“When did everyone disappear?”

“They said they were tired and wanted to go to bed early. I suppose everyone has personal things to prepare.”

Azrael answered without looking up from the armor he was maintaining.

I see. I nodded. It was only natural, considering they were preparing to risk their lives multiple times over.

“Don’t you need to prepare, Azrael?”

“Am I not doing so now?”

“…Is armor all you’ve got? With me there, your life will be safe, of course, but you’re still going to slay the Demon King. What about a letter to your fiancee, or something like that?”

At the mention of a fiancee, Azrael gave a bitter smile. He stopped polishing his armor, walked over, and sat on the sofa beside me, naturally leaning his head against my shoulder. The sensation of his hair touching my neck was tickly, making me shrink back slightly and laugh.

“What is this? Why this reaction?”

“What would be the point of sending a letter to a fiancee whose existence I am not even sure of?”

His tone was uncharacteristically sulky.

“What do you mean, you don’t know if she exists?”

I asked while stroking Azrael’s hair. Azrael lowered his eyes and savored the touch before grabbing my hand and hugging it as if clinging to me. I let out a chuckle at his rare, spoiled behavior.

“What is it, Prince? Why so sudden?”

“You….”

Azrael started to say something but closed his mouth. When I stared at him, waiting for his words, he shook his head and remained quiet for a moment. I waited patiently for an answer to come from his lips.

“My fiancee exists on paper, but as far as I know, no one has ever met her.”

“Eh?”

“Interestingly enough.”

Azrael muttered self-deprecatingly. Is she an NPC that only exists in the lore and hasn’t been updated yet? But the nuance made it feel like it wasn’t just that….

I waited for Azrael to continue, but he kept his mouth shut. I lightly tapped the back of the hand he was holding and nudged him to speak.

“What? How can the fiancee of our Prince be someone no one has ever met?”

Azrael kept his head down gloomily before opening his mouth to speak in a low voice.

“She has never once shown her face in a public setting.”

“How old is she?”

“Twenty-three. Considering that other royals usually appear in public from an early age, it is an extremely rare case.”

“…? She’s a royal, but can you really make someone who doesn’t exist into a royal?”

When I asked with wide eyes, Azrael shrugged as if he also found it questionable.

“Generally, it is not a common case, but it is not impossible. Especially for royalty who go abroad after marriage; sometimes the real person is swapped with a fake. A royal body has a special value, after all.”

“You mean… as material for a weapon.”

I said with a grimace. He nodded.

“Normally, it would be impossible to avoid appearing in public to this extent…. Even if it were a fictional person, they would usually put forward someone plausible, but my fiancee is not even in that state.”

“So, conversely, there’s a possibility she actually exists. That’s… really strange. You didn’t meet her when you got engaged?”

“It was an engagement made before birth, handled through documents. On the other hand, there are rumors that she is being prepared to become King, but…….”

Azrael tilted his head and then looked up.

“In that case, the engagement would be canceled.”