Let’s Start Part 2 of this Ruined Work

    “Kkeuk!”

    Leonhart whispered to me as I coughed.

    “Duke Ibrante, don't you wonder why I hate you?”
    “Th, this…… Ple…… Let, let go…… Urrgh!”
    “To be honest, I'm not interested in being the Crown Prince. It doesn't matter whether you support the First Prince or the Second Prince behind the scenes.”
    “Heuu! Wa…… Wait…….”
    “Of course, it's quite a hassle to deal with the assassins you sent, but I don't hate you for such a trivial reason.”

    It was clear now.

    The culprit who made Leonhart prickly was none other than Adrian.

    ‘Ha, this is crazy! I'm Adrian now!’

    Leonhart's voice became extremely low. His eyes, which had never contained anything, shone deathly light. It was a look that went beyond anger and even hatred.

    “So think about it. Think about what you did and why I am like this while trembling with anxiety every hour. If possible, you should be locked up in the mansion.”

    Darkness began to stain my vision. Fainting was right around the corner.

    ‘I can't do this!’

    Just as I couldn't stand it anymore and tried to use magic to summon the spirit, I remembered a fact that I had forgotten for a while.

    I must not reveal my identity.

    ‘Damn it!’

    No matter which spirit was summoned, there was no way Leonhart, an old comrade, wouldn't recognize it. And how cheap the spirits were. As soon as they saw Leonhart, they would tell him that I was possessed.

    ‘I can't call a spirit until I keep their mouths shut.’

    Blood flowed to my face and my eyes throbbed. The crisis of death loomed behind me.

    “Heeu…….”

    I grabbed Leonhart's hand desperately. I overlapped my hands on the back of his large hand and pushed my fingertips between his fingers.

    ‘Please, please……!’

    Did my desperate wish work? The hand that had been strangling me suddenly loosened. My body collapsed helplessly.

    Thump.

    When I looked up while lying down, Leonhart was looking down at me with his eyes wide open. I licked my lips.

    “Fuc…….”

    If you're going to vent your anger, do it before I possess this body.

    But no voice came out. The consciousness has ceased. This was the third time I fainted.
 

* * *

    Even 6 years ago, Leonhart was a novice swordsman. Among the members of the expedition, no one was weaker than Leonhart.

    Even with the exception of Adela, the spirit swordsman, Owen, a priest with powerful divine power, and Ruspel, whose magic level was no different from that of the archmage.

    That was why Leonhart had to risk his life even when fighting low-level demonic beasts. There was no good day. Before the wound had fully healed, new wounds appeared. Every day was a crisis, and it was barely over by the time he was out of breath. Leonhart went through such extreme situations and grew faster than anyone else.

    And now.

    Having even obtained the title of Sword Master, he became the number 1 in the Empire both in name and reality. The nobles who had been ignoring him could not even meet Leonhart's eyes. Even though his soft personality changed to a harsh one, no one harbored any resentment. Everyone was busy sneaking around.

    All of this was possible because of Adela. Because she was the one who saved Leonhart whenever he was in danger of death. Adela was also the one who stayed up all night watching over him when he was injured or suffered a fever from the poisonous blood of the demonic beasts.

    ‘She always held my hand like this.’

    Leonhart still remembered every detail of how it felt.

    Warm palms covering the back of the hand, fingers tightly intertwined, and fingertips gently rubbing comfortably…….

    Even when the fever rose to the point of not knowing if it was a dream or reality, the touch of her hands was clear. Even though he struggled in excruciating pain, he never let go of her hand.

    It was impossible now.

    He could no longer be saved from her, nor could he fall asleep relieved by her warm touch. Because Adela was not in this world.

    ‘I thought so just a little while ago…….’

    Why couldn't he breathe the moment Adrian's fingers dug between his fingers? For a moment, it seemed that Adela, not Adrian, was in pain.

    ‘Why the hell?’

    Adrian's touch was too similar to the touch he had never forgotten in his dreams. It was ridiculous.

    Leonhart got down on one knee in front of the fainting Adrian. He raised her hand, which was lying haphazardly on the dirt floor, to examine it closely.

    White and beautiful hands without a common lint. Her fingers were as thin as millet. They looked like they would break if he held them even a little wrong. She’d probably never heard of anything heavier than tableware. It was the hand of a nobleman who was thoroughly managed. The only thing that resembles Adela's rough, scarred hands was the five fingers.

    ‘Then what was that a while ago. Why did Adela come to mind from her touch?’

    Leonhart calmed his wildly fluctuating heart nervously.

    ‘Am I mistaken?’

    Looking back, Adrian was just struggling to live. It was him who put too much meaning on it.

    “……Damn it.”

    It was ridiculous. How could I think of Adela in a woman like this?

    ‘Did my head go crazy because I missed her so much?’

    Leonhart let go of Adrian's wrist as if he had touched something dirty. Then he took out his cigarette and asked.

    “Long-term smoking can cause asthma. So you stopped. Isn't asthma a very painful disease?”
    “Fuu-”

    The corners of Leonhart's mouth, which had been spitting out a long cloud of smoke, rose for an instant. It was the most absurd bullshit he had ever heard.

    He even laughed out loud when Leonhart felt her concern about him, who suffered from asthma as a child, in a calm tone.

    “What trick is this again?”

    Adrian was the one who ruined Leonhart's childhood. She bullied Leonhart to the point where she was really fed up.

    At the academy, she bullied a child who was close to him and made him be alone, and after quitting the academy, she isolated him in earnest. There were countless times she manipulated the princes to inflict violence on Leonhart and publicly humiliated him.

    If there was an aristocrat approaching him, she seized a weakness and threatened him even through a background check. The woman somehow found out who made eye contact with him and retaliated. She also spread rumors that he was about to die of asthma. It was also her who eliminated his few supporters in that way.

    There was no one around Leonhart.

    He couldn't even get out of bed because of asthma, but no one looked into it. All of his attendants and maids had been bribed by Adrian.

    After Leonhart was completely isolated, what she came to do was to make an absurd proposal.

    “In Your Highness's situation, you wouldn't even be able to dream being the Crown Prince, so wouldn't it be better to marry into the duke's family? I'll tell you, Your Highness, stay still.”

    At the time, Leonhart knew that what had happened to him was Adrian's fault.

    How disgusting Adrian was to talk about him marrying into her family shamelessly without knowing that.

    To her, Leonhart was not an equal human being. He was just an appropriate stallion to succeed the duke family. Leonhart hated such Adrian to the point of disgust. The mere mention of her voice made him feel hives and nausea.

    But what marriage!

    So, he volunteered for the Demon King Expedition. He'd rather die than marry her.

    But in the end he survived. He was no longer the weak Third Prince suitable for marrying into his wife’s family.

    And yet Adrian did not stop.

    Now Leonhart had to deal with the assassin she sent. The reason was that he was getting in the way of becoming the Crown Prince of the First Prince whom Adrian supported.

    Leonhart looked down at Adrian. A scornful gaze fell upon Adrian's pale face.

    ‘I'll kill you.’

    He rubbed the mucous membrane with his tongue so that his cheeks protruded convexly, then he bent his neck from side to side.

    Crack, crack.

    Hearing the dull sound, he suppressed killing intent.

    ‘Not yet.’

    Leonhart coldly turned around, leaving Adrian alone.