Chapter 182: Start by Changing the Mood
She looked into those shining, bright blue eyes. And for some reason, her nose began to sting, like she was about to cry.
Armand was just too dazzling. His light was so bright it made her feel like she couldn’t look straight at him.
But more than that, she was scared…
Scared that this light might one day leave her.
So Evelia lowered her head again and stayed silent.
She was always like this.
Because she didn’t know how to express herself, she didn’t know how to speak up. She wanted to talk, but the heavy, depressing mood made it too hard to say anything. That feeling of hopelessness, it just kept pulling her deeper into the mud.
What if she said something wrong? What if she said something Armand didn’t want to hear?
The summer wind blew through. Hot, sticky, and uncomfortable. It wrapped around everyone like a burden they couldn’t shake off.
“Phew…”
Armand let out a breath, as if he wanted to blow the heat away. But of course, it didn’t help. The breeze only made his forehead feel even hotter.
He could tell that Evelia wanted to speak but kept holding back. The air around them was far too heavy. Even Armand felt like he couldn’t breathe properly.
They needed to change the mood. This wasn’t the time for fighting, or confronting each other, or blaming anyone.
He was just here to listen.
And no good listener wants the room to be filled with that kind of pressure. Even the person who wants to talk probably doesn’t want to feel that way either.
Everyone likes a relaxed atmosphere. And Armand was pretty sure Evelia needed that even more than most.
So, let’s help her relax a little…
He tapped his fingers quietly, like he was thinking. Then suddenly, as if something came to mind, he stood up and said, “Wait here a sec.”
Then he ran off to the other side of the flower wall.
In some circles, it wasn’t exactly a secret that the Captain of the Knights had an alchemical seal. People in the know understood that warriors of his level usually had something like that. But Armand had never openly used it. Aside from the Crown Prince, no one knew where his seal was.
After all, Armand had another "job" on the side. If people found out about his seal, his cover might be blown, and that would be a disaster.
He clapped his hands lightly. Golden particles appeared, forming a simple alchemy circle. Armand touched it with a finger, and from the seal on his palm, he pulled out a few fresh bottles of tomato sauce.
Who would’ve guessed that the Royal Knights' captain kept tomato sauce inside his alchemy seal?
As one of the early users of the seal, the side effects for Armand were way more painful than the newer, improved versions. So he tried not to use it often.
And yet…
He had used it to store tomato sauce and old milk candies.
Last time he bought way too many, So he kept a few in storage for emergencies. Mainly just in case he ever needed to cheer Evelia up.
Now it looked like it was finally time to use them.
Normally when people were feeling down, they might pull out some good wine and sit down for a talk. But after what happened last time, Armand definitely didn’t plan to drink with Evelia again.
And besides, he just happened to still have—
He glanced at the expiration date printed on one of the bottles.
—Yep, this one hadn’t expired yet.
Last time when Rachel ended up eating those old milk candies, that really was just a complete accident.
Holding the bottles of tomato sauce, Armand made a decision.
He would use sauce instead of wine, and have a serious “drink” with Evelia.
‘Sorry, dear stomach of mine. I really need to do this.’
Armand, looking like he was ready to die, rubbed his stomach, picked up a few bottles of tomato sauce, and walked back to Evelia. He sat down on the bench again, and just like opening a beer bottle, he went pop, pop. Opening one bottle for himself and one for Evelia.
"Here."
He handed a bottle to Evelia. She looked surprised, but before she could react, Armand lightly tapped the mouth of her bottle with his, like they were toasting, and said,
"Cheers."
Then, fully prepared, Armand poured the tomato sauce straight into his mouth without hesitation. The strong sweet-and-sour taste hit his tongue like a wave, rushed down his throat, and exploded in his stomach. It was such an intense feeling, he swore he almost saw his dead mother.
"......"
Evelia just stared at him blankly. She looked at his bottle, then at her own, and then. She copied him and started drinking the tomato sauce too.
Armand’s face twisted in pain from the taste, like all his features were crumpling up. But Evelia didn’t seem to mind the extra sour flavor at all. She even licked her lips like she was enjoying it.
“Eve… feeling a little better?”
Armand quietly pushed the rest of the bottles over to Evelia’s side. For him, just one was already more than enough.
“......”
Evelia didn’t answer. She kept silently licking the mouth of the bottle. Maybe it was a nervous habit, or maybe she just really liked the taste.
“About the tomato sauce dish… I’m really sorry.”
Armand didn’t know if Evelia was still holding back other emotions, but he knew they had to talk things out one step at a time. Since he realized she was upset about him giving her food to someone else, that was the issue they had to solve first.
“I was wrong. No excuses.”
“Only kids keep making excuses for their actions.”
“I’m a straightforward guy. I don’t like beating around the bush.”
“So I’m using tomato sauce as wine, and I’ll ‘punish’ myself with a whole bottle.”
Maybe it was because he was used to leading a group of bold, honest knights. But Armand always preferred dealing with problems directly. He thought instead of crying or yelling at each other, it was better to talk calmly and openly. That way, no one felt stressed or overwhelmed.
If he could swallow back the blood in his throat during battle, what was a bottle of tomato sauce?
If you’re going to admit you’re wrong, you should do it properly. Dragging it out would only affect Evelia.
He believed that if he could stay relaxed and open, then Evelia would also be affected by that mood. Even if she couldn’t fully come out of her sadness, At least they could talk normally.
Armand did what he said. He took a deep breath and drank the entire bottle of tomato sauce in one go.
Then he opened a second one, and downed that one too, just as quickly.
Honestly, it wasn’t so much “brave” as it was like forcing down really disgusting medicine. The longer you wait, the worse it tastes. So it’s better to just get it over with.
“Hah…”
After finishing two full bottles, Armand finally let out the breath he’d been holding. He felt like his stomach was tied up in knots. But for Evelia, it was worth it.
He figured it wouldn’t actually kill him. And even if he ended up seeing blood in the toilet later, What mattered now was helping Evelia.
“Mr. Armand.”
Finally, the mood around them began to change. The heavy shadow hanging over Evelia seemed a little lighter. She held the bottle of tomato sauce in her hands, and looked up at Armand’s face.
“You look... terrifying.”
"Ah—really?" Armand let out an awkward laugh and rubbed his furrowed eyebrows.
"Um—Mr. Armand..."
"Hmm? What is it?"
Seeing that Evelia was finally about to say something, Armand leaned a little closer to her.
"I’m not mad at you."
"Liar." Armand immediately shot that down.
"If you weren’t mad, would you have thrown me into a trash can?"
"......"
Hearing that, this time it was Evelia who turned her head away, looking embarrassed.
Even though she didn’t hold a serious grudge against Armand, she really did feel satisfied when she threw him in the trash. In fact… she kind of wanted to throw him in again.
"See? You were angry."
Armand grinned and leaned even closer toward Evelia.
For some reason, seeing him act so annoyingly smug like this made Evelia really not want to admit it.
"No..." Evelia shook her head. "I’m really not mad at you."
"I see."
Armand pulled his upper body back in and started mumbling thoughtfully.
"Well, if you're not upset about that, then I guess I’ll start giving everything you make me to other girls instead. Like the Duke’s eldest daughter? I heard she’s still not married because of me. If I married the duchess-to-be, it’d be a powerful alliance, both politically and for my career. I bet the Crown Prince would approve of the marriage. Then you could come with me and work as her personal maid. You’d get to see me and the duchess—"
As Armand kept talking, the air around Evelia grew colder and colder.
He didn’t look directly at her, but his eyes kept glancing her way, watching her reaction. He was clearly dragging out his words on purpose, waiting for Evelia to snap.
"Mr. Armand."
Sure enough, she took the bait.
Evelia stared at him expressionlessly, her face as dark as a thundercloud. It was childish, but this was exactly the reaction Armand wanted.
Rather than letting Evelia stay stuck in that silent, miserable mood, he’d rather use this silly method to shift her emotions. Just like how people forget their worries when they get busy. As long as he could get Evelia’s emotions moving again, she wouldn’t fall back into that endless loop of blaming herself and saying sorry.
Even serious problems could slowly get better with him around. That was one of his strengths.
The first step to fixing everything was getting Evelia back to her usual self.
Luckily, right now, she was emotionally easy to influence.
Looking at Evelia all puffed up with anger, Armand actually looked kind of pleased.
"You’re angry, right?"
Even if it was a negative feeling, this was still something easier to handle.
"If you’re angry, then do this, here."
He took Evelia’s hand, the one not holding the tomato sauce bottle, and gently curled it into a fist, holding it in his palm with a smile.
"Hit me, Evelia. Just go ahead and punch me as hard as you want."