Chapter 274: The Ring (Part 1)
“—Hey, wake up. Time to go.”
“...Mm.”
In his half-asleep state, Armand heard a familiar voice.
As his mind slowly cleared up, the noise of the meeting hall started to come into focus around him.
“...Haah... sorry.”
He squinted his eyes, trying to get used to the shining gold and jewels that decorated the hall. After a few seconds, he shook his head and looked apologetically at Carle, who had been waiting for him.
“Let’s go. The meeting’s over.”
Carle patted Armand on the shoulder, hinting at the fact that many other politicians still hadn’t left their seats.
They couldn’t afford to be too obvious here, or more accurately, they couldn’t let others notice that Armand wasn't feeling well.
“Yeah, I got it.”
Even though his head was still foggy, Armand quickly understood what Carle meant.
He stood up and stretched as if he had just enjoyed a nice nap. Even though it made his head hurt a bit, he forced himself to act normal and walked out of the meeting room boldly, following behind Carle.
His casual attitude even caused a few politicians nearby to frown and start whispering, criticizing him for sleeping through the meeting and walking out as soon as it ended. As expected, they said, he was an uncultured brute with no manners.
“Still not better?”
Once they had walked away from the crowd and reached the carriage, Carle finally asked the question.
Normally, Armand didn’t like riding in carriages. He felt like the carriage was a prison cell, even with windows, it still made him feel like he couldn’t breathe.
But now, because of his condition, Armand felt like he had no choice but to get used to it.
After all, he didn’t know if he might suddenly fall asleep while walking down the road.
In fact, he really didn’t know much at all. He couldn’t even remember what happened before he woke up. Even when he could recall a few moments, they felt like blurry dreams, scattered and unclear.
Just like today, he didn’t even know when the meeting had ended.
It was kind of embarrassing. Sure, he had remembered to come to the meeting today, but once it started, he fell asleep completely. He had no idea what the two princes discussed or what the politicians proposed. He hadn’t heard a single word. Of course, that meant he hadn’t taken any notes either.
“It’s not that bad. I’m just a little tired, leftover effects, that’s all.”
As Armand spoke, he took Carle’s notebook from him, planning to find out what was actually discussed during the meeting—
“You didn’t write anything?”
—but what he saw was a notebook full of... nothing useful. It was mostly empty.
Well, not completely empty. It was covered in random black squares, like someone had been doodling out of boredom, and some scribbled lines pretending to be notes.
“It was all useless stuff for us,” Carle said with a shrug, looking at the notebook. “You know how royal meetings are. They don’t care whether something’s related to you or not. They just want every seat filled.”
It looked like Carle had been tired of these pointless meetings for a long time. When he saw Armand sleeping beside him, he had even considered doing the same. Just putting his head down on the table and taking a nap too.
After all, today’s meeting had absolutely nothing to do with the knight order. Both he and Armand were only there to make up the numbers. From beginning to end, not a single topic had anything to do with them.
“Haha, well, that’s just how you are.”
This calm-looking Carle was never really the calm type.
Back when they were younger, the two of them once got punished badly for flipping off a superior right to his face.
At that time, Carle had stepped in because he couldn’t stand how others were bullying the quiet and obedient Armand. He grabbed Armand’s hand and used his fingers to point a middle finger at those people, including the unfair leader. Compared to that, Armand actually seemed like the more well-behaved one. It was Carle who had led him astray when they were young.
After arriving at the carriage, the two of them sat down face-to-face on the leather seats inside. Once they were seated, Carle reached under the seat cushion and pulled out a small box, handing it to Armand.
“What’s this?”
Armand looked at the nicely wrapped gift box with a strange expression.
Knowing Carle’s personality, he would never choose such a cute, pink style for something he was giving. It had to be something he was passing along for someone else.
In the past, some noble ladies who admired Armand had given him little gifts like this. The boxes always looked similar, full of girlish designs.
But Carle... there’s no way he had a girly side, right?
With that thought, Armand’s expression got even more awkward.
“Don’t frown like that. It’s not from me. Can you please think normally for once?”
“Ah... haha…”
After Carle called him out so directly, Armand’s laugh sounded clearly embarrassed.
“This is from Melian. She asked me to bring it to you. Remember the last time we visited your house?”
“Hmm...” Armand tried to remember. “Ah, that time when you and your family came over for a visit, right?”
“Yep, that’s the one.”
“…Phew.”
Hearing Carle’s confident answer, Armand let out a quiet breath of relief.
Because of his poor memory, Armand often felt lost during conversations. But to avoid letting others notice something was wrong, he always pretended everything was fine. That made every conversation feel especially stressful.
Especially when people talked about recent events, he would always respond with a “guessing” mindset, trying to follow along with what the other person said, and then quickly change the subject.
“That day, Melian secretly measured Miss Evelia’s ring size and made this.”
Carle gestured at the box, signaling Armand to open it. Armand hesitantly clicked open the golden clasp.
Inside, there was a ring set with a pink diamond.
“...Th-this is—”
Of course Armand knew what it was, but his nerves made him stutter a little.
“It’s a custom engagement ring made just for Miss Evelia.”
Carle said it out loud, and Armand couldn’t help but swallow nervously.
It was natural for him to feel anxious, this was the first time Armand had ever dealt with something like this.
While many nobles his age might already have three or four wives, Armand had only really connected with one woman, Evelia. In a way, Evelia was his “first love.”
“It’s time you made a move.”
Seeing how stunned Armand looked, Carle pushed the ring box closer to him.
“As your friend of ten years, I can see the tiredness in your eyes from being alone all this time. It’s time. You need a place to rest, a ‘harbor’ to anchor your ship. Go and tell her how you feel, Armand.”