I will not die a Villainess's death

It was a tense silence where no one spoke anything.

Mostly because both Adam and Eve were doing their best to avoid Lord Dirac's eyes as he glared them down. Elysia was lying in front of them unconscious and her body was a little too pale.

There was also an unnatural flush on her face and somehow the pair had a feeling that lord Dirac knew exactly what had happened to her body.

"You both better start explaining what happened back there to make my sister like this. Otherwise, you both will not be allowed to see Elysia again."

The pair flinched at the threat, not wanting to be separated from Elysia right now. Adam found it especially difficult to let go of his newly mated person as his instincts roared at him to defend her.

But he forced that feeling down as he faced Lord Dirac heads-on.

Or well, he attempted to but one look was enough to force his head down again and make him look ashamed.

"I-It was the result of a curse and we were just helping her out. I swear that nothing else happened. Well, maybe things did happen but we did not do anything to harm Elysia in any way."

Eve quickly explained, even correcting her lie as soon as she realized that Lord Dirac was not going to sit back and take it like a fool.

That glare that was similar to Elysia's forced Eve to quickly change her tone and speak as if she was not at fault here.

She had resolved herself to ask Lord Dirac for his blessing to be with Elysia but it seemed to be more and more difficult to do by the second.

Even the strong-willed Adam had fallen quite behind her which was a first.

"A curse, huh? But I am sure a curse did not give Elysia this many marks on her body. Now, you both better come out and speak the truth before I am forced to take drastic measures."

In the end, both Eve and Adam carved and told Lord Dirac the truth. As much as Eve wanted to hide the crude parts of what happened, her mouth spilled everything as she began speaking.

In the end, she could not even see Lord Dirac's expression once she finished. Everything had gotten quiet and serene.

"You both, get out of here right now. You knew you were not supposed to touch a noble like that until marriage, right? What would happen once Elysia wants to marry now? No one would accept her-"

"She's mine. She's my fiance and she'll be my wife. I will accept her no matter what happens."

Adam broke into that conversation before Lord Dirac was finished speaking. He sounded convinced and pissed off that someone had dared to speak against his marriage with Elysia.

Eve knew that he was sensitive when it came to this topic and he also had a big fight with his father over this topic.

That was the only reason the royal family had not been able to announce the other engagement news that had been prepared for some time. It was all because Adam refused to cooperate with them over this issue.

"You might think that she's yours but that is not the case in other's eyes. Besides, Elysia is a human being, not an object. Unless you fix that habit of yours, you are not allowed to be here."

Adam looked like he would protest against that order but Eve placed a calming hand on his shoulder.

As much as she hated to admit it, Lord Dirac had a big influence over Elysia's actions right now. And if he told her to do something, Eve was sure Elysia would do it in a heartbeat.

Even breaking contact with Adam and her, for the time being, was not entirely off the table for her.

"Adam, you go for now. I will inform you-"

"You need to go out as well. For now, stay away from here and do not approach Elysia unless you both have rightened your temperament toward her situation. You both might be free to do what you want to but that is not the case for Elysia. I hope you understand what I mean."

The thing was, Eve did know what Lord Dirac was talking about.

If this news of them three being in a relationship got out then Elysia would be the one to blame. The public had an unfair opinion of their relationship which Eve had never bothered correcting before.

And this thing which had never been a problem before was suddenly appearing to be a problem now.

"I am not leaving Elysia alone right now. She needs our support-"

"What she does need is some peace for now. We also need to do a lot of damage control and strengthen the border line so that our neighboring country does not attempt to attack us right now."

"Neither the crown prince nor the Saintess candidate has any time to waste here."

Eve flinched at those words because they were true. They were too busy to be taking personal time off like this.

Even if it was for friends and family, the public would not understand.

"Also, I heard that the royal family of our neighboring country was invited to the next seasonal hunt. You both should focus on that for now. We cannot afford to have a war on our hands."

Eve knew that Lord Dirac was right. That was why she did not complain. Adam wanted to but Eve stopped him as well.

They should not fight with Lord Dirac right now since it would only serve to make things even more difficult for them all.

What they needed to do was to keep away for some time and allow things to calm down for now. Only then should they approach Elysia and talk things out.

_____________________________

Lucas watched as the royal couple backed down once he talked things through with them.

They were not bad kids really, but they did tend to cause a lot of problems by not thinking things through.

And they were also not aware of how many eyes were keeping an eye on their activities. They were being watched and they had no idea about it.

'Besides, Elysia is in no condition to be handling all this stress. I need to let her rest.'

That was true. Elysia had gotten so much weaker physically in a short amount of time. She needed a lot of rest and time to get herself back on track.

"Lord Akatsuki, huh? I wonder what he was doing in our territory? As far as I know, their royal family was supposed to arrive a week later."

Of course, Lucas had heard the news and felt that power. He was the one who was most aware of what kind of power the royal family had in their neighborhood wielded.

But for their crown prince to be this free as to even walk into their empire and cause trouble was unnatural.

There had to be more to this than Lucas had first thought of. Besides, it seemed that Elysia had managed to get herself into another messy situation for now.

"Lady Pheros said that the estate was under her control now so that is something at least. But I cannot help but still be worried. What happened at the time we all lost contact with Elysia? Even magic could not find her."

It was not only magic but also other methods that had been rendered useless when Elysia had gone missing.

Lucas had panicked before he had forcefully calmed himself down to not alert people that something was wrong.

But that feeling of hollowness and worry still refused to go away.

There was a cough building up in Lucas's throat that he allowed passing. His condition had started to show as well as a result of that forbidden spell he had used to bring Elysia back.

There were traces of blood on his hand that he ignored as he held Elysia's hand. She was bound to wake up soon and then they will have a talk about what happened.

Lucas knew that Elysia had a few things to say to him regarding what happened and she might have also seen things she was not supposed to.

"Elysia, you need to be brave for now and for the future as well. This road we have taken is not easy to navigate but it is the safest for us. I just hope that you do not fall victim to anything in our way."

Lucas whispered as he held Elysia's hand in his own. His sister did not show any signs of waking up but he kept on holding her hand tightly.

She would wake up one day and need his help. Lucas could not allow himself to fall until then.

But he did have a pair to interrogate and get more facts out of. Not to mention, Baron Peros was alive as well and being kept in the Dirac mansion for now.

Lucas also had a score to settle with him.