Unbecoming of her dignity, Mirna quickly stood up and blocked my path.
With her arms spread wide to the sides and her legs stretched out shoulder-width apart, she looked like the character '大'. It was out of place given the situation, but her somewhat cute appearance almost made me laugh. Was she really trying to make me laugh?
I had to maintain a serious and angry expression. Perhaps it was my acting skills, but Mirna seemed utterly serious, as if she hadn't noticed my thoughts.
"I'm sorry for hiding it. But, Sir Theo, why don't you understand that I did it for your sake?"
"You're saying you did it for my sake?"
"That's right! When you hear such news, Sir Theo will surely go to the Queen. But what if that capricious Queen decides to take your head this time?"
… Mirna was right. Last time I was lucky enough to survive. What if Aira simply cut me down this time?
It seemed that Mirna was worried about that.
"So, Mirna-nim judged that it's for my betterment."
This made me wonder, had Aira ever felt this way. Has she ever thought for my sake?
Then, the feeling of betrayal towards Mirna and the complex emotions that had lingered in my mind seemed to cool down a bit.
In fact, I'd lied to Mirna more than a few times. In that sense, weren't Mirna and I alike? In a way, the husband sang and the wife followed.
With that, my emotions seemed to have settled a bit. Actually, I wasn't in a position to accuse Mirna of deceiving me. In this world, the ones deceived would be at fault.
"Why are you silent? Say something, anything. Why are you looking at me like that?"
My brief moment of thought seemed to have thrown Mirna into a thousand different thoughts. Humans certainly suffered from their active imaginations.
"Are you thinking of leaving me here? I'm really doing it for you, Sir Theo…."
Mirna's voice was trembling with anxiety.
Did she think I was going to say something like "Let's break up" right here?
「You have calmly judged the situation!
You have gained experience points through the talent 《Calm Thinking》.
All job experience +5」
Of course, my stance was, "Why me?" Why would I break up with Mirna? If anything, I would do the opposite. I wanted to hold onto Mirna and make sure she wouldn't run away from me. ṚάŊȏ𝐁Ęŝ
I opened my mouth after being silent for so long. My voice was calmer than I expected, surprising even myself.
I slowly approached Mirna.
"Seems like your head is filled with weird thoughts."
I returned the words that Mirna had said to me before, and flicked her forehead.
Mirna clutched her forehead and plopped down on the floor.
"… S-sir… ! Ah, even my father hasn't hit me before…!"
Mirna's face reddened like a boiling kettle.
"Mirna-nim, has your mind cleared up now?"
Mirna held onto her forehead and stared at me. Then, I calmly spoke with affection.
In conversations with women, I'd heard that paying attention to tone and intonation was sometimes more important than the facts or essence of the conversation.
"I believe that you did what you did for my sake, Mirna-nim. However, I still think it would be good to have a conversation with Aira-nim."
"Now that Sir Theo was kicked out, on what grounds are you going to meet the Queen?"
"I believe you can help me with that, Mirna-nim. You could appoint me as a temporary representative of the Draco family, or even as a son-in-law."
As she was about to say something, Mirna slowly closed her lips.
Mirna was wise. She must have noticed that this was some kind of deal I was offering to her.
If she handled this matter well, all questions about the newspaper incident would be cleanly erased.
Perhaps realizing this, Mirna slowly sighed after getting up.
"Ah, I really don't know."
"As expected, Mirna-nim is generous."
Thus, a letter addressed to Queen Aira was sent.
It had the official seal of the Draco Family engraved, so even Aira would not be able to ignore or destroy it.
"So, what conversation do you intend to have with the Queen? Are you going to apologize for your mistakes?"
Mirna had her arms crossed and puffed up cheeks, full of dissatisfaction. Regarding the question of what I was going to talk about, I tried to organize stray thoughts in my head.
Eventually, one answer could emerge.
"We'll talk about each other's true feelings."