The Male Leads Were Stolen By The Extra [EN]: Chapter 87

“Grand Duke! Grand Duke! Come out and greet me at once!”

“Haa.”

Tired of the unceasing voice of the Princess, Tan frowned deeply.

That damn woman wasn’t satisfied with just sending letters; she had finally stormed his home.

“Grand Duke! Are you here?”

Just then, Titania burst into the drawing room, throwing the door open without a care.

Behind her, the Princess’s maids and the Grand Duke’s servants, unable to stop her, were sweating profusely.

“Hmm. What’s this all about?”

Titania’s eyes narrowed as she spotted the three people sitting in the drawing room.

She hadn’t expected guests. And even less so that those guests would be the Princess and a Holy Knight.

“We greet Her Highness the Princess.”

Leif and Celonia rose from their seats and paid their respects to Titania.

However, Tan remained seated like a rock, glaring fiercely at Titania.

“What is this? Why is the Princess at the Grand Duke’s residence?”

Titania strode towards Tan.

Realizing that the two were sitting close together on one sofa, she glared daggers.

“What is going on? Why is the Princess constantly with the Grand Duke? Is there something between you two?”

Titania’s voice rose, as if interrogating them.

She had clearly witnessed Celonia and Tan dancing at the celebration.

And now they were together again, even in the Grand Duke’s private residence.

“Hey. Get out of my house right now……!”

“I came to discuss something with the Grand Duke and Sir Leif,” Celonia interjected immediately, cutting off Tan.

She knew he was about to tell Titania to get out of his house.

“Discuss? What is it?”

Despite hearing the reason, Titania’s eyebrow arched sharply, still unconvinced.

“I hope you understand that it’s personal and difficult to disclose.”

“Really? So, there’s nothing between you two?”

Celonia’s lips pressed tightly together at the Princess’s question.

She couldn’t give any answer. Their relationship hadn’t been defined.

Besides, she hadn’t heard his feelings directly from his own mouth.

“…….”

Tan’s face twisted strangely as he looked at Celonia, who remained silent.

The words he had expected to come out of her mouth so naturally weren’t coming.

What was this? This awful feeling.

That silence made him feel as if she could break free from him and run away at any moment.

“Let me tell you one thing. I’ve already told His Majesty [the Emperor]. That I will marry the Grand Duke.”

Titania said arrogantly, with a very confident look on her face.

Dressed up to meet Tan, her appearance sparkled in the sunlight streaming into the drawing room.

Celonia looked at Titania’s innocent face and thought.

So, that’s what the face of someone who knows nothing looks like.

She couldn’t be like that because she knew too much.

“Keep that in mind, Grand Duke! I have personally graced you with my presence, so show me around the garden.”

Titania, after giving Celonia a warning look, turned her head and held out her hand to Tan, a gesture for him to escort her.

“I have no intention of marrying you. Stop daydreaming and find someone else.”

Tan couldn’t contain his anger towards Titania, who was acting as she pleased.

Who did she think she was, spouting nonsense in front of him?

“Q-Quickly! Escort me! Now!”

Titania, startled by Tan’s fierce gaze, soon became indignant at his refusal and threw a tantrum.

She had confidently announced her plan to marry the Grand Duke in front of the rather irritating Princess, but his words had turned it into nothing more than her own delusion.

“Can’t you hear me? How dare you ignore the Princess’s words? Grand Duke! Do you think you’ll be safe after this?! If you keep acting like this, I won’t turn a blind eye to the wrongs you committed against me in the Imperial Palace!”

Titania shouted, her face flushed, as she looked at Tan, who didn’t budge.

She was already deeply offended that he hadn’t replied to the letter she sent yesterday. In the end, she couldn’t even wait a day and came to visit him in person, yet he was treating her with such coldness.

Treating her, the Empire’s Princess, like such insignificant baggage.

It was a humiliation she had never experienced before.

Even the Emperor, the sun of the Empire, cherished the Princess and granted her every wish.

“Grand Duke, Her Highness the Princess is waiting. Please rise.”

“You…….”

“Please, now.”

Tan looked at Celonia, his face contorted in disbelief at what he had heard, but she was resolute.

Celonia didn’t like the current situation either.

She didn’t want Tan to escort the Princess.

But listening to Titania, it seemed something had happened in the Imperial Palace.

In case the sulky Princess used that as an excuse to investigate or harm Tan, she decided to send him away before things escalated.

“Tan, she’s waiting for you.”

“Haa…….”

At Celonia’s firm urging, Tan ran a hand through his hair, looking annoyed, and rose from his seat.

“Don’t go anywhere.”

“…….”

“Don’t leave. I’ll be right back.”

Tan said, his eyes locked on Celonia’s, as if he had to hear her answer, not even glancing at Titania, who was waiting.

“I understand, so please go quickly.”

Reluctantly, Celonia nodded.

Then, with a slightly relieved expression, Tan walked past Titania with a terrifying look in his eyes.

“Don’t just stand there?!”

Titania chased after Tan, who ignored her outstretched hand and walked past.

* * *

“So, it seems it was after drinking the holy water that it happened.”

Leif finished speaking.

“…….”

However, no answer came from Celonia, who was sitting across from him.

She had been looking dazed ever since Tan left to meet the Princess.

“Lady Celonia.”

“Ah, yes.”

Celonia snapped her head up as a slightly louder voice called her name.

“I heard you. It seems the holy water has a purification function.”

What Leif had said was this:

On the day he finished the sacred ritual and left the temple, old memories and feelings for her suddenly flooded back along with a rush of pain.

Just like when he experienced the healing magic she emitted at the banquet.

However, when Grace appeared and he took the Madeleine [a type of small sponge cake], the confused feelings disappeared, and only affection for Grace remained.

Leif speculated that the old memories and feelings resurfaced because of the holy water he drank just before leaving after completing the ritual.

He had heard that it purified contamination, but it seemed it could also purify the trickery Grace had used.

“Leif, can we obtain holy water?”

“It is made through pure and strong divine power, so the temple does not produce more than the necessary amount.”

“Then it will be difficult to obtain.”

“I will get it. If it’s not enough, they will make more at the temple.”

Leif’s eyes shone with a determined look that he would do anything.

In the end, that meant he would steal holy water from the temple, but his attitude was as confident and determined as if he were about to behead an enemy general.

Celonia chuckled at the sight.

“It reminds me of old times.”

She was reminded of how, during the subjugation, even when she tried to dissuade him, he tried to do anything for her.

“Me too.”

Leif felt a tingling and resonating feeling in his heart at Celonia’s smile, which he hadn’t seen in a while.

He had been working hard to protect this smile with his mission, but at some point, he couldn’t see properly and cared for the wrong person.

Even if he was possessed by something, it was not a fair thing to do to her, whom he cherished.

Thinking about it, on the day the news of Grace and Ian’s engagement was published in the newspaper.

Leif recalled Mac Ryan’s eyes wavering as he mentioned Celonia.

He didn’t know it then, but now that he thought about it, wasn’t it possible that Mac Ryan’s true feelings, which couldn’t be hidden even by the darkness, had briefly surfaced?

“When are you planning to inform the others?”

“When the opportunity arises. It seems faster to feed them holy water than to hold them and use healing magic.”

“I will get it as soon as possible.”

“Thank you.”

“And this. I brought it in case you were curious.”

Leif held out a round container he had been carrying.

“Darjeeling [a type of black tea]. The one the young lady fed me and gave me as a gift.”

“Ugh…….”

Celonia opened the container and immediately scrunched up her eyes and nose.

The container was full of dried Darjeeling leaves, and the stench emanating from it as soon as the lid was opened was extremely repulsive.

“What’s wrong?”

“The smell. It’s too foul. How can you eat this?”

“The tea leaves only give off a fragrant scent, but what kind of smell are you talking about?”

As Leif asked with a puzzled look, Celonia lifted her trembling eyes.

Once again, she was the only one who could smell this smell.