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Mentoring (3)
“Please apologize.”
Ivan leaned back, rubbing the bruises around his eyes with boiled eggs.
Lily, who was sitting across from the table, muttered, “…I think I’ve apologised more than 20 times…”
“Nevertheless, I won’t be able to receive it if I die, so I’ll have to get an apology from you.”
“Apology from me…?” Lily shook her head as if she did not understand his language.
Ivan sighed in exasperation. “Madam has a truly wonderful imagination. How did you… You think that’s possible for him and me?”
Lily trembled. “But… I thought you could have done so because of your appearance…”
“Is appearance the problem here?” Ivan opened his eyes narrowly. He reached out and waved his hand at Lily, who was naturally confused about what he was saying. “Yeah. It’s all about appearance, right? When Almighty God sculpted him, he took away all joy and happiness but gave him the ultimate beauty.”
“That…”
“Madam.”
“…I’m sorry.” Lily clenched her teeth and tried to restrain the corners of her lips from slowly crawling up.
As a child, she would often tease her first brother in this way. Her melancholy mood was slightly clouded by her playfulness.
Lily struggled to regain her composure. “Have you two known each other for a long time?”
Ivan was silent for a moment before taking a deep breath, still rubbing his swollen eyes with the eggs. “It’s been about 20 years since I was in the imperial family… If I count the years since I got to know him, it’s been about 15 years. It was several years before the beginning of the war.”
Lily opened her mouth.  She couldn’t believe what she had just heard. “20 years… No, the imperial family?”
“Yes. I hear a lot about it.”
“Why was that knight in the Imperial Castle?”
For a child of that age to enter the imperial castle, it meant that he was a very high-ranking nobleman.
Perhaps even a great aristocrat, greater than a count….
Lily’s curious expression annoyed Ivan.
He put the egg on the table and turned around. “So. Why did you come to this deserted chapel?”
“Ah, that’s…” Lily’s face darkened all of a sudden.
Why did I come to the chapel?
As she recalled the things she had momentarily forgotten, she suddenly felt like she had been hit by reality.
Lily looked into his eyes apprehensively, the thoughts of Ivan and the knight cleared from her mind. “I have a lot to tell you… Is there no confession room? After seeing each other like this…”
“There was, but not anymore. As you can see, it looks like this.”
The priest’s office was a mess. It looked like a group of beasts came and attacked. The door was broken and debris littered the floor. Even the wall separating the confession room and the priest’s room was broken.
Is it possible for a person to break a building wall with his bare hands?
With that thought in mind, Lily looked at Ivan again.
It was Ivan who opened his mouth first. “Is it a friend’s problem? Or the lord’s side?”
“…”
Ivan, who was silently waiting for the hesitant Lily, tapped the desk. “Madam.”
Only then did Lily look up.
“Have you had enough conversation with my lord before you came to me?”
Ivan’s eyes seemed to clearly see through her heart. “Conversation. Speech, Persuasion. Did you use the most rational means of communication given to humans?”
Lily, staring blankly at him, nodded slowly. “…Yes. Maybe… I think I’ve done it all.”
“I don’t think so.” Ivan tapped his toes. He let out a strange snort as if thinking about something. “Well, actually, it’s not Madam who has to open her heart… Anyway, there is something that Madam must say to the lord.”
“What is it…? Can you let me know?”
“I don’t want to.”
“Yes?”
He leaned against the backrest, crossing his legs and arms. There was a strange sharpness in his sly expression. “Come on. Try it. Say ‘I don’t like it’.”
Her eyes darkened. She licked her lips for a while, and then she managed to get her words out, “Why, why are you suddenly saying that…”
“Negative emotions are usually stronger. It’s hard to tell when you like something, but you’re sure when you don’t like something, right? If you can’t say anything else, just shout ‘No!’ to him.”
Ivan uncrossed his legs and picked up the eggs on the table. “I’ve been thinking hard about what to do with your situation, and I think that’s the fastest way. If you tried it, I’m sure you’d be returned with a tremendously explosive response.” Ivan rubbed a bruise on his face with an egg.
“But…” Lily’s lips parted slowly. The more she thought about it, the more she felt like she was unraveling.
It was perhaps more uncomfortable than admitting her lust.
In Lily’s mind, she was not a wife, but rather an ornamental bird living in a golden cage. A contemplative bird who sings prettily for his pleasure.
She was treated well for a trinket.
But she couldn’t say that to a loyal priest.