Home/My Youngest Keeps Bringing Me Male Leads/ch 8

Chapter 8

Cesenor nodded in affirmation.

Soon, he waved his hand in the air, and a single gold coin suddenly popped out from the empty space.

"This is how I'm holding onto it for now."

"Pardon? Wasn't what you gave me last time all of it?"

"Yes."

He smiled meaningfully. At the same time, a voice rang in Agnes's head.

[Roughly speaking, it far exceeds the empire's annual budget.]

It was unmistakably Cesenor's voice.

Startled, she looked at him, but his lips remained closed.

'Did I mishear?'

Confused as to how this was happening, she just gaped, and again, only his voice was heard.

[Since it's something others shouldn't hear, I'm conveying it with magic.]

[If it's hard to imagine... perhaps it would be easier to understand if I said that releasing it all into the market at once would shake the value of gold coins, or that it's enough to raise an army to rival an entire nation.]

"Good heavens..."

She had heard they obtained gold coins from the Dragon's Lair, but the amount they got there was that much?

It was an unimaginable sum.

So the Marquis was now storing that enormous amount of gold with magic?

If it were her, she'd be tempted to just take it and run, so she was once again impressed by Cesenor's integrity, but as if reading something from her expression, he produced a document from the air this time.

"This is a contract enchanted with magic that forcibly enforces the terms if they are broken. Lady Amy somehow knew about it and mentioned it in advance."

Agnes checked the contents of the contract and was horrified.

"If broken, a magical seal? Why would you make such a contract?"

"It's written there. I said I'd take a little extra as my share. I had no intention of breaking it anyway, so it didn't matter."

"Then you mean the Marquis also has as much as you just mentioned..."

He then raised a finger to his lips.

Shh.

It meant not to say any more. Agnes closed her mouth.

Seeing that Agnes seemed to have grasped the overall situation, Silmare spoke further.

"In any case, it's enough wealth to solve any problem, so she insisted you must return home."

It all felt utterly surreal.

Even if she couldn't verify it, these weren't the kind of people who would tell lies to deceive her about something like this.

As she stood there dazed, a cool breeze touched her flushed cheeks.

Turning her head, she saw the window was open. The spring breeze rushed in, carrying a faint floral scent, and the thick smell of grass also wafted through.

As Silmare's clothing fluttered in the wind, it seemed as if a green meadow was spreading out before her eyes.

Amidst this impossible fantasy, the mysterious and beautiful elven man extended his hand to Agnes.

"Then let us go at once, my Agnes."

Absentmindedly, she stepped toward him and was about to take his hand when—

Someone grasped her other hand.

It was a hand thicker and more defined than Silmare's.

Turning her head, she saw Cesenor looking at her with an awkward smile.

"Oh."

Good heavens, what was I about to do?

Was I about to go out the window? Seduced by Silmare's beauty...

This was a first for her. Suppressing the urge to run away immediately, Agnes bowed her head deeply and barely squeezed out her voice.

"We-we can't go out through the window."

Then Cesenor chimed in from beside her.

"Indeed, that's right. Humans use doors."

"More than anything, I need time to prepare to return home. I have to speak to the Countess, and I need to pack my things. I'll go ask the Countess for a few days off first!"

Having said that, Agnes fled the drawing room.

Unable to face the Countess until she had calmed her tumultuous mind, Agnes headed to her room first.

"I don't know..."

Agnes leaned against the door, gasping for breath, then slid down and sat on the floor.

"What must they think of me."

Thinking that the two men had seen her acting so foolishly, she was unbearably embarrassed.

Agnes buried her face in her knees and groaned for a long while.

Why do these things keep happening to me?

"Amy...!"

Thinking about it, there was only one reason.

My adorable little sister kept sending people who were difficult to deal with to me. A betrothed, a prospective husband... and this time, the other half of my soul.

"Amy, when you come back, I'm not letting you off easy..."

Just what am I supposed to do about all this?

"So come back soon, Amy."

I wish I could say a few words to you, just like the Marquis did earlier.

Don't wander around so hard. Come home quickly.

Because I want to see you safe as soon as possible.

No matter how much she said it out loud, naturally, there was no reply.

---

In the drawing room, the two men were left standing idly.

Silmare first turned his gaze to Cesenor.

His eyes, which had been like a calm lake, were now frozen cold.

His noble and beautiful face was also twisted.

As if looking at filthy debris tossed into a corner, Silmare scoffed.

"Humans use doors?"

"Indeed. Unfortunately, she is the human you so despise."

"Despise? Who despises whom? You also know who she is, don't you."

As if to say, how dare you call her human, Silmare glared coldly at Cesenor.

"I heard that Amy came to you first. Thanks to that, you too were born as a Seed and are now anticipating her choice, but that position is not for someone as weak as you. You spawn of Celesta."

Cesenor clicked his tongue briefly.

In fact, he had met him once before.

It was before he inherited the Marquisate, when he was traveling around the world out of restlessness.

He wandered in search of all kinds of unknowns, encountering monsters like dragons, and out of curiosity about the other races separated by the 'non-aggression pact,' he had crossed the borders.

Then, when he entered the Naofa Forest, said to be the land of the elves—

Silmare appeared and blocked Cesenor's path.

'What business do you have here, mage?'

'You know me?'

'Of course. Which Celesta are you? The last time I met one was the thirty-fourth, so is this one the thirty-sixth? Or the thirty-seventh?'

It was the moment he truly realized the elves' long lifespans. To the flustered Cesenor, he warned with a contemptuous gaze.

'This is not a territory permitted to mages. Do not think to flaunt your paltry magic and get lost. For crossing the boundary, we are fully entitled to shoot you dead by the pact.'

'Do you have the ability to do so?'

In that instant, an arrow grazed Cesenor's cheek. It was so fast he couldn't even tell when the bowstring had been drawn.

If he hadn't reflexively cast a barrier, his cheek would have been scratched.

As Cesenor's expression hardened, he smiled on his beautiful face.

'We do not welcome you. So get lost.'

'Your name?'

'Silmare, Prince of the Naofa Forest.'

At the time, he never imagined they would reunite like this.

'He spoke as if he despised humans, yet makes an exception for his 'other half.'

Whether it was sincere or not, he found it curious how blindly he was acting toward Agnes.

'Well, if a being you'd waited for for two hundred years appeared, I suppose you'd be anxious.'

But, so what?

She wouldn't choose her partner based on how long they had waited for her.

Cesenor thought so and scoffed.

"Ultimately, you too are nothing without her choice, Your Highness the elven prince."

"She will choose me."

"I wonder. Are you and I truly the only 'Seeds'? Where did Lady Amy say she was going next?"

As if struck at his core, Silmare's expression chilled.

Just as Cesenor had hurried here, Silmare's situation was the same. They were both relying on an uncertain legend, waiting for someone's choice.

Only because a legendary mark had appeared on the back of their hands.

"In any case, seeing you rush here like this, it seems the contents I knew about the 'Other Half of the World Tree' were true. I found it in such an old document, I'd wondered if it was just an outlandish tale."

"What was written in it?"

"Why should I tell you? In any case, I now understand that she is the 'Other Half of the World Tree' and is extremely important."

"Naturally. She is irreplaceable by anything, a unique and only existence."

"Then I have no choice but to be more proactive as well."

After that, only a heavy silence flowed through the drawing room.

Silmare looked out the window, and Cesenor drank the tea on the table as they waited for Agnes's return.

After quite some time, Agnes came back.

"I plan to leave in about an hour. They said it would take a while for the carriage to arrive."

"Did the Countess permit it?"

"Yes. It's been a long time since I returned home. Since the two of you are clearly my guests, I told her I would personally host you until you leave."

However, the process was more complicated than she had expected.

Recalling the conversation she had just had with the Countess, Agnes let out a sigh.

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