Third Arc (Fallen Heart) - 83. The King's Cold Nature III

Meanwhile, in the middle of the training ground. Rose and Angel stood facing each other. A training sword which was made of wood was in his hand. While a training whip was in Rose's hand. Their eyes met each other. Their hands swung their weapons.

Their weapons clashed around. The rhythmic ticking sound sounded as if they were playing music.

Rose lunged at Angel. Deftly, her hand swung her whip, trying to drop his sword. As per their agreement, the winner was the one who could drop his opponent's weapon first and the winner could make one request. Of course, the request had to be within reasonable limits.

But Angel simply fended it off with his sword. A smirk on his lips showed that he didn't take this seriously so it was kinda irritating Rose.

"How long are you going to play around with me?" she said. Her annoyance was clear from the tone of her voice. This time instead of slashing her whip, she threw the tip at him. It was only made of stone, so it wouldn't hurt him.

Casually, Angel simply caught it.

It startled Rose. She tried to pull it but Angel held it. From the look in his eyes, she could tell Angel was just playing around with her.

After a series of failures, in one fell swoop, he took her in his embrace.

"You lose," he said calmly.

"I haven't," said Rose, trying to free herself from Angel's arms. She had to win this to find out what Angel was talking about with the noblewomen.

Upon her words, Angel hit her wrist. Her whip fell in an instant. He couldn't let go of this opportunity upon their bet. Not because he wanted to cover up about Lady Belle, but because of another thing.

Rose was silent. Her eyes looked at Angel in annoyance upon her defeat. But losing was losing. She couldn't say anything.

As she let go of his embrace, a long breath escaped from Rose's mouth.
"I lost. Tell me your request." Her hand took the whip. Their strength differences annoyed her, even though she had known this from the start. Especially since she realized Angel didn't take this seriously.

He noticed Rose's annoyance.
"Would you like to know about the meeting?" he asked.

His words froze her. Her curiosity tickled her, especially after she remembered how he called Claire this afternoon. She turned to him.
"Can you tell me about it?" she asked.

"I will. But tell me why you want to know it," he replied.

"Just curious," she said in a nonchalant tone. She walked to a nearby weapon rack and put on the whip.

"Really?" he said in a teasing voice. His smirk was still on his lips since he already knew the reason. He also placed the training sword on the rack.

Rose took a deep breath before turning to him. Her eyes stared at him intently.
"You already know my reason. Just tell me what you were talking about and why you called Claire?" she asked straight to the point.

"They didn't say much. Only asked about our marriage, do I really love you or not and about the queen position," Angel replied lightly.

"And, what is your answer?" she asked.

"I answered as is. That we married for political reasons and love."

She felt relieved upon his answer.

"About the queen position, I said I haven't thought about that yet." He came close to her ear.
"So you don't have to worry," he whispered.

Rose turned to the other side since she didn't know how to react. But his answer made her relieved.

"Relieved?" His words stunned her.

"I am," she said without being able to look at him. There was a strong desire to deny it, yet she knew it would be useless. Even though she didn't do anything, she felt as if he was reading her mind. So she decided to be more honest with him.
"Then, why did you call for Claire? Did something happen?" she continued.

"It's Lady Belle." That name made her return her gaze to him. But Angel looked relaxed.
"She confessed to me."

"Did you reject her?" she guessed.

"Yes. So I asked Claire to calm her down."

Despite her happiness, something was bothering her.
"Is that all right?" Lady Belle was his duke's daughter. This could ruin their relationship.

Angel immediately caught her concern.
"I've explained it to Duke Nicolin. It should be fine," he reassured her.

"I see..." Although that small incident could have turned into something bad, at least she knew Angel had explained it to Duke Nicolin. Although... She knew the duke wouldn't give up for queen position just like that.

Seeing Rose's worries had not disappeared, Angel chuckled.
"Why are you worrying about my rejection of a duke's daughter when you've rejected a crown prince once?" he asked straight to the point.

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