”Are you hurt?”

The boy had a raven-black hair extended his hand at me. His face was flat-plain that I can’t feel his empathy when he spoke.

This monotone voice that isn’t biased by anything… This dark hair that will soon extend up to his knees… This boy who doesn’t have dialogue tags whenever he speaks. There’s only one candidate…

Xenos Rutherford.

“Xenos!? Why are you still here!?” I shouted, stepping back from him while sitting. At the same time, the memory of father speaking suddenly visited me.

‘The ambassador of the West already left back their town.’

Did the ambassador left him here!? I thought the ambassador was always beside the prince since he was a key personnel for the sake of the kingdom.

It’s a high risk high reward for the Western empire since whatever bad that will happen to Xenos means a declaration of war. Just what was the empire thinking?

“I’m afraid I didn’t met you, yet you already know me. Are you Princess Veniara Ravelgrace?”

“Y—you got the wrong person!” I squealed, looking away from him. I blurted out his name by mistake. Even with my scratched knee, I stood up myself and turned back away to escape.

“I love you.”

“H—Huh!?” I asked with squinted eyes and a tilted head. I couldn’t read his face or his intent, but what he said halted my escape.

“I love you.”

I shook my head to disagree and turn my head back to him. “W—Wait… Why are you t—telling a person you suddenly met that you l—l—love her!?” I stuttered with a high-pitched tone, blushing not because he said me those words.

“Is something wrong?”

“Y—You should tell that to the person you really love, you liar! Didn’t your father taught you to stop playing with a woman’s feelings?” I scolded with gestures, telling him that I’m serious in this matter.

“If I’m a liar, does that mean you’re a liar too, Princess Veniara?”

“……Fine! I admit I’m the one that you’re looking for. And I’m sad to say that I can’t return those feelings to you. We’ve just met, and I think we don’t have time to develop feelings for one another. You should quit and go back to your hometown.”

“Okay.”

He nodded, turned his back from me, and sat at the nearby wooden bench. He stared up at the sunset surrounded by crimson and azure clouds.

Just like that? After saying that he loved me, he quits after being rejected? Is he mocking romance upright? Is this how a playboy gets girls?

For some offending reason, I clenched my fist enough to excrete a bright white aura filled with magic surrounding it. As I grit my teeth, I ran towards him and smacked his cheek.

I breathed air in and out with a loud growl. He flew away with his head that hit the ground first. My hand still shook after the impact.

“Emotions aren’t toys, you filth! If you’re toying with one girl, you’re the enemy of the entire women-verse!” I shouted, putting my hand over my rapidly beating heart.

When he recovered, I never saw a mark of pain from his face. His scratches and wounds are nowhere to be found, like he’s not affected by it at all.

“Why are you so angry?”

“I hate you! I hated you down to my bones, you imbecile!” I roared, burning my eyebrows toward him.

“Why are you telling a person you suddenly met that you hate him?”

“You didn’t know!? With a straight face, you said those serious words at me, then you back out like nothing happened? You’re brave in directly mocking my feelings!”

Wait… Why am I saying this? I’m completely in favor of him backing out of this engagement. But why does it feel my heart comes to loose? Why does it feel like I lost?

“Thank you for the compliment.”

“That was never a compliment!” I exclaimed. Suddenly, this conversation made me calm down slowly.

“Then, what do you want me to do? No matter how hard I tried to pursue you agree, I don’t even have a chance. I’m just wasting time if I forced you.”

“So, you really give up? Without even trying?” I asked with my arms bending at the sides of my waist. “You’re a sore loser.”

“I guess I am.”

“T—That’s not what a real man does! Are you really unmotivated or you’re just lazy? Honestly, if you grow old, you have no bright future ahead slacking around.” He’s getting on my nerves! I really hated lazy spoiled people.

“Are you a man to tell me what I should do?”

“Man or woman, everyone aren’t an exception when laziness attacks. It’s always the key ingredient towards failure.”

“I don’t care about failure and stuff. I’m just here because my mother told me so. I have no interest in politics etcetera. What I’ve said before, that’s also from my mother’s orders.”

“I wouldn’t even survive a day living beside you. Your inertia was contagious,” I complained, rubbing my gritting teeth.

I could kill him now if I wanted to, since he’ll soon bring the disaster that I should avoid. The mortal enemy was right before me, but that’s not what my heart tells me to do.

As I stare at him, all I can see was Xenos’s blank eyes. What I’m seeing right now wasn’t a sadistic antagonist, but a lonely kid who enjoyed staring at the sunset.

He’s a man with no dreams… A boy without direction.

I couldn’t harm some innocent kid unhanded. If I erased him from existence before he committed his mortal sin, then I’m no different from him. I’m already set in searching for a route with minimal harm.

Also, killing him might be difficult, since he’s already a candidate to be a dark lord. He’s not the dark lord yet, but from my punch earlier, he already had the power to resist my attacks.

Just as I thought, it was too early for me to end the story in a resolution where I would survive. I need to be stronger.

“So? What are you going to do now?” I asked.

“I can’t go home right now. I need to wait for the elders to fetch me. He’ll be back in a month after.”

“A month!?” I squealed, flinching my head back. “I’m already done with my family, and now you joined in a trouble? I might throw up anytime just by thinking about it.”

“Could you just not care? I don’t plan to do anything to you. It’s the kingdom’s plan to let me stay here until my fetcher arrives.”

“I hope a stretcher arrives,” I whispered.

“What is it?”

“Nothing…… But a month still, that’s…” Before the month ends, a major interaction between me and Xenos will happen.

The Ravelgrace Kingdom will organize a ball celebrating the successful engagement between the Rutherford Empire. That event will be held in the dome that was also a part of this garden.

The Veniara in the novel was a go-with-the-flow innocent girl who’s happily dancing with the man she thought would bring her happiness until death. But right now, it was I who knew that I’ll be dancing to the man that will lead me towards death.

“Are you informed about the ball celebration held by my family?” I asked.

“It’s been set since our arrival, though there’s no final verdict that’s given about the engagement. Why are you asking?”

“I have a proposal.”

“Why would I listen to someone that hated me the most? Aren’t you the cocky one?”

“Just hear me out! I need your cooperation into this.”

I’m pretty sure Xenos wasn’t a bit concerned on what will happen to the ball. Since he’s the prince, his decision might become a huge influence to change my parents’ perspective.

If he could decline the engagement through his mouth, my parents would reconsider doing alternative methods to solidify the alliance. I could also gather information from him about the empire and about Kaius, his little brother, as well.

But the real problem lies ahead… It was convincing him.

Before Xenos became the dark lord, he was a background character with a little screen time and wasn’t named until then. He lived his whole childhood becoming the plot device for his little brother.

His shallowness in the novel was adopted in this world too. Because of lack of information about himself, his friends, his goals, his conflicts, and his background, he became the background character of the series. No one complained… except I from what I witnessed.

“Xenos, what do you want to do?” I asked.

“Nothing. I just want to lie around naked and feel the freedom of living.”

His goals were a flop. “What about the reason why you’re striving to live?”

“Nothing. If I’m not a royalty, I wished I could’ve died sooner. I’m a dead weight since birth.”

“If you wanted death, you should’ve just asked me,” I whispered.

“Are you calling a demon or something?”

“Don’t you care!” So, his motivations were also a flop. “What about your childhood? Do you have a memory of crying after falling downstairs? Do you have someone you fell in love with? How about the time when you were angry? What about the foods that you liked and disliked?”

“As long as it’s edible, I like it. By the way, what’s with this quicky interview?”

He only answered the last question! “I—It’s just getting to know oneself! I ain’t comfortable living with some stranger I don’t know in the same building,” I exclaimed, looking away from him with reddened ears.

This man was the very definition of background character! No goals, no motivations, not even conflicts, habits and ideals! It would be difficult than treasure hunting to convince this guy.

He looked up at the sky where the azure clouds ate the crimson ones while the sun was only moments until it lost its peek. The light that illuminated the garden slowly dimmed as seconds pass by.

“It’s getting dark. We should go inside.”

“You’re right. Spending the time in the dark with the dark lord? It’s very ironic.”

“Wait… You did mention something about a proposal?”

“N—Never mind it!” I squealed. “We can talk about that matter soon enough. I’m not even rushing things.”

“So, it’s a marriage proposal?”

“It would never!”

As the sun set, we came back to the mansion and spent dinner in the same table. I thought I might die of cringe, but everything he said was reasonable.

Was that because I escaped a trigger from happening? If I reacted like what the novel had told, will I progress away from the harsh death awaiting me?

I learned that the events in the novel could happen even if there’s a difference in the setting. Our meet should’ve happened days ago but was moved up to now. Even if I escaped fate, it still chased me.

That’s why I realized that I’m not progressing away at all. I’m in the same timeline.

…So I had to make a major dilemma.

Before his fetchers were to get Xenos, I should have convinced him by then to cancel the engagement. That’s one peaceful resolution of the conflict that will escape the trigger to my death flag throughout the story.

I still have another ace in the sleeve, but I wish I wouldn’t have to do it. If I do, it would mean I will sacrifice everything to live.

But how would I convince a background character?