“Just now, when I asked about that feeling of something pressing down on me, and about being slapped somewhere, did that really happen last night?” Xiafuya cut straight to the point.
“Yes.”
“You must have done something to Princess Amidina, right?”
“…Yes.”
Lin Nuo forced himself to answer.
Under the Truth Ring’s Truth-Detection Magic, vague answers were exposed as lies, and any attempt to deceive Xiafuya was pointless.
As Xiafuya rubbed the ring on her finger after two consecutive questions without receiving any lie signals, she turned to Lin Nuo with a fatal question:
“Was it you who pressed down on me?”
“…I guess you could say I was involved.”
This time Lin Nuo hesitated noticeably longer.
“Hmm, one last question. After those adventurers left, were you the one who slapped me there?”
Lin Nuo didn’t answer directly; he just shook his head and seemed distracted.
The first three questions, especially the third, combined with Feng Aotian’s earlier intuition-based suspicions, were more than enough to piece together everything that happened last night.
Maybe she was already coming to him with the answers in hand!
Just as Lin Nuo’s mind raced to find any detail to downplay the idea that he took advantage of the female lead Amidina and then ate Feng Aotian and Amidina’s meal.
The answer that Xia Fuya guessed was completely beyond his expectations: “So… it was your fiancée, uh… Princess Amidina.”
Xiafuya leaned closer to Lin Nuo, lowering her voice as if to spare his pride:
“So, it was indeed her who, in a panic to help us avoid the adventurers’ search, had no choice but to ride on me, and in front of you, acted out that… kind of scene with me unconscious?”
???
Lin Nuo’s brain went blank with a ‘beep—’ sound, blinking his eyes.
‘Eh…’
‘Wait, what?!’
‘She already knew it was a staged humiliating act to send adventurers away, knew what I did to Amidina, but… how could she think it was Amidina who actively rode you in such an absurd development?!’
‘Do I really look that incompetent?!’
“No, no!”
Xiafuya seemed to have spotted a clue: “You said you were involved… It makes sense if Amidina was paralyzed and couldn’t move last night, and you needed to help her onto me. But why did you say you were happy when you saw me upset?”
“Oh~!”
She clenched her right hand into a fist and tapped the palm of her left hand, whispering to herself in a lower voice, “I was a little silly!”
“Amidina is your fiancée! Although I was unconscious, I felt pressed down for a long time! You were definitely forced by her and had to help push the two of us, playing out that not-so-uplifting scene, while those two adventurers were listening…”
“You’re an incompetent husband who watched me take advantage of your fiancée and helped push the buttons behind the scenes. It would be strange if you were happy to see me!”
“……”
In… incompetent husband?
Suddenly, his throat tightened, as if he’d swallowed spaghetti mixed with No. 42 concrete.
It was like all his defenses had been stripped away in the most absurd way possible.
Lin Nuo laughed.
The smile was painfully fake, so fake it couldn’t be any more fake.
It proved that when someone is utterly speechless, they really do laugh a nervous ‘hehehe.’
He vaguely remembered the magic teacher in the academy saying that mixing magical elements was as difficult as climbing to the heavens—something Lin Nuo, who had given up on learning, fully believed.
But after today, he completely changed his mind—nothing in the world was harder than guessing a woman’s heart!
Magic study was useless!
“Sorry, I lost my composure.”
Seeing the bitter smile on Lin Nuo’s face, Xiafuya became even more certain that the truth about Lin Nuo’s “incompetent husband” status had been exposed.
Forced to smile to cover the deep pain of “his fiancée preferring someone else,” having to answer the truth and openly reveal such a painful wound in front of her.
She seemed to have already pieced it together—last night Lin Nuo watched helplessly as the woman who was supposed to be his, right in front of him, tangled intimately with someone else, doing so just to divert the adventurers and resolve the crisis.
And today, Lin Nuo even tolerated Princess Amidina’s wish to place the Blessing Statue in the Sacred Relic Hall…
Even when dealing with her, someone Amidina was interested in, he had to put on a “pretend to be happy” face… Wow!
To think the notorious Lin Nuo Noble Young Master actually had such a humble heart for the outstanding Princess Amidina!
If that’s the case, then last night probably went pretty much as she guessed—Amidina was exhausted, and Lin Nuo had to push her and me together…
How thrilling!
Xiafuya suddenly felt like her unconscious self had been quite wicked!
Just now, while eavesdropping on Lin Nuo and Amidina’s younger sister talking, she noticed the palm of the hand that slapped her last night was smaller than his.
A small hand… it must have been Amidina’s!
Xiafuya twirled her hair with her fingers again, a shy smile brightening her face.
In such a crisis, even though it seemed Amidina was forced to act out that scene in front of her fiancé, behind the scenes, she was secretly touching her…
‘Could it be that when we first saw each other, we actually had that kind of tacit understanding? But I won’t admit it! She must have been the one acting on me… And she even complained about me having a flat chest!’
Hmph~!
The princess who speaks one way but means another is just too bad!
…That cold exterior, but such a contrasting Amidina Princess, somehow makes her even more likable!
“I was actually going to ask, is it possible that you pressed Princess Amidina onto me, took advantage of both of us alone, but in the end didn’t even bother to slap me…”
“……”
‘Damn it!’
Why… is this like a size challenge?
Say what you want already!
Lin Nuo’s heart raced again uncontrollably.
Before he could calm his ups and downs and reply evasively, Xiafuya shook her head by herself:
“But that’s impossible.”
“Just now, Amidina’s younger sister asked you, ‘Did you ever think about handing over my sister and the other girl last night in exchange for your own safety?’ I heard your answer…”
Xiafuya’s gaze gained a hint of admiration as she looked at Lin Nuo: “You told her—no.”
“Someone with that kind of noble mindset wouldn’t think about taking advantage of others on their own initiative. Besides, the adventurers wasn’t after you, so even if you did nothing, you’d be safer than the two of us. That means in front of the princess, you must have been the passive one.”
“Heh… Heh heh, handing you two over… Let’s just say I never thought about that.”
Lin Nuo agreed with the easier question.
Joking aside, if he plotted against her directly, he would be hated.
Besides, he and Feng Aotian were not sworn enemies.
If she got into trouble, he might not be better off.
But what caught Lin Nuo’s attention even more was that he agreed with Xiafuya’s “never thought about handing them over for my own safety” answer—and her Truth Ring actually… didn’t react?
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