Chapter 19.2

He found no problem with them, but the Marquis argued that Yernia Cilliard didn’t deserve to wear these ugly rings.

Shocked, the assistant almost dropped his jaw to the floor.

How can the Marquis insult such precious and expensive rings?

“At this rate, you will have to visit all of the Empire’s jewelers, Marquis.” Cassian’s assistant added, “Just choose the right one.”

Cassian nodded in agreement.

“That’s good. I bet you can find at least one.”

“That—That’s not what I meant, My Lord. I made a mistake. Please don’t ask me to search for the best jewelers all over the country. Please, Marquis.” The aide begged him.

Because of his tactless suggestion, an ominous feeling that he would have a lot of things to do came over him.

“I don’t want to go that far. I am comfortable with choosing the ring myself before that happened.”

The sun had set, and it was night.

Cassian did visit many jewelry shops, but he didn’t realize that a lot of time had passed, and he still couldn’t choose a ring.

He was exhausted.

“Let’s go to one more place before we go home. I’ will have to bring a jeweler from another region.”

He thought he was visiting a famous jeweler like what a merchant had told him, but it turned out that the rumor was false.

Cassian arrived at a street that a Marquis like him wouldn’t usually stumble upon.

“Why is it so dirty over here?”

The vomit stench seemed frequent, and the loud shouting had pierced his ears.

It was a spectacular sight to see drunk people struggling to walk straight.

It wasn’t that he was a psychopath with no empathy that he could summon inside him, but Cassian couldn’t hide his displeasure.

‘I wouldn’t have walked around this area if it wasn’t for the jeweler.’ Cassian thought, wrinkling his nose in disgust.

He was a nobleman by birth, and the street he just walked was the exact opposite of where he used to go.

“Marquis. Why don’t you visit, Lady Yernia?”

The assistant’s suggestion was good, but it made Cassian sigh.

The idea had depressed him more.

“She still didn’t want to marry me, but I’m determined to choose her ring.”

“If I were a woman,  I would have fallen in love with you when I saw the ring, Your Highness.”

Cassian didn’t understand what was going on in his assistant’s mind.

“Are you serious?”

He cast him a suspicious glance.

“You have everything, My Lord. You may not know of this, but most people are weak regarding material things. Everybody loves money.”

“I don’t think Yernia likes money, and I refused to believe that statement.”

The assistant’s smile was business-like when he realized that the Marquis might have assumed wrong.

“I value material things, My Lord, and I think Yernia also likes them. As far as I know, people who don’t like money are scarce. You were the only man I know who didn’t give it much importance. Oh! And Duke Lecardo, as well.”

+++

Cassian walked toward the jeweler with a grim countenance.

As he walked along the streets filled with shouts and laughter, the lights on the shops he passed by cast a shadow on his face.

“Here, too!”

Cassian froze in place when he heard a familiar voice from the large tavern he had just passed by.

“Give me another drink!”

Cassian’s feet failed to move as the voice caught his undivided attention.

“What’s wrong with you, Marquis?” The assistant asked curiously.

Instead of answering, Cassian walked into the tavern.

His face hardened when he saw someone in a hooded cloak gulping down a beer mug as large as her face.

Even though he couldn’t quite see her clearly, he still recognized it was Yernia.

His gut told him so.

“Did you come here alone, madam? I’m alone, too. Why don’t you drink with me?”

A bully might think Yernia was playing hard to get, and Cassian observed both undetected from afar.

He wanted to man to step aside and leave his fiance alone.

“Listen to my complaints instead.” Yernia pouted cutely and allowed the man to sit with her.

‘Listen to her complaints?’  Frustrated, Cassian exhaled a heavy breath. ‘Are you kidding me?’

“No, he’s not like any other man. Since we were children, we’ve known each other, so I don’t think I’ll be able to see both of us getting married.”

Cassian didn’t hesitate to approach them.

He could already see several beer mugs on Yernia’s table.

He didn’t want all these men to know that his fiance tended to act cute when she was drunk.

Darn it.

The situation was too dangerous!

However, people rushed out the door like it was low tide, and it blocked his path.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Oh—-”

His annoyance increased every time he bumped into someone.

Cassian scowled as he walked past the drunk men.

He had no time to deal with these unproductive fellows.

Cassian wiped his expensive suit clean and threw his handkerchief away before it got brutally trampled underneath people’s shoes.

When the bully grabbed Yernia by the shoulder, he would soon realize that he was lucky that he once had his eyes open.