Marcus knew what Layne was trying to say. However, he wondered if Layne really meant that he didn’t care if he destroyed Marcus’s current dream.
While Marcus certainly believed in and devoted himself to his cause, he wasn’t doing it out of a noble sense of self-sacrifice. He simply didn’t want to see the people around him unhappy and wanted to help them if he could. His ego, his selfishness, made him do so. Just like Cesia, he was no saint and prioritized his own pleasure and enjoyment of life within reasonable limits. He could never suppress anything and everything about himself, all for the sake of others—that was another reason why he could never be in a public position like a king.
He wanted to enjoy his life as much as possible, and he had no intention of giving up the woman he loved out of fear of what might happen in the future, not after he had finally met her. In fact, he had even guessed some time ago that when Cesia became his fiancée, someone would try to dig up her past. She had said that she didn’t want to become his weakness, and she had strived to win a position with her own ability because of that. In that case, as her partner, it was his duty to protect her from now on.
“Do you mean to tell me that I should give up on Cesia like I did Anita?” Marcus asked.
“Yes. That doesn’t mean Cesia can’t live as an ordinary person from now on. Even if she returns her barony, she has the knowledge and strength you gave her, and she should have no difficulties living as a commoner.”
Marcus tilted his head, troubled. “So you orchestrated this commotion and called Selene to the capital to prevent me from taking Cesia as my wife?”
“That’s right. My hope is that you remain a perfect prince.”
“I don’t get a say in all this?”
“Ultimately, it will end up protecting your ideals.”
Marcus felt more and more confused. He had lived his life to fulfill the duties he had inherited by birth, but according to Layne, that meant he could never depart from that framework. “So, Layne, how do you intend to bring this under control?” he asked, frowning as he watched Cesia and Selene’s argument from afar. Cesia seemed to have her wits about her still, but he could tell that she was gradually getting more and more agitated as she faced the person who had antagonized her for so long.
“There isn’t anything to control. If this goes on, Cesia and Selene Diane will be taken away, which’ll solve things.”
“You’ll abandon your collaborator?” Marcus asked, surprised.
Layne tilted his head as if to say he didn’t understand what Marcus was so shocked about. “Selene Diane is also a criminal. She only avoided paying for her crime because of Cesia. When Cesia is punished, it stands to reason that she and her father will also be punished.”
He was treating Selene, too, as nothing more than someone who had committed a crime. Marcus supposed that it was fair, in a sense. Still, it didn’t seem like Selene knew that; from the looks of it, she had assumed that she would avoid punishment, even if what Cesia had done came to light. That convenient interpretation was very much like her.
“Even so, was it really necessary to bring strangers into this? Did you have to do it here?” Marcus asked. Shouldn’t it have been exposed in, say, a courtroom without causing all this trouble for Rosary and her family?
“You’re right…that imprudent woman was the one who chose this place. In that way, too, she and Cesia are very much alike,” Layne said, looking troubled. Even for him, it seemed Selene’s desire for the limelight and her hatred for Cesia had been hard to deal with. “Still, you truly love Cesia, Your Royal Highness.”
“I do.”
“At this point, even if Cesia had been charged, there might have been some who would have tried to cover up her history, as she’s both a baroness and your fiancée. That wouldn’t do—you can’t change the past. I couldn’t let you marry Cesia, not with those skeletons in her closet.”
At that, Marcus felt a wave of sadness wash over him. Layne was too severe. Simply judging and convicting any and all who had done wrong in the past would only ever lead to a world like the one people like Juliette were trying to create. Marcus had always tried to convey that accepting those who had paid the price for what they had done and reformed was also necessary.
Layne had originally been a mercenary without a country. He had wandered from battlefield to battlefield, making his living by killing great numbers of people. In the end, he grew tired and came to peaceful Emeroade, where, without a job, he was about to turn to thievery when Marcus found him. At first, Marcus employed him as a guard, where he instilled in him knowledge and culture. In time, he grew into the peaceful and strong-willed Layne of today. After all that, Marcus thought Layne had come to understand his attitude toward forgiving and nurturing people, but he had been mistaken.
Being a mercenary had been Layne’s job, but that still meant that he had done wrong—he had killed many people. At the foundation of everything was his thought that he didn’t want that part of himself to burden Marcus. So, he had always worked hard to maintain a cool composure as the deputy chief of the Second Division and guide his juniors, all so he could be useful to Marcus without causing trouble for him.
From his perspective, Cesia was like a bomb. It was inconvenient, then, that she and Marcus were in love, and it was likely that Marcus would choose to continue his relationship with her and hide her past, even if Layne gently pointed it out to him behind the scenes. Of course, Layne didn’t think of Marcus as a saint. He thought that Marcus’s broad-mindedness was one of his virtues. However, he didn’t want anyone to attack Marcus because he chose Cesia due to that love and was afraid that if that happened, Marcus might blame himself for it. To avoid that, he spread rumors to try and passively make Cesia’s past more widely known, but it didn’t go well. Meanwhile, Marcus and Cesia’s wedding was fast approaching. So, with the full awareness that he was going about it clumsily, he had been forced to take the hasty measure of bringing Selene to the soiree to expose Cesia.
Still, Cesia now had nowhere to run or hide. Marcus’s reputation might take a hit, but if Layne could keep him here, Marcus could feign ignorance afterward. After all, Marcus had already been engaged to another criminal—Juliette. It would be easy to nullify his current engagement because, unfortunately, his second fiancée had committed some minor offenses. And when Cesia had been judged under the law and paid for her crimes, she could live as a commoner again. Layne didn’t think that what Cesia had done was deserving of anything more than a light punishment. Of course, it was a different story if someone who had committed a crime was to become the princess consort. Layne couldn’t let her become Marcus’s weak point for the rest of his life.
“I understand your point. Now get out of the way,” Marcus said.
“You don’t understand, Your Royal Highness,” Layne said, standing ready to block Marcus in front of the door.
Marcus clenched his fist. He didn’t know whether he could fight and win against Layne—he was one of the subordinates he always brought to a fight—but he wasn’t just going to stand by and do nothing. He would marry Cesia, and if she was going to fight, it was his duty as her partner to fight by her side. “I won’t give up on my wish. I’ll exert myself for the people and protect the woman I love.”
“You don’t really care if that woman is anyone else, do you? There are other wonderful women out there who are more worthy of you and your love.”
What is he saying? Marcus thought, laughing despite himself. “I could never replace Cesia, not if I searched the entire world. That’s what loving someone means.”