Chapter Text
"I'm afraid I can't accept your proposal as I have someone else in my heart. I apologize, Your Highness."
A white lie he had told the princess of the empire. One he told to not get on her bad side and to help her save face, if only to not face her or the emperor's wrath in the future.
If he had known she was just joking, then he would've responded differently.
"Oh, I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable, Count Hardt. I had said it as a lighthearted joke between friends." Aletea awkwardly smiled, looking apologetic.
'Princess, please don't joke about such things!'
Now, he was in an even bigger predicament. He could try and change the topic, but the princess was staring at him with a fire in her eyes. There's no doubt she was curious who he was in love with.
Wracking his brain to get him out of this situation, Deon scanned the ballroom. He met eyes with the warrior.
'Warrior, save me!' Deon begged him with his eyes, hoping to whatever god out there that he would understand his quiet plea.
The man pointed at himself with raised eyebrows. He had been watching the two in shocked silence. Right before Princess Aletea came and struck up a conversation with Deon, he had been keeping Deon company by the confectionery stand.
He swallowed the sweet inside of his mouth and opened his mouth when Princess Aletea looked back and forth between them with an expression that deeply worried Deon.
"Are you in love with the warrior?"
What?
All conversation in the ballroom dropped. The murmuring and gossiping halted, waiting for the question to be confirmed or denied.
Deon and Cassius stood in stunned silence.
Taking their silence as confirmation, she bowed her head in shame. "I'm so sorry for outing you two in this banquet. I will wholeheartedly support your relationship to make up for it!"
Deon didn't know what to do. Not only did he reject the princess's proposal, but now said princess was bowing her head in front of him.
'Princess, I beg of you, please stop...' Deon had wanted to say, but he couldn't just tell the princess to shut up.
Deon never wanted to attend another banquet ever again, even if the food was delicious.
He was crying on the inside when he felt someone staring at him. Cassius seemed to be searching for something in his eyes.
Right, he still had the warrior. He can get him out of this mess!
Whatever Cassius saw in his eyes was enough for him to speak. "We didn't want to share it without proper announcement, Your Highness, but it's true that Deon and I are in love."
"Did he refer to him without a title? Are they actually together?"
"Did you hear that? They confirmed their relationship."
'Warrior, what are you doing?!' Deon wanted to pull out his hair. His one last hope was the one to hit the final nail in their coffins.
"Sir Hardt, I'm sorry..."
Deon was already getting tired of hearing the word sorry.
They were currently in Deon's office, sitting across from each other on his sofas.
"With Her Highness saying those words, she had set our relationship in stone already."
He was right and Deon couldn't refute that. Their fate was already sealed once the princess asked if he loved Cassius.
Deon sighed as he slouched into the couch, not caring to keep up a noble appearance in front of the man who had seen him in a worse state when out on missions to keep the empire safe from monsters.
Deon stared at him.
Cassius smiled apologetically.
As one of the warrior's "comrades", he had gotten to know the guy to some degree. He was a nice guy, one that was a rare find these days. He was the first one to check up on others and the one to stand up for someone else. Cassius even got himself in this mess because of him. Even now, he was apologizing for something that wasn’t his fault.
Deon couldn't bring himself to blame an innocent person.
Deon ruffled his white hair. It was his own fault for taking Princess Aletea's proposal seriously. If he didn't look at Cassius, the princess wouldn't have said something so bizarre either.
Well, they couldn't do anything about it now.
"What are we going to do about that?" Deon pointed at the ominous paper in front of them.
There laid on the table was an official document to seal in their married status.
Cassius held his chin in thought.
"We can stay married for a year, then peacefully get divorced with the excuse of falling out of love?"
"A divorce?" Deon considered the idea.
It's not like he can just not go through with the marriage when the emperor personally sent them the legal documents. The falling out of love excuse was a little cliche, but they could always build up their story later. They had a year, after all.
"Do you want anything else out of this?" Leaning against the sofa with his arms crossed, Deon narrowed his eyes at him.
Cassius was a great guy, someone anyone can trust their life with, but Deon wasn't naive. Cassius had nothing to win with getting married to a count and then divorcing a year shortly after, especially not with a count that had so many bad rumors attached to his name.
"Sir Hardt, I was the reason you ended up in this mess. I wouldn't ask for something in such a circumstance."
Deon looked at him, but he couldn't find any tell-tale sign of a lie.
'An honest guy to a fault.’
Deon didn’t feel the need to write up a contract. On the off chance that Cassius didn’t stay true to his word, Deon had the upperhand in ending their relationship. Warrior or not, Deon was still higher in status and had more influence in the empire. His achievements were nothing short of Cassius’ either.
Truly, the arrangement was heavily in his favor.
‘What a foolish guy.’
Deon pulled the paper closer to him, pen in hand. "I'll be in your hands, Warrior."
Cassius signed after him.
"I'll be in your care as well."
After becoming official, Cassius had moved into the Hardt manor.
They managed to get out of having a proper wedding by begging asking the emperor to go without one. The emperor had stared at them with an unreadable expression—whether it was because he found out they weren't actually in love or because he pitied them for having their secret relationship found out by his niece, Deon didn't know—before granting them permission to get married without a wedding.
But they weren’t exempt from sharing the same bed. Damn traditions. If they wanted to be somewhat convincing, at the very least, they had to sleep in the same room.
No one would know if they did anything, but that also meant that no one would know if they did nothing. And that’s exactly how their first night went. Nothing happened.
Deon had felt restless at first, but seeing Cassius fall asleep the moment his head hit the pillow made Deon stop caring. They were both guys. Why should he feel uncomfortable? It wasn’t any different from when they would sleep next to each other when staking out their target.
Outside of having to get used to sharing a bed with someone, the situation was oddly normal. Nothing from Deon's routine had changed outside of occasionally spotting Cassius inside of his manor.
Cassius did make a show of touching his hand or brushing his fingers across his cheek, but he only did so when they crossed paths.
So, Deon may or may not have intentionally walked down hallways where he knew Cassius wouldn’t be or stayed in his office with the excuse of drowning in paperwork.
He wasn’t used to it! He couldn’t be blamed for avoiding him. Cassius hadn’t said anything about it either.
Deon was perfectly content with this arrangement, but his image was being tainted in his house because of it.
"Sir, are you not going to accompany the other lord?"
Other lord... Deon was still getting used to Cassius being called that in his own house.
"Remember, I'm busy."
Even though Remember, his butler, knew their relationship was for mere appearances, he had been pressing him to meet his "husband" for a few days now.
Deon didn't know how he did it, but Cassius had managed to worm his way into his servants' hearts within the first few days of living in the manor. They seemed to prefer Cassius over their own lord nowadays. It was a little unfair. Weren't they here to serve him, not his "husband"?
Remember's eyes closed as he smiled.
Deon could see sparkles coming from the old man. Even when looking away and closing his eyes, the sparkles seemed to shine through his eyelids.
"...Alright, I'll go see him."
Remember's sparkles left, but he looked happier. He bowed. "Let this old man lead you to him, Lord Hardt."
Cassius had been talking with his soldiers, giving them advice when they arrived.
Deon had never seen his soldiers so happy before.
"Thank you so much for the pointers!"
They looked as if they were looking at their longtime hero, which wouldn't be too far of a stretch. Cassius was the one-and-only warrior of the empire. For soldiers of a count to meet him in person, much less have a casual conversation with him, was a rare opportunity, even if their count was one of the heroes of the empire.
"We'll always remember this, Warrior!"
"Oh- do we call him Lord? Lord Warrior?"
Confusion quickly spread among them.
Cassius laughed. "You can call me whatever makes you most comfortable."
His smile seemed to blind everyone there as they shielded their eyes.
"His smile is so bright!"
"Our Lord Warrior is so kind!"
Deon stared at his soldiers with a dumbfounded look.
'What kind of name is Lord Warrior?'
Cassius glanced at his direction before smiling even brighter.
"Deon!"
The soldiers went on about his smile being the brightest in the world before they realized what he had said.
The soldiers stood in formation and faced Deon. "Lord Hardt, thank you for visiting us!"
Deon felt overwhelmed. Two forces, the warrior and his group of soldiers, were staring at him. This is why he didn't want to visit them.
"Good work today."
"Thank you, sir!" The soldiers looked happy at his words even though that's all he could really say to them. He didn't know enough of what they did for him to point anything else out.
The soldiers glanced at each other, communicating with their eyes.
Why did their lord visit them? He hardly ever shows his face around here.
They glanced at the warrior in front of them.
Ah, so he's not here for them.
Instead of being disheartened, they smiled, some smirking. 'Ah, young love.'
There were rumors that Count Hardt had been avoiding the warrior, leading them to be worried. Worried for the warrior. He had been such a warm and friendly person, even though he had no reason to be so kind with their difference in statuses. They thought their lord was being cold to the man who made the manor a much warmer place to work at. The soldiers were happy to see that that wasn't the case.
Deon was uncomfortable. Why were they smiling like that?
He cleared his throat. "I didn't mean to intrude. You can continue what you were doing."
'Is Lord Hardt acting shy?' The soldiers were looking at them, glancing back and forth.
"You weren't intruding at all, Deon. Would you like to join us?" Cassius stepped by his side, taking Deon’s hand into his.
'Yeah, go for the kill, Lord Warrior!'
"No, I was just coming to say hi." Deon would much prefer not to make a fool out of himself in front of Cassius and his soldiers.
'No...! Lord Hardt, what are you doing?!'
"Oh, is that so?" Cassius was smiling, but it looked a tad sad to the soldiers.
"Lord Hardt, we were just about done!"
Cassius and Deon looked at the soldier who gave their sudden input.
"Yeah! Lord Warrior is free now!"
The soldiers started to push Cassius towards Deon, surprising both of the men.
Even with the soldiers constantly pushing him, Cassius hardly moved an inch. Deon pulled Cassius in with his hand. The unexpected force with the added movement from behind made Cassius fall into his arms.
Cassius' head lay on his chest as Deon's arms wrapped around his back.
"Are you okay?" Deon whispered.
'Did they not like the warrior after all?' They wouldn’t be so eager to get rid of someone they looked up to if that weren’t the case. It looked like they were trying to make the man trip too, what with three men trying to push him at once.
The soldiers got all loud again, but Deon ignored them.
“Did you see that? Lord Hardt got jealous!”
“Their feelings are mutual!”
Cassius looked up at him. To Deon's surprise, Cassius laughed. "Yeah, thanks for catching me."
Deon froze.
The warrior really was handsome. Seeing his smile from this close made even him stare in fascination.
But he really was an odd guy to be laughing in such a situation.
The soldiers had to stop themselves from whistling, instead opting to pat themselves on the back.
"That's good." Deon put some distance between them, making a few soldiers make a slight noise in disappointment.
'They must really not like him if they're disappointed that he didn't trip...'
Deon didn't know his soldiers were so cruel.
Deon held onto Cassius' hand. "Let's go."
If they were willing to go that far, they had to leave. Deon wasn't so cold to let someone get bullied right in front of him.
The soldiers cheered when they saw them leave together, only furthering the image that they were cruel in Deon's eyes.
Once they were in his office, Deon let go of his hand.
"Are you really alright, Warrior?"
Cassius tilted his head, smile never leaving his face. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be?'
Deon was looking at him with pity. "How can you still be smiling when they were bullying you?"
Cassius blinked. "They were bullying me?"
Deon just shook his head, pity growing in him.
Cassius looked like he was in thought before he muttered, "I don't think they were bullying me..."
Deon just patted his shoulder before calling for Remember, "Bring us some tea."
"Would you like some sweets with that?"
"Do you want sweets?" Deon looked at Cassius for confirmation.
Cassius shook his head. "Can we have some chicken instead?"
"Chicken?" Remember and Deon asked.
Deon stared at the warrior eating chicken. Staring at him like this, it really felt like they were out on a mission, but Cassius was eating with proper utensils instead of his bare hands because in his words, "he was still the husband of Count Hardt."
"Does it taste that good?"
"Yes, it's delicious, thank you," Cassius said in between bites, reminding Deon that he truly is a man often out in the front lines of the battlefield.
Well, it was still a pretty sight with the man's looks. He was pretty well-mannered compared to other soldiers. And despite being a noble, Deon was pretty used to being on the front lines. This sight was kind of familiar in a way.
"As long as you're enjoying yourself, Warrior."
Cassius stopped eating, staring at Deon.
"...What?"
"How long are you going to call me Warrior?"
Ever since they agreed to pretend to be married, Cassius had stopped saying his name with a title. It was to make them look closer and to sell that they were together, but Deon continued to address him the same as always.
It's true that it'd look weird if he continued to call him by his title despite being married. It's been long enough that he couldn't use the excuse that he was shy either.
But there was a problem.
He didn't know his name.
Deon had never heard anyone call the man by his name, not even the emperor called him by his name.
Deon started to panic. Was it too late to ask?
"...ssius."
"Huh?" Deon missed what he said.
"It's Cassius."
Cassius.
Of all names, it was a name that meant empty or vain.
‘What a terrible name.’
It was nothing like the man in front of him.
Was that why people called him Warrior?
"What's wrong?" Cassius reached out, the palm of his hand touching his cheek, bringing his face up to look at him. Deon hadn’t realized he had been frowning.
Cassius looked worried. He didn't look hurt by his name at all.
‘Maybe I was too quick to judge.’
Cassius was from a commoner's background, so there was a chance his parents didn't know the meaning of the name. Besides, his own parents loved their eldest son, Cruel, and still named him that. Perhaps it was just a trend back then to give firstborn sons unpleasant names.
"It's nothing... Cassius." Deon hid his face in Cassius' hand, but he could still see Cassius' face all too clearly.
Deon didn't know someone could look that pretty.