Ch.293293 – Who Will Capture His Heart First

Emelda Carmen gently pressed her lips to Pathos’s cheek and slipped out of the balcony.

Her face was flushed red as she left the balcony.

This was because she clearly remembered what she had just done.

‘Oh my! Oh my! I must be crazy! Kissing the cheek of a man younger than me!’

The reason she had made such a bold move toward Pathos was because she had received some very valuable information.

‘Marquis Pathos Severio prefers women who are older and more mature than himself!’

At first glance, it might have seemed like a mere rumor, but most people who knew this information, including herself, believed it to be true.

This was because both women Pathos had chosen as his companions were indeed older than him.

Because of this, many noble families had once considered introducing their older, unmarried daughters to him.

However, once Pathos’s marriage partners were revealed, those with such thoughts quickly disappeared.

Regina and Cheon Hyeryeong were older than Pathos, but in terms of beauty and wealth, they were in positions that younger women or those of similar age couldn’t hope to match.

Who could possibly compare to the Chancellor of Glesius Academy and the person who had reached the pinnacle of martial arts in the Eastern Continent?

There were rumors that noble families with older unmarried daughters had expressed regret over this situation.

But Emelda Carmen had believed this information and taken a gamble.

She attended the banquet and gently pressed her lips to his cheek, giving him a “kiss.”

‘Thanks to Marquis Severio, my friends buried in my hometown can finally rest in peace.’

No matter how she thought about it, she believed this was all she could offer him.

Her outstanding alchemy skills? Though her research was impressive, could it be more impressive than Pathos’s achievements?

Considering his accomplishments, he seemed better suited for the princess than for someone like her.

But Emelda Carmen couldn’t give up. So she acted.

Long ago, a demonic cult had kidnapped her hometown friends and used them as sacrifices.

Vowing revenge, she took a position as a professor at Glesius Academy, where she was most likely to come into contact with the cult.

Then, when Pathos appeared, the demonic cult went into chaos, and eventually, the cult’s leader, the Demon God, was annihilated.

This was something impossible for Emelda to achieve even if she were reborn a hundred times.

But Pathos was the man who had accomplished this impossible feat.

In truth, Emelda had been attracted to Pathos from their first meeting.

Thanks to the top-quality mana stone he had given her, she had made breakthroughs in several research projects.

In particular, among those projects was a key material for creating a new type of protective artifact that could disrupt the rituals of the demonic cult.

For her, who was working hard toward the downfall of the demonic cult, this was truly amazing.

Emelda wanted to repay him, but he was so busy that there was no time to meet.

So while thinking she would repay him later, her feelings gradually transformed into something special, and when she heard the news of his untimely death, those feelings became clear.

‘Love.’

When she heard that Pathos had died, she felt as if the sky was falling.

Only then did Emelda Carmen realize that she had been harboring romantic feelings for Pathos in her heart.

While thinking daily about how to repay him, her feelings had grown like a snowball rolling down a hill.

But having no experience with men, she had belatedly realized that her feelings were love.

However, there was no way to resurrect him through alchemy. No matter how advanced alchemy was, it couldn’t bring a dead person’s soul back to this world.

But she didn’t give up. This was because Etherna Lumio Sol, the Saint of the Sun Order who was in a similar situation, asked for her help.

“Professor Emelda Carmen. You have feelings for him too, don’t you?”

“What? How did you know?”

“As a woman who loves the same man, I can tell that much. To resurrect Pathos, I need your help.”

“My… help?”

“Yes. I need your help.”

What Etherna asked of her was to process the spirit creatures that Cheon Hyeryeong would collect.

For the resurrection ritual, only pure energy could be used, and some of the energy from the spirit creatures was useless.

“Don’t worry. There’s no one better at alchemy than me in Glesius Academy.”

Emelda actively participated in Pathos’s resurrection, rolling up her sleeves.

And Pathos was resurrected.

She wanted to run to him, but knowing it wasn’t her time yet, she waited patiently.

And until now, she had been hiding her feelings while helping in various ways, and finally, she had passively conveyed her feelings to Pathos.

‘But I succeeded! At least our lips touched, so next I’ll hold his hand, and then…’

Emelda Carmen was rejoicing in the success of her first plan, but soon she had to leave her happy, rosy future imagination because of a woman’s voice.

“You, you’re Emelda Carmen, correct?”

It was Princess Karen who blocked her path and called her name.

“P-Princess Your Highness?”

Emelda was startled by Karen’s appearance before her. She had thought the princess was absent, so how did she appear in front of her?

“How curious. Why were you coming out of the balcony where Marquis Pathos Severio is? I am wondering about that.”

Karen was curious about why Emelda Carmen had come out of the balcony where Pathos was resting.

“May I ask why you are inquiring about this?”

Emelda Carmen asked the princess for her reason.

“I asked a question, and you respond with a question of your own? Are all professors at Glesius Academy like you?”

“I humbly apologize for my rudeness and hope you will forgive me with your ocean-like generosity. I sought him out because I had something I wanted to say to him.”

Karen apologized for her mistake and explained why she had sought out Pathos.

“Something you wanted to say?”

Karen was curious about what Emelda Carmen had said to Pathos.

The look in Karen’s eyes as she gazed at Emelda was that of a woman looking at a rival competing for the love of a man.

“Yes, thanks to him, my long-standing wish has been fulfilled.”

“Do you also have romantic interest in Marquis Pathos Severio?”

“I do. If by ‘romantic interest’ you mean what is commonly called ‘love’ or ‘affection,’ then yes, I would answer that I do.”

“Then you too are a rival.”

Karen stepped forward and stared directly into Emelda’s brown eyes.

“They say his preference is for mature older women with mature beauty like yourself.”

Karen moved her head up and down, scanning Emelda’s entire body.

Emelda possessed a formidable figure that made Karen’s own seem insignificant in comparison.

“In that sense, you must be exactly to Marquis Severio’s liking.”

“I am humbled by your compliment.”

“I too will make an effort. Though we are rivals competing for the same man, in the end, I will be the one who laughs last.”

“Isn’t that something we’ll have to wait and see?”

“Oh?”

Karen observed Carmen, who was looking at her with her head held high and a dignified posture.

Seeing her like that, it seemed she would not easily give up her will to compete with her.

“Hahaha. Impressive. How regrettable, truly regrettable. If I had been born a few years earlier, I could have captured Marquis Severio’s heart.”

“Doesn’t Your Highness already possess sufficiently mature beauty?”

“It’s different. It’s not simply about being mature. The maturity that Marquis Pathos Severio desires is a broad heart that can embrace him warmly, isn’t it?”

As she said this, Karen glanced down at her own chest with a frustrated expression.

“Sigh, just as I try to overcome one barrier, another obstacle appears to torment me.”

“I am sorry.”

“Enough. I hope that at least one of us, either you or I, will win his heart.”

“I feel the same.”

With that, Karen returned to the balcony, and Emelda Carmen left to prepare for her next move, pondering the princess’s words.