Chapter 21: Marriage Blues (1)

The Special Bureau reception room was quiet.

Following Adrian’s guidance, Sena opened the door to the largest reception room and entered.

The reception room was a spacious hall-like place, furnished with four heavy sofas.

Sena sat on one of them, then raised her head in surprise.

“Why are you sitting down?”

Adrian Blake was sitting right next to her.

Although the sofa was spacious enough for two, unlike a typical single-seater, noble guests certainly didn’t mean for it to be used as a two-seater.

Sena lifted her foot right away to kick Adrian, but ended up putting it down.

In a corner of the reception room, two press photographers stood hesitatingly.

She didn’t know if the Special Bureau had called them or if her father, Cyrus Hale, had invited them, but they tried desperately to pretend not to notice the subtle squabble between Adrian and Sena.

Swallowing a sigh, Sena left Adrian alone as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

If her marriage with Adrian Blake was an established fact, rumors of discord would do no good.

Sena bit her lips repeatedly, without having had the time to question why her father was at the Special Bureau in the first place.

Before her barely closed lips could split open again, a gentle touch reached her.

Sure enough, it was Adrian.

“Sena, you’re picking at your lips again.”

A light scolding was heard, and Sena took Adrian’s hand to tell him to stop.

However, Adrian did not easily pull his hand back.

When she raised her head, he was already looking in her direction.

Adrian whispered.

“Sena.”

His gray eyes grew deeper and deeper.

Sena, unable to do this or that, merely stared into those eyes.

The eyes devoid of laughter were strange yet familiar.

Just as Sena reflexively lowered her eyes, feeling Adrian’s breath coming closer—

“Sir Adrian, what on earth are you doing after calling even the reporters?”

A cool, beautiful voice scolded.

Deputy Director Sandria had opened the reception room door and entered before anyone knew it.

Sena pushed Adrian away in a sudden fright, as if she were the one receiving the warning.

Driving Adrian, who had a discontented face, into the corner of the sofa, she hurried to open her mouth.

“Deputy Director, why are you here?”

Deputy Director Sandria wore a distant gaze at that question.

Dragging her feet as if she hadn’t wanted to come, she walked over and sat diagonally across from Adrian and Sena.

“Originally, a superior has a duty to act as a parent figure to a subordinate.”

That was a truly strange statement.

“It’s not as if you act as a parent figure to every lower-ranking employee, Deputy Director.”

“Sir Adrian’s parents died in action, after all.”

“Ah.”

Sena nodded her head slowly.

According to what she had experienced over the past few days, most of Adrian Blake’s personal information was fake.

That was the setting, right.

“…Sena.”

At her words, Adrian straightened his posture as if slightly nervous.

Then, raising a single finger, he brought it to the corner of her mouth.

“We’re outside. It would be better to watch your mouth a little.”

A low voice tickled her ears like a whisper.

Just as Sena pulled her shoulders back with a slightly uncomfortable face, the reception room door opened once more.

“You had better watch your own mouth instead.”

Adrian tucked Sena’s hair behind her ear while turning only his gaze to check the visitor.

While Sena wasn’t looking, his handsome face stiffened slightly.

The person who entered was a gentleman stylishly dressed in a three-piece suit, carrying even a walking cane.

Was he around his 40s?

With a angular jaw and pale cheeks, his face didn’t resemble Sena in the slightest.

The man, who looked tall and refined for his age, feigned a greeting by lifting his hat.

Behind him, aides and secretaries were lined up in a row.

He was the head of the Hale Countship—one of the feudal families supporting the Federation—and a senator of the Federation.

Cyrus Hale.

Sitting across from Sena, he snapped fiercely.

“I saw the press conference video as well. It was hideous.”

A twitch instantly passed over the corner of Adrian’s mouth, where he had been smiling leisurely.

Cyrus Hale paid no mind and nonchalantly crossed his legs.

“If it wasn’t agreed upon in advance, it wouldn’t just be hideous, it would be insane.”

“…”

“What do you think, Deputy Director?”

The last sentence was a question aimed at Deputy Director Sandria.

Hearing Cyrus Hale’s rebuke, the Deputy Director raised one eyebrow as if she herself was curious.

“That’s the part I’m curious about as well. Sir Adrian, what on earth were you thinking when you confessed to Selena Han?”

Now the structure was not one-on-one, but two-on-one.

Deputy Director Sandria was not eager to protect her own subordinate.

On the contrary, she attacked Adrian Blake, who could be considered to be in the same boat.

“As I said, that project is…”

When the Deputy Director brought up the Special Bureau’s classified project in front of the senator, Adrian had no choice but to hurriedly change the subject, knowing it was a threat.

“There are no other calculations.”

Listening to their conversation, Sena felt an ominous premonition.

The press photographers were looking in this direction with excited faces.

No matter how tight-lipped they were, after a bottle or two of alcohol, everything would spill out.

Sena knew that fact all too well from experience.

“Didn’t I say that I love her?”

At that moment, a flash went off.

The photographers were pulling their shutters with thoroughly thrilled faces.

Sena closed her eyes upon hearing the confession that drove a spike into the scandal.

To be honest, she was almost in a state of self-abandonment by now.

Even so, she couldn’t help this embarrassment.

Sena’s face turned blotchy red.

It was Adrian Blake’s luck and Selena Han’s misfortune that, in the eyes of the press photographers, it looked like the shyness of a new bride.

“Right, well, fine, let’s say that’s that.”

Cyrus Hale frowned all over his face as if displeased with that declaration, then soon proceeded to a full-blown interrogation.

“So what do you intend to do after taking our daughter?”

“What do you mean, ‘what’?”

Adrian Blake wore a blank expression for a moment, then read the room by looking at Sena beside him.

Sena was shocked to see his neck turned slightly reddish and moved her seat by lifting her hips.

Even in such a ridiculous situation, Cyrus Hale poured out his words without showing any consideration for the listener.

“I am opposed. Think about the articles you wrote.”

“Father.”

“I can’t believe it. What state of mind were you in to be with Adrian Blake…”

“Father!”

It was a call that sounded like a scream.

At that, Cyrus Hale paused his words for a moment.

Sena pressed her forehead as a mild headache rose, then vented the question she had harbored all along, as if unable to understand.

“Weren’t we estranged?”

Cyrus Hale had cut off his support as soon as Sena came of age.

Overnight, Sena was kicked out of the Hale family mansion, having to handle university tuition and the murderous cost of living in the capital.

Not to mention she still hadn’t paid off her student loans, and during her days as a war correspondent, she was pinched for living expenses while juggling loan repayments.

It was no exaggeration to say that experience eventually led her to get a job at the Oscar Tribune.

Gathering what little pride she had left, Sena spoke softly.

“Since you’re acting as if nothing happened all of a sudden, I’m extremely flustered. If you intend to jump on the bandwagon of this marriage, I’ll pass.”

Because this isn’t a real marriage.

Sena deliberately swallowed her last words.

Her adoptive father, Cyrus Hale, was a political person.

There was probably some political reason behind his opposition to this marriage as well.

Therefore, there was no need to deliberately give him much information.

Cyrus Hale pressed his temples and spoke like a sigh.

“It wasn’t that we were estranged, but that you were cut off.”

Being the one who cut off and the one being cut off were clearly different.

Deputy Director Sandria looked back and forth between the two with a meaningful face.

Even while doing so, Cyrus Hale said once more.

“Cut off? I clearly gave you a chance.”

“A chance? What chance? Changing my name from Sena Han to Sena Hale?”

“Selena Han.”

Cyrus Hale held his head as if he had a headache.

“Why on earth are you obsessed with an empty shell of a surname?”

“It’s my mother’s surname. Perhaps the only such surname in the Federation. Is there a problem with me wanting to use it?”

“Do you know who made it that way when arranging this meeting?”

“At least it wasn’t because I wanted it arranged.”

“Do you think those words will work even after seeing the scandal spread by the Oscar Tribune?”

The voices of the two heightened.

Unable to contain his fury, Cyrus Hale stood up abruptly.

That anger was directed not at his daughter, but at someone else.

Glaring squarely at Adrian instead of Sena, he spat out every single word as if chewing them.

“I thought you had forgotten everything that happened in the past, seeing as you’re marrying Adrian Blake.”

At those words, Sena could say nothing.

It felt as if someone had sealed her lips with glue.

Because Adrian Blake was the culprit who had wiped out her hometown and her mother.

However, since he held a weakness over her, could she have escaped even if she refused?

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