Thyra wasn't sure if Melanie was too shocked to realise her situation or if she was too dumb.
Melanie looked at Thyra, screaming, "What do you want? I have already exchanged vows with Lord Kreza. You can't marry me anymore."
"Marry you? Do you think that is what I want?"
"Then what?" Melanie thought momentarily before asking, "Do you want more gold?"
Thyra couldn't stop herself from sighing. She ignored Melanie, turned towards Jullia and said, "You should change into Kreza's knight before going out. One of her maids has a good head on her neck. I think she will wait for you to come out."
Jullia followed her instructions. But her transformation dumbfounded Melanie, "what was that? How did you…"
The more she realised what had happened, the less she could put her thoughts into words. She looked at Thyra, terrified, only to receive a smile that sent a chill down her spine.
Melanie looked to see Jullia was about to leave, and her first reaction was to escape. Thyra had already expected that.
"Let me go. How dare you…" Melanie's screams fell on deaf ears, as Thyra didn't let her go until Jullia closed the door and left.
Melanie, still unconvinced, continued her futile struggle against Thyra. In the end, Thyra grabbed her and carried her like a bag of potatoes before dropping her on the big bed beside Kreza.
Only then did Melanie remember that there was one more person in the room.
"Lord Kreza, please wake up. Please help me. She is going to kill me. Please help." No matter how strongly she shook sleeping Kreza, he showed no sign of waking up.
"He won't wake up. At Least not until tomorrow morning. The magical potion Jullia used on him was enough to knock a monster out for a few hours." Thyra sat opposite the bed, calmly explaining everything to her.
"Why do you want to kill me? Didn't my father give you enough gold?"
"Do you think gold is everything? What about my psychological damage?"
"What? What is sicological damage?"
Thyra wasn't sure if the word was too hard for her or that words didn't exist in this world. She ignored it, asking, "Do you have any idea I can just kill you and nobody would know about it?"
"But everybody knows you came here."
"No, I didn't. Kreza came with your maid, and you came with Kreza's knight. Nobody would know that it was me."
Although Thyra had said that, she too knew that any clear-headed people could connect such an incident to Thyra after everything happened during the coming-of-age ceremony. Luckily, Melanie wasn't the brightest of them.
"Are you really going to kill us?" Melanie's voice was shaking.
"Why did you have to break up our wedding?" When she heard Thyra's words, Melanie felt that Thyra was really sad that their marriage didn't go through.
"It's not like that. I really love Lord Kreza. Lord Kreza also loves me."
"But what about me?"
"But you have already exchanged vows with my sister?"
"But I want to marry you." At Thyra's comment, Melanie was already confused about how to explain herself. Then she heard Thyra say, "If I can't get you, nobody will. I will…"
Melanie looked at her eyes as she tried to inch backwards, trying to move back. She minutely observed Thyra's every move as her brain desperately struggled to devise an idea to escape.
"I can give you more gold. Ten thousand, no 20,000 gold coins. If you let me go, I will give you 30,000 gold coins."
'This girl really doesn't know the value of the gold coins.' Thyra couldn't help laughing in her heart. 'Her father might have to sell a mine to get such an amount.'
But Thyra's face didn't change. She looked at Melanie, adding, "But I won't get to marry such a beautiful woman like you."
"I am not beautiful." She claimed without any hesitation. "I am not beautiful at all. I am ugly. With 30,000 you can buy many slaves more beautiful than me. They are really beautiful."
Seeing Thyra wasn't convinced, she added, "No, you don't need to use money. I will ask my father. He will give you the three most beautiful slaves free. They are more beautiful than me."
Seeing a crack in Thyra's expression, she quickly added, "Five. I will give you the five most beautiful slaves."
"Would you really?" Thyra spoke like she really could not believe what Melanie was saying.
"Yes. Yes." Melanie moved closer to Thyra and grabbed her hand, assuring her, "As long as you let me go, I will make my father everything you want. My father loves me a lot. He will listen to me."
Seeing Thyra hesitating, she added, "I promise."
"But what if you go out and tell everyone I tried to kill you?"
Melanie could see Thyra was really afraid. But she assured her, "I won't tell anybody. I promise."
"Wouldn't it be better just to kill you, and nobody would know."
"No, no, no." Melanie shook her head, adding, "If you kill me, my father will find and kill you. And, and… Lord Kreza's father is a count. He is stronger than your father. He will find out and kill you too. So. You should let us go."
Melanie wanted to say something, but since Thyra appeared to be contemplating something, Melanie refrained.
"How about this?" Thyra pulled out a ragged piece of skin from who knows where. Melanie had seen something similar before. It was the magical contract her father used to make contracts with his business partners.
"As long as you sign a contract with me stating that you will not tell anyone about what is happening here, I will let you go."
Melanie checked the contract before looking at Thyra, asking, "What will happen if I tell someone about it?"
As soon as Thyra glared at her, Melanie quickly corrected, "No, I am just telling you, what if I do it by mistake?"
"You will die."
"Don't you have any other way?"
"If you really talk about it, they will just kill me. Shouldn't it be the same for you?"
'I didn't tell you to kidnap and try to kill us.' Melanie almost voiced her thoughts out loud, but she controlled herself.
"What do I have to do?" Melanie sighed as she asked.
"Drop your blood on the circle. Do it like you really mean it."
"Why?"
"If you are unwilling, it won't work. Otherwise, don't you think I will make you sign it when you are sleeping?"
"But does it feel it from just one drop of blood?"
"We call it a magical contract for a reason."
"Okay," Melanie sighed as she dropped blood on the circle, mumbling, "I would not tell anyone about tonight."
'She didn't need to say it out loud.' Thyra feels there is a cute side to the girl. As the contract burned, a black tattoo appeared on Melanie's throat before it vanished.
"I just want to ask you something." Thyra smiled as she started to open the buttons of her shirt. "Why didn't you marry me?"
Melanie looked at Thyra with fearful eyes. She thought momentarily before adding, "I had never seen you before."
'Bruh!' Thyra kept staring at her, saying, "I don't think you have seen Kreza before."
Melanie paused to look for an excuse. Unable to find a suitable reason, she said, "But I fell in love as soon as I saw him. Really."
Thyra didn't care, as she said, "Do you know why Kreza wanted to marry you?"
"He fell for me at first sight, too?" At the moment, Melanie was more surprised by what Thyra was doing. She couldn't understand why Thyra had started stripping suddenly.
"No." Now Thyra was naked, as her chest stood bare in front of Melanie. "He wanted to marry me, but I declined. I chose to marry you, but he wanted revenge by marrying you."
"What are you doing?" Melanie looked at Kreza, who was still in a deep sleep. Seeing Thyra open her pants, she asked, "Are you going to do it with him while he is sleeping?"
"Are you listening to what I was talking about?" Thyra shook her head, saying, "It doesn't matter. I always take what is mine."
"But he is sleeping." Melanie was futilely trying to guard Kreza against Thyra.
"I am not talking about him. I am talking about you." And she let go of her pants. "And now that you have signed the contract, you won't be telling any tales about what I do with you in this room."