"Anna Stargaze. Let's get married."
Anna, who was still distracted by her own weird thought, dropped her jaw to the ground. "Wha—What are you saying?"
"I have been thinking about why you're in the spotlight instead of your father covering you. Hence, I conclude that you're the center of attention for a reason. It's to make me go to you with all kinds of intention. In other words, if I want to solve this problem, you're the biggest clue I have."
"I can understand that, but why are you asking me to get married?" Anna widened her eyes in shock. Her face reddened due to her thoughts but she also felt disappointed when Noel didn't even show any emotion from that place.
"This is the most simple solution. Everyone expect that I come to you with hatred because of what you've done. So, I'm going to use the reverse psychology to drag them out. They will surely be surprised if I marry you, causing them to come out of their hiding place," Noel explained carefully.
"You bastard. Do you understand what you're saying right now?" Anna gritted her teeth and pointed her blade at his neck. "I have been fighting with my talent to escape political marriage this whole time and you think you can use me like that?"
"I don't." Noel shook his head. "Well, that's just me trying to create a situation where we can use each other. I'll be using you to investigate my parents whereabout while you can take advantage of that opportunity to what you've been doing."
"I don't like that idea. No matter how hard you're trying to convince me, I'm not going to do it." Anna snorted.
"Of course, I don't expect you to agree. Even I don't believe how I can even suggest that kind of idea. But I think you get the idea… What I'm trying to say here is I want to drag them out by using the reverse psychology. If there's a need of hatred between us, then we can come with the exact opposite of that." Noel shook his head.
Anna squinted her eyes, feeling something wrong. She reached the same conclusion that Noel actually harassed her for a reason in the past life.
'Wait a moment. If the hatred is bound to diminish, then why did he kept doing that in the past life? This doesn't make sense. Was he trying to change me because I was too horrible in my past life? I was like those sheltered nobles who thought commoners as animals that could be slaughtered as I liked.
'And after he managed to change me, he was going to marry me to drag them out? If that's the case, even if Noel succeeded in the rebellion, he had yet to find his parents?
'In fact, if Noel succeeded in his rebellion and the betrayal never happened, I would have been a prisoner of war. When that happened, Noel would marry me or something like that?' Anna's thoughts became even weirder.
It might be the influence from her weird thoughts earlier, but she truly didn't know why she reached this kind of conclusion. She thought it must be because Noel presented that absurd idea.
However, she didn't like this idea. She gritted her teeth and glared at Noel. "Anyway, I won't be doing any of your plan. I don't like it a bit. I avoid political marriage so that I can marry my future spouse after we love each other. So, I don't want to do whatever you're planning!"
Noel nodded calmly. "I know that because I feel the same. Either way, my point is not about the marriage, but how to drag them out of their hiding place. You can forget about the marriage or whatsoever."
"…" Anna couldn't believe how Noel even suggested this idea and how easy for him to tell her to forget about it. In fact, she felt Noel change a bit. It might be because of her outburst earlier, but Noel surely seemed weird right now. "So, what's your plan to drag them out? My father?"
"No. Your father is monitored closely, so I don't think he can move."
"Then, if my father can't, are we going to move by ourselves?"
"That's probably the plan. Though, I also have a different option, which is to use my mother's family."
"Your mother's family? Are you also going to use your relationship with your ancestry?"
"Do you think they'll believe that?"
"Not at all."
"But if they actually believe that…" Anna suddenly fell silent before thinking of a person. "Wait a minute. Do you know that Kirika in our generation is actually a noble from the Greenwood Kingdom?"
"Huh?" Noel was taken aback by this information. After all, a noble from the Greenwood Kingdom wasn't supposed to be in the Demon Banner Army, unless she had a certain purpose. Kirika was quite talented herself, making Anna doubt that she was there to help Noel because of his ancestry.
Noel still couldn't believed what he'd just heard. "What did you say?"
"Kirika Loetzel. Are you aware of that name?" Anna also had her own suspicion, thinking the Greenwood Kingdom was planning to help Noel through Kirika. After all, the runes that Noel had written down was related to the Spirit Enchantment book that had been protected by the royal family of the Greenwood Kingdom.
"Kirika Loetzel…" Noel furrowed his eyebrows, recalling all the information about the Greenwood Kingdom. He arrived in his memory about a banquet held by a certain noble in the Greenwood Kingdom.
He actually met a unique girl that seemed to be left out by the rest. "Ah, is she that overweight girl?"
"Overweight girl?" Anna's face was distorted, completely confused.
"Mhm…" Noel explained about his encounter during that night and ended the story with, "So, I believe that Kirika is just trying to repay me or something? I think I'd heard someone inquiring my information from my father… I didn't pay attention back then, so I never knew the truth. But I think I should believe this is the case?"
"Wait, so that means she just wants to thank you?" Anna couldn't help but remember Kirika's hostility and her misunderstanding of Kirika's hatred. 'Does that mean I've been misunderstanding it this whole time?'
However, there was one more thing that Anna missed. She missed how synchronize they were by thinking about the same thing... marriage.
