A Runaway Villainess, Now Healing In An Enemy Country - Chapter 91

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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【Chapter 91】

My heart? What kind of… heart?

The current Chessier acts so pathetically that just looking at him makes me feel the same way. So as I told him, my honest feeling is that I’d prefer never to see him again if possible.

‘But what?’

It’s been quite a while since the Prince was mentioned at Winter Castle, so I naturally thought the misunderstanding had been cleared up. But in reality, he was just pretending not to know!

The truth was so shocking that my body began to tremble finely. I gasped and barely managed to make a sound.

“That’s not… it. Absolutely not.”

“Sure.”

And I bit my tongue at his bland response.

I said it’s not like that, so what do you mean ‘sure’? Since you insist so, let’s go with that – is that what this is? Was I wrong to believe time would solve this?

Looking at Davuer’s face, which seemed terrifyingly nonchalant while saying such awful things, made my insides boil with anger.

“I’m not going because of the Prince. I have other grand purposes…”

“I’m sure you do.”

I was about to scream in frustration, then bit my lips again.

Even during this, the aftermath of the series of events still left the surroundings noisy. The Empire’s side was whispering while looking at me.

I also felt the gazes of two men who had just come out of the base, so I took Davuer’s hand and silently started walking.

Nishe, who had been guarding our backs, had already disappeared. Only when we reached a place where no one’s gaze could reach did I open my mouth.

“…Do you trust me?”

He, who had been silent throughout our walk, answered immediately without pause, as if stating something already decided.

“More than you think.”

“Then why won’t you believe this? I keep saying it’s not like that, but you won’t listen at all.”

“I didn’t say I don’t believe you.”

Ah, I see.

Frustration washed over me and I buried my face in my palms with a sigh. A rather impulsive question burst from my throat.

“If I… got engaged to him again… could you keep pretending not to know even then?”

“…If you keep me by your side, as much as you want.”

Startled by his shocking words, I looked up to see Davuer, whose expression hadn’t changed at all, brushing my hair aside as he continued.

“A Crown Princess with the Duke as her lover – that would be quite an amusing picture. It shouldn’t become known to the public.”

“What, what did you say? You’re crazy…”

It would be even scarier if he was saying this while sane.

The man before me has too much patience. And he uses that patience to the fullest to accommodate everything to me.

As if my will acts like an absolute rule in his world. As if I can neither avoid nor refuse it.

He pleaded in an extremely calm voice.

“You can do anything, just keep me by your side. That’s not difficult, is it, Irene.”

“…”

For some reason, an old memory suddenly surfaced.

One day when I was twelve. The shock of the world’s axis shifting to Chessier. The sensation of falling in love at first sight like fate.

Was that really my emotion? Or was I just mistaking my feelings, deceived by fate’s trick?

God cannot directly control or touch me, but perhaps it was possible to plant such delusions in my young mind…

…Actually.

The me of that time would have been fine with anyone if I could fall in love with a suitable excuse. There was no one more fitting than a handsome prince.

Loving Chessier as my destiny became a means for me to escape loneliness.

Well… it’s all just an old story from the past now.

I erased that destiny myself, and I chose this place of my own will. I’m happy enough just being here, so you could say it came true according to Giselle’s prophecy long ago.

So I should leave as planned.

“…This time I’m going to leave you behind.”

“Irene.”

I look at the man reciting my name like a prayer.

He had a serene expression like a lake without a breath of wind, but his persistent gaze fixed on me created the illusion that my insides were melting.

I didn’t avoid those eyes and spoke slowly.

“But I’ll return soon. To your side.”

I pulled out the necklace chain barely visible between his shirt collar. Then the ring I had given him sometime ago, without any decoration, appeared.

I grasped the ring as if praying and infused it with sanctity. Perhaps because I had expended much power from the aftermath of declaring the sanctuary, the light was faint.

I don’t know how effective this blessing will be. However, since the ring is an object with a mysterious connection linking him and me, present and past, I can hope for its efficacy.

“You said you’d do anything I asked, right?”

“…”

“Please guard this place and wait for me.”

I commanded like a request, then grabbed his face with both hands and pulled him close. My muscles trembled as I stood on tiptoe with weakened legs.

Close enough for our noses to touch. In his rarely surprised, widened silver-gray eyes, a reddened woman’s face was reflected.

Finally, I closed my eyes tightly in embarrassment and warned.

“If, if you don’t want this, say so within one second.”

“Iren,”

Touch.

As I relied on sensation to close the distance, warm breath passed between slightly parted lips.

Just as I was about to pull away, he embraced my waist, so I pushed him away as if burned.

“This… this is my real heart…”

And I muttered while looking down.

Did it get through? At least this is the first time I’ve tried this in the life I remember. If I still hear talk about lingering feelings for Chessier after this, it would be too unfair.

Perhaps because I was anxious, the silence felt particularly long.

Only after waiting for his reaction for a while did I hear a very small laugh from above my head.

As soon as I cautiously looked up, our eyes met directly. Eyes with faint heat, firm lips and furrowed brow. Another unreadable expression.

“You’re going to leave after doing this, Irene.”

Davuer murmured quietly. In a voice that seemed frustrated, irritated, and admiring all at once.

“That promise you made… that if I told you not to go, you wouldn’t go anywhere… you’ve forgotten it all.”

“…I made such a promise? When? In the past?”

Just as I was about to blame my past self for making promises I couldn’t keep, he readily denied it.

“Never made one. It’s just my delusion.”

The voice saying that was light enough to scatter in a gentle breeze, but I couldn’t gauge the emotion contained within, making me want to cry somehow.

“If you insist on going, promise me just this. Don’t prepare to die in any situation.”

“I’ll promise that readily. But…”

On some impulse, I ended up asking this.

“By any chance… just by chance. If I called you, would you come running? Wherever you are, whatever the situation?”

As if he’d heard something amusing, he pulled up the corner of his mouth. Then he spoke as if provoking me.

“If you want to test it, try calling me right now.”

“Davi…”

Before I could even finish the name, he embraced me with his whole body and lowered his face to mine.

His body temperature, which had always felt as cool as touching snow, reached me more warmly than ever at this moment. Even the hand holding my cheek and the breath touching my skin.

Soon his warm whisper brushed my ear.

“It sounds so good I should make it my nickname.”

It was a voice like a tickling breeze. Suddenly my nose stung from the winter scent, and I could only recite inwardly without being able to respond.

You know. This is a secret, but…

You’re probably the first inviolable sanctuary I’ve established in this world. My own sacred territory that I possess.

So there will never be a situation where you won’t be my first, even if I die and am reborn.

The idea that I would abandon you and go to someone else is really… the most useless anxiety on earth.

* * *

“Are you really going?”

Giselle asked again with a deep frown, like someone carrying all the world’s worries.

This was the sound that greeted me as soon as I moved to Winter Castle to put out the urgent fire that had occurred in Drens and pack my belongings.

I put one of the communication devices I had made as a pair into my pocket, then handed the remaining one to her while responding casually.

“Yeah. Use this to contact me from now on. There’s also a messenger bird on the desk, use that one for sending letters.”

Giselle frowned even more.

“…You’ve been making these kinds of magical devices for the past few days. Irene, you anticipated this would happen, didn’t you?”

“About half of it.”

It had started when I urgently created them because I needed a means of communication after sending Mel and Ally to the Empire.

I heard that Belmayer, being a ducal family, had many rare magical devices, but they had exhausted all the useful ones during the war with the Empire.

So now I had no choice but to make what I needed myself.

“Anyway, no matter how much you try to stop me, it’s useless, Giselle. Even your master couldn’t break my will.”

It was when Giselle let out a deep sigh and pressed her forehead.

A dragon flew over roughly flapping its wings, pressed its belly against my face, and threw a tantrum.

【Contractor! Are you insane!? You’re thinking of leaving without me? If you’ve decided to go anywhere, you should take me with you!】

“…Ah.”

Sorry, but I had completely forgotten about the dragon’s existence.

But it’s not like it would die from being apart for a while, and there’s no reason I need to take this troublemaker with me…

【You didn’t think about me at all! If I’m separated from your side, I can’t grow!】

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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