A Strange But Effective Villainess Life - Chapter 211

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Commemorating the Webtoon Adaptation
Side Story 14
When I encountered the attendants at the entrance of the Crown Prince’s Palace, I had never received any report that Kiana was present.
Yet here she was, sitting perfectly fine in my chambers?
Especially when entry to the palace had been strictly controlled due to the Emperor’s illness.
In reality, no one should be able to enter the Crown Prince’s Palace like this without my permission, right?
“Come to your senses, Ed. A hallucination? It’s really me.”
Kiana sprang up from his bed in one motion.
Since she loved sitting in soft places wherever she went, she had undoubtedly claimed the softest spot in the room.
He stood before Kiana, rubbing his eyes once.
“P-Princess? Is it really you, Princess?”
“It’s been a while. But why have you become so thin? Did you skip three meals or something?”
“H-How did you know that?”
Kiana’s eyes widened like saucers. Then she quickly raised her hands and cupped both of Edmund’s cheeks.
“Oh no, all your precious fat cells must have shrunk!”
Edmund’s cheeks flushed crimson. There had been a few times when Kiana had carefully asked, “Um… would it be okay if I touched your cheeks a bit?” but this was the first time they had been this close together in a private space.
During all that time, I had thought of Kiana alone in this room countless times—truly countless times—but this was also the first time I was actually seeing her in my own private space.
All words escaped me, and my mind felt completely blank. Well, so there were many things I needed to explain and many things I needed to hear…
“Surprised, weren’t you? Basically, Piyak was my summoned creature. So suddenly the summoned creature’s power exploded, and… I ended up in the place I’ve been wanting to go to most lately.”
“Basically… I already knew the circumstances, but… was this the place you wanted to go to most, Princess?”
My voice came out strangely hoarse.
I couldn’t remember anything—not that the Ducal Residence was in chaos, not that I nearly died at the picnic, not that the Imperial Palace was turned upside down because of it, nothing at all. All my senses were concentrated solely on Kiana before my eyes.
“Yes, actually there’s something I’ve been wanting to explore lately.”
Kiana withdrew her hand from his cheek and spoke calmly.
Edmund barely swallowed the heat rising all the way to his ears. Indeed, all of Kiana’s motivations stemmed from “curiosity.”
Edmund, reluctant to lose the warmth fading away, finally grasped Kiana’s hand.
“Um, um, um… Princess… N-Now that we’re engaged, um, is it okay if I just… hold your hand once?”
“Yes. Don’t ask from now on and just hold it. Since you can always hold my hand anyway, don’t waste energy on unnecessary things.”
“…Your hand is really small, Princess… Really…”
“Your Highness’s hand is thick, so it just looks relatively smaller.”
It felt like electricity was running through me, just as it had on the day of our engagement ceremony when I first held her hand.
“Um, Princess.”
Edmund spoke, leaving countless words unsaid.
“I… missed you so much. I really, truly…”
Kiana’s hand was completely engulfed in the large hand that she had described as thick.
Kiana gazed at him intently, then smiled quietly before suddenly saying something unexpected.
“How much?”
“Huh?”
Edmund was momentarily stunned. This was the first time she had asked for a descriptive answer that couldn’t be quantified numerically.
As Edmund stammered, Kiana asked again.
“While I was away, did you want me so badly that even if Melissa came here and told you I was unfaithful, even if she tried to seduce you with tears, you wouldn’t fall for it?”
“What, what? Princess Melissa was going to do such a thing? The Princess isn’t someone who would ever imagine such an impossible ‘what if’ scenario! And not only did she steal Piyak from me, but she was trying to act like that now?”
He had known from the start that Kiana was absolutely not the type to fabricate things that never happened and imagine them.
Kiana spoke of everything that had transpired while looking at Edmund, who had seen through the entire situation.
When she mentioned how Melissa had even stolen a fragment of her diary written in her own handwriting to approach Edmund, she laughed in exasperation.
“Unfaithful? That’s… nonsense.”
“That’s right, Princess. You would suddenly kick me out one day if anything, but you’re not someone who would secretly cheat on me. You don’t lack anything when it comes to me.”
“Don’t say such things, Ed.”
Kiana spoke at once.
“There’s still so much I want to explore about you.”
“Yes, yes! I hope it continues forever!”
Over the past three years, Kiana had constantly questioned him—’Why did you like me in the first place?’, ‘If you liked a woman interested in magical engineering, wouldn’t you change if another such woman appeared?’, ‘If not that, then what variable was added?’—and analyzed his heart endlessly.
Knowing that these questions stemmed from genuine curiosity, Edmund had answered to the best of his ability, and Kiana had ultimately concluded that she was the only person in this world who matched all those variables.
“But… Princess, I’m actually curious. What made you think it would definitely be discovered? Did you have secrets you were hiding from others?”
“Ah.”
Kiana nodded readily.
“Actually, I’ve had two secrets I haven’t told you about recently. Of course, I never intended to hide them forever, so I was already expecting them to be discovered.”
“Could you tell me what they are? I’m curious about all your secrets… Ah, but you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to!”
“Ah, the first one is that I really wanted to test out a magical artifact that changes eye color. It’s a secret, but I actually made one when I was sixteen.”
“Why… would you keep that secret? That’s incredibly impressive!”
“I hesitated to announce it publicly because I didn’t want to advertise that I’m a fake princess with a complex about my eye color… and if I forced it on Melissa as originally intended, it would also burden you… So I just buried it. But lately, I’ve been dying to test whether it still works properly. That’s why I was wondering whether to change my eye color.”
“Why would you change your eye color! You’re perfect from head to toe right now! Don’t change anything!”
“But it would be quite painful, so I hesitated to ask anyone to do it… yet I’m still curious whether it works properly…”
“Painful? Then absolutely not! I’ll do it, Princess! I’ll be your test subject! Do it on me!”
“…It would be very painful though? And Your Highness, why would you change your iris color?”
“It’s fine! I can just change it and then change it back to the original color! I’m good at enduring pain. Please do it for me. Yes? I get to help you, and you get to satisfy your curiosity… it’s a win for both of us, isn’t it?”
That was when it happened.
Knock, knock—there was a knocking sound.
“Your Highness.”
It was the attendant’s voice.
“I’ve brought the chicken breast salad without dressing. May I enter?”
In that instant, bewilderment flashed across both Kiana’s and Edmund’s eyes simultaneously.
If the attendant discovered Kiana was here, Scari would surely throw a fit, exclaiming ‘Good heavens, she was in the most dangerous place!’ and drag her out…
Yet he couldn’t ask the attendant to keep it secret either. Edmund was a considerate master, and he didn’t want to put the attendant in an awkward position later.
In that split second, Kiana whispered.
“I’ll hide for now.”
With that, she slipped under the bed’s blankets.
Edmund’s face fell.
‘Princess… you’re completely visible! How is that hiding?’
When Edmund didn’t answer, the attendant knocked once more.
“Your Highness? Are you within? May I enter?”
“Yes, yes, yes!”
Fearing that any further delay would appear suspicious, Edmund responded at once and quickly dove beneath the blankets, poking only his head out from under the covers.
Given his large frame, he reasoned that even overlapped with the petite Kiana, an observer might not discern that two people lay beneath the quilts.

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