Beguiling the Enemy’s Patriarch - Chapter 59

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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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Ch 59. Circling Until We Touch
I continued resting for quite some time after that day. Every servant in Belgot Palace seemed poised to collapse the moment I took a single step out of my room, their entire bodies tensed with vigilance. Of course, I understood their anxiety—my range of movement was limited to only the third floor of the palace, and they were terrified I might venture beyond that boundary.
“….”
I cautiously poked my head out from beyond the doorframe. Despite my utmost care, the ends of my pink hair, loosely braided to one side, jutted out conspicuously. The moment my head emerged, every maidservant on standby snapped their eyes toward me. I flashed them a brilliant smile.
“Good morning, everyone…!”
Then I shut the door and experienced my 131st moment of despair.
This was getting ridiculous, wasn’t it…?
Overprotection. Pure overprotection. I sighed and collapsed back onto the bed. It had already been a week of confining myself to this room, constantly reading the atmosphere of the Main Palace staff. Beyond that first week, my sense of time had dissolved entirely, and I could no longer accurately determine what day it was.
Even at night, I couldn’t sleep properly. My sleep schedule had become irregular over these days, and since I couldn’t leave the room, the fact that I’d recovered this much was a miracle in itself. I sighed and rolled across the bed.
[Tsk, tsk. You’re the laziest creature on earth.]
At this point, even Raulus’s voice, which poked and prodded at me, felt oddly welcome. I chuckled and shot back a response.
“You’re right. What if I actually take root in this bed?”
I was definitely going mad. The fact that I was responding so readily to this irritating voice was proof enough. I was undoubtedly the type of person who couldn’t bear being confined to one place.
“This isn’t living….”
The Main Palace’s courtyard, which I’d frequented constantly just weeks ago, now looked especially verdant and beautiful—a tantalizing vision just out of reach. I gripped the bedpost and gazed down at the garden with an almost drooling desperation. The longing to go outside bubbled up inside me.
Fortunately, my reason still functioned reliably. The possibility that I might actually collapse if I wandered about carelessly wasn’t an exaggeration in my case. So I tried to find something I could do within the confines of this room.
“Shall I write the letter for you, Princess?”
When I asked for pen and paper to send a letter to Lebovni, that was the only response I received.
“That’s all right!”
Write it for me? I didn’t injure my hands, Roxanne…! But when I actually tried to compose the letter, my mind went blank. I had plenty to say, but first, I wasn’t even sure if I could send it to Lebovni.
Should I exercise instead? It seemed like all I’d gained since coming to Belgot was a sunfish’s constitution and laziness. Yes, exercise might….
“Priiiincess!”
Of course, it was nearly impossible to escape the watchful eyes of the maidservants, who monitored my every movement with burning intensity.
“Princess! Please let us do that!”
The moment I tried to lift a small flowerpot instead of a dumbbell, they somehow knew and snatched it away.
“Goodness, Princess! What are you doing on the floor!”
If I attempted a push-up, they’d shriek in horror and lay me back on the bed.
“Princess, you’re sweating! You must have a fever! Fetch the physician at once!”
A single bead of sweat on my forehead was enough to send the physician rushing over in a panic.
“Princess. Your strength has not fully recovered, so strenuous exercise is absolutely forbidden! Absolutely! Forbidden!”
Princess, you mustn’t. Stop, Princess. Princess, shall I do this for you? How about that, Princess?
That infernal “Princess”….
“I’ll just stay still….”
Damn it. In the end, there was nothing I could do.
It would be nice if Auredhian, or at least Diego, or even Marienne were by my side. Unfortunately, none of those three could come to me right now.
Auredhian, with his characteristic sensitivity and coldness, had forbidden the people of Bellirook Palace from entering the Main Palace. His reasoning was that regardless of my personal verification, they had already failed to serve their master properly, and thus could not be admitted to the Main Palace. He’d said their not being dismissed was already a show of leniency, and faced with that stern expression, I had nothing more to say. He was a man who turned glacially cold the moment he felt someone had overstepped. Since I’d known this all along, I gave up trying to persuade him further.
And Diego wasn’t someone I could simply summon whenever I pleased anyway. He was legitimately the Vice-Archbishop of Barishard. I couldn’t very well call a busy priest to play with me every single day.
That left one person. Auredhian Belgot. The only man who could save me from this existence that had become almost insectile in its confinement.
“…He’s busy.”
I muttered to myself. But that was just an excuse. Auredhian was busy every single day of the year, 365 days straight. Besides, I roughly knew his schedule—when he worked, when he rested, when he ate.
Auredhian Belgot was occasionally so precise that he calculated time with almost unsettling exactness. So it was harder not to know that he could carve out a few hours every two or three days. …But I knew.
The problem was me. Me.
“Damn it.”
I muttered miserably, burying my face into my knees. Merely thinking of that man caused my heartbeat to gradually accelerate. This was severe, I tell you!
Once I started thinking about Auredhian Belgot, memories spilled out uncontrollably. How he’d held me in his arms at dawn exactly a week ago. The meaningful words he’d spoken. How he’d carefully checked on my condition whenever we passed in the corridor afterward. How I’d begun to feel my heart racing abnormally as a result.
Moreover, whenever his fingertips so much as brushed against me, heat would instantly rush to my ears. If I continued facing him in that state, not only my face but my entire neck would turn crimson—I’d fled back to my room like that more than once or twice.
Given that state of affairs, I’d begun avoiding Auredhian of my own accord now. It was almost laughable how persistently I’d pursued him until recently.
And that remarkable man didn’t seek me out since I wasn’t seeking him. I caught myself feeling slightly disappointed at that realization and exhaled in exasperation. I was the one avoiding him first, yet I was disappointed he wasn’t looking for me? How foolish!
“….”
In any case, that’s how today’s state had come about. Like a cockroach slowly decomposing in a corner of a dark room.
[Go out on the terrace and get some fresh air, dear. Otherwise you’ll become a mummy while still alive.]
Even Raulus had resorted to saying this. I lay sprawled across the bed, blinking vacantly.
“You think so too?”
[Yes. Lately you’re living worse than a snail.]
Raulus, who usually did nothing but nitpick, answered quite seriously. And I steeled my resolve once more. That’s right. Whatever happens, it’s better to do something rather than live like a bug here and get forcibly deported back to Lebovni!
“….”
As the price of that determination, I had to shed cold sweat throughout my walk down the third-floor corridor of the Central Palace. Because of the countless gazes trailing behind me and the sound of servants’ footsteps that matched my pace with each step.
I glanced back and nearly jumped at the double column of handmaidens and attendants following in my wake. So burdensome…! This happened every time I left my room for days now. Could this also be Auredhian’s doing? Was he doing this because I’d intimidated the handmaidens and escaped the Central Palace on my own last time…?
In any case, given that situation, discovering the man ascending the staircase was quite fortunate indeed.
“Your Majesty!”
I called out to him cheerfully at first. He, who had been giving instructions to an aide trailing behind him, turned his head at my call. Our eyes met—those reddish-violet eyes of his.
Auredhian Belgot called out to me slowly.
“Princess.”
And despite having greeted him so cheerfully, I blinked awkwardly again. Today’s Auredhian Belgot looked slightly less relaxed than usual. His silver hair fell naturally disheveled, yet he wore a neat white shirt with a thin ribbon-like cravat properly tied.
The fact that he, who detested cravats and ties, was dressed so impeccably meant he’d either received an audience from nobles or just finished an important meeting. That information flickered through my mind in an instant.
“It feels like it’s been days since I’ve seen your face.”
A beautiful smile curved across his handsome features. I couldn’t step back because of the procession of attendants lined up behind me, and could only stand frozen, watching him approach.
“W-well, I suppose….”
“Why, you’ve been so diligently avoiding me these past few days.”

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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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