Mad Rosetta - Chapter 73
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Mad Rosetta
Episode 73
What to Be Careful of During a Hunt Isn’t Just Beasts (4)
I forcibly lifted my heavy eyelids.
He was holding me while staring into the air like a madman, crying.
The tears hanging from his chin looked like they might fall on me at any moment, which was irritating.
‘…How did I end up liking such a selfish bastard.’
I couldn’t stand how ridiculous your actions were.
Acting as if you had monopolized all the leisure a person could have in a lifetime.
Only throwing cruel words at me as if there was no point in resenting you.
Even when you burst into tears, you borrow someone else’s shell to express your true feelings.
That was truly… pitiful and uncomfortable, so I opened my parched lips.
“…Pathetic, really…”
“…Rosette?”
Whether he was flustered by the sudden criticism, or surprised that I, who had lost consciousness, opened my mouth to speak.
He looked at me with tears welling up in his eyes.
When I tried to get up making groaning sounds, my arms trembled like a newborn foal, which was a bit embarrassing.
As I glanced sideways at his arms hovering around my shoulders in an awkward position, afraid I might fall, I soon glared at him.
I had ended up sitting on the man’s lower abdomen, but I had no time to worry about such things.
“Say it again.”
“…What?”
“What you just said. Tell me properly again.”
“…Don’t want to… break up? Rosette?”
His blank face with clear tear stains looked so stupid and annoying.
Was it because I was angry? Or just because of the chest pain? I had to take a deep breath.
“Yes. It would be nice if you said it directly. Instead of mumbling so the other person can’t even hear you like some gloomy bastard.”
“…”
“In my opinion, Sing, even if you hadn’t been killed by the Empress Dowager, you probably would have died early from suppressed anger. You would have acted pathetically while keeping all the things you wanted to say bottled up.”
“…You’d be angry.”
“What?”
“I thought you’d be angry when you woke up…”
“Don’t I look angry?”
“Sorry.”
For someone who apologized so quickly, he still seemed dazed.
Well, even I was confused because I couldn’t define my feelings in one word, so how much more so for him.
I loved you, a ghost, and was shocked to learn that you, whom I thought was on my side, had other intentions.
I resented that the target you would use as a tool for revenge happened to be the man who betrayed my affection, and that I had no choice but to hate you who was inside him.
Your resigned attitude, as if you had expected my reaction, felt very unpleasant… Nevertheless, I came to accept one fact.
– 【The one who made me like this is Fordicus Cessia’s mother.】
– 【So shouldn’t I also take away her precious son?】
You too… No, you were someone who wanted revenge more desperately than I did.
What would it feel like to be forced to just watch those who murdered you enjoy wealth and glory for over ten years?
I couldn’t even imagine it.
Angry, resentful. Even while going mad with injustice, wouldn’t you have felt powerless and worthless for being unable to do anything?
Feeling miserable just from imagining it, I decided to go beyond understanding your annoying behavior with my head and try to empathize with it.
– 【You seem to have forgotten that I am not among the living.】
With the day you would take over Cessia’s body in mind, you pushed me away while referring to yourself that way.
I think my appearance, pressuring you persistently while demanding why you wouldn’t open up about having the same feelings, must have been quite troublesome.
Like a child who swallows what’s sweet and spits out what’s bitter, doing only what pleases them, but finally deciding to swallow even the bitter water – that’s the measure of your affection for me.
So I decided to accept it gladly.
The feeling of being hit in the back of the head is truly disgusting…
Since I too had tasted the sweet advantages of a ghost, I decided to consider it Cessia’s skin before my eyes if I had to swallow the bitter taste in return.
‘…Still feels like shit though.’
I thought this while stroking his reddish bangs that had a slight curl.
“Ugly.”
“Yeah.”
“I want to pluck out these eyes too.”
“…Yeah.”
“So you have to keep calling me darling.”
“…”
“Otherwise I might mistake you for someone else and hit you.”
I deliberately didn’t look at his eyes that widened in surprise.
If I don’t like the shell, I can just close my eyes. If the voice bothers me, I can tell him to shut up.
I want to find comfort in the fact that your distinctive way of speaking, touch, and gaze don’t resemble Cessia in any way.
“…Are you forgiving me?”
“I don’t know. I’m still pretty annoyed.”
“…”
“…But I think I feel a little sorry for you, having to just watch the son of your murderer grow up all this time.”
When I scolded him not to make such a moved expression and wiped his swollen eyes, he laughed helplessly and buried his face in my shoulder.
“It’s pity, darling…”
“…It’s mixed in a little.”
“Being so soft, what am I to do…”
Am I weak? I’m not sure.
But I was curious about what Sing would look like after resolving his old grudge.
His back rose and fell shallowly, and my shoulder grew damp.
The grip of his hands holding my arms grew stronger, then loosened.
Unable to do this or that, busy restraining his emotions, I feel love as I fully accept your touch.
I acknowledge that you are here before me.
* * *
“Are you insane?”
“Well, thanks to that, Jeremiah will be remembered as an emperor who fought to protect his brother from assassins.”
“…Are you laughing?”
“I cried a lot earlier.”
Even though I frowned mercilessly, he lying next to me laughed like an old man.
We had many conversations.
From Sing’s childhood to how he died… I thought it wasn’t necessary to tell me that the previous emperor, who was known to have died from worsening illness, actually died by choking on vomit.
I could understand why he was disgusted by drinking.
‘…But I drank quite a bit too.’
Starting with drinking to forget the pain even briefly when my head hurt like it was splitting, I remember the amount increased even more after marrying Cessia.
I wandered around drunk for quite many days to call it ‘occasionally’… It also means he saw all of this, so I became a little serious.
As if reading my thoughts, Sing laughed as if it was ridiculous and pressed my brow with his finger.
“Your drinking habits are decent, so don’t worry. Besides, you were poisoned by Panilnia at that time.”
“…You know too much.”
Pretending to be sulky, I turned my head away to only look at the ceiling, and he rambled on about his story as things came to mind.
He said he used to follow Carina like a mother when he was young, and confessed that there was a time when he simply envied his brother without knowing the weight of her hands that pressed heavily on Jeremiah’s shoulders.
Since I knew better than anyone the feeling of being betrayed by someone I considered family, when I heard the story of how he died after being stabbed three times, curses poured out endlessly.
“So what were you planning to do from now on?”
“Well… Actually, I can leave this body anytime. Just making Carina realize that her son has been devoured by me would essentially make my revenge successful.”
“That’s it?”
When I bolted upright in anger, my chest hurt terribly and I had to lie back down groaning again.
They said my ribs were fractured, so whenever I put any strength into my upper body, this was the result.
“I told you to speak up if you wanted to get up. Won’t you come to your senses?”
The guy’s startled reaction to my shouting naturally followed.
“That’s… that’s it? If it were me, I would have tried to bring down both the Empress Dowager and the current Emperor.”
“It’s not like I didn’t think about it either, but… Darling, please have some awareness that you’re a patient.”
When I pounded the bed with my hands in indignation, the guy rubbed his face dry, telling me not to drive people crazy with worry.
His face was all rough and haggard, clearly showing lack of sleep and skipped meals.
The guy was so thin his bones and flesh seemed to stick together, looking more like a patient than me.
I thought to myself that I wished he would get a grip on himself and opened my mouth.
“Princess Selina is still around. Even if she’s taken refuge, if the current Imperial family’s treason is revealed, they won’t be able to bring up the issue of her stripped succession rights.”
“Right, but her whereabouts are mysterious. For some reason, I couldn’t see her even at my funeral… She was a child who knew proper etiquette.”
The guy’s muttering about there being many suspicious aspects made me think deeply as well.
There aren’t many temples in the Empire large enough to be responsible for royal quarters, so if we investigate, we should be able to find her.
‘I was planning to visit the guild after the hunting festival anyway… It wouldn’t be bad to make additional requests after receiving the results.’
Since the promised two months were almost up, I needed to go check on the information about Lianna and Lawrence.
Just as I was thinking it would be good to look into Princess Selina while I was at it, the guy asked.
“By the way, darling. You’re not asking anything at all about Odette.”
“…That crazy thing. Obviously she must have slipped away crying about how I mistepped or something.”
“…”
“…What, why are you like that? Gasp! Co-could it be she said something like I tried to push her and ended up falling into the lake instead?”
“Hmm. Well, darling… the situation flowed a bit strangely.”
What, making people anxious for no reason.
I looked at the guy while going over each of the schemes Odette had used against me so far.
Sing pulled the blanket over and carefully covered me while responding in a reluctant voice.
“Odette was detained.”
…Huh?
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————