Pretending to Be Human Is Exhausting Again Today - Chapter 66

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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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Struggling to Pretend to Be Human Today Episode 066

 

With Liribel recommending it like this, it was awkward to keep ignoring it.

 

I let out a sigh and turned my head toward Ruslara.

 

“Fine. Ruslara, what’s this story you heard?”

 

“I only heard about Princess Chloe’s purpose.”

 

“What was that purpose?”

 

“Suicide.”

 

‘I didn’t mishear after all.’

 

It would have been better if I had misheard.

 

“What’s her reason for wanting to die?”

 

“I haven’t heard that yet.”

 

I turned my gaze back to the knight.

 

He seemed to have a lot to say, his face flushed red as he just opened and closed his mouth.

 

Finding this sight quite amusing, Ivan, who had been watching the situation with his arms crossed, spoke with a mocking voice.

 

“Isn’t it just the obvious reason that she didn’t want to be a burden?”

 

“No! Princess Chloe wouldn’t give up her life for something so trivial!”

 

At the knight’s fierce rebuttal, Ivan snorted as if incredulous.

 

“Then what is it? Is there some grand reason worth enough for you guard knights to get involved?”

 

‘Get involved?’

 

When I sent him a look asking what that meant, Ivan’s lips curled up slightly.

 

“I was resting so I couldn’t see, but apparently the princess, who should have been waiting at a nearby hideout, suddenly rushed into the battlefield? This knight here told her the location of the battlefield. In other words, he helped the princess commit suicide.”

 

‘No wonder he didn’t seem to have any will to save Princess Chloe for a guard knight.’

 

Now I could understand why that abnormal situation had occurred.

 

“There is a reason. Really, I didn’t want to do it either.”

 

“Then tell us about it. I’ll at least listen.”

 

Finally, the knight began to stammer out Princess Chloe’s circumstances and past.

 

“…”

 

The stories I heard were… more shocking than I had expected.

 

* * *

 

Chloe had been a special existence from birth.

 

The pink hair that could only be seen in ancestral generations appearing through atavism was exceptional, but the biggest distinguishing factor was that she was loved by the deity of the lake.

 

As soon as she was born, the deity of the lake bestowed blessings upon all the royalty of Jins Kingdom. For a deity to directly intervene over the birth of one child was rare enough to count on one hand in the kingdom’s history.

 

Chloe even received an oracle.

 

It was an affectionate promise, like words from an old friend, telling her to come find the deity whenever she faced difficulties.

 

Having become such a precious child blessed by the deity of the lake, she eventually became the jewel of the royal family.

 

‘Chloe, you don’t need to worry about anything. This father will give you whatever you want.’

 

The king was ready to pluck stars from the sky if it was her wish.

 

‘Our adorable youngest, Chloe! You don’t know how happy we are to have you!’

 

Her siblings said just looking at her made them feel good, and they sent her gifts filled with affection every day.

 

It was the perfect environment to raise a spoiled princess, but Chloe was a good child who didn’t desire excessive things.

 

‘It’s okay, Father. The dolls I have now are enough! Jewels are pretty, but comfortable clothes are better!’

 

She didn’t like luxury and had no interest in politics. All she wanted was to spend peaceful days with her loving family and kind servants.

 

Thus, Chloe grew up as a princess in the perfect greenhouse of the royal palace, harboring not the slightest curiosity about life outside.

 

…Not knowing that this might be the beginning of tragedy.

 

‘Princess, do you know there are strange rumors going around the royal palace lately?’

 

The beginning was Chloe’s wet nurse. The wet nurse, who had been with Chloe her entire life like family, said this while brushing her hair.

 

‘Stories about the royal family offering living sacrifices for black magic.’

 

‘There are such ridiculous rumors?’

 

Being ignorant of worldly affairs doesn’t mean being foolish. Chloe dismissed it as something made up by people who hated the royal family and paid it no mind.

 

But the wet nurse persistently whispered in her ear.

 

‘If you don’t believe it, why don’t you look for yourself, Princess? There’s an underground passage beneath the main palace that only royalty can enter. They say that place is suspicious.’

 

‘Wet Nurse, it’s not even worth confirming such talk.’

 

Even as she said this, the wet nurse’s continued suggestions planted a thread of doubt in Chloe’s heart.

 

‘Come to think of it, Father and my brothers have been absent quite often lately. They didn’t even say they were going out… Could there really be something underground?’

 

Though she trusted her family, it seemed better to check in order to resolve the lingering uneasiness.

 

So Chloe secretly headed to the underground of the main palace.

 

Eventually, she arrived at the underground passage behind a door that could only be opened with the royal seal.

 

‘What… is this?’

 

And she came face to face with the truth behind the rumors.

 

The underground passage that was known to lead outside the royal palace was no longer a passage.

 

At its end, a chasm large enough to swallow an entire small village gaped open.

 

And within it, a scene too horrific to look away from was spread out.

 

Corpses. Countless corpses.

 

Death filled that place, discriminating neither by age, race, skin color, nor gender.

 

The methods of killing were varied, the states of death were diverse, and the number of deaths was countless.

 

In this mountain of death that would overwhelm any human, Chloe discovered an unidentifiable magic circle. Corpses were piled at each vertex of the incomprehensible magic circle.

 

Countless corpses, an unknown magic circle – there was only one word that connected them.

 

‘Black magic…’

 

Her family really was offering people as sacrifices for black magic.

 

‘No, this can’t be, this can’t be happening!’

 

Terrified, she retraced her steps. The instinct to flee took precedence over the reason to examine this tragic truth.

 

‘Oh my, Princess.’

 

What blocked her path as she returned to the surface was none other than the wet nurse who had planted the suspicion in her.

 

She wore an eerie smile she had never shown before and said this.

 

‘Judging by your expression, there really was evidence underground.’

 

‘W-Wet Nurse?’

 

‘So it was there after all… My son. Hee- hehe!’

 

The wet nurse, with a smile stained by hatred and ecstasy, ran off down the corridor. Gone was the elegant demeanor she had always shown, replaced by innocent running like a child who had gotten a toy.

 

Chloe stared blankly at her disappearing figure without any explanation, then went to find the king.

 

She thought the king would be able to resolve this anxiety and fear.

 

But when she actually met the king, her father, he smiled and said this.

 

‘Oh dear, our Chloe saw it after all. But don’t worry. That’s all according to the deity’s will. Just like with you, we received an oracle too.’

 

That couldn’t be right. The deity of the lake had said the oracle was given only to her, hadn’t it?

 

The king defended the existence of black magic as if he had no interest in Chloe’s doubts.

 

‘That’s not evil black magic. It’s a ritual to summon a deity who will protect our royal family and make us prosper.’

 

‘B-but those people, they’re citizens of the kingdom, right? Killing people who committed no crimes…’

 

‘It’s fine! This is a necessary sacrifice. You know well how much our citizens love the royal family!’

 

Chloe belatedly realized that an unbridgeable gap in common sense existed between herself and the king.

 

‘That’s not right. We’re supposed to protect the citizens. We can’t kill citizens.’

 

However, the king didn’t listen to Chloe’s words. Instead, he sent her back to her room, calling her ignorant of worldly affairs, and ordered her to continue living as she had before.

 

You must live there to be beautiful.

 

There’s nothing you need to know.

 

Only then did Chloe realize.

 

What her permitted role in this kingdom was.

 

That the Chloe they wanted was like an ornamental plant for viewing.

 

Thus, Chloe was confined to the palace again. Her cries to stop harming the citizens were silenced, and the king recruited even more sacrifices for the mysterious ritual.

 

But when the tail gets too long, it gets stepped on – the underground secret was discovered by a ducal house that opposed the kingdom.

 

The one who reported this secret was none other than Chloe’s wet nurse.

 

‘Capture the murderous king! We must protect Jins Kingdom!’

 

The flames of rebellion instantly engulfed the royal palace. Chloe could only watch helplessly as servants and knights died one after another.

 

Eventually, when the karmic fire began to spread to the palace where Chloe lived, the First Prince appeared.

 

‘Brother! Are you alright?’

 

‘Chloe, I have a favor to ask!’

 

He grabbed Chloe and spoke with eyes mixed with desperation.

 

‘Will you, will you die in my place?’

 

‘…What?’

 

‘Right now the Rebel Army is looking for the ringleader who started that ritual! If, if that person appears, the other Royal Family members might be spared from execution! So…’

 

Say that you’re the culprit.

 

That’s what the prince was saying.

 

If only you die, we can all live. The Rebel Army and the people might be satisfied and leave.

 

Chloe couldn’t say anything. Her brother begging her to please die in his place felt so surreal.

 

She wished it were a dream instead.

 

She wished the sight of the Wet Nurse chasing her sister with a smiling face was a hallucination.

 

She wished Father’s screams crying out to the Deity not to lay hands on the King’s body were auditory hallucinations.

 

It would have been better if they were.

 

Then, the Deity of the Lake whispered in her ear.

 

[Cute Chloe. Do you need me?]

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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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