The Villainous Princess Wants to Live in a Gingerbread House - Chapter 17

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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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The Villainous Princess Wants to Live in a Gingerbread House
Chapter 17

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A week had passed since Asha watched Aleksei practice with his bow and Swordsmanship. An attendant approached her as she stood by the window, coming to relay Aleksei’s invitation that she was welcome to watch from beside him.
Asha descended into the courtyard and sat in the chair prepared next to Aleksei. As she watched him shoot arrows intently, after he’d loosed about four shots, Aleksei turned to look at her.
Still, after following him around these past few days and even feeding him sweets, color had begun to bloom in Aleksei’s usually pallid complexion.
“Would you like to try shooting?”
“Hmm… yes!”
Asha hesitated slightly before nodding. But her attempt failed when she couldn’t draw the bowstring at all.
“It must be because you’re still so small.”
“I’ll grow soon!”
“At the moment you’re just a pea—will you become a kidney bean by tomorrow?”
“Aleksei!”
Even as Asha called out his name, Aleksei merely smiled and went on to shoot three more arrows, as if teasing her.
‘……Why has it come to this?’
Asha swallowed a sigh. She had wanted to grow closer to Aleksei. But she hadn’t realized he had such a playful temperament. While Asha wrestled with her thoughts alone, Aleksei turned to look at her. His expression was peculiar.
“The Imperial Palace is warm all year round. It’s because I’ve made a contract with the fire dragon Fafnir.”
“Ah… yes!”
Asha nodded despite her bewilderment at the sudden change of topic. It was something she already knew. The talk surrounding Aleksei, the Crown Prince, was so widespread that even the youngest in the Imperial Palace could hear of it.
But more than such rumors and gossip… whenever Asha faced him, the shadow of flames that sometimes appeared at his side reminded her of this fact.
“So the heat grows stronger the closer one comes to me…… yet even standing this near, you don’t seem so uncomfortable.”
At those words, the chair beneath her seemed to lurch strangely.

‘Please, just be quiet for once!’
Asha swallowed hard.
That she was unaffected by Fafnir’s power meant her own Spirit was stronger. And this Empire was a barbaric realm that chose its heir by the Spirit’s strength alone. Even if the Emperor had other intentions. Asha’s head spun until she managed to squeeze out an answer.
“It’s because… allies’ attacks don’t work on each other, remember?”
“……What?”
Aleksei’s arrow flew not even to the edge of the target, but somewhere entirely wrong. The attendant in charge of the targets ran far off in surprise to retrieve it.
“You haven’t read any novels, have you? All that studying and no stories.”
“……”
“Even if a sorcerer casts a tremendous spell, the enemy always takes the damage, right? Magic doesn’t work between allies—that’s how it works.”
“……”
Aleksei’s lips pressed shut. Having answered brightly but then cautiously watched his expression, Asha suddenly gasped and bolted from her seat at what she saw.
Around Aleksei, a faint, suppressed light like cherry blossom petals shimmered. Asha’s face lit up.
“You laughed! Aleksei just laughed!”
“Laughed? I always laugh.”
“No you don’t! Not like that. A real laugh! This is the first time you’ve smiled at me!”
“……That’s not true.”
“It is too! You really did just now, didn’t you? Your mouth did this, didn’t it? It twitched!”
Asha seized the end of Aleksei’s sleeve and shook it. His expression stiffened.
“I always smile when I look at you.”
“You’re lying~! You’re even lying now.”
“I’m not!”
And with those words, Aleksei pushed Asha away.
Precisely, he shook off the sleeve she’d grabbed, but Asha, shoved off balance, stumbled when her feet tangled, and fell hard on her backside.
“Ow, ow, ow.”
Asha sat on the ground and looked up. Aleksei’s face was contorted. At first she thought he was angry because she’d teased him too much, but there was no anger in his rigid features. He’d been the one to push her, yet he looked as though he’d been run through with a blade.
And then Asha finally grasped what that aura was. The deep blue light blooming at his side—it was fear. Fear of something, helplessness in the face of dread.
“Aleksei…… I’m sorry. Did I upset you? I’m sorry, I was too…”
“I’m not upset. I’m sorry for startling you. I was just… startled myself.”
Aleksei denied it firmly in a somewhat stiff voice. Asha blinked. Aleksei tried to help her up, but hesitated, withdrew his hand, and gestured to an attendant instead. The attendants who caught his glance helped Asha to her feet in his stead.
Asha felt a strange discord in Aleksei’s manner even as she apologized again.
“No, I… I was harsh too. Aleksei shouldn’t have to feel angry…”
Aleksei fell silent for a moment, watching Asha as she straightened fully, then his gaze dropped.
“I can’t afford to be angry.”
And slowly, faded, colorless particles began to settle around Aleksei like dust. His words were less a denial of his own emotions than a declaration.
Asha blinked in confusion, but Aleksei had already turned to leave. She rushed forward and caught his arm.
“Aleksei! Aleksei, what do you mean? You can’t be angry?”
“……Exactly as I said. I can’t afford anger. I wasn’t angry before. I wasn’t trying to push you away—I’m truly sorry I hurt you.”
Aleksei’s voice was gentle—a gentleness carved away from something far deeper.
“Why can’t you be angry?”
“…….”
Aleksei seemed to find this conversation exhausting. After a brief silence, he moved away from the attendants and stood in the shadow of the Corridor. The morning sun had climbed higher without warning, its bright rays catching his golden hair and making it pale and luminous.
“I made a contract with Fafnir, the Fire Spirit King, the Scarlet Dragon—but it remains unstable.”
Asha’s mouth snapped shut.
In her worry over what darkness Aleksei and Kalno might bring to her future, she’d forgotten. The Imperial Palace had searched for someone with the Power of Stability to control the unstable strength of the Empire’s sole crown prince. They’d combed through the Empire like searching for a grain of sand until they found a common girl with that gift—and she was the original story’s protagonist.
“A Sage Ruler must always possess a mind like a clear mirror, like still water. For me, that isn’t merely a question of qualifications—it’s a matter of survival.”
Asha recalled her observations of Aleksei—how he seemed to have no emotional fluctuations whatsoever, how everything about him was like an endlessly still, calm surface. How he always wore that cool smile.
Aleksei looked down at her, shadows gathering at the corners of his eyes. He seemed to be debating whether to speak, and also seemed to doubt her understanding. Finally, he offered a faint smile.
“……Asha, truthfully, I can barely contain Fafnir’s power. Even now, my inability to fully control it is probably why heat leaks out around me. If my mind wavers on top of that, I don’t know what might happen.”
Once he finished speaking, Aleksei apologized to her again and turned away. Asha couldn’t bring herself to stop him. The attendants followed uncertainly, while the one who’d returned from picking up the arrow stood confused, unable to make sense of what had just transpired.
<Tsk, tsk. Foolish humans.>
Unable to tear her eyes from Aleksei’s retreating figure, she noticed that the bird shape carved into her button had suddenly grown more vivid.
With a swift motion that stirred the air, Asha grasped the button on her dress and curled herself into a corner.
“Is that really it? Does it have to be that way? Does any of this make sense? To control Fafnir’s power, he can’t cry, can’t laugh, can’t even be angry?”
A bird emerged from the button, chirping softly.
<Of course it’s nonsense. Haven’t I told you before? The heat leaking out is just because Fafnir is excited. Once he reaches twenty or so, he’ll naturally be able to control it.>
Asha suddenly recalled Kiril’s words.

– Once you reach adulthood, none will dare approach you even at night.

That couldn’t have been referring to this, surely.
“But……but there really was an incident when he went into a rampage…….”
Asha pressed her hands to her temples. Aleksei’s rampage had been real. That was why the Empire had torn itself apart searching for someone with the Power of Stability.
Learning the reason for Aleksei’s cool gaze, his cold smile, his distant playfulness—somehow it all weighed heavily on her now.
“Is all of that just Fafnir being excited?”
<It is.>
“Then what about Aleksei acting like that? He said he can’t even be angry—what’s the point of that? How does that help?”
<His own strength might allow him to wield the Spirit’s power better, but whether such things actually help is unclear. How should this great Spirit understand the foolish human heart that does such useless things? It must be mere self-deception.>
“This…… this…….”
She wanted to curse, but the proper words wouldn’t come. Asha twisted her skirt mercilessly and stamped her feet.
‘Does this make any sense? They pushed him this hard and it’s all been for nothing? Should I suggest finding someone with the Power of Stability right away? What was the heroine’s name again?’
The story was too distant in her memory for her to recall the female protagonist’s name, and she had no way to search for her.
“Why doesn’t Fafnir just tell Aleksei all this?”
<How should I know? Whether these foolish humans simply lack the ability to speak with their own Spirit or lack the will—I cannot say.>
“No, Fafnir could just speak to Aleksei first!”
<How would I manifest to one who cannot hear me? What would I even say?>
“That’s just because you don’t have the ability! Who in the world doesn’t want to talk to their own Spirit?”
<Every human in the Empire.>

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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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