Warning: There will be violence and mentions of blood in this chapter. Be warned.
“Ojou-sama, I was worried when you suddenly disappeared.”
Whose ojou-sama is whose!?
I don"t really know why, but this is definitely bad. I probably look pathetic, a 10-year-old kid trying to resist a man with all her might, as he pulls me towards the school building. It was no use, I was slowly being dragged.
“Let me go! I don"t know you!”
“Geez, please stop talking about unreasonable things. We"re going home.”
I looked around for help, but because of his acting, the few people around us probably only saw us as an ojou-sama and her servant, and just proceeded to watch.
In that case, I had to kick him to escape. I raised my right leg, but at that moment, he held me up in his arms.
“No! Let me go!!”
Being held by an unknown man, my body stiffened. Fear ran through my body, and then,
“Bern!”
Suddenly being alone, it was Bern who I called out to for help. Even though he"s not going to come. Thinking that, a bottomless despair surged through me.
Meanwhile, this man will bring me somewhere.
As I struggled and flailed about, with the public eye off the man, he covered my mouth with his hand, and fastened his arm around my stomach. What only came out was a croak. With my ribs being crushed, it felt painful to breathe.
I finally quieted down as the man brought me inside the building, and suddenly tossed me inside an empty cla.s.sroom.
I hit the floor, and for an instant, my breathing stopped. Even without that, because of his hold around my stomach earlier, my oxygen-deprived body was painfully taking in shallow breaths.
What"s with this situation?
Having specifically waited for me to go somewhere else alone, this man was definitely targeting me. But I don"t know why. Despite Father being a Marquis, he"s not interested in power.
“Who are you? What do you want?”
Leaning on the door, he slowly made his way closer, closing the gap between us.
“It doesn"t matter. Unless you want to meet a painful end, end your engagement with the Brunsmeier son.”
“Huh!?”
That might have been the loudest voice I"ve ever made in my life. I mean, he said to break it off.
Was this what Bern was worried about this whole time?
But why did he know I was being targeted? Who wants to end our engagement, even going so far to use violent means?
Because the man before me is unlikely to answer, I had no information on-hand, and can"t make any guesses.
But that aside, I have to run away right now.
He took out something from his pocket. With the light coming from the window, it shined on the object, and I realized then that it was a knife.
“Someone! Help!!”
I stepped back as I shouted while thinking it was useless. Making a fool out of me, the man laughed.
One step. He took another step, and I was filled with dread.
I felt a slow, cold sensation go through me, as if my blood was being drained out of my body.
Clack!
With my leg catching on a desk, I staggered.
Not letting that chance go, he quickly striked.
Fearfully seeing the incoming knife, I twisted my body and fell to the floor, dodging the knife.
Instead of trying to kill me, it seemed like he just wanted to scare me. The knife ended up cutting through the s.p.a.ce between my arm.
“…!”
Clack! The desk my legs caught fell along with me. I hurriedly stood up, but the man had already gotten himself together. He grabbed my arm, and lifted me up with all his strength.
From the gaps between my disheveled, light brown hair, I met his cold, ice-like gaze. An instinctive fear went through my whole body.
Clutching the knife, he raised his hand overhead as if to bash me in the head, and then, an ‘Ugh"-like noise cut through the air. The next moment, there was a long, narrow, silver object protruding from the man"s back, and he let out a groan.
Before I knew it, a black figure suddenly stood up from behind the man. Looking over his shoulders, the shadow slashed at him. He was then punched on the other side of his face with great force.
That person who looked like a black shadow was Bern.
His grey eyes were as cold as ice, glittering coldly at the man.
As I looked on dumbfounded, before my brain caught up, Bern once again attacked the man. He kicked the staggering man from the back of his head and then stepped on his hand holding the knife.
And then, he casually pulled out the knife out of the man"s back.
Blood splashed in a beautiful arc, and danced through the air.
With the same motion as earlier with the knife, he hits the man on the back of his neck, and then the two suddenly stopped moving. The man lets out a growl like an animal as he glares at Ben.
Expressionless, Bern raises the knife overhead and mercilessly slams the handle of the knife into the man"s temple.
The man faints and collapses like a heavy sack, with my and Bern"s breathing being the only noises remaining in the cla.s.sroom. The sounds seem distant, as if there"s a layer separating me from reality.
Paralyzed, I stood still.
“…Lizzy.”
Seemingly like a different person from earlier, with worry in his gray eyes, he quickly inspects me. Confirming that I had no injuries, he put on a heartfelt, relieved expression.
And then by what is now a habit, he takes my hand, and I unconsciously jump.
I jumped because I was freed from being paralyzed, but thinking it was for a different reason, he looked at his own hands.
In Bern"s hand was the knife he took from the man"s back, where blood was oozing out.
With sadness in his eyes, Bern gently withdrew his hand.
Seeming as if I was losing him at that moment, I panicked and grabbed both his hands.
It was small, and although I shivered at the warm feeling of the blood on his hands, I strengthened my hold on him, to not let him go. Tighter. So that he can"t go anywhere.
Even though he was scarily strong earlier when confronting the guy, now, Bern looked small, like a kid about to get scolded.
“Lizia.”
He told me to let go. I shook my head, and slowly sat down on the floor as I held his hands. I can"t back out now.
“…Sorry. I dragged you into this, Lizia.”
It"s fine. I"m not mad. Even though I wanted to say those words, my lips could only uselessly shiver.
Watching him fight earlier, I realized something.
That he was used to taking a life. He didn"t even falter one bit with the knife, nor when he injured the man. He didn"t hate it either.
Even though he was raised carefully as a 13-year-old n.o.ble, he knew how to fight. Then that means–
“You probably don"t know this, but if this wasn"t the Royal Academy, I would have killed him,”
As if to clearly warn me, Bern said.
He"s implying that he"s done that before. Scaring me on purpose.
“You"re scared of me, aren"t you?”
Noticing that my hand was trembling, his was trembling as well. Even though he was trembling, he didn"t have to ask. So stupid.
“I haven"t decided yet if I am… But right now, I"m more scared of being alone by myself.”
I wish I could have said that I wasn"t scared. But not being able to lie to him, I instead answered honestly.
I haven"t decided yet if I am. Because I"ve only ever heard of stories where people die, I wasn"t prepared for anything.
At the same time I answered, tears fell from my eyes. I closed my eyes tightly, trying to stop them, but it was no use.
With tears falling down my face, I looked like an idiot. Bern didn"t know what to do.
There"s no helping it. Even I didn"t know what to do either.
“I"m sorry.”
I knew the Bern in the game, and because of that, I thought I understood him. How stupid of me. Even though I wanted to get along with him, I was biased and ultimately thought he"d turn out to be a villain in the future. What villain? What game?
Here he is, being targeted and having to take a life. He"s been living in this kind of world.
And yet, he apologized for getting me involved. He was always misunderstood, having to force a fake smile, but nevertheless, the kindness that he showed me was real. I can"t just obediently accept that.
Ah, man, I can"t pull myself together. And at the same time, I"m going in circles in my head. I cried too much and am now hiccuping. This is the worst.
Anyways, the only thing I know is that I can"t stop being sad.
I had trouble thanking him for saving me, as I hiccuped. He clutched the hand that I had been grasping.
“So stupid.”
Bern repeated.
“So stupid…”
Just like that, Bern cried while laughing.
We handed the man over to the Royal Guards and went home in our carriage. We couldn"t tell them why he attacked us. Probably because it involves the Brunsmeier family.
“You were attacked today because of me.”
“That"s what I thought, but why?”
“Because there"s someone who"d be troubled if I had children.”
C-Children? Also, did he mean ours? O-Oh my~!
Well, I"ll keep quiet for now.
“My real mother is His Majesty"s third sister.”
What the h.e.l.l. This is the first I"ve heard of this.
“But His Majesty only has two sisters.”
“The previous king laid a hand on one of his maids, and she became pregnant with his child. That maid was my grandmother. As soon as my mother was born, she immediately committed suicide. No one knows why. The members of the Imperial Family, thinking that a cursed child was born, hid her existence.”
There was a huge indication that that was the story. Like an idiot, I thought, ‘Heh," and quickly hammered it down.
“She was an arrogant person. Even though she was a princess, she couldn"t forgive the fact that she was the daughter of a maid. She kept that fact under wraps as much as possible. And then she fell in love at first sight with a man her age. That was my father. At that time, my father was close to getting married to his fiancee. She forcibly broke them up, and married him. Like that, she got what she wanted, and in return for giving birth to me, she abruptly died. It came full circle, just like a curse…”
W-woah. That"s heavy.
“In other words, Bern has royal blood in him, right?”
“Yeah. That"s why the Queen"s out to kill me.”
A boy with the same blood, and the same age as His Highness Edwin. That"s the secret that Bern"s been keeping.
If he wishes for it, and with his existence to support it, Bern can become king. And that"s what the Queen is afraid of.
“Eh, but there"s the second Prince.”
“Second Prince?”
Bern looked at me, puzzled.
…Huh?
Ah, the Second Prince hasn"t been born yet… I-idiot~!
“N-No~ I mean, it"d be nice if there was a second Prince~”
“…Yeah.”
That was close. I nearly became a prophet (lol). Bern had a weird expression, but it doesn"t seem like he"s going to press about it.
“If that was the case, then you wouldn"t have gotten involved in all this.”
“I"m fine. Bern came to save me anyways.”
Because I fell on the floor twice, I didn"t want to tell him that the side of my body hurts.
“That"s not the problem… Well, whatever. Yeah, now, if I was asked to break off the engagement, I"d say no.”
Hmm. Huh. No, huh? I stopped myself from grinning.
After escaping from that dire situation, I feel as if I have a few loose screws in my head. Well, whatever.
“Today"s attack was probably because of Viscount Bormann. I wonder if Mother gave him information. Seems like he was a little kinder to me because I"m that hateful woman"s son. It"s because he"s hopelessly in love with the Queen. Her number one priority is probably killing me. Thanks to that, I had to become stronger.”
“Viscount Bormann.”
If I ever meet him, I"d like to punch him. I"m pretty sure he"s bald and fat. Even if I"m wrong, I"ll put a curse on him instead.
“Lizzy, don"t you hate me?”
“Why?”
“Because sooner or later, you"ll really be targeted.”
“But, you"ll also be targeted right? If there"s two of us, we could help each other out. I may be a burden though.”
“Really?”
“Really.”
Bern"s innocent, slightly dazzling smile was blinding.
“Hey, Lizzy. It"s warm, isn"t it?”
Before, I didn"t know what it was. But now I do.
“It is.”
Our connected hands felt warm. The reason why Bern holds my hand is because he"s lonely.
I remembered when I held Bern"s hand and felt the blood. His hand is probably stained in blood. But, he"s different from the Bernhardt in the game. Right now, the living Bern is the one who"s here — him and him alone.
How foolish of me. I was so afraid of the future that had yet to come, that I wasn"t looking at the person in front of me.
I"ve decided to prepare as well.
As his fiancée. As the one person that likes him.
“It"d be nice if you could just stop being a n.o.ble.”
“That"d probably be a little hard to do.”
Bern quipped. I thought it was a good idea though.
It was pointed out that during the scene where Katerina goes, “I"ll let you call me onee-sama!,” it"d be the opposite when Lizia marries Bern, right? Indeed, that"s true…
Uhm, even though Katerina"s a little like an idiot, please continue to call her that. Well, the real idiot is me…
I was thinking, ‘I really wanted to slowly explain myself this time~”
To whoever pointed it out, thank you very much for the comment! I hope you continue reading this from here on out!
One of my favorite chapters, although it"s not my number one favorite. I bet this was the moment that these two realized they loved each other. Also, there"s a reason I translated 好き as like, you"ll all see why during the sequel, but that"s further in the story. Comments and fangirling are also appreciated!