The Lady Is A Stalker

The Crown Prince is a 14 year-old, genius tactician. From what I observed he grew up early because of his position, and was able to rebel against adults. But if the Prince doesn"t listen to the needs of his men, then he"s still just a child.

"…do whatever you want," The Prince muttered with disbelief and left the cafeteria.

"Sigh…” I relaxed and fell back on my chair. I was playing tough but I thought I was going to get crushed by him.

Then, someone who was watching us from afar asked, "Is this for real?"

Oh, it wasn"t just the Prince who hated Celebi. Sure it"s nothing in comparison to the Prince, but the soldiers also suffered thanks to her.

"Are you really worried about us? Pigs must be flying. You called us slaves only yesterday, and now you decide to change your tune?"

"Yea right, that horrible woman wouldn"t do something like cook food for us. Obviously she did something to it."

I feel like my obstacles have piled into mountains. I"m more focused on dealing with the Prince so I don"t have much motivation persuading all of them. If they refuse to eat with the Prince"s permission, then I"m out of options. I can"t force food into their mouths. Though I feel like I"ll have to soon, I can"t help but feel like giving up.

"What is this a show? I was watching from the sidelines, but no one is moving."

"Deputy Commander?"

For the first time, someone has voiced in support of me. I glanced up to see who it was. Oh, he"s the man who took me to the kitchen to get me out of the way.

Without hesitation, he sat down two seats away from me and ate some soup. He  swallowed and said, "…It"s okay. You"ve been chasing His Majesty for so long but who knew you could actually cook?"

"…"

Oh, he said it with a th.o.r.n.y voice, but did he try to help me? Of course, being a n.o.ble who can cook is nothing but an insult, but it"s possible he didn"t mean it that way.

I smiled gently as I suddenly felt happy by it. "Thank you."

"Huh? Uh… Yeah. Hey everyone, don"t stand there looking stupid, come and sit down."

"Bu- But…" The soldiers seemed hesitant. It couldn"t be helped that they can"t trust me.

But when the deputy commander scowled at them, they all sat down in less than a second. Wow… It"s getting cramped in here.

Still, I can finally eat now… Let"s not rock the boat anymore and enjoy it. I picked up my spoon again.

But, I think I feel like puking… It was the first time I felt so squished while eating at a dining table.

There was also this p.r.i.c.kly feeling and I now realized why. No one dared to insult me thanks to the Deputy Commander, but I had to keep an eye out. The soldiers would violently slice their steaks as they eyed me during the meal. It was obvious that they wanted to get rid of the nuisance. Maybe they were warning me that they"ll cut me like they"re doing to their meat. One of them was even feeding his nose instead of his mouth.

I hurriedly made my way to the kitchen to clean up and fell down exhausted. The soldiers who pa.s.sed by looked at me with scorn but I had no energy to glare back. Fortunately, no one here knows proper etiquette and grace.

The words I had heard from my previous life suddenly pa.s.sed through my head:

The beast is said to be tamed by prey.

Looking up at the sky, I saw that the sun was setting. It took a lot longer to clean up than to cook.

Apart from their negative feelings about me, everyone seemed satisfied with their meals. But the only person who praised my cooking out loud was the Deputy Commander, and even that was too vague to be called praise. Everyone grumbled for the sake of it, but I saw them all secretly hide their smiles as they ate.

It was around noon that the Deputy Commander took me to the kitchen for the first time. And just for the record, cooking is 8th in my list of 105 specialties. For reference, 17th place is cactus breeding and 56th is imitating the voice of a siren. Cooking is one of the best to watch out for.

Still watching the sky, I suddenly remembered someone I conveniently forgot… So in the end, the Prince didn"t touch my food at all.

Well, it"s well known that the Prince is a man of extraordinary power and that he can last days without eating or drinking. That doesn"t mean he won"t feel hungry though. I"m getting worried again. I"m starting to feel like an adult getting angry with a child.

"…"

I took out the cookies I made for dessert. Because I got hungry earlier, I snuck this out of the pantry.

I know that the Prince can"t be tamed by food, but I wanted to give this to him as an apology for what I did. Maybe the Prince won"t accept it…

I weakly wondered if he"ll think it"s poison again. Oh but if he misunderstood my intentions again it"ll all be useless. After all, it would be a problem if he still thought that I like him.

In normal human relations.h.i.+ps, if you do something for someone then they"ll appreciate it and your favorability rating will rise. The Prince and I, however, were in an inverse relations.h.i.+p. The more I try to be his friend, he"ll only hate me more thanks to his trauma.

It"s a small thing to hand out cookies, but there will surely be a misunderstanding that I just want to manipulate him and he will hate me more. Even if I don"t do anything I"ll still be hated. I"m stuck. The phrase troublesome child rose up and almost escaped my lips.

While I was brooding, someone approached. "What are you doing here? This doesn"t seem fit for a 16 year-old n.o.ble."

"Good evening."

I tried to sit properly but failed. The Deputy Commander looked at me like I was pathetic. Oh, I just realized I might"ve been lying too comfortably in my dress. I straightened out and sat in a proper position.

"Anyway, what are you doing in front of these s.e.xually frustrated soldiers? Ah, are you deliberately trying to stir up trouble? You lewd woman."

"Anyone who feels l.u.s.t for me wouldn"t be in Distin."

"They would feel h.o.r.n.y from seeing worn-out boots. They"re all beasts," he retorted in a cold voice.

"No they won"t. I heard it by accident. "No matter how beautiful she looks, she"s definitely a s.l.u.t"… they said." I must have had a silly expression on after repeating what I heard because he looked at me in quiet astonishment.

"Are these children for real. Did you hear that and stay still? Are you stupid? They"re only laughing it up because they can do it in front of the Commander."

I don"t know if I made a mistake, but he seemed to be worried that I was hurt by what they said. "Didn"t you say they were beasts? It would be a different story if they were people, but all I heard was barking. What"s there to defend?"

"…"

And above all, I wasn"t hurt by them. After all, it"s not about me. Stories about the original Celebi feel like 100 million light years away from me, so even if I heard some rumors I can pa.s.s them off like a story about someone else. I"m accustomed to dirty gossip anyway.

Besides, what they said wasn"t true at all. In the novel, Celebi was a hunter who only looked at the Prince. When I think about what she has done to the Prince, her cute words were grossly inappropriate for me. However, she was a girl who was more loyal than anyone.

Of course, that doesn"t mean I have feelings towards the Prince.

"Anyway I"m off. The Commander summoned me."

When I heard that, a good idea just came to me. Hey, how about I use him as a delivery man? He"s going to visit the Prince anyway. I grabbed and turned him around. The cookies were placed in his hand.

The Deputy Commander saw it and didn"t say anything for awhile. "…I"m sorry, but you"re not my type."

What the h.e.l.l is wrong with you?

I quickly spoke before the misunderstanding got deeper, "Give this to our boss and say it"s from you."

He looked at the cookies with a distressed face. "Give these to him yourself. Even if he hates you now, he"s a good person. He will accept them and eventually start favoring you."

That was his conclusion. And I agree, Prince Raven is a good person.

It wouldn"t make sense that the hero of a novel would be wicked.

Like what I"m doing?

The Lady is a Stalker

Your Majesty is so Handsome