Chapter 7: I Was Brought Back
I was brought back.
“Haa, I"m so sad…”
Without sympathy from the maid, I sank into the sofa in sorrow. I gently brought the freshly-made tea to my mouth.
“Delicious.”
“That makes me happy.”
The maid responded with a grin.
“Sorry for charging at your earlier. It doesn"t hurt anywhere?”
“No, it does not. Since I fell on top of the carpet.”
This maid was the maid I ran into earlier. Although I more or less figured she"d fall on the soft carpet of the Royal Castle, I didn"t check if the maid herself was safe or not. At least the part of her body that I hit didn"t hurt. I felt regretful.
“I"m really sorry. Even though I have nothing against you, I thought of doing something awful to you just because I wanted to escape…”
“You do not have to apologize so much like that, I"m really all right.”
Saying that, her bouncing figure looked cute. So cute.
As I was filled with a fluffy feeling, I asked.
“How old are you?”
“17 years old.”
“Your height"s about the same as mine.”
“It does seem like it if we stood side by side.”
“Same figure as well.”
“I finally lost weight just the other day.”
“Same hair color.”
“We do match.”
“Same eye color as well.”
“…”
Although she was answering quickly, she immediately hesitated.
As if making up her mind, the maid said.
“Were you thinking of something?”
“Something wonderful.”
“It"s definitely not wonderful!”
“It"ll be fine, just quietly change clothes with me for a bit.”
“See, it"s not wonderful at all!”
As she kicked up a fuss, I came closer.
“It"s fine, it"s fine, if we keep quiet about it… okay?”
“It"s not ‘okay?‘!”
When I moved while reaching out towards her, she retreated back.
We impatiently glared at each other.
“Isn"t it okay? They won"t notice a thing or two if you replaced me.”
“It"s not!”
“If you"re good at it, the prince might fall in love with you at first sight!”
“Definitely not!”
“But see, we pretty much look like each other.”
“Even if our colors are the same, we don"t!”
“As long as our colors are the same, isn"t that fine? What else will people judge us on?”
“Don"t tell me you think people judge by their colors!?”
“I"m bad at memorizing people"s faces…”
“Please memorize them!”
“Ah, by the way, what"s your name?”
“It"s Maria!”
As the conversation continued, I slowly sidled up to her. ‘Maria," this girl"s name is also cute.
“Somebody–! Somebody, help–!”
Maria banged on the door.
“Ah, I haven"t even done anything yet!”
“But you will after, right!?”
“Yeah, but!”
“See–!”
With teary eyes, she didn"t stop banging on the door. It looks like her hand hurts from how st.u.r.dy the door is.
“It"ll be easier if you just give up.”
“I don"t want to!”
“Come on, think about this carefully.”
“No way!”
As I approached the unexpectedly stubborn Maria, I considered pulling her away from the door, but she gripped the door handle and wouldn"t let go.
“Come on, just for a little bit.”
“That ‘little bit" will be the end of me!”
“It"ll be fine, why don"t we think about this more? Okay?”
“No, no, no, no way, no way, no way.”
Surprisingly stubborn. What"s more, she"s surprisingly strong. I wonder if this is a fight or flight response.
“No–! Save me–!”
Maria let out a particularly loud voice. Her vocal strength! What amazing vocal strength! Even my ears hurt!
“Ooof!”
The door opened. Maria, who was hanging onto the door, had her face slam loudly into it, and as I was hanging onto Maria, we both fell in the soft carpet together.
“What"re you doing, Letty?”
Hieeeeeeeee!
He asked with a smiling face as I shivered in fear, and having made a comeback, Maria called out to the prince.
“Please save me!”
“What was Letty doing?”
“She was trying to switch with me! She said it"s because we looked similar to each other because of our same age, height and even hair color!”
She completely ratted me out.
“Letty?”
“Hiee!”
H-his smiling face is scary!
“Why were you trying to switch with her?”
“S-See, since you fell in love with me at first sight, I was wondering what you would do if you saw someone who looked like me– or something, is what… I… thought…”
My words withered away. Cause as I was talking, the prince"s forehead twitched.
The prince made a refreshing smile, and said.
“I see. It seems I haven"t properly relayed to you my feelings, huh, Letty?”
“N-no, that"s not it…”
“I"ll tell you exactly where the things I like about you are. Thoroughly and firmly.”
“I-I refuse.”
“I wonder just how long it"ll take us to fully exhaust that, do you?”
“I refuse!”
As soon as I raised my head to look for an escape route, he firmly locked the ma.s.sive door.
Incidentally, Maria"s not here anymore. Sh-she ran away!
“Then, why don"t we get along and talk with just the two of us?”
“N-nooooooooooooooo!”
Without caring for my screams, the prince hugged me tight.
EXCUSE ME WHAT EXACTLY IS HE GOING TO DO???? Lol. I also wonder how Maria couldn"t escape the room… was it locked?
Author: adorkablerika Name"s Erika. For some dumb reason, I decided to major in Physics. I"m stuck in this major now. I used to translate manga and light novels a few years back, left, then came back cause I found some good novels to read. I"m the only TLer on my site, so rip. I"m apparently also good at drawing, and I also like kpop (BTS, I mean, I have Hobi as my pic). I don"t bite, so feel free to chat me up on here or on NU @adorkablehiko.