Fake Cinderella

39. Covert Play

Not so much I know.

What the Count and Milady have looked into, what His Royal Highness and Lilia have taught me, and, again, about myself.

It is the current situation that compensates for those gaps with shameful imaginations when it comes to reasoning.

(That's full of holes, too)

There's no evidence in the first place, and that doesn't mean we're already looking for the killer. I don't even know where the end is.

Still, I guess, I'm the only one who can get there.

I stretched my spine though I was unsubstantiated confident. Ha, ha, ha. Sometimes it's necessary.

"Call."

His Majesty said so, pinching the passage on the left, not too wide, and sitting in the diagonally rear seat, turning his body towards me.

I turned to His Majesty as I sat in my seat.

It is with concern for your lady that you are walking down the aisle without having to go back and forth with each other.

Even against me at a young age, Your Majesty will not forget to treat me as a properly married lady.

(I didn't even have a shard of that on my head under Scion, I guess)

You were full of heads about Lilia, or I was too young to seem like such a subject at all... probably both.

"Well, I don't know what to start with...... I've always thought this day would come, but it's something that actually feels kind of strange when it does"

His Majesty seemed in a very good mood. He's a highly manic-depressive person, but from the tone of his voice, now, he looks slightly manicured.

"Did you make a prediction?

"No, it's not a prediction. If you insist, you should call it hope. The rest, I wanted to end it."

With unnatural flair, His Majesty says.

"I just didn't think pulling the curtain was just that. I would be satisfied if it were the way it is now, but it was once impossible... I thought only Prince Wang would be able to do it"

"Why is that?

Indeed, I fully agree that it was once impossible for me.

"Euria would not do anything unaccompanied by my will, and the division chief had not even noticed. Arienol... he pretended not to see it, and the Archbishop ran away."

In other human beings, you can't give His Majesty an opinion, I guess. Probably.

"Prince Wang... that's a man who can kill me if he wants to defend his country"

Though I probably would have, I never offered my consent. His Highness Nadir is very kind to me. I'm an egoist and that's all I can forgive.

(I don't need the kindness that can be given to anyone)

"That's why I was waiting for the day that it gave me guidance and became king"

Your Majesty smiles softly.

I've never seen this look more like it.

"Your Highness, you don't want that. I didn't even want to be Prince Wang..."

"Maybe it is.... but people change, Thie."

"But Your Highness's own happiness is not on the throne."

I was just a little upset, so I ran out of words.

"... hey. So where is that happiness?"

Here, it's a lot if you can say it's next to me, but the skin on my face isn't thick enough to say that without cowardice.

".................. it's the library"

His Majesty blew all over my answer.

"I'm sure it might be. Anyway, that was a book bug from a very young age... the tutors on that one all said with their mouths together that it would keep its name in history as a scholar. That's all right. I thought Euria and I were gonna do it."

"... that was His Highness's dream"

Your Highness loves history.

Your own research topics are "Ruins of Bereaved Civilizations" and "Arsey Nay".

His Highness knows a lot about Nay, though he doesn't even seem to know that one intelligence agent, Lilia.

Sometimes Dardinia was deeply associated with Nay, but above all, he said, it was with the "mourned civilization" that captured His Highness's heart, which was moving farther than it was today before the Unified Empire. A recent study seemed to think that Nay was the heir to that lost civilization, but His Highness had another step-by-step hypothesis.

The Royal Palace of Dardinia was designed and architecturally directed by its Nai, while at the same time it is the world's most historic building, built using the techniques of a bereaved civilization, and it is easy to study in the country because of the numerous remains of Nai.

For those who are studying Nay, this Dardinia is a sanctuary, but it must also be a sanctuary for His Highness.

Until his graduation from college, His Highness said he was studying its architectural technology as head of the university's Royal Palace Survey Team.

His Royal Highness is very eloquent when he talks about that hand. Though in a completely different direction than usual.

The story was also interesting, but I was more than happy to be with His Highness, who was shining his eyes with a sudden expression.

"Your Highness's dream is to become a researcher in college... and if I may be forgiven, I have dreamed of having my mother next door,"

His Majesty was small and breathtaking.

It was the first time I saw it, His Majesty's upset.

His Majesty, who has floated somewhere and floated away, is not often surprised by something.

"... that's an impossible story"

Bitter, grin.

I carefully choose words to cut further into them.

"... The Duke of Elsevelt had a woman with him for many years and already had several children. I heard that was a terrible scandal at the time. There was a voice that the princess was not worthy to marry."

"Oh yeah... but having a concubine wasn't the problem. It's nothing like being so aristocratic where one or two of the concubines were. But that didn't even show up to break up with the princess to marry her, and she gave her concubine a place to stay on the property."

That's an insult to the royal family, and that voice that throws up, it's chilling... mixed with hatred.

(Hate...)

A blue-white flame burning at the bottom of your eyes.

It's a fire that keeps burning your chest without ever going away.

(Your Majesty, not forgotten)

What was in His Highness Nadir was anger.

Twelve years after my mother's death, my anger lingers... and I feel a little weathered by talking to me, Your Highness said. I was happy with that. I felt like I was playing the role of Your Highness.

But His Majesty's this is a hatred that never fades.

My presence will not help ease it.

The inexhaustible hatred... creased and his spine snapped.

That's something you can point at me too if you change the angle.

"So why did you admit your engagement as it were?

Count Stazen, who had told me so many stories, said that he thought the engagement would naturally be broken, with the annotation that it was personal. To that end, the Count also told His Majesty that His Highness Nadir was in favor of his mother.

'I didn't want the princess to marry Elsevelt. I couldn't do anything on my own, so I applied it to His Highness and worked from the back... the result worked the opposite of what I thought,' he said with a look that was too bitter for a bitter smile.

(Yes, it worked the other way around)

His Royal Highness Nadir seems to think that the Count was forced to stop tutoring him for something else because he didn't know about it, but I predict that the Count's announcement of His Royal Favor to this side was the reason.

"Never admitted it"

Hate sound. The look distorts me as much as I want.

But it was natural.

At the time of the Princess's descent, it was normal for her to organize herself, even if it was pre-built. Yet the Duke failed to do so. Besides, it's a good place to break the rules, such as letting a concubine live on the same property.

Your Majesty can't forgive that.

(That's Elsevelt's pride)

At the time, there were so many who disagreed with the descendants.

Besides, my mother was so drowned out by His Majesty that there were even strange rumors.

It would have been much happier, at His Majesty's disposal, to welcome an honest husband, even if he was not as tall as the Duke, to live in relaxation, if only enough to have him daughter-in-law in front of a man who could see it as untrue.

Besides, my mother had just grown up. Unlike the Duke, there was absolutely no reason to rush marriage.

"... I couldn't. Really."

His Majesty spins out the words as he squeezes them out of the back of his throat.

"All this time, it was strange. Why did His Majesty, who cared more about her than anyone else, drive her away to misfortune that she knew?"

"You call that unhappiness you knew?

"Is a man's fifteen years apart, and besides, is it really possible that a girl who has just grown up will be happy under a man with a wife and a mistress who has already been with him for years?

To my inquiry, Your Majesty, it gives me a terribly bitter look.

That was, above all, an eloquent answer.

"If you're like Your Highness, I still think it's terrible not to be the Duke."

Fifteen Differences is the same thing for me. So somehow I'm going to say something I've been following.

"... the only one who didn't doubt that he would be happy was Effinia, who knew nothing"

Voices like tired.

His Majesty was often seen younger than his real age, but now, he seemed very old.

(Contradictions here too)

His Majesty loved my mother, Effinia.

And I'm obsessed with me because I'm an Effinian child, and that leads to an overdone favour for me now.

But then why didn't you stop my mother's tragedy?

I don't think I understood.

And I don't even think I could stop it.

It was strange that this one missed the misfortune of his beloved sister princess more than anyone else without doing anything.

"I heard a lot of stories… I counted so many that I could hear them directly, and even fewer knew them directly at the time. Everyone was just listening to someone else.

Still, a small number of people were wondering that my mother's descent was not undone… it might be a theory of result.

But I didn't know why His Majesty, who cared so much for Effinia, had so visibly acknowledged his marriage to the Duke that he knew he would be unhappy. "

The voice of His Highness Nadir when he told me his mother's story comes back to life behind his ears.

'I thought His Majesty would stop her marriage.... Though my half-brother, I never thought I would forgive my sister for drowning so much by the man who lays it on other women'.

So, for the sake of marriage, I thought somewhere in my heart that even at that moment when the bride queue left the royal palace, she would return soon with only the form.

"His Highness Nadir said that my mother may have been my first love, And he said he might be complacent, but maybe, he didn't hate me."

His Majesty leaks his sighs as if to look up to heaven in my words.

"Your Highness and my mother are not so far apart in age. It doesn't seem to be a bad match in terms of blood muscle or age, and under different conditions, it seems more deserving than with the Duke"

If that were the case, I would never be here right now.

"Besides, that wasn't the only question I had.... How did the Duke know that an engagement would never be broken even if he had his own misdemeanor? Wonder what was growing the Duke so far."

Even though everyone took it for granted that the engagement was broken, only the person at the time didn't mean it at all, but rather, it seemed like it was making things worse.

My mother married my father when the mourning of the previous Duke dawned at the age of fifteen.

At the time my grandfather, the previous Duke, was there, my father didn't do anything so conspicuous either, but about February after his death, he left the children above him alone in the main castle and, furthermore, at a time when he refrained from marrying his mother, Luciera and the children below him resided in a separate residence on the property.

Under Dardinian national law, Luciera's children have no inheritance rights. but I can educate him as the Duke's son.

But it was not a good thing to hear, even Dardinia, who was somewhat tolerant about putting down her concubine.

"Effinia herself was on board. Effinia admired her older, grown-up man looking fiancée.... In the first place, Effinia's engagement was ordained by his father, the King. Moreover, Elsevelt is' Queen's House '. It's inseparable from the royal family."

"The Queen's House" … it stems from the fact that the first Duke of Elsevelt was the younger brother of the Queen of the Founding Kings in the first place, and since then, he has given birth to the First Queen in three successive generations.

Number one in the Four Dukes' house. That character is so special in so many ways that they say, "There is no king who does not possess Elsevelt for his wife or mother".

"So you say His Majesty couldn't stop you?

"... oh... I couldn't stop it, no matter what. I didn't admit... I gave up."

It was bitter. While you say you don't care about your own children, you suffer so much when it comes to my mother, Effinia.

"Why is that?

There's a reason. There's a reason I had to marry Effinia and the Duke even though I knew I'd be unhappy.

………………

His Majesty looks at the floor so that he can nod, and does not try to open his mouth.

(Well, I didn't really expect you to answer...)

"So..."

I took another deep breath. Squeeze your fists tight.

In this case, it would be better to ask a completely different question.

Though far-fetched, it is good to cut into a little certainty.

(I'm just ready to mouth this)

Sprinkle with courage to speak.

A lot of people's faces came to mind around the corner of my brain.

"... why would His Majesty go after me?

(I said...)

His Majesty raised his face as if it had been begun.

Its eyes are stunned open.

On the inside, I am also amazed at His Majesty, who exposes so much surprise at what he has said himself.

But I asked him repeatedly so that he could fold it up as it was.

"Why, while I am dearly merciful, am I targeted for life?

When I said so, I felt like I wanted to cry badly, like I was careful.

(Your Highness...)

I wanted to see His Highness.

In that slightly blurry tone, I wanted you to call me by my name, as usual.

You don't have to say anything. I just wanted you to be there.

(I can't do what I didn't do anymore)

Words say there is something called the Spirit of the Word.

As it is said that the soul dwells in the word at the moment when it is spoken, so too will the question be a powerful one from the moment it is spoken.

"Why, Your Majesty, do you hate me?

It sounded as loud as I could think in the silence of the night.

The laughter that pushed him to death leaks as he creeps.

His Majesty was laughing.

Or maybe he was.

He is shivering his shoulders into small pieces and pushing his voice in the back of his throat to kill him.

And I gave him a face.

"Wow, Thie. Really amazing. Did you notice that yourself? There's no way Prince Wang would tell you that."

Those eyes are holding a dangerous light somewhere.

The feverish glance makes His Majesty look like someone else.

(Was it like this?

I was laughing because of my heart.

Somehow, every time I look at it, it seems like this one is someone else.

"Oh, sure, it was someone else."

Not my puppet princess, crushing like that.

Princess Puppet, my heart doesn't waver anymore at that word.

"Why did you notice that?

His Majesty, who took his seat, stood before me at some point.

Hands on my shoulder as I tried to get up in advance and push straight back to my seat. He peered in from the top to cover himself, hitting himself reflexively.

But I can't get a hiccup, and I peek into those eyes with amazing closeness.

"When did I do the kind of hema that you'd notice?

The silvered Ethereal Ice eyes, even though they reflect me, are not looking at me.

And......

(so frightened)

It was terribly vain. I felt like I could see the cavity.

"I said it earlier.... long time ago."

inner relief that his voice was answered without trembling.

"Oh, is that gonna take place here too"

Hahahahahahaha, and His Majesty laughs high and leaves me.

The laughter was somewhere sad and sucked into the ceiling high.

I didn't laugh, and I didn't feel funny.

"Why, is it?

My chest hurts because you couldn't deny it.

If you can, do you doubt me? And I wanted you to laugh it off.

Yeah. If you could deny it, I didn't care what you were talking about.

But His Majesty only smiles.

"It was at His Majesty's behest that I was dropped in the lake,"

The danger of being stacked over and over again. It was enough to count that I really remembered the crisis in my life, but not two months after I woke up, and how many times something strange had already happened.

"Enjoy, or... How the hell do you know? Thie."

I'm not sure about that either. I don't really understand how dangerous I am.

"… not so much, such as what I know"

"But you do use the word more accurately."

Excellent! And His Majesty exaggerates his hand.

It was some sort of puppet-like behavior, like it was set up somewhere.

"... thank you"

I didn't know what to say.

I had predictions.

But it's completely different from what you expect and what you see in the facts.

Because His Majesty is my greatest asylum.

Seeing it with my eyes was a lot tighter than I imagined when such a person was actually a mastermind.

"I'm very interested in why you thought you were me. 'Cause I love you without lying or lying, and I've never done anything to make you pity or hurt you once before. Some of them may have gone too far, but I must have always taken care of you. And yet, why, did you think it was me?

Tell me, His Majesty smiles.

The grin was tender, full of mercy, and never seemed like just a shame.

But on the other hand, it is also His Majesty who is after me.

(Conflicting emotions...... love and hatred line up together)

"You didn't tell me I was the killer, you didn't tell me I ordered you to kill me."

"... Yes"

Never thought His Majesty was an executor, etc.

It is almost impossible to do something in secret, because a high-ranking royalty is almost impossible to be alone, and even if it is physically free, its fruit, is like being in constant captivity.

And His Majesty would not have been able to order me to "kill" him.

(His Majesty is the 'King', for I am the presumed heir of Elsevelt...)

The only reason why Elsevelt is so special, on the surface, is because he is the head of the Four Dukes.

But that's not all.

(For all that reason, it's not enough)

I turn my gaze to His Majesty in front of me, feeling altered.

(The answer is, this one knows better)

"You're right. I have done nothing to hurt you. I know I love you more than anyone."

A look you even look good at somewhere.

That look like you're in the best mood.

"You know I've never ordered you to kill me, but you're saying I'm after my life."

"... I'm aiming for life, maybe not so much. However, I think they thought it could turn out that way."

When did Altilier find out about it?

And how horrible it would have been.

Altirier was not young enough to know what it meant to be targeted for life by His Majesty the King.

(Altirier was a brilliant child...)

In a way, it may also be said that its brilliance killed her.

If you hadn't noticed, she would have stayed with her.

But she noticed.

(Because I kept learning that I wanted to be worthy of His Highness Nadir)

The irony hurts my chest.

If you were a child who knew nothing, you wouldn't have been desperate.

"Why?

I couldn't tell anyone to hold him alone, and how careful he would have been.

But you really couldn't have talked to anyone.

(Because I feared disaster would fall on the person I talked to)

Maybe some of the people who have died so far have been consulted by Altilier.

(For example, a professor who was a tutor... a nanny...)

If so, the professor might have thought it was his fault, though he was sick and dead.

As for the nanny, there is also the fact that she was covered, and you may have thought she was killed because of herself more directly.

(His Royal Highness has...)

I'm sure I couldn't tell you.

I would have liked to rely most on Your Highness......

But Altilier couldn't charge your father with the crime.

So much so that she thought of Her Royal Highness.

(That feeling is in me)

Hold your chest gently.

"I think that's all you know, Your Majesty"

At least, I don't know.

"Oh, right.... Yeah, that's right"

When I tickle, I scratch thanks to you.

Then his lips shaped his grin.

"Then I'll teach you a pretty good reward for analysis"

With that grin affixed to his mouth, His Majesty continues.

"... I wanted to make a bet."

"Bet?"

Now I leaned my neck to a word that was too different for what I was doing here.

"Yes. If you don't know what a bet is, you can call it a game."

His Majesty continues the conversation in a very calm tone.

For some reason, my spine crept.

"... Your Majesty?

Something is alarming behind my head.

That's something you shouldn't hear.

"The person to play with is Prince Wang. And the prize is yours, Thie. You have it, this country."

I felt like I was shaking right in front of you.