Chapter 171

Chapter 171

Translator: Yonnee

—

Hesitating, Rosé’s eyes trembled with anxiety as soon as she heard Albert say this. It seemed like she didn’t think she’d get caught so quickly.

I would have had the same reaction as her, if I was in her shoes. Albert’s response to this matter was unusually quick—as if he was acting on gut instinct that was not a mere human’s.

Rosé flinched, but she soon reached forward to hold Albert’s wrist. She dropped her gaze and blinked.

“Prince, I wasn’t going to tell you this, but…”

Rosé paused for a moment, then continued.

“To be honest, the moment we returned here in the tower, I realized that I lost all the memories I have of what happened after we left the tower. It all disappeared.”

Albert asked back with a deadpan expression.

“You lost your memories?”

“Yes, but I can still remember everything that happened while we were staying here!”

Rosé desperately asserted, urging him to believe her.

This was likely part of the truth.

She must have observed me every day. Just looking at her now, she smiled in the same way I did, she had adjusted the pitch of her voice to match mine, and she even copied the way I spoke.

It would be a lie to say that this wasn’t disturbing to see. And to add, I also told Albert before that I ‘lost my memories’ when I first came to possess Rosé’s body.

Since there was a precedent, Rosé’s assertions right now held some ground.

I grew nervous. I could only think that Albert would waver and start to believe her because her reason was ‘partial amnesia’.

“But you see, it’s so very easy to see through a person’s true essence.”

Slap! Albert sharply repelled Rosé’s hand as if he was doing away with an insect. As his brows were furrowed now, there was an indescribably irritated look on his face—it was an expression that I had never seen before.

With eyes that seemed to carry the frost of midwinter, he glared at Rosé menacingly.

“Right. Perhaps it would be beneficial to make you talk before I kill you. The woman who possessed your body, where is she?”

Rosé blinked and pressed her lips together. Even from here, I could feel the despair surfacing from deep within her.

There was a pitiful expression on her face now, enough to elicit sympathy from anyone who’d see it. I glanced alternately between her and Albert nervously.

I could do nothing in my current position, and so all I did was watch.

“…What are you talking about? I’m the same person you confessed to, Prince, the same person who you have pulled into your embrace, and the same person you kissed. I am Rosé.”

Despite having been cornered now, as if she was driven to the edge of a cliff, Rosé continued to try and cling to Albert. Her pitiable plea was brimming with sincerity.

But Albert recoiled from her once again. He pulled his wrist out of her hold and pushed her away. This alone made Rosé collapse to the floor.

Revulsion was blatant in his eyes.

It was an unfamiliar experience for me to see him express his negative emotions, unrestrained. I could only wonder if he had been hiding such simmering hatred behind a fake smile all this time.

“You have to be a person to be treated like a person.”

I didn’t know that he valued the ‘true essence’ of a person so much like this.

With just one glimpse, he was sensitive enough to notice that something had changed. As if he wasn’t already extraordinary enough, he continued to keep surprising me even more now.

However, Rosé was likewise formidable in her own right. As if she had a steel plate on her face, she once again made a brazen claim.

“Prince, I know I seem strange right now, but… You have to believe that I am the same person. You said that you trust me…”

She’s one heck of an actress.

The combination of her pitiful expression and trembling voice gave enough weight to support her assertions. It looked like she really would be able to cloud Albert’s judgment right now.

However, Albert then walked to stand beside Blanc, who was hovering some distance away from them. Then, he said,

“It is not the body that determines a person’s essence.”

At this, Rosé’s mouth slowly gaped open as she was filled with surprise.

“How could I possibly mistake her for someone else just because they had the same body? What a foolish thing to do.”

Rosé’s face turned as pale as a sheet. It was only now that it dawned on her—no matter what she’d say here, she would never be able to deceive Albert.

In hopes that Albert might be able to see me, I rushed towards him and Blanc.

“Albert! Albert!”

I called his name at the top of my lungs, but Albert did not react in any way.

In the spectral state that I was in now, it seemed like no one would be able to hear me regardless of how loudly I shouted.

Frustration overwhelmed me. Should I leave the tower first? If I get out of here, would I be able to solve the situation?

Albert leaned down and made eye contact with Blanc. The hostility that he always extended to Blanc whenever they interacted was almost invisible at this moment.

As if he was giving an important order, a grave expression replaced any sort of mischief that could have been found on his demeanor.

“Where is she?”

“I don’t know, but she’s not gone. I’m still alive…”

Blanc answered back with the same seriousness. Right, just as he said. Since we had entered a contract, Blanc and I now shared the same life span.

In other words, as much as I could help Blanc, Blanc could also help me.

Contractor.

As soon as I was reminded of that fact, I thought of something.

I looked at the back of Rosé’s hand, where the proof of the contract between me and Blanc should be apparent.

But the pattern had disappeared. As if it never existed there at all.

I heard that the contract between a dragon and its contractor was made between their souls. And, when we entered our contract, I uttered my own name.

Yoo Jung-in. Not Rosé Artius.

My name.

Did Albert notice that the pattern had disappeared from the back of Rosé’s hand?

If so, then I could understand his complete one-eighty shift in demeanor just now.

No, but… I don’t think Albert ever took a single glance at Rosé’s hand while they were talking earlier…

“We can tell for sure by looking at the back of the haaand…”

Just in time, I heard Blanc whisper this to Albert. Blanc now brought up the topic of the pattern to Albert.

“Why the back of the hand?”

Albert was perplexed, as if he couldn’t understand Blanc’s words at all.

But… huh?

“Rosé told me her name when we entered the contract…”

“Name?”

“Yeah. Her real name.”

Albert’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“She told you first?”

…Don’t tell me. Are you really getting upset about this now?