CH 19

“You have no fear. Yernian.”

“Yeni isn’t fearless, but brave. So, don’t bother Askari.”

“Why do you careㅡ”

“Yeni. What are you doing there?”

As I turned my head at the sudden voice, my eyes met with Noha, who was staring at us from the bottom of the stairs.

The eyes of the Second Prince, who had been stiff all along, were gently curved.

“You still have no manners, Noha.”

“Come quickly. Askari will be waiting for you.”

Noha, who treated the Second Prince as if that beastman wasn’t here, spoke in a cold voice I had never heard before.

I gladly ran down the stairs with my back against the Second Prince and took Noha’s hand.

“Thanksh, Noha.” (Thanks, Noha.)

As I whispered and we went down the remaining stairs together, a small smile appeared on Noha’s lips and then disappeared.

Ignoring the young gaze of evil that fell on the back of my head, I walked towards the detached palace where Askari was waiting.

***

Arriving at the entrance of the detached palace, Askari hid himself out of sight and breathed in disarray.

His heart was pounding so loudly in his ears that it hurt.

‘Damn it.’

Recently, he was on a journey as if he wasn’t himself.

To be precise, it was from the day he messed up Yernian’s room.

An unfamiliar feeling that made him unable to even sleep at night kept following him.

It was a feeling close to guilt.

In the end, Askari went on a hunt for someone for the first time in his life with a frustrating feeling that rarely thought of disappearing.

However, Yernian’s reaction to the prey was bittersweet.

Rather, she looked contemptuously at the prey that he, the noble royalty of Persian, had hand-picked, and even ordered her maid to throw it away.

‘Why are you so picky when you’re a trivial human being…!’

Askari, who was sharpening the knife inside, happened to find out about Yernian’s taste while walking through the hallway.

[The Princess seems to really like flowers.]

[Aah. I heard that she enjoys taking a walk in the flower garden like that every morning.]

Askari, who happened to hear the conversations of the servants, carried flowers every day until all the subtle emotions that were irritating his heart disappeared.

Each flower was selected over and over with the strict aesthetic unique to the Myo Clan.

It’s a present that was just getting easier.

[Don’t bother Askari from now on.]

Hearing their conversation was purely coincidental.

Yernian, who said she would only tie the loose ribbon and follow him, didn’t appear after a long time.

As he had a reasonable doubt that that fool had lost her way. It was like that…

[It’s bad to bully others.]

Askari leaned against the gloomy exterior wall and concentrated on breathing, roughly loosening the kravat that was strangling him.

[Yeni isn’t fearless, but brave. So, don’t bother Askari.]

When the stern voice that didn’t sound like a four-year-old came to his mind, Askari’s hand, which was about to scratch around his neck as usual, stopped.

The cravat he was holding fell helplessly through the overgrown grass.

‘…What is it, this dirty feeling?’

After hearing that, he left the place and ran to the entrance of the detached palace, but the feeling of suffocation in his beating chest showed no sign of disappearing.

‘Isn’t that fast enough.’

No matter how young he was, Askari knew the weight of what he had done to Yernian.

Yet he had no intention of apologizing.

To Askari, Yernian wasn’t enough to become a member of the family just because she was the Messiah, as she was a disgraceful human who stole Licht’s attention.

Rather, he hoped that she couldn’t stand his bullying and ran away on her own.

Obviously it has been like that so far…

[More than anything else, I have no intention of taking away Licht’s interest or affection from you from now on. I have no intention of sitting here all the time.]

Hearing those words, he felt two emotions.

One is relief, the other is…

His mind was complicated, Askari messed up his hair.

However, no matter how hard he tried, Yernian’s voice didn’t leave his ears.

‘It must be because it’s the same. The fact that someone who is much weaker and smaller than me did such a thing.’

Yes. That’s why he feels so dirty.

Unlike him, who rushed to run away every time he encountered Ignis, Yernian was fighting casually.

He must have felt this way because he was upset that he was seen as a weak being to a trivial human being.

It was time for Askari, who had struggled to think so, to take a deep breath.

“Askari? What are you doing there?”

His face hardened the moment his eyes met Yernian, who had found him hiding in a corner.

Why does that person always find his hiding place so well?

“Did you wait long?”

Flowers that had never been seen before were in full bloom around Yernian, who smiled apologetically as she asked that question.

***

Arriving at the detached palace, I let Noha into the banquet hall first, and I turned around.

It was because the energy of Askari, who had to enter together, was felt from the outside of the palace.

“Askari? What are you doing there?”

Askari, who stiffened his face as soon as he saw me, raised his ears. He was so startled that his tail seemed to stick out.

Feeling a little sorry for the reaction, I asked with a smile.

“Did you wait long?”

However, Askari, who was more clinging to the wall, acted like a beastman who had encountered a ghost in the middle of the night.

“D-Don’t come any closer.”

I had no intention of approaching him in the first place, so I waited patiently for him to calm down.

Then, I stopped when I found the cravat that had fallen at Askari’s feet.

‘Did he have any other bad memories?’

I looked carefully at Askari’s face reflected in the lamp.

His face was so pale that I wondered if I should even call the doctor.

“Hey, you.”

Even in the dark, those clear blue eyes stared at me as if they could pierce me.

“What have you done to your face?”

“…What?”

“Look! Flowers keep blooming around your face! Even now!”

I think he’s really sick.

I asked calmly as I didn’t fully understand the current situation.

“So you mean you can see flowers around me now? Like a hallucination?”

“Yeah!”

Askari smashed the wall with his tail in affirmation.

‘I think he’s in a serious condition.’

It was when I was contemplating whether it would be okay to enter the detached palace as it was with Askari.

“His Majesty, Licht el Persian, the noble head of the Myo Clan and the one and only owner of the Myo World is entering!”

Not far from the entrance of the detached palace, a loud voice came from the gatekeeper.

We made eye contact at the same time and our faces hardened. The voice of Marchioness Scotland passed through my ears.

[Under any circumstance, you must not commit the blasphemy of being later than Your Majesty. No matter how the two of you are in the Persian name, I have a firm belief that you won’t commit such rudeness.]

“…Hey. Run.”

The evil Askari grabbed my arm and started running recklessly to the detached palace.

As I staggered and ran after him, I didn’t forget to pick up the fallen cravat.

The gatekeeper, who found us, had a bewildered expression on his face for a moment and then shouted inside.

“His Highness the Fourth Prince, Askari el Persian, and Her Highness, Yernian el Persian are entering!”

The door began to open slowly with a twisted feeling.

I rubbed my sweaty hands on the dress.

Inside, there will also be beastmen who have joined hands with each other. Maybe it’s the cause of all my unhappiness.

Feeling my body stiffening, Askari looked back at me with a strange look.

“…Hey.”

Just before the door opened, Askari, who called me in a lower voice than usual, spoke quickly.

“I won’t be angry today if you step on my foot.”

On the first day of matching in the etiquette class, I had a record of stepping on his foot seven times.

Each time, he opened his axe-like eyes and stared at me as if he was going to eat me.

‘You must be really sick today.’

I said with a smile, determined not to make as many mistakes as possible for the sake of Askari, who wasn’t in his right mind.

“Yesh. Thanks. Ah, and this one.”

“Why do you…”

I held out the kravat that I was holding tightly in one hand.

Askari seemed to realize that he had lost the kravat just then.

While the bewildered Askari hurriedly adjusted his outfit, the eyes of the beastmen crossed the wide-open door.

A cold, thoroughly aristocratic gazes swept over me from head to toe.

We casually crossed our arms and entered through the open door as if nothing had happened.

As I stared straight ahead, I almost sprained my foot.

‘What? What’s wrong with his expression?’

Licht, who took the throne on the podium, seemed quite depressed today.

With his chin resting on his hand, the gaze looking down at us was quite annoyed.

A murky voice resounded through the quiet banquet hall.

“You’re late, both of you.”

Hm. In this case, should I say that I’m guilty of death as I’ve seen in history books?

As I was seriously thinking about it, Askari, who was beside me, took a step forward.

“I apologize, Brother. It was getting late as I was looking for the kravat that was blown away by the wind with Yernian.”

Probably because it was an official event, Askari, who used honorifics, looked down with his head slightly bowed.

“I apowlogize.” (I apologize.)

Raising the hem of my dress, I followed Askari and bowed my head.

I later felt the air in the stiff banquet hall loosening slightly.

Licht, raising one corner of his lips, slowly rose from the throne.

“I can’t blame you, the main character of the banquet. Especially if it’s for such a cute reason.”

Unlike his lips, which emphasized ‘cute reason’, his eyes were more dull than usual.

‘I shouldn’t touch him today.’

Licht returned to the throne, and a sneer was on his lips.

“I look forward to it. What kind of dance you and Yernian will show me.”

The lively melody played by the band following Licht’s gestures began to fill the banquet hall.

Following the custom that the first dance should be held by the main character of the banquet, I took Askari’s hand and made my way to the center of the banquet hall.

“…Can I really step on you?”

As the moment when I had to dance approached, I whispered in a small voice, whose confidence had suddenly disappeared.

“Uh. Instead, consider this for that one last time.”

If it’s the last time, I’m guessing he’s referring to the one when he came into my room at will and made a mess.

‘Because it seems like he has apologized hard in your own way over the past month.’

In fact, the unpleasant feeling of being attacked out of the blue almost disappeared the moment I saw Askari shivering under the bed.

It was Licht who restored the messed up room.

As I pretended to be worried, I nodded my head lightly.

“Great. Let’s forget it. Instead, don’t do it again in the future.”

“…!”

Askari’s transparent eyes, which were close to sky blue, shook aimlessly.

However, the dance began in earnest without even having time to look closely.