Chapter 83: The Choice is Yours

If you read this on other websites, it means it was stolen. Read the translation only on itsladygrey.wordpress.com.

Sigren woke up from a light sleep. At the same time, he pulled the sword that was beside him and swung it horizontally quickly. Huck, something hot burst out. A bloody smell came up. 

“Assassin”, Sigren thought rather dimly. They were the kind of people he had seen a lot as they chased him and his mother ever since he was young. Very familiar. The difference from then was that he could deal with them now.

Right now, it seemed like there wasn’t just one assassin. 

Sigren flicked off a dagger that almost stabbed his stomach then rolled off the bed. He then swung his sword vertically. A solid red line was drawn on the second assassin’s forehead, and blood poured out. He kicked the third one who rushed forward. The assassin was stomped down. He fell onto the chest of drawers with a loud noise. Sigren pierced the assassin’s chest right away before his opponent could even balance themself. 

Three people died. 

“—Your Highness, what’s going on?”

The escort opened the door, probably from hearing the loud sound of the chest of drawers being knocked over.

Today’s escort was Kane Erez.

“Wha, what is this…?”

Kane flinched seeing the scene in front of him. Sigren stood expressionless in the room that had become a sea of blood.

“Don’t make a lot of noise, close the door and come in.”

Kane raised his head and did what he was told.

TACK!

“….!”

In an instant, a sword was lodged right next to his face. Kane groaned and turned his head in surprise.

Sigren had struck the sword. He looked directly into Kane’s bewildered eyes. 

“Is it you?”

Kane quickly realized that the question meant ‘does this assassination attempt have anything to do with your family?’. 

He replied frankly, “I.. I don’t know.”

He really didn’t know. His father ordered him to report Sigren’s every more but he did nothing. At the same time, he also didn’t know whether his father or other crown prince supporters were planning to dispose of this prince. 

Sigren drew his sword from the wall after hearing the answer. “What a shame.”

Seeing the prince withdraw the sword while mumbling those words, Kane realized his reply was barely sufficient given the situation, and if he had shown any signs of lying, he would have been cut right away. 

“Your Highness, if I were to give an incorrect response, what would you do…?”

Sigren replied bluntly, “I would say that my escort died with honor while fighting an assassin.”

It just meant ‘I was going to kill you.’

Sigren had been trying to see who among the knights assigned to his palace could be trusted. Those who were good and reliable were left alone, and those who were not good or vague were about to be sent to another place for some made up reason later. And then he would kill the traitor. 

Sigren kept an eye on Kane Erez all the time, unfortunately, Kane showed no suspicious behavior, unlike his father. So Sigren left him alone for the time being.

“….”

Kane looked at his boss like he was a madman. He just realized that his life had come and gone between two worlds. 

‘Shall I write my resignation?’

But as always, Sigren didn’t care. 

“If you want someone to resent, blame your father who sent you here.”

“Your highnes—”

“Or you could hit him.”

“…”

There was suddenly a useless grudge in Kane’s mind who had just thought he would resign sooner or later after hearing those words. 

He wished he got a chance to punch this unlucky prince before he resigned!

***

The urgent matter had been settled. I proceeded to attend the banquet, again, as planned, where I was invited. 

Different from the usual, this time my head was blank. I felt like it was because I hadn’t seen blood in a long time, 

‘Who the hell is it? Should I investigate properly?’

Whenever I was tired, I always tried to gloss over a little bit the reality I faced. I always tried to remind myself that this was the world of a novel. The reason I did that was because I felt that it was good for my mental health. 

I was a normal person who graduated from school and went to work. I had never lived in this world before, and being on a battlefield where monsters were popping out here and there wasn’t good for my mental health. In addition, there wasn’t a concept of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) here. So, of course, there was no treatment for it. 

Even then, although I tried to think that way, this world eventually didn’t feel completely unrealistic. I had to face it either way. Therefore the frequent attempts to separate myself from this world were just to create a psychologically safe place for me. So whenever I saw the flow of the original story happen, the feeling safe mentally, became stronger. 

At any rate, this world would have a happy ending. Just thinking like this, I could get past the current reality. Well, even so, I had no intention of reaching my end, at all. 

Now, it seemed like I had to revisit this thought. The reason was because the stability of my mental health had been slightly eroded from seeing completely different events from the original. And the biggest one was, of course, my dear friend and my most painful finger[1], Sigren.

“Sigren, nothing happened to you right?’

I told him about the attack. There was no need to hide it. 

“There was none.”

But what was the subtle silence? I narrowed my eyes while looking up at him. 

“Fiona, have you figured out who it is yet?”

“If I had found out,  I wouldn’t have left this matter alone.”

“Right.”

Sigren stroked my hair with a nonchalant face. Looking at him, he seemed to like my hair, too. 

Okay, he didn’t seem to be hurt, so let’s move on. 

I took my hair out of his hand. This thin and long hair was easily tangled, okay.

Then he pressed his palm on his handsome face.

“….”

We were just at a ball. I was on the terrace for a little conversation, just in case. 

Sigren gave a quiet discontent look.

I answered back in a natural way.

“I don’t want to feed you anymore, okay.”

“I guess I shouldn’t have said that last time.”