CH 95.2

“Father? Father..?”

Leslie called out, her voice turning anxious, but there was no response. For dead answered naught. Leslie’s shoulders quivered imperceivably.

Closing Osner’s open eyelids, I stood up, placing a hand on Leslie’s shoulder.

“He went away smiling. Don’t be too sad.”

After consoling her with a few more words, I moved on. From the corner of my vision, I saw Katarina staring at me with a sullen look. There were many complaints blant on her face, but considering the situation, she did not intervene.

She really is a woman whom I can’t help but love.

Smiling at her, I gestured to Shedia.

“Potion.”

She pulled out a potion bottle from her small backpack and threw it. Slicing a cut on my stomach with a dagger, I reached in and pushed and pulled, setting my broken ribs in place and draining the blood from my lungs. Then I drank the potion.

The potion showed why it was so expensive — the effect was immediate.

The skin that had been ripped off filled up and the bones began to stick together.

Huh, I could finally breathe now, without issue.

I picked up the knight sword rolling on the floor and turned to face Alfred. Dozens of pairs of eyes were directed at me.

Astonishment. Fear. Admiration. Awe.

The emotions in their eyes ranged.

I walked towards them facing all those emotions and gazes.

* * *

To start with the conclusion, Alfred, as well as the other Princes and Princesses, weren’t put to their deaths.

Even though they partook in heinous deeds, they were her father’s children after all and he wouldn’t have wanted them dead.

So Leslie didn’t kill them.

Without killing them, she cut off each of their limbs, one by one.

They hollered to just be given death instead, but Leslie flatly refused.

Impaired snobs would mean less trouble and they would have attendants sticking around them all day, meaning no inconvenience to their normal lifestyle, and so she dismembered all of them in front of my eyes.

It was a bit pitiful to see them howling over their limbs as they were dismembered, but they were at least getting the better part of the deal.

The warriors who had joined the rebellion were all beheaded without exception.

‘Maybe it’s because her father died right in front of her, she has become quite cold-hearted.’

It wasn’t like that in the game.

Should I reconsider enlisting Leslie?

‘No, that’s not what’s important right now.’

I have a more important issue than Leslie’s personality.

“Katarina. Are we not going to talk today as well?”

“…”

That’s right, Katarina snorted, but didn’t speak.

Even though a week has passed since that day!

We eat together and sleep in the same bed, but she treats me as if I don’t even exist.

She ignores me when I talk to her, and if I gently touch her like this…

– Patak!

Swatted away.

‘…Is it finally time to use separate rooms?’

It hadn’t been long since we started dating, but I never thought we’d already be using separate rooms. Doesn’t this usually happen after some ten years of married life?

I took a deep breath and grabbed the pillow.

“Where.”

Still, she didn’t seem to be completely distanced. As I stood to walk out with a pillow, her words arrived in timely fashion.

“Another room. Get some rest, will see you tomorrow morning.”

“Are you going to see her? So you want to be her husband as well, huh?”

There was a rustle and the sound of the folds of the blanket scrubbing against each other.

Katarina seems to have risen up.

And what husband?

“What are you talking about?”

I asked, looking back over the shoulder.

As I expected, Katarina was sitting on the bed, glaring at me.

“You think I didn’t hear you? The old man asked you if you would like to become his son-in-law. You graciously accepted.”

“Huh? Wait, don’t tell me this is all happening because of that?”

“What if it is?”

Katarina frowned. I shuffled back to the bed, put my pillow down on my seat, and put a hand on Katarina’s shoulder. Fortunately, I wasn’t swatted away this time.

“It was just a white lie.”

“A white lie?”

“Yes. The poor old man was dying right in front of us, so there seemed no need to ruin the atmosphere by saying no. The dead should be sent off comfortably.”

“…”

“And so what even if I did accept? Did you hear Leslie accept it? We don’t even know each other properly. Who in their right mind would accept a stranger for a husband?”

“That… is that so..?”

Katarina, who had been pinning me with a death glare, turned soft and puzzled.

I smiled and hugged her. She was startled and tried to push me away, but I wasn’t having it this time around.

“Hey, let me go! I’m not done talking yet!”

“Do we still have anything left?”

“Of course! How you put yourself in a dangerous situation back then! Do you know how horrified I was when you knifed yourself to fix your bones and bloodlet your lungs?!”

“It’s okay. It didn’t hurt much.”

“I don’t care how little, it did hurt, yes?”

Katarina gave out a strange yelp that was half indignation and half vexation.

I hugged her tighter.

“I’ll listen to the nagging later, so can’t we just focus on hugging for now? It’s been ages since I’ve hugged you. I’m so excited.”

“…It’s been only a while. Like in days, Cloud.”

Katarina wrapped her arms around my waist as she grunted. It felt like it had been ages since I had felt Katarina’s body temperature.

The door opened with a clang sound.

‘Yo?’

No attendants carried their duties at this hour. Did someone send an assassin?

“You haven’t slept yet. What a relief.”

It was Leslie wearing a white negligee, not an assassin, who came in late at night. As her negligee caught the moonlight, it subtly revealed the underwear she was wearing underneath.

“Uh… her nightgown is a bit flashy, isn’t it?”

“I don’t care what’s flashy! You shouldn’t be looking!”

Katarina wrenched my head to make me face her. Then she looked over my shoulder at Leslie as she said.

“You… No, Archduchess. What are you doing here at night? Seeing that you’re wearing your nightgown, I think you’re about to go to sleep… Did you come to the wrong room by chance?”

“Isn’t this Cloud’s room?”

“That’s right, so…”

“Then I have come to the right place.”

“…You have any business with Cloud?”

“Yes.”

“What… business?”

Was it my delusion?

Katarina’s voice seemed to be getting colder.

“Nothing of concern. I just think now that my father’s funeral has been done and all the backlogs have been worked out, we should now behave like a prospective couple.”

On the other hand, Leslie’s voice was as matter-of-factly as when she had entered the room.

“I’m thinking of sleeping with Cloud. I’m sorry to say, but Katarina-san, please move to another room.”

“…”

Katarina did not respond. She just slightly turned her head and looked at me, and looked. She had the man-killing eye I had so far only seen in Shedia.

“A white lie?”

“W, Wait a minute. You’re misunderstanding something. I have nothing–”

“‘Yet’?”

Katarina’s head tilted to the side. The motion felt bloody, very bloody. Good god, she was screaming murder from her eyes.

“Um… Katarina. It’s not that.”

“Uh-huh, yes?”

…why is there no save or load button in this world?