episode_0007

‘She’ grabs Lily by the hair and drags her somewhere.

Lily screams at the top of her lungs.

“Gyaaah!!”

“······.”

I froze in place.

This won’t do… I have to move… I have to hurry and save Lily…

The thought of having to stop ‘her’ raced through my head, but my body, frozen like stone, just wouldn’t move.

A scream. And her cold expression.

They triggered traumas deeply engraved in my body.

I had forgotten that she was someone who could turn into a brutal murderer at any moment······.

Maybe not. What should I do? Please move… If we continue like this, Lily will die. She will be brutally murdered just like I was.

My eyes met with Lily’s as she was being dragged away.

Lily’s face was distorted with pain.

Lily reaches out to me.

“Ah, ah···! Your Highness···!”

When I faced it, my body, which was as hard as stone, began to move little by little. The thought that I could not let Lily experience the terrible pain I had experienced surged through my mind.

I forcefully drag my motionless legs and muster up my courage to block ‘her’.

“Okay, wait a minute···!!”

She stops and stares at me.

“······.”

A blank face. It was even scarier because he was always smiling.

I spoke to her in a trembling voice.

“That, that kid···! I know him, so can I ask why he’s doing that···?”

“······It’s not something the master should be concerned about. He’s just punishing you for disobeying his orders···”

Her eyes, as she spoke calmly, were looking straight at me. It was as if she could see right through my thoughts… I swallowed hard and spoke to her again.

“······Are you doing this because you talked to me? I made you do it. I forced you to do something you said you didn’t want to do. That kid did nothing wrong.”

“······Did you say that far?”

She clenched her fists and looked down at Lily. Her eyes were so cold that they looked more like they were looking at pebbles on the pavement than at people.

Lily screams in pain.

“Gyaaah!!! S, please save me!!”

I was so shocked that I shouted at her.

“Hey, stop it!!”

“······.”

But she doesn’t stop. Damn it. She needs something to distract her. She desperately tries to think of words to stir her mind. So that she doesn’t bother Lily anymore.

Finally, I thought of the right words and spoke to her.

“······Why, why did you give people such orders······?”

She stops moving. She looks at me.

“······.”

“Don’t talk to me… It’s like you’re harassing me… You said you wouldn’t harm me, but you still have a grudge…?”

“······That’s not it.”

“Then release Lily······”

A suffocating silence fell. Only Lily’s occasional moans echoed softly through the garden.

She looked at me with her mouth tightly shut for a long time, then broke the silence and opened her mouth. She spoke in a very suppressed voice.

“······Why does my master always think of me like that? What on earth have I done?”

Her mood changed. The polite atmosphere she had been in until now was gone, and she revealed a cold anger to me. She was spitting out her anger as if she was exploding everything that had been building up.

“Even if I become the emperor, it still belongs to the master. But what is that look in his eyes? Are there any masters who are afraid of their own possessions?”

I couldn’t say anything to her who was glaring at me. I was overwhelmed by her momentum. Past traumas were squeezing my body. My body was frozen and I could only open and close my mouth.

“No··· That··· Ah···”

Seeing that, she grits her teeth and becomes even more angry. She raises her voice.

“What else should I do? No matter what I do, my master is so wary of me······! How can I make my master trust me······?!”

“Do you think I don’t know? That my master is afraid of me? I know everything, but I just pretend not to know. I don’t know why, but I believe that things will get better with time······”

“But the master hasn’t gotten any better. Even at this moment, he’s afraid of me. Ha···! I’m so scared, but you’ve finally mustered up the courage this time···? Is it for this woman······”

She turned her head and looked down at Lily. Her eyes looked as if she was about to do something. My blood ran cold. I hurriedly crawled to her feet and stopped her.

“Please, stop!! T, don’t do this······!!”

“······.”

But she didn’t seem to have any intention of stopping. Her eyes still looked at Lily with murderous intent. If we continue like this, something terrible will happen. In the end, I used my last resort.

“Cha, are you okay···? Please let go of that hand···. Our Alice······”

When she heard her old name, she flinched and stopped moving. She turned her head to look at me.

I made eye contact with her.

Her eyes looking at me were filled with a mixture of emotions: anger, sadness, resentment, emptiness, and longing.

She looked at me with complicated eyes for a long time, and after a while, she relaxed her grip and let go of Lily.

Lily falls to the ground.

I quickly went over and checked on Lily. Fortunately, she didn’t seem to be seriously injured.

“, Your Highness······”

His face was completely blank, as if he was extremely shocked.

After confirming that Lily was okay, I swallowed and looked up at Alice. The crisis wasn’t over yet.

I spoke to her in a mean voice.

“Oh, thank you, Alice··· Then, can we go now···?”

An attitude as if she were begging for her life. Earlier, she had asked me if there was an owner who was afraid of his belongings, but I couldn’t shake off my fear of her, perhaps because I had never thought of her as my belongings.

She didn’t say anything.

He just looked at me with complicated eyes.

Her eyes show a complex range of emotions, but her thoughts are completely unreadable.

In the past, I could tell what she was thinking just by looking into her eyes, but now I can’t tell what she’s thinking just by looking at her eyes. I really hope those eyes don’t contain any extreme thoughts…

After a moment, she nodded her head slightly with a miserable expression.

I kept saying thank you, picked up Lily, and ran out of the garden.

******

“Your Majesty···!! I was scared···!!”

Lily cried in my arms. I felt bad because it felt like it was my fault. But I was glad that I was able to stop the worst from happening. Honestly, the moment I saw Lily being dragged away, I thought it was all wrong. If I hadn’t changed Alice’s mind, Lily would have been brutally murdered. Alice’s eyes were very similar to the ones when she killed me.

By the way, what should I do now… It was good that I saved Lily, but now that I’ve been caught disobeying the Emperor’s orders, Lily will be severely punished or kicked out. I can’t let that happen. I’m sorry for making you go through such a bad situation, but now I’m going to lose my job…

I went straight to the head maid and asked her to make Lily my exclusive maid. Luckily, I had something like a monthly maintenance allowance, so I had no problem paying Lily’s salary.

The head maid looked a little embarrassed after hearing what I said, but she helped Lily with the processing, as if she had been instructed by Alice.

And a week passed.

Lily, who had been cowering in fear, soon recovered and regained her former cheerful self. She was indeed a child who recovered quickly. She faced the Emperor’s wrath head-on and was already fine. Was she brave? My hands and feet still tremble when I think of that day. I asked Lily if she was scared.

“Your Highness will protect you next time too!”

Lily smiled brightly as she said that.

I thought that I should quickly take this child and leave the zodiac.

******

I tried to tell Alice that I wanted to go back home as soon as possible, even though I had class and everything, but she was nowhere to be seen.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen Alice.

Since that incident, he hasn’t come to class or eaten with me.

Although I felt relieved inside, I was in a difficult position when it came to telling her. How should I tell her?

It was not an ordinary thing to meet the Emperor. In the meantime, she came to me out of the blue and I didn’t think much about it, but it seems the Emperor has a lot to do. It’s not easy to meet her. I told the secretary’s office that I wanted to meet her, but I don’t know if it was conveyed well.

And that night.

She came to my room.