episode_0085

“Even if you’ve seen it, pretend you haven’t seen it, and even if you haven’t seen it, pretend you haven’t seen it!”

… … I understand the former, but I don’t know what the latter means.

I thought, “I didn’t see it.” But I quickly lowered my head at the teacher’s cold gaze and picked up the towel that had floated to the surface.

Rachel, who had snatched it, wraps her body around it again.

Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to realize that his own image was reflected in the water.

It would be human nature to keep both eyes tightly shut, but the male’s instinct casts a petrifying spell on his eyelids.

‘… There really is no goddess.’

The gently rippling water further accentuates the curves of the body.

Was this how the woodcutter felt as he came down from the sky and spied on the fairy who was bathing?

If the village chief had seen this sight, he might have gone around the neighborhood telling everyone that the family heirloom was indeed the bathhouse of the gods.

I was forced to see the naked body on the water like that, and it was a shame… .

No, my first mixed bathing experience ended so quickly.

Because Rachel, who had dried her body with a towel, ran away with a greeting.

“Then let’s go first.”

“Oh, yeah. Okay.”

Only then did I raise my head and see Rachel’s back as she hurriedly headed toward the backyard door.

“… It’s surprisingly absurd.”

I muttered as I looked at Rachel’s back, her half-exposed butt swaying with every step she took because she hadn’t closed the back properly.

I would like to tell you that I can see your butt, but I decided to remain silent because I thought it would only lead to unnecessary misunderstandings.

Sometimes in life, it’s more helpful to pretend not to know than to know.

“Then should I go out too?”

After making sure Rachel was completely out of the backyard, I got up from the hot tub.

Anything in excess is worse than not doing it at all.

I felt like my muscles would become sore if I stayed in it for too long, and I felt like I had thoroughly enjoyed my first hot spring in my life.

The sky is turning red.

It was getting close to dinnertime, which meant it was time to feast on the exquisite monster dishes prepared by the first-class chef, Le Mien.

I left the backyard and headed to the second floor of the accommodation.

and.

“Your Highness?”

I was able to encounter Lumiang, who was loitering in front of a room.

Room number 4.

It was a visit to the room I was assigned to.

And in the hand of Lumiang, who was loitering in front of the door, there was a piece of paper.

**

While everyone was taking their time to recover from their illness and achieve their own goals, Lumiang was sitting at his desk writing something.

This is my impression of what I saw and heard today.

“I’m so sorry.”

It was an apology for the past.

The days of the past when we denied and despised the changes in the wicked, the days when we persistently harassed and oppressed the wicked, dismissing their declarations of abstention as a parade.

The paper was filled with apologies for the past days when he had abandoned himself to the winds of change that had suddenly blown in and wandered around the country, only to have his vows to get rid of his past evil deeds instead scraped at him and drawn blood.

On the day the wedding festival began, Lumiang wrote down apologies for not being able to believe the rumor that he had saved a mother and daughter from violence, and for his mistaken belief that nature can never change.

In her head, images of Elden that she could now imagine and picture were emerging.

A vivid image of Elden, who not only defeated the bandits who were blocking the road and collecting tolls, but also went to the trouble of raiding their base and rescuing the people held captive there, and bringing them back to his family and home, formed a line in his mind.

Elden looked at the reunion of those he had saved with a happy smile.

That smile was so pure and innocent that just looking at it made me feel like my heart was purified and I even developed sincere faith.

Elden, who also warmly consoled those who expressed their gratitude to him and sometimes even hugged those who were covered in tears and snot, seemed to have put down his dignity as a noble that he had held so strictly.

If it were him in the past, he would have kicked the commoner who came towards him to hug him.

‘People can change this much… .’

Now I believe in his change.

I admitted that my beliefs were wrong.

That’s why I was embarrassed.

Unlike himself, who was stuck in the past and only made mistakes, Elden was walking into the future, fulfilling his promise to get rid of the evil deeds of the past by riding the wind that blew.

Unlike himself, who had become infinitely smaller and more shabby, Elden was infinitely grander and shining in an unseen place.

And the moment I saw that radiant smile and hug, I realized.

I was intrigued and interested in the way he had acted since he declared his withdrawal from the final match of the Wedding War, and I wondered why he was so obsessed with it.

The images he thought would be masked were the ideal images he had hoped for.

Rather than asserting his authority as a noble, he was fixated on and denied the affectionate appearances of helping injured maids, stopping debauchery, seeking a sound future, and treating people as human beings rather than class groups, but now he could clearly realize that in the end, he did so because he could not believe that he saw in Elden the image of his ideal type.

Even the words that Marien said while trimming her hair on the day she was preparing for the face-to-face meeting, the flower of the engagement ceremony.

《Maybe… it’s because you have Prince Elden in mind?》

To the self-deprecating question of why she had to cling to a villain like Elden, Marien answered thus.

At the time, I dismissed it as nonsense and let it go in one ear and out the other, but Marien had already seen through the truth.

The changes in Elden Raphelion’s appearance that I saw immediately after he declared his abstention were the type of man my young lady had been hoping for.

“I had Elden in mind? No, that can’t be possible.”

《Of course, it wasn’t like that before. That bad villain guy is not worthy of you. But if the changes that Elden Prince shows now are real, then maybe he is the ‘considerate, thoughtful, teachable man who is not bound by social status’ that you were talking about?》

“what…?”

《Haha. You didn’t seem to be interested in men, so I kept asking you, and that’s what you said, right?》

《Well… that’s true, but… .》

《Honestly, I think that Prince Elden is better than the other princes who are full of talents, even though he is a bit extreme.》

Ugh.

Lumiang pauses for a moment, remembering the conversation he had with Marien.

That day, I remembered the warm hands that had been stroking my hair, and for no reason I touched my hair.

Then something came up, his eyes turned red, and his sighs trembled, but Lumiang began to write again.

Apology and reflection.

I really wanted to convey the sincerity of it with my voice, but I couldn’t wait because I felt like my current feelings would become dull and dull if I waited too long.

A single sheet of paper packed so tightly.

I arrived at Elden’s room holding an apology that I had not been able to convey, a reflection on my denial of change and persistent harassment, and blessings for the bright path he would walk in the future.

dripping.

I knocked, but there was no answer.

It seemed like the hot spring bathing wasn’t over yet.

For some reason, I felt anxious and chewed my lips while pacing around in front of the door for a while.

“Your Highness?”

Lumiang was startled by the voice calling his name.

“… !!”

“Oh, I didn’t mean to startle you.”

As soon as he met Elden, whom he had been waiting for, Lumiang hid what he had written behind him without realizing it.

She was ashamed of herself for finally admitting the sincerity of her abstention, and embarrassed to finally apologize, so she ended up hiding the paper.

“… ? Do you have anything to say to me?”

It is unnatural for someone who does not normally lie to try to hide something.

Elden asked with a puzzled look, and Lumiang, who had been hesitating, pursed her lips and took out what she had hidden.

A piece of paper appeared fluttering.

Elden’s face, which received it, only grew more puzzled.

“What is this?”

Lumiang hurriedly took out a new piece of paper and wrote something down.

[I wanted to apologize. I wanted to say it out loud, but I don’t know when or if my voice will come back. So I wrote it like this.]

“… .”

For Elden, the grudge from that day was long buried under the snow that had fallen for six months.

Because on that day, she and I were just the same innocent victims.

It seemed like the victim had nothing to apologize for, but Elden silently read what he had received, as if he knew what Lumiang was trying to convey.

and.

“… .”

Lumiang, standing blankly in front of him, fidgets with his fingers and chews his lips as if preparing to be scolded, and reads the apology with an anxious face. He flinches at every glance, breath, and gesture of Elden.

Will you forgive me?

I wonder if they will do it.

Le Miang, who is at a crossroads of choosing between easy and easy, creates noise in silence.

“… .”

And then.

Bam.

Bam.

When two water drops fell on the words of apology and reflection, Lumiang’s pupils dilated beyond their limits.

“, what…?”

For the first time since losing my voice, I finally spit out words.

Even though the words were not clear, she could clearly see the water droplets running down Elden’s cheeks.

Bam.

The words of apology and reflection began to spread so softly.

“Wow, wooow… Huh… ?”