episode_0123
by fnovelpia
When people are in an awkward situation, they panic.
To hide his embarrassment, he sometimes gets angry.
“Stop talking nonsense.”
Like a knife now.
“There’s no way I could like you?”
He said, still bewildered by the sound of his heartbeat.
The rush of blood, the adrenaline rush that allows you to focus on the moment, were all attributed to survival instincts in the face of an enemy that must be defeated.
iced coffee.
It has to be that way.
This is instinct.
It is clear that the body’s functions are designed to protect itself from threats such as wild animals or natural disasters.
Isn’t that right?
It would have been the same when I was fighting the archbishop and the corrupt priests on the colonial island, and when I was facing Eligos.
okay.
Exactly the same principle—
……
Was that really the case?
Carl was greatly embarrassed by his body’s reaction, which was different from before.
The more I looked back, the more I felt a sense of alienation.
Then the princess suddenly spoke.
“To be shy.”
“What?!”
I deliberately looked more grim to hide my embarrassment.
“Of course, I also know that it is not easy to accept the royal family that was once hostile.”
“……”
“But don’t hate me too blindly. Me… and the royal family, Green.”
A look of loneliness crossed her elegant face.
It was only a fleeting moment, but Karl did not miss the princess’s expression.
Why does such a cruel villain have such a pitiful expression?
I couldn’t understand it at all.
“You’ll be confused. Since you entered the intelligence agency… No, from the beginning, you probably knew that I was your enemy.”
The sword froze in place as it looked at Beatrice.
The princess with the sharp eyes spoke in a kind voice as if soothing a child.
“Please. Listen to my story. After listening, think about it again. And think about it. My true feelings toward me and toward you.”
The princess approached the sword hesitantly.
“You will eventually understand me.”
*
The princess took a step toward the sword that had pushed her away.
Then she took off the gown she was wearing.
The gowns for the Christmas Eve ceremony flowed down smoothly.
Then, the academy uniform that had been covered by the gown was revealed.
Now the princess is dressed as she was when she first met Karl.
He was dressed in his academy uniform.
“Do you remember?”
Beatrice de Dahlia.
It’s exactly the same as the appearance of the noble young lady of the knight school that I first saw.
Karl inadvertently recalled the scene in the classroom where he had first seen Beatrice.
A woman with a thin waist and large buttocks was walking towards him with brisk strides.
If you look over the uniform skirt, along the pure white blouse, you can see two plump valleys.
It was truly a provocative sight.
I wondered if he was trying to induce a physical reaction again.
“I mean, the time you buttoned up my blouse on the rooftop.”
“……”
I recall Karl personally putting on the blouse I had taken off because it was soaked with sweat while sparring with Chloe.
And the last two buttons weren’t fastened.
And so, the necklace hanging on the pure white nape of her neck.
Carl could naturally see the necklace through the gap in Beatrice’s loose blouse.
Beatrice also followed Karl’s gaze and lowered her head to look at the necklace she was wearing.
“Do you remember? I asked you if that was the necklace the man chose.”
She smiled, fiddling with the necklace around her neck.
“It’s a different necklace than before. Back then, it was just a regular necklace I chose, but this is different.”
“?”
“This is the necklace of the man who was most precious to me.”
Karl was speechless at the remark that seemed to add fuel to the fire.
But at that time.
Tears welled up in Beatrice’s turquoise eyes.
I thought that the eyes and tears of the royal family, which are symbols of impurity and ominousness, would not go together.
But when I saw Beatrice with tears in her eyes, and faced the fragile emotions that even her cold-looking face could not hide, I found her beautiful.
Her sadly beautiful turquoise eyes question the hatred and disgust she has harbored toward the unknown and the royal family.
“Theo.”
The questions that had been plaguing the sword’s perception have now come out into the world in the form of ‘words’.
The princess’s words echo throughout Karl’s consciousness.
“My sister’s necklace. The heirloom left to me. My one and only sister that you denied… Even you denied!”
“……”
“That’s right. Beatrice de Dahlia doesn’t have a sibling! That’s how it was made up. We weren’t supposed to exist-!!”
Tears streamed down her beautiful cheeks.
“But what can I do? That child was alive… That’s why he opened the door and held my hand. Even if you deny it and the world denies it, I, at least I, must remember that child……”
He shouts, clutching the necklace, the pendant with the imperial emblem engraved on it, tightly in his hand.
“So now I can say clearly, I had a younger brother… ‘I had!’ I, Theo, the younger brother who inherited the same eyes as Tricky Green.”
“That, that kind of—”
Only then did Karl realize the identity of the name Beatrice had been calling so desperately in her dreams. He also felt the feelings of a frail woman who had nightmares about finding her only blood relative who had left her.
-Don’t go. Theo… .
Suddenly, the woman’s desperate voice came to mind.
So I faced her, pressing my throbbing temples with my fingertips.
“What you said about Carl and Theo… was half right.”
“…?”
“As you thought, Theo is a very precious man to me. But he is not the ‘man’ you think of in your head. So it’s only half true.”
He exhaled deeply, as if feeling relieved.
The woman who laughed while crying looked insanely beautiful.
This was especially true in Karl’s eyes.
Thanks to that, I asked again, wanting to shake off the feeling of tingling in my heart.
“Then now… Are you doing this to clear up a misunderstanding? Revealing your identity with your bare face is all because I… am thinking of your little brother wrong?”
At that moment, Beatrice looked up at the sword with her still shining turquoise eyes and answered.
“This time only half.”
“What?”
“You got half of it right. There’s a reason I’m telling the truth and letting you know who Theo is, but……”
Beatrice trailed off, then grabbed the necklace with force and snapped the string.
Then, he raised the necklace in his hand high. Mana spread out from the center of the necklace.
Swoosh.
The spreading mana covered her according to Beatrice’s spell.
Mana immediately created a physical form. No, rather than creating it, she conveyed to her the compressed object she had desired.
A “clank” sound of armor was heard.
“You……”
The sword was startled by the sound of the armor and disappointed by the shape of the armor.
The armor and cloak that completely covered the body of the beautiful Beatrice were captured in the sword’s eyes.
Unknown.
Beatrice and Trixie Green now stood before him in the guise of the Unknown, the arch-enemy he once knew.
With the abominable Green Emperor’s helmet tucked into his waistband, just like in his dream.
*
“Did you have to take that appearance?”
“Yeah.”
Beatrice answered without hesitation.
It was a word that turned people’s hearts inside out.
“Do you know what your actions just now mean to me?”
“Well, I guess it means that we owe each other our lives?”
“Don’t mess with me.”
The adrenaline is pumping again.
Unlike his previous heartbeat, which had no meaning, the heat his body was feeling now was definitely due to anger and hostility.
He looked at his enemy, the unknown, with raised eyes.
The contemptuous gaze is fixed on his bare face instead of the helmet he always wore.
But Beatrice looked at Karl’s wink with satisfaction.
She tapped the helmet tucked into her waistband.
“Thank goodness. When I was wearing this helmet, you always looked at me with the same gaze as you do now. I was afraid that you would get sad if those gazes were directed at the real me, not the me wearing the helmet—”
“You’re the same whether you wear that helmet or not. You damn royal brat.”
Beatrice giggled at the rough words and actions of the sword and caressed her cheek with the hand opposite the one holding the helmet.
“It’s thrilling.”
“?”
“I can feel that intense gaze, the hot emotions, the raw intensity. It’s not scary to see you looking at me like that even though you know exactly who I am. No, it’s good. Thanks to you, I can know that I’m alive.”
“….you crazy bitch.”
“You, you who push me like this, are the reason I can’t forget who I am.”
To Karl, Beatrice looked like she was seriously crazy.
However, Beatrice’s expression became serious for a moment, but soon a smile appeared on her lips again.
“Oh, I could have been this carefree, so why didn’t I say anything sooner… I just kept holding it in to myself……”
“I can’t listen to this anymore.”
He raised the holy sword towards Beatrice, who was muttering something incomprehensible.
“Princess Tricky Green. You are under arrest and detained.”
“Will it end with imprisonment? You will torture me alive and eventually kill me. And you will erase any trace of my existence in the world. Maybe… You will rewrite my life story again and publish it. Just like you did to our royal family.”
“Lies? Don’t be mistaken. The royal family is an enemy and a threat to humanity.”
Beatrice’s smile disappeared at Karl’s astonishing answer.
And he said in a cool voice.
“…They took my brother away with that petty standard.”
Today, at least here, he wore a dangerous expression that I haven’t seen since my confrontation with the sword.
He started muttering in that state.
“You, you took it from me first.”
“So… you came here. You came out into the world wearing a mask and a false identity, for revenge on your younger brother.”
“I know.”
The knife put the pieces of the puzzle together in his head.
The character he knew, Unknown, and Beatrice.
Add to that the woman in front of you whom you met after meeting her.
All the puzzle pieces fit together and a picture appears before him.
Tricky Green.
In the painting, there was a woman who was about to burn herself to avenge her blood relatives.
The theme of the work is probably tragedy.
“……”
Carl stared at the tragic picture for a moment.
And said.
“First of all, I want to apologize… Tricky, can I call you ‘Tricky’?”
“What? And the name doesn’t matter. No matter what you call me, I’ll always be the same… at least in front of you.”
Behind the princess’s answer, a feeling of hot obsession once again appeared, but Karl tried to ignore it.
“About Theo, I misunderstood your precious little brother. I judged a child with such a story and thought he was your ‘man’, and even denied the truth you shouted. I’m really sorry.”
The knife was real.
It was bitter that I couldn’t understand the sadness of the woman I once liked.
That’s why Karl’s apology is sincere, just like Beatrice’s confession.
Beatrice blinked slowly.
It meant that he accepted the apology.
“Thank you. But you know……”
And now she wanted to hear another answer.
“What will become of us? No, how will you treat me? As I said, I will tell you only the truth. Including that I like you.”
Again-
The sound of black boots and armor clinking approached the sword.
Beatrice was approaching Karl.
“So, won’t you come to my side? With me… Together, we will reclaim the empire. I promise you this moment. I will make you my one and only king.”
“…I’m sorry.”
“You can stop apologizing for Theo.”
She vaguely knew that Carl’s apology meant something else, but she tried to ignore it.
“Or should I just finish my revenge and run away? How about going somewhere quiet and undiscovered and making a nest for the two of us?”
He pretends not to hear and blurts out his wishes.
“I don’t think I’ll be lonely if it’s just you and me. I’m okay with growing old together and living in this world until I disappear.”
What she was saying just now was a very radical statement, although Karl, who was actually listening, would not understand it.
The weight of the words, “It doesn’t matter if you remain in this world that has been frozen”, is considerable.
Beatrice’s sincerity was that heavy.
“Beatrice.”
“Yeah.”
Carl saw Beatrice in armor and a cloak.
I thought long and hard about calling her by another name, but there really is no better name for this woman.
“I’m sorry.”
“…I told you to stop.”
“You know that’s not what I meant.”
Swoosh-
The holy sword emitted light.
White smoke billowed from the holy sword raised toward Beatrice.
“Do you know what you’re doing?”
“……”
“You don’t know. You don’t know now. You don’t know how cruel and horrible a person you’ve become.”
Carl aimed at Beatrice, holding the Holy Sword with both hands.
There was a look of determination on his face.
“I also had a thought that maybe things might change.”
Cold and clear.
“But that’s not the case. The things you’ve already done. The path you’ve walked. It all points to one result. The only difference is time and speed.”
He thought of Beatrice, dressed in black armor that caught his eye, caressing Chloe’s breasts with the tips of her armor-like black gloves.
The possibility of unforgivable evil does not change.
“You have finally brought about the fate I so desperately wanted to avoid.”
The moment when my hopes of being able to protect the heroine were shattered due to the development that was different from the original.
“I also think that if you weren’t here, I could protect all the other kids.”
The sword tries to pick up the shattered hope, even if it is late.
By giving up the villain who was the heroine as a price.
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